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

Anybody know how to stop the CPU throttling back down to 28x when running 100%? my temps are good at around mid 70s.

 

Throttlestop maybe

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...arket-upgrades/531329-throttlestop-guide.html

 

Will My M17X R4 with AMD 7970 be able to run the Nvidia 780M cards that ship with the Alienware 17s? I get that it's a tough call since they updated the design and I'd be switching GPU makers, but I figured I'd ask.

 

Got an Alienware M17X R3 with a motherboard issue. The original board is part number GFWM3. The cheapest price for this is around $200 for a refurb. However I also found stock of new parts of an M17X R3 board part number 5VYM9 that is cheaper. Has anyone swapped the GFWM3 for the 5VYM9? Difficult to find detailed specs on these parts but they appear visually identical.

 

Yeah, a bit of a dice roll. Theory says it will work fine as long as you get the correct x-bracket but a modded driver will definitely be needed.

Go on, you know you want to

 

Hi everyone, I cancel my order of Alienware M17x R4 this is the old spec that I cancel
3rdGen Intel Core i7-3630QM.
17. 3 WideHD+ 1600x900 60Hz WLED
2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M
12GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
Blu Ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
750GB 7,200RPM SATA-II HDD

And as I saw in there site they have updated Alienware 17 and I get this one, instead of all m17x r4 by the way please help me out if this setup is good? this is the new one in there site.. Thanks and I appreciate it..
4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ (6MB Cache, up to 3.4GHz w/ Turbo Boost)
17.3" WLED FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare Display
16GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz
750GB SATA 3Gb/s (7,200 RPM)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 780M with 4GB GDDR5
Slot-Loading 8x SuperMulti Drive (DVDR/RW)

 

Hi there, congrats on you new purchase

All looks good, only weak part is the 3Gb/s 750GB (sataII) drive. Curiously the UK site lists the 750GB HD as 6GB/s? Anyway cheaper for you to put in an SSD later

 

Hey guys,
Having a huge problem with my m17x r3. After login, all I see is a black screen and a cursor. I could only activate the task manager through Ctrl+Alt+Del.
I have contacted Tech support and they asked me to do a system restore but this has failed to solve the problem. Therefore, they recommended me to do a factory restore but I still have some files that I have yet to back up.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.

 

How about this NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 770M with 3GB GDDR5 is this good also? Btw is I buy a third party sata drive and install it will my warranty be void? What's ur suggestion? Thanks Bro..

 

Np
The 770 is one step down from the best (780) but I find that one level down from top spec gives better bang for buck, especially when overclocked. Since they are not out there too much it's a guess as to it's performance but for most people I reckon it will perform well. If you can afford the upgrade to a 780 then it will be cheaper now rather than later though.

As to warranty, dell say that you can put whatever you like in it and as long as your part does not cause damage the warranty is sound. BUT they can (and will often do) ask that original parts are put back before they will proceed with a call.

 

Tempted to upgrade.

Alienware 17 Review

 

Anyone Know if there is a way to Boot an M17xr4 with a mouse or keyboard? Like if the system is shut off, type in a code on the keyboard or move the mouse to boot? Pretty sure some motherboards support this, just wondering if this one did.

 

Thanks so much Bro for the info coz I dont have any idea about it btw If I have my Alienware 17 and I have problem with it I guess I can just post it here. I know guys here is helpful. Thanks Bro..

 

You're welcome. The AW reps that hang here are a great source of info and they can help US/CA residents with warranty issues as well so we have your back!

 

I recently called dell and I order this new alienware 17, and the shipping date is July 22..
Please help me out with the specs.. Thanks

4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ (6MB Cache, up to 3.4GHz w/ Turbo Boost)
17.3" WLED FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare Display
16GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz
750GB SATA 3Gb/s (7,200 RPM) + 64GB mSATA SSD Caching
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 780M with 4GB GDDR5..

 

What do you want to know? All looks very good...

 

For those of you lucky dudes and dudettes that have ordered a new Alienware 17, congratulations! Be sure to head on over to the new http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ficial-alienware-17-owners-lounge-thread.html and tell us about it.

 

Hey Guys I have a fairly good M17X R3 and don't want to get a the new Alienware 17 but i want the 4th gen Intel i7 and NVidia 770M + models especially the 780M or other 700M models. Will it work? Alienware said it would be compatible but is there anyway to make it compatible? Plz help.

My Specs:

Intel Core i7-2860QM CPU @ 2.50GHz
Samsung 24GB memory (dual stick)
Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M
512 GB SSD
17" screen LED
3D ready
Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit
Windows Office Home Student
Bigfoot Killer Wireless Card Atheros AR8151 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.20)
Klipsch Audio

 

Thanks Bro Micky, I can't wait to have this Alienware 17 on my hand and play Starcraft and Company of Heroes and all the strategy games..but it takes awhile as they said that they will deliver it on July 22..

 

Cool, your beast should destroy those games - you'll be looking for hungrier titles just to show it off!

Look on the bright side re the delivery time. It looks like demand has outstripped dell's original estimates so the more people, the better the product is supported (and issues resolved)

Guess it's time for you to move over onto the new M17 owners lounge http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ficial-alienware-17-owners-lounge-thread.html

 

Guys, could you help me? I bought an R4 on the outlet a couple weeks ago. It's a great system and loving it so far (though not Windows 8!). I propose to pass on my present Sony laptop to my wife, after swapping the hard drives around, thereby retaining my own setup on the R4 (I have an SSD in the current Vaio, running Windows 7) but, as mentioned, the R4 I bought came with Windows 8. How do I migrate my SSD to the new machine? Do I have to change any settings in BIOS? For the Vaio, I'll just format it and do a clean install of W7.

 

Hi, welcome.

You'll need to clean install the AW as well. The windows from the viao will not start with all the hardware changes. All you can do is a windows 'easy transfer' to keep a lot of your settings along with your files but programs will need re-installing. Leave the BIOS alone and you should be fine.

Good luck

 

Or if you want full windows 8 functionalility and a bit of a head ache you can use UEFI boot for windows 8 so it should boot in less than 10 seconds from cold. Ideally you need to reinstall windows is always best to remove any conflicting drivers.

 

So I've had fun these few weeks with my new R4 (I'm a little OCD and nitpicky about little things though), but I noticed an interesting quirk with my PC. Every 15-20 minutes, my R4 makes a sharp *CLICK* noise and it's quite loud in a pitch quiet room. I believe it comes from the left side but I'm not 100% certain. Does anyone else have this quirk? I haven't modified my R4 other than upgrade to a SSD.

 

If you're 100% sure its the left side, I don't know. But if its the right side, it could be the DVD drive. I have noticed that the DVD drive on my R4 randomly turns on sometimes when certain applications like itunes are open and makes an eject/insert noise.

 

Do you have the WD 750-7200rpm drive or the SEAGATE?

 

It could be the CPU fan spinning up, mine does a slight click as it spins up. Or maybe your hard drive going to hibernate/sleep?

 

Good thinking. I have heard HD's make quite a loud click when waking from power save.

@drixenol: Is the HD set to power down after a period of time?

 

I'll test the DVD player on the right side to see if it makes the same noise. Haven't ruled out the right side yet. Thanks for the suggestion.

Yeah, I have a storage 500-7200rpm WD on the left side of my laptop (module 0). This may very well cause the click.

I kind of doubt this is the case since the noise happens periodically at 15-45 minute intervals. But I will check the settings on my storage drive. Like I said, it is unused since my OS is on the SSD. Update: No, I have not set the HD to power down. My power settings are set to never shut down since I used Samsung Magician to tweak power settings according to the SSD. If you could explain how I can go about powering off my HDD without powering off the SSD I would very much appreciate it.

 

I don't think it's possible to control the power saving on individual drives. It is sounding like you have the same noise I have and a lot of people have reported. Random 'start-up' of the DVD drive like a disk has been inserted even if it is empty. But that is clearly on the right of the machine

 

I have a SSD and HDD, The power saving mode only really affects the HDD really. The SSD won't be affected tbh, well I don't notice anthing weird with my samsung 830.

Do you notice the CPU fan spinning up to speed when the click happens? Or maybe hard drive spinning up or going to sleep maybe?

 

Just tested the optical drive. It's certainly not coming from that. I guess it's either from the HDD or GPU fan. I'll update when I check the CPU fan and run some programs on my HDD. Thanks everyone.

 

CPU fan is on the left (when your facing the laptop using it normally) and GPU is on the right. Just FYI.

 

Since you have windows installed on your SSD, I suggest you remove the mechanical hard drive from your R4 to see if it's the root cause.

If the sound stops when the hard drive is removed, then of course it's the problem! But if the sound persists...then it's probably an out of whack CPU fan considering it'll be the only moving thing on the left side?

 

Hey guys, i have a question. I have an M17xr4 with 7970m graphics. I only seem to notice this problem when I am switched into "discrete graphics mode" where the Intel HD 4000 is disabled but i have not extensively tested it in switchable graphics mode. This has become more of a common issue lately it seems.

The problem is: I put my computer to sleep every night, the next day when i go to play a game, My GPU stays downclocked at 450mhz instead of its max 850mhz leading to very poor performance in games, and i verified this down-clocking with HWinfo and MSI afterburner OSD. Once i reboot, the problem goes away and the GPU goes back up to 850mhz

Other parameters: Nothing overclocked in my system, running windows 7 professional, system is left plugged in the majority of the time, i run to an external monitor at 1920x1080 which the computer is connected to during sleeping and waking, I am running catalyst 13.4, but this problem has persisted since 13.1 I believe.

I have tried the High-preformance preset, and tinkering with the power settings but with no luck. It must have something to do with my external monitor, but I am not sure.

Any thoughts?

 

Hello.

I have M17X R4 3d /w 675m and I'll change vga card 680m or 7970m both are clevo.

I have 680m and it's ok! but i'm unsure about clevo 7970m.

Is there any compatibility issue? Because mine is 3d.. no iGPU.

 

Hello guys,

Quick question, was thinking op upgrading a few things in a couple of months on my R4 (RAM, mSATA HDD and CPU) and was wondering will a Haswell CPU fit? Or does it HAVE to be IvyBridge?

Obviously the Bios will have to be flashed, but has anyone here done it? I have searched but no obvious threads.

Thanks for your help!

 

Socket is not the same between Haswell and Ivy Bridge. So it won't physically fit. Has to be Ivy Bridge, I think a 3920XM might fit, but it might throttle.

 

Cheers buddy! This is what I thought tbh, but was not sure!

Well I think I will max out the original CPU choice with the 3820QM then!

 

you will lose 3d if you use the clevo 680m as it doesn't have the correct hardware ID. With the 7970m the system won't even POST because AMD is not compatible with the Nvidia 3D vision that Alienware ships their laptops with.

 

The 3740QM or 3720QM might be better value for money btw, i think its only 0.1 Ghz between them. But depends on your budget and needs/wants from it anyways.

 

Edit: saw it's an R4 - all good with the 680


You will not be able to use an AMD card, they do not have 120hz microcode on them so the machine will fail POST (why the iGPU is disabled!)

 

you think it will work even if its a clevo card??

 

Regarding clicking, I don't notice anything on my M17xR4 (which I LOOOVE by the way-my favorite PC since my last Dell, a Dimension 8400 from 9 years ago, which I still use!)

Anyway, my girlfriend notices her Samsung Windows 8 notebook seems to spin up the optical drive, she thinks, every so often like that, but sounds like you guys have ruled that out.

Hard drive would be my first guess. I stuck a 500GB Crucial drive in there, and a 750GB Seagate 7200RPM drive. I keep them powered up at all times though, which might be why I don't notice clicking (well, I mean the Crucial wouldn't click of course, but I have no desire to risk weirdness from powering it up/down either).

 

I believe so. The microcode will be the same, only the vBIOS changes. Problem I see there is if (as I think) the card has a different ID with the clevo vBIOS then R4 owners may loose 3D and have to flash the dell vbios. Also having to use modded drivers to get them to install. On an R3 you are already SOL on the 3D since the 680m is 'not authorised' in that model. And need modded drivers as well

It's one of the reasons I still haven't got a 680m yet. Although I'm sure I could get 3D working and mod the inf, do I want to be bothered with it on my gaming rig? Buy a dell one and it will be as if I purchased it with the machine, and NV's drivers will install out-of-the-box.

I could be wrong since it's a lot of theory and reading others experiences, so I'm ready to be edumacated if I've got it wrong

 

No one has any idea on this?

I have an M17xr4 with 7970m graphics. I only seem to notice this problem when I am switched into "discrete graphics mode" where the Intel HD 4000 is disabled but i have not extensively tested it in switchable graphics mode. This has become more of a common issue lately it seems.

The problem is: I put my computer to sleep every night, the next day when i go to play a game, My GPU stays downclocked at 450mhz instead of its max 850mhz leading to very poor performance in games, and i verified this down-clocking with HWinfo and MSI afterburner OSD. Once i reboot, the problem goes away and the GPU goes back up to 850mhz

Other parameters: Nothing overclocked in my system, running windows 7 professional, system is left plugged in the majority of the time, i run to an external monitor at 1920x1080 which the computer is connected to during sleeping and waking, I am running catalyst 13.4, but this problem has persisted since 13.1 I believe.

I have tried the High-preformance preset, and tinkering with the power settings but with no luck. It must have something to do with my external monitor, but I am not sure.

Any thoughts?

 

First thing must be to make sure the external display has nothing to do with it - disco

Sounds like it is waking in battery power mode. Try unplugging the power and then put it back and see if that kicks the card into full power.

 

Thanks for the reply,

Tried plugging in and out, both in game and out of game. No luck.

Used the laptop hooked up with the monitor all day. Put it to sleep, unplugged the video cable. Next morning, Woke the computer, turned on the monitor, then plugged it in. Still no luck, still downclocked at 450mhz.

I know 300mhz is 2-D, and 850mhz is Max, but I'm not sure what 450mhz is.

 

Did you check without the monitor ever being plugged in at all? Use it on the internal display, put it to sleep, then wake and see if it is the same. If it is then I'm out of ideas, AMD cards and drivers are not my thing so hopefully an AMD expert will chime in