You Know You Own an m17x When...

You Know You Own an m17x When...

you paid $3000 for a laptop with a touchpad that doesn't work

the battery lasts 30 minutes, if you're lucky

you get excited when there are driver updates

you have to buy a smaller laptop to take with you when you actually have to go somewhere

it sounds like a 747 during take off

 

Those two are common for most notebooks.

 

silly thread, but i have to agree with most (if not all) the issues you listed here. biggest concern for me so far is the jet engine noise and driver update. haha.

 

If you really are concerned about the weight and size and battery life, then I am sorry to say that you bought the wrong laptop.

 

hahah loool. They are all true but i am willing to bear with it for the performance

 

Ha, the one that got me is the trackpad. This has got to be the worst trackpad on a laptop. My last lappy was an m1710. That trackpad was amazing by comparison. I almost never use the trackpad now, preferring to also carry a mouse rather than be frustrated. Btw, the razor orichi, is a great travel mouse for the m17x.

 

My experience has been very different than yours, I have a M17X, Core 2 Duo, GTX 260m, and 4 Gigs ram that I paid $1300 (with tax and shipping). It was refurbished, no scracthes, dinks or anything. The fan made a weird noise at first, but they came to my house and replaced it.

As far as battery goes, I get 3 Hours of Battery life. I take a bus from Philly to NY most days and get to watch a full movie each way. Of course that's using the integrated 9400m, but its fine for me. I don't think you can even get full performance from the dedicated chips b/c of the power they need.

The fans only get loud while gaming, and I'm okay with that.

But it is super heavy, the touchpad really sucks, and the driver and bios problems have been super frustrating. But it seems everything is good now and I am very happy with my purchase.

 

Huh? I have yet to see a laptop with such a crappy touchpad.

 

I get at least two hours of battery life from mine and the touchpad is pretty great compared to my old M1730 and a Sony that we have...

 

From what i've read so far, especially from erawneila (Brian) from Alienware, Dell is currently working on a lot of things to get our beast working as it should and to fix all our issues, to summarize: Synaptics touchpad driver, Ati Catalyst 10.8 driver (official catalyst 10.8 driver should be out this week aswell), HD5870 VBios (special cases?), Bios A08 and whatnot... If you have actually any major issues running on stock, except battery capacity and loud noise (aslong it runs smooth) and getting hot. If it's in a range you should probably have expected it e.g. weight + mobility, other than that, if you are unsure about any behaviour call Dell and ask if it's normal. Of course, if you are really really unhappy with it, and you find something better, let us know

 

If alienware can fix the issues you mentioned, then the issues listed by the OP are no issues at all. i just want my M17x to work as it should, the rest i can live with

 

My touch pad is fine, it actually has multi touch now thanks to drivers and its awesome.

My battery life on dedicated graphics cards is 1:30, but on the 9400m it lasts at least 4 hours, ive gotten 5:30 actually.

Driver updates are nice, but I have not needed to update them too often, the only thing that really bugs me is the fact that it takes a while to load the alienhead splash screen when i first turn on the laptop, but there will probably be an easy fix for that.

Overall my laptop is awesome, plays all my games very well, and has not had many problems.

Also if you want a quiet laptop you bought the wrong one XD

 

Well if those, mostly software/driver/windows7 relevant issues will get solved, you can also solve the other things. And if all those fixes are released, and if they really work, i don't see any issues at all anymore. As for loud fans, you can do that nice GPU Coolling Mod someone posted in the forums, or why not just pump up the volume As said, you probably want to research a little before you buy something, so you don't get as surprised as you should hehe

I can easily live with the current issues, as for the other things, it's what it had to be expected i guess and i'm very happy with my system

hehe, that's correct, also weight and size/measurement is described somewhere

 

You should have bought a business-class machine if those were your real concerns. Dell offers a number of systems, all for far less than what you paid for your m17x which offer those features. In the past I have used a Latitude D820, D810, and various Inspirons and all have been ultra quiet, very long battery life, lightweight, very stable drivers, and reasonable touchpad (though in general I HATE touchpads and always use an external mouse).

You bought a *gaming* machine. Those other systems will not be able to play modern games in the way the m17x will, and in turn you have to accept the trade-offs for it if that is what you want.

 

I absolutely love my M17x. The touchpad works alright, but honestly, this isn't meant to be used as a "laptop" its purpose is a mobile desktop. That's why we bought it. Most people are using a mouse, as they should be for gaming / productivity. As I said before, its a mobile desktop. I'll never use this without being tethered and I knew that going in. Battery life is of no concern to, I'm assuming, a lot of people who bought this machine.

My computer runs incredibly cool. I've never once had the keyboard / wrist wrest area warm. The fan definitely gets loud when it needs to work, but it usually goes quieter after a few minutes.

Driver updates are great. Who doesn't like them? I'm currently using the 10.7 drivers. I don't put the machine into sleep mode, and I don't unplug it while its on. These two things are not an issue for me. If they get fixed, that'd be great, but I can live with a problem that doesn't affect me. In trade for something so minor, my gaming performance is outstanding. I've looked a little bit @ throttlestop to look at potentially making it more outstanding, but honestly I don't think I'll mess with it. There's no need. I get over 19k in 3dmark 06 running 10.7, and my computer's ingame performance is pretty great as a result. I don't know a lot about vbios, but from what I understand, unless my cards are having issues - there's no need to flash them when the new vbios comes out (I think). Same holds true with the new A08 bios (again, I think ). I'll wait to see how people respond to the new video drivers and if they seem to work well I'll definitely download them. I could get 10.7a for aa in SC2, but I was going to wait for a non beta product.

I know I got a little off topic, but what I'm trying to say is that nothing is absolutely perfect. You can't get a machine as powerful as this one and have all the benefits of a smaller, lighter machine too. If you know the product's limitations, and you know what you're buying, and expect nothing else, you'll be very happy. If you want a computer that does all this, has 8 hour battery life and weighs 5 pounds, then you might want to consult your local psychologist to help adjust your expectations

All and all, I'm very happy with my purchase.

 

Double true I'm also currently on A06 Bios, and i would also only flash hardware if there is an actual perormance benefit from it. Concerning the mentioned HD5870 VBios Update, i think it's for people having main gpus as secondary gpus on crossfire coming from spare part department only, which causes issues. So i don't know if anyone with factory installed gpus, have to use that VBios. As mentioned, and i'm not even sure if it's released for public, aslong it doesn't give any improvements or fixes any common issues, I wouldn't flash hardware.

 

Hmm, touchpad works perfectly on my M17xr2

Don't use the battery much at all on any of my laptops. Even my work laptop.

Driver updates are exciting on any laptop/desktop

In no way do I buy a smaller laptop. Are you kidding? Netbooks have such a PITA of a time loading webpages that actually FIT IN THE SCREEN. Super low screen resolution keeps me away from sub 14" laptops.

I always wondered what everyone was talking about when they mentioned the fans sounded like a 747. No matter how long I run Furmark the fans don't overpower the speakers ever. What I DO hear is the wind blowing from the fans. Then I searched youtube and found this video: YouTube - Alienware M17x

Realized I am super lucky to not have that loud sound coming from my M17xR2. Feel bad for those of you that are getting that sound. Maybe a bad fan? I dunno. That's craziness.

 

Haha Nice find on that Youtube Video. Maybe the fans run backward on that thing.
Mine isn't resonating that much, though gotta love the GPU coiling

 

an updated driver doesn't fix anything, if we have to wait 4 months for new driver releases the same problem will just repeate itself until Dell decides to not care anymore. It's not just a Vbios no-post CF problem, the cards are different on a hardware level (which is why they had to take parts from new computers stock). Bottom line, in order for the problem to be 'resolved' Dell needs to release a Vbios that is compatible with reference drivers.

you're right... good touchpads don't belong on $3-4K gaming laptops, nor do driver updates(sarcasm). It would be one thing if it were an average one, but it's hardly average. I'll agree with the other complaints though, they really don't fit in the category of a DTR.

a touchpad that has 20hz polling rate is, substandard at best. Not mentioning the geniuses decided to make it(and the keyboard) use a PS/2 interface. My mini-10 has a 50hz polling rate trackpad and it's a $300 netbook...

 

I've played around with plenty of alienware laptops and I've never used one with a great trackpad. Honestly, it's just probably something they feel they can skimp on to make extra money.

 

Well aslong we cry about it, i hope they do care. But for that we shouldn't only write on the forum maybe, but also call them once in a while and let them know personally what we think. And that each time we have any small issue

Yeah, you're right, of course i would like to see the dell specific changes right to the official ati drivers, or as you mentioned the possibility to use a proper vbios that supports the official ati cat's...

 

Previous Alienware laptops were rebadges of Clevo's or OCZ laptops, so the blame can't really be cast on them in those cases. This time though, they had it made to their design specifications by flextronics.

 

Let's see how this new vbios beta works out. I'm signed up for testing so hopefully it'll allow reference drivers to work.

 

Are you having the kind of issues that you'd need a vbios for?

 

wa-what? pics/thread/info or it didn't happen.

 

Its around somewhere.

-Ash

 

Wait, does this have anything to do with the touchpad update?

 

uhm no, what they talk about vbios is the gpu bios, what you are looking forward to is either a newer synaptics touchpad driver or a newer system bios or any other fix...

That would be so cool, but we shouldn't probably get too hyped up about this

 

You know you own an M17x when people ask why you brought your desktop.


You know you own an M17x when a plane sees all the lights and tries to land on you.

 

10char

 

I knew I owned an M17x when...

I was taking a shower. My friend signed for the FedEx guy and told my that my M17x had arrived.

 

lol

10 char

 

You know you own an alienware when people give you funny looks cause they have never seen a beast like that before.

 

^^^^ this is soooooo true. So many ppl say they only see these in movies or on tv shows never in real life.

Example:
stranger: Isn't that the laptop from Hot Tub Time Machine?
Me:No this one is mine!
Stranger: it looks so cool
me:

 

... you need to hand out bibs to your IT workmates before you start the unboxing. (Yes, I expect them to drool when my lappy gets here tomorrow.)

 

You've spent so much time with your local "aw" tech that you not only know him by his first and last name, but you also know the names of his wife, three children, and the family pet.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.

 

The problem with alienware is!
Alienware is too advance for regular people or regular use, for example if you don not how to play with high tech gadget and you play with it setting acour you going to be frutrate.
Sorry for my English, no native speaking

 

The weight is not an issue for me.

I do own a netbook for the long battery life and ease of removing and replacing out of my case.

 

You know you own an M17x when someone with an Asus G70 complains about your 3D Mark Vantage score at stock settings and then claims your computer cost "too much money".

 

Sorry, but when the computer doesn't work correctly out of the box, and tech support has you on the phone for hours installing and re-installing drivers which should have been installed before the unit shipped, and also has you dis-assembling your brand new computer to chase down a hardware issue less than a week after receiving the unit, it isn't because the computer is too advanced for regular people or regular use, it's because AW shipped a whole bunch of lemons and now they expect you to make the lemonade.

 

Because we all know APPLE has NEVER done that before right? lol. Non gaming computer lemons, so sad.

 

I'm certainly not defending Apple and their over-priced hardware, or their over-hyped "geniuses". They're like a bunch of yuppie nazis. Yazis if you will. But I've never owned a mac that I had to reconfigure for months to get it to perform as advertised. And just because Apple shipped the latest iphone with known flaws isn't an excuse for Alienware or anyone else.

 

I used to work for Apple as a repair technician. When the computers kept coming back despite my other repairmen fixing them per their Apple Certifications, I quickly realized the lemon that Apple product is.

We had an Apple server sent out to a customer and within 2 days it was dead, wouldn't power on. One of my techs replaced the damaged part "mobo" and sent it back, came back in 3 days. Fixed again, came back in 2 weeks. Owner gave up and bought a Dell server. Server is still up to this day.

Don't get me started on the huge amounts of iMacs that used to pour into our repair center. *sigh*


It's just a computer. Apple or not. They have issues/problems.

 

Agree...
All computer, gaming pc or regular thay alway have problem, I many experiences with Sony , hp , apple

 

Ya and it is still an amazingly powerful laptop out of the box to. Any laptop that can play the newest games out of the box at max settings is worth an A+ in my book.

 

FYI: This has been fixed with the latest M17xR2 bios update. The BIOS notes state the polling rate was upped to 60hz.

What was that about a $300 netbook? lol

 

x2 lol

I get 1.5+ hours out of my battery R1 on a 9400 of course

 

Lets not revive old threads - especially a gripe thread which compares the 17x to an apple product... lol.