*OFFICIAL* M18x Owner's Lounge Thread

Maybe Dell's suplying another cosmetic opportunity to the mighty mouse? (I mean, of course, the speedy g.) Arriba, arriba arriba!!! yehaa!

 

LOL.

 

how do you monitor the temps ? Mine constantly reports 128C in HWiNFO which is guess is not the real value

 

heres video of my m18x running gta 4 all freaking maxed out
pretty horrible
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM8mB9t6MPk

2720qm
6970m cf
16gb ram
and gta 4 bought from steam
forced it w commandline.txt

 

Mine was showing 125C so that is why I looked it up on OCZ website. And why I asked for an accurate monitor program. I hope those numbers are not correct. I thought SSDs were advertised as adding less heat to the computer, so I was surprised when I saw the temp.

 

thats an issue with your settings. mine doesnt run like that, its smooth.

 

Try tightening the screws on the lid and re-assembling it. BTW, if you manage to get the screen model number or number of pins - would be great

 

Doesn't Delienware have some sort of quality assurance department that tests these systems before they go out? It seems more like its a sweat shop with little kids installing windows and throwing the computers around judging from the numerous problems people are having (dating back to the M17xR1 with its notorious DPC latency problems)

 

Ive got crossfires and a wierd issue on GTA4 (Steam Version)

It flickers like mad and on the graphics setting screen tells me that my card is maxing out - but its on the lowest settings and wont let me change. Wierd.

Crysis plays like a dream!

Slow mouse in doom 3 for some reason too.

Help!

 

Welcome to globalization and outsourcing

 

Whats the commandline.txt and what did it fix? Not sure if I have the same issue. cheers

 

WHAT!!!!! - you mean they ARE NOT hand built by one individual for ME!!!!! ........(gets coat on and exits the building to go complain about the foreign labour used to build these systems lol)

 

What do you think we are? Lol

Paying beta testers

 

Haha, yeah. But we know that and agree to the terms. Dell should send us the AW DIY Lego instead

 

It's a shame that we're 'glorified beta testers' for these laptops. At such a premium price, I expect a quality product. Not that everything is all bad. You definitely can't knock that warranty - but I hate playing roulette with a new system. *crosses fingers and hopes for a system built as well as Zero's*

 

At the battlefields this is simply called "cannon meat"...

 

LTN184HT05-T01

 

Dammn you're good! Thanks a lot!

 

finally got my gpus working again. dell techs came and replaced it. turns out to be a burntout thermal paste. grease was all over.

 

Was it your paste or the stock one?

 

it was my paste. i think it was some bad IC diamond.

 

So ideally I'll have my m18x in my hands within a week ^_^

What should be the first things I do? (apart from check whether or not RAID is set up)

i.e. Drivers, settings changes, etc.

 

clean install would be the 1st thing if i was you. thn comes the drivers, etc.

 

I don't feel like a beta tester. Bummer for those that do.

 

I do not feel like beta tester

I felt when I received my first R2 because that was horrible Flickering, stuttering, throttling and you name it, but the M18X just works out of the box

I know the quality control sucks now but that is acceptable at some at some degree like mine has the little plastic on the lid lose but i already fix it and things like that some people here complain about insignificant stuff and i respect that because is their money all i can say about the M18X is Wooow

 

Knew you would like it Speedy, they are just awesomely built machines imho

Just sucks to open them up lol

 

is not really that bad my Dell precision was the same layout , the trick is how to remove the media panel and i know how to do it with out prying or using any screwdriver just slowly pull all the way around the keyboard with your fingers once the keyboard frame is lose you move back and forward the panel to unclip the back clips by the screen hinges

 

Ya it is an art taking these laptops apart. I did it completely guessing (educated guesses though). As I said earlier, I "Leroy Jenkins'd" it

Did not even read the manual lol

Having a lot of laptop experience is fun!

 

Has anyone tried re-anodizing the body? I know with my other hobby (paintball) re-anodizing markers is common and easy. Speedy how easy/hard is it to get all the aluminum components off?

 

is not bad to disassemble the M18X the question is how you remove the previous anodized finish that is going to be a pain other than that is an easy proyect

 

Im uploading videos to youtube as we speak, but whenever CF is enabled with my 6970s i have a vertical line flickering on the left side of my screen while playing games... its present in BFBC2, WOW (intermittently), Dungeon Siege 3 Demo, however when i play crysis (original) there is no line flicker whatsoever. do you think this is just a CF bug in those games or is something wrong with my gpu? i can use my laptop all day with no lines its just when its rendering games i can see it. im downloading more games to see if its in them too, so far its in 3 out of 4.


Let the 720p res video buff then watch if you watch it any lower you might not see it due to pixelating
YouTube - ‪Dungeon Siege 3 Line Flicker‬‏ (might not be live yet)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrOBySRnbsw BFBC2

You can see it early in the video its intermittent in wow but still there http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97lGIQtrfok

 

Hi, Speedy.
You have two possibilities to remove the anodic coating from Al parts:

1. Simply sand it.
or how I did it but be careful
2. Use sodium hydroxide(NaOH) solution(~20% concentration) in warm water.
I'd say ~15ml for 3,5 litres of warm water will do, mix the solution thoroughly, if you see that the process is to slow add more solution slowly.

Be cautious and do this in a well vented area as the vapors released are caustic !!!
USE RUBBER GLOVES AND EYE PROTECTION

Use a large enough recipient (i.e. pan etc.) to be able to submerge your part and be fully covered in solution.
Bubbles will form on the Al surface and a residue will form, you'll want to remove the residue to expose your part to the solution(do this with gloves).
In a few minutes (depends on the concentration used and the part size) you will see that the piece is a uniform flat color . Stains should have disappeared.
Take the piece out and rinse thoroughly with water.
Dry it and inspect for any anodized residue, if any left immerse your part in the chemical solution a little more and rub the residue off. Rincer with water and dry it again.

Almost done.
Now you can sand them, I used 600 grid (smaller would be overkill imo), to a nice bright shine.

Now it's up to you to do whatever you like with them (anodize it again or paint it). To keep the natural Al finish just apply clear coat after degreasing.

PM me for more tips (solution etc.)

 

Thanks Katalin you definitely know some stuff i will consider that on the future for now i am in love with the gunmetal finish

 

Something that is keeping Speedy happy? This must be GOOD lol

 

Years and years of chemistry
Indeed it looks very nice from what i've seen in your guys pictures, but still i would do mine

 

I had a problem with Gta iv flickering - the first part was the command text that can be found on the steam forums. As for the second part -
seems that although I updated to ccc 11.5 and applied the hot fixes that the crossfire drivers weren't installed - I found this when I scanned in device manager.

Now everything is smooth.

You know I find the screen to be pretty good. I haven't seen the rgb ones that everyone talks about, but hd is looking good. The viewingangles are pretty good too.

Great sound coming from my m18x to boot

 

This is kind of a strange question......

Does anyone know if the trackpad buttons can be "removed" or "swapped" without having to actually swap out the trackpad?

Im asking as from what ive read of the service manual, swapping the trackpad involves stripping off the palm rest (obviously) and taking the display off too.....quite a big process.

Only asking as I have one slightly cosmetically "challenged" mouse button and thought I could just pry the little fella off and swap it....

Thoughts anyone?

 

I have plenty of "supplies" to strip the old anno off

Is there a teardown guide or video for getting the aluminum parts off? I'm thinking a nice splash finish would be cool. Maybe a slime green or lime.

Something like this splash would be great:


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

Got a replacement system, which has faulty second GPU or insufficient or missing thermal pads, as im getting bsods and throttling in game. shader temps on secondary card are going up to 130 degrees. what type of quality control is this

 

Ugh, between this thread, Mavericke's thread, and another forum I frequent, I'm really not enthusiastic about receiving my unit...

 

Don't be. You need to keep in mind that it's always the problems that broadcast louder since most people with no problems are typically silent about it.

Problems are the exception rather than the rule in most cases.

 

True. 90%+ of the owners never appear here unless they have a problem.

 

i think he should be worried. i am not happy with dells quality control. what are the chances that me on this forum, orders a m18x gets it fualty, then gets a replacement, which is also faulty. many other users who are reporting issues are the same.

 

You'd think with an 18 day build time they'd have a minute or two for QC...my Orion backpack had a slip with the name and employee number(?) of the QC rep that inspected it

 

Gonna bump my own question

 

If the machines were as bad as you are making it sound no one would buy AW due their dreadful reputation. Luckily, that is not the case.

Also, for every person with a problem there are dozens, likely more, that don't.

 

I understand your point I'm just highlighting that at the moment on the new m18x there is a quality control issue

 

I'll consider myself blessed - it looks like mine is good to go.
I went low on the RAM and HD with the intent to replace them later.

Possibly regretting NOT getting the XM processor just to have the most horsepower under the hood. Still, the Sandy Bridge 2820QM is a rockin' CPU. Windows Index scores with this setup beat my Desktop PC which is a Core i7-960 w/ 6GB of Tri-channel RAM and 2x nVidia 460GTX vid cards @SLI.

 

Hey guys, I'm feeling left out. Dell is still processing my return. Nothing from E3, so once my account is credited, I can reorder the same specs. Thinking about Gun Metal this time though?

 

You can order any specs you want within credited amount.