Alienware M17-R1 Full Restoration

You have to remove the screw in the exact same spot where you mentioned. Therefore you must take the back lid off of the laptop, as you should have done. Take a Phillips screw driver and be gentle yet using strength to the unscrew the keyboard from the rear. After that the kb should pop out.

 

Hey man, can you post an update on this? I have the same problem with 4850 card and now i want to try 3870. So which card should i buy: slave or master?

 

As a little tip if you get no video on the external display using DVI or HDMI try using a DVI-to-VGA adapter with a regular VGA cable to the monitor and see if it makes any difference. Sometimes the analog VGA out will work with picky cards where the digital signals will not.

 

Hey, hope you all don't mind me jumpin' in here. A friend of mine found this forum for me. I have a 2010 M17-R1 want to do some updating. I'm a call of duty nut. And can't play the new Ghost game, cause I got vista. Need to up date to Windows 7 or 8. What's your advice ??

 

I think that it requires direct x 11, if that true, you will not be abel to play with the R1.

 

Thank You...

 

Hi all,

First off, I have to say that this is a great thread! I have found a lot of useful information here and I really appreciate everyone posting it.

I have an Alienware M17-R1 with dual Q9300 2.53GHz processors, 4GB of RAM, dual 128GB SSDs in RAID 0, and dual ATI Radeon HD 3870 graphics card. My BIOS version is W841.B14. I am currently running Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit. One of my side USB ports is broken.

I read in this post that some of you are using 8GB of RAM in your M17s, and the manuals that are linked to state a max of 4GB. I understand that newer BIOS versions enable to support up to 8GB. Some of the BIOS that are linked to at "~ OFFICIAL ~ Alienware M17 Drivers Page" are giving me a 404 page, to include the versions that state they support 8GB of RAM. I don't think this matters much to me, as it appears that I already have a version that supports 8GB (correct me if I am wrong), but I thought someone should know in case there is someone else looking for the newer BIOS.

A couple of years ago, when I upgraded my IE (yes I know it is crap, and I normally use Chrome, but there are a few work sites that require IE for some reason) my fingerprint software stopped working. Because it was not working, when I upgraded the OS to Win 7 Ultimate, I never worried about installing it. After reading through a majority of this thread and seeing the drivers for Win 7 64 bit, I am interested in getting the fingerprint reader working again. My device manager does not show the reader, nor does it show any unknown devices. I attempted to install the drivers anyways, and it still did not show anything.

A couple years ago, I did have some power issues where the batteries were not being charged (new power brick and new battery were tried). Dell did a warranty repair, and when I got it back, it had a new keyboard (old keyboard was missing a few keys), a new case panel (cracked panel was replaced), a USB port that was broken had been replaced (most likely replaced the card), and the power port was fixed (most likely replaced the entire motherboard). I paid for shipping, and that was it. I loved the service I received. Of course, it is now out of warranty. About 8 months ago, I had the keyboard replaced again due to broken/missing keys that occurred when I took it on a 7 month deployment to the desert. I also had it cleaned out to ensure there was no sand or dust in it that would cause a problem.

I am thinking that at some point in time when doing this work to the laptop, the fingerprint reader may have been unplugged, and not re-plugged. Does anyone else have thoughts on this before I open the case? Or should I open the case first and then check for possible software solutions?

In addition, the keyboard is suppose to be back lit, but is not lit up. The skull is lit blue. I have recently installed the Alienware Command Center, but cannot find where to control the lighting options. Can someone help with this?

Eventually I would like to upgrade my HDD to dual 1TB SSDs, but that requires $$, and I am broke. Maybe some day also upgrade the NIC to an 802.11a/c if that is possible.

 

Hello Guy's, Looking for some advice. I have a M17-R1, X9100 CPU, 4GB RAM, DUAL M88 XT HD3870 W/Crossfire cable, Intel core 2 extreme 3.06GHZ, 1 SAEGATE 160GB 7200, 1 SEAGATE 250GB 7200RPM, CROSS FIRE X, OS VISTA HOME PREMIUM 32BIT. Ok saying all that, I have been able to play all of the Call Of Duty games, up till now, with no problems. Black Opps had a few bumps but still played. I would like to keep on going with the new Call Of Duty Ghosts. But I see I need more hard ware. And a new OS, either Windows 7 or 8. So can you all give me your best make-up. I will be very grateful. And by the way, I love my M17-R1. Thanks to all.

 

As how I told you before, I'm pretty sure that it requires a direct X11 card, if that's true, there's no way you will be able to play it with the R1 since it doesn't accept any DX11 card. You will need a newer pc that accepts any DX11 card, same with Crysis 3 and some newer games.

If that's not true then you should upgrade to either Win7 or Win8 64bit.

 

THis may have been asked before, if so, I am truly sorry. But, can anyone tell me how to enable crossfire, just installed slave card and cable. OS is telling me it is not working properly? Thanks in advance.

 

What AMD driver are you using? What OS are you using?

 

Anyone have any thoughts?

 

Apologies for re-posting this in this thread (but it seems that there is more activity here): This is my first time posting here having spent a long time reading
I have an AlienWare M17 - R1 currently with Windows 7 Ulitmate, 1TB logical (striped across two physical 500GB HDDs), dual ATI 3870s, Duo Core T9400 and 4GB Ram; the links provided on this forum have been excellent in getting it working pretty well.

I have a Q9000 and 8G Ram ready to install but understand that first I will need to upgrade the BIOS from B10 to B14

So my question is, having downloaded the B14 BIOS in ISO form from this link and created a bootable ISO is there anything else that I need to do to upgrade the BIOS (apart from putting the CD in the drive and booting from it) - I have been looking for a simple step by step set of instructions as I want to learn from everyone here the best way of sucessfully installing (without bricking).
Is there anything else (specific to AW) that I need to be aware of that needs to be done at the same time?
Will I need to do anything on the new BIOS to ensure that the two discs remain as one logical striped drive following the flash and before rebooting (I am assuming that optimised settings will need to be reloaded and my specific BIOS settings added in before attempting a reboot to Windows 7)?


Thanks in advance

 

If the skull is lit up on the case lid then have you tried pressing Alt and the keyboard symbol on your keyboard - mine toggles from off to, green, to red, to blue on successive presses.

Kind Regards

Ian

 

I'm not sure what you mean by the "keyboard symbol".

Supposively, you are suppose to be able to change the colors from within the command center. I think I may have the wrong version of the command center as I do not have the tab to change the colors or turn them on. I cannot find the version that I am suppose to have.

I have encountered an additional problem. I have seen people say that they have 8GB of RAM in their M17-R1 laptops. I currently have 4GB. I have seen it said that BIOS version B14 supports 8GB, and that is the BIOS version I have. I tried installing new 8GB (4GBx2) RAM, and the laptop won't boot (the monitor does not even come on so I can see the BIOS). The RAM I am trying to install is Vengeance CMSX8GX3M2A1600C9 ( http://http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233242). I tried reseating the RAM and swapping slots with no results. When I re-install the original RAM, the computer runs normally. Does anyone have any suggestions on why this new RAM will not work or how I can get it to work?

I have flashed the BIOS on my M17-R1 with no problems. My harddrives are two 128GB SSDs in a RAID 0 (striped) for one logical 256GB drive. I did not have to touch the RAID configuration when I flashed to B14. My recomendation for you is to ensure your battery is fully charged and the laptop remains plugged in. This way, even if the power goes out during the flash, you still have a battery backup. Completely losing power during the flash may brick it. It has been so long since I flashed the BIOS, I could not tell you specifically step-by-step, but as long as you don't interrupt it, you should be fine.

 

Re keyboard backlight - When I first received my M17 it had been imaged with Win 7 64 ultimate and the keyboard wouldn't light. I installed the Hotkey utility and the command centre but it wasn't until I pressed Alt F10 that I figured that the keyboard backlight toggled off, blue, green, red on successive presses. I cannot change the keyboard backlight in command centre at the moment.

Re BIOS - I have downloaded B14 from here M17_R1_B14_BIOS and created an ISO which I will be running on mains power over the weekend (having noted all the settings in the B10 BIOS for comparison). I am doing this so, like you, I can install 8G RAM (2x4GB Corsair DDR3 SO-DIMM PC3-8500, 204 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered) and a Q9000 that I now have and will let you know how I get on.

 

BIOS reFlash to B14 worked fine: Created a bootable CD from the ISO using Nero Burning ROM; unplugged all peripherals; booted from the CD and entered RUNME at the DOS prompt. Process took a couple of minutes. On reboot I needed to go into the BIOS (F2 on boot) and set RAID configuration to ENABLED so that Windows would start.

(Regarding the keyboard, what I did notice in the BIOS is that there is a setting for the backlit keyboard that others may want to check is enabled if you are not getting any joy with it working)

 

A quick update for mine.

I found that when I set the keyboard BIOS option to "non-illuminated", my keyboard lights up white. When I set it back to "illuminated" I though it was not working. Turns out, it was simply the blue color not working. I can use the function F10 keyboard shortcut to cycle through off, blue, red, and green, but when it is set to blue, my keyboard does not light up, though the skull does. I just don't get the blue that I wanted, and I am not going to buy a new keyboard just because of the light colors.

I still have not been able to get my fingerprint scanner to work.

 

Hey great job on the restoration i was looking into buying this laptop barebones and found this post while googling info on it if i ever do goe thru with the project ill post some pics

 

Hi Rotary, you don't happen to still have the recovery iso do you ? I'm resurrecting my 2008 r1 and could also use this? many thanks

 

Unlike XP Windows Vista/7 was pretty lenient that as long as you matched up a disc with the correct Version, Architecture, & Service Packs as your key was for it would install and activate. You don't need an Alienware Windows iso.

If you are looking for drivers there are usually posts here that you can find through search where others have shared updated still-active links.