*OFFICIAL* Alienware M17x R3/R4 Owner's Lounge Thread

yea good point. I think I'll wait. my 6990m should be able to hold out for that long I think.

 

HI ive had my M17x R4 for a couple of yrs now, and recently my dedicated graphics card starting going a bit wonky, so after much hassle i eventually bought this New Nvidia GeForce GTX 870M 6GB DDR5 MXM 3.0 Type B for Clevo Alienware MSI | eBay it arrived today and seems in fine condition, ive fitted it no probs, but im having trouble getting my laptop to recognise it properly and to install the appropriate drivers (presumably the Nvidiia 340.52) as when i run the setup it tells me i have no compatable hardware, and whe i try to run the .inf file directly it tells me that the driver is there but is not compatible with my OS (windows 7 x64) which im fairly certain it should be. Im probably posting this in the wrong place (im new to forums) but any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hi there, welcome .

There are two things you have to do to get a non-standard NV card to work.

1. An unlocked bios - to turn off the intel and switch to the NV at boot.

2. A modified driver inf flie that contains the non-standard combination ID's - this is why the driver cannot see it.

Search for the R4 unlocked bios and instructions. I don't need it on my 3D model.

The inf file can be got here: LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers don't bother with the search just pick your driver version and drill down to the inf file. Win8 is win7 as well.

You should only need the matching version inf file to the version you are trying to install. Overwrite the original under c:\nvidia\....... (search for it if you cant find it).

The driver should install now but you may well find your machine is 'stuck' on the intel until you do the bios mods.

Good luck

Edit: Forgot to add if you have a 3D model then the bios stuff is not needed

 

thanks ill give that a go, do i need to do the bios stuff if ive switched to my dedicated graphics using the button that does that (integrated on now no longer showing in device manager or dxdiag etc)

 

You'd think so but for some reason everyone that tries this with the NV driver installed gets a restart back into optimus mode. Even disabling the intel in device manager does not help. If there was any software solution outside of the bios I'm sure I would have seen it.

It appears the the machine must POST with the NV set as primary but please try any combinations you feel might work. You could get lucky and this is the first 870m on an R4 I've worked...

Good luck

 

also into which .inf do i paste the stuff from that link?

 

If you get a wall of text (browser issue, if you have another one give that a try) then select 'Save As' from the file menu. The filename it offers is the name of the file you want to overwrite in the driver installation files . Make sure file type is 'Any' and not 'Text'. You have it right if you get the overwrite warning when you do it.

 

right, ive now done both of those things, the drivers installed properly (apart from physx) and ive turned off the intetgrated graphics. i can now run games and they seem to play smootly. however my display still looks a bit off in that its flickering a bit and there are green dots everywhere.

 

update: it stops flickering if i change to 16bit colour from 32 bit, but theres still pink and green everywhere

 

Hmm, not what I would typically expect without the unlocked BIOS. Maybe this is one of the issues?

memo: R3, 860m, 120hz display

Why no physx? It's an awesome feature in most games these days and could even feasibly be the CPU bound physics giving the issue ...

What base temps and score/FPS do you get in Heaven 4?

 

That just sounds like a bad card, try an earlier driver (and get the inf for it)

And a reseat of the card.

 

i have the unlocked a05 bios, thats what i used to turn off the integrated. problem persists when not running games, and was present before i installed the drivers and was running with integrated off, but it looks fine when im running on integrated graphics (so its not my monitor) i presumed it must just have been a problem with the drivers but its still happening now that ive installed them.

oh and physx refuses to be installed, it fails via the setup, and says there is an installation error when i run only the physx install

 

Ok then, I'm really thinking a bad card .

Did you try a reseat (and clean the edge connector?

As for physx try DDU ( Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) 13.1.0.0) to clean it out, and try again, maybe something got left behind?

 

Did a reseat and backdated drivers to the ones that NV recomend for the 870m (i was just using the newest non beta ones b4 ) now seems to work perfectly thanks for all your help, i think id have had a breakdown if id had to carry on running everything off the integrated (i was getting like 10-15 fps on low settings in most things

Ill run that heaven thing now - what setting (high/ultra) etc should i use?

with regards to the DDU - what should i do to ensure it only does the physx stuff (i dont want to accidentally mess it up now)

 

That's great. DDU is going to clean everything out and you'll need to reinstall the driver but hopefully physx will install.

As for H4 max everything at 1080 full screen, 4x AA. FPS and score would be really useful since I've not seen any real-world data on that card

 

15:10:05 Benchmark results:
15:10:05 Time: 260.901
15:10:05 Frames: 2464
15:10:05 FPS: 9.44418
15:10:05 Min FPS: 3.42507
15:10:05 Max FPS: 27.959
15:10:05 Score: 237.899

 

that was with ultra qual, extreme tesselation, 8x AA, and 1080 full screen

 

Benchmark results:
15:19:19 Time: 260.873
15:19:19 Frames: 2972
15:19:19 FPS: 11.3925
15:19:19 Min FPS: 4.62889
15:19:19 Max FPS: 32.6657
15:19:19 Score: 286.978

 

same but with x4 AA

incidently no cpu overclocking - cpu being: System: Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1) 64bit
15:14:29 CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3740QM CPU @ 2.70GHz 2693MHz MMX SSE SSE2 SSE3 SSSE3 SSE41 SSE42 AVX HTT x4
15:14:29 GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M 9.18.13.4052 x1
also with 24GB RAM

 

Those scores are very low.. My 680m at stock: FPS average 27, score 678. It could be the physics but H4 does not seem to have much of that so I'm unsure.

Use DDU and try again, you may also have installed the driver when the intel was active, don't know if that makes any difference?

 

@Seoras. Seen you're not getting the fps you want, only read a few posts of this thread so I might be barking up the wrong tree, but with my M17x R3 I had to disable IG D to get full peformance from the NVidia GPU, but don't know if you have that option with the modded BIOS for the M17xR4. In my modded BIOS for the M17xR3 this is the change I had to make:
Advanced>Video Configuration, and change Primary Display from SG to PEG, then click on Internal Graphics Device, then IGD again and change from Enabled to Disabled. Save and exit

The underlined portion bit above is the part I've been referring to. Might be a long shot, but might be worth checking. I got about 20% decreased performance when I forgot to disable the IG D option even though it was clearly gaming on the NVidia GPU.

EDIT: MickyD, I don't mind if you correct me, as you've been following Seoras's issue since the beginning, and might have proved I should have read the whole thread! ;-)

 

@Robbo :hi2:, thanks man, perfect :thumbsup:. I was hoping someone with integrated graphics would give the info needed. We'd pretty much only got as far as the driver install mod and basic utilities - if I remember it right (also not trawling back) so now the problem is wide open...

Anyone asking for help, please put some spec (model-GPU-Display at min) in your signature file . It makes it so much easier when dealing with multiple threads on similar issues - well it does for my poor memory . THANKS

 

looks like I'll just be grabbing x99 and keeping my 780ti for now. That 980 just isn't fast enough to warrant replacing my 780ti. Interested to see what big Maxwell will be capable of though.

 

Hey folks,

I'm not sure if this is the right thread to post (I will delete the comment if its not).

My Alienware m17x R4's screen has suddenly started showing red pixels at places where there are supposed to have dark colors. I've opened it up, removed the LCD panel and rechecked all the cables even the GPU. But the red pixels just don't go away. They don't show up when I connect it to an external display. The red pixels also show up at the bios screen. I'm attaching a picture of my screen. Do you guys have any other suggestion for me? I love my laptop but I don't want to spend much on this.

IMAGE

GPU - Nvidia 660M

Panel - 1600 * 900

Thank you.

 

That sounds suspiciously like Stuck Pixels. Stuck Pixels can often get stuck just displaying red colour. You could try running a Pixel Jogger program that cycles your display really quickly, and that might unlock the stuck pixels. Do a google search for "Pixel jogger, stuck pixels", and you'll find some YouTube videos you can run which might unstick your pixels.

EDIT: hadn't looked at your pic before replying! Yeah, they actually don't look like stuck Pixels, too many of them! Do you get the same problem whether you're displaying using integrated graphics vs NVidia graphics? The fact that you can attach an external display without the same problems makes me think it's not a graphics card fault though. I think it's a screen fault. You could try the Pixel jogger videos I talked about, won't harm it, but don't think it's the problem. Try it though, hopefully it will fix it!

 

Has their been any pressure put on the screen? it looks kinda like the screen has been put under a lot of pressure in some areas and that is what caused the stuck pixels. I think you're gonna have to replace the whole screen assembly. wouldn't hurt to try robbo's fix though.

 

Too evenly distributed for that; it's following the displayed picture seamlessly. One of the signal-pin wires in the lcd cable may have snapped, you won't notice this from looking at it if the plastic wrapping's still intact. View a rainbow-ish pattern and you'll notice at once how and where the colour goes haywire.

 

Yeah, Its certainly not stuck pixels, red shows up at places where there seems to be darker colors. Thanks for the Suggestion, but I'm afraid the video did not do any good.

 

No I just took it off my bag from Univ, switched it on and the red pixels took over. They are definitely not stuck pixels. I really hope I need not replace my whole screen.

Thank you for help .

 

Yeah, That was my first guess. I thought maybe one of the cable needed to be reseated into their sockets. I took everything off and kept them back (Both the cable connected to the MOBO and the one that is at the back of the LCD). I did not check for snapped cables. Where do you think it is more delicate and easily breakable? at the connector to MOBO or the at the back of the LCD?

Thank you

 

At the point where it flexes the most due to opening and closing the lid. And/or where it enters and leaves the hinges. Both connector locations are 'static' in the sense that not much movement is taking place. Same thing why there are so many spare DC-connectors available; fatigue.

Try a new cable for $10, or swap with a compatible system. Easiest option is to note your current cable part nr. (from the sticker) and order that. Or use HWiNFO or the like to pen down the lcd and look that up in database; it will tell you whether it's an LVDS or eDP type and their specifics.

 

I will go with t456 on this one. I'd give a shot to replacing those cables before we truly think about replacing the screen. Specially since it's just the dark colors that are being affected. Let us know how it goes.

 

Thank you for the reply. I'm going to see if I can find a new cable on the market and will let you know.

EDIT : HWiNFO shows my monitor as AU Optronics Unknown Model - AUO149E, I did not find it on the database, Could you try to find out the cable for me? That'll be great. Thank you.

Another EDIT : I think I found the LCD in the database. THIS. So, should I be looking for a LVDS cable? Something like this? : EBAY LINK

Another final EDIT : I don't how but I dropped my laptop down from a height of maybe 2 inches and the screen got fixed. Must be some fault at the ports. SO its all good now. Thanks guys.

 

Dear sir,

Can you kindly assist me in solving my issue? I am stuck on how to solve this problem @ http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-17-m17x/763345-m17x-r4-display-problem.html

Thank you in advance

 

Yes, like those. But you need a 40-pin and 2-channel type; look at the number of wires going into the connector. Some of the cables in that link miss about 1/3rd of the wires at one end, these are single channel cables and will only support up to 768p, not the 900p/1080p you actually need. Also, verify what type of connector is on your motherboard; some use <abbr title="Zero Insertion Force">ZIF</abbr>-type or other configurations.

Right ... if it doesn't work; bash it .

 

Very similar issue to ki11fr3ak's, looks like one of the wires snapped (rule out gpu with external monitor/beamer first). If you want to test that (prior to ordering a new cable); disassemble to the point where you have access to the lcd cable's full length. This requires removing the keyboard and lcd bezel. Make sure to reconnect kb-cable and boot system with lcd cable exposed. Flex cable inch-by-inch by gently compressing; if the problem goes away you've found the breaking point.

 

Hi, I have an M17XR4 (2 years old) and some of my keyboard keys stopped working.weird thing is if i apply pressure to the empty space on the keyboard above the left arrow key, to left of the up arrow key it restores function to all the keys. External Keyboards work. Should i order a replacement or is something else at fault. Thanks for any help.

 

Maybe it's some dirt in the keyboard - you could use a can of compressed air, or a gentle vacuum cleaner to try & remove any debris to see if that helps. Maybe the keyboard cable is not connected properly - although I think dirt is more likely. You can use the M17xR4 manuals that you download off the Dell website to find out how to remove the keyboard & reattach the cable.

 

You think reconnecting the cable might help? I don't think its dirt because, for example right now i am using the keyboard fine and all the keys work, however they will inevitably begin to stop as usual.

 

I don't know if it's the cable, still could be dirt, I would still try to remove any dirt, and then you can always try removing the keyboard/re-attaching the cable - those are the steps I'd take. You could even use the opportunity when the keyboard is removed to add in a couple more sticks of RAM under the keyboard (if the R4 has the same RAM layout as the R3)!

 

Hello,
I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but I'm interested in the resale value of my alienware m17x R3. I've had it for around three years now and am wondering if it still has any value. It still functions perfectly well, and the only issue I've had is replacing the split hard drives, because they were formatted incorrectly. I'll list the specs below:
-Alienware M17x R3
-Intel i7 2860QM 2.50 Ghz
-AMD Radeon 6990m 2Gb GPU
-16 Gb Ram
-Windows 7
-1920x1080 HD screen
-No external damage, all keys function correctly and command center still works.

I apologize if this is the wrong place to post. But does anyone have an idea what this is worth? Is it even worth selling? Thanks.

 

If I had to guess I'd say about £500 - £700 (but to me the value of them is higher due to the higher replacement cost of buying something new that would be just as good). Had a look on ebay and that seems to be what they're selling for.

 

Do I have to use modded Nvidia drivers for the rest of my M17x R3s (With an upgraded GTX680m from GTX580m) life?
Because right now I have the 327 drivers and I just accidently noticed that I am more than a year behind. . Current drivers are 344 or 347(beta)

 

Yep, that's right, with any card produced after the 580M you have to use a modified inf to install the driver. You can get the modified inf from the following link, or mod it yourself or j95 sometimes offers modified inf files:
LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers

 

That link you just posted only contains win8 and xp drivers?
how about all windows inbetween? I have win 7 64bit.

 

Yeah, it's just stupid labelling. It should read all 'post xp windows'. No specific win 8 drivers...

 

Where Do I find the info file?

 

Just follow the link for the driver and the INF will be a separate link .

 

Thanks alot. I managed to change the info file and thus circumvent the undetected card driver issue.
Pro!

 

Cool, just remember it's a new inf file for each driver release. You can't reuse them....