*OFFICIAL* Alienware M17x Owners Lounge - Part 2

My fan does intermittenly work when I play my classic Source games: Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat. But, as I said long ago, if the computer's been on for several hours and I try to play games, the fan does not go into HIGH RPM mode.

 

i just put the device id in the inf.

 

Can someone answer me 5 questions about the M17x? I need help.
1) If I buy a M17x with a single Mobility HD 4870. Can I add another the next year ? And what do I need to do that?
2) Is there a big difference between :
7-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 (1200p)
and
17-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 RGB LED (1200p) ?
3)If I buy the hard disc in Raid 1 can I change it to Raid 0 at home or it can't be changed?
4)What is the difference between :
Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
and
Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Burner (BR-R, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
What does the Blu-ray has that the DVD hasn't or is it faster or something I haven't seen a Blu-ray before.What does it do?
5)How often should I clean the laptop?

 

Over the past week I have had a strange issue start that I haven't been able to pinpoint and was looking for some help.

I have the typical DPC latency issue. Never the stutter where frame rates just drop out and them come back..

I have the M17x r1 A02 (tried A03) Win7ultimate

I never had this issue before I got my SSD and removed all Nvidia Drivers and had to redo them. Now I am plagued and Cant get rid of it.

I am using the 186.82 the windows updated ones from a while back.

What i have noticed is when I am playing WOW I get this micro stutters i guess i can call it that.. Seems like the screen is pulsating per say at certain points. Really noticeable in Dal and when raiding when there is quite a bit going on.. its hard to describe but it seems like jitters/pulsating.. The frame rate is still running solid and there are no dips there 25-45 ish depending how many toons are in dal.. I even went to less populated areas and it still happens there too just not as frequent. I had it happen in Ironforge running at a constant 60fps (vsync enabled)

If I disable SLI I dont see it happening that i can tell. As soon as i enable SLI its back..

In the past, I have always had SLI on and gpu1 would be around 60 ish Celsius and gpu 2 was always a few degrees cooler when gaming. Now when SLI is enabled they both are around 50-55 Celsius with GPU 2 2-3 degrees warmer.. Never had GPU 2 run warmer than gpu1...

Now I have done tons of reinstalling, wiping ect to try to resolve this and no luck... It just started doing this when I had to wipe the NVidia drivers with the install of the Intel SSD and i had to get rid of the hdd controller driver.
Should I move on to a different video driver? The current one has always worked for me... I am at a loss on what has caused this to start happening.
Is there a workaround that I missed that could resolve this?


btw since I have been playing with SLI disabled, seems to run really smooth and the MCP only gets to 63 degrees Celsius rather than the 70+ when SLI is enabled.. I have the hybrid/integrated disabled in bios.. Always have.. Also the DPC latency issues is very minimal without SLI.. Almost no cracks listening to MP3s when gaming.. SLI enabled and cracks every few seconds. Prolly due to less power requirements..

 

The difference in GPU temps is ok, happened to me 2 after upgrading to W7.


There shouldn't be a huge difference in MCP temps, perhaps you are testing it on the games that don't stress it the same, try the Dragon Age/ Empire - Total War or any game based on the Unreal3 engine. Also, you could replace the stock thermal pad on the MCP with a higher quality pad, copper shim, or a non-bleeding, non-conductive paste (MX-3, IC-7/24 etc)


You can try the latest beta drivers from the Nvidia website, they worked better for me in W7, but still not even close to perfection.

 

Yea the temps were the least of my worries.. as long as there isnt over heating lol..

My main concern was the jittering/pulsating of the screen. Its quite annoying. I just cant figure out what has caused this to happen and how to get rid of it.. I guess i can try different drivers its just that the ones I have had, have been stable for me up till recently. Could it be a possible bad GPU or sli cable all of a sudden that would cause that?

 

Called Dell today regarding your question nr 1.. 4870 card, cable, fan and one other thing for the cooling for 4000 swedish kr (around 570 bucks)But this is if you self put it in...

 

Sorry .. I saw that i had missed some text... Semes like its still a little bit to dangerous for me .. But one good thing is that i got my cpu overclocked a bit.. T9600, 3.3ghz stable...

 

Anyone knows how much Dell charges to upgrade from GTX280M to Crossfire 4870?

I can imagine it's going to be the same premium from Crossfire 4870 to Crossfire 5870.

On top of that I cannot find any for sale on Ebay nor NBR. Are they not selling?

 

it's not like we can get our money back...

 

Agreed but we know that each card should sell for about $300 on Ebay and the upgrade will be about $1000 therefore we can expect $400 out of pocket which is reasonable for this kind of upgrade.

I was just wondering why there are none on Ebay.

 

This seller does a whole range of M17x cards parts check link.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150412671498&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

 

If you can get 5870s from dell, the 4870s will be very sellable to Clevo owners who want them (there are many)

 

does it work with the clevo is the question.

 

yes i meant hybrid sli. when i had my 280s with the 9400 enabled the issue occured much more often.

my replacement request is solely because of the amazing stuttering issues i have even after swapping to ati cards and there is no fix in sight. you can see my screenshots and videos of in game stutters which occur every 10-15 minutes and give me below 10 fps for about 5 seconds which makes my laptop comparable to an ipad. even an ipad can play games for ipods without stutters

no im not swindling dell im just trying to get a working laptop for once considering i havent exactly been able to use my previous xps1730 properly as well.

 

Roger that. So you haven't actually got an R2 in the works yet, just planning for it? Let us know how it goes.

 

the tech in charge has put forward the request for me but wouldnt be getting back to me till after the lunar new year holidays

 

Ei guys... I'm having trouble with my M17x-R2.. Whenever I put my laptop to sleep, then I wake it up and logged back in to my profile I can't see my task bar or restart/shutdown my laptop.. >.<

 

Hey guys i was looking into purchising one of these m17x's with these specs

*Intel® Core™2 Extreme Quad QX9300 2.53GHz (12MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
*Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
*Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 280M, 2GB – SLI® Enabled
*17-inch WideUXGA 1920x1200 (1200p)
*8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
*640GB 5400RPM

I was basically wondering what kind of games this could run and how well.. most pref crysis/cod and basically if theres any changes you would reccomend.. i dont do this very often so any help would be apreciated

cheers

 

is it me or do the atis make the entire system feel hotter? i know they idle 10 degrees hotter but they also peak around the same temp as my nvidias @ 70 degrees but it my entire keyboard area feels really warm which never happened before with the nvidias. also, the underside feels very hott than with the nvidias which only feel warm.

 

Please use the R2 owner's lounge.

 

Zakstaz - you buying from alienware or 2nd-hand? If from Alienware, go for the i5 or i7 processors. The model you put together is the 1st run M17x, which has a known stuttering issue. Read here. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5892029

 

I haven't noticed any increased heating...

 

oh.. but for me i do feel an extra increase in heat produced on the underside and on the keyboard areas. while gaming i can even feel the heat it emits and im in an airconditioned room


vents and fans were cleaned a week ago when the tech opened the system out

 

just a crazy idea. is it possible to put 1 4870 in the main gpu slot and a gtx280 in the other?

like how the desktops have an ati running the video and a secondary nvidia card runing the physx stuff. possible on a laptop?

 

it is completely not worth to even try that. physx is nice but isn't that nice.

 

rotflmao
i just ran physx with ati to check it out....it was cool and all..but as don says..NOT THAT NICE!..lol
desktop...yes..laptop...hell 2 the no!
physx slows your vga card down to begin with..and these 280's are no where near being strong enough to run physx full blown.

but

there is a add-on card setup you can buy..put in a desktop card and physx it on up

 

This came up before - someone was asking if the 9400 could be tasked with PhysX. Not sure if this would work, but there are a few links you can explore:

01/29/2009: http://www.overclock.net/graphics-cards-general/452154-guide-how-enable-physx-nvidia-card.html

05/16/2009: http://www.overclock.net/graphics-cards-general/508305-howto-ati-nvidia-physx-guide.html

I believe this was the one which showed the most promise:
10/12/2009: http://www.ngohq.com/news/16560-patch-re-enables-physx-when-ati-card-is-present.html


Best of luck. Like I said, not even sure its possible with the 9400+ATI or an ATI+NV Discrete.

 

the 9400 and the 4870 can not be turned on together, unlike the 280m the frsit choice for hybrid can not be selected in the bios. it is hard locked maybe until optimus comes out.

 

what happens if you pull both 280's out...will the laptop even turn on? has anyone tried this...

any laptop with a 9400m gpu in it.

 

i'm sure it will boot and work with the 9400m only.

 

what thread is all this discussed in?

 

idk. i think moo did it. but i dont see why it wouldn't work.

 

I did not try with them out but my 9400m did boot when the ATIs were failing to post.

 

hummm...ok.
so you can see all 3 cards now right?

 

i never got 3 cards to run at the same time. hybrid is block out when ati's are installed. but integrated is still available.

when you enable it, the 4870s are off.
when you disable it, you only see the 4870's.

 

No, the ATIs would not boot at all so changed to integrated in bios and it booted. ATI cards where bad. Still have the same problem but less often.

 

that's how it's suppose to work.

you need to install the hack for you to be able to see both gpus. and then you need a way to trick it into thinking the 9400 is plugged up to a monitor.
what? you thought it was going to be easy?

lol

 

I was thinking of doing an upgrade of my Ati 4870 single card.. But the dell suport guy said to me that he had tested the performance with a single card and in crossfire.. He just didnt think it was worth the money..
So now Im asking you guys that got this in crossfire if its worth 500 dollars.. If i max my settings in my ati card and in these games i get around:
40-59 fps in modern w f 2,
25-45 fps Nfspeed shift,
40-45 fsp Wolfenstein,
25-45 Dirt 2 and i cant change post processing higher than medium??
So...... Can some one give me an advise what to do. I realy want it in crossfire but i dont want to spend 500 if i dont see a boost in fsp.
My system specs is T9600, 4 gig 1066 memory 320 gig hard drive.

 

Ei guys! Good news! Checkout the link... http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=315901

My FPS in CoD MW 2 is 91 lol.. I only have CoD game and WoW... LoL

 

Cuda PhysX runs fine on my 280s. In fact, it even runs the strange Cryostasis benchmark at a smoother rate. Also, I don't know what programme out there defines 'PhysX full blown', given that graphics are constantly evolving, but I haven't had any real issues.

Been enjoying the effects in Batman Arkham Asylum. But keeping just one of each, ATi and Nvidia, is probably not worth the shot since Arkham Asylum benefits from the SLi boost, which is probably the case for plenty of other games that utilise the engine and the effects.

 

the newer physx drivers will also not function if any ATI drivers are present unless you do a "hack" to allow it

 

i did download the hack but didnt try it yet.

 

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't ATi refuse to take on PhysX, which the Stream hardware could've easily managed? Isn't this lack of driver support a direct result of that decision?

 

but if you have both an ati and a nvidia gpu, nvidia will not let you run physx on the nvidia core unless you hack it

 

I see, so it is the 'newer' Nvidia PhysX drivers that refuse to install with ATi drivers. To hell with this competition.

 

I agree, they could advance the field of 3d and physx so much if they were not busy excluding each other (same goes for CUDA)

 

Indeed. Would've been great, but such is the nature of this industry.

 

so.......has anyone tried to get it working yet? i works on a DT i know for sure, but i dont have a dual mobile gpu setup with nvidia/ati...

 

all of us who got the ATI upgrade do not have the nvidia cards at the same time haha

This could be tested in an M17 the easiest as it has much more common and cheap MXM 2.1 cards