*OFFICIAL* M18x Owner's Lounge Thread

Instead of asking for a "free upgrade" why not just ask them to send you a new system instead. A month is an unreasonably long time to wait and availability of a new system with 580M SLI should not be a problem like you are experiencing with replacement parts. Did you buy a refurb from the Depot or a new M18x? Just curious how your system ended up in the depot if you had the better warranty.

 

they sent me faulty 580s and it burnt up on the 2nd day. so they told me to send it to the depot on oct 20, which i did. now they are just waiting for a backorder. my intel SSD is still with them.

 

Well I am new to Alienware and this nice piece of beast... But I have one questino I have noticed there is a 3 Key Lock up... Which meaning I can only Press two keys at a time... Is there a way to set this so I can press more than 2 keys?? Thanks

Sry if this is in the wrong sectino

 

Spoiler

guys, i thought i'd share a rather cool looking pic that matched with my theme

 

If you are meaning you want to press several keys for different attacks or spells for gaming..you can use the marco keys on the left for that. Instead of pressing several.

 

Nice! I like it ivander.

 

It would look much better if I still have my sony nex 5 xD
camera phone don't do much good in the dark.

 

I have a green theme going for myself also, with lighting and wallpaper. Why don't you upload the image as an attachment so we can all have a closer look? It might be a nice touch on my machine and others.

 

this is from a theme i bought online from Windows 7 Themes Themes - Hyperdesk

this is the Dark Matter Gamma Ray, they have an awesome Red, blue and yellow too!
There are several different sizes
1920x1200.jpg picture by vander89 - Photobucket

2560x1600.jpg picture by vander89 - Photobucket

i bought the whole pack for $19.95

 

Awesome themes man!!! + rep (I bought them)

 

Nice... thanks. I may grab the themes also. They look great.

 

Hyperdesk themes are cool but u lose aero which really sucks.

 

Really!? Well, that's definitely a deal breaker. Xeneize, did this kill Aero on your machine, too.

 

Yes it did.... lol oh well, that happens because I am a trigger happy...... lucky I didn't have to live in the wild west

 

I agree Fox - thanks for the heads up inap. +rep.

 

I agree also,too bad the theme looks so good.And hey Stevie I +repped ya for the helpful chats,Thanks Bro.

 

Lucky for the "other guy's" in the wild west, I'd say! :laugh:

Just a shame it makes Aero flake out.....otheriwse I'd have had ma wallet open too, no doubt...

No worries bud...happy to help out anytime Brother Joe! - thanks for the rep!! :smile:

 

I decided to go with an m18x and was wondering if it has a built in capture card. The reason I ask is because im mainly a console gamer and would like to capture my gaming. If the m18x is already setup to capture then great if not is there something I can buy for it to capture or do I have to go with something like an hd pvr.
Thanks

 

Well it doesn't have the transparent windows though, but i prefer black better

 

After going back to my "Alienware" theme I needed to do a manual complete restore of the look and feel...

am I crazy or the Start (Win) button was an Alien head? if so I didn't see any instructions on how to restore that....

 

I think that is only with the tacky Alienware Stardock theme they had on the R2. I don't remember ever having an Alienhead start button on the M18x.

 

Thx I must have a strong case of Alenwaretitis!

 

anybody else in backorder hell? one of my 560's burned out about a week after i got it. 2 weeks later i was offered and accepted 6970's (2) to make my m18x whole again. turns out they are on backorder as well. its been a week and a half. I'm told that they should have them shipping by the 15th. Is anyone else in the same situation? Whats your parts eta?

 

Aranthira - if you haven't seen this thread, please read at least the opening post and it may shed some light on supply/demand issues. http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...e-dell-aw-conference-call-85.html#post8107553. For affected systems that had 6990M cards that survived the malfunctioning and overheating, a BIOS update fixed the problem. (The part that remains a mystery is exactly what changed between the unaffected older systems and those that were affected among the more recently shipped systems.)

In the US there is now only a $40 difference for GTX 580M SLI over 6990M CrossFire in a new M18x. And, they are still selling single and dual-GPU GTX 560M systems. Why are they offering you an AMD solution rather than NVIDIA 560 or 580 replacement parts?

 

Hi Ben... nice to see you again. It's been a while. Hope all is well with you.

Good choice on the M18x... they're awesome machines and I hope you like yours as much as I do mine.

There is no built in capture card. There may be a way of capturing the console output through software. I believe there are some members of the community that have used the HDMI input with the M18x and a game console. Perhaps one or more of them can respond to your questions and comment on how well the HDMI input operates.

 

So, I need to renew the warranty on my M17X R1. Was gonna' tell them I need a new motherboard/keyboard (I actually do). Should I shoot for an M18X replacement? Do they still stock R1 parts or have they gone into sending our the more up to date R2/R3 parts?

I don't want to get mixed up in the other releases, would rather go whole new computer. Just wanted to know if anyone is aware of what they currently stock and typically ship out for parts nowadays. I know it changes constantly.

 

Hank - it's no secret that the M18x is the only Alienware system in production with dual-GPU and an anodized alloy chassis like your M17xR1. Rather than asking the community what parts are still serviced on the R1 you would be better off asking Alienware directly. As you have noted, "it changes constantly" so almost any response you would receive from a member of this community that does not work for Alienware would be anecdotal, which would not be helpful in resolving your motherboard problem. Let us know how things turn out... we're interested in hearing how it goes.

 

Don't know if this has been talked about on the forum, but I will talk about an issue I resolved on my M18x.

The Seagate ST9500432AS that came with my computer would cause stutters in my machine during FPS. It wasn't drastic but enough that you would notice.

After some reading I was lead to a program called CrystalDiskInfo which turns off the drives power management features. It solved the stutter problem, but I am hoping for a seagate firmware fix that would allow me to turn it off without third party support.

Just want to give a heads up for those of you who either run this drive, or run a SSD/spindle disk setup, but don't have an endless amount of SSD space to put all of your apps on.

 

Lash - that's very interesting. Thank you very much for sharing that information. I was not aware that Crystal Disk Info had that feature. I generally like disabling power management features, especially those that sacrifice performance in the interest of conserving power. (For that we have netbooks and tablets, LOL.)

I did a comparison to see what the benchmark differences were and there was a slight hit in some areas, improvements in other areas and no meaningful change in some areas. I will try it both ways in real-world testing and see how it works out. All of my games and many of my apps are installed on my 750GB Seagate Momentus HDD because my 128GB M4 SSD boot drive is way too small to hold them. (I'm sure there are lots of us in that situation.)



I'll also do a another comparison later as the one on the right was with my page file resident on the SSD a day or so ago. (This one was very down and dirty with too much variance between my system state now versus then.)

 

Mr Fox,I have a 256gb samsung 810 series from dell,came with my m18x.Is there anything you recommend as far as software tools?My intel has the intel toolbox,but dell didn't provide any simple software like intel.Thank you and plus rep for ya,I couldn't give any rep before,Thanks.

 

My HDMI out suddenly stopped working. Dell agreed to replace the board with a new nonrefurbished one. I have now found out that it u really press the cable in it will work, but as soon as you let go it disconnects.

I know the port is deep on the m18x but I'm not sure if mine has gotten pushed back or is unusally deep.

Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk

 

I have the same issue, is there a brand of HDMI that has a connector that is made longer that any of you guys have found?

 

I just use a Mini Display Port to HDMI adapter. I'm sure there are cables with shorter/thinner jackets, but I don't care enough to shop around

 

I've seen some HDMI cables where the metal connector collapses into the plastic housing over time with repeated use. I suspect that is why yours suddenly stopped working. (I've encountered the same thing with USB cables before.)

Try trimming away a little bit of the plastic edge with an Xacto knife to allow for deeper insertion until you can buy a replacement cable.

A member of the community recently recommended Monoprice.com and they do have decent prices and reasonable shipping rates. I purchased a blue and a yellow 10ft cable with ferrite cores on each end for $5 each. With shipping it was less that what I have paid for one ordinary black cable in the past. The quality of the cables also seems decent.

 

I also had bought a ton of cables from Monprice.com (did all my hone theater wiring with their cables), they are quality cables and very well priced.

I will, however, recommend Display Port cables if it's an option, I find it to be far more effective at higher resolutions.

 

What we NEED is a fully compliant miniDP to full size DP or HDMI cable that supports 120hz and 3d at 1080p. afaik, the miniDP to HDMI cable (not adaptor) is not fully compliant. MiniDP to DP should be fine if you have a monitor/tv with a DP in, if you only have HDMI in on the external display, you would be looking at using a miniDP to HDMI dongle to do away with the "deep HDMI out" on the M18x - but it may or may not support the 3d@1080p

Wow - isnt cabling complicated?? lol

 

Maybe in "What users want in the m18x R2" we can dream of a universal cable interconnector (or a WiFi interconnection) that will simplify the amount of cable we must use for each need... Today we already have WiFi connection to an external display, WiFi connection to printers and HDDs... the future is just around the corner and according to A. Einstein, human beings are capable of do everything they can imagine... do we?

 

My only problem with this is that its happening on multiple cables all of a sudden not just one specific cable.

 

I have a question for the M18X.

If my M18X came with only one hard drive will the 4 screws for the other drive be available inside or do I need to get new screws?

Thanks,

 

I believe the screws are there.....

 

They are there i added a second drive after.

 

Thanks, just had to be sure.

 

Some of the Seagate drives don't suffer from the stutter, but it was certainly noticeable when playing TF2 or Amnesia for me.

I still get a slight hiccup in Amnesia when the game goes from rendering to a cutscene, but that is the only time. Full on rendering I don't see it at all.

I would be surprised if it affects benchmarks. The reason that I say that is because I think the issue happens when the drive slows down or idles a bit, and then resumes. Benchmarks should keep it going full speed the entire duration of the test with both settings.

 

Hmm, that's quite odd. What changed? Did your HDMI port get knocked off the motherboard or something? I don't see how the depth of the socket would change from what it used to be.

Well, curiosity kills foxes probably as often as it does cats, LOL. I'm going to find out by testing it if the difference is measurable. Even if it is not measurable, I still believe what you're saying is true. Power saving features often--almost always--negatively impact performance and I suspect it would here as well. I've disabled it, if for no other reason than to confirm that it's an unimportant "feature." If everything continues working perfectly it will stay disabled.

 

hey guys i just recieved my HDMI cable from newegg, but cant seem to show the image on my lcd philips tv, put it on one of the HDMI ports on the tv, made sure i plugged it in on the left side where it says HDMI out but the CCC cant detect it. tryied the window button + P but it wont show. it on the tv, DL the newest driver for my cards and still.

 

Burningjs - hi there. Did you try FN+F6 yet? That usually does the trick.

 

yup tried it. wont come up on my tv

 

see if your tv is in the right mode, some tv's you have to select a monitor mode or something similar.

maybe try restarting with the tv plugged in.

 

Does anyone here know if the PCB for the alienhead logo is the same for the 18x as it is for the 17x r3? My 18x does not have one so the head is only slightly illuminated by the LCD screen.

There was separate thread about this issue in the 17x R3 forums, but I haven't really heard of this happening with the 18x model.

 

mine is LCD dependent.
LCD on = alien head on
LCD off = alienhead off