*OFFICIAL* M18x Owner's Lounge Thread

Anyone know the process of upgrading the GPU? Been thinking about making a switch to the 580M SLI for BF3.

 

Does anyone get the "unsupported format" error when using cyberlink powerdvd 9.6 that came with the m18x? I cant seem to get any bd to work

 

Autophobic - the error sounds like a missing plug-in for BD format. Did you try updating it, or go to "My Dell Downloads" and see what they have as far as updates and patches? I played around with it a little bit when I first got my M18x and it played BD just fine. (I am no longer using it so I cannot tell you what they have available for updates/patches... haven't looked.)

 

I patched it and it didnt work. i didnt know about my dell downloads but after 2 hrs of hardware troubleshoot, the tech told me about it. Apparently the powerdvd they gave me didnt play blurays and I just downloaded a different version. Go figure =/

 

HEY ANYONE IS ON BATTLEFIELD 3 BETA and in EU? add me on battlelog vander89 the voice chat is AWESOME!

 

Just want to let you all know, battlefield 3 beta on highest settings, everything maxed, uses 97-98% GPU all the time, ALL THE TIME, temps were as high as 76C on me, already with Notepal U3Cooler

 

How's the frame rate?

 

bad news, frame rate isnt that high v-sync isn't working yet.. so there are times that can get 70fps but most of the time its 40-50 only.. plus i got throttled in caspian border with all settings maxed

 

40-50 FPS is decent for Caspian with 32 players. I'm getting s slightly higher with no throttling, so no OC is needed for this game.

 

Finally Received my M18x yesterday. Only had time to dl new drivers and test out Fallout NV.

Looks absolutely beautiful in Ultra. (And haven't found any Dead Pixels yet, which my last few notebooks have had at least 1 each.)

 

This is a recent issue. I'm not sure what changed this, or why, but the USB hubs are no longer being powered while in sleep. This is an issue because i charge my phone through the laptop.

I've gone into bios, and it was on, but i set it so it will power the hubs on AC and battery.

I've also gone through all the USB hub controllers, and turned off their ability to "turn off to save power".

That was all my ideas. I know it can do it, ive been doing it since i got the laptop. I recently had to unplug the USB cable and move some stuff around, and now its not being powered while in sleep, no matter what port i plug it into.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

Maybe USB settings in Power Options? Maybe you changed your power plan?

Click the battery icon in the system tray, select More Power Options. Click Change Plan Settings, then Change Advanced Power Settings. Maybe your USB settings there are the culprit.

 

Thats not it. The selective suspend is enabled (i think thats good?, its in the high performance setting). Too bad, i kinda got my hopes up to have them dashed away.

Its a very very irritating problem. I had my phone die for the first time yesterday (its got like 20-30 hours of battery life as a 4g smart phone, so thats saying something)

I'm out of potential solutions =( Its like it doesnt recognize my phone is a device that needs charging, and just turns off.

Could it be that i was using the eSata port before (just because it was there), but now have an actual HD plugged in there?

 

As far as I know, only the eSata port is capable of power during sleep and even power off.

 

To keep the usb ports powered during sleep:
Under power options
-click on "change plan settings" for the plan your system is using.
-click on "change advanced power settings"
-expanded the usb settings by clicking the "+"
--the "USB selective suspend setting" You want it set to disabled
--click apply

 

Im afraid that didnt work either. If the eSATA port is the only one powered, i'll just grab the USB 2 cable my hard drive came with. I dont think the speeds will really be much different anyway, since the drive is dirt slow. If i really need to move data when i get my SSD (and i will, probably Wednesday), i'll plug it back into the eSATA.

 

Go to your Bios Settings, Advanced, USB Sleep Support. It needs to be Enabled.

It is disabled as default.

 

I've noticed that my keyboard doesn't turn back on when I resume from sleep. My mouse does, however. I have to replug it to get it to work again. Annoying. Will try these suggestions.

 

Double check in device manager that the box that says "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" is unchecked. I think all the other options have been covered. You can always try a new bios version - perhaps even the unlocked A03 bios. There are several more options for you to play with that could resolve this.

 

i just bought a 3k m18x alienware.. i hope this cpu and gpu really cools and not causing me problems. i truely believe furmark and prime95 are overkill programs, and i always put settings for game on lowest if possible so i dont overheat my system, nevertheless, i hope encoding movie will work fine on this new machine and wont overheat and die on me.

2.4ghz 2760qm, dual AMD 6990 2gb GDDR5 crossfire, and 16 gb ram at 1600.

i got a cooler master cooling pad with 3 adjustable fans just in case this alienware cant cool fast enough. any tips from the veteran here? ive been reading posts where the 2 GPUS have different temp, and cpu cant cool fast enough.. also i dont know anything about adjustable fan speed.

 

I've had my fully tricked out machine for a while now, and I have NEVER encountered any heating issues. I have it sitting on top of a targus HD3 cooler, but to tell you the truth, most of the time it's off because it makes more noise than the systems built in fans. The only time it's on is when I'm gaming, and a I ALWAYS crank the settings to the max, which this laptop has been able to handle with every single game I throw at it. The system is always whisper quiet and I don't think you should have any problems with your configuration.

It's pointless to have a machine like this and play games on it at the lowest settings. You have to live a little and treat yourself

 

Hey everyone,
For my m18x, I was wondering how you can tell if you are using the integrated graphics or discrete graphics?

I own a nvidia geforce gtx 560m in my m18x, and I lag pretty hard when I am running the witcher 2, even when i set it to low graphics. I am not sure why.

Any thoughts?

My specs are as follows, this laptop is only 2 weeks old.
No gaming was used for it until recently. Havn't found the time for it.

M18x
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (4DIMMS)
Intel Core i7 2760QM 2.4GHz (3.5GHz w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)
1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M
1TB RAID 0, 2x 500GB, 7200RPM Solid State Hybrid
Killer Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO

 

As far as I can tell, since the M18x lacks true Optimus switching, the integrated graphics takes over on battery power, and you can only use the 560M when plugged in.

If you go from battery power to plugged in, you will get an on-screen notice that you can now use the discrete graphics card but a reboot is required.

You can use the FN + F7 (key says I/D GFX) key combo to switch, but I don't know for sure that it works to switch regardless of power source, depending on the setting in the BIOS or AlienFusion.


You should check your graphics settings in the Nvidia control panel and be sure those aren't overriding any game settings. The 560M shouldn't have any issues running the game, even at 1080p with full eye candy though. Maybe check all the settings in the AlienFusion settings and be sure you're not limiting the power to the graphics card for power savings or something.

 

Run GPUz and you can be sure if the detect GPU is Intel or the Nvidia GPU. Plus if you are on Intel you should see the Intel HD 3000 control panel icon in system tray.

As below:

 

unityole - Alienware laptops have a reputation for excellent cooling systems. Just take a quick look at the speed records being set with stock cooling on the http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...re-m18x-benchmark-thread-288.html#post7990687. This does not happen without excellent cooling. Like munozyoshi said, turn on the high settings in your games, bump the clocks a tad, and live life to the fullest without a need for fear of overheating.

 

ty sir, that put my mind at ease. i guess having 2 laptops burned out on me definitly made me worry.

 

Yup, I've seen my fair share of laptops that burn out, but these laptops run cool. You'll definitely enjoy your laptop, just like we all here do

 

maybe i was comparing it to asus g74sx. i guess m18x is good enough to encode vids and stay cool

 

Just thought I would post this up. Flashed my Bios to Ao4 a day or so ago and I had posted in another thread that I was experiencing much lower temps without actually doing anything different from before! (Only thing I did was to try a respawn from my created recovery discs to see if it would restore from my factory 320hdd to my 256gb SSD without issue, which went without a hitch)- also, my CDM has improved a fair bit too.....weird! - I was actually expecting worse results on a Dell factory install as opposed to a clean install which I had before....

Below gpu temps with about 3/4 tabs open and surfing and CDM where 4k read went up to 28 from 25 and 4k write from 49 to almost 55 mb/s (actually, all CDM results were up) ....

 

Hey Everyone

My ALienware M18x comes in tomorrow . Any problems/issues i should be aware of and check for?

Any major updates i should do? (bios/drivers etc)

Thanks!

PS- These forums are awesome!

 

If it isn't broken, don't fix it. Monitor your temps and ensure that crossfire/sli and your other components are operating properly.

 

Thanks Nicholas . I'll be sure to rep you as soon as i can! The system isn't letting me right now.

 

If you need assistance with repasting your CPU/GPU's or performing any upgrades or flashing an overclocked vBios on your video cards - let me know.

 

Also, quick question. How's the battery life on these badboys while on the intel 3000 gpu? Over an hour n a half would be mind boggling... Coming from an m17x-r2

 

jstawrrr with the IGP on and set to high performance, over 3 hours, on power saver 5.5+ hours ... you will be happy

 

I wish there was a guide explaining all the settings on the bigfoot killer software....
there is a bunch of settings that i really dont know much about.
do any of you guys know of a tutorial around the web ?

 

I was watching movies for 4 hours straight on the battery yesterday - pretty impressive!

 

Yes it sure is. Most of the wimpy laptops out there won't even go as long on battery.

 

can anyone tell me how i update the drivers for this thing i can barely play games on dells driver it sucks

i tried installing the updated one from the nvidia site but it said my hardware wasnt supported? are they working on this or what?

 

nevermind i found a thread in here with a modded nvidia driver that works perfectly

 

Hey everyone,

My M18x arrives tomorrow. Do you have any quick suggestions for things i should do out of the box?

 

• Create restore media using AlienRespawn
• Disable SoftThinks Agent Service (stops the background nagging from Respawn and corrects a few glitches)
• Explore and enjoy owning an awesome beast
• Post a few benchmarks at http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...cial-alienware-m18x-benchmark-thread-301.html so we can see how well your beast performs
• Decide what to do next (if anything) at that point.

​

 

Depending on your own familiarity/ability, you could always just "nuke" the Dell install, start out fresh after creating your restore media using AWR, reinstall your OS & Drivers and enjoy a much cleaner system without having to disable crap left right and centre. As long as you create recovery media, you can do pretty much anything and return to factory should you need to.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...er-install-order-guide-alienware-systems.html

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Im an mcse so im very comfortable with doing anything on these machines. Ive done all the work on my 2 m17x's but i always read and take advantage of nbr's collective wisdom and experience.

 

Oh heres a good question. I used the kingston hard drive clone utility to clone the standard hd to a 256gb samsung ssd i have. It works on some systems(m11x) but didnt work on my m17x.

Has anyone used it successfully on a m18x?

 

hey guys!

can anyone help me? i tried to run battlefield 3 with driver 285.62 and i always freeze!

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 116
BCP1: FFFFFA800D4454E0
BCP2: FFFFF880108B0AE4
BCP3: FFFFFFFFC000009A
BCP4: 0000000000000004
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\102511-10483-01.dmp
C:\Users\I\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-24757-0.sysdata.xml

Read our privacy statement online:
Windows 7 Privacy Statement - Microsoft Windows

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

what happened? can anyone help me? im dying to play bf3 but it always freezes.

im gonna install new vbios from dell
Drivers and Downloads
lets see how it goes..

but please anyone please pm me or reply me on this problem

 

installed stock driver a01 works like a charm! somehow the graphic driver directly from nvidia website is causing the crashes and freezes i am using the stock 260

 

Just got my m18x! Opened it up and I have mixed feelings. While it looks simply amazing, I see keyboard flex and the left click on the touchpad is set a bit(2-3mm) lower than the right.. It doesnt really matter since i will be using a mouse, but at the price I paid, I was expecting no preblems at all.. Well I"ll be playing some SC2 and BF3~

 

Well, you should not expect problems or settle for those quality inconsistencies. I have seen a few people posting about keyboard flex. They called about it and new keyboards fixed the problem. (It's very odd there would be any difference between keyboards that should be identical.)

Fortunately, I have no keyboard flex problems. However, my palmrest/touchpad assembly had to be replaced because the buttons (both) were set too low and the edge of the touch surface closest to the front of the machine (next to the buttons) was higher than the buttons. It not only looked bad, but the transition from button to touch just did not feel right.

 

i couldnt get the stock drivers to work with BF3 on SLI i only get 30 FPS on ultra. new driver still crashes. is something wrong with my cards?