*OFFICIAL* M18x Owner's Lounge Thread

Well, he can argue... It's he's right. And I will defend it. As I will defend my own right to say mine. As long as I do not offend anyone.

 

SOS4DELL you have said you are a teacher....PLEASE proof-read your posts as they have been somewhat hard to read lately.....

 

Thank you very much! Sincerely I apologize before all the participants. I will be very grateful and would appreciate any observations / corrections.

Pitifully, English is not my mother language. In fact, yes, I'm an educator (instead of a teacher ). Curiously my students are university teachers and professors (to whom I try to educate ‘how not to teach’ . But I never had the opportunity to learn the Shakespeare, Yeats, Shaw... language in my life. I kind of educate myself the best I could as an autodidact.

Thanks again indeed!.

 

Im an owner and I want to talk about my awesome m18x. Please start a thread to argue over whether ~60 people represent the majority of m18x sales and what it means that ~25 are having issues. I don't want to be the guy that calls people out for being off-topic but this has taken a life of it's own in this particular thread. Please don't make me be him again.

 

Totally agree!

Each thread has its own purpose.

 

Some internal pics for you guys below:


Nice heatsinks!


Base without display and alot of other parts !


I knew I put 'em somewhere.....


Those pesky little additional Ram slots hidden under the keyboard....

 

Dammn it, so it is true! The 2920XM comes with a dual-piped heatsink.... C'mon Dell....

 

are you saying it has potential to have better cooling or that anyone who didn't order a 2920 gets a single heatpipe? O-o

 

I'm saying that my 2630QM (and most likely your 2720QM) has only 1 pipe... Now we have to get a dual-piped HS from Dell.

 

Is it now so good / adquate that the 2920XM have those kind of pipes or what?

Please Aiki, can you explain a little further for those (like myself) that are not 'experts' (or even closer )?

Thanks!

 

Hey Stevie, in the second pict. from the top, below the board, it is an antistatic mat? If so, where did you get / find it?
Great job and pics BTW!

 

Lol, I'm on a business meeting... Will be back soon

 

Right, Thanks! business before pleasures...

 

Did not realize that they were shafting the rest of you

Makes me feel a little better about dropping an extra $900 on just the cpu....lol

 

Me too. If they would ever process my return so I can reorder

 

Thanks!

Yep - anti static mat was used along with wristband and esd plug for wall socket...I bought 'em a week or so ago knowing that I wanted to be 10000% safe when inside this thing.

I got mine via Ebay UK.....the "field service kit" came with the mat,wrist band and ground lead to earth the mat and got it for the bargain auction price of 99 pence....

I bought the plug (full price at £4.50 ) to earth the lot to my wall socket from Ebay too.....like this one: ESD Plug

The service kits can be bought at any good radioshack or electronics place or even Amazon here.....I fell lucky getting one for a song, typically, they were about £25gbp.....better safe than sorry tho 'eh?

 

Really clever from you. Thanks for the info!

Do you realize that the "LINDY Anti-Static Service Kit" that you got for 99 pence... worth in UK £19.34 ??? I love this Mat. I hope to get one next time I'll be NY...

 

Yeah! - was a bargain....it was used and in the auction pic, was really dirty but being vinyl, it cleaned up really well with some isopropyl alcohol and a bit of elbow grease....its actually like new now and I am really pleased I invested in it.

 

You should do! In this electronic times, it's essential in every home.

 

I know that not everyone will want to or even think of using ESD precautions....I just didnt wanna be "bitten" and fry my circuits for the sake of a few quid....seems like a no brainer to me if your gonna work within or with any kind of computer hardware that has even the remotest chance of being killed by a bit of static.

 

I have used just the antistatic wrist strap... But I will follow your footprints

 

You know, I'm loving pretty much everything about my new M18X, save for one thing I'm really missing. The LCD display on my M1730. I found the clock on that invaluable for making sure I didn't go over my limit with the SO. It's the little things right?

 

Not sure if you're like me, but if you are a gamer (like me) and tend to use your laptop with an external keyboard, mouse, and screen (like me), then I recommend the Logitech G510 keyboard. Same LCD functionality as the M1730 (which was a Logitech LCD) but with a shiny, macro loving gaming keyboard.

 

I've been holding off on such a purchase but it gets harder all the time. Heh.

Right now the extra buttons on my Logitech G700 gaming mouse have been doing the trick just fine but occasionally I want a few more dedicated buttons on the keyboard.

 

Has anyone been using the new macro buttons on the keyboard? Are they being found useful at all?

 

Yep, I connected my most frequently used apps to the macro keys and am planning to assign sequences of moves in shooters.

 

I haven't used mine yet but they look cool

 

Silly question, how do you assign macro buttons a function? I tried using them in black Ops, but did no work.

 

Nah I'm game whilst on my couch in the living room. If I was connecting all that other stuff I'd buy a PC

But yeah, that keyboard is very cool.

 

woah. can u plz go into more detail what you mean by this. sounds very interesting.

 

From what I've learned, macro keys can be used for assigning various functions through Command Center -> Macro keys -> click on a button and choose one of the following:

1) Assign keystrokes (you can use combinations like Ctrl+Shift+x. Can be handy in games)
2) Assign functions (calculator/email/etc)
3) Assign shortcuts (here you can choose any application)
4) Create Macros (here you can record your own messages for teammates in online games)

Keep in mind that you have 5 keys and the switching key above. Pressing the switching key will change the color of all macro keys. You can assign separate functions for different color states of each key - up to 15 total (3 colors).

As for the complex moves in shooters, there are scripts involved and I'm still not sure if we can do it directly through CC.

 

So you're saying that each individual macro key can have it's own unique color? That would add even more flair.

 

Each macro key can have 3 colors. 5 keys x 3 colors = 15 unique functions.

 

All of the keys in the column are always the same color. However that color can be any of three different colors for each of the three sets of different things that each key can be programmed to do.

 

Ah I see now. They definitely have more functions than I previously thought they did.

 

yeah, I'm barely using 3 functions at this time. For office mode with lots of copying/cutting and pasting, I find it convenient to assign the #3, #4 and #5 the corresponding shortcuts: Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, Crtl+V. Takes some time getting used to it though.

 

Alright guys, does anyone have a link to a thread, or any info on repasting the cpu and gpus for the m18x? Im considering doing this just to get my temps as low as possible. Also I used OCZs freeze paste on my desktops so will probably go with that again but what about thermal pads? Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

OCZ Freeze and EK thermal pads working well for me

 

Scook you rock man. That was super fast. lol Any tips on the teardown? I imagine its a complete teardown... It'll be the first laptop I've ever opened up.. :/

Saw the first page of this thread... /facepalm

 

Guys, I am sorry for my post here, but I am kind of desperate here. I got my m18x and stupid as I am, I formatted the drive without doing the alienrespawn backup... I know, I know. My pain is enough...

So, as most people here have similar configuration as mine (6970m cfx, intel 6300...), I would like to ask humbly if anyone, anyone could create an iso file of this backup and place it somewhere on the internet so I could grab it...

I am having a harsh time configurating it again, so that would bring me peace of mind.

If anyone could help me, I will be eternally, REALLY, grateful!

 

you are better off just doing a fresh install yourself....I never even booted the factory install

 

Listen to Scook, he knows what he is talking about...
( And be careful next time: You better get off of "alcaloides" )

 

Man Dell just won't ship me a English keyboard they would rather give me my money back lol......The reason I want to keep this one is it's a near perfect build and was only 2299...... Any advice would be appreciated

 

Wow, that's ridiculous. Worst case you can order an extra keyboard but I'd try to convince Dell to send it for free, it's their fault.

If the system is in perfect condition, keep it.

 

The problem, guys, is that I am having some difficulties installing a fresh copy of windows 7 ultimate... After installing everything, I still get some unrecognized hardware and after installing my intel 6300 wifi, my ethernet stops working...

I have just formatted the laptop again and will follow the clean install topic preciselly and will reply to you...

Anyway, I really would like this backup dvd, if someone would be so kind to upload it somewhere...

But thanks for any help, guys. I have a new toy and can't play with it yet...

 

There's a certain order for fresh install: OS-> chipset drivers -> video card dr. -> then everything else from the drivers page. It should be fine and everything will be detected. I've done quite a few fresh installs for my customers recently and never had any problems. Not only you can install the latest drivers right away and create a clean image of your partition at any time, you will also avoid all the bloatware that comes preinstalled by default.

 

hey could anyone help me? since the dell tech came and replace my cards, i ave no issues with it. after the 3dmark11 test in june 8, i never touched it till now. now when i tried launching games, the screen goes flickering with white and black lines. i did a clean install of the drivers but no luck. the only time it wont flicker is when i turn off crossfire. its very weird. anyone of u guys could help out that would be great.

 

Did you see how the tech was working on your system? Did he use a wrist strap + mat? Could be the CF cable or the secondary GPU. I'd try and re-seat both cards and the cable.

 

he did wear a wrist strap and mat. i took it apart just now. unplugged the cable and replugging it back.

 

Just a silly question, and i apologize if this does not have anything to do with this thread, but where do i put graphics cards on sale in this site? I'm asking because i'm thinking of selling my 2 ATI 6970m to buy 2 Nvidia 460M.

I want to do this because i am a bit disappointed with the ATI graphics cards and Dell won't exchange them.