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

This works for 331.40 so it should work for 331.65

 

Good afternoon All....

Been awhile since I posted here but you guys had helped me tremendously when I first got my laptop and I am hoping that lightening can strike twice in this case... I have an old M17X R1 purchased back in '09 when they were released. I did do the free upgrade to windows 7 way back when and had Dell come out a few years back to do a video card/motherboard replacement under warranty.

I don't put all that much stress on the rig and have always been very happy with her performance. The only game I really play is WoW and last week my FPS plummeted down to 1 or 2 which, as you probably know, is utterly unplayable...

A little over a month ago, I had a buddy of mine over (he does some work on computers and seems very knowledgeable) and he was playing around on my laptop. He noticed I was using System Mechanic as my end all/be all virus protection/system maintenance tool and suggested I use Microsoft's free one instead (Security Essentials I think it's called?)...I have no allegiance either way so I took his recommendation and had him switch me over.... all seemed ok but then some stuff started happening...

I began to have problems with WoW not responding or the launcher not loading fully keeping me from being able to log in and play.... the fix for this turned out to be to create a new user profile on the computer and play under that user. Apparently, my admin credentials on my original profile had gotten corrupted?? in any case, this happened 3 or 4 more times until I finally got frstrated and started seeking a solution.... I downloaded CCleaner and did a registry clean up and that did the trick.... I then uninstalled security essentials and re-installed system mechanic...

After reinstalling system mechanic I did a full scan etc and got the all clear. and this is where the framerate issues come in.... I tried to roll back to an older restore point but it's not doing anything differently.... It seems that everything is running off the integrated card as opposed to the Nvidia 280m's.

It used to be that while playing, the laptop would sound like a jet getting ready to take off from an aircraft carrier.... now, nothing.... I do hear the fans kick on when powering up the laptop so it seems as if they are working....

I have tried disabling the hybrid graphics in the BiOS as suggested here but that did nothing.....

I'm a novice when it comes to computers but with good directions, I'm confident in my tinkering capabilities.... anyone have any suggestions??

I did read through about 50 pages worth of posts but couldn't find this addressed anywhere, so I do apologize in advance if this has been asked before but any help would be greatly appreciated.... Just let me know what additonal info you need and I will be happy to share. thanks!!

 

hi there, did you see your gtx card over device administrator? it is not over a yellow marker? if that is the case, try reseating your card, hoping it is not damaged, just loose...
good luck

 

My suggestion would be disable all the GPU options in the bios . First and foremost and boot the laptop to see if it shows your Dedicated cards . If your cards work you should then install the newest graphics drivers for your cards and see does make your games playable .

 

Hey guys, so I recently downgraded to windows 7 from 8 on my m18x r2. However, since i am mssing alot of drivers I went on the dell website to download them and i am having alot of trouble because it dosent detect the right system. It puts AMD on my download list evenhough my system is GTX 680m sli system.??? is their system detecting software that inaccurate? Should I just download the drivers manually?

 

Hi there,
My screen flickers out to black after a few minutes of use but the laptop still runs fine with an external monitor, so I believe it to be an inverter issue.
I was wondering if anyone could show me how to get to the inverter on an R2. Ive seen quiet a few clips of the disassembly of one but the inverter is never pointed out.

 

hi all
im using m17x-r1 with qx9300 and nvidia 285m sli
running battlefield 4 at around 30fps is everything on low.
is this normal?


i read some forums they're saying running bf4 on windows 8 is much better and you will gain about 20% more performance.
ive opened dell driver site they don't provide drivers for windows 8
can anyone help?
are windows 7 drivers usable on windows 8?
thanks!

 

I have a R1 and tried windows 8 on it, however I had major issues with my graphics drivers and a few other, I forgot which ones because this was a few months back. I have a 5870M in mine, and you have a 285M... I would say try it out. If it does not work out for you, then I would suggest a GPU upgrade, the highest upgrade available in the R1 are 5870M's in Crossfire.

And just a side note, do you have 8GB ram? If you don't then I would suggest you upgrade your ram first before doing a windows 8 install.

 

@shortbread_88
The inverter is only in the 2xCCFL screens, so make sure you even have it....
It's the little green PCB right under the little plastic thing (the first thing you remove from the screen).

It's seen on this video at 1:33
Alienware M17x R1 & R2 Full System Disassembly (Part 1) - YouTube

 

hi there friends...

My Alienware M17X R2 starts to do some funny things to me now.

My Specs Are as below:
i7-720QM (1.60GHz, 6M 1B Cache)
CF AMD Mobility Radeon 4870
8GB Dual-channel 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM (2 x 4GB)

All was well when I started playing Diablo 3 on it back in April when I first got it, now I am suddenly having heavy flickering issues and frame rate dropping to 10 / 18 until it was unplayable. I opened my notebook up and took out the cards and cleaned it up a bit (dust). I tried just inserting one card into the slot and it runs ok for the first few days, then it starts to flicker again. Is my card dying? or worst, is my motherboard dying? Please help...

 

What do your flickers look like?, can you post a video perhaps?

 

Well I believe my inverter is going out due to my screen flickering out but still works with an external hocked up. The screen though goes out faster if I open a game or sometimes comes back but with what looks like every other pixel is out.

 

Did you rule out that PSU is cutting off?
If so, i'd say it's the GPU thats going bad.

 

this is not my video... but the problem I am facing is the same...

Problema de Flickering em Fullscreen na ATI RADEON HD 4870 X2 - YouTube

the screen tearing, will also comes with fps drops that make the game unplayable.
I have taken both the cards out and clean them. I did not however, tried to separate the card and the heatsink as it seem to be glued very tightly together and I'm afraid of breaking the cards.

I had also changed the harddrive to ssd, reinstalled windows, and reinstall Diablo 3. But the tearing and fps drops seems to keep coming back.

I'm also looking to upgrade my card to a single Geforce GTX 680M. But if its the motherboard which failed, then I'm screwed

please help... thanks

 

my warranty has expired, is it ok if I opt to extend my warranty now?
The thing about the warranty is, it stated "For Adamo: Extended 1 yr hardware warranty, InHome Services After remote diagnosis" is this ok?

 

You can still extend the warranty, however issues that happened before extending it will not be covered.

 

This flickering is due to changing Core/Mem clocks (most likely because of thermal throttling) (which also explains the fps drops).
What temperature readings are you getting?

I would clean out the HS and do a repaste to solve the problem.

if you feel confident enough you can try the vBios in my sig... I've made the flickering go away on my 4870 with it.

 

The issue happened before my warranty expires, and after that I didn't extend my warranty (I didn't even know I could extend it)

The temps I'm getting is @ 50C after a good 3-4 hours playing Diablo 3. When I played in air-conditioned room, I get 45C.

About the cards, I couldn't even separate the cards and the HS, its like its glued together tightly... this could be a problem.

I will try your vbios, later... thanks

 

the temps dont seem right , are you sure these are the max temps?
If so, i'd make sure that you are not in stealth mode , that would explain the FPS drop and low max temps

It's not really glued just the paste has hardened up and the sticky thermal pads always make it hard to remove the HS :/

 

Be very careful when separating them. Don't want to put excess stress nor bend the card. It may not be easy but it's doable. They are held together by double sided thermal tape and paste.

 

Hey everyone, tried to do a search but couldn't find anything. I upgraded my SSD to 240gig Crucial. Did a fresh install and now the only video drivers I can install are the ones from Dell that are three years old. I have the 5870's. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

 

Did you use the latest drivers before the fresh install on your old drive? If not, your vBIOS on your 5870M's may need updating. Install the latest 5870M drivers from the Dell M17X R2 page then download the latest vBIOS from the same page for the 5870M and follow my instructions here. After reboot you should be able to install the latest AMD drivers.

 

Nospheratu, I'm trying that right now and it says it only takes flash drives up to 2gigs and that's it? Hahaha I only have a 4 and 8gig

 

Follow the instructions on that post exactly. A 4GB drive should work with FAT32, that's what I use. I'm not sure if there's a newer version of the HP USB Boot tool that I'm running. Try this version.

 

That worked, I used a CD and installed a new beta. Thank you for the help!

 

You're most welcome man

Just another tip don't ever use the driver CD that came with your laptop, always download the latest versions from Dell's website. This is particularly important for the Command Centre as it flashes firmware for the AlienFX controller each time you install it. An older version could possibly corrupt the controller as I know downflashing on an M15X kills the AlienFX controller.

 

Go to AMD and download latest drivers or from here http://www2.ati.com/drivers/beta/amd_catalyst_13.11_mobility_betav9.5.exe , if they won't install or you see problems just upgrade your vBios

edit: damn, did not see there was a second page already

 

lol, well at least it got to work

 

I have thread where I'm trying to determine the root cause of a power problem on my M17x R1 Ripley.

I'd appreciate if anyone who has had similar issues could stop by with any advice please

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-17-m17x/722225-m17x-r1-ripley-wont-power-dc-jack.html

 

Hey all,

I have managed to pick up an R2 on the cheap and have a spare Dell 6970m graphics card.

Now I know there are issues with this setup and was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction with modded BIOS' for the card?

I have looked around and I have just found information reference the Clevo version of this card installed in the R2.

 

Here you will find some info.

 

Happy New Year Fellow M17X R1/R2 users!!!!
(since my post is the first in 2014) :hi2:

 

Same back, not quite an R2 mine, but the R4 looks similar enough...:thumbsup:

 

yeah, I think it should be ok, albeit there's the small detail of the RGB LED screen...

 

I need a driver update. What is the latest nvidia driver (280m) anyone is using on an R1 that's stable with orange box games (TF2, CSS, etc)??

Will this also work with 332.21?

 

The only way to know it is by testing it. Let us know how it goes.

 

Well I installed 331.65, and I had to install the DISPLAY DRIVER component alone TWICE to get the HD Audio (audio through HDMI cable) to work but I can confirm as of now it seems to be working okay. For the first day or so my FPS in orange box games seemed to be better, and held more consistent (I have cfg settings to keep FPS below 100 for consistency's sake) and seemed smoother. When smoke grenades are present on the screen that always plummeted by FPS to 30-45 but now it doesn't dip below 60, which is great.

After the first day the results seem to be less and less noticeably different than the 290.xx drivers I was running. My game is NO LONGER CRASHING after 30-60 minutes of gameplay, which is great. FPS also seems to be better while running my OBS software to stream the games live to twitch.tv, which is awesome.

 

I'm glad it's working fine with the new drivers Thanks for sharing the experience :thumbsup:

 

When I go to extract the attachments, its telling me the folder is empty. Please help!

 

Hello lette0582, try to extract the file with 7zip.
I just downloaded the archive and i could successfully extract the file I uploaded.

Alternatively check if the archive hash matches this after you download it:
SHA-1: 786E6BC4AE063B21F2D995772EF217C08B9AA79A

Let us know how it goes.

 

Maybe you can search for some older threads of those who upgrade to the 6970M before. Let us know how your search goes.

 

Here is the complete guide.

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

 

Happy New Year fellow m17x users hope your year is going well so far. I enjoyed the new year by renewing my warranty for my R2. Like many of you guys this will be my last warranty purchase for my rig. I found out that max duration is only 5 years from order date so after Jan 2016 the R2 is on its own. On a positive note I'm about to game the blart out of this thing.

 

That's awesome! Its always good to get some insurance on your investments

 

So leaving out the jokes, but my wife has given me the okay to get another laptop or upgrade my R2. So I am looking for some bias advice on what to do. If I upgrade it will be to an Intel i7 920XM, 16GB of RAM, and either 6970m, 6990m, or 7970m in Xfire. If I decide to buy a laptop it would be a m18x R2 (not really digging the new 18) and try to get it new from dell reseller with an i7 3920xm and 600 series nvidia in sli.

As far as price point I have been able to price CPU/RAM/GPU upgrade from $1400 to $1800 and the m18x r2 around $3000-$4000 depending on specs. My friends with m18x's are clearly telling me to go to the 18 inch side, so I wanted to know from fellow r2 users what you think. Also if any of you guys did any graphic upgrades let me know, I am researching the heck out of it but it keeps raising more questions. Many thanks in advance.

 

The most important aspect of a laptop in my opinion is not the CPU, nor the model, nor the GPU, but the LCD screen. That's the thing you will be staring at, that's the thing that gives you the most productivity.
Whatever 18 inch screen you are going to get with the M18x R2, it's going to be inferior to the M17x R2. In fact the M17x R2 RGB Led is still the best 17inch + screen on the market, 4 years after it was released.

If you really want to upgrade and have shinier case, and if that's what makes you happy, upgrade then. But if you are a practical, pragmatic person, and CPU power is not that important for you, then you will probably want to stick to your M17x R2 for another year or two.

 

Hello everyone. I just wanted to know if an NVidia gtx 765m will work on the M17x R2? I wanted to upgrade my single ATi 5870m, and I found some good deals on ebay for the gtx 765m, ATi 6970m, gtx 660m. And I found a 2gb gtx 670m for Toshiba laptops, would flashing the right vbios make this work on the M17x R2? Any ideas? Suggestions?

 

I would not reccomend Toshiba cards, as it's most likely not going to work and vbios flash will kill it...

Try looking for a clevo, msi or dell card...

 

ok thanks. but will the NVidia gtx 765m work on M17x R2? I've been searching for a few days but can't find anyone trying it out.

 

I would look for an AMD card . They seem to play nicer wih upgrades then any of the Nvidia family . A 6970 . 6990 or 7970 will all work in your system so I would search for those .