*OFFICIAL* Alienware M17x Owners Lounge - Part 2

Depending on the driver. I normally set Hybrid SLi on in the BIOS and then I am able to control whether I want to use the 9400m GPU or the 260s within windows from the taskbar. There is a little green icon that looks like 2 boomerangs where you get to set the GPUs to save power or High performance mode.
If you are using the 25X.XX drivers however you will have to change settings in the power profiles to set whether you want to use discrete GPUs when plugged in or the 9400m when on battery mode. I normally just set that by using either High performance profile or the balanced profile for when I want to use the 9400m GPU for some peace and quiet.

Also in regards to HDMI audio out. I normally also have to switch the default audio to Digital Audio S/PDIF and then it will output audio from the HDMI device speakers. Cheers.

I hope all that makes sense.

 

Ah so thats what it was I did install the 256 or 7 (dont remember) because I was having bad DPC Latency issues with the other one so maybe that what was controlling the switch between the two I knew it had to be something. Thanks any recommendation on which driver to get I have 2 260m in SLI and the 9400m currently im using the default driver that came with the system .

Yeah I figured as much based on what I had read before I just wanted to be sure. Thanks

 

Yeh no worries Champ,

Yeh i got quite annoyed when the newer 25X.XX drivers started coming out and they changed how I was able to switch from my 9400m to 260M SLi GPU cards, ( I think we have pretty much the same system setup). I'm currently using Nvidias latest WHQL driver the 258.96. Dell also has released a 257. somefing driver. So both of these will be using the new method of switching GPUs.
I pretty much set my profiles using High performace as utilising the 260ms and balanced to switch to the 9400m. So in a way its doing the same thing as the older drivers used to when we clicked on the green boomerang shaped icon. Cheers. Anyone of the new drivers should provide best performance depending on what you want to try and run.

 

new mainboard, refurb 5870s and LCD later and my M17x is off to the depot It will only boot with a single 5870 and will simply refuse to even post on Two.

 

Well before you send it off to the depot, you should look for some of erwaneila's posts. He already discovered the problem, it had to do with the Dell depot issuing cards that had the same smbus address so that's why it wouldn't boot with both 5870s. He's got them to correct it already but it will take a few days to go into effect.

 

I think I have a few days once I get the shipping box to send it to depot, but that's the exact problem I have. Thanks!

edit: both P/N's match so I do have the issue apparently.

 

hey everyone, i just got my alienware and am now running a check on the system as we speak. to kick it all off, i decided to do a hardware check and see if everything is in place.. i got the dual ati cards but it only shows one GPU on the 'performance and information tools'

here's an extract
"Graphics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Display adapter type ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870
Total available graphics memory 3835 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 1024 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 2811 MB
Display adapter driver version 8.692.2.0
Primary monitor resolution 1920x1200
DirectX version DirectX 10

"
shouldn't the dedicated memory be 2gb instead of 1gb?
i'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but how do i check if the two cards are in the system?

 

In theory, yes, you have 2 gigs, but you are only using 1gig in Crossfire. One of our members posted this on another thread but I can't seem to find it, maybe he can post here, he is more computer savy than I...

 

Both card have 1GB, this is being used on both cards. The reason it is effectively 1 GB is because the exact same data is being loaded into each cards memory since each core needs access to the same data when it renders its parts of the screen when in CF. I view this as inefficient and a place for potential performance optimization but I can only assume that it is very difficult which is why they have not enabled it yet.

 

Has anyone purchased a dell or alienware system via paypal? I just got two of my orders cancelled for paypal not approving both transactions

 

1 gig in crossfire? maybe you could enlighten a little more about this? thanks for the reply btw.

 

ah, alright. what haven't they enabled? so that means the specs on my screen is accurate? just a thought, if there aren't 2 cards present in teh m17x, would the ati catalyst allow me to enable crossfire anyway or would that Not be an option?

 

Yeah, Scook was the one that explained in the other thread...

and to answer your question, if you only had one card, you wouldn't be able to enable crossfire. I can assure you that you have 2 cards there.

 

They have not enabled the ability for each video cards ram to hold different data to allow them to truly be working independently of eachother. My understanding of it all is that (as an example) each card renders half the pixels of each frame. So say GPU A renders the first half and GPU B renders the second half of the screen. In theory (this is where I am guessing) the same data should not be needed in the frame buffer for each set and therefore if they were able to load different sets of data, they would be able to load more of what is specifically needed by each GPU but not necessarily needed in the other. I am guessing here as there is not a chance in hell I could write a gpu driver myself but it makes sense to me that it could be beneficial lol

 

off topic:
ati fan club is growing by the post....lol
what up with all the ati avitar pictures?

then people get mad when you call them ati/nvidia fan boy's...rotlfmao

on topic:

i thought each card held the same exact data, but render a different part of the image?

 

johnksss,
what's up ,
what kind of laptop are you using now, I don't see it in your signature?

I like Nvidia better than ATI, but I love my M17Z R2, so I guess I will deal with it

 

hey flynnaz!
just trying to decide now.

me, im impartial to cards...i just bench them then move on...lol
im more in to cpu's now though. so i need a good laptop for that.

edit: what cha selling now??? anything?

 

To the best of my knowledge, this is exactly what happens. I was describing what I thought would enable better utilization of the memory and potentially more performance

 

sounds good to me.

 

Mine and Lozz's pics are from an engadget article that talked about AMD retiring the ATi brand.

 

Paying tribute to what's now a dead brand isn't fanboyism at all. I probably would have had something similar for team green if Intel bought nVidia and killed off the nVidia brand.

 

ahhh, so i see.

im just making jokes is all.

edit:

so amd decided to change the name from ATI to AMD and that's it? it's still the same thing if you ask me.
and i think i owned one ATI card, the rest have been by everyone else.

 

The difference John is that ATI Radeon is no more.....the brand name will now be AMD Radeon

They are keeping the Radeon and FirePro names but no longer attaching ATI to them (or any other names)

 

yeah, that's exactly what i said.
so amd decided to change the name from ATI to AMD and that's it?
and they are attaching amd to the bottom of the radeon and firepro

 

Johnkss,
lol, I am not selling anything at the moment. I am realy happy with my M17X R2, I also was looking at the Asus G73GH, that thing has nice specs for the price.

 

i see you still holding on to that last gateway for dear life...lol

that one is on my list..along with a m17x or an m15x.
just trying to get a good deal...was looking at the g51j and the n71jq, but i think im going to have to scrub them off my list.

 

My boy's and wife have the Gateways now. They still impress me, awsome laptops in their price range. I saved 24% on my Alienware, had to do alot of rescearch, and I did it through online chat
My son spilled water on his P-171x FX tonight, luckly he know what to do, turn off, unplug, take out the battery, take out the hard drives and use a hair dryer, and fans for 3 hours. All is good, that thing is still a beast

 

Careful with the hair dryer. I had the same drill on my HP DV9000 and just propped it next to a space heater blowing on it. Actually melted a few of the keys haha (they softened and just drooped down around the physical button forming a shell once cooled down that kept me from being able to push them lol)

Lessons were learned....for shame.....

 

Not to say your wrong there scook, but dont you think its utilizing one of the cards' memory? Isn't that why one card gets hotter?

I think i read that somewhere for crysis, when it started to flicker with crossfire.

 

Good to know

 

i did that with one of my dt boards...and i just hit it with the air compressor for about 10 minutes..and all was good.

good thing for smarty kids....but we know where they got that from.

their mother!
lol
j/k

 

Hi Guys,since a few days I'm a new owner of Alienware M17x R2 and I was very happy until today. I tried to overclock my new laptop by using a overclocking tools in system Bios, so I increased the voltage both; processor and ram but also I increased the performance of processor about 5% by using the same tool. And now my laptop doesn't want to boot up, It turns on but the screen remains black without signs of life. My question is, is there any way to revert to its default bios setting without turning it on? Maybe there is some button inside the laptop which can do it? Greetings for all users of Alienware system

 

Take out the cmos battery and plug it back and boot.

 

Hey guys. I had my first problem with it so far, its runing at roughly half perforamnce leaving me to think my 2nd card is being used.

I've heard alot of stoires, nightmare stories, about getting a tech out.. So I'm wondering if I'm better trying to solve this over the phone with parts getting shipped in/out or better to get a tech out and let him figure it out?

This is all of course if my recovery of windows doesn't fix the problem.

 

Ok, but could you be more specific? Where exactly this battery is located? How many parts should I remove to get there? Greetings

 

It's right under the base cover. All you have to do is remove your battery and unscrew the two screws.

 

I'd suggest after removing the battery to hit the power button a good 10 times to discharge any residual energy before reinserting it.

 

Thanks a lot, you helped me with my problem, now I recovered my laptop to life. I was able to gain 20 thousands points in 3D 06 using only the bios. Great machine. Thanks again.

 

Enjoy your "revived" machine!

 

Hello guys,

My alienware just shut downs for no reason from time to time. My guess is because the computer is getting very hot at those times.

If anyone has this problem or any ideas how to prevent/fix this will be much appreciated.

 

If you're thinking it's getting too hot, my suggestion would be to A) Clean out your system of dust B) If that doesn't solve the issue, grab a hardware monitoring program and bring up a benchmark [ or something that'll be stressfull on the GPU's ] and watch to see what the temps hit

If you notice anything odd about the temperatures even after clearing out any dust, post the temperatures and we'll work from there.

EDIT: Also, if cleaning out the dust doesn't fix the issue, post your system specs on here as well.

 

Thank you I'll do that.

 

Sorry if this has been already asked but.......

I have a Alienware m17x bought about a year ago, its has an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU p8600 @ 2.40Ghz and when I bought it the price for a quad core was unreal @ about $1000.00, I'm sure the prices have come down by now, as I understand this machine is upgradable to a quad core, since the warranty is gone and extended warranties are for suckers , id like to make it a quad core, the question is should I get the exact same p8600 or can I get a faster one, once I find a good processor heat sinks and fan I'm sure I can put it in without a hitch, any info would be greatly appreciated including even a good source to purchase these items from.

Thanks so much

 

There is only one CPU socket, so if you want 4 cores you need to buy a quad core CPU like a Q9000 (locked multi), Q9100 (some ES versions have unlocked multi), Q9200 (only ES, can find on ebay, has unlocked multi) and QX9300 (unlocked multi).

If you get one with an unlocked multi you can overclock them past 3ghz (either in the bios or with throttlestop: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...nlock-core-2-extreme-multiplier-windows.html).

 

1 CPU socket ? whats the open spot on under the number pad, I thought that was for another processor ?

P.S. I'm still learning this stuff

Thanks

 

That slot is for another graphics card.

 

nice, that will make it simpler, so a quad core processor is 1 chip that replaces the on on the left so I can use the same heat sync and fan, as far as the graphics card slot goes, I can put another graphics card in along with the ones I have now ?

Thanks

 

i would grab a Qx 9300 personally but seems like they have gone up in price because of rarity ont he market these days.

But correct me if im wrong but the M17x R1 can overclock via FSB right? which means even a cheap Q9000 can be overclocked to 3ghz or so.

 

Q9000 can't go any higher than 2.4 GHz in the M17x. but Q9000 is a weak processor. I recomend to you get a QX9300, with TS I can get 3.33GHz easy.

 

Sure, if you can get your FSB to 400mhz (pretty hard to do), but then you also have 1/2 the cache.
EDIT: looks like tyranus7 know better, 2.4ghz seems more realistic.

@DoPeFiSh, yes you just need 1 chip to replace the original CPU.


You should be able to add a GPU if that slot is empty.