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

That's an easy one . Just install the SSD in the spare bay and change the boot order. Install windows (or restore an image) to the new drive. The caching will remain on the existing drive (it's in firmware so is OS independent).



Edit: If you choose to re-install windows and are not going to be using the AW window s disk there is a gotcha you need to know about

 

Thanks! Just wanted to confirm.
What might that gotcha be if I may ask? I may use a different disk to install win8 rather than win7...

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Can't say about Win8 but under 7 the install often chooses the wrong disk driver. It uses a compatibility one and the install will continue but it BSOD's at the end of the install.

All you need to do is when the disk config screen comes up at the start of the install, check which driver it is using. Is should say something like 'Intel SATA RAID'. To add it in you need to expand the IRST software install that dell provide in 'drivers' to a USB, and then select to change the driver in the win install. Point it at the USB and it should find the driver and offer it.

 

Anyone upgraded to the newer 780m or even the 8970m? Currently have a 7970m right now, but I feel like I should wait longer before upgrading. I heard the 780m is about a 15 to 20 percent performance boost compared to the 7970m. And even less so when compared to the 8970m (10%?), so upgrading to that seems underwhelming. And for the 780m upgrade I need a different xbracket, not to mention the price of Nvidia cards are ridiculously expensive (especially laptop one). I guess I can always wait for the 9000 series or a price drop.

 

The 8970M is the same chip as 7970M with a 50Mhz OC...you could just do that with your own 7970M without even needing to change the voltage.

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There are other differences too like double the vram and what not. But yeah, it's basically an overclocked 7970m. Don't know why anyone would buy that with a 150 200 dollar price difference.

 

easy, the clueless and the fool

 

I think you can still be happy with your 7970M, the 780M is faster, but not not by a largely significant amount, and as for the 8970M, well don't even bother! If I was you I'd wait it out for the next generation of GPU's to see what they have to offer. I wouldn't upgrade your 7970M until something comes along that is 75% faster at least (I think that will happen with the next gen).

 

Is anyone with a 7970M able to install Catalyst 13.8 Beta2 or 13.10 Beta drivers successfully? I'm having a blank flickering screen while installing that didn't happen with any earlier beta drivers.

 

I installed the new ones over the older ones without any issues.

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I installed and got a black screen, waited 2 minutes and rebooted, after loading everything was OK and driver version coincided with new

 

I'm unable to get it installed with Enduro ON. When it's off, there's no issue.

 

I just got my alienware m17xr4. It has gtx 680m , 16gb ram , 3630 qm processor.

Here is my question, I've been playing hitman absolution on ultra settings. I got around 15-30 fps mostly between 20-25.

Is it normal? Also when I used my notebook cooling pad, laptop got a little hot but laptop did not really boosted its fans' speed. I couldn't feel a breeze on my hand at the back of exhaust vents.
However, when I turned off my cooling pad, notebook's fans got faster and laptop got a little bit colder. What about that? Or it just felt to me like that?

What I'm really concerned is that I want to be sure my graphic cards do the necessary switches when needed ( between Intel HD4000, gtx 680m). How can I test that?

Another concern of mine is that when I run a windows rating test, my processor gets 7.9 and my graphic card gets 7.7 (680m). I'm really shocked, what is the explanation for that?

Lastly, some of my keys on keyboard does not work, like 1-3-d ... Some of them sometimes work and sometimes don't work, j,h,y,u,t etc... Do you guys have any idea? I already asked for a tech guy from dell.. :=)

Thank you all in advance for your help...

 

I have an alienware m17x r4 with gtx680m and windows8 x64bit.

I have not followed the steps described for a clean win8 install, but I have tried to install all the drivers, and I have a question.

How do I know I have installed ALL the drivers without missing any of them. And how do I know that they all work properly, is there anything I can do to examine ?

Lastly, there are bunch of drivers on dell's site even though I entered my tag. I chose the ones that I believe I needed, so I can't be sure if I installed the right drivers or if I installed any extra unnecessary drivers.

Could someone please help me?

 

What do you mean? I thought the Enduro can not be disabled, I have a problem with built-GPU because of Enduro. I also have a dim screen because I do not use built-in GPU

 

You probably have an r3 and not an r4 like what he has.

 

Hitman Absolution is a very taxing game for a GPU, and the fps you're seeing is probably about right if you're playing it on maximum at 1920x1080 resolution. Try turning off MSAA if you have it activated in that game's settings. I believe Hitman uses FXAA anyway, so you don't really need MSAA activated too.

When you're using your laptop on the cooling pad, then the fans may not come on as strong as when you don't use the laptop cooler. Perversely you may see lower temperatures on your GPU without a cooling pad if your laptop has to kick up to the next RPM step to keep your GPU cool, so it's possible that temperatures would then stabilise at a lower temperature.

You can check that your GPU is being used by running a little free program called GPUz in the background as you're running a game. Then come out of the game & view the Sensor Readings in GPUz. If you see that the frequencies are at the high gaming frequencies, and that the 'GPU usage' is being used (normally close to 100% when gaming), then you can be confident that your 680M is being used for that game. You can tell the laptop to use the 680M if it's mistakenly using the iGPU in some games. You can set this on a per game basis in the NVidia Control Panel under 'Manage 3D Settings' > 'Program Settings'.

Your 7.7 is spot on for a 680M, no worries there.

Your keyboard's not working properly, either it's got dirt trapped under the keys, maybe use a little vacuum cleaner. Or, the keyboard may be defective, or the cable not connected properly perhaps. You can sort some of that yourself, and if not, then Dell can replace it under warranty.

Good luck!

 

Grrr...tried opening up the keyboard to replace my WiFi card...came to the last screw and it just wouldn't open and now it is stripped quite badly...

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that's not good.

 

Yea...I'm down to my last resort which is to drill it..

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Alienware M17x R4 i7 3630QM 3 4GHz 16GB 256GB SSD GTX 680M FHD 1080p Wty | eBay

This is my laptop, I made a clean windows 8 installation . I haven't installed some drivers on the dell site because I thought they were not for me.

ST Microelectronics Motion Sensor Driver
Micron RealSSD C400 128GB/256GB/512GB 2.5" 7MM Firmware Update
LITEONIT Solid State Drive Firmware Update
LITEONIT Solid State Drive Firmware Update
Philips Lite-On Data Storage Slot Load Optical Disc Drive Firmware Update
HLDS GA31N 12.7mm SATA Slotload 8X DVDRW Firmware Update
Dell wireless 380 blutooth 4.0
WiFi Driver release for Intel(R) Module 6250 WiMax on Win 8 64bit
SiBeam Wireless HD (Gen3)
Dell BT Driver

I have not installed any of the drivers listed above. Do you think my notebook requires any one of them? Especially the first one ? Do I have that kind of hardware?

Thank you in advance

 

Hey guys, sorry it's been a while since I've been on the forums, been uber busy....

I've been wondering. Has anyone who's had the laptop for ~1yr+ so far had any problems with their battery wear rate lately? My battery's beginning to take a huge dump on me now.

I was at 0% originally, then one day I saw my precious at 3.4%, now it's gradually grown to 17%. I tried draining it completely to see if there's a calibration error or something, it got even worse so now I'm at a loss..... I usually charge my laptop at around 20-50%. I've had the unit UNPLUGGED approximately under 50 times... I'm sure of it as it just sits on my laptop desk.

Is this normal or do I just have crappy luck?

Thanks everyone for your input!

On another note: I have a friend who runs his laptop on NOTHING but battery power, charges it up after it hits 15-20% everyday nonstop, and he's at 0% wear rate on his HP Envy...... I've come to the conclusion that if I purchase my next battery, I should be cycling the same way everyday. Any thoughts on this also?

 

Hi, easiest way to tell is to run the device manager and see if there are any '!' next to items. You will see one unknown device and this will be the motion sensor - it parks HD heads if it detects the laptop has been dropped. If there are no devices showing a problem then everything is installed

The firmware updates relate to the specific devices and may or may not be the same as you have. If the device does not exist then the install will report that and not cause any problems should you try them.

 

17% wear rate sounds quite normal to me, my R3 has a similar wear rate, and I don't use the battery often either. The reason for your sudden increase in observed wear rate is due to you one time having drained the battery to 0%; this enables the battery to get a true calibration of itself, and thereby report the true wear rate; your battery was already worn before, it just wasn't showing it until it became calibrated by you draining the battery close to 0%.

Li-on batteries are best charged when charge level drops to about 50% (like you've been doing), it is not good for the life of the battery to discharge it to close to 0% and then fully recharge it. Also, Li-on batteries don't like to be stored unused (ie in your laptop when plugged in) at 100% charge level, this also decreases the life of the battery. Storing these batteries at 50% charge level is healthiest for them. I think that's why you can disable Charger Behaviour in the BIOS, which will prevent the battery from being charged when plugged in. You can drain your battery to a little above 50%, then disable Charger Behaviour in the BIOS, then use the laptop plugged in. That way it's not being 'stored' at an elevated 100% charge level. It's also healthy for the battery to be used every month or so, if you have been leaving it plugged in for months at a time.

 

Guys when I first got my pc my desktop graphics performance was around 7.2 now I formatted my pc and installed windows 8 and all the necessary drivers from dell's site. However now my desktop graphics performance is 5.9.

What do you think happened?

 

battery wear programs are really quite subjective. My machine is at 20% wear over 2.5 years, but I really can't tell the difference. Can you tell that the battery isn't lasting as long?

Your score changed because microsoft overhauled the way the scoring system for that works in windows 8. What graphics card do you happen to have? I've got a score of 7.5 with my 6990m.

 

Oh no, I forgot to mention, in one sitting, I went from 12% to 17%! that is going from 100% to 10%. Charging it back. I forgot to mention I didn't cycle it from 100-0%. I feel uncomfortable doing that even more now that it dropped so bad!

I do notice that I was able to go 1:30-1:45....Now I get 1:15 or so before pluggin in, which isn't THAT bad, but still.... i'm concerned as I expected this laptop to be my LAST purchase.

For the record.... Thanks everyone for ur response! I definitely need to be back on the forums again .

 

I have intel 4000 and gtx 680m

I get around 7.9 with my 680m but with intel it is 5.9, before the format it was 7.2 with intel...

 

DOH! Invest in some proper screwdrivers specific to dealing with small screws/electronics.

 

It could be that Windows is testing the Intel and not the nVidia, I would not worry much about that if the PC is having good performance on games.

 

I have been having some trouble that sounds a little crazy. Getting a good screen display resolution with the Intel graphic options and the Nvidia control panel. I prefer to get the best setting from the Intel display but run into trouble when I play a game - the general settings look good but the game settings have to be tweaked. The game is too dark and even changing the game settings is not enough - I have to raise the gamma or darkness setting on the Intel side which gives me a display I don't like. I do turn off the nvida control and turn it on to see if I can get a happy medium. So my question is - could some people share what Intel settings they have for their resolution? Gamma - brightness - contrast etc?

Many thanks

 

Here is what i'm running atm. Pretty sure its stock settings though.

 

Just sharing my feelings on R3

Terrible machine.

Switchable GFX is sometimes working and sometimes not.

Fn+F7 does not work at all.

Hw Info will not even detect nVidia card

Have to reboot in order for nVidia 560m to be detected sometimes.

Freezes without any pattern, just like that.

Plugged in NOT Charging issues NON STOP even on A12 bios because dell is stu@#$ with this ID cable in every AC adapter.

CPU toorboboost is non existing $@!% 2630QM, on my old 920XM my idle temps are at around 40'C, 2630QM is 60'C+
and sometimes stuck at 8 multiplier, and no matter what i do, change power plan to MAX, put heavy load, it just sometime stays at 8 multi and that's it. &^%@#

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND why intel and amd/nvidia designed such a stu$&*!@ techologies for laptops which does not work properly.

THis is my friends R3 i am trying to repair, but i rather want to smash it into pieces when i see all those BASIC DESIGN FLAWS with Intel Toorboboost and AMD/Nvidia switchable GFX.

 

When I had the 560M installed in mine, the 560M went missing once in a while too. I managed to solve the problem by re-seating the video card in the slot, which fixed it permanently.

That CPU is too hot as you know, sounds like it needs re-pasting, as long as heatsinks aren't blocked with fluff. Turbo boost always worked on mine. Maybe because yours is getting too hot perhaps. Throttlestop can help remedy any bizarre throttling.

HWinfo always detected my 560M when I had it installed (likewise the 670MX I have in it now). Sounds like it might be related to why your 560M went missing/not being detected.

I think your friend got a bad example of a M17xR3. I'm really happy with mine, best laptop I've had.

 

I've got to side with brother robbo. Seems like you need to clean out your fans. My M17x is running solid still after the 2.5 years I've had it.

 

Anyone know how to enable PhysX to run on the CPU with an AMD card? Or run PhysX on the CPU only. I know it's possible and taxing on the CPU with certain games. I just don't know how or whether it's possible on a laptop CPU (I mean why couldn't it?).

 

I know how to clean the fans LOL
And i applied ICD7 on that crap...

 

I don't have this application, what does it do ?

 

I idle around 50C and folding hit 80C running @2.6hghz thanks to throttlestop. Not sure why your temps are so hot. And yea switchable graphics for Nvidia wasn't enabled until the Alienware 17 I believe.

 

Many thanks!

 

Many Thanks!

 

I just reinstalled windows 8 on my r4, I had bought it July last year, well when I install the latest drivers my screen just keeps turning the backlight on and off on a black screen and does that no matter what I try to do I don't know what to do now can anyone help me fix this

 

just jump into safe mode and install the dell driver, then install the latest drivers over top and you should be good to go.

 

any of you all interested in battlefield 4, here's what its like on my rig... rubberband city!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoIFpYVRWUc

I get around 27-35 fps with settings on ultra, 40-50 on high

not sure why that video is only 1 minute... anyway 25 minutes of mostly non rubberbanding footage lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e6D8optDV4

 

Ok so all of the sudden I've started having a weird issue. My sound will start skipping and then my video will freeze for a few seconds. And then it will start working like normal. This started when I switched to integrated graphics and used hdmi out to watch netflix. A few minutes in I got a bluescreen but when I rebooted everything seemed like normal until the sound issue. Any ideas on what's going on? I have an m17x R4 btw.

 

Nvidia GPU? This is a common issue of late with the NV drivers, although you say on the iGPU??

get a utility called 'Latencymon'. This checks for the specific problem you are getting and tells you the module likely at fault (DPC latency).

 

Ok I'll check that out. But no I have a 7970m GPU.

OK I ran latencymon.

 

Not video related then. That tells me that the IRST driver that controls RAID/Cache and disk access in general is killing the machine. The hard page faults can be ignored as this is usually caused by real-time virus scanning.

I'm not much help after that apart from looking in that area for a problem. All the machines I have seen with sound and video drop-outs have had the display driver listed as the prime suspect.

Edit: Another utility to try is 'Whocrashed'. This does the same sort or analysis on the BSOD log and may give more information.

 

I ran whocrashed and this was the conclusion.

5 crash dumps have been found and analyzed. A third party driver has been identified to be causing system crashes on your computer. It is strongly suggested that you check for updates for these drivers on their company websites. Click on the links below to search with Google for updates for these drivers:

atikmpag.sys (AMD multi-vendor Miniport Driver, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)

 

That's more what I expected. I don't know about ATI drivers so I suggest searching out cleaning the driver out and re-installing the dell reference driver.