*OFFICIAL* M18x Owner's Lounge Thread

If you use a separate modem though and not tether your phone, you have to pay for a separate data plan dont you?

No broadband cards with sim slot on the card?

 

Can't seem to find one but maybe I'm not looking hard enough.

 

Thanks Zero. Def going to upgrade my RAM first! Then onto and SSD.

 

nononono, do the SSD first!

 

While you can swap SIM's around, I have quite a few data plans (some paid for by work, and some by me)

In Australia you get ripped off no matter what you chose, however the iPad 2 data plans are pretty cheap and work quite well, so I have a few of them.

 

Yes, this. SSD is the biggest upgrade you'll see for any and all upgrades.

 

Has anyone heard about expresscard 34/54 sim card readers? Or maybe mobile broadband mini pcie adapters that come with sim card reader built in?

 

As for expresscard... it depends who your carrier is. Keep in mind that a "card reader" isn't enough. You need the wireless radio to communicate with your carrier as well.

I'm not sure how outdated this site is, but it shows a few options, sorted by carrier:

ExpressCard and Wireless WAN

 

Anyone have this problem? I installed an SSD on my M18x and re-installed Windows 7.

I went through the steps in the forum for drivers, then installed the AMD Cat 11.6 drivers for Mobility. I then switch to Intel to install the Intel GPU drivers.

Now, whenver I switch to Intel and reboot, as soon as I start Windows, it pops up a message stating that Catalyst Control center isn't for this GPU, and can't start.

It's just a pop up box, but annoying to have. It seems that Cat is trying to start when Windows starts.

Is this just a setting issue? Like, there's someway to uncheck starting at startup. Or do I have to re-install drivers somewhere? Not sure why it's even trying to start when Intel GPU is turned on.

 

Just uncheck for CCC to start at startup and you are good to go

 

Thanks. Just making sure there was a way to leave CCC on for when AMD GPUs were on, but off when Intel GPUs were on

One other question, just to make sure this makes sense:

When I right click the CCC icon in the tray, it shows 3 x 6970M GPUs. Is that normal?

 

Of course we need the wireless card (WWAN). I already have it, the problem is there's no SIM card slot anywhere on the system, so I'm wondering if there are any adapters for SIM card that utilize expresscard or mini pcie slots.

 

LOLOL! I don't believe this! I tried again calling the Tech Support, trying to see if i can swap the graphics cards, again they said no, so i asked, how much would it cost me to get the Nvidia 460M's plus cable, and they said £470! Well, at least i can keep the ATI 6970M plus the cable to sell to anyone. But even so, £470????

 

That is the 3 display outputs for the primary card

And CCC still works fine with ATI cards you just have to start it manually vs it starting with windows

 

Thanks. Exactly what I wanted to know

IIRC, CF starts w/o needing CCC on either right?

 

I wonder if any of you guys could confirm something for me. I have installed the latest AMD 11.6 drivers and CAP 11.6 yesterday. All went well and all apears fine.

One thing I have noticed is that when I switch graphics to Intel HD, upon reboot I get a warning message telling me that CCC is not comptable with selected graphics. Only option is to click OK. Everything "seems" to work normally whilst on Integrated GFX but I wondered if any one else was getting this "warning" box pop up after selecting IGFX and rebooting.

Input welcomed. Thanks!

 

Stevie, thats because CCC doesnt work with your iGPU. It has it's own drivers. When you switch over to the iGPU the AMD cards are quite literally turned off so the system doesn't even recognize they are there.

 

Check the post by scook9 at the bottom of page 76.

 

Yep, I know this but wondered wether CCC should even be booting up when IGFX is selected. Do you get this warning message when you switch to integrated GFX? - just looking to see if its normal really.....

 

Good call....repped.

However, disbaling CCC at start up in msconfig......how does that work when you boot with the discrete gpu's? - I obviously want my 6970's to function along with CCC when I boot without integrated GFX. If i elect to not start CCC upon boot, via msconfig, does that impact or affect my 6970's when I start normally with discrete cards selected?

 

Anyone able to get the nVidia drivers to work or are we stuck with the Dell drivers?

 

Wouldn't doing the same thing as the ATI drivers make them work? Unninstall, reboot, safe mode, CCleaner, reboot, install drivers, reboot, ta da?

 

No dice. Keeps giving me the could not find compatible graphics hardware message.

 

Are you in IGP mode? Fn+F7 turns from IGP graphics into the Nvidiag graphics, after the necessary reboot. If that does not work...

 

Modded the inf file and volia it works. Except when I enable SLI and then reboot, it goes haywire. I'm going to do a little tinkering.

Edit: Nothing seems to work. Any suggestions?

 

Most likely the device id with the vendor string for Dell is not in the nvidia drivers yet, same thing with the ATI drivers afaik

And starting with CCC disabled does not effect functionality of the discretes at all. They will just have the same settings as last time you shut down. Need to change something? Just right click the desktop and select CCC and it will launch.

 

Sorry for double post but sort of different topic....

I have now bought several different sets of cables/adapters and no matter what I am trying I cannot get the M18x to drive 2 external monitors as well as the internal with all at full resolution (2 non display port monitors I should say - still do not know if native displayport would work properly or not)

Even with the lid shut it still only runs one external properly.

 

I have bad keyflex -_-

Not sure if I want to bother calling Dell. I don't notice when I'm not looking at the keyboard, but it makes me hit the wrong key at times. I also have a dead pixel

Is one dead pixel grounds for a new screen? Or does Dell have some BS policy regarding how many dead pixels entitles us etc. etc.

 

Interesting. I was able to get it running on single GPU though and it does recognize both GPU's.

 

Thanks for clearing that up!

I didnt notice the warning message whilst on Dell Video Drivers....does everyone get this warning when using AMD drivers or is it just a few of us....if anyone running 11.6 could post wether they are getting this warning upon reboot to IGFX, that would be great. Cheers!

 

My HDMI out port doesn't seem to work properly at all. I've tried 2 monitors and both had odd results. My 24" 16:10 monitor had very distored colors but I was able to see. My 23" 16:9 monitor wouldn't display a thing. My M18X did detect both monitors in CCC but the monitors weren't working properly.

If I call support, will they make me send the laptop in first or some other procedure?

 

Dell has yet to process my return. By the time this is sorted out, R2 will be available.

 

Many of us hope so...

 

I have the return info and the return invoice - just nothing went back to my DPA/credit card

Took nearly 10 days or so for me to get that far...

 

So you had to send it in first? Gahhhh!

Why are they so freaking slow?

 

The refund will be processed within 31 calendar days since the day they receive the return product. So sit back, cross yar fingers & waitttttttt

 

I know I was getting the error on an earlier driver, don't remember if it was the Dell stock or maybe 11.5.

 

And when it's out will you grab it or wait till R3?

 

Here in my system, I get exactly the same thing you get.

 

Have you tested the cable? Generally that's where the issue is...

 

All depends on Dell/AW... Will them fulfill the needs and expectations? Or wiil I be 'pushed' toward the M6600... (it's like 'to be or not to be' or to have or not to have... )
The fact is that I and most if my collegues are not waiting because we like it (or because we are masochists).

 

If by "fulfill the expectations" you mean offering antiglare, high gamut panels - forget it. Lower rate assembly screw-ups? - no chance. More GPU options - maybe.

As it stands today, Dell have a pretty high rate of delivery and assembly issues. Last couple of systems received by Fortnax had so many ridiculous problems out of the box - wrong operating system, wrong screen type (m6600) , wrong keyboard (M18x), wrong order and installation of HDD's (M6600), messed up factory OS install (M6600), dust stuck up between the screen and the E2E glass cover (M18x), just to name the few, lol. Luckily, we already know how to deal with it but some people may get shock from the scenery

 

Me among them for sure... But from my experience, Dell has been the best choice... Now, We do hope that Dell will get ride of many of those "so many ridiculous problems out of the box" and those "delivery and assembly issues"...

The M6600 is "suppossed to offer an IPS RGB LED (it's a choice but not yet in the configuration options) Eric (@ Posterous) and my rep say that it will appear soon... maybe even in a matte screen... so, as Tom Hanks says in "The terminal": "I will wait!"... in the meantime, I'm here learning every day. ( Sometimes posting ridiculous post and questions to 'extract' or get educated constructive answers... an educator trick )

 

Does anyone have any issues with Dell stock video drivers other than maybe slightly lower benchmark scores?

 

For me, no issues thus far on Dell's drivers other than Aero crapping out randomly but it does that on AMD too.....havent tested out in real gaming scenario's yet so might be the case that FPS are slightly lower than AMD drivers.....oh and apart from the brightness not being at full after a resume from S3 sleep (which continues to plague ALL systems but not quite as severe on the M18x...yet.....)

 

I have tried and tested all the drivers in long gaming sessions starting with the Dell stock up to the 11.6. While I had the Dell installed I never had the Aero issue, which could be a coincidence though. Concerning the games, I don't see any particular, very noticeable improvement in fps, at least on my M18x. Actually, Crysis 2 in particular, and other games never ran smoother (a gain of 10/15 more fps in same cases) with the combination Dell + 11.5 cap3. Now I'm using the latest catalyst and cap profiles, but to match that same smoothness in Crysis 2 I need a stronger overclock - I used 800/1000 with Dell, and even Metro 2033 maxed out ran perfectly, while now I need 825/1050 and higher to match the same result.

Note: before installing the 11.6 and latest cap profile, Dell + 11.5 cap3 was the only driver that totally eliminated the flickering in Crysis 2 in my system.

 

I'm glad you asked that Aikimox, as I was wondering the EXACT same thing. And thank you rafix73 for your reply! I'll stick with the Dell drivers and 11.5 CAP3 (need to find the download link for that) for now.

 

Yes man, I hope this combination will work fine for you as it does for me.
Here's the link to the 11.5 cap3

 

Aikimox, how do the 2630QM performance in games?

 

+1 rep to you, sir!