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

Got a chance to play the games I've been saving for the return of my beast Far Cry 3 and Assassin's Creed 3 are AWESOME!!!

 

Yeah, just a shame they are sooo bad in 3D

 

So I hear /: but would have to turn down settings quite a lot to get good fps... At the moment though I am just enjoying the sheer beauty of maxed out Far Cry 3 :O WOW, never seen anything like it

 

I'd be interested in your opinion on FC3. As you say, settings need to be dropped down for 3D and when I was playing with it I set my resolution down to 1280x720. I found I could see no difference in the game quality but of course frame rates were well up! In fact, since I could use max AA now it looked better

Is it just my eyes or do you see the same?

Thanks

 

Exact same for me, that's why I hate it when people say oh well you'll need to upgrade your graphics card in a couple years anyways.... I'll be able to play Battlefield 6 at 1280x720 on low settings and it will look awesome.

I can't see a difference whatsoever. If I need more fps.. I instantly take off AA and put resolution to 1600x900 and turn settings from Ultra to High... and I literally can not notice a single difference WIN! But haven't needed to do that for any game so far.

However I do play FC3 with no antialiasing... at 1080p on a 17-inch screen you really cannot even notice it especially when moving and because of motion blur. Far Cry 3 on lowest settings is still probably the best looking game atm

 

Thanks! I was thinking it was me since I see so many people say 1920x1080 is better in games

I'm quite pleased that my 675 can play it on 1600x900, maxed on all, with no AA and it plays great. I was sure this title was going to push me to upgrade . If 3D had worked I'm sure it would have...

 

I'm glad your 675m satisfies you personally I could play at very low settings and barely notice a difference, especially because I'm new to PC gaming so everything is above console quality anyways .. and fps is very important to me

 

Does anyone know what drivers the HDMI inputs and outputs are dependant upon?
The input doesnt seem to work well with Windows 8. and I have a Radeon HD 7970M GPU if that helps.

 

I'm using 12.11 beta 11 and there doesn't seem to be any problem? I didn't install anything extra.

 

I don't think the HDMI has anything to do with drivers. It should be plug and play, I don't remember if it goes automatically or if you need to press one of the function buttons though.

 

it does switch automatically and you can press Fn+F8 to switch back and forth manually afterward.

 

What about any other software or applications? It has to be software related as in Windows 7 the HDMI input works fine. In Windows 8, however, it flickers. Why would, or how, different OS affect the input if it's just plug in and play?

 

Hi guys..i have a small question though. When i bought my alienware two weeks ago i only got the resource dvd. my laptop came with windows 8 installed but i dont have the OS dvd..would it b an issue if i wanted to format or restore my laptop? dont i need the disk? or is there anyway i can restore to factory default if i encountered any problem with this system?

 

you can use the refresh function of Windows 8. Otherwise there should be a resource dvd and a recovery dvd (unless Dell changed it).

 

I believe the overlay goes around the boarders too! That's not a bad idea, just be very careful as the screen in general is sensitive. what you can do is measure exactly how many mm to how many mm is your screen, CUSTOM order a screen protector from a reputable company and install behind there. I am going to tell you now that your glare with the screen is not the problem, it's the glare with the plexiglass surround .

Also, if you're thinking of removing it altogether and just leaving the overlay and screen on, you'll lose the "alienware" logo + the LEDs + your screen inside will be exposed and it will look horrible heh.

I told you hehehe.... been working with electronics for a long time

I also forgot to mention, and shame on me as I should know LEDs/LCDs more than the average joe (diagnostics end anyways).

It could also be your cable going bad.....have you tried bending the lid up n down? and when you reboot and the laptop gets it's colors back, did you happen to close the lid and reopen it again? Or is this static coming on and off?

Far Cry 3 is fun, only thing I dont enjoy is the FPS drops when i'm in high detailed areas (I play with all settings on max, I may try this on my desktop with the gtx 570 instead lol).

ur soo lucky, i haven't had the privaledge to purchase 3d glasses yet..... I HAVE just purchased a 55in Samsung Smart LED TV w/ 3d glasses included. (full 120hz, 600hz clear motion, 3d, wifi, 2 3d glasses, and LED). It was a hard bargain to pass up as it was $700 NEW, retailed $3k+ when it was first released, and still going on multi-websites for 1300+ still. I will probably try FC3 on this in 3d on my desktop LOL.

 

i am sure i got just the resource dvd not the os one. and i believe there is no factory default settting on alienrespawn on windows 8

 

Cool, don't forget you'll need to drop the resolution down to 720i to get a decent refresh rate (50hz) on a 3DTV. At 1080i it's only 24hz so atrocious input lag apart from anything else. But as I said earlier, I can't see any difference in-game.

You should try out 3D with Batman Arkham City, it will be a lot less disappointing than FC3. The game even has some of those cheesy 3D-movie type cut scenes for effect . However it looks on the TV your panel, and NV glasses will trump it hands down but you'll get the idea...

 

HDMI-out would most likely have something to do with software. But HDMI-in shouldn't, it's just using your monitor as if it was a TV.. so HDMI-in should be plug n play... But HDMI-out I assume there's just some settings you gotta change like resolution blah blah, but I have no idea :S

 

600 muthaf*cking hertz!?!?!?

:laugh:

 

Yeah, my Panasonic has that as well (cost £1K a few months ago!) but it's all trickery for fluid 3D movies. Unless it had a direct input to the screen (DVI-D or miniport) you only get the standard TV refresh rates

I think the true-motion is actually a bad thing for gaming as it introduces a delay that you would not see in movies, causing input lag.

 

Yeah true-motion is absolutely horrible for gaming. Tried playing on my 240Hz LG back in Finland, laggg but most of them have "gaming mode" or something like that nowadays right?

Well I'm perfectly satisfied with my 17" 120Hz display and 60Hz 42" TV don't need 1 billion hertz TRUE motion

 

Oh just remembered I actually have a question I've been meaning to ask you guys.

Do you get that every now and then when games go "________ has stopped responding" or some fatal errors? I've gotten that on Assassin's Creed 3, Far Cry 3, Modern Warfare 2, Witcher 2 I think... and a couple random games...

Clearly I can run them all with my spec, I downloaded the latest drivers, everything is up to date... But still have some issues gaming every now and then -.- and I don't even understand the reason for a game to stop responding..

Thoughts?

 

Anybody with a 7970m wanna try help this guy out?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/703535-7970m-glued-support-plate.html

Nobody's replied to his thread in days

 

Ahh, gaming mode, doh moment, need to give that a try

I get that occasionally as well. Had it on most of all my gaming rigs and usually going straight back in works. On this one it is much less although using legit sources helps

 

Yup well most of those errors happen on... illegitimate games :| and Assassin's Creed 3 (legit) is known to be buggy...

But I have like 50 legitimate games, so it's annoying to have them on those every now and then

 

I think GOG offers Witcher 2 DRM-free which means you should be able to run it just fine, still much legit . Was playing FC3 over the weekend and the saves would disappear again and again.

 

Got Witcher on Steam

FC3 and MW2 .... not as legit

btw I don't know if I'm allowed to advertise this here, someone tell me if I'm not but..

nosteam.ro is an amazing site, perfectly working games even with multiplayer + patches and DLCs worth checking it out... let me know if I shouldn't be posting this xD

 

Thank you.

 

Anyone know where I can purchase a Dell 380 bluetooth module and the cable for the m17x? Also how does removing the plexi-glass remove the alienware logo and LEDs?

 

you could call dell and ask them, but i'm not sure. As to removing the plexiglass, it shouldn't remove the logo and LED's, but its very difficult to remove.

 

Lol at this eBay deal

 

My motherboard i gonna be replaced again tomorrow and this means i lose my windows 8 licence?
i bought it afterwards?
Somebody know this?

sjoerd

 

Should be ok, as long as you have a copy of the windows 8 license key you should be ok.

 

I feel bad for those 2 who bought it.

 

Would any of you guys have any idea when Firefox is NOT open, my cpu goes bat crazy, but when it is open, it clams down?

I have messed with so much stuff, that I'm at the point were I think the only solution left is a fresh install of windows.

 

Hahahahahahahahahahah!

But the thing is... imagine parents who go online and buy this as a Christmas present or something for their kid xD

 

Lol

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

What psyches me out the most is:

 

Hey guys,

Got a question about the Soundblaster software... I'm thinking about getting rid of it. It is absolutely horrendous. Should I/Can I/How would I remove it?

If I plug in speakers, the volume increments are just messed up... bass is way too high and treble is way too low.. the sound quality is just bad I don't want any equalizers or "Smart volume" or any of that crap... I just want to plug speakers in, and have the volume go up in equal increments with no hassle... but ugh the Soundblaster software is just a pain in the a** :S

Thoughts?

 

Today getting my second motherboard install
On the other way don't like it they need to open again

First technician was a real ,
he tried with a screwdriver to open the front plate but the bolts where still there :/
Just noticed it today the front is totally bent :/

 

I don't think uninstalling the software will make a difference, you will still get the jump in volume. Just turn off the audio enhancements if you don't like them, it will be the same as without any, even if you uninstall the software the driver will remain and it cannot be removed, I think windows will install the same one.

Crystalizer is the best, gives sound clarity, turn off the bass if you don't like it, surround is your own preference of course. I think its a hardware issue that the amplification of sound through the headphone jack is so high. The volume control both headphone and speaker, so if laptop speakers were at 20% then headphones will be at 20%.

Personally I wouldn't uninstall it, because the drivers will still be there otherwise you would have no sound probably. Just see if you can play around with the settings, but the volume issue is probably a hardware decision, and I doubt a replacement would make any difference.

 

I'm guessing that it can't be worse that the IDT control panel/driver set that comes on the M17x r3. It sucks plus the speakers sound pretty bad till you tune them and disable all the enhancements.

 

Thanks for the replies

Guess I'll go ahead and mess with the settings when I get home any particular tips on what I should do in the control panel, what I should switch off?

 

Have to agree. One thing that I noticed straight away was how much better the R4 sounded than the R3 it replaced. Kinda surprised that Leo is having so many problems when all I've seen so far is compliments on it

Now I don't use external speakers so I can't say if mine is the same but I did get some USB headphones when I had the R3 to bypass the horrible IDT chip. Great improvement

Maybe look at a USB soundcard to bypass it completely? I did see one recommended to me on a thread here a while ago. Was around £35.00 so no big expense to see if it is better for you. I just tried to find it but too many to plough through

 

I got a pair of corsair veangeance 1500's for gaming (thanks to your wonderful advice), and I also have a Logitech 5.1 surround sound system hooked up to my system as well. I'm not really worried about fixing it as it functions alright and I'm hopefully planning to upgrade to an m17x r5 when it's released with the Nvidia flagship card whenever that is released

 

The laptops built in speakers are incredible but I guess I just set up the jacks wrong so the computer thinks it's outputting audio through AUX to something else,, which is why it makes the bass so high and treble so low... :S

 

Any audio enhancements you have for your speakers are applied to the headphone jack btw.

 

It's very flexible in how you set it up. I would think a headphone setting would bost/crop the sound in the way you are describing...

 

I bought a new 750gb hdd for my laptop, it's the same as the original etc. I have been debating wether or not I should put it into raid 0, however I can't decide... any thoughts to wether I should or should not? Thanks

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

Hi, If you're looking to add it to your existing 750 as a single RAID 0 then I don't think you can since you already have it cached. If it's a replacement then you won't be able to use the 32gb SSD as a cache if you do not use RAID mode.