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

You don't get media centre I think, but you can get a free key for it, be quick as the free offer only lasts for limited period of time.

I think within the R4 period, the keyboard has changed, but I assume only the windows key logo changed?

 

I think the actual material has changed. They keys feel really plastic and flimsy, the older keyboards im sure felt chunkier and more robust.

I wonder if an R3 keyboard would fit an R4, can anyone confirm this?

 

Sounding like Dell have decided to save a few more pennies like they did going from the r3 to the R4

 

What else did they skimp on with the change?

 

Little stuff that most would not notice (or need). There was some promo stuff like a hat and a nice large padded sticker (that fitted a phone great!) . Also included was an SP/Dif adaptor for an optical connection - although that was a bad fit and broke some peoples' socket.

Nothing I could see with the actual HW though (yet?), and the sound card is way better

Edit: Just remembered, the manual was nicer quality

 

Ah cool, I can only spot the keyboard on the outside that seems to be inferior. When you say the sound card is better, do you mean the R4 has the better sound or the R3?

 

Doh, ambiguous answer

The R4 creative chip sounded better straight away than the generic one they used in the R3, same speakers.

 

Has anyone gotten the qualcomm ethernet crd to set to 1 gig full duplex?

 

I tried the power share feature for the USBs, but it seems like it will only work for the esata port one on the right side. Is that true? Anyway to enable it on all USBs?

Also any tutorials/ tips on configurating the speakers/ sound system to make it sound better? My head is mostly above the speakers so I dont really hear the audio all too well. Wish they added a subwoofer. My older Toshiba laptop sounds way better and it doesnt even have a subwoofer.

 

On the soundblaster control panel enable the thx studio pro and crank up the surround/crystaliser/bass makes all the difference.

 

Power share sadly only works with the esata/USB port on the right side. Hopefully the r5 will have powershare on all USB ports.

 

Anyway for them to enable powershare for all USB ports via update with drivers or anything? Just shell out 2 grand for the r4. Not going to do that again anytime soon.

Also, is anyones' keyboard FULLY lit? Especially the bottom portions of the the arrow keys? Mine's a little dim compared to the rest of the keyboard. Maybe I'm just picky...


Update: Just installed Windows Media Center Pack for Windows 8 and it did not help with the problem I have streaming music from my phone to the laptop. Any other suggests/ tips would be great.

 

I believe I have an r4 keyboard as I had to get mine replaced through dell a while back and my arrow keys are slightly dim, but not a huge deal to me personally. As to the streaming issue, what are you trying to do exactly? Put music on your phone via bluetooth from your PC? I'm a bit confused as to what your attempting to do.

 

I should hope not! I mean maybe for an r6 but don't be greedy man.you only need one r4!

Also my Alaskan friend, thanks for the info on the right sided port

 

I just found out this "issue"? with my R4. I havent tried with a piece of magnet yet but whenever I place my ipad with its cover (which has magnet in it) on the left side of the palm rest the screen will shut off. As soon as I lift it out the screen is back on again. Not sure if that will cause any damage in the long term but it just seems odd.

Just tried again and the magnet line up somewhere in the middle of the touch pad.

 

Magnets and computers do not mix

 

I'll put it in quotes: "did not help with the problem I have streaming music from my phone to the laptop." So in this case, from my phone to the laptop via bluetooth. And its streaming music, so the music files are already on my phone. No need to send the files anywhere.

 

Seems a bit of a snotty reply for someone asking for help...

BTM was simply trying to ascertain what exactly you were trying to accomplish as it was not clear to him in the initial post.

So I let the Alienware guys log in to play with my NIC card to try to get it to go manually to 1GB Full...
Something happened to my network stack and I now get to re-install Windows...

Fun stuff... Going back to Win7 until the Win8 drivers are more robust.

 

Well I didn't understand what he or she doesnt seem to understand about my situation. And I explained it again in greater detail. I specifically said from my phone to the laptop and he/she said the opposite. I dont know any other way of streaming music other than using bluetooth. Maybe I just assumed there isnt going to be any miscommunication. I'll try to be more specific next time.

 

Sorry I was tired and not feeling good, so probaly shouldn't have been posting at all, sorry I wasn't to helpful. Found this article though. Have you tried downloading the windows mobile device SDK? (im gonna try it and see if It works for me and my phone.)

How to Stream Songs From Phone to Computer Over Bluetooth

 

Hey guys, a few questions:

- Is it normal there is a short click/scratching sound whenever you start the laptop (also happens randomly at times)?
- Is it normal that some of the Alien fx (logo, those volume keys, touchpad, grill) don't light up untill the laptop is fully started?

Just wanted to make sure, hope that's okay

 

Hi, for the sound I'm thinking it is the DVD drive which is normal on the R4 although my R3 did not do it??

Mine also only lights up fully once alienFX has loaded.

 

My r3 makes the dvd drive sound. Wish it wasn't there though.

 

Wishing you all a very safe and happy holiday season....

Merry Christmas


F.Q.

 

same to you! Happy holidays!

 

Sorry for replying to a post from a few days ago, but I just had to add that... IMO the R4 keyboard is fantastic, great robust quality and very responsive. I have 0 complaints about it, definitely not enough to bother changing it :S stop being picky

And yeah guys Merry Christmas to you all and happy holidays <3

 

Posts: 399 was annoying me

So yeah 400 now

 

Here's my Christmas present to the Notebook review members

Got a Metro 2033 key, dno if giving it away will work but I made a thread if you wanna enter the draw to get the game for free

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...metro-2033-key-give-away-courtesy-nvidia.html

 

I bricked my m17x r4! :'(.

Now i am on my horrible asus with nvidia gt 540m blerg

 

what happened? Calm down you can call them and ask for a technician or send in the machine.

 

Can I ask What u did

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

I made a topic but, Very short i did a Blind flash and went wrong.
Now its completely dead like really dead.
Tried some things, taking out CMOS battery, taking out the 7970m.
But nothing, it rests in real silence now.

Now i need i geuss a new motherboard or something. :/

I feel so sad

 

no you dont need no new motherboard. Just call them and say your pc suddenly went dead while you're using it and now you cant not turn it on anymore. Dont give too much details and they will agree to send it in for repair for free. Thats what I did a few months back anw.

 

I have that warranty that they send a technician right?
Dont know that works but will see

 

Yup just be kinda "dumb" and they will get ya fixed up in no time.

 

well that come from personal experience so...I was really frustrated at the time too so I completely understand your situation.

 

Just wondering, how did you manage to have a blind flash go wrong? Is this Bios? Video card? I'd like to know, and i'm sure others would too for future reference and prevention of our terms of failure

 

The common things that appeared to point to it (3 I saw) being a combination of an AMD GPU and attempting to use an earlier version bios file on the usb. No real answer though, the AMD could just be coincidence.

After A08 the bios cannot be reverted. If you try this with the windows program it will refuse to run.

 

at the time there was a bug or something with the BIOS update file (which come straight from Dell) and there wasn't any confirmation window or anything.

 

I have a question about the 3d screen that is available on the M17 R3 and R4 series.
Is it truly a 120Hz screen? As in I could set the refresh rate at 85 or 120Hz? And I could legimately see more than 60fps in games and might not have to use v-sync?

 

Yup it is a real 120hz display, no driver trickery. In fact it is native 120hz which is why it is wired differently. The Intel on-die GPU outputs 60hz at boot and the display cannot sync (without a driver) so it is bypassed.

Once you are in windows you can step it down with the driver if you wanted to. Options are 60, 100, 110 and 120hz.

 

OoO.... I see I see MickeyD.... Glad I haven't flashed any Bios's yet.

Another question, what are you Monitor drivers displayed as? Mine's is displayed as Generic PnP, I was wondering if that is sufficient enough or not, as I'd like to have all proper drivers that I can. Over in the L702x forums, they have proper Dell Monitor drivers for their screens.

 

Mine's the same. I also wondered if I was missing something but all I can see is the pre-defined profiles that come with display specific drivers.

The GPU interrogates the display for resolution and refresh. This is the list you see in the NV control panel. If you knew that the display can do something not 'exposed' by the panel you can create your own custom resolution, so even if there was something missing it can easily be added.

The NV driver reports it as an AW Panel so that's all that really matters (IMO)

 

Mine shows up as Generic PnP as well. I think I took a look around once but didn't find anything different. All I know is that it works beautifully as is

 

Tell Apple that.

 

True 120Hz. And I must say, it is INCREDIBLE

 

awesome, I didn't want to feel like going crazy looking for monitor drivers like for the L702x, now XPS owners are starting to gain symptoms of losing display after installing Nvidia drivers *sigh*. So far i've been able to contribute to solution to the problem by helping a few members out (even though mine's is long gone now). It was weird and at first I thought the Nvidia graphics chip was going out too! LOL

Gotcha! and yes, i can't agree more about how beautiful this screen is coming from a XPS M1330 and XPS 17. Did you scope around AFTER installing a new installation of windows or before?

QFT.....I think everything on their laptops are magnetic =\

 

Yeah this was after I had a Windows 7 clean install done and was playing with calibration settings and stuff. I installed an ICC profile that a member had posted on here but I recommend doing one manually just through the Windows Color Management utility as it helps take away a lot of the blue tint that laptops seem to like to come with and makes the colors more accurate.

 

Fortunately for me my eyes aren't too picky with colors, so everything looks fine on my end

As for the Win 7 fresh install.... as long as it's just color profiles that are involved with these screens, i'm a-okay with it all

 

Does anyone know the quality of the HDMI Input? I plugged in my xbox and the color seems a little washed out and there's some flickering.

Also, is there any way on configuring the HDMI input? Or do I have to do that from the source? ie, xbox, tv, etc.