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

I would go through the drivers disk first identifying which hardware you have. If you use dell downloads you can enter your service tag and it should offer you only drivers that are for your model. The 'standard VGA' is normal after a re-install and all you need to do is installthe dell video driver (first), then update it to the latest one. Good luck!

 

Argh! Didn't realize I'd need to go in and install every driver! Of course, since the wireless card isn't working I can't install them from the Dell site directly on the M17x, though I suppose I could download them on this machine, copy them to a USB stick transfer and copy then install on the M17x.

Just installed the resource DVD - it popped us a program showing drivers, but they aren't giving me the warm and fuzzies. For example, the NVIDIA driver is for the 675M (I have the 680.)

Ugh.

 

My concern is screwing up the system somehow if I install all of the drivers on the Dell page (even though I have it filtered for my service tag.)

Is there an order that the drivers should be installed in?

 

You should be fine, only drivers for your hardware will install and the video is the only one that you really need to update, BUT, it's always recomended that you install the OEM (dell) drivre first as it could be modified for the hardware (the 3D for example).

No order issues I am aware of and you should be able to install the wireless driver from the drivers cd to get you on-line. Watch out for the 'accelerometer'. It will only show as an 'unknown device' until you install it, again from dell drivers.

If you are unsure if a driver applies then use 'device manager' to identify exactly what you have.

HTH

 

Question everyone. I ordered on 03/08/2013 this machine below and been waiting for a while and sad I didn't get the 680. For really not much more I could get the one at Costco if it's an R4 if people think it is? But how does the Costco warranty work if anyone knows? I heard they give you 2 years instead of 1, but is that through Dell? What do you guys think? I have an SSD and 16gb of ram going into it so I didn't worry about that part.

3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3630QM
6GB DDR3 at 1600MHz
2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M
500GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit Service Pack 1, English, w/Media
Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Creative Sound Blaster Recon3Di with THX TruStudio Pro Software
Intel 2230 Wireless-N
Alienware M17x 240W A/C Adapter
90WHr 9-Cell Primary Battery
3 Year onsite warranty
$1669

I could cancel it and get this from Costco for only a little more $1699:


Alienware M17X Laptop Intel® Core

Processor & Memory:

•Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM Processor at 2.4GHz
•8GB Dual Chanel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz


Drives:

•1TB Raid 0 7200RPM Hard Drive (2 x 500GB)
•Slot-loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW, CD-RW)


Graphics & Video:

•17.3" Full HD 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED
•2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M


Communications:

•Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230 with Bluetooth 4.0
•Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet NIC
•2.1 Megapixel Full HD Camera with dual digital microphones


Operating System:

•Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit)


Audio:

•Creative Sound Blaster Recon3Di High-Definition 5.1 Audio with THX TruStudio Pro Software


Keyboard:

•4-Zone, multi-color RGB, 82 key keyboard with AlienFX Lighting Controls


I/O Ports & Slots:

•1x Power/DC-in Jack
•4x SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Ports
•1x eSATA 3Gb/s + USB 2.0 Combo port (with PowerShare Technology)
•3x Auto-sensing jacks for lineout(2 line out: 1x SPDIF/Headphone)
•1x Microphone Input Jack
•1x RJ-45 (10/1001Gb IPv6)
•1x HDMI 1.4 output with Audio
•1x HDMI 1.3 input with Audio
•1x Mini-Display Port
•1x VGA Port (DB-15)
•1x 9-in-1 Media Card Reader


Power Supply:

•9-cell Lithium Ion (90whr)
•240W A/C Adapter


Additional Information:

•Color: Stealth Black with Soft Touch Finish
•Dimensions: W 16.14" x D 11.97" x H 1.75"
•Weight (Approximately): 9.39 lbs.

 

The CPU is the R4 chipset so that is OK. As for the waranty I would expect it to be the dell one - no way can costco offer anything like the dell waranty - ask them. The only problem that might occur is that the dell waranty starts from the day it is delivered and unless costco have some arrangement with dell there may be some 'loss' of waranty time between them purchasing it and transferring it to you. If they are just using dell's built-to-order and not stocking them then this will not apply - again a question to ask them.

 

They show them in stock. So they are definitely not build to order but maybe a custom built one to their specs.

 

Yeah I'd guess they got a deal with a specific config from dell to stock them. Get a common build and dell will discount to them on volume.

When you purchase from 3rd party builders they sometimes put their own cheaper parts in like memory and HD's - can cause some issues with warranty, although it shouldn't, dell are within their rights to ask that ALL original parts are in the machine before providing service under warranty. Can't imagin costco doing this but I am aware of two US based suppliers that sometimes do this

 

OK, slowly but surely installing all of the drivers on my new 840 Pro SSD that I've installed and upon which I installed Windows 7. Also put the old 750 GB HDD back in (and it is accelerated with the 64 GB mSATA cache, after I fixed the issue that came with the system.)

Question: seems a waste to have a full Windows install on the HDD since I'm running a Windows install on the new SSD. What's the easiest way to uninstall Windows 7 on the old drive without messing anything up on the new drive? What else should I uninstall on the old drive? I'm a bit nervous about having things like IRST installed on both the new install and the old drive.

 

Personally I'd just format the drive if you're happy you have a good installation on the new drive. This will get rid of things like the boot sector that exists from the original install.

Anything installed on the old drive will only be operational with the old windows install so it will have no effect (except confusion for you!) on the machine.

Edit: just remembered, you will have a factory partition on the old drive. As I understand it, Respawn only uses the boot drive so it should not see it. You can use disk manager to delete the partition and then add the free space back to the primary partition.

 

Costco will extend the Manufactures Warranty 2 years from the original purchase date. Sounds kind of confusing but this is the way it works...

In the first year if anything happens dell takes care the Warranty Claim after the Dell Warranty ends the Costco Warranty starts and now Warranty Claims are handled from Costco. I highly recommend you consider the 3 year Accidental Damage from Handling Warranty from Costco by Square Trade. For the laptop your referring to it only costs $99 and it covers the standard accidents like dropping the laptop, cracking the screen, spilling mountain dew on it you know the usual. Same coverage from dell costs $199. Costco is known for its great return policy and dell is known for taking their time, sending technicians to your house, crossing your fingers, calling the technicians back to your house, until finally its repaired. (I have some history with some drawn out repairs on a previous XPS 420 desktop of mine) I actually just picked up the same laptop from costco it should be arriving by the 24 of this month i'm excited!

 

You can always update the video driver later. The 675m one on the Resource DVD should be fine for now.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ve-read-batboys-driver-guide.html#post8672404

 

Well canceling it is not possible now since it seems to have shipped per the email I got but no tracking or the web page hasn't updated yet. Ugh


Sent from my New iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

You can still refuse delivery, but you'll be waiting a week or so before your money comes back

Edit: Dell will probably put it on the outlet site - you might be able to get it there cheaper but it would be a dice roll.

 

I will probably keep this one since I have been reading how bad Costco is with their warranty. But wish I could get a tracking number.


Sent from my New iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

Yeah, I check out the order status thread every so often. It seems common for the status and emails to be out-of-sync. You might get the 'shipped' email before the guy that triggers some earlier change that sets 'awaiting delivery'. Who knows, but from what I see it all sorts itself out within 24 business hours. Fingers crossed

I wouldn't expect the costco waranty to be as smooth as the original dell one but I've never used them so can't say.

 

could u explain me exaclty what i need to update my m17r3 ati driver? ive been trying for days with no succeed, i have a hd 6970m.

 

Hi friends, I just got an used i7-2670QM, 8GB, 750HD, nVidia, GTX 560m for $850, it just arrived and it's on beatiful conditions. But I'm having problems with two drivers, Network controller & SM Bus Controller. I did a clean OS installation, I used almost all the network drivers available on dell support page, and still the issues. Any idea o sugestion?
Regards

 

Hello, i recently picked up the Alienware M17X R4 model and its great but i have this one problem that seems to be with the laptop, for some reason any internet connection i am on would be working fine and suddenly i would get the no internet access or limited for a couple seconds or minutes and i dont understand what causes this. Any help would be appreciated thank you, this uses the killer wireless-N 1103 Network adapter

 

I assume you're using Windows 8? Currently drivers from Dell/Killer Bigfoot sites are buggy on Windows 8. And many say the Windows native drivers are the most stable at the moment. This is a known issue and there are no fixes as far as I know.

 

hey, ppl
i got this wierd prob. sometimes my alienware just freezes, i got my razer mouse in its usb and its lights shut down so i am guessing even the usb ports shut down, it just completely freezes then i have 2 use power button to shut it down -_- , it only happens when i play games, so i am guessing it might be cuz of overheating, what do u guys think? and like how do i solve it? and yea,


in windows media player, if i play a song then my alienfx goes all disco light-ish, how can i do this with my game ?

 

I had an R3 that did exactly the same whenever the temp got to 73C (which should have been OK but is on the high side). Never found out what the problem was though as this was the last problem in a bunch of them and Dell replaced it with a new one

Get msiAftreburner and set up the on-screen display to show you the temps while gaming. You can also use HWInfo but that requires you to switch out of the game to see the history. Will at least show if it was like mine, always happened at the same temp.

As for AlienFX you can get some games that have keyboard control. You have to set 'enable 3rd party access' from the icon. I don't know of a list of games but I believe the last COD had it and I have Quantum Conundrum which does 'things' with the lights as you play. The games have 'plays best on Alienware' logo in the titles as well I think.

HTH

 

I also had exactly this same behaviour when I installed version 10 of the Killer 1103 drivers. Before that, with the version 9 drivers, I never had this issue. All version 10 drivers on the Dell drivers page have this issue, at least on my hardware. When I downgraded to the version 9 driver, the issue went away again.

It was a bit tricky to downgrade, that is, the v9 installer does not allow you since you already have the newer 'improved' version installed. What worked was to uninstall Killer blabla using 'Programs and Features', then reboot, and then install the v9 drivers. Good luck!

This is the version 9 driver I am using: http://www.dell.com/support/drivers...?driverId=2M39F&fileId=3126802264&osCode=W764

There is also a Windows 8 version 9 driver that did not have this issue on my Windows 8 install: http://www.dell.com/support/drivers...?driverId=2M39F&fileId=3126802676&osCode=W864

Do you by any chance have the USB disconnect issue, or the SATA freeze issues? I posted about those issues a few pages back. If so, it might be related to the hardware version of the chipset chip.

I am now ruling out the chance of having a rootkit causing those issues. None of the more than 6 rootkit scanners that I tried revealed a rootkit. Now I am going to ask help from the experts at bleepingcomputer. If they don''t find anything, I will contact Dell again and post the issue in a separate topic. It might be related to a specific stepping (hardware version) of the HM77 chipset in the M17x R4.

 

Does anyone know the bluetooth switch on Alienware M17x R4? It is said that the configuration does have Bluetooth 4.0 but I dont know how to turn it on.

 

You can enable or disable Bluetooth in Bios. If it's disabled then you cannot install drivers or enable bluetooth in Windows.
The bluetooth driver can be found on the dell drivers page: Driver Details | Dell US

When it's installed successfully, you can enable and disable the bluetooth radio with the bluetooth tray icon. There is also a wireless switch hotkey, but that switches all wireless devices, if I remember correctly.

 

I just ordered a m17x and I'm wondering about something. My current laptop is 14 inches wide and I lay with it on the couch or bed with it on my stomach with my feet up a lot, especially when I am watching movies on it. The m17x is only 2 inches wider, does anyone lay with their m17x's or should I just cancel my order and get the clevo p170m/sager np9150

 

The M17x will produce a lot of heat below especially the name plate, plus it is quite heavy so I dont think putting it on your stomach is a good idea

 

It produces heat from watching videos??? Not playing games I am talking just like watching movies, internet surfing, that kinda stuff. Plus I'm not weak 10 pounds on my stomach is nothing lol.

 

Hi guys,
I'm gonna order my M17x R4 this week but I'm stuck at one problem.
What graphics card to choose the 7970m or the 680m looked at benchmarks and there, almost te same somtimes the amd is better and somtimes the nvidea.
Hopefully someone can help me out thanks. :thumbsup:

 

I ordered a 7970m with my old m17x (and the one I'm replacing it with), and I turned Enduro off less than five minutes after my first boot. I had no problems with the 7970m after that, but I was quick to blame all of my problems with the laptop on the 7970m.

The 680m is the better and stabler card, but I'm not sure how much that matters if you don't overclock. If you can justify the ~$350 surcharge, buy it. I didn't want to spend over $2000 on a laptop.

 

Hi. at the risk of starting a flame war...

I declare first that I am an NV fanboy. Have been for some years after struggling with AMD drivers.

The way I see it, the 7970 gives you far more 'bang-for-buck' but I see more driver issues here. The extra cost of the 680 is not equal to any real performance gain, just a slicker driver (IMO). Updates come out very quickly to better support new games - don't know how AMD are on this these days.

I think of the AMD chips as being enthusiast driven where NV are more a consumer mass market company. If you want a 120hz display the NV is the only card that supports it (natively). If you like 'tinkering' then the AMD will be a good choice - me?, na been there done that, I just want it to work

 

You will block the fans so it will produce some heat. However I watch movies all the time with the m17x on my lap/stomach and as long as you wear a t-shirt or something you won't rly notice any heat... naked might be uncomfortable -_-

 

Good thing I don't lay around naked lol. But thats good then I'm set. I was kinda regretting ordering it because of the size and where my laptop usually is when I am using it.

Now the only thing I am thinking is I can't bring this thing to work with me or class lol. I have to keep my crappy hp elitebook for work and school I guess

 

The m17x is still somewhat portable , try moving it around, I take it most places with me and its fine, just find a decent bag to carry it though.

 

say ppl, what do you think? when the oculus rift releases should i buy d m18x and dump d m17x? i bought d m17x cuz of its 3d, now since i could get 3d on oculus rift, surely 2 graphic card will do me good? i got a 675m cuz 680m wasnt available and i cant play many games in 3d -_-. So what do u think? upgrade 2 a 680m or m18x? [ i will upgrade 2 m18x only when oculus rift releases ] and ya whoever answerd my last question thnk u i dont how 2 reply 2 it sry :[

 

SOLVED, thank you to all!
Cheers!

 

Suuup guys

Been really busy so haven't been on the forums for a while... Thought I'd just come on and recommend DayZ to everyone my friend and I just started together yesterday, and it is AWESOME

 

I got a dead pixel... I know, only one, but I like perfectionism So can I do something?

 

Take a look at this

What Is the Dead Pixel Policy For Alienware M17 Laptops?

 

Been playing Planetside 2 with my buds for the last few months and it's been a blast. If you haven't tried it and you like fps games, it may be worth checking out.

 

Luis, I would appreciate you respond to my PM and now a 2nd PM that you have yet to respond too about the status of my order that I sent you 5 days ago.

 

Ohh, I didnt know this article. Thank you very much!

 

I'm having problems getting AMD CCC to open up. I right click and click the CCC shortcut and nothing pops up. I've installed version 13.3 beta 2 from AMD's site with the integrated GPU enabled and disabled, and I'd try the lastest drivers from Dell's site. I also cannot uninstall the drivers and restart my system as that would result in Windows 8 not being able boot properly and crashing. Happened several times before too, and I had to use restore point. And it cannit boot into safe mode either.

 

Check your inbox

I can't always reply to PM's, please for extra assistance use any of the Facebook and Twitter links in my signature.

 

Luis I sent you a PM in response to the one you sent to me. Please check on it.

thanks

 

Does the M17xR4 have 2 sata3 6gb drive bays or is the one in the middle(port 0) the only one? Thanks

 

Both drive bays are sata 3. The msata port is sata 2, as is probably the esata (haven't tested but the chipset only supports 6 and 4 are taken up with the fast USB ports).

 

You are correct, both the mSATA and eSATA are SATA 2.

 

Just ordered an M17x R4 for myself. Was going to wait for an R5, but they told me there wasn't going to be one!

Specs will be below in my signature. :thumbsup:

 

Congratulations.

Once you get it, I want to see how it compares to the m18x.