Windows 7 64-bit drivers for the m15x (not M15x)

A little update on the new ATI mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 video card that I installed on my m15x.

Windows auto-installed drivers on detecting the videocard.
Temperature on idle : 50-55C
Temperature on 98% GPU load : 74-76C
Max temperature before fans kick on maximum throttle: 80C

NOTE: I ran all these test with ATI tray tools furmark GPU test.

3dMark06 score @ 1280x720 resolution: 9538 3dMarks!

Not bad, it's about the same score I would get with my previous Nvidia 8800M GTX GPU.

Plays FEAR2 and NBA2K10 beautifully!

This card runs A LOT cooler than my previous 8800 which was hitting 88-90C. Possibly why it died on me so fast lol..

Conclusion: Worth the 175 bucks that I paid for it! And a lot cheaper than a new Nvidia 8800M GTX GPU which runs at about $480.

I've attached the heatsink pics of both the 3870 and 8800 to the end of this post.

 

Looks cool and so acceptable. Is the heatsinks fit the new card closely ? Maybe I'm gonna do something same as you. My VGA card was broken. Where to buy and how much does it cost ?

 

You will need to buy a heatsink that's going to go with the video card. The 8800 heatsink will NOT fit it.

Here's the total cost:

3870 heatsink + 3870 bracket (this lets you screw the card into the heatsink and motherboard) = $15.72

3870 GPU (also known as the M88XT master card) = $175

Make sure you got some thermal grease to put on the GPU too.

I just called up Alienware and told them honestly that I was out of warranty already, and wanted to buy the parts and fix the laptop myself. They offered me the 9800 as well, but I didn't want to mess with Nvidia anymore...

 

Damn, that sounds good. But i'm in Vietnam and I have no idea how to call and which way to pay them

 

Thank you for this post, it was very helpful!

I just upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit from Vista Ultimate 32-bit and was having a lot of these issues myself.

However, when I went to fix the touchpad problem, it was very simple for me (though I am not sure why). I went to www.synaptics.com/support/drivers but when I tried to install the driver, I was told to go to Control Panel > Programs and uninstall the current Synaptics device driver that was listed there. It said that that one had been installed the same day I upgraded. So I uninstalled it, restarted as directed, and when my computer came back on, the touchpad worked normally again without installing the new driver.

Also, the Fn+F12 worked from the start, but all it would do is turn the lights around the touchpad off and on. Now it actually turns the touchpad itself off and on too.

I'm not sure if this will work for everyone, but I thought it might be useful for 32-bit people since Alienware seems to only be interested in 64-bit stuff. :S

 

haha. Alienware has a problem with 32 bit.

It sounded weird how you got it to work.
I will add your post to my guide for the 32 bit users. Thanks.

 

A few folks seem to be having problems. I believe I have the Nvidia 8700M in my m15x. I disabled the UAC so now my OSD allows the pop up to come when I press fn + f7, which does restart my computer. Unfortunately the computer only starts in the integrated graphics card mode, no matter how many times I press fn + f7.

However when I start my computer I get an error message
"system configuration data updated ERROR"
"System configuration data read Error"

I am prompted to press F1 to resum or F2 to setup

I'm thinking maybe its the actual descrete graphics card thats burnt out or something, any suggestions?

 

Are you able to boot up with the nvidia card at all and play a 3d game without any trouble? Sounds like something is corrupted with the OSD. Maybe if you can, try to reinstall the OSD utility.

 

I'm having problem with Windows 7 x64bit when i play games.

Like World of Warcraft, Counter-Strike: Source.

After playing for lke (1-2 hours) i got a BSOD. I have a 8800m GTX, and using drivers from Alienware ( i already tried the latest from Nvidia but got a BSOD when the logon screen appear). So, whats drivers are you using?

Thanks.

 

I have the Ati HD 3870 video card right now. My 8800 died on me way back.

 

And do you have any of these problems?

That card is better then 8800?

Thanks.

 

My 8800m GTX died on me in mid November 2009 & just 3 weeks ago I had received a ATI RADEON M88 XT 512MB HD3870 MASTER as a replacement through AW for my m15x. However, on installation I kept getting a black screen on every reboot. No windows sound, just my keyboard & all the other illuminated hardware would light up. Though, none of the keys were functional. I had to power off my laptop & physically uninstall my HD3870. Then my windows would start up stabled in integrated graphic. I did a system recovery to my original Home Premium Vista 32 bit & without doing any driver updates, installing my HD3870…I still got a black screen on reboot. I tried this also on a clean install of my Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit, same results. Then I tried my Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit upgrade version, same story. On all these clean installs, I never did update any driver, just after windows installation I proceeded to shut down my laptop, installed my HD3870…black screen every time. Anyhow, I called AW & they decided to exchange my HD3870 for another one. 2 days ago, I got my 2nd HD3870. I installed the card, also got a black screen, the difference though…I can hear the sounds of windows starting up & am certain my keys are functional, just have a black screen at start up. Well, I thought to give this a rest & deal with it another day. I checked out my original 8800m GTX & did a little brushing on the burnt area of my card, barely a 2 millimeter section to brush off any very small particles. Out of curiosity, I thought to try it out. Installed the 8800m GTX card in, started up my system, downloaded the drivers…the sucka works!? So yes, am running my laptop now with my 8800m GTX 3 days strait and stable. Ain’t that something?
However, I am liking some advice on my HD3870 installation procedures. It will be my back up in case my 8800m GTX officially dies on me.
Cheers!

 

Sounds like you've been through a lot!
The 3870 seems to be just as strong as the 8800 and it also runs a lot cooler. Just check out the benchmarks in my sig.

You wil need a different heatsink and GPU bracket to get the 3870 in your m15x through. It cost me 15 bucks from AW.

I've attached pictures of the 3870 heatsink and 8800 heatsinks for comparisions to my benchmarks link.

 

Can someone direct me to the correct drivers to use for the 9800 GT? I mean I try the ones off of Nvidia's site and guess what? I crash HARD, BTW Windows 7 OS. I know the latest Vista Drivers run like a Dream, but Windows 7 appears to BSOD

 

I'm not sure since I've never owned the 9800GT. Have you tried the drivers from the Alienware site yet?

 

http://www.pcpitstop.com/drivers/download/NVIDIA~Geforce~9800~GT.html

This looks like what you need, But I will keep looking for you as well. Thanks!

 

OK silly me, I figured it out. I'm using some older drivers from alienware's website which will do. I was using my processor on stealth mode the whole time and I was thinking I had bad video drivers and not thinking about how badly my processor was performing. Fixed it. we're running well now.

 

I know it's been asked before, but I never saw the answer.

I've tried installing the Respawn patch for win7 but I keep getting "change MBR.ini failed" message, no matter what I try.

I did a clean install of win7 upgrade.

I wouldn't care, but I'm getting heat spikes on my GPU. Sitting idle, it was over 100*c. I couldn't even get through 3dmark06. I wanted to see if going bask to vista would solve the problem.

Thing is, next day, I couldn't repeat the problem. I ran 3dmark06 over and over, and no overheating. I didn't do anything inbetween the heat spike and no heat spike, other than shut down the m15x and sleep for 8 hours.

I have to send my m15x in for hinge repair, before my warranty runs out (soon). And if I'm having other problems, I'd like to be able to recreate them, so I can explain it properly to AW and have them fix it too.

So, anybody have the same error message on the respawn patch? And did you manage to get around it? If so, how?

And anybody have really horrible gpu temps while idling? Is the gpu starting to fail?

Cheers.

 

100 C is way too high! You should be getting 88-90 max with the 8800M GTX.

Have you done any cleaning out of the fans lately? Build up of dust in the fans will lead to overheating.

I've completely wiped my respawn partition since 2 years ago, so I can't help you with that problem.

 

I like/love this laptop but there is one very wrong aspect about this laptop. And that is.... The touch buttons are somehow holding a charge on their own. Granted maybe I'm installing some app that's messing it up but it basically holds a charge nullifying my touching of the buttons. So yes.... I CAN'T GET OUT OF STEALTH MODE SOMETIMES. You wouldn't belive how many times I've uninstalled and installed OSD and OS's trying to fix this problem, and in the end it's a hardware problem or issue, that can be fixed via bios, but sometimes slips by.

So???? what do I do??? well apparently I unplug the laptop and take out the battery and Abuse the buttons a little releasing the charge from the laptop, and then guess what? Yea it starts up with no problems. Please don't tell me that I'm the only one with this problem, because its beyond annoying....

 

How long have you owned this laptop? I've had mine for about 2.5 years now. The same thing happens to me sometimes. Only it's the command center button that gives me trouble. The stealth mode button still works fine as well as the others.

 

I've had the laptop for about 6 days now, and by 1 week I'll be a PRO using it. Sadly just 8-9 hours ago either the laptop, windows, or intel, screwed up and SSD drive #3 is getting RMA'ed to me. THe first one was a gen one without firm ware support, so that's understanable. I'm not sure what just happened, but i lost another SSD drive. Oddly I'm not exactly just using the SSD drive for just fast speeds, but with everything being crammed in there I want to reduce the heat. YOu know that heat you feel on your right wrist? That's HardDrive heat, so if you move to a SSD it'll go away.

Currently on Vista until the new SSD drive comes back and I'll revert back to Windows 7.

 

Thanks, but I'll wait until the SSD gets cheaper. Still costs a fortune for a decent size.

 

Yeah, I knew the temps were way too high too. It hasn't come back, so I'm really stumped as to why it was doing it. Yeah, I cleaned the fans and grills before, so that wasn't it. (I've got three cats, well, four, if you count the one I removed from the grills).

I think I read somewhere that the respawn patch only works when you upgrade win7, not do a fresh install. Don't know how true that is though.

Hopefully my new laptop (based on clevo w860cu with mr hd 5870) will arrive in time for me to rma the broken hinge m15x before my warranty expires. Sadly, my gf was using the m15x for work and can't be without a laptop, so I was forced to get another one.

As soon as the warranty period is over, I will probably get rid of the other partition as well. It was alienware's "we reset laptops to factory settings if it is sent in for repairs" that made me keep it.

 

hey, i just wanted to thank you so much for all your help i was very lost in trying to get win 7 to work on this laptop.

Tho i do have a problem. I am trying to flash x36 from a cd but it wont boot up when i restart and when i select it from the boot menu it says error then continues to windows. I just want to make Command Center work i am really tired of looking at green lights. (i been looking at the same color for over a year now, win 7 beta) Any ways i just wanted to know do i have to flash x36 bios or can i keep going without it following that guide u had up, and also can u tell me what im doing wrong with flash? I am burning the file on PowerISO. when i put the cd into the drive while windows is up it shows the auto run screen so im pretty sure i burn it correct.

Any help will be great thank you once again.

 

What are the specs of your machine?

No, you don't have to flash to x36 bios, but that's what I did. It helps fixing the bug in which the AlienFX doesn't come up when on battery power. Also if you have the extreme core 2 duo CPU, it gets rid of downclocking. Good luck.

 

Sorry for the late reply
i had my laptop since June of 08
X32 bios
Intel Core 2 Duo: T9300 2.5ghz
4GB Ram
250GB HDD
8700m GT
Windows 7 Ultimate

I still also cant get that dang on keyboard to light up. everything else works. Also the fusion will not come up it freezes then force closes.

 

Based on your specs you won't need the x36 bios to run your m15x smoothly.

Try this keyboard patch that AW released for windows 7. Get it here Alienware link
And Fusion doesn't work for me either. I only get a black screen in the command center.

 

should i also use their command center or use the vista one, 1033(64)

i know im asking alot of questions im just having trouble after following all the steps and no of these work..at least for the command center/lights.

 

The Vista one has fusion and it works I think. Did you try the keyboard patch yet? Follow the instructions they gave you at the AW site link I gave you.

 

yes i tried the keyboard patch and tired the vista one and the AW one and followed the full instructions of both people.

 

POST FROM OTHER THREAD!!!
To start, Flash your m15x bios to X36 then reinstall Windows 7 (64) and all the drivers in the correct order, save the command center for last. TURN OFF UAC and OSD will work FINE!!!! Install m15x_ripley_model.exe, Then install M15x-M17x-CommandCenter-1033(x64) after that install AlienFx_KB_Fix, Shutdown (not restart)! When windows starts open command center and close the current theme and open a new one. This is how I got mine to work great! Works like it did with Vista on my Alienware Area-51 m15x!!
All the drivers and downloads in my post you can download from this site, or google!


_________________________________________________________________
Here is the site I found the BIOS X36 and Command Center 1033(64)

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=342331

_________________________________________________________________

If you dont want to reinstall windows, Just flash bios (X36) and remove any command Center you have installed, and run CCLEANER and run REG FIX, and fix all problems, restart and then start with the new downloads for command center!!
_______________

ITSMILLS-

KUDOS to: dhoang417 and findvikas

 

Lo there chaps,

Thought i'd just butt in to the thread and ask your opinions on the best current 88GTX driver.... As i've just reinstalled Windows after fatally installing the newest mobile driver from nvidia's site.... And the other thing: Apart from the Command Centre, does it matter in which order you install any other drivers?

Also: If any of this is already in the thread, I apologise in advance, I have looked through about 15 pages, then got slightly bored

Thanks
Tom

 

after about a 2 week Hiatus, I'M BACK AND RUNNING STRONG!!! my m15x has a motherboard replacement and then I slowly put back on windows 7 with all the correct drivers and registry edits, or adjustments. And now my m15x works perfectly. This machine with a SSD on windows 7 and a 9800 GT works wonders. I won't be using the 9800 GT much, only strictly for gaming. When I'm doing other things like chatting on here I'll be on my intel card.

And yes the keyboard and control pad work fine on my lappie. I'm starting to think the motherboards go bad after a certain period of time on these machines

 

I am currently using 186.82 for my 8800m gtx Topper. Under Vista 32 bit though.

It has given me great performance ( like 186.81 ) with proper downclocking on idle

 

I think that you should always install the chipset drivers first. But, the others don't matter. The OSD driver should be before the graphic drivers so you can switch to integrated and install that driver.

 

Sigh, I think the PC is flawed. I love the system but these buttons suck. The touch buttons. I wouldn't care so much but the stupid Stealth Mode Button is bugging the $hit out of me. SO I got a motherboard replacement as I'm like 1 of 10 apparently that owns a m15x and got the extended warranty as I still have the warranty now. And boy was it worth it.... Anyways 2nd day with the PC and yea the touch buttons Ultra Sensitive started Fing up again and was basically non-responsive. After about 4 reboots I got the system working again.

But seriously, Day 2, anyways I woudln't even give a hoot about the buttons if stealth mode wasn't a part of it. Having the PC stuck on 1ghz all time is a nightmare right?

 

Again, I should note that it isn't necessarily a hardware error as it could be OSD driver. Registry errors, or something to that degree.

 

what about webcam and CyberLink YouCam?Does it works without the drivers?

 

Windows automatically installs drivers for the webcam. You only need to install the Cyberlink software to actually record.

 

ok then, I'm going to instal windows seven on x32 bios version,Does anybody use this version of BIOS on m15x with windows 7 without any problems?

Which driver are the best for GeForce 8800GTX?From Nvidia, www.laptopvideo2go.com,or AW? Which one works the best and with any problem on windows 7 x64?

I just install windows 7 and got the problem with keyboard,doesnt litght on it,try FindVikas guide and doesnt work as well.The touchpad doesn't work too, FN+ F12 doesn't work

 

dhoang417 guide works great! And what I posted works as well!
Thanks!

 

@nofate, just follow the guide. It should work with the x32 bios as well.

 

still touchpad doesn't work, FN+ F12 doesn't work.And now I have problem with AlienFousionControler it use 1,7GB RAM

 

Hey Nofate. Did you try following this? LINK It should work.

 

thanks now works

 

Just want to say thx a lot. Everything works fine on my m15x! Also the touchpad fix did it's work

 

Could the mods please move this to the new sub forum?

 

No problem. That's why we are here.

I agree. Many people could use this guide.

 

hey guys, i just put a new hdd on and i redid everything and guid works great. i couldnt believe i had so much trouble with the keyboard lighting before.

I just had one question tho. Is there a reason why we cant use the latest nvidia driver? 195.xx