Refurb M17x owners

Just got my m17x today, just wondering about what's been in the box for some other refurb buyers. Mine didn't come in an Alienware box, just a plain Dell laptop box. No "box candy" like the AW cap or anything, which I didn't really expect. Mine did not have the black alienware "sleeve" cover that I've seen in some photos and on some YouTube "unboxing" vids. My owner's manual doesn't have the nice leather bound cover either - just a regular printed glossy thick paper cover. I thought I had heard in the past that the refurbs still came in the standard AW packaging - my old Dell Dimension was a refurb but you'd never have known it opening the box. This one DID feel like a refurb opening it up. The machine itself looks brand new - oh yeah it didn't have the protective film on the screen or even the paper insert between the screen and keyboard either. Just wondering for other recent refurb buyer's what their out of box experience was like?

It looks like it's BIOS A05, dated 4/23/10. I have the i7 620 (which only got a 3.9 on the Windows Performance index!? Really?) and dual 4870's. Should I update to A08 or don't bother for a while and try some stuff out? I haven't had time to do anything other than set up the OS, run Windows update and install a virus scanner. Probably won't get to install any games or anything until Wednesday. To be honest it seemed like it was running kinda slow during the setup but maybe that's just not a fast process regardless. I've never run a benchmark but I see everybody seems to do it on these forums so maybe I should get some benchmarking apps and see if it's running up to par?

 

Check under the unit is there a orange sticker stating refub?
If it is there will be one. I sounds like it but not sure. My outlet one come like yours did my replacement came in the box with the goodies. Also make sure its not running in stealth, that both cards are on.

 

Yes, it has a refurb sticker and that is what I purchased from the outlet. Just wasn't sure if it was supposed to have any of the other standard packaging. The black slip cover would have been nice. The machine itself looks fine. As far as I can tell stealth is not on. I hit the touch button for it and it prompts me to click 'yes' to enable or no to cancel. If I hit yes and then do it again it prompts the same thing - the touch key doesn't really look like it changes in brightness when I click 'yes'. Anyway I hit 'no' so I'm assuming it's off. In CCC it has Crossfire X as enabled and shows the primary card and linked card if i go into the information center and click on the graphics hardware button. But on the Crossfire X page when I click on the "Identify GPU" button which claimes to "Identify all display devices that are both enabled and connected to display and render GPUs" all I get is a giant "1" on the screen. Is that what I should be seeing? The top line in the dropdown window just has one item: "1. ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 (Default LCD)." If I go to Diagnostics within CCC it says "the following information indicates the status of your setup. It's followed by a blank window and another Identify GPU button which again when pressed only yields a giant "1" on the screen. Maybe both cards are fine but this doesn't really seem to clearly indicate that.

 

Refurbs only come in the brown box with no accessories included. Only the laptop, a/c adapter, power cord, some cds, and a plastic(half vinyl, half plastic) sleeve. You've got everything right.

I think something is off with your WEI score. The 620m, from what I know, should score 6.9(t6.9 only because this is the max for a dual core). May be try a clean reinstall of windows using the CD you have?

 

Yeh the WEI score although not very relevant or disregarded by most is quite low for your spec. Double check you are running in high performance mode. Change a few settings in there as well just to double check.

Also there is a stealth mode indicator program that you can get here on this forum it will reside in your taskbar and tell you whether or not you are in stealth mode.

As for identifying if Crossfire is indeed on/enabled properly you can use GPU-z and or radeon pro to enable a crossfire logo on the top right hand side of the screen every time you run a full screen app or game that supports crossfire. Its quite handy most of the times. For a quick check when trouble shooting or just pure comfort I'd recommend GPU-z. It provides quite a few nifty little bits of info about your gpus.

Enjoy your new toy!

If you really want things fresh than yeh you can do a reformat and install the OS fresh.

Cheers.

 

mine did came with the alienware box, opened, and ugly, the machine was new, it also came with the sleeve covers, 2 cds,

strangely enough, doesn't have the sticker saying refurbished... and i bought it from mainland china, althought not refurbished, but used for showroom, as so the guys says

 

fatelzz, they run things differently in the US.

 

I got a refurb as a system replacement, no fancy packaging or anything, but it otherwise seems just like a brand new one.

 

You are correct. I have the i7-620m & it should read 6.9 for the WEI processor rating.

 

Forgive the noob question, this is not only my first Alienware but my first laptop (other than work supplied), where is the performance mode accessed? Is that in the AW Command Center or is it a standard Microsoft setting somewhere? I'm hoping not to have to reinstall Windows, is that normally necessary with a new system?

I'm not at home now and won't be able to check it until tomorrow, but knowing right where to go would be great.

 

The fastest way to access it would probably be to press & hold the windows key while pressing the pause/break key, then click the "Windows Experience Index" link in the middle of the screen.

Oops. I was thinking of the WEI info we were talking about. The stealth/performance mode information is in the command center. The saucer on your touch capacitive strip would be the fastest access to settings. The speedometer next to it is the "on/off" switch for stealth mode.

 

yeah im getting a 3.2 on the wei for proccessor and i have a 720

 

oh and make sure you have the right power supply

 

Yup, it's got the 240 watt power brick. I may have to get the stealth mode indicator utility and try that. It's very ambiguous when I try with the speedometer button. I wish it would confirm "Stealth mode on/off" for a second after you do it. I have a suspicion even though I think I've turned it off it might still be on.

 

It is highly possible. When I first got an M17x I was hitting the stealth button when I would pick up the system to move it.

They really should have put that "button" on the inside, before the eject "button", not on the outside edge.

 

Well, I went into the command center and sure enough it was running in stealth mode and the "balanced" power profile. Also irksome is though it lists the high performance profile on that page but wouldn't let me select it, and you can't disable stealth from there! So I hit the speedo button again and this time selected "yes" and stealth is now off. I didn't do that before because when the prompt comes up the way it reads it makes you think clicking "no" won't turn it on. But apparently it's yes for on and yes again for off. Really clear there AW!

Anyway I re-ran the Windows Experience thing and now my processor scores 6.9 and memory went from 4.2 to 5.9. Does 6.6 sound right for dual 4870's?

 

6.9 is all right for the cpu, but still low for the other components. I strongly suggest you do a clean installation of windows and start over?