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

my card has trouble connecting to some ap's on the first try

Anti-Glare Screen Protector for m17x r1 where to find

 

wooooh i <3 this place.

 

What's the average length (Time duration) of an R2 Battery? I think mine is dying/dead and Generally I wouldn't care but it's affecting my restart(s)/ Boot up, thus I then do care...

 

45 min maybe??

 

Sorry I menat how many years? are they suppose to last on average? like 2 years? maybe more? Maybe less?

 

They are guaranteed to last one year, assuming no manufacture issues.

 

anti glare screen protector?

 

What about it?

 

Hey, i wanted to update my gpu driver, i got a m17x r1 with single 260m.

I always stayed on P06 beta driver from dell cause they used to be the most stable, just downloaded 296.10, are they stable, should i upgrade?

 

.breath:
Check out a site called NVIDIA & Laptop News | Latest NVIDIA drivers and related news | laptopvideo2go.com and browse the drivers. Most of the up to date ones will tell you what cards they can work on plus there is a inf editor which can make any nvidia driver compatible with your cards. Hope it helps.

 

Ty, i knew the site but i didnt really use it, browsing throught it i found a benchmarking section that really helped me.

 

Just had a tempting offer to trade my R2 for a 6990M Crossfire/2630 CPU M18x. I'm torn because I love the 19x12 RGB. Decisions decisions.

 

Hard decision. Could you live with the 2630 CPU, DR?

 

Do it do it the LCD is fine and you won't miss those 120pix lol

 

I need to find one locally and try and compare side by side. That would be awesome. As for the 2630, I'd have to pick up an XM (ES). If it's under warrantly maybe I could get the 6990s swapped for 580Ms. Although right now were so close to the 18x R2 being out. If my 17x R2 died, it'd probably be replaced with an 18x, though probably not as high speced. hmm...

 

Seriously i would wait for a possible 7990m(or 2 ;-)) but stay with r2.
I will keep my r2 as a long as possible.
believe me you will miss the colours (red)and the viewing angle that you have with r2.
Last time i watched a movie with 6 people on my r2.Everyone was surprised and said you can watch from all angles.the pic is almost the same from all horizontal angles.
I tested other quality tn screens and you cant really watch with 2 persons
on this screens.The faces become grey very fast from the side.
Its just my opinion but i think more power will bring nothing if you cant see more screen quality on the screen.
With your system now, you can play at least 3-4 years without problems
I see no reason to change,but in case i would recommend you to check the m18 screen first before you throw away your mighty screen

 

This is an example of rip off Dell.

Just renewed my warranty on my m17xr2.

I asked for a quote back in february for 3years nbd £300,(480usd).

Then phoned back last week they quoted same price but said if i didn't take the offer the price goes up to £600 (960usd).

At this point i was annoyed because of the fact i could get a second unit for that price,

Then Sunday i thought i go through technical support and asked for a better quote.

I then recieved another quote. WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT £140!!! (220usd) for 3 years NBD. I was on the phone within 5 mins to take the extension warranty out.



I don't know how these people can get away with it. £300 to £600 then £140. I know they work on sales but that is ridiculous

Anyway happy man now that i got another 3 years think i got a great deal $220.

Thought i better let you lot know about it so you can save ££££

 

Man I'll need to do that when I renew my warranty. Maybe when the 18x R2 is out and my system dies... lol

Glad to know man. It's crazy, but just to be sure, verify on the site that you got 3 years and they didn't just stiff you and give you a single year.

 

A few months ago, I bought 3 years too and it still doesn't show on the site but you do get a receipt which is enough to get your system serviced if needed. Plus, they have it on their data base.

 

Yep,

Got an offical quote from dell. just got confirmation of order and payment. Great deal. Same price price i got when i renewed my old xpx m1710 3 years ago.

Did get a quote to exchange my 4870 cards with 5870's also

1 card £190.00 (260usd)
2cards xfire £196.10.
+ £96.00 Dell tech to replace

My warranty stats dont come up anyway due to my old xps 1710 being replaced with my r2 a couple of years ago

To be honest ill proberly wait for you guys to replace your 6990's with the new 7 series if possible. Ill see if i then can pinch a 6990 card or two off you lot.

 

Hello all I have an Alienware M17x R2 I have recently alien respawned in order to clear mundane from computer now I have everything up and running again and I was informed of that Alienware has their own gaming section to tell users what settings and other things you can tweek to maximize the performance out put of their products, but this is outrageously priced at 110 dollars or more for a consultation from their so called "specialists" so I have decided to go to you amazing people for assistance. Any assistance would be appreciated

Thank you,
Nick

anyone have any tips for how to over clock cpu? maximize video card or RAM or any help would be appreciated

 

Nick,

What are your system specs?

 

Wow! They charge 110 dollars for that??

 

Hey guys, I'm tired fo dealing with Power DVD, and not having it be able to play Blu-Rays. Forgot what the message I got was, but it want's a product key. I don't think I have this. I'd have to search my boxes again. Anyhow. I'm willing to pay for a good blu-ray/dvd player. Anything decent out there?

Also is there any good Blu-ray burning software that that you know of?

 

Do i need to update my drivers if i purcashed my computer in february of 2011?

Thanks

 

Besides the video drivers and updates for software like powerDVD and windows you should be good.

 

Sorry DR, can't help you Don't even have a blu-ray player on my rig.

 

No worries. I should have posted in the windows software section

Sent from my Samsung Captivate/ICS using Tapatalk 2

 

So my single 260m GTX is FINALLY showing its age and was causing crashes and power outages for the computer. Couldn't run too many tabs in Firefox or game for more than a couple hours without this happening. I finally replaced the card with my 280m I had lying around that I had Dell send me when they first sent me the laptop. I have another 280m too that I could stick in there with it for some SLI-action, except Dell was pragmatic enough to NOT send me an additional fan = no-go for now.

I want to replace the existing fan on the left GPU and I need a new one for the right side GPU. I also want to replace the big one underneath for the CPU. Could I get someone who's more resourceful help me either source these fans or give me part numbers so I know what to shop for? This is for the M17x R1.

 

Hello, Hank, here are the fans you can fit in your M17x (they are M17x R2 compatible too):

Right hand side GPU (laptop's left side) Fan:
KSB0705HA-8J02 - Delta Electronics KSB0705HA-8J02 Cooling Fan
or
BATA0812R5H P002 - http://www.pchub.com/uph/laptop/88-54070-16153/AVC-BATA0812R5H -Cooling-Fan-.html

Left hand side GPU (laptop's right side) Fan:
KSB0705HA - Delta Electronics KSB0705HA Cooling Fan
or
BATA0812R5H P001 - AVC BATA0812R5H Cooling Fan

System(CPU) Fan:
BATA1015R5H - AVC BATA1015R5H Cooling Fan

 

Well, I'm a bit impatient.

This is what I ended up ordering:

OEM Dell Alienware M17X CPU Cooling Fan U012M

Dell Alienware M17X Right Side Video Card Fan - F605N

Dell OEM Alienware KSB0705HA M17X GPU Video Card Fan CN - 0F603N - F603N

I sourced what I could off the web to find the part numbers, and they appear to be different from yours, but still appear the same. Your prices are better Thanks very much Katalin. I will bookmark that site in the future.

It's interesting to me every retailer that offers the fans pulls them out of existing laptops so there aren't any "new" replacements on the market.

By the way, I just bought some IC Diamond and Coollaboratory Liquid Pro thermal compounds so I'll be testing those out as well!

 

Lol, i finished gathering all that info in ~20 minutes and you were still able to order them elsewhere.
The part numbers i gave you are the manufacturer's part numbers Delta and AVC, the part numbers in the e.bay auctions are Dell part numbers.

 

I'd rep you but I already did

 

So I installed the 290.53 beta driver on this page, and I just realized I had hybrid graphics off, and my 9400 hasn't been used in about a year. I just turned on hybrid today and of course the 9400 isn't showing up, just a 'standard vga adapter'.

Should I uninstall and reinstall with hybrid on? Or does the 9400 have its own driver/chipset driver?

Tribes Ascend runs beautifully on this comp with one 280m GTX, by the way, on 1920 x 1200, all high. Noone at work thought it would. Except it runs hot as hell and was actually coming close to burning my fingers on the WASD section of the keyboard. Think I need to flash A07 lol and hope it fixes the fan timings.

 

How about you open it up, clean the heatsinks and change that thermal paste.
I'm sure your laptop will appreciate that.

As for the drivers I believe(not 100% sure) that the 29x.xx support hybrid SLi so you could uninstall current ones, enable the 9400m and reinstall. See what you get. This of course if you need it.

 

I did that when I swapped the 280m for the 260m. I'm waiting on IC diamond thermal compound. I had arctic silver on there from 6 or 8 months ago but this game really makes the fan scream like I've never heard it before.

 

where can i find a anti glare screen protector for my r1

 

I just did a reinstall of Windows 7 and have a concern about video drivers. Do I install both the ATi drivers (for my two 4870 cards) and nVidia drivers (for my 9400)? I installed the nVidia driver when I booted into using the 9400 and then installed the ATi drivers when I enabled the two 4870 cards. Things seem to be operating fine but I wanted to know if there were other options.

 

Check out http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...er-install-order-guide-alienware-systems.html they have a section for integrated and discrete graphics driver install.

 

Yes, I am familiar with that thread however I do not see any info related to the m17xR1 and ATi 4870's. If someone has posted information relevant to my original post, please let me know.

 

That's the way to go if you're using generic drivers instead of the outdated OEM ones.
Enable the integrated graphics, 9400M, install the nVIDIA driver for it and reboot.
Enter BIOS, disable the integrated graphics and make sure your laptop is plugged in or else you'll boot with the 9400M again, and install your AMD driver.

 

OK, So I've been thinking about paining one of my M17x R2 chasis for a long while.

Right now given where I'm living and available funds, the only options I would have would be to use spray can paint on my system chasis. I havn't decided on a color or anything but wanted some input.

Anyone feel this would be a bad way to go? I would put in some extensive prep work. Sanding, wet sanding, priming, and finally painting, clear coat, polish, wax.

Right now I have my system in a Silver Chasis, which I like. I also have my stock Black chasis.

My guess is I would paint the black Chasis. I'd have to remove all labels such as the service tag and all.

I guess my fear is that once I have it all nice and painted/waxed, it would chip. I don't have the space at the moment for an air compressor/spray gun like I would perfer. I think powerer coating could be expensive, but not quite sure. I'd love to do a metallic colored spray, but I guess I would be limited to the colors of Autozone or a similiar store lol

Thoughts?
Here are some of the colors I'm leaning toward if my local shop has it.

ocean blue Metal Specks http://www.autozone.com/autozone/ac...s-aerosol/_/N-25gw?itemIdentifier=645645_0_0_
candy white http://www.autozone.com/autozone/ac...atch-paint/_/N-25gw?itemIdentifier=60039_0_0_
gunmetal metallic http://www.autozone.com/autozone/ac...atch-paint/_/N-25gw?itemIdentifier=59753_0_0_
satin silver metallic http://www.autozone.com/autozone/ac...ode-NH623M/_/N-25gw?itemIdentifier=59783_0_0_
galaxy blue specialty color shift http://www.autozone.com/autozone/ac...hift-spray/_/N-25gw?itemIdentifier=69497_0_0_
stellar blue pearl http://www.autozone.com/autozone/ac...atch-paint/_/N-25gw?itemIdentifier=59892_0_0_

 

Yey, finally!
Can spray paint is an option too, you'll just have to practice a little before you start on your own lids (remember: short bursts, two or three layers).

I would advice against waxing it. If you do it once, you'll have to keep doing it every once in a while plus it leaves that residue which won't look good mixed with dust. Just clean it with a micro fiber cloth.

As for removing the labels (Microsoft COA, service tag sticker etc..), get a old school shaving razor or similar and slowly separate the stickers from the chassis. Be careful with the Microsoft COA (write down your serial number just in case), i spent like 10 minutes getting it off without breaking it.

A tip for reapplying them: i used double sided sticky tape. I applied the sticker on one side, cut around it, removed the protection on the second side and stuck it back on the lid.

To prevent paint chipping, don't let more than 5-10 minutes between paint layers. If you let the paint dry, it will swell and crease as soon as you apply the next layer. Remember a good surface preparation is the key (sanding and degreasing).

Now for the colour, anything that's not chrome would be nice. From your selections i'd pick a nice blue.

 

wifi seems to connect, then a few minutes later limited access, i don't know what gives

 

Greetings to all.

I've been wondering for a month now, since i've read lots of negative feedbacks about Alienware since Dell took control over it. Defective here and there...

But, i'm with my AW M17x R3 for 11 months now. Is it just most people got defective AWs and few people aren't? I conducted many observations and benchmarking with my AW, the only thing i ever encountered is when the first time i used my Alienware. Incorrect hard drive and video card display drivers.. and that's it didn't found anything wrong so far since i replaced the drivers with the right one.

Are there anyone here who didn't have problems with their Alienware since they bought it? Let me hear your story guys. Thanks in advance

 

My system has been pretty solid. The only issues I have had that have been mainly user created issues.

 

I have had zero issues with mine, the only thing that even came close was the HDMI out port on my machine requires a HDMI cable with a long connector becuase of how far the port sits in my laptop. I had to try a bunch of cables in best buy, the sales rep let me open like 6 of them to test to make sure I got the one that worked. +1 for Dave at Best Buy!

 

best.laptop.ever.

 

Zero issue here. And my system is a beast. Hopefully will be more beast with some 7970s in Crossfire

 

Word.

Not a single problem either... well, I cause problems by pushing the system too much. But the machine doesn't break a sweat. Never.