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

Good day to all, just want to take a stock on a issue. So for the last few months I have had random restarts and BSODs relating to my USB drivers and some IRQ error (both BSOD). So finally I said screw it did the following:
-Power drain
-Update Bios/Vbios
-Uninstalled All hardware for my system (Device Manager)
-Reinstalled hardware with dell driver
-Allowed Windows to install standard drivers for the USB hub

With all that being said I am now going one week with no BSODs. The only software I did not install was the intel chipset/usb root hub driver.

Has anyone had this problem before, or has anyone had issues with there intel drivers (I was also unable to install the turbo boost driver)? Many thanks.

 

Hmm I've never had that issue. Glad you got it worked out though!

 

Hi Guys

Am considering upgrading my M17x R1 (QX9300/4870x2/1920x1200) to an R2 version (Core i7).


Am I right in thinking that all M17x R2's with a screen res of 1920x1200 will have the RGB LED screen?

Thanks in advance.

 

Your better off selling the R1 and buying an R2. Otherwise. Especially if you want an RGB screen. You'll need to buy a motherboard, cpu, heatsink, screen ect. Doesn't make sense financially to buy it all separate.

 

To answer your question, no, not all 1920x1200 screens are RGB LED.
Check the screen's serial number under Astra or HwInfo and see if it's Dual CCFL backlit or RGB LED.

Here are the M17x and M17x R2 screen types:

-Dual CCFL panel 1440*900 (900p) -U519K€170BT -SEC5442

-Dual CCFL panel 1920*1200 (1200p) -R610K €170CT -DELL G517T

-RGB panel 1920*1200 (1200p) -K1NFP€170CT -first RGB version -SEC5443 -DELL 0CWMH

-RGB panel 1920*1200 (1200p) -J2CY8€170CT TrueLife display -SEC5443 -DELL 0CWMH

 

Cheers for the info Bud, it's much appreciated!

 

I just got an m17x R2 and the left GPU fan is really loud even when just using the internet browser. Is it supposed to be this loud? I know it's a powerful laptop, but it seems like it should be running a lot quieter until I need the power. Thanks.

 

I haven't noticed the GPU fan in mine are particularly noisy, though when gaming yes it is noisy. Have you tried blowing out your fans with compressed air? Also do you have 4870/5870 or 285M/280M?

 

What are your gpu temps and measured load on the gpu?

 

Hey guys...

I have been owning a M17x R2 laptop for about a year & half. I wanted to know which is the best compatible 64-bit OS with backward compatibility with windows XP. As, I have few games title from year 2000 onwards which I would love to play but the current windows 7 64-bit ultimate is not able to run them. My system specifications are as below;

Mobile Intel 920XM Processor
8 GB DDR3 Ram at 1333MHZ
1 TB HDD at 7200RPM
Intel wireless 3x3 mimo 6300N Ultimate
RGB Led display beyond 1200P
Blu Ray burner drive

Please advice?? searched the whole web but no help at all...

Need urgent advice.....

 

If your wanting to do this to play old computer games then I would recommend using Virtual PC. You have win7 ult, so you should be able to download WinXP mode from here Download Windows XP Mode

If they worked on WinXP they should work on this and the best part is you can tweak it so the environment fits the software. I found this to be a lot easier than going the Dosbox route or partitioning another OS. Hope this helps.

 

But the windows xp mode deosn't detect my current VGA Card. It detects something as sis 32MB VGA. Please assist

 

I never really messed with the video adapter/driver because I was playing oldies like Hexen, Doom, and Mech Warrior. I did look into it and according to microsoft the only video adapter that is supported is the s3treo either at 32mb or 64mb. I did find this post virtual xp cant detect graphics card that talks about attempting to detect graphics cards under WinVPC. Under this thread one of the posters talks about using either VMware or virtualbox and applying 3D acceleration addons. Hope this helps.

 

I'll be adding 16GB RAM next week. I'm 95% certain the R2 will take 16GB. But that might be my last upgrade.

 

Is it possible to install SINGLE 580m gtx?

 

Hey Aldam,

I believe Ichime did get a single 580m working just fine. Just couldn't get SLI to work

 

Nice! 16GB of awesomeness

Is there a noticeable improvement in replacing the stock Dell ram?

 

Yes, I'd be curious if this works...not because I have any reason to do it, but because I'm running out of upgrade ideas

Although my next big upgrade will be a big SSD drive

 

Nice man,

I can do a quick test for you DR when I get back. I've got a couple of 8gb sticks in my M18x that I can pull out and test in the R2 to see if it works.
Will let you guys know.

Cheers.

 

Confirmed it works DR!
Overall things felt much snappier.

Cheers.

 

Chief!! You da man. I hadn't even considered upgrading to 16GB of ram until now...thanks DR for putting yet another upgrade idea in my brain.

 

No problem I do my best to spend yet more money in this money pit of a gorgeous system. Hit newegg and get the 2x8gb Corsair kit for $150 and free shipping. It has a $25 off promo code above it. Normally $175. I ordered mine a few days ago 1333mhz

 

I am the owner of an Alienware M17xR1. I just recently blew it away and completely restored it to factory settings (with the disks that came with it).

Everything is good until I try to use the GTX 260m card. Whenever I enable hybrid graphics in the BIOS or use the [FN]+[F7] to toggle discrete graphics, I run into a problem. What happens is that upon start up, the screen will get to the windows vista welcome screen with welcome and a loading ring, then just completely go black. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Current BIOS: A03
GTX 260m Drivers: Newest version from dell site

Any way to fix this would be greatly appreciated!

 

Hello and welcome to NBR, Aiboh.

From your description I can tell that you installed Dell's 2xx nVIDIA drivers, they cause that.
If you want to use Dell drivers for some reason, install the P06 beta drivers, they are stable but very outdated.

What you can do is uninstall your current drivers, clean any remnants in Safe Mode and take a look at this thread and my reply to use the latest nVIDIA drivers:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/633476-new-nvidia-beta-drivers-290-53-a.html
You'll lose switching on the fly between the 9400M and 260M, I believe, sorry can't test this anymore.

Also, you can flash the latest A07 BIOS, fixes a few things.

 

The latest BIOS is from the Dell site correct? And cleaning remnants of the drivers -> Uninstall nVidia Drivers, boot into safe mode, run CCleaner on it and then install new drivers? Something like that?

 

Latest BIOS can be found on Dell's site, yes. You don't have to flash any previous version

And I advice you to always stick with the same or latest version of Command Center, never go back or install the version that's on the Drivers DVD!

Yes, uninstall your current drivers via Control Panel, reboot in safe mode and run CCleaner until there are no more invalid registry entries. Reboot and install the new version.

 

Ok, thanks! You've been a huge help! I'll report back shortly with my results.

 

Hey katalin_2003,

Thanks I used your driver package too. Works great.
I will be looking forward to future INF updates from you.

There is a way to get around the switching of GPUs on the fly between the 9400M and the 260M or 280M GPUs. However you can't just use the nifty green boomerang icon in the taskbar anymore. As in the newer Nvidia driver packages that sometimes disappears for some odd reason. PS/ I love that green boomerang switching on the fly feature LOL!

You will have to set it up through your power profiles. For example High performance and balanced.
There will be a graphics option in the advanced power profiles settings to use the onboard GPU or the discrete one depending on the situation of running on battery or when plugged in.

So you can set for example for the power profiles every setting to be the same except for when running on High performance you will switch to the Discrete 260M/280M GPUs and then if you switch power profiles over to Balanced it will then run on the 9400M.

Also the FN + F6 key is supposed to switch between GPUs as well however I have found that it doesn't always respond or work properly.

Cheers.

 

hi
how you make that 16gb work?

i want to upgrade too if possible

 

Hi there lastshady,

No need to do anything to make it work. It is just plug and play. You will just need to get 2x 8gb DDR3 1333MHz Sodimm RAM sticks as there are only 2 RAM slots available on the M17x R2 notebook.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Cheers.

 

What is the intel monitor widget in your second pic? Looks interesting

 

Can't find info about it.
Do you know the pcb is the same as 6990m?
I don't know if the heat sink from 5870m fits?

 

Here you go, aldam:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/605322-m17x-r2-gtx-580m-sli.html

This will be useful too:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ion-how-search-forum-read-before-posting.html

Happy New Year, folks!

 

Thanks

Happy New Year!!!

 

Hey, I'm back.

So last night I ran into a massive windows crash, so I had to start from scratch. When I go to install the drivers you gave me katalin (not sure if correct username) it tells me "This graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware."

As of right now I'm running on VGA Graphics, not even the 9400 that's onboard. Someone help me out here. =/

 

That's because you didn't follow the steps properly.
Let's try again:
Download the drivers.
Double click and let them extract and when the installer searches for compatible hardware press Cancel!

Don't worry, the drivers are already extracted(by default in C:\NVIDIA). This is when you copy my files and replace originals in the path I listed.

After this, follow the rest of the steps and you should be fine.

 

Ok, I just read through this topic and I'm still confused. After this clean install the only (video related) drivers I installed are the newest ones you told you before. They extracted fine... but where do I put them once they are extracted since they won't auto-install?

Sorry... and thanks for the help!

EDIT: Got the drivers installed and have the nVidia icon in the system tray. However, whenever I enable the hybrid graphics I get the black screen with the mouse cursor. I do have the 9400m showing back up though.

 

See my replies in this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/633476-new-nvidia-beta-drivers-290-53-a.html

Follow all the steps correctly and everything should be fine.
I can't confirm that switching between cards without a system reboot is fully supported anymore, i don't have my M17x no more :/

 

I'm not worried about switching on the fly. However whenever I reboot my computer and enable hybrid graphics, it goes to the welcome screen, then shortly after it all goes black with only a cursor. If I boot up without hybrid graphics, it's all fine and running on the 9400M.

Does this clarify what I meant? And I followed all of your steps in the thread.

EDIT: Also, I am only running ONE 260m.

 

If the black screen lasts a split second or so, than that's normal.
I was plugged 90% of the time so I had all settings under Advanced > Graphic Settings in BIOS set to Disabled.

 

The black screen lasts forever. I left it on the screen and the computer went to sleep. Using the touch pad moved the mouse (it showed up again) but the computer still stayed at a black screen.

 

Then i'm afraid you have to stick with the options i listed above Disabled when you want to run on the 260M.

 

Er.... Everything? Won't that just load me up on VGA Standard then?

EDIT: Ok, went under Advanced -> Graphics Settings in the BIOS and have everything set to disabled. I'm running on VGA now...

 

Ok, good install the drivers now.
That means that the drivers for 260m are not installed.

 

Oh man, I only just caught up with you guys upgrading to 16GB of RAM. That's awesome! Thanks for choosing my next upgrade for me

 

Hold on, i am missing something.... since when first gen i7 on our R2 can sport up to 16Gb of ram?!

I was sure the max supported ammount to be 8Gb.... dang...my birthday in just 6 days, i've found the way to justify my next upgrade and i'm stuck in the desert....

 

Since always. No one just ever tried it. So I ordered a kit, But reborn tried it before I got my sticks.

 

What sticks did you go for DR?

 

Corsair 1333mhz. Cheap and performs as good as any other ram considering system limitation of 1333.

 

Sweet, thanks DR. I'll look around for some.