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

Thanks for your reply Captain and pardon the late response…work has been driving me crazy past few weeks. I checked online the Arctic Silver 5 is no -conductive so I've ordered the stuff online for my alienware's surgery (thermal paste, compressed air, rubbing alcohol etc)

Anyhow, I've been having a different problem now with audio. Its a system wide issue. My audio has been skipping, stuttering, cracking on its own. Its random and there is no pattern as far as I can tell. I've tried disabling drivers one by one in DEVICE MANAGER in order to isolate if there is a driver conflict issu with some other device but so far I've found nothing. Its been driving me totally crazy. I've reinstalled audio driver, ran memory diagnostics and done an extenwive google search for possible solutions like windows 7 services tweaks and codec reinstalls etc.

No luck so far. Really need help on this one. I've spent many nights trying to fix this one but its completely beyond me now. I did not change or any install any drivers before the problem started. It just started on its own one fine day. Can you help?

 

@slamming and alienscream, I have had terrible luck with video drivers with the R2. I have Xfire 5870's and trying other ATI driver versions gave me blue screens during gaming or while using demanding software. If you think its still a driver problem, and it may be, completely uninstall the driver and related software from your system. After that use a program called CCleaner to remove any old reg entries and lingering software/files that may be hiding in the windows folder. I would then install a stock driver from Dell and see if your problem remains. If you are successful and get your problems fixed head over to LaptopVideo2Go: NVIDIA & Laptop News and download a desired driver and the modded inf file. Hope this helps.

@gs_31, Does your audio problem persist when you use headphones or external speakers? If it does not then it may be time for new speakers. They are very easy to take out, especially since you are doing a GPU job they are right in front.

 

Dang, I guess the last thing I can think of is doing an uninstall of the sound driver and reinstall. If that does not work more than likely you may need a new mono.

 

If the problem is still there with an USB headphone that's not a mobo problem ... There is a audio card inside the usb headphone, the mobo doens't do anything in that condiguration. So try with a fresh windows install first.

 

Captain - I've tried uninstalling the soundcard drivers and doing a fresh install. The problem was still there. I tried everything I could reading up on forums such as this. Finally, I just restored my Windows to an earlier date about 10 days earlier as a last resort. Funny thing is, the problem seems to have been minimised by that. The stuttering is still there but rare and an app for measuring DPC Latency that someone suggested to me still shows there is some driver conflict in my system causing these scratches and stutters. However, its pretty much like before after the restore.

Toto29620 - I tried USB headphones, regular headphones and external speakers...I don't think its the built-in speakers. However, as mentioned above - the problem has really gone down after the system restore and I still have no idea what may have caused it. Might have been a rogue windows update cos thats about the only new thing I installed on to my system before the problem started.

 

It might be an auto upade or auto insatll driver by windows as you say, i had something similar on my old acer it was the auto update of the chipset driver who was causing it, the old oem driver was the only one who work good.

 

Question... Any way to run DX11 only games (i.e. The Evil Whitin) on DX10 video cards (i.e GTX 280M)? of course not using the the dxcpl command.

 

I'm afraid not

 

I have an M17x R1 doing a complete from ground build but i power it up and nothing on lcd. I turn it on the keyboard lights up and no lock lights but the touch buttons along the power button panel for it stay lit up. its a refurbed mobo from dell is it possible it is stuck in external monitor mode from dell? My screen is from an M17x R2 please help.

 

You should get an error message through the limping numlock , capslock and scroll lock leds.

 

Not getting an error code at all which makes me wonder if there is just a loose wire in the LCD or maybe a bad connection

 

so I have my M17x power up and no beep codes that i can tell when i plug in head phones nothing happens sound wise, I don't get lock lights flashing codes. still no display on screen or external monitor any tips to figure out problem?

 

I tried checking. my laptop powers up but seems to not put out video or post at all

 

Try using an external display.

 

Shut down the computer.
Press the FN button + D.
It should start doing a Self-test for the Display.
You will hear a beep followed by a message if you see colored bars on your LCD it will ask you to press Y/N.
Then it will start doing a checkup on all the other internal components.

Hopefully that way we can know if this is a hardware issue.

 

My R2 boots up to BIOS (no HDD at the moment) but only stays on for a little while then shuts off. I thought it might be the 5870 but i wasnt totally sold on that. It is plugged into the original power brick. Any thoughts?

 

It's very hard to say.... probably a power issue. Try booting up only on battery or without battery.

 

Could it be the PSU is going bad? Maybe a combination of a bad battery and that? With my experience with many 5870ms they have always been reliable for me so I just cant see the reason to blame the card yet.

 

If it was the card you would see that usually before you get to BIOS.
As I said, you need to try booting with and without AC, with and without battery and see what happens.

 

Ok will do. Just doing some research and I dont have it in front of me. Would a faulty mobo cause a shutoff problem or is it a bios feature that turns off the laptop after awhile if it doesnt have a bootable device? Thanks for your help. Sorry for all of the questions. Cheers

 

Probably a faulty mobo, but could be other reasons.

 

I've managed to get the Dolby Home Theater v4 application working on our machines. If you need a change from the boring IDT control panel you can find the thread on T|I here.

 

I need help finding the part that the CPU heatsink mounts to on alienware m17x r2 laptop. I found a photo that show something like a plate, but cannot find anywhere. Anyone can help

 

found the problem with my motherboard. i think the onboard graphics needs to be reballed. any suggestions or should i just buy a new board?

 

if it is failing are you willing to consider parting out? my mobo is dead as a door nail....

 

There is no on-board graphics for the M17x R2. The on-board graphics are integrated with the CPU. Basically the on-board CPU is the on-board graphics, and you have on-board only if have an Arrandale CPU (dual core Core i).
But CPUs rarely fail so consider that it might be the ram.

 

I have an R1 mobo. my geforce9400 onboard needs to be resoldered its a huge pain in the rear.

 

Oh, you have the R1. You probably need to replace the GPU die as well. Resoldering of the same die doesn't always work.

 

oh boy that sounds like i should just buy new mobo

 

Not really. You can find working dies on ebay/aliexpress. My local repair shop uses those all the time and they work great.

 

okay good to know. i just need to find the gear to do it

 

Is it worth upgrading an i7 M 620 (2.66Ghz) CPU? If so is the 920xm still a good choice/upgrade for the price?



Edit: I've also been looking at upgrading to an SSD (Sata II is the fastest on an r2 right?) and upgrading the GPU's..

Presently its got a single ATI Radeon Mobility HD 5870 1GB, how could I go about upgrading that?

Thanks!

 

The 940XM will run circles around the 620M

 

How did anyone get 16 gig kits working? My computer won't boot after putting G. Skill ddr3 ram in. I can get into memtest, and after the first test finishes black artifacts show up all over the screen. The bios shows 16 gigs of ram total, but only 640 kb of ram available for system use. I'm on bios A07. And have the QX9300 processor. Do I need to install modified drivers?

Here's the particular kit I picked up: http://m.newegg.com/Product?itemNumber=N82E16820231531

 

So a worthwhile upgrade for the price?

 

@zerophase It just worked. I never had to do anything. It might be because you have the R1 which uses a different chipset. Try updating to the latest BIOS.
@Will10928 YES!

 

@Blacky I thought I had the R2. But it looks like I do have an R1. The latest bios on Dell's page for me is A07, is it safe to update to one of the bios for the R2 or later?

 

NO, certainly not, those are two very different motherboard, you will brick your bios doing that.

 

@zerophase Yea, what toto29620 said. DON'T do it!

 

Think this would be compatible with an R1? Crucial has a different 8 GB kit listed as compatible on their site, but I can't order that kit from Newegg. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...re=8_gig_laptop_memory-_-20-191-523-_-Product

 

I see no reason why it shouldn't be.

 

Alright, I tried out the kit, and I get a memory error during post. Have any idea what could be causing issue?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...tm_medium=affiliates&utm_source=afc-Skimlinks

 

Without more information we can't really help you.

 

What information do you need? The caps lock key is blinking on and off during post. I cut it down to just installing one of the 8 gb kit, and I got the same error for the kit. I went back to installing the old 4 gb stick that was still working, and I don't get an error. I was able to install one of the 8 gb sticks from the 16 gb kit, and I got past the post tests most of the time, but the computer would freeze when running memory tests or loading the OS.

 

Hmmm.
So you have a M17x R1 , using what CPU ? what BIOS version?
Ok, you had a 4GB stick before.
Are you doing any FSB overclocking?

Regarding the flashing, here is a guide to help you:
http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN137141/ro

So yes, the system encounters a memory error.

 

My m17x R1 has a QX9300. The BIOS is A07. I set it back to the defaults. Let me check if I have FSB overclocked.

 

I have FSB set to Auto.

 

I really don't know why it's not working. From what I can tell it should be working, the maximum memory for the R1 is 8 GB.
I doubt the memories are the problem.
You can try a Kingston HyperX set of 8 GB and see how it goes as a last resort.
Or you can assume that your motherboard is defective and doesn't like 8 GB of RAM.
I am using Kingston HyperX memories with custom edited latency times and they are working fine.

 

Could it be the memory voltages? Cause, it works with 4 gigs of the old set, and it doesn't work with any combination of the new 8 gig set 4 gig memory modules.