*OFFICIAL* Alienware M17x Owners Lounge - Part 2

You are taking about the computer's BIOS or the GPU's BIOS? I have not tried reflashing the computer's BIOS. I'm running A02.

 

Yeah, the system BIOS. I don't think the video BIOS handles the fan control. Just try reflashing anyway. Guessing they're all ACPI devices managed by the system BIOS (similar to our old M1730). I haven't looked into this in depth yet though.

If that doesn't work maybe getting someone's video BIOS's for both cards and flashing that, but I'd leave that as a last resort.

 

reflash your BIOS and VBIOS on both to do it ...

The VBIOS does indeed handle fans but it just doesn't get corrupted one day ....


Prolly some driver issues telling it that it is fine when really its not ...... Only had this issue with Nvidia cards never ATI

driver support?

 

I knew the 280m's would end up biting me in the tuckish but I had to go with the tried nVidia cards. I don't have a problem upgrading to something else in the future lik a 5xxx ATI card. But for all intents and purposes, what programs I use, the 280ms seemed to be optimized for it.

Could someone upload an updated 260m GTX vBIOS for me to flash, while we're at it?

 

you need 280


also mine just went away with reinstalling the driver and a BIOS flash

 

What do you mean I need 280???

 

you said you needed 260 BIOS but your sig says 280

 

83 degrees today! It seems like sometimes it'll decide to go full blast when I game, and other times it doesn't even turn on. This time when it hit 83, I could feel the left side of the keyboard (i use W for strafe LEFT) get physically warm. That's not good.

I think I wanna' sell this POS and just buy a desktop computer. Could use the money since I totalled my car today in this awesome weather. Thankfully I didn't hurt anyone.

 

well, glad to hear you are ok

 

How do I enable CrossFire in mod driver ATi Cat 9.11 ? There is no opition to enable it.

 

Go to catalyst control center then graphic option then crossfire and enable

http://img23.imageshack.us/i/capturekt.png
http://g.imageshack.us/img23/capturekt.png

 

A trip down memory lane!

My first laptop, how far I have come

 

Thanks major81

 

Gundam FTW!

to bad they never made any good games.

 

So, I have a problem. I installed the newest chipset driver, and now my wireless internet isn't working. It just isn't detecting any wireless internet signals or anything. My wired PC and other laptops in the house are working just fine. Can anyone guess what's up?

 

I use this combo happily, the chipset drivers from vista and NO wireless driver. This is working best for me in Windows 7

 

Ah. I'll try getting mine like that and see what happens; thanks.

 

i use chipset drivers for win 7 but i dont install any wireless drivers. just use the windows default.


anyway, what kinda mouse are you guys using with your m17x. I just got myself a razer mamba and i cant say im happy with it.

 

MS Habu , It fits like a GLOVE !

Check the link in my Sig for my setup

 

Scook9, you happy with the 280ms overall for gaming? My atis are dying on me and alienware Europe only has nvidia gfx cards in stock, so I may be forces to make a switch o:

Kind of bummed but in the end if the 4870s and 280s are comparable enough in performance I am not going to stress over it.

 

nick how are the atis dying on you? overheating or are they failing?

what the hell man its only been like what? 3 months and your cards are failing..

makes me feel all squeamish.. i guess i must extend my warranty

 

why don't we just trade when you get new ones.

 

I have searched google and the forums for an answer to this. I just received an M17x as a replacement to my E1705 from Dell and its awesome, but some of the touch sensitive buttons will not work. I have tried holding my finger on them, mashing them, pressing all different ways. The eject button works, and the fusion button work. The others will not work for the life of me. Does anyone have a solution before I call Dell? Sorry if it is posted somewhere, just could not find it and thanks alot to your responses.

 

It is embarassing to say, but have only played UT3 and Halo 2 on the laptop so far. Done ALOT of benching though lol. The nvidia cards do great though in games, thing of a desktop 9800 GX2 but with more memory. It is about on par with a desktop GTX 275 in power

What is wrong with your 4870s?! That sucks to hear man.

 

Yeah ok, I reseated my HD4870's but they're still giving me problems.

I don't really know whats wrong but I suspect it has to do with my first GPU. I'm getting unstable fps (no overclocking of CPU or anything) with strange jitters in all games and general weird performance.

Reseated them as per mandrake's advice but no dice! Good folks at Alienware are ready to send me out 280's tomorrow though. (unconfirmed yet). And he seemed ok with sending me out ATI's when they have them in stock.

I've gotta say, replacing the GPUs in this computer are super easy. It takes like 5 minutes.

edit: also games are crashing out, WoW only works until i get into a raid, then it crashes mid bossfight saying memory cannot be read. I've tried different RAM sticks too with the same issues. Would seem my video card memory decided to be bad? I suspect that, because this happens with crossfire off and if i have a game loaded in video RAM but in window mode, my 2d performance goes to crap (firefox scrolling stutters and windows open and close with this randomly slow animation. this is with a windows reinstall done, stock dell drivers.)

Documenting it with detail so that anyone else experiencing it can see.

 

ya, getting to the GPUs is much easier than getting to the CPU (unfortunately)

 

helo.i need the 8 digit serial number on the back of as many alienware m17x as possible for a contest.pls help me.tks!

Its truely amazing that these people think this is going to work... its not like we havent banned everyother one that has asked this very same stupid question.

Again, as a friendly reminder dont give these idiots any number on your laptop, this is a scam, and a pretty poor one at that
Kamin_Majere

 

for what? How are you going to go and ask us for OUR serials from OUR manchines.

 

Uh, I think it's pretty awesome dondah - he asks, and we comply

Don't see a reason not to.

 

Call it the Romanian Invasion of 2009.

 

What are they asking for ? the Service Tag ? LOL...

 

They don't even know. They keep saying it's an 8 digit numerical number.

 

why did he get banned?
I was just waiting for him to get enough post so I can pm him. I wanted to see what prizes/giveaway he had. thanks guys now you really did it. he has gadgets and it was from 1981 and up so he has been in the business for a long time. if only you gave him a chance. I was going to give him a chance if he answered my question and i'm sure he was just being an honesty sport. what are the chances with all the technology we have, for someone to come and 'scam' people.

it's 2009 people.





/sarcasm

 

I'm sorry, i've ruined your christmas... please forgive me, and i'll unban him right away.


(ok enough from me, back to your regularly scheduled Owners lounge)

 

it's ok you don't have to unban him. The more I think about it. I find it feasible that he wouldn't have the lastest prizes anyway.because he is from 1981... Now maybe if he was 2009 or not-a-scam-man. Then I would of unbanned him.

anyways. We are looking for certain in the next golden laptop. It must have ati's gpu's and an intel chipset. What are your thoughta about this?

 

That sounds like the Asus W90, lol!

 

lol. i was in the market for one earlier this year nah I didn't want to take the chance of getting a bad unit.

 

Mine's 12345678 good luck!

 

Hello all, back from the madness that was my final projects.

So my M17x still randomly freezes and i'm getting tons of video/audio stuttering.

Seems as tho some of you might have found solutions, not positive but any advice would help.

 

Not really, pretty much everyone is waiting to see what Dellienware comes up with for a fix. Have word they're reproduced the symptoms and have identified 1 or 2 causes (have fixes for one already and looking at another), but no owrd on when a fix will be made available.

 

And what could the banned guy do with the express service code?

When you speak with Dell, they ask for more info than that (ie name, email ,etc).

 

he is doing give aways.

but for real. He can get your information. If you look hard enough on the net. It's not that hard. The express tag would be the key for everything else.

he/she is also Spanish. I did some research on. That's why he English wasn't great when you read the post.

 

Well, alienfx manager is not working right. All the lights are off. Keyboard, speakers, power, even the alienhead on the back is off, and won't turn on when I try to change the colors in the FX program.

*Edit: nevermind. I had to enable the FXeditor. I didn't know I had it disabled. I guess I assumed because I had the program OPEN and thus tried to edit the colors, it was enabled. Stupid me.

 

Gah, so got into contact with Alienware senior tech today. Bad news, he rejected the proposal of getting me Nvidia cards for now due to the ATi's being out of stock, because he's expecting a shipment of 4870s "soon." no word when, but "soon". I told him I have next business day service but he said I still have to wait, and the fine print says its next business day if they have the parts in stock. LOL. I told them that I need this sorted this week since i'm leaving the country on saturday for a month, and if in the next few days they can't tell me when the ATI's are going to be in I'm going to escalate, and they need to be able to offer nvidia replacements.

Graphics card shortages... the m1730 scars.. are tingling!!!!

 

It's funny how Dell never learns from historical mistakes, eh? My advice - spam the hell outta' Dell chat support. Tell them this rerouting to AW business is garbage because AW support is crap, and you paid for Dell warranty coverage. Shipping out a part by its part number (ie. the 280m's) is merely a logistics issue, not a training issue, therefore nullifying the excuse "we are not trained in AW issues".

As bad as Dell's tech support can be, AW is ten times worse. You just need to find a crack in the wall that is Dell's incompetence and ask for the 280m's. Remind them that they are worth less than the ATI cards, so this shouldn't delay anything at all, or you're going to 'make a complaint to his supervisor'.

 

I'm going to go the zen route for today, I've got all week to play the game. They said they should have more info tomorrow regarding delivery of 4870s, so I'll give them till tomorrow to show I can work with them. If they give me anything short of, you'll get the cards tomorrow thanks for calling, I will escalate.

In the UK, the 280's are actually 250£ (400USD) more expensive than the 4870's. So I'm essentially asking for an upgrade. But if these guys don't deliver this week, I won't have a gaming laptop for my games session with my American friends over the holidays when I was planning on showing this thing off and actually gaming on it hardcore for a few days. And that, is not cool.

Will see what they do and keep you updated.

 

I will happily trade 280s for your 4870s if you would like

 

I dont think you want my busted 4870s, and the problem is not that I don't want 4870s its that they're out of stock and i'm leaving for a month long trip on Saturday, and I thought my M17x was ready to come with me but it's sick

 

That was if they send you new 4870s

 

Don't you have the integrated graphics, though?

In all honesty, this is one thing I like about the M17x compared to the 1730. On the 1730, if my cards crap out, it's hit-or-miss whether or not I can boot into Windows. On the M17x, I just turn off the cards in the BIOS and boot via integrated...