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

Just got my Alienware M17x R4, I a intel ssd in the secondary bay and put the 7200 rpm drive that I got with my computer in the primary bay.
When I try to change the ssd to achi mode I get a blue screen? When I set it to "raid" it boots fine into windows. My question is will I be de-grading
my intel ssd drive because it is in "raid" mode ?

 

From my understanding in raid mode it will not be as fast.

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Have you got windows on the SSD? is the SSD going to be your boot drive? If so then another install of windows might be required under AHCI mode. You can change mode, but windows won't boot until its on the mode you installed it with. It should be ok, you running windows 8 or 7?

 

I have windows 7 and yes my ssd is going to be on my boot drive. Does it matter were I put my hard drives ? No matter what order I put windows to boot from I get a blue screen. I have it set up were my ssd drive is in the seond bay and my 7200 drive is in the first bay or primary. I tried switching them around but it still dident work..

 

Have you installed windows onto the SSD? You have to reinstall windows either the windows 7 dvd that came with your laptop or use the alien respawn recovery media.

Otherwise the SSD wont boot since its blank basically. And preferably it would be easier if you had the SSD in hard drive bay 0 and the HDD in hard drive bay 1, so the default boot order will always prefer the SSD instead of changing it in the bios, because any bios resets of bios updates might trigger it to be the wrong way round.

 

Can I do a windows back up on another hard drive then install windows on my ssd ?

 

If you change the BIOS from RAID to AHCI, you will need to install a fresh copy of Windows. It doesn't matter where you put the hard drives nor because of the Intel SSD.

 

True, it's because windows needs a different disk driver for RAID bios. If you're not using the AW windows install you have to obtain the driver or the install will fail.

IMO I've not seen any data that shows RAID mode (but not used) is slower than AHCI, only that you save a couple of seconds by loosing the boot screen

 

If the installation came off a SSD, then you have a good shot; if it came off a spinner, no. You want windows installation to recognize that it is installing on a SSD so that it will take the needed steps to assure SSD performance.

As a general rule of thumb, you want to install a fresh windows when introducing a SSD to your system.

 

When you mean fresh install can you just use the cd that came with the m17x and install straight on the ssd in ahci mode? Cause apparently the tech that came out to replace my gpu said that if I use that I will still get the look and feel of a factory installed laptop. Is that true?

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Yes on first. Remove the spinner, put SSD in either slot (i put mine in secondary slot while keeping the oem spinner in primary; I did this for easy removal of SSD in case of factory return where I can just easily restore the original factory condition). My R4 was sent in RAID (even with only 1 HDD, I think they all get sent that way; crazy when you think about it, why make someone wait for a RAID BIOS to load if they aren't running RAID), removed spinner, installed SSD, made settings in BIOS (e.g. AHCI, Boot order, etc.) and used the windows dvd that came with it. Your windows key is underneath your battery (i.e. XXXX-XXXX...).

Not quite yes on second, you'll have to install some drivers and other software (e.g. AlienFX) off the included Resource CD to complete the factory install, but this is where you can do the research and pick&choose what you want. I myself prefer not to install something over uninstalling it.

Enjoy your upgrading!

 

A few days ago I posed this question in a separate thread but really need some help and so far no luck anywhere. I enjoy the virtual world of Second Life. I like to make machinima/ video recording using Fraps. In this virtual world the standard to hide the user interface when recording is by hitting control, alt, f1. On my new M17 alienware laptop the F1 key is otherwise designated and therefore won't work in this manner. I've searched and asked everywhere but no one can tell me how to work around this. I contacted Dell who told me not to try to change the f1 key designation for anything, and then passed the question on to their gaming experts and I'm waiting for feedback. Surely there are others in SL recording using Fraps. I had an expert attempt to help me recode the viewer I use (viewer will provide no support and even if I COULD do this I would have to do it every update or viewer change) but I was unable to make the suggested change "stick" or work even though I am obviously the administrator in my own computer. I have searched, looked, asked just about everywhere with no working answer to this but seems like there must be people before me with this issue. I just can't find them or an answer. Anyone?

 

All I can think of is changing the keybinding for it /:

I don't see how there's any other fix... I don't really understand what you want though. Can't you just changed Hide Interface to another button? like numpad 5

I don't think you can do anything about whatever the F1 key does otherwise, that's the function Dell made it to be... :S

Edit; re-read your post... if I'm not mistaken you did try to change the keybinding of it? but it changes back? Have you right clicked Second Life and clicked Run as Administrator. If that doesn't work, you can probably find a text file in the second life folder where you can manually change the keybindings and just save that file...

I'm really clueless though, just trying to help

 

I'm clueless as well. Wonder what happens if you use an external USB keyboard.

 

Got my tracking information!

Fixed M17x on it's way back to Dubai!!!

 

Holy SH*T !!!!!!!!!1

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SO MUCH WANT! Sorry just thought I'd share with you guys

Definitely buying the next amazing HTC that comes with Tegra 4 xD

 

Is there nobody that tried a cooling mod?
I only se somebody that failed.....

Is there no way for a 3pipe cpu cooler?
I am thinking of modding my cooling, or finding a other that should fit but i think there is none.

 

You can 3pipe cpu cool. Xoticpc in fact offer it on alienware laptops, but if you do it yourself beware haha. Maybe have a look at Xotic pc and find out what cooler etc. They use, good luck

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Alienwares already have really good cooling though. Unless you're planning on doing some extreme overclocking I don't see why you would want to go through the hassle. But yes you can mod the cooling.

 

didn't know xotic took it a step further with better heatsinks. I might save up money and purchase one from them then. I thought lal they did was add good thermal pasting

 

Don't worry, i think no company does good thermal pasting

But i send a email to them, so maybe they sell them...

 

Anybody know how to remove the plexiglass or whatever plastic cover is from the display/lid? The glare is annoying to put it mildly. Also, would anyone advise against it? And can I just replace the cover with a less reflective screen protector?

 

okok, i talked with people @ xoticpc and they say alienware sell them like this

so i contacted dell about it and indeed they have them and you can upgrade your m17x r4 with it if you like.
But only by a certified alienware people.

gonna investigate little bit more.

 

I do think its a new service they offer, it's very nice

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Great let us know will you? I'm considering it as well you be the guinea pig

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Only now is evening and I have nightshift, so maybe tomorrow in the middag I will contact dell look of what options are possible.

But I think it's not possible unless you want the costs of the technician also.
Let's see what gonna happen.

 

There's no way, unless they mean warranty-wise we need a alienware tech to come out and install it. Otherwise I will just opt for it and purchase one .

I believe a long time ago I had to a contact that made thermal heatsinks professionally. I need to ask around and look through my phonebook again. Apparently he made some amazing heatsinks+fan combo's lol

 

Hey guys I'm about to go out and grab my self a ssd do u guys think 512gb is overkill or should I save some money and go for the 256gb option.

I'm only gonna have OS installed, steam, ms office and a few other smaller programs.

Thanks in advance

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Hey scope92. if the glare is a bother for you then there is available an aftermarket anti-glare screen protector called AG2 Anti-Glare Screen Protector. Please see the link Green Onions Supply AG2 Anti-Glare Screen Protector - Notebook screen protector : Monitors | Dell

 

slikjb, 256GB will be fine for the OS and office but Steam could be a problem depending on how many games you are going be keeping on your computer. Are you considering a second data drive and if so I would recommend putting Steam on your data drive and getting the 256GB SSD for your OS and Office.

 

Thanks for the input mate yeah I was gonna still keep my 750gb spinner on there as extra backup. I guess I'll save my money and go with the 256gb

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256GB is a hell of a lot. My old macbook had only 256GB total... and I filled that up on multiple occasions over the course of 5 years and had to delete a lot of stuff, but it is a lot.

But now that I got my PC, I would personally not get a 256GB hard drive... because I went all out and like to have plenty of space, and I already filled over half of my 512GB Vertex 4 in like 2 weeks mainly because it's my first legit PC ever, so I bought dozens of games on Steam sales and "borrowed" a bunch of games too.

But if you don't have a TON, and I mean a TON, of games on Steam... and you plan on putting some programs/games on your other HDD... Then 256GB is waaayyy more than enough and cheaper

 

Sweet great info there I guess my mind is made up 256gb it is

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Hi guys! I just came across a terrible problem. There's a horizontal bright line in my screen. Im not sure if it has a fix but it is terribly bothering me. I don't know how to fix this, what's the main cause of this?

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/hizon3/20130110_235646_zps757b4383.jpg

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/hizon3/1357833648295_zpsa9990e59.jpg

and how can I get rid of this? Also, is changing the LCD (by that I mean the whole upper part of the laptop) hard?

 

Your LED screen has gone bad, preferrably the board in the back of the LED screen (that green board). Only way to repair this (yourself that is) is to purchase a new LED screen, but I would wait until the problem progresses, as it WILL get worse

 

What's up Gokou! It's been a long time since we last had a conversation. Anyways, I gave my laptop a rest and when I woke up the next morning I found out that it's gone. I wonder what was the problem? Is it an occasionally bad pixel that appears at the long run?

No matter, I am glad that it disappeared this morning. I'm hoping it wouldn't re-appear. Haha.

Here's how it looked like last night,

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/hizon3/740565_523475177674590_1457872360_o_zps8b6468b0.jpg


and here's how it looks like today

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/hizon3/736551_523472911008150_1714536971_o_zps3d8157b1.jpg

I was prepared to drop the bomb for a new lcd. I guess I will have to wait until it gets untolerable in my eyes.

 

Haha you got the exact same spot as mine. And no, it does not get worse over time. Sometimes, it disappears and the screen looks just perfect. Sometimes, it's really distinguishable that you can see it in movies, games etc.... I brought my laptop to the local Dell center yesterday so they could check out the screen and the horizontal line did not appear at all. So they refused to have mine replaced. I guess I would have to wait till it appears again. Oh, how I miss the US .

 

Oh the disadvantages of living on a 3rd world country. I'm referring to my country.

Thank GOODNESS as it does not get worse over time. I actually thought it was just a mark from my Windows 7 Taskbar hahaha!

 

Yep, I was offered a tech coming and replace the whole screen while I was in the US. The only thing is I couldn't get the warranty transferred to my name LOL. (And somehow, the transferring process took 3 days when I moved back to my home LMAO).

At the brightest, that horizontal line is really, really visible. Yours is about medium. So it can get worse than that as I've have this ridiculous, stupid horizontal line for 3 months. But don't worry, it will disappear .

 

It is decent enough for me to plug in my PS3. You may need to be more specific.

 

I read a review somewhere that that screen protector did not help with the glare at all, and degrades the quality of the of the screen quite a bit.

 

it will come back, and it will get worse. Everyone has to understand that our screens, are LEDs, just like LED TV's. there's a board that controls horizontal lines and vertical lines. On this board is a bunch of chips (I cannot further explain, as this is my father's specialty since he owns a repair shop, I only repair PC's/LPTs for a living) that control each bunch of lines. your chip either has broken it's solder point or the chip has gone bad. In your case the chip's solder points have broken up, and my wildest guess is that it has resoldered itself when you let it rest and the led-screen as cooled down.

Either way, as I have stated, if its there now, it will come back later, and unless you have the right tools for the repair (in which I dont even have it, because the solder joints on these boards are very delicate) it will progress to get worse . It sucks but it happens once in a full moon to these production screens.

I can show you plenty of picture of HDTV's having the same problem, alongside the big 55in Sony LCD my cousin's have at their place. it has this HUUUUGE gap inbetween, where it leaves imprints. It's funny because whenever we play Nazi Zombies we cringe at that screen due to the fact that the delay is like 5 seconds when a zombie is coming at us and we don't know whether we killed it or not haha.

Just some food for thought for people who don't know the difference between LEDs and LCD's (not saying you dont, just for others). The only difference between the two is heat generated and lighting. Lighting as the tv's use (depending on the screen size) as much as hundreds of mini LED bulbs vs CFL bulbs (for LCDs). Otherwise quality depends on the filtering and build of the screen's board .

On a 17in screen, with 1080p, you can't ask for any better quality than our screens get

That is dependent on the anti-glare overlay quality, build, and purpose. Some give like a 60% anti-glare, while hindering quality of the screen with pixelated whites, it isn't as bad as a 100% anti-glare compound. Which is a whole reason why I didn't purchase an anti-glare overlay, as I wanted the 100% anti-glare compound no matter how pixelated it gets. The system sadly deems unusable in the sun

 

Do you think the screen protector covers the whole plexi glass cover or just the led display portion? If it covers the whole thing, then I can just remove the plexi glass and replace it with a screen protector.

 

Hmmm, thanks for giving me an idea but I'll stay positive and hopefully it stays like this.

And hopefully it resolders itself every time I give it a long good night break.

but is it a dead pixel though?


EDIT: It just came back :/ Oh well, looks like I'll just have to buy another LCD for this behemoth. :/ Sucks so much.

EDIT 2: I tried shutting it down completely and open it again and it's not there anymore! Hmmm I think that's my only remedy :/ I think the chips inside overheat too much thus resulting to a bright line.

 

Hello all:

I will buy a laptop in a few weeks, and my top choices are the MSI GT60-0ne and the Alienware m17x r4. Why should I buy the Alienware? The MSI model weighs and costs less, has a matte screen, and apparently has better sound quality. Dell's customer service is hit-or-miss, and I do not think that the m17x has significantly better ergonomics and build quality. Feel free to correct me.

 

Kogunniyi, im pretty much in the same situation as you. At long last upgrading on my 2 1/2 year old dell inspiron (pretty basic model) to something alot more powerful and this time, pricey. Budget is £1000-1500ish and so far have to say its between the alienware and msi for me. One that stands out for me is the msi gx60 at just over £1,000-the specs are pretty impressive (imo anyway).
Only thing im hearing about msi which puts me off is build quality, which seems a bit mixed- some saying its good qualiy others cheap and plasticy.
As for customer service, well ive had 3 laptops from dell, and tbh ive always found them very on the ball and helpful so dont know what to say. Maybe just depends on who you speak to?
Anyway if like me though, your thinking about getting an alienware, theres a very helpful bloke on one of the threads on here, name of steviejones133 who can apparently help you get money off any dell orders through his contact who works there. Just need to PM him, which i hope to do when ive made 5 posts i think it is.
You should maybe give him a bell and see what he says.

 

I've seen many of each screen protector. You can definitely get the full plexi glass sized one made specifically for the M17x... otherwise you'd have to bother with all the measurements etc not a big deal but im lazy I wouldnt do that, and I hate screen protectors... so it going over the whole plexi would be nice, but there are a lot more of the standard ones

 

My m17x will be arriving in an hour!!!

I need some help with one thing that I remembered used to bother me. The volume control. I feel as if it's impossible to make the laptop very quiet with just the volume buttons. If volume is off, and you press it to go just one higher... it's louder than the lowest volume should be.

Anybody else notice this or have any tips anyways? Maybe something with the Soundblaster software I dno :S

Thanks for any replies

 

Really need some help now!!!!

Everything seems to be working okay, except I have to press my W, F, and J keys really hard to get them to register what do I do??

EDIT: Nevermind!! :O just restarted computer and all is well

 

lol. Slow down Leo, no O/C'ing today

Glad to hear you have it back.