*OFFICIAL* Alienware M17x Owners Lounge - Part 2

Start here... lots of good info and explanations:

Windows 7:
http://www.blackviper.com/Windows_7/servicecfg.htm

Windows Vista:
http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm

 

Yes, our beloved mod has it covered.

 

I am getting the "precious" this upcoming week!

 

anyone having problems with 195.81 not being able to detect external display?

i just installed it and it couldnt detect my external monitor on hdmi

 

if you are using the 9400m only, it cannot run a second monitor. Need the discretes for that

 

why cant we order blu ray anymore?

 

they ran out, and instead of having 1000000000000 people call them and yell at them for having it delayed they just took it down

 

i tried on hybrid performance mode and with the integrated off.. couldnt get it to detect my external monitor.

this is the first time with any driver that i have encountered this problem

 

interesting, add that to the bug list then...

+rep for your troubles

 

Older ones before 18x series couldn't do it either

 

really? =o


well before 18x series was out i was still using an xps 1730 and i never had problems with external monitor output with it.

 

and how does rep work? it says i have like 20 rep points but on the left it says rep power 1.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=115516

 

I ordered one. I am now in wallet-shock.

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go pitch a tent to live in from now on.

 

sounds like after I ordered mine

had like $60 in the bank for a week since ordered in middle of a pay period lol

It is easily worth it though

 

God damn I hope so. I was looking at the dimensions again- it's 2" thick, and my model should weigh almost 13 pounds!

It's a frickin PATIO STONE!

I've been using this 10" netbook for 8 months... I might just pull a muscle bringing the box upstairs to my apartment.

 

dont worry, you will forget all these worries when it arrives

 

Yeah but between now and January 15th, I've got all the time in the world.

 

they always ship sooner than the estimated shipping date

 

I hope so! Glad to know I'm not the only one with wallet-shock after ordering this thing, even though I picked a *relatively* inexpensive config.

I can't imagine if I had ordered that QX9300 for 1k, I'd probably jump off my balcony!

Then again, I'd also probably be so proud of it my head would explode. That would be an interesting combination.

 

well, you can order an oem qx9300 for $500 from HP and install yourself like MANY of us have

 

OOOHHH I'm reading about this now...

Time to go ask the boss for some more overtime!!

 

Another question for u guys, I am not noticing some freezing up, like completly freezing everything up. Happens while gaming but also happens while surfng the net. Running a scan of my computer with mcafee now....just wondering if anyone can tell me what I need to do to get it running good

 

little respect ?

If not ok just asking

try a different driver

 

ive posted about this once but never seemed to get to the bottom of it and now its getting more often so i feel i should try to see if i can get some answers here instead of contacting dell which would be hell

ever since the 2nd week ive owned the laptop, it randomly boots with extremely low gfx performance for some reason. all temps cpu and gpu are fine and they go up when underload normally and the clock speeds show that the gfx cards are at full clocks when underload but for some reason the fps in games are just so horrible. it happens when im not oced or even when im oced(processor and gfx)

its like i get between 1-4 fps for any game.

it happens really randomly but has become more frequent lately. it will boot normally, and i will be able to do any stuff (web surfing, word processing) normally except programs which require graphics power (eg games)

the ONLY solution ive found is to force shutdown the laptop. i dont even need to drain off the remaining power by removing the power plug and battery and holding the power button for 15 secs. all i have to do is force shutdown the computer.

im convinced its not the drivers/os because i have tried many drivers and installed them properly on 2 different oses(windows 7 ulti and home premium, i have dual boot) and the problem occurs on both.


if the laptop boots with that problem, no amount of rebooting or normal shutdowns and power drains would help. i would need to force shutdown to solve it.

if it boots with that problem on the first os, switching to the other without force shutting would also cause it to boot with that problem.


is this a hardware or software issue? i mean its not dpc latency or the stuttering issues. and for some reason a force shutdown solves it.

id like to see if anyone here can maybe help me by telling me a few possible causes before i contact dell as i do not want them to send a tech and replace every single part with refurbished crap and leave me with more problems than i already have.


i have done the diagnostics in the bios setting and the one on the resource cd but it comes up with nothing.

 

If it comes unplugged while playing it will do that but it sounds driver related

 

Issue with your power supply? Loose plug or something? If it thinks your running on battery it can boot the laptop into stealth mode (i.e. poor 3D performance).

 

Get rid of mcafee

 

Mine does that but only after displaying a message during boot-up to which I either hit F1 to continue w/integrated graphics or F2 to go to setup and reset everything. Trust me, I know - the damned plug falls out so much that plugging it in is like throwing a hotdog down a hallway.

 

For what? It was just an expression.

 

no im not in stealth mode or battery. my battery is always removed so if my adapter becomes loose or unplugged the computer will just die


my integrated is always disabled as well


edit: it doesnt happen suddenly. it boots with the problem. If i boot without the problem, i can leave my computer on for days without having the problem. but if i boot with that problem, it will stay on as long as i dont force shutdown.

if its a driver problem then what am i doing wrong? it happens on both my os

ive tried almost every driver that can install with my system and not have problems(even ones with modded infs from laptopvideo2go).

i uninstall from device manager, run driver sweeper, reboot safe mode, driver sweeper and ccleaner, reboot and install.

 

Have you tried a fresh Windows install? (sorry if this was mentioned already, but I didn't see it)

 

yes my windows 7 home premium is a fresh install with bare minimum stuff. just all essential drivers and no programs. its a blank os for me just incase my ultimate crashes.

 

If it's a clean W7 install, and you've tried multiple drivers, it sounds to me like some sort of hardware / firmware problem.. Are you on the most up to date BIOS?

 

yes bios a02. i dont know if its hardware cos a force shutdown solves the problem. a force shutdown only affects the os and not the hardware so i dont know haha..

if it were hardware, which part would it be? sli cable? the cards? or the processor?

 

I'd say the chipset was doing something stupid, but I'm kinda in over my head on this one.. anyone else have input?

 

some people have certain religious beliefs

all i ask is a little respect ?

 

the 280M sli's have DX11 right?

 

no

Just DX10 (NOT 10.1)

 

Alright so how am I supposed to get DX11? is it downloadable? Or what >_>

Or does it only come with certain cards? *did some searching*

 

dx11 has to be physcially built into the GPUs

Currently there are no options for DX11 in the M17x

 

Yeah as of now the only DX11 capable hardware on the market is the ATI 5xxx series cards, and there's very few (if any) mobile versions shipping right now.

 

another question, I know you can switch between the 9400M and your regular graphics cards but I've never owned an sli enabled card. Can you switch between sli and 1 card?

 

Yes just turn off sli in the control panel


Physically turn it off ? No

 

yes, you do it by disabling SLI in the nvidia control panel

It is somewhat cumbersome, but works

 

Thanks for the help

 

Rubyboy, I think I know what you're talking about. Except that i notice it before I ever enter a game. Web browsing is also a few seconds behind. I type fast, and when I type a URL into the browser bar and hit 'Enter', it takes a few seconds and THEN it will load the website, loading it slower than usual.

From what I've noticed, this seems to be a problem with the m17x. It is not a single driver or hardware issue. It is noticeable from the start at bootup. Simply rebooting (actually, shutting down, then hitting power again) solves the problem. I have yet to pinpoint one thing that causes it. And because it happens so infrequently, I can't test it much.

At one point I thought it was because the computer wasn't getting enough power. Have integrated / hybrid turned off, and no battery in there. The power strip the AC adapter is plugged into takes three seconds to power the laptop power button LED on. I have the strip turned off by default. I wondered if maybe when the computer powers on at first [and you hear the fans blazing for a brief couple of seconds], maybe the computer doesn't get a good enough initial boost/surge of electricity to power the hardware components adequately?

As I said, I have noticed what you're talking about, and as soon as I notice the computer is in this 'laggy' state, I turn off and back on again and it resolves itself.

 

I had crazy high CPU usage causing very slow internet browsing, what I did:

remove the synaptics touchpad driver and the broadcom wireless and bluetooth drivers

This solved it for me

 

i only have bluetooth drivers installed. touchpad is not installed.

hank, you experience lag in typing and web browsing as well? mine is completely fine with typing and web browsing. i dont even notice that the problem is there until i run something that requires the graphics cards to start working.

turning it off for me doesnt help unless i force shut it.

so is this issue related to the dpc latency/bios problem? i wonder what would dell do if i called them about it.

 

Is it browser specific Hank? I know I see a type delay for URL in Firefox (v3.5.6). In IE, all is well and no delays. Vista here.