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

I got the FPS clicked in but it says I am at 1000 FPS which can't be right. But I haven't figured out how to do an overlay for everything in-game. But when I run WOW my GPU temps go from 56 to 65 C and when i ran battlefield 3 it was up to 71c

 

Those temps sound about right but what GPU do you have?

I have seen a wrong number occasionally but not 1000!. I wonder if it has something to do with the iGPU. Mine is disabled by dell so I only use the NV card.

Look at my screen shot again and make sure you select 'in OSD'. I also have the temp set to show in the taskbar.

 

Ive seen 1000+ FPS it depends which bit of the game in loading screens and menu screens I get stupid numbers for FPS, need to get your in game overlay working so you know the FPS at that moment.

Temps sound about right to me, depending on your GPU.

 

Geoforce Experience just told me a new driver with a huge improvement in Bioshock is available (314.22). It did the install perfectly - now to see if it really is better

 

All my optimus profiles went weird after the update but there is a geforce experience update as well! 1.1.0 vs 1.0.1, make sure your on the latest, it tells you how many games you have that can be optimised on the new one.

No idea why, but updating the geforce experience fixed my optimus profiles as well.

 

That's a bit strange. It updated my Gforce Experience first and then had no games until I rescanned. Then I clicked on the driver update - maybe just an order thing?

Got a good result with Bioshock, now seeing 50-65 FPS from around 35-45 on the last driver

 

It was only a minor glitch so I am not worried, like how I dont have to manually download to update, it just does it for me now, just one click.

 

Yeah, it's a pretty slick app. I like the way it shows you what effect settings have using in-game screenshots as well.

 

My laptop shipped with the latest Synaptics drivers, and the cursor freezes when I move around in games. I don't think that this happened in Windows 7.

 

Not sure if this was responded to (wasn't on the next page).

I think the R3 is the same as the R4, and if so, it looks fairly easy to get at. You take out the battery, unscrew two normal sized screws (not teeny tiny ones notebooks usually have), slide the bottom out, and I think probably just undo a screw to get at the optical drive?

support.dell.com would have step by step instructions in the manual for the system. Really shouldn't be too hard to get at...argh, no, I take that back, you do have to take most of it apart. I reaaaaally wouldn't want to, but it does give step by step instructions.

Where'd you get your Blu Ray drive? Unfortunately mine only came with DVD, and I'd like to buy a blu ray drive for it (although now I loath putting it in lol)

 

Hmmmm, well, I just bought a M17x R4 from the Dell Outlet w/ the 30% off coupon. It was an impulse buy, lol. $1300+ tax isn't bad for a 7970M, i7 machine. Only had the 3610qm unfortunately. But alas, I'll take it. It was "New", so looking forward to it. Guess I need to read up on the M17x R4.

 

Was it 30% with any configuration?

 

7S7W27TWB39KBK. Anything over $1500. Great coupon. Great deal. Needs a few upgrades, but for $1370, you can't complain really.

 

Nope doesn't work on custom orders. When I apply the code to the build I made, the price doesn't change at all.

 

No, it's outlet orders only. My mistake , I thought I specified outlet.

 

Got it from ebay for 45€

Gesendet von meinem LG-P720 mit Tapatalk 2

 

You did. He just doesn't seem to read all the posts from what we have learned.


Sent from my New iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

No I just missed the outlet part.

 

A few things I've learned about it recently-you'll want to install the audio software from Dell for the OS you use-it actually has a Creative Labs sound processor (not just software) and the Windows Update drivers don't contain the control panel for it-the defaults sound weird with post-processing, but that's easily turned off with the control panel. Install that, then let Windows Update install an update for the driver itself.

There's two more files you'll want, the AlienFX command center thing, and the on screen display. One of those (not sure which...maybe the OSD) lets you toggle switchable graphics on and off, the command center lets you change or disable the various lights.

With that software on there, and with the OS installed in "BIOS" rather than "UEFI" (or whatever) mode, you can disable switchable graphics very easily, which of course improves compatibility/reduces weirdness. The Function key + F7 will bring up a prompt about rebooting with integrated graphics disabled. (And you can always reenable it later.)

I don't like how hard the second set of DIMMs is to get to, nor how hard it is to replace the optical drive (I'd really like to add Blu Ray) but other than that it seems very well designed.

 

hey ppl, is there any way 2 overclock d gtx 675m in battery mode? and 2 underclock it in normal mode [ when its plugged ] ?

 

No way to OC on battery, it does not supply enough power. The card will be locked at P8 which is 75mhz

You could use nvidia inspector to lower the clocks but don't know of any reason to do this, unless it is just to allow it to run cooler - but slower. I use it to run my card at a safe 700mhz

 

Just got my refurbished m17x R3 last night. The thing is nearly flawless save a few scratches on the bottom where the name plate is. I could not believe how clean the laptop is, it looks brand new.

Specs are:
i7-2860QM
16GB 1600mhz ram
GTX 580m
2x 500GB 7200 rpm drives
120hz display

About an hour after I got it my wife came in and asked why I had the bottom of it off, and accusing me of voiding the warranty , I tried to explain to her about the alienwares swapping parts does not void the laptop warranty.

I have put in a Samsung 830 128GB SSD for the OS and games and am using one of the 500gb drives for storage.

This laptop is super awesome and I can't wait to get some games on it!

 

hey guys. i just scored 18770 points in 3D Mark 06. Is this too low or just ok?
I7-2670QM, 4x2GB 1600mhz ram, HD6990M 2GB, 128gb ssd

my driver is from the dell website, july 2011... how do i install amd catalyst drivers? the verification tool says my graphic card is not compatible for their drivers

 

I thank you for this. Keeps me from searching aimlessly for hours most likely.

Looking forward to getting it.

 

I fixed my problem by reinstalling the Synaptics drivers.

 

Ok so my laptop should be coming today.

Is there anything I should look for when I get it on the laptop itself to check for build quality?
Also software wise is there anything I should check or any extra drivers I should download?
And third what kind of mouse would be best to use with this? I was looking at gigabyte bluetooth and razer orochi? (I can get it 10 dollars off on newegg right now)

But if there are better wireless laptop mice please let me know thanks.

 

From two that I have had I'd say you are good to go. Get rid of office trial if it has it, but other than that its an unusually clean install.

GPU driver is the important one. It will be a few revisions old as dell only approve a limited list. What did you go for?

I just use a cheapo logitec so can't comment on quality mice

What makes you think it's not working. If it had failed then it would overheat seriously. Use HWInfo to see peak and average temps. Any yes, left as you look at the machine for the CPU

It won't void warranty BUT you can get asked to return it to the original config if calling for support - depends on the tech. I believe dell will add it in if you purchase from them but the information I have is a little vague. The only reason I would spend three times as much with dell rather then an eBay purchase

 

i would like 2 underclock it gcuz it goes real hot even when i m not gaming :/

ppl, i got reasons 2 believe tht ma cpu fan is not working [ d left 1 is 4 cpu right? ] how do i fix it? AND

replacing parts wont void warranty?? ? U MEAN I cAN GET an 680m and throw out my 675m ???? 0.0

and yeah anyway 2 clean d rubbery part beneath d keyboard? its gets way 2 dirty n me sweating ma hands off when gaming, u dont know whats it like! damn huge puddle

i got d razer orochi, its nice but i really cant get d hang of using d buttons on d right

AND YEA! how do i use synaptics 2 its full potential my friend was saying u can open apps like swipe W and u open windows media player swipe B and u can open bf3 !!!!!!

yay! got promoted in post 10¬

cuz it gets hot but d fan never like blows out any air :/ and i have heard i7 can go ReALLY HOT

and ya if any1 knows how 2 fix wifi in win 8 then pls tell me AND does helping ppl in forums count as community service?

ok another question how is an alienware m17x r4 with d same specs of an msi gt70 better than d msi 1?

 

Use hwinfo to monitor the temp and fan speeds. Mu CPU fan hardly ever comes on audibly. When it does it's time for a dust out. GPU is where you need to keep an eye...

 

I got the 680m. And no office. I am using my 5% cash back to get office and the bag. Though I hate that the bag is 100 dollars.

 

Cool, all I would say is give it a thorough workout before you update the 680 driver. Will give you some base idea of how it runs, and any initial problems can't be blamed on a new (unsupported) driver It will probably have office trial which you can upgrade if you purchase it - no install needed!

 

Apparently the shipping email I got was BS and it didn't actually ship. So I made them give me 50 dollars refund and apparently it will come next tuesday or wednesday. what do you guys think of that?

 

Sucks! I guess you are in the States or Canada? Shipping there is weird. For the ROW we get an email from the shipper and track it from the factory to the door - kinda fun seeing all the countries and customs clearances your machine has been through. The US seems to receive them all into the US before shipping them on to the end user. Might be something to do with the personalised nameplates that do not get offered for ROW??

Hope it comes when they say, and at least you got some compensation

 

I am from the states. I was hoping maybe there was glitch in their system and it would come today and I would still get 50 off lol. But its not bad.

 

Ended up cleaning my laptop today, just a word of advice to anyone who hasnt repasted like me. Check the screws on the x brackets for the CPU and GPU. Mine were on, but they were not fastened completely tightly.

 

Does anyone have issues with the key strokes. Every so often it seems like the keys are registered more than once. For example, if I want to type cookie it will end up typed as ccookie, or cookkie.

 

Yeah, I found that on my R3, a couple of them were just too loose. Since it was overheating dell replaced the heatsink saying that it could have become warped. Stopped the overheating but by that time the GPU had been 'cooked' so many times it failed a couple of weeks later

 

Ok so I got my laptop today actually haha. This thing is big. So I turned it on and I got the 512GB SSD raid and please let me know if this is set up properly. When I got to mycomputer it shows I have 2 harddrives. I thought if raid is set up it should only show as 1 hard drive? But it is showing I have 2 separate hard drives. Also the first shows 224GB total while the 2nd shows 238. Of the first which has all the stuff downloaded on it I only have 180 GB free. On my desktop windows and all the other stuff took up about 10-20 gb this looks like it took up 40GB is this normal? Also should I call dell and say they didn't set this up properly or did they?

Also my battery says at 74% reaming on balanced that I have 2 hours and 27 minutes so that is not terrible. I probably have over 3 hours at 100% for the 3d screen then.

thanks

 

Hi man, glad you finally got it!

This is the third M17x I've seen here with the raid incorrectly configured. That is not right, it should be a single logical drive. The last two were cache drives installed as stand alone - what's going on at dell??

Probably quite easy to fix, as long as the bios is set correctly, but I'd still call dell and complain (and get them to fix it)

You should see a pre-screen to the alienhead with the drives config on it. If this does not even come up then it's a serious fix and better handled by support.

No comment on the battery, I never use it!

 

Another question I have, is that when I use MSI afterburner on this it runs very slowly. LIke it uploads the data like tick tick tick one at a time like that instead of compared on my desktop where it flows very smoothly. Is this some configuration thing? Or is this just because my desktop is that much faster? My desktop has gtx FTW 670, 16gb (1333)Ghz processor

 

I use it without a problem. Check some of the settings like the hardware polling rate rate or direct hardware access (if it has this now?). Never heard of this before, anything else 'lagging'?

Forgot to add, start up IRST (it should be in the taskbar) and see what that says about the disk config...

 

What is IRST? Also is it normal for the install to take up 40GB? Also I don't know how to check hardware polling rate. Nothing else seems to be lagging. The download for MSIafterburner to download the run sequence to google chrome took a little bit longer than usual. But when I downloaded origin it took 2 seconds to do it in origin.
Everything else seems to be running as fast as my desktop with the exception of afterburner and the initial download to my internet browser when I download things. These 2 things seem to be lagging. I haven't tried any games yet. Also when I type fast I don't know what I am pushing but sometimes the cursor will just a jump to another section of what I am typing. I think maybe my palm is rubbing up against it or something that this is happening. Anyone else have this problem?

 

IRST = Intel Rapid Storage Technology. Under All Programs, Intel in your start menu.

 

IRST - answerd! A base windows install under 7 is around 8-9Gb, don't know win 8 but it won't be THAT large.

Look in the settings for afterburner and you will find polling rate under 'monitoring'.

Play some games and make sure they run well. You should be able to max out most games, depending on which GPU you went for.

The cursor jumping is something I saw here a couple of weeks ago - sorry, can't remember the resolution, think it might have been a faulty touchpad, maybe somebody else remembers it?

Press Fn-F12 to disable it and try again.

 

I don't see in there how to check for hardware polling rate. Though it looks like I could set up for raid in this program. When I click on the create tab it gives me 3 options. flexibal data protection (recovery) real time data protection (raid 1) and optimized disk performance (raid 0). Perhaps I could configure it to raid this way?

I went with the 680m. But yea I have 178 free out of 224.

 

Just a little confusion - the polling rate is for afterburner.

Since IRST offers you the options the bios is setup correctly. Yes all you should need to do is select RAID 0 and voila, a single virtual SSD. I have not done this myself so read any warnings about data loss. I did say it's fairly simple - just a pain to get a new machine like this

 

I am on the phone with dell right now and I asked about that so I am trying to see what they say so we will see. The guy right now is checking up on it so hopefully it he says we can do it that way since he was telling me originally it would require an entire reinstall of the system. I think my keyboard problem is the touch pad though since I turned off the touch pad and the problem is solved.

 

Good stuff, let us know what dell have to say about the RAID and the fix. I wondered if it might trash your boot drives data in the process.

If they say it will require a re-install then just tell them to send someone to do it! You should get next business day on-site

As for the touchpad, as long as you wasn't accidentally touching it then you have another thing to talk to them about!

 

Ok my computer is now set as raid 0. After we did it in the intel it was showing as a single drive with 224GB of data. So we had to merge them and now they are showing as one single drive with 448GB of total data. The keyboard problem seems to be fixed. All they did was reinstall the driver for the touch pad. The internet browser download lag problem is solved. Now my only problem is why does MSI afterburner run slow as hell on this thing and fast on my desktop???

 

Good news. As for ABurner look at these settings (otherwise try an uninstall, or try EVGA Precision X, same thing with a different interface: