*OFFICIAL* M17xR3 Owner's Lounge Thread - Part 2

try wallbase.cc

 

Thanks that was it! +1

 

here's the situation: bad video card. drivers didnt fix it, reseat didnt fix it. it took like 5 phone sessions and a dozen or so chat sessions to get dell to even send a replacement card lol. they also needed to replace the mobo since it was part of the messed up sandy bridge batch..

they sent a tech out to replace the vid card and the mobo. for whatever reason, they also sent out new speakers and a new screen..? the tech swaps it all out, and the machine wont boot. beeps eight times, and the tech had no idea what 8 beeps was (wasn't in his little guide book he was following lol)..

so what's eight beeps mean?

they wanted us to send it to "the depot", and we of course refused having paid for the advance warranty and blah blah blah (you guys know the idea). so supposedly a "supervisor" is going to call in the next 24hrs with a solution.. any speculation as to where this is going to go? should we push for some sort of compensation since we've been arguing with them about this machine since like march/april..? we now have a $2800ish paperweight lol..

 

Yup. Comp + replacement or upgrade to 18x is what alot of folks have been doing.

 

Maybe we'll see if they'll bump it to a 6970 gpu.. It's an r3. Not looking to gouge them into a m18 lol..

Any advise you can give to help persuade them?

 

Kune or Dane might be able to give you better advice.

 

Anyone know any American based CSR sups? Never got our call back and we're gettin just a bit tired of being jerked around by their outsourced service reps lol..

Think we can also push for then to add their American based tech support service? That'd be heavenly lol

 

Quoting you for an answer too. Everyone csr I know of is India. Even the guy who has a whiteguy name is in India lol.

 

for real.. there was a guy who claims his name was William that sorta helped us for a while (he hung up on us when we got to the part where he was going to take down our info to send the repair tech/parts)..

didnt sound like any William i'd ever met. and i've met a lot of Williams. like at least 5 Williams..

 

Did you catch his last name?

Come to think of it, Russell Peters is Indian, but that's his birthname, so maybe it's a bit misleading for us lolz. Just try calling the EPP(military) Dell # during the day time. You'll prolly get better luck.

 

No we didn't catch his last name.. And the next person we talked to was name Keerthe. She told us she had no last name lol..

Been hung up on three times today. Been in hold for about 2.5 out of the last 3.5 hours.. One guy transferred us to the American tech help. She said we had to buy the American tech help in order for her to help us, then she hung up. Now we're waiting for this guy to go find his manager..

Their on hold music is pretty like whimsical at whatever branch of tech help we're at now though lol.. Almost soothing.. Almost..

Edit: well, we've succeeded. They're going to build us a new laptop in the next three days, overnight it to us, upgrade the graphics card to a 6970, and extend the warranty we still have this lovely black paperweight for the next few days though lol.

Edit 2: been messing with the deceased laptop. Noe I got it to where it'll power on without beeping, but nothing shows up on the screen. Everything is lit up, fans are goin, felt the hard drive spin up. Just display doesn't light up..

 

Gosh bro. What a pain in the youknowwhat. I keep reading about people being put on hold for 2hours and stuff. Do they really do that? Also hang up on you too? How rude. I've never held the line for more than 10minutes. If it passes 9:59, then I hang up. Did they upgrade you to warranty with accidental coverage? They better have.

 

yeah man, its like when they dont feel like talking any more they just hang up lol.. i think one of their tactics is to put you on hold for a really long time to see if you'll just hang up.

already had the accidental coverage, but they basically started it over for us. so it's not much, but it's an extra 2 months of accidental warranty.

now i just gotta figure out how to get the stuff of the original hard drives. i opened up the laptop and reseated everything myself and now it'll come on without beeping. just the screen doesn't light up. tried using hdmi out to my tv as well, and that was a no go

thanks for your help though my cousin's pretty happy that we got this taken care of. it's crazy that it was so much effort. and i know that others are have a much harder time than we did. it weird though that with my inspiron laptop all i had to do was get on their online chat and say "hey my trackpad doesn't work" or "my screen is very dim" or even "there's a scratch on the lid" and they just replaced whatever i asked for lol.. that's with the basic warranty too

 

just got my alienware m17x-r3 3 days ago was working fine..
but now i just got this problem which is my battery.
I plugged in my battery when i was surfing youtube (without plugging in the ac adapter)
and my battery goes low 8% and ask me to plug in the ac adapter..
i plugged in the ac adapter, but it doesn't charge!
the battery icon saying plugged in, not charging.
please help!

 

At least you didn't have to go through the Intel fiasco + aafes to reorder + dell to confirm the order + wait almost 2months before receiving the first computer + wasting a month more worry about the replacement Or did you have to also?

 

will the none 120hz R3 not boot with the Intel GPU if you remove a faulty GPU - I would have thought so

 

boot into bios and see if it recognises the AC power unit as the correct one, if not then either the AC adapter is faulty or the motherboard

 

any other solutions please?
i booted up into bios run diagnosis everything works fine!

 

could anyone help please?

 

so in the bios when you look at the menu where it tells you the identity of the the power adapter it says the correct one 240w Dell etc etc, if that is the case then you may have a faulty battery, if it doesn't then link I said either the AC power unit is faulty or the MB

 

The symptom you describe sounds like a dc jack that has come loose from the motherboard. The last time you plugged it in, you probably disconnected one of the solder points. I've resoldered several jacks in my time, and I'm convinced it's designed that way as a form of planned obsolescence. You gotta give Apple credit for their magsafe connector.

But if you just got your laptop, why bother troubleshooting yourself? Just notify Dell so they either send someone to your house, or better yet, just get a replacement. I'd definitely go with the latter, since if it's really a jack problem, the tech only has two options: resolder the jack or replace the motherboard. And I wouldn't trust just anyone to do either of these repairs.

Good luck.

 

Yall got an Anandtech review

They gave it an editors choice award

AnandTech - Alienware's M17x R3: An Antidote to Clevo

 

Well I unboxed mine yesterday and ran into a few problems/glitches:

1. Hi-dot pixel in the LCD on first powerup. Called into Alienware support and that should be replaced soon by an in-house technician.

2. Reinstalled Windows 7 from scratch and installed the modified 275.33 drivers for the GTX 460M. 3D (stereoscopic) performance was really good at first until I rebooted the notebook due to Windows Updates. 3D performance tanked to a few frames per second during gaming and a reboot resulted in a black screen with no logon window. I was forced to reinstall Windows 7 and I have gone back to the Dell OEM drivers for the GTX 460M. I haven't tested 3D performance yet, but will later on today.

 

anyone have any problems with the keyboard, I noticed that the F10 key had a different feel/noise to the rest, it's not a key you would use very often so not really a big problem until it actually came off and impossible to put back on, I wonder could they send me a new key or replace the whole keyboard.

 

They will probably replace the whole keyboard.

 

I like that they have basically same config as me aside from the higher ram, and bigger HDD setup, but it's still a HDD rather than a SSD which is good.

 

Sorry but I just have to ask...how is using a HDD better than using a SSD?

 

I mean better for the review. Cuz stock system comes with hdd, which most people bought initially. So by using HDD instead of SSD for reviewing, the results are less skewed imo. I wish they would do a review instead of a system near stock though (2630, 4gb, 320gb, and all 3 gpus). Cuz it's obvious that performance is great when you max the system out, but we should at least know how it performs with the close to stock config, right? (That way we know if this system is good value for its price).

 

Ok I see what you mean now. For a second, I thought you were saying HDDs were somehow better than SSDs It would be a shame if anyone with an M17 hasn't seen it on an SSD.

 

Unplug everything. The power line to computer, from the wall to the adapter-all of it. Should have 3 pieces now-Computer, adapter, and cord from adapter to wall. Connect cord to adapter and make sur eit is snuggly plugged in. DO NOT connect to computer yet. Is the blue LED on the compter end of the power adapter on? Yes-continue. No-adapter problem.
Take the battery out of the computer. cycle the power a few time to release any stored power. Then, hold the power button down for about 30 seconds. Now, reinstall battery, reconnect everything and see what you got. Works for me.
Usually happens when the computer is unplugged accidently or there is a loose connection at the wall or adapter. Let us know....

 

YESSSSSSS!!!!!!! Day and night. Even the Momentus XT I have seems slow now. Awesome gains for SSD!

 

Typing this on my M17x-r3 which arrived this afternoon Order confirmed on the 12th and delivered on the 24th, not too shabby (looks to be new, not a refurb). That said it does have 1 defect in that the big ailen head only glows white and wont change color with the theme. Not too worried since it's only a cosmetic blemish and I got the 3yr complete cover so I can get it fixed any time. For now it's time to play! Got the SSD installed and running sweet. Not done any benchmarks yet but I played a few games and I'm more than happy

 

On the R3's, the Alienhead doesn't change from white. Just letting you know. If you go into the AlienFX control panel, you won't find the option to change it.

 

Ahhh, good to know thanks. So far it's perfect then

 

You know what you are right, but I think the R3 does have that capability. The reason believed for this lack of colour changing is that the LED backlight for the screen lights up the alienhead. I have seen the 1600x900 and 1920x1080 panels and for the 900p panel this is the case. On the 1080p panel however, there is a separate lighting board where the alienhead covers on the 1080p panel. It consists of a bunch of LEDs and definitely looks like it should be able to change colours. If anyone with 1080p has noticed the mesh kind of pattern in the eyes on the alienhead on the lid, this is due to that separate board I am referring to and is absent on the R3 with the 1600x900 panels. I think because the 900p panel can't change colours they don't allow the 1080p panel to change even though it can.

 

^^^Respectfully disagree until proven otherwise. I have had 2 different ones and neither had the ability. It was discussed somewhere else too. I would think if it were possible, someone here woulda figured it out and posted-got plenty of rep-and a sticky woulda been made. I could be wrong though.

 

Yea I know I could be wrong too but it just doesn't make any sense to me why they would have a separate lighting panel with it's own cable connection to the main board of the lcd panel on the 1080p screen and absolutely nothing on the 900p screen ( there was just white plastic there that allows the display backlight to shine through the alienhead. The tech who changed my panels for me was very familiar with R2s and when I asked him why the 1080p screen had this and the 900p one didn't he said it was so the alienhead could change colours. I'm guessing the R2 employs something similar on it's panel to allow the alienhead to change colours.

 

I just placed an order for a new m17r3 after my m18x experience wasn't that pleasant (cosmetic as well as warranty related).

Anyway, what are the common issues for these units (m17r3) that I should look for upon delivery?

 

Only thing I ever had an issue with was the media bar sticking up on the right (facing) of the lappy. My first one was messed up-glued it down and it was fine. Sold it. Bought a second one and haven't had a single problem with it. IMO, they have about made the R3 perfect. Love it!!! Torn between my R3 and M18x! What to do????

 

YAY MINE JUST CAME IN TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

now to start the modding......hehehe

 

Well, just started playing with mine real good. Installed Furmark. Tried to run it and it failed @ 47%. Now my 6970 will not be recognized by the OS. On the phone.

 

Anything in the bios (not sure if you would see it there anyway). Did you also run the boot diagnostics? That doesn't sound good.

 

Yep. Shows in the BIOS. Did a respawn and it shows now in the OS. All seems fine until I do something GPU intensive. Any strain on the GPU causes artifacting and eventual lockup with blue screen-atikmag I believe. Soooooooooo, got the latest Dell/AW drivers and no difference. It's the card I know, bc it is boiling hot and the fan is barely running. I know how it's supposed to run. This is my second unit and the fans on the first would come on high at around 72C. This isn't coming on high at all. Sensor or card issue. Either way, it's hardware related. Will do diagnostics now and see if anything shows.

EDIT: Diag shows no problems. I even tried playing the MS chess game and it locked up during that so I know I have some sort of GPU issue. Oh well, will handle it tomorrow (Monday) with a phone rep.

 

Finally typing on my new R3. Thanks to all of those who helped me along the way, you know who you are.

Found a random screw inside the cooling fan. Nothing quite like disassembling your laptop before even powering it on. Some fine work with tweezers and everything is well again. Still, amusing (and initially alarming) to hear a rattle when you're unboxing.

 

I'm thinking about getting the M17X with the 3D display, but that can only come with the 460m card, unfortunately. Are the video cards user upgradeable? If not, it might be better to just go with the non-3D version and the 6970m card, right?

 

For me, personally, 3D is not an option. I have 20/200 vision in my right eye and the lack of vision in that eye renders 3D screens, games, movies etc. useless for me. That said, I'm sure there are plenty of people that love the 3D version and the pictures it produces. It is the coming attraction for sure, especially when the 3D movies start getting mass marketed. Me-I buy a computer to game and compute. I watch movies on tv. The 6970 will beat the 460 in every bench mark and outperform it alltogether with ease. Unless you KNOW you have specific games you want to play in 3D, I would suggest you go with the 6970. Just my opinion.

 

My custom gun metal painted lid . Also had the bottom panel paint matched .

 

turned out pretty nice quad. can't wait to see pics with the case assembled.

 

Totally missed that. Looks awesome! I recently got my R2 lid reanodized to a real dark blue, but the base aluminum broke into two when I tried to reassemble it. I'm probably going to powder coat it next time...

 

Damn Quad, your paint job matches my car

I got a random question, Does anyone know the maximum audio channels the R3 has? I'm playing Sanctum and the audio does not play right when there are too many creatures attacking. I have edited the game ini to increase the max channels from 32 up to 128 which has made a big difference but it would be handy if I could go higher.