*OFFICIAL* Alienware M17x R1/R2 Owner's Lounge Thread - Part 1

Welcome to the Owner's Lounge for the Alienware M17x R1 and R2 platforms!
(the previous M17x R2 OL can be found here)

This thread is a place to discuss your M17x R1/R2 and share information on your system with fellow owners.

NOTE: The M17x should not be confused with the Area-51 m17x, this was a previous model from Alienware and differs significantly in style and specification.

Manuals, Teardown, Drivers, etc.

System Teardown -
M17x Teardown Video1 of 2 **READ SAFETY PRECAUTIONS PRIOR TO REPLACING PARTS**
M17x Teardown Video2 of 2 **READ SAFETY PRECAUTIONS PRIOR TO REPLACING PARTS**

Manuals (Owners Manual and Service Manual) -
M17xR1: Documentation
M17xR2: Documentation

M17x R1/R2 Drivers straight from Dell Support -
Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]

Dell Released Parts List for M17x R1/R2 -
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/548447-m17x-r1-r2-part-numbers.html

Benchmarking, Overclocking etc.

M17xR2 Overclocking Discussion -
(Note: Overclocking your system will put additional load on components - do so at your own risk.)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/476426-m17xr2-overclocking-guide.html

Benchmarks Discussion and Result Sharing -
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...alienware-m17x-benchmark-thread-part-4-a.html

GPU Related Items -
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...5870-gpus-5870-vbios-discussion-non-beta.html
(Note: Since this was resolved and the fix implemented @ the factory back in Sept. of 2010, most will not need to worry about this. Still verify you are on the correct VBIOS as the revised VBIOS did resolve issues with the 5870 GPUs.)

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-6990-your-m17x-r2-single-gpu-crossfirex.html

Misc. Links

Order Status Discussion -
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/487300-m17x-order-status-discussion-part-3-a.html

Cases, Bags, Backpacks -
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ags-backpacks-cases-sleeves-discuss-here.html
(Since the 17xR3 is very similar in size to the R1/R2, most case solutions will also work for the R1/R2.)

Clean Install -
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...er-install-order-guide-alienware-systems.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ook-feel-after-clean-install-windows-7-a.html


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If you would like a thread added to the above list, please PM a moderator with details.

Congrats on your system purchase and have fun!

 

First post in the new lounge! Booyakasha!!

M17x R2 > M18x R1

 

Agree With Dr650se!!

 

Dang a new part again, it seems like yesterday part 2 closed. And ditto on DR650SE, strength in numbers son!!!!

 

Can we start putting the most up to date working driver for the R2 cross-fire system on here? I just think it would be easier for me to read the sticky to see where we're at then trying to dig up and research to see where this is.

 

I agree... M17xR2 ftw!

These are some great stickies but I agree with darkloki. Finding drivers that work is really a mission, which is pretty sad when you think about it. Why no love from Dell or AMD???

 

Sure, good idea. Actually one of the reasons we've created these stickies is to group important threads in one place, easier to find.

Just pm me the link and I'll add it to the first post.

 

Agreed, however the only issue is maintaining such a list and keeping it up-to-date. We've had people try many times and it always ends badly (lack of updating).

Feel free to come up with a post with links for current drivers and we certainly can try to keep it on the list of important links.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

So over the weekend while visiting home, I took my brothers computer (my old Inspiron 1720) so I could fix it. He is notorious for messing up systems with viruses and such.

Anyway lastnight I got around to doing some work on it. May reinstall a bunch of stuff but lastnight I decided to scan his HDDs. I put a 256GB Samsung SSD and a 500GB Western Digital Blue drive in the system when I gave it to him. So anyway I removed the SSD/HDD. Put them in an external enclosures, and ran McAfee to scann both drives entirely.

2,707 trojans!! No wonder the system wouldn't run. I never turned it on and tried booting it up so I don't know what issues it had. I also need to put a new keyboard on it as he's managed to pop a key or two off. Damn, I loved this system and hate to see it going downhill because he insists on removing MSE when I put it on. Now that the SSD/HDD have been cleaned, I'll boot it and start uninstalling a ton of stuff. Maybe just copy his files and do a new install. Onces thats done I need to clean up my nieces Inspiron mini, which he filled with garbage as well. Now it's slow as crap

...Well just ordered a keyboard, looks like a shady site that I ordered it from so if I don't see a keyboard in a few weeks, Paypal dispute time but hey, I figured it was worth a shot as it was the cheapest site I could find. Probably looked shady because its a one person business and run out of China. heres hoping.

/rant

 

based on personal experience i suggest its best to just do a fresh windows install. It will save you lots of headache. Ask him which files are important or just save all the document folder and look for anything outside of program files and windows.

 

dragon290513 you are a much nicer person than I am in this kind of situation. I let my brother use my old Alienware (m9700), and had a similar experience that DR650SE is having. It got so bad with viruses and malware that the BIOS reported a virus at startup. In a blind rage I just reimaged and cuddled the system telling it, "it will all be ok".

BTW....."All hail project Quicksilver!!!!!!"

 

Captain i feel like doing that!

Ok so I posted this in the software section, but that section doesn't get as much traffic. Thought I may try the peep here.

 

Wow Dr650SE is this the one from Stanford with the protein breakdown? If it is did you find a 64bit edition? I'm gonna give it a wurl and see what it is.

 

Yea, it is, but here is where I downloaded it from. I'm lost so I'm going to create a post at the F@H forums and hopefully get some answers on how to best setup my system for folding overnight.

 

Wow there are a lot of choices, and not that much literature on them. I tried ver 6.23 V6 for ATI and no dice. For some reason my drivers are not supported, and it would not open the client. You are right with one thing this is very confusing, and a lot of the documentation is outdated. I am going to give the SMP version and the stable release (tray icon) a try and see what happens. Let me know what you find out in the forums.

 

OK Check this out. I'm going to try it when I get home. Looks like a newer beta version thats also stable. I'll see if there is anything good there. I also posted this on the folding forum.

hopefully we get some answers. I'm also going to try and setup a NBR Folding Team.

OK so here is what I came up with. I'm using the Beta F@H program linked in my previous post. It looks like this one is utilizing both GPUs and the CPU. I even created an NBR Team, team 213698

Spoiler

 

Just curious how others are doing with their rig under load.

Skyrim : (on one card, had to disable the other one due to negative crossfirex scaling; using AMD 11.9)

Usually when I tab out to take a quick peek at the hwinfo32 window, it's at 65-ish but max temps are usually around 81. After the 1.3 patch, my temp soared to 85 max. Might just be a coincidence though. Going to clean my vents with some compressed air later today.

Is 85 degrees OK for an m17x-r2? Should I be worried?

 

Since the search function is crap, I'm asking here.

Please help me find the RAID drivers for my M17X R1. I know it's extinct and stuff, but I still use it, and I can't for the life of me remember if it uses Intel drivers or nForce drivers.

 

Hank - try this Google search instead of the forum search. I think it may yield results for you.

site:forum.notebookreview.com M17x R1 RAID drivers

Use the part in bold text as a prefix in a Google search with the key words following the prefix. It works great.


I think this is what you need for the M17x R1

Drivers and Downloads | Dell - nVidia MCP79 Chipset

 

oh no, suddenly I feel like my M17x-R2 is being classified as "old" because of being joined with the M17x-R1's. lol! Soon "M17x-R2 and other Legacy Alienware laptops in here!"

 

actually i believe that putting two different notebooks in the same thread can cause only confusion regarding drivers, issues, performance etc. Anyway mods decide

 

Created an NBR Folding@Home Team thread here. I see that there is an old NBR Team that hasn't been used in years so rather than trying to contact the person for that NBR Team I figure we can start from scratch

Assuming my wife doesn't turn my system off, it should be running over the weekend. We'll see if I've set it up right and it submits for points. System is running on both GPUs and the CPU. I ran it overnight and CPU maxed out around 83°C-84°C so I'm good with that. GPUs never broke 70*C Plus it should be cold over the weekend and I'm going to have her turn down the heat since we won't be home .

 

I've just joined the NBR Folding@Home Team!

Cheers.

 

Welcome aboard Chief!

 

I was just wondering which temperature sensor I should be taking the most notice of in HWiNFO? Just because a couple of my GPU sensors are a fair bit higher on my main card than the slave.

These are my temps after playing Skyrim for about 2 hours. GPUs were OC'd to 800/1100 and are at stock voltage. Also, how are those temps for my 5870s and how do they compare to your guys after a session gaming?

Spoiler

 

That's how technology works... If your laptop's performance is good enogh for you, than that's ok, even if it is a legacy laptop.

Trying to be always with the newest hardaware can be expensive!

 

Okay, thank god this thread exists. All R1's are shunned now it seems, though I believe they had the best longevity in terms of cooling compared to the R2/R3's from what I read...

What is the best bios to use? I have A03 currently for my R1. If they didn't screw any of the fan timings up in later releases I suppose I'll update to A07 when I format.

 

A03 was a success, I kept A06 skipping 4 and 5 and flashed A07 when it became available with no issues.

 

Ohhh yes. I remember, back in the day when I was a wee nipper, we had computers called M17x's. Big as a starship they were, and made out of the same materials. Used to require an entire nuclear power plant (it's a form of energy we used to use before it became a dietary supplement) just to turn the damn things on.

 

It is great that all the R1 and R2 users are in one place. This will be a great way to put some talented people in one place and exploit there brain cells for the sheer benefit of the m17x line.

Btw...thanks DR650SE for the link to the F@H V7. I am getting a little more familiar with it and it seems to play a little better on my R2. Did you set yours up as a hidden process or as a tray icon?

 

I have it as a tray icon, I like to be able to have some control over it if I need it. Also, be sure to look at the following. From what I understand it allows you to have acess to Work Units (WU) That are better optimized for AMD cards. Also the stats server is down so they havn't been updated in a few days. I mention it in the F@H thread linked in my sig. Hopefully soon they will be updated.

Here is a good source I found for the ATI GPUs over at overclock.net Credit goes to LiLChris -Source Link

Spoiler

How to get the new Fahcore16 - Advance/Expert mode required
ATI/AMD 5xxx & 6xxx series only!


Doing this does not stop old core11 units from downloading and folding, it only gives you access to the new units.


If in the middle of a work unit, right-click finish then wait for it to complete.
Once it is finished, then follow the instructions

1) Click the "Configure" button in the top left, and go to the slots tab.

2) Highlight the "gpu" slot, and click "Edit"

]


3) At the bottom, under "Extra slot options (expert only), click "Add". Enter the following:

Name: client-type
Value: advanced



4) Restart your folding slot by right-clicking it and choosing "Fold".

 

Sweet thanks I will give it a try.

 

Its a simple yes or no question. I was wondering if I can use the 2x8gb 1333mhz ram sticks on the R2. Will it work through bios???? I know the cpu will support 16 gigs...

 

In one word...No.

 

8GB is the maximum for the R2.

Just to satisfy my own curiosity, why are you looking to upgrade to 16GB?

 

i like the extra space to have programs cached since I rarely turn it off. You know what I mean..

look at my precision in my sig.. its got 32 gigs..

 

I want to know if there is noticeably difference in brightness for these two different 1200p screens on the R2. Brightness and resolution are the most important things for me and it does not seem to have enough brightness as I have expected...

Does anyone have had experience with both screens?

 

The RGB is incredibly bright. And the best screen I have ever seen!

 

I remember having had the RGB LED from SXPS 16 and it was hell of a bright screen. Ok then I guess it is the same situation with the ones in the R2

 

12.1 are the latest drivers for the R2 5870 crossfire system that is currently reported working* (Based on my readings on the forum for today 12/14) In the process of installing them on my system now.

They can be found here: AMD Catalyst? 12.1 Preview driver

 

Hi all, This is my first post but i've been a long time reader. I recently bought a used alienware m17x r1. Its a great system and I got a great price on it. The weird issue is i was trying to install a second hard drive into the HDD1 slot and when i removed the empty hard drive caddy i noticed this little screw end poking through blocking a hard drive from fitting in properly. Its the weirdest thing. I called dell and they wont help me as the system is not under warranty. I think the factory used the wrong sized screw when they built it. Does anyone have any idea as to what this screw is holding down and how i should go about fixing this issue?

For some reason it wont let me upload photos but the screw is poaking through about 2/16" close to the bottom center of HDD bay 1

 

Confirmed now working fine on 5870 Crossfire 12.1

ok so 12.1 does work without BSOD and yea Battlefield 3 runs smoothly if not the best, HOWEVER..... there appears to be ALOT of flickering going on which I first noticed, and my first thoughts were to check my cables but after seeing others post that they too had flickering I'm starting to think it's an issue with the driver.

alright my last post about all of this I swear lol. Anyways I installed 2 versions on two seperate HDD's I noticed that one individual said that he installed the 12.1 ontop of the 11.10's and had no problems. I did exactly that and I too have no problems (No Flickering) however, I can't get to my CCC anymore (Probably because I corrupted it in the install doing an express when I should have done an install drivers only). The second HDD was a flat out 12.1 alone and that Flickers badly on any game other then Battlefield. Hope this all helps someone out there. Again this is all for 5870 Crossfire.


Night...

 

Spoiler

Hello, R-mac, glad you decided to join us.
Please take a moment to review the forum rules and the Alienware M17x stickies that are full of useful information.

NBR system does not grant new members the right to directly upload files in order to avoid spam posts but you can upload your photos on a free image hosting site and post the link here. We'll gladly take a look and come back with an answer.

 

It may be possible that the previous own took apart the system and didn't get the screws in the right place. Like katalin_2003 said, post an image to imageshack.us and throw the link here and we can check it out.

 

I've got friend with m17x, where can he find gf driver for 260card? The one from nvidia.com doesn't find proper hw, for some reason.

Also he has some weird freeze bug, laptop just stuck for 3 min with stuttering sound. What that is?

 

Vorob, tell him to access BIOS menu (F2 after the alien head upon reboot) go to Advanced tab, down to Graphic Settings, press Enter and set PCIe Gen 2 to Disabled. From now on there won't be anymore video driver related freezing

After that boot normally and clean install PhysX and current video drivers.
Follow these steps to install the drivers from nVIDIA:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/8016490-post10.html


Enjoy

 

He will install new driver. But bios was already in this state and he had freezes even with driver un-installed.
In windows everything is frozen but he can move mouse. In game even mouse is dead.

 

Hey vorob check out NVIDIA & Laptop News | Latest NVIDIA drivers and related news | laptopvideo2go.com it has a slew of Nvidia specific downloads and tutorials. They also have an inf modifier, and guides of the drivers are not working for you.

 

Every time I plug in my external monitor it duplicates the screen by default and I have to go into the settings and change it. Its not a HUGE annoyance, but it is annoying nonetheless. Is there a way to force extend desktop by default when plugged in? I toggle whether or not its plugged in based on whether I'm gaming or not. For gaming its better (from what I understand) to have it unplugged due to the monitor working the master GPU more than it needs to be worked.

 

I think there is a setting in CCC (Eyefinity) to assign the default display and automatically detect a secondary display to extend the desktop instead of duplicating it. From what I have heard, Eyefinity can be buggy at times, especially on a mobile platform.

This document might be helpful: Using ATI Catalyst™ Control Center to Configure Desktops & Displays