*OFFICIAL* M18x R1/R2 Owner's Lounge Thread

Today i have upgraded CPU and Heatsink, to 3940xm and 3 Pipe Heatsink on my M18xR2. Thanks to Mr. Fox.
Also i have installed the unlocked A10 Bios from svl7. Thanks to svl7, this is a very good Bios Version.
But how/where i can undervolt the CPU in this Bios?

 

You cannot change the default voltage on a Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge CPU, nor would you actually want to because it would need to be underclocked to avoid becoming unstable. That would defeat the purpose of having the 3940XM. You can add voltage to support higher overclocking, but the default it fixed.

 

these cpu can withstand OC pretty nicely no need to undervolt

 

Hi Guys! totally out of the subject.... i just dont wanna open a new thread for this.

I remember there was a thread about monitor (HZ OC) overclocking on the m18x.....I have been trying to google it and i just can not find it.. For all u experts out there if you guys have a link to that thread i would appreciated.


thanks!

 

You can do it a couple of different ways. EVGA Precision X has a utility for that, or you can do it in the NVIDIA Control Panel.

 

Good Morning,
I recently bought an Alienware M18x r2 motherboard (GRP9C) as an upgrade. I went ahead and installed everything and now my laptop will not power on. No beeps and definitely no signs of life. So I took everything apart again thinking mabe I missed something or mabe I missed a ribbon/cable somewhere. After taking it apart 2 other times I went ahead and put the r1 motherboard back in with a welcomed alienware start screen. My question is, do I need any additional parts to get this tank working or do you guys thing my new mobo is bad?

 

You bought only a motherboard and not the other parts that are needed? The I/O daughterboard is different and so is the SATA interposer cable. Those parts from the R1 will not work with the R2.

 

Are there any negatives to overclocking the refresh rate?

 

Well it landed this morning. The new beast is here, and am typing on it now. Now for the downloading of programs and fowlling the tutorial of the overcloking thread.

 

ah good i remembered my password. havent been here in a while, any way i've had a pproblem with my m18x r2 since i first got it(dident notice it for a couple months) and i never bothered looking for a fix (as it dident do any harm(i hope) or returning it because i had a horrible experience with the warrenty first time round.

but anyway what happens is a black bar appears across the bottom of my screen, and it's dependent on the cold(i dident otice for 4months cause it was summer) so whenever i boot it from cold (less than around 10C) this bar gets bigger the colder it is and the lower my brightness. as the laptop warms up it goes away(5-15min's) quicker if i launch stright into something intensive. sometimes when it's around 0C and its at min brightness it takes up 1/3 the screen. i did a quick search age's ago and got hints for a lose cable connection or a faulty wire, but it never caused any problems and i dident want to go digging around(not very experienced at the time) any way here some picture i found with another laptop(a random dell but same problem).

i get dyslexic when i'm tired

 

Looks like the LCD is bad. Try lowering the refresh rate from 60Hz to 40Hz when that is happening and see if the behavior changes with the lower refresh rate. If it does, then it is definitely the display panel. It's not likely that the LVDS cable would cause that problem.

 

yep 40hz seems to get rid of it. need to try it from a cold boot but to truely see(ther was a tiny bit left at the bottom with min brightness(which 40hz got rid of))

edit: im out of warrenty(which i thought i was)
so what are my options leave the screen as is, or get a new screen off ebay i guess

 

My original M18xR1 screen was replaced a couple of months ago under warranty for the same issue yours is experiencing. My maxed out warranty just expired about a week ago. (It cannot not be extended.)

 

Try looking at sites like

Laptopscreen.com

Lcdscreen.com

I've used both looking to replace broken lcd for my old laptop. Also, if you don't want to take apart the monitor housing look into external monitor and by pass problem altogether.

 

Hello m18x R2 peeps, I am a current owner of a m17x R2 and have an opportunity to upgrade a m18x R2. I found one for $1600 with an i7 3920XM, three HDDs, 675m SLI, and 32GB of Ram still under warranty. I humbly ask if this is worth the money and if the R2 is still a viable option for upgrading (GPU upgrades). Many thanks in advance.

 

Can't comment on the price, as I'm in the UK market, but an M18x R2 is certainly a potent machine that is very upgradable. You could drop a pair of 780m's in there and be right up there with the top guns, especially as the 3920xm is a very good cpu compared to Haswell 4930mx/4940mx in terms of overclocking. If it's still under warranty, I'd guess that $1600 is a good price, even though the 675m's are kinda outdated now.....

 

Thanks steviejones, the 675m are the main reason I won't just buy it. I know they are far better than my Xfire 5870s but I am looking for longevity, to hear the same opinion is great.

 

I'm glad to report I am now a proud owner of a M18xR2! I'll post specs later. What a beautiful piece of engineering.

Sent from my SM-N900A running DynamicKat 5.0 by @bri315317

 

Welcome to the club!

 

Welcome. It's an amazing piece of kit. I've had mine for over 2 years and I'm not over it yet

 

Congrats! Yes, truly outstanding. Money cannot buy a better or more amazing laptop than a nice Alienware M18xR2 beast.

 

Greetings,

Anyone knows where I can order a new Triple Pipe CPU Heatsink for M18x R2?
Except Dell as here in Greece Dell isn't very helpful with that.

And what's the difference between part number 0MXJ5 and 00MXJ5? Which one is for R2? Or it doesn't matter.

 

You can try eBay or PCHub. I recommend the latter even though they might take some time. Unless you find a cheap example on eBay.
Those part numbers appear to be referenced under the same part. Here's what searching for 00MXJ5 finds you at PCHub

 

HI all. I'w been following this forum for past 3y but was to lazy to join. Im in urgen need of help because my M18xR1 have problems, a big one.
I suspect it is GPUs. It already was in service but when i picked it up it was still broken and having hard time fighting whit ppl from whit facts and profs that they didnt fix it and they actualy cant do it at all. By the law of my country they should give me a finanncial reference to get my money back from retail but they are constantly trying to skip that and trick me untill i lose my warranty time.
I'w seen ppl from DELL directly on this forum so im asking for help
I see Mr.Fox as one of most expirienced ppl here so maby he can help me to get in contact whit someone from DELL.
Im from Serbia and it is realy hard to get AW here and expencive too.

here is the link to my problem:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-CLLjAJ9r8YSV9YczZSQjR0Smc&usp=sharing

 

Hello sir, First I'd like to welcome you to NBR. Looks like you are correct with your diagnosis of the computer. I have a couple links for you that may help. Provided you are still under warranty you should not have any problems. Good luck.
http://www.dell.com/support/Contents/yu/en/yubsdt1/category/Contact-Information?~ck=mn

http://www.dell.com/support/content...idiaries/alienware-support-site/alien-autopsy

Sent from my SM-N900A running DynamicKat 6.0 by @bri315317

 

Thank you very much for your answer. I guessed it would be the same part but I thought to ask just to be sure.

Unfortunately the one in stock at PCHub is used and not new. And from Ebay the prices are very high..

If anyone knows any alternative ways or other shops to get one new I would really appreciate it.
Or else I would just settle with a used one.

 

I'm pretty sure you are still able to order one even though there is no stock. It will take some time but they will get it to you .

 

Did you try ordering it directly from Dell? If you can get it in Greece, Dell usually sells it brand new less than you can buy it on eBay or PCHub. TBoneSan is correct that PCHub can order it. They are reliable, but not necessarily speedy. I have ordered a couple of things from them, one of which Dell and the Alienware reps said was not for sale and only available as warranty service parts.

 

Tanks for replay. Can you help me get in contact whit someone from DELL directly? In Serbia we dont have normal DELL support and it is provided by third party. EWE Comp is import service and RMA service is Neposystem and im having hard time whit them. I need someone directly from DELL to check some part numbers and to see if they realy did ordered new parts or not? I smell scam big time and i tink im right like i was whit diagnosis of my laptop.
It is realy had for me to say goodby to big guy because it served me realy well

 

Thanks a lot guys for your suggestions!
I didn't know that PCHub can order it. I don't mind waiting as long as I get a new one. I will contact them and see what they will say.

 

I wish I knew how to do that. I don't have any idea how to reach anyone with influence over Dell Support in Serbia. Maybe one of the Alienware Reps here like Luis Porras can help you find the correct contact person. You need to have 5 posts and overnight processing to use the private messaging system. Once you do, send him a private message and maybe he can provide you with an email or phone number.

 

Tank you so much for help. I hered from some ppl here at home that mein Dell or US office can also help. Il try to contact him when i get ability to send pm.

 

mr fox you getting the new 980m? same amount of cuda cores lol
or waiting for 20nm with maxwell?

 

So I think I need to re-paste my 3840. I was goofing off on WoW last night and my CPU was sitting at 86 degrees celsius. That's got to be too high, right? Idle temps are normally 46 or so.

 

HI again Mr. Fox,
Can you tell me how is Luis Porras's nickname on forum? Id like to contack him about my matter.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/member.php?u=508812

 

OK. I took your advice and got the rest of the parts. i installed them yesterday and well I am very over joyed that I am able to use my 3940XM and use my pc 2300 ram at their full speed. The only problem that I am running into is that my 2nd GPU has vanished from BIOS and device manager. Also my keyboard has stopped working, I have reopened my lappy multiple times and ensured the GPU and keyboard were installed correctly. In the device manager and the keyboard is recognized and seems to be working fine. But typing on it is a different story. I have posed a picture from my BIOS hopefully you can help me with this.

 

Update. I reseated my keyboard for the 8th time and now it works. As for the GPU's I swapped them to see if one of them was bad and I got the same result. Will I need mod bios to get the motherboard to recognize it? Another weird thing is that the sli option appeared when I first put it back together but then vanished when I tried to enable it.

 

I FOUND MY 2ND GPU!!!!. Bad news is that windows 8.1 says it is not connected to the system. Even though I know for a fact it is physically connected. I went ahead and attached a screen shot, if I can get any advice on how to get my SLI back I would be forever thankful.

 

Is there any difference between Alienware m18x r1r2 vs Alienware 18 SLI cables?

 

The cables are not the same. See pics from this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-18-m18x/761056-alienware-m18xr1-vs-m18-photos.html (scroll down) but this thread suggest that you may be able to bend the cable to make it fit: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-18-m18x/735581-m18-sli-cable.html

Not sure I would want to do that, but you could try I guess.....

 

Thanks Stevie, I think both cable length are same. Actually i bought Aw 18 SLI cable, unfortunately waiting for Dual 980m. Hence, cant test it at the moment.

 

I think your primary 680m is not recognized by system. Have you tried to swap cards, try to connect secondary card as primary and primary on secondary.

 

I have swapped card slot. after taking it apart again I noticed that my ribbon cable that connects the I/O board to my motherboard is my old one. I did not get a new ribbon cable with my I/O board. I am wondering if that is the cause of all this, by chance do any of you fellows know where I can purchase one? I have looked on ebay with no luck at all.

 

you did swap card? still card not recognize on primary slot? Have you tried to drain power? to do so just remove AC adapter & battery then hold power button for about 30 sec.

 

I tried both with no luck. I am now searching ebay and everywhere else looking for the ribbon cable.

 

As per my knowledge I/O daughter board cable has nothin to do with GPU card issue. If still card is not recognized in primary slot then your MB may be faulty. You can run dell diagnostics at start up.

 

Came back with some bad news.

I asked PCHub twice telling them that delivery time isn't an issue but both times they told me that they can't order a new one and they don't know if and when they will get a new one.
I can't find anything in Ebay and in Aliexpress are all used. Dell can't help me either.
So I am back to nothing.

If anyone knows any other shops please share, or even better I would greatly appreciate it if someone can order a new one for me (from Dell). I will pay all the expenses of course plus more for his time and effort.

I really need this heatsink as here in Greece we have hot summers and I am also planning to get a XM CPU in the future.

 

ok... I tore my laptop apart completely and put it back together. after I did that my 2nd GPU reappeared. I logged into windows and set sli then it vanished again. I took out the flat nickel battery and restarted it. it went into SLI mode automatically. so I turned off my laptop and put back in the remaining screws and turned it back on. It vanished again, even after taking out the battery this time the 2nd GPU wont reappear. I think my laptop hates me
I am really starting to think its a BIOS issue. I thought it was the motherboard itself but the sli keeps randomly turning on and off. are there modded bios out there that can help me:?

 

It sounds like you are getting a random bad connection on the PCI-e slot for the secondary GPU. Sometimes dust or debris on the contacts can cause this. Have you tried blowing the slot clean with compressed air and using an alcohol cleaning pad on the edge contacts? Sometimes this can cure that kind of issue. It could be something simple like a little chunk of dried thermal pad or paste is making a bad connection.