*OFFICIAL* Alienware M17x Owners Lounge - Part 2

That was a limit they were going to impose on the lowest version of windows 7 which they ended up removing anyway. So no, that will not be the case. They killed that idea so that they can get Win 7 on all the netbooks in the world lol

 

Is there any available tech support for M17x in this forum?
Personal favor perhaps?
Remote assistance?
Call support?
It would be great to have one dont you think?

 

yes there is but they come in once a month or something cause we ran them off with the quad core problem in the m17/whitebook.

 

this is not tha case. and even my tiny acer netbook can run multitasking on win7 ultimate

 

Hey guys whats up? I would like to know what type of monitor maker is your screen? If you don't know how to find it out you can use Everest or go to device manager and look for monitor and then right click, got to details and look for hardware ids and it will tell you.

 

The conclusion was that samsung is making the screens for dell. And only samsung for this model, so the same screen is going into all the M17x machines (supposedly)

Device manager and Everest both just show SEC5443 (or something like that) for the model number which has been proven to be wrong. Somewhere deep in the M17x LCD thread I believe the model number was discovered since someone had taken apart their screen and checked. It is definitely a samsung screen though

 

can anyone set the refresh rate of the screen (1900x1200) to 60hz on windows 7? i tried thousands of time in nvidia control panel, i pressed apply but then back to 59hz!

any solutions for this?

 

Oh ok my precision m6400 has a samsung monitor too. thanks a lot.

 

the bug has been there since windows public betas.. its either a nvidia control panel problem or win 7 bug.

in game if you put ur refresh rate to 60 im sure it changes to 60 though i cant confirm it. 1 hz difference doesnt really matter i think.

 

sadly i dont have this option in games. it says 59hz and i cant change it. in other words its deactivated or something.


i was wondering if a new win7 driver is needed for the monitor..

 

Lol nice!

Yea mine is always 59 :-(

 

I'm finally getting an m17x!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Now I have to figure out a way to get a qx9300. I've been waiting a WHILE for Dell to do something about my m1730, maybe I can argue waiting so long in exchange for the top processor? I just let my escalations guy go for the m17x, and it'll take a month to build, because I'm so happy. But, I do want that extreme quad core.

 

Word. I tried to go for the Extreme Quad Core and they were like HAHAHAAHAHA 600£ please!

My wait time was one month. If you do get it I will be very surprised but go for the Radeon GPU's and then upgrade it later otherwise imo.

Have to say dell really rocks for offering this type of upgrade. They could just refund the money. Instead i'm getting a laptop worth 2400£ when I paid much less back in early 2008 no other.

Anyway yeah placeholder for me I'll join you guys in M17x awesomeness soon

 

What's up fellow M17x owners. Ok I have Googled, forum searched, and even brought it up in another motorcycle forum that I am on with no real answer so you guys are my "last great hope".

-Anyways, I am an avid MMO gamer and I'm on Ventrilo. So I started doing the vent a few weeks ago. First I bought some crappy $15 headset to get me by. When I first log on to the vent I am clear as day. After about 20 minutes I turn to complete static and feedback (I'll go in to setup, and click OK, which resets my sound card and I'm fine again for another 20 minutes). I dealt with this for about 2 weeks and I upgraded my headset to the new Alienware TactX headset/mic thinking that I had a junk headset and that was the problem. It is an amazing piece of gear (TactX), but I am having the same problem.

-Well I uninstalled and reinstalled the IDT sound drivers from my resource CD with no outcome. I am getting ready to contact Alienware support, but I know if I send my laptop back I won't be able to play my game for at least a month.

Has anyone else had ventrilo issues? I really don't want to buy an external sound card b/c I just dropped 3 grand on my M17x -it should work perfectly


Thanks in advance.

Oh an by the way I am on Vista x64 (I have a fresh OS installation), I have visited every ventrilo forum out there, and still nothing

 

I've noticed lately that games that used to run perfectly rock steady get random, massive, drops in FPS. I checked HWMonitor and my second card hit 92c, while the first one only maxed at 80c while benchmarking DMC4. Am I overreacting or could there be something wrong with my second card or the fan? I'll probably give Dell a call today.

 

@Hank and Nick:
Glad to see you are squared away. Long fight to be sure. Congrats and welcome to the AW side...

 

And now you see the stutter we have all referenced. See why we want to get it figured out now? lol

 

Ohh I see. I assumed people were talking about the harddrive click causing a short pause with those... I should actually read the thread....

 

Thanks brah, and for your PM - I ended up fighting for the SLI card but he wouldnt budge; however, he dropped the card price from 250£ to 170£ and gave me 3 years warranty upgrade free (i think its worth 140£).. which I think is totally fair.


Now, does ANYONE have the ATI cards yet for benchmarking? I still dont understand why the UK site shows GDDR3 4870s - This makes me afraid - but i got them in SLI anyway.

Be curious to see 1.) the performance of the ATI cards 2.) If there are 2 flavors DDR3 and DDR5, and 3.) if the stealth mode is able to autoswitch between integrated and discreet

 

FYI, the US site pulled the GDDR5 reference off the ordering page for the 4870s.....

 

one question guys. does this stuttering happen to you even with intergrated graphics disabled? or at least is it reduced?


something i noticed is that the memory rating of win7 is reduced by 1.4 (from 7.3 to 5.9) points when intergrated graphics enabled if this means something to you because something tells me its a memory issue.

 

Veeeeerrry interesting...... GDDR5 might only be for desktop cards?

 

Spec sheet says both GDDR3 and GDDR5 (depending on model), but it lumps the 4850 in with the 4870 so who knows.
http://ati.amd.com/products/mobilityradeonhd4800/specs.html
Dell Europe sites still have the GDDR5 reference though. I wish they'd stop toying with us already lol.

 

Interesting observation, but I will note that I have gotten the stutter both with the 9400m on and off

 

Don't forget about this...

 

Well my machine is in Phase 3, Production.. If its as quick as my M1730 was to ship, I should be able to confirm the UK GDDR3/GDDR5 4870 situation.

 

Just curious if people could post some specs on old XPS or other computers they had replaced with the m17x so I know what to expect and what to argue for?/? Thanks.

 

@Hank. Look one post up LOL.

 

i'm actually getting the exact same thing, using vent for CSS with Sennheiser PC350's, but i'm using a "Creative X-Fi Go!" external sound card

works fine 99% of the time, but i have to alt-tab out of game to fix it when it happens, which is a nuisance during matches

gonna have a fiddle when i get home.

try the latest audio drivers instead of the ones you got on the dvd

ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/audio/R240776.exe

 

Guys,
I just had a chat with DELL Italy which I paste:

3:47:26 PM Viviana_Erba la 4870 mi risulta essere GDDR3, comunque verifico anche dal tool tecnico, un attimo
3:47:47 PM Oscar Romano grazie (sul sito italia e' scritto GDDR5 comunque..)
3:48:37 PM Oscar Romano e' dete4rminante questa informazione vorrei essere sicuro
3:50:36 PM Viviana_Erba certo un attimo ancora vediamo se trovo la info
3:50:44 PM Oscar Romano grazie
3:52:31 PM Viviana_Erba sì le confermo che è GDDR5
3:52:40 PM Oscar Romano bene!
3:52:44 PM Oscar Romano ottima notizia

Me it's Oscar...
I know not many of you undestand italian but I wanted to paste the proof:
After telling me that 4870 should be GDDR3 she checked.. and confirmed GDDR5!
Then she also confirmed:

4:00:07 PM Viviana_Erba sì dovrebbe trovare anche la 9400 sempre integrata nella scheda madre
4:00:15 PM Oscar Romano ok grazie per l'aiuto
4:00:19 PM Oscar Romano buonasera!

Which means that 9400 should be (this time used "should" and not "confirm") present on the MOBO even if I chose the dual ATI GPU.

That's my 2 cents, I just want to report the italian situation.
Cheers

 

what is a cpu bottle neck???

i'm looking for a full blown definition and examples if possible.

 

It will be the same motherboard regardless of what discrete gpus are selected - which means the 9400m will be there

 

Is there a shortcut key for the volume? The touch things on the top seldom work well when I press them.

 

they are it

unless you macro something in somewhere else with the registrys

 

Urmm.....Windows Volume Control....look in the task bar. If its not there go to Control Panel - > Taskbar and Start Menu, Notification Area Tab and make sure Volume is checked.

 

think he was referring to hardware controls Marvie

 

It does the same thing though.

 

Look up FSB bottleneck or memory limitations.

 

what was the problem with installing drivers???
saturday I uninstalled the driver and then rebooted and my os hasn't been the same. The drivers I put on it would rather not install or it would just crap out. My os would ramdomly freeze or something would happen where I can't do anything with my notebook.

 

What drivers are you installing??

 

I already reinstalled my operating system but any driver. Nothing didn't work. And if it did, it just froze. And if it didn't freeze, nst never showed up. Then when I installed it would bsod. Then when I boot back in, it would magically uninstall. It's been a nightmare but I am going to see what's up this time.

 

So I got my new M17x today. For some reason windows is telling me that there is no battery detected. .I have had it plugged up about an hour now and the battery is showing no life from the led indicators. Is it just DOA or am I missing something.

 

Maybe try Fn+F2 and set it to enable while it is plugged in? Might be worth a shot.

 

OK. I just installed the gpu drivers and the 9400m is on and working. Then when I go to the 280m sli, it's just a blank screen. It shows until I logon then nothing....

 

You seem to be going through a learning curve with nVidia. Just remember that there are only a few drivers that support Hybrid SLI.

 

Cool, I didnt know about that feature. Sorry still learning but the bad news is it didnt work. I have messed with many laptops and I have seen very few batteries do something like this. I mean its not saying it cant charge or anything. It thinks a battery is not installed at all. I guess I'll try to get in touch with dell, there goes hours of my life....

 

you need to do the power drain. disconnect the ac and system battery. hold the power button down for 20 seconds then plug everything back in.

 

If people ordered the ATI m4870 GPU does it still have the Nvidia 9400m in it or has AW changed it to an ATI intergrated GPU?

 

The 9400M/NB/PhysX is all one proc. They can disable parts but not take it completely away.

 

well. I can say it's worst then my 3870 crossfire and that was a hit/miss install....... Not like my 9800m gtx which was perfect with driver installs.

oh well. Thanks at least I know that I am not stupid. I'll just keep on trying.