*OFFICIAL* Alienware M17x Owners Lounge - Part 2

What is RAM useage at? How much total RAM do you have available? How much is the game using? I would assume a big game like the ones you mentioned would be using up quite a bit of CPU cycles as well, as that'll play into it.

 

at idle theres about 2.6gb ram free.

even on warcraft 3 it takes ages to tab back. warcraft 3 is like a 2003 game and my pentium 4 desktop with 1gb ram tabs faster on that game.

my old xps 1730 had 4gb ddr2 and about the same free ram and it tabbed in about 1 second. i have no idea why my m17x which has 4gb ddr3 and also the same amount of free ram on the same os, running the same stuff and same game, is having such a hard time tabbing between desktop and the game.

 

sounds like a driver issue, rubyboy.

 

OK, I remember Moo saying something about this, but is it true you can install a Microsoft driver for the touchpad instead of the dell one and it's supposed to fix it?

Would the same thing work for an M15x? My buddy wants to try it out.

 

Im sorry for an off topic question but I am considering buying the M17x and I was just wondering if anyone has had many small problems with it. I had an XPS m1710 and had absolutely no trouble with it but about 6 months ago I bought the m1530 and I have never had so much trouble with a laptop. Just small things and most important thing I want is just to get something that is reliable.

 

Just a heads up for all the M17x owners, trying to get component video signal from the VGA will not work (for the confused, component is the 3 RCA cables red/green/blue - there are adapters from VGA to this)

Spent an hour trying all kinds of settings last night and it just would not budge. I actually found myself missing having S-Video haha (we ended up using the girlfriends Inspiron E1505 lol)

 

Well I finally plunged and upgraded my CPU to QX9300 from the T9600. Now I just need to over clock this baby. Is there a good website to buy the 2x4gb 1333Mhz ram? Newegg hardly has anything.

 

How much did you pay?

 

thanx to tech support my lappys screwed as well. they asked me to downld the new bios setup after which the lappy crashed. showed msg os missing, and whle running hdd diagnostic lappy shut down. to make matters worse, after getting a new hdd i discovered tht my respawn disc isnt working . it stops at 51% showing an error after which a bootmgr missing message comes up.



Sent a mail to the Dell VP after tech support didnt respond to my problem.

shall get a replacement system next wk and trying to get compensation for the lost time. btw im also buying the aurora alx desktop.



if u guys want then ill paste the mail i sent to dell. its quite a strong mail. anti-dell guys would love it

 

Did you re-enable RAID in the bios?

 

yup i tried tht but no result.

anyways the email i sent to the dell VP is as follows

Dear Sir,

Good Morning.

My name is ** and I was the first buyer of the laptop Alienware M17X in India.

I received my system on 7th september and it was working fine except for a small glitch in the command centre which was resolved in a couple of days.

I got a call from Dell Tech Support ( MR. SAMEER ) on September 19th at 7 pm to follow up on the issue.
He advised me to download a new Bios Setup named ' A02 ' which would enhance my laptop performance. He assured me that the version was tested and so I installed it. On restart the SYSTEM CRASHED with ' a missing OS ' message. I contacted Tech Support and got in touch with MR. AHMED; running the diagnostic test made the laptop shut down on the ' HDD TEST ' . MR. AHMED concluded that it was a Hard Drive Crash and logged in a part replacement.

I contacted Tech Support again to get an update on the replacement ( on 19th september itself ) and MR. PRADEEP asked me to insert the ALIENWARE RESPAWN DVD which would restore my system to factory settings. He said he would follow up on this issue on Monday that is 21st September and I am still waiting for his call. I tried that option as well but the setup stopped at 51% showing an error and on restart the laptop showed
' BOOTMGR MISSING '.

I contacted Tech Supoort again and this time I was connected again to MR. SAMEER who assured me a Technician would visit the site on 21st September and resolve the issue. The Technician visited on 23rd September, replaced the HDD and installed the 64bit Windows Vista and Drivers from RESOURCE DVD. However my RAID Utility wasnt getting activated and all the Alienware Themes and Wallpapers were wiped out. I asked him to use the Respawn which would restore to factory settings but again the PREVIOUSLY STATED ERROR resurfaced with the BOOTMGR message.

The Technician informed MR. RAJ from Tech support who asked us to make a copy of that DVD and try to restore the system. No result. He informed me that I would get an update on Monday 5th October by 6pm.

I contacted Tech support on Friday ( 2nd October ) and MR. DINESH informed that an email had been sent to Alienware to send a replacement RESPAWN DVD and they would only update me on Wednesday.


SIR the reason of my giving you a detailed description of my problem is to make you aquainted with the way ' DELL PREMIER TECH SUPPORT ' is handling its customers.

I want you to clarify a number of things:

1. Why was I asked to download a new bios setup when it wasn't tested? If it was tested, my laptop wouldn't have crashed. When any company's technical support tells me something I believe that they are knowledgable enough and they should be trusted; but after this case it seems otherwise.

2. Why was I delivered a FLAWED RESPAWN DVD? I am a businessman and sending a flawed item to a client is absolutely unacceptable. It is a big blow to a company's Reputation. Why wasn't the DVD Tested before shipping? IF MY LAPTOP WAS NOT UNDER WARRANTY THEN I WOULD HAVE BEEN CHARGED FOR THE REPLACEMENT DVD!

3. If u do read my Problem Description carefully then you would be amazed at the number of calls I Have Made to the Tech Support. THE TECH SUPPORT HAS NEVER BOTHERED TO UPDATE ME EVEN ONCE. MR. DINESH even had the audactiy to say that this incident was a " ONE OFF " BUT I HAVE BEEN INCONVENIENCED BY THIS. HE PROMISED TO GIVE ME AN UPDATE ON MONDAY 5th OCTOBER BUT I GUESS HE SHALL CALL ME IN 2010.

4. WHO IS TO ACCOUNT FOR ALL THE DATA LOST ON THE SPOILT HARD DRIVE. This system wasn't even 3 weeks old when this problem occured and I have lost all our Company Data : PAY ORDERS, QUOTATIONS, DRAWINGS, PROJECTS INFORMATION..

5. WHY is the Tech Support not technically sound about this system. On giving them the service tag THEY ASK ME " SIR WHICH LAPTOP IS THIS ?", "IS THIS BROUGHT FROM INDIA?" and one even said " OH THIS IS AN XPS M17X" WHAT DO U SAY ABOUT THIS? Doesn't the TECH SUPPORT understand the difference between a 70k and a Rs. 2.24 lakh laptop? and is this the type of PREMIER TECH SUPPORT provided to a laptop costing more than 2 lakhs? let alone the amount of waiting time on your contact lines and their monday to friday support.

6. MR. CHERIAN, it seems is the busiest man on earth. According to my knowledge he is in charge of Alienware Tech Support. Every time I have put in a request to talk to Mr. Cherian, I have been informed that he is in a meeting and has promised to get back to me as soon as he is done with his work. Its more than 4 days and still no update from him, not even a COURTESY CALL.

I am running a make shift system with half the original storage cause RAID isn't getting activated. To make matters worse I shall lose all my data again when the Replacement DVD comes in and would have to reinstall everything again. So now this system is nothing but an Aluminium Box for me.

I was going to buy the ALIENWARE AURORA ALX DESKTOP and the DELL INSPIRON LAPTOP BUT THIS ORDEAL HAS MADE ME DO A MAJOR RETHINK. HP PROVIDED ME BETTER SUPPORT. It is immaterial for me that Dell is known for its after sales service. For me DELL has failed miserably.

I WANT A NEW SYSTEM AND COMPENSATION FOR ALL THE LOST TIME AND HARASSMENT YOUR TECH SUPPORT HAS PUT ME THROUGH.
IF THIS ISSUE ISN'T RESOLVED SATISFACTORILY THEN I MIGHT HAVE TO APPROACH THIS ISSUE LEGALLY.

 

The "Missing OS" message shows up because the BIOS Flash resets your BIOS to defaults. If you would have simply re-enabled RAID you would have been fine. The computer didn't "crash" it simply could not find your RAID array.

Always keep back-ups of important files. Lesson learned I suppose.

 

thts right bro i knw tht. i tried all the 3 sata configs but it still didnt respond.

and i already had backup on the desktop (abt 95%) but still the harassment the tech support caused is unacceptable.

 

Hello fellow owners,

I have 2 questions that I could not find in the almighty search function, and Google isn't as helpful with specifics as it usually is. Regardless....

1. I am interested in buying a laptop cooling pad for my M17x. Everything at the store is primarily designated towards tiny netbooks, etc. Nothing really to accomodate the size of this monster. Does anyone have any ideas on a decent product. The only thing I found that was somewhat in the size range was a belkin, but it only had 1 tiny fan on it.


2. Is DVD+-RW the same as DVD±RW? I ordered the 2nd tier optical drive (the blu ray player, not the blu ray burner). Anyways, I can't seem to burn any dvd's and I am using DVD-R's. I noticed the two drives are labeled differently even though they both seem to be +-.


Any insight is much appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

I have not shopped for a NB cooler yet, but soon will as soon as i get my laptop.

As for the drive, they are able to burn both type. The + , and -. The RW stands for re-writable, yes I am Sherlock Holmes.

 

+1. Had this happen to me and was all pissed because I'd have to contact tech support. Then I realized it was detecting 2 drives and not the RAID array. Re-enabling RAID in the bios did the trick.

 

The Cryo LX or Antec 200 cooling pads are both really good for the M17x. Not sure about the optical drive issue.

 

i'm starting to slowly leak out specs of my unit.

 

lol....has the countdown begun? I'm in the same boat as you. Nothing to bench.

 

yes. it's getting closer and closer.
so every day. i'll put something up. i'll put up another part today before i go to work.


don't you feel empty inside.

like i eat and eat and eat but there's still something that's not full and i can't figure out what it is.

 

All this talk about coolers for the M17x. I thought its built in cooling abilities was part of what made it so great in the first place?

 

it does. but don't you want better results.

 

lol, good way to describe it. I woke up really early this morning and I thought to myself I should be benching right now.

If you like to bench any bit of extra cooling will help. Everyday use it's not really necessary but remember the less heat the longer it will live.

 

Well sure, I thought that one could game with it and still have great results on its coolers. By better results, do you mean one can get better FPS or something like that?

 

So its more a benching thing, I see, thanks.

 

i've been saying that since august.

i meaning cooling. getting lets say 75c on the gpu and by using the cooler you can get 60-65, i would get one.

 

I intend to game on it, just not hardcore (many hours everyday day type gaming) do you still think I would need a 3rd party cooler?

 

Nope.

Elevating the backend of the machine will help make sure your getting the proper amount of airflow all the time. Beyond that you do not need a cooler period...

 

i would recommend a cooler regardless of what you are doing on your notebook.

the only way i wouldn't recommend a cooler is if the computer thermal is crap and it can't keep up with it self(aka overheat). and then buying a cooler to bring it to were it's suppose to be. i think the company should fix that or take matters in your own hands. cause your not going to have the cooler at all times. and if you go out and you can't play a game because it will overheat.

or what quad says. either one is good.

 

The machine runs very cool so there is no need for one at all unless its purely for benching or your playing an MMO for 12hours a day..

 

true you do have a point.

i just recommend coolers because they do help.

when i had my hp. i put 2 hitachi's 200gb hdd@7200 and they get really hot. (around 60c which is about the max for any hdd.) at that time the zalman nc-2000 was the best cooler and i got one. and it worked wonders.

 

Well I dont intend to be doing either. I mean once I get it I will run a few benches (to see how good those ATI cards are) but thats about it. As for the gaming part, im mostly going to be a "weekend gamer" with some weekday play speckled in now and then. Thanks Quad!

 

I just checked out the Antec 200, thats looks decent. Got mostly positive reviews on amazon.

 

Just trying to save you some cash .. Though considering you went beyond what you had originally intended whats an extra $80-100 for a cooler ...

 

Any updates from your sales rep on the ATi cards?

 

just put the next big thing on there.

4GB of DDR3 Ram.

i would just go with the nzxt

 

Is it the stock stuff or aftermarket? speed?

 

I certainly appreciate that and after seeing your input on the matter based on my usage, I dont intend on buying one. Just nice to have an option is all. I only went to look at it because I saw someone mention it in this thread a few pages back.

 

mandrake
it's just regular ram....... i'll see what it is when it comes. i may upgrade to that kingston ram i saw on newegg but not right now.

 

Its 4gigs of 1333 ram though im not sure the make since it has custom heatsinks on it .. He may have mentioned what kind of ram it was in his sig since its from the M17..

 

No, none at all, still being delayed as far as he knew. I in a very nice way voiced my displeasure with the whole process. I then said something to the effect "man, that nebula red color looks really good" He then told me that he would be willing to add it at no charge but that I would have to cancel and re-order. Between that and dell now offering 18 months no interest (as opposed to last months 12 month promo), I decided to take him up on and and canceled to re-order. I figured I waited this long, whats a little while longer.

 

Yeah i have a feeling people ordering today vs the first day it was announced will end up getting there machines around the same time based on the delays..

Seems that Dell really jumped the gun announcing the 4870s from the looks of things.. Its either there having some massive compatibility issues(which is what i think it is) or they just dont have enough cards to go around(which i dont think it is based on no one coming to the boards saying they got there machine with them in it yet)...

 

Quad, over the last week or so, my sales rep basically told me both of those things.

 

Heh im not surprised and they are both probably true to an extent but more on the issue of the cards throwing the machine some serious problems being the major one..

 

I may have extra of that Kingston ram.

 

Thanks.

Didn't you say you were ordering one?

 

When the other M17x finally gets sold im considering it ... I was all about it at first but im tempted to wait to see the results first IE GDDR5 and other issues that it may have based on this delay... I have an itching feeling that even when they release there are going to be some problems but hopefully not for your guys sake . You will make the ultimate guinea pig since you can put it through its paces ..

Hopefully this time you get on board with a bunch of benchmarks beyond just Vantage .. Crysis,Devil May Cry 4, Resident Evil 5,Streetfighter4,GTA4 there are few others i would love to see the results of ...

Vantage does not paint the whole picture of true performance of the machine based on my W90 getting much better framerates in games compared to my M17x..

 

I have most of those games to run plus more.

 

Anyone having issues with the volume control buttons? My volume up/down sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. Right now, volume down is working, but volume up won't. Tried everything I can think of...

 

I did all those the first time around except for GTA4.