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

I just wanted to say that while this guide works like a charm and I really thank you, I do have one little problem. when I download the latest nvidia driver for my 9800 GT for my M15x laptop, from the nvidia website, I proceed to install it and everything works like a charm except that when I reboot, the machine goes bluescreen and when it does finaly boot into windows, the display adapter is shown with the good old exclamation mark.

What I did was go into My hive in alienware.com and downloaded the Windows Vista 64 bit driver for this video card and while it told me it wasng signed, I proceeded with the installation and that driver worked like a charm on WIndows 7 64 bit.

Everything else works though... was this solution ok?

 

Driver versions 190 and up don't work with the area 51 m15x because of binary graphics.

The latest drivers you can use from Nvidia's site is 186.81

 

Thanks for that info.

What about what I did? I just installed the Windows Vista 64 drivers from my hive in alienware.com and while it gave me the message about the drivers not being signed and what not. Everything has been working great... should I just leave it like this?

 

Alienware's drivers are horrendously out of date, your much better off getting one from nvidia

 

It's no problem to install those drivers even with the warning message. But, I highly suggest that you install the latest ones from Nvidia if you are playing the newest games that are currently out.

 

so should we install the vista 64x ones instead of windows 7 because they dont seem like they want to work on the mx15
im using a 8700gt

 

I presume you are trying to use later than this

 

well i have the 186.81 and i just installed APB beta and its telling me my driver is to old.

I can not use any newer ones without getting blue screen. so i do not know what i should do.

Should i download a vista 64bit or is there a way around the blue screen.

thank you for the help.

 

Try Vista 64 bit and see if it works.

 

yah that went into a BSoD it installed fine then restart failed.
Any other ideas?

 

I'm have near the exact same situation as nerve. I recently upgraded my m15x (with an 8700M GT) to win 7 x64 and I can't install any drivers past 186.81. For now, that would have been fine, as long as it was fixed by alienware somewhere down the line so I'm not running that driver for the rest of the notebook's lifetime.

However, I too am trying to play APB, but it states my drivers are out of date. APB is now retail and it has this wonderful system where it will not let you start the game unless your system meets the minimum requirements. Every piece of hardware definitely does, but since APB believes my drivers are out of date, it believes I don't meet the minimum and it won't let me start the game. Thus, unless I can update my drivers I'm SOL on playing APB

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

Well I followed this to a T also, and even went backwards a bit and un-installed the command center, and the OSD Utility, then rebooted and re-installed then in order, but I still get the same thing, no keyboard lights.

As with some other people, the keyboard is not even listed in the theme selection/action, not sure why not. This was working fine before I did the upgrade, but hasn't worked yet. Should I start all over with a clean install?

Or do I have to try a reseat, still dont know why this needs to be done if it was working fine before, but I could give it a go if really need too.

 

I don't know. If you follow all of the steps and it still doesn't work, it might be that the keyboard needs a reseating. Or you can try to go back to Vista.

 

Hmm well I may try again from a clean install, but cant do it this weekend, off to Vegas to bake in the desert! I'll check with the client and see if he wants to play with it as is or wait.

Dont think he has the Vista disks anymore, I'll check with what he wants to do.

Thanks,

PS there are a couple of "follow it this way" guides, which one is the best one?

 

I don't know about the other guides here. But, I know for sure that my guide worked for me and a couple of other members here. If worse comes to worse, your client may have to revert to XP.

 

Just got my m15x back with a new 3870. It works well - just as good as my old 8800GTX, it seems to run at about 80 degrees C at max and idle at about 50-52. This seems a little high but not too bad. There's no reading for VGA internal temp in Thermofan, anyone else getting this? Anyone else know if there's any software to downclock the core and mem when not using 3D apps?

 

I got a virus on my m15x with windows vista 32 bit (not a 64 bit ready processor), and I decided to install windows 7 32 bit on my machine. I did that, but my video card did not work correctly. So I dealt with a really slow computer for about a month and a half. Then, I decided it would be a good idea to head back to Vista. I did not have my respawn discs, but I used a dell Vista Home Premium disc. It got stuck while installing the final components of Windows, and ended up going into a completely black screen.

Now my computer will not boot. What are your thoughts?


PS - Alienware no longer sells the respawn discs for my laptop.

 

hey does anyone have either the installer or extracted file(s) that are needed to use AuroraLightsFX? because i cant find it on the internet anywhere and http://www.vikasverma.com/AuroraLightsFX is down... i have no other way to get my keyboard working because i have tried everything, so many wipes and clean installs of win7 x64...

there is no way to use this laptop without the backlit keys in dark or dim light...

 

I have the old version.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/0fsxi5in2ai36zl/AuroraLightsFX.zip

 

cool, will try this, whats the difference in this one and the last one he published? i found the source code for it but wasnt sure if it was worth it to try and compile it, havnt looked to see what language it is written in..

 

There's no go dark mode. that's it.

 

ah, from what i read isnt it supposed to start up with windows and light everything up, but i cant figure out how to do that, the start with windows checkbox seems to only start the AuroraLightsFX program and not actually initialize the light system...

thanks for the help btw dhoang

 

Sorry to revive an older thread but I was wondering if anyone else was having the problem with the older Aurora lights FX in which everything else was changing color except for the power button. I have had this problem for a while now and just kind of remedied it to myself by keeping all my other colours the same shade of blue that the power button was stuck on. However, the blue has gotten really boring and I wanted to change it. If anyone has a solution that would be awesome. I am running Windows 7 x64 btw

 

To fix this problem I reinstalled my command center, and used this to change the power button color since Aurora Lights FX can't do it.

 

Oh god it's been one problem after another since upgrading from 32bit vista to 64bit win7. Thank god for this site. I think I'm just gonna give up with the lights and just install vista32 again, correct the lights, and then upgrade back to win7. Anywhoo anyone knows if the new(ish) 260.99 WHQL update for the nvidia driver(8700M GT) works yet? Also can anybody upload the audio driver from this thread? The reltek site seems to have taken it down.
Edit: okay the newest update still doesn't work

 

You can get the latest realtek audio drivers from the Realtek website.
As for the GPU drivers, there is another thread here that deals with it. Supposedly, there's a limitation to which Nvidia drivers can be used...
ATi drivers don't have this problem.

 

Been fighting my m15x to get it's keyboard lights to work... the thing that worked for me was to do the full win7 install following the Alienware support instructions. Then I took an image of the disk...
Now; the install of the command centre installs new firmware to the AlienFXBoard... I suppose I have an older board so the firmware didn't seem to be compatable.
So I installed the vista command centre to my win7 (ie uninstalled the win7 one first), this installed an older version of the firmware. I then re-installed the machine from the disk image which gave me the new command centre with the older firmware.

No idea if it will work for others but worked for me

 

Oh I also managed to get the AuroraLightsFX stuff to work... I have a full copy of Visual Studio but you should be able to download VisualStudio 2010 Express (C#) and compile it from there. Instructions are simple...
Make sure you have Visual Studio 2010 installed; from the above link or otherwise
Download and extract the source
Open the .sln file with Visual Studio 2010
Hit ctrl+shift+b
The directory you unzipped the source to now contains a bin\debug directory in which you have the AuroraLightFX.exe...
Run and enjoy...

 

Hey guys thanks for all the great help here. I have gotten just about everything to work. I do have 2 problems though, which maybe someone know how to fix. 1- The synaptics touchpad driver causes LOTS of problems for me (and for that reason I had to uninstall it) When I have it installed, the touchpad moves in a funny way (skippy), when I press a key on the keyboard the mouse stops moving for a second or two before it will go again (very annoying) and also when I type fast on the keyboard it starts missing keystrokes so I will type words, but with missing letters... Is there any fix out for these problems so so I can actually have the synaptics drivers installed because the problems only go away if I have it unistalled.
Also my other issue is that when I try to create an advanced theme in AlienFX, the option to have a light on the keyboard completely goes away and if I apply the theme, the kb light turns off... Is there a way to fix this?
OK and my last question. The fans on the laptop seem to kick in with huge noise so like there is no small stepping as the heat goes up, its either really quiet (off or super low) or really loud. I am on the X36 bios. Would downgrading the BIOS fix this? I have a core 2 duo model if that matters at all. Also if I had to downgrade the BIOS, how would I do that and would I lose any options I have working now? THANKS GUYS in advance you have been great help!

 

did anyone here get the intel memory pci card to work under 64bit win7? if so is it worth it?

 

Do you have one already, or are you planning to buy an memory pci card?

 

have it already just never got it running, followed instructions elsewhere about changing it to vista mode but got an error at startup of windows.

 

I don't have one but with the speed of windows 7, there won't be any noticable improvement.

 

can you help me i have tired everything as per the post, but i have win 7 32-bit every light works other then my keyboard, and my volume control will only go up not down

 

I'm not sure if these drivers will work on 32 bit windows. Just go the sites and select the 32 bit versions to download.

Do you have a light up keyboard?

 

Hello.
Today my GPU started to crash when I was playing wow for no obvious reason. I wanted to try to switch to integrated gpu to see it its problem of graphic card or if its somewhere else. I did manage to switch to binary card right after the OSD utility installation, but now any time I want to switch back to my 9800 card OSD crashes and doen't switch. I has same issue when I was trying to get to the integrated card before, but it let me switch them for once. Now I can't get back. Please anyone have any idea what makes OSD utility crash?

Using win 7 and never had such a problem until recently I had to reinstal system to new hdd. Now I'm lost. Any help welcome.
Thanks

 

Sounds like trouble with the OSD utility. Try to uninstall the one you have now and then reinstall and disable the UAC option on windows 7.

 

Did you happen to be using Stealth mode? My 9800GT died after I started using Stealth Mode. Seems stealth mode turns the GPU fan off and even though it isn't doing anything, the temps climb to about 100C and kills it.

You could try enabling your 9800 and then rebooting into safe mode to make sure it isn't a driver issue. Remove the Nvidia driver, reboot into regular mode and then let the system reinstall the driver. If after it installs it you still get a black screen of freeze, your card is probably toast. Mine was still under warranty and I quit using Stealth.

So far so good other than not being able to update driver, everything works perfectly Win7 Enterprise 64bit, FX pipe lighting, OSD, touchpanels, even Stealth other than it kills cards. I upgraded to 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD and still going strong.

 

Just installed Windows 7 on my m15x-R1

Installed chipset driver, then tried installing several nVidia driver for the 8800M GTX

Restarting after installation yields BSOD, each time having to uninstall the drivers in safe mode.

What can I do, and why doesn't the default graphics driver detect an hdmi out display?

EDIT: & also: stealth mode is off
UPDATE: Installed 186.03 finally supported driver. Still not detecting external monitor in hdmi port.

 

To my knowledge this problem has never been fixed. The laptop is now essentially useless with outdated drivers, and has been since the most recent supported version came out less than a year after I purchased the machine. Obviously I will never buy Alienware or Dell again.

 

Are you telling me that i have to reinstall XP because windows 7 drivers do not support my m15x hardware? This is VERY frustating

Please somebody tell me if there is anything i can do to get my m15x-r1 to output to an exernal display!

 

You need to use drivers prior to 186.81. You do not need to revert to XP.

 

I have a m15x, just installed the win7, idk how the FN+F7 works, it could change between integrated graphic and high-performance graphic, i think i'm in the integrated mode now, how can i use the high-perf one.....My is Inter(R) Core(TM)2 Extreme CPU X9000, and 2.80 GHZ.....4gb Ram...........does anyone know how to use the other high-perf one plz help me.........also how to install a driver on it....

 

I have the same problem, and NONE of the archived drivers detect an hdmi out

 

Yes card died and yes I was using Stealth mode almost all the time I wasn't playing any games. But my previous 8800M GTX died after year and half and same this 9800M GT so I guess with very big heating those cards just doesn't survive more than this period. Today I found UK based company which is promising to repair damaged GPU for decent price so going to give them a try. Bough GTX 280M in meantime, but I can't get it working at all, so I hope I can get my old card repaired. About the stealth mode, thing is computer is quite noisy even if you don't do anything so that's why I was using it quite offten :/

 

Integrated m15x graphic card doesn't support HDMI. You must be using external gpu in order to get it working. I was using 9800M GT card and had no problems with HDMI.

 

+1

I love everything else about this laptop but this lack of support is absolutely pathetic. This graphics card is more than good enough for many games nowadays if only we could get some updated drivers. This reason was why I didn't pick up a m11x

 

I know, I need a driver to use the 8800 GTX that IS IN the laptop. Some of the drivers work but they still do not detect an hdmi!

 

I had so many issues installing a driver on my M15x, using Windows 7 Ultimate x64 (I kept receiving the bsod upon loading Windows). I tried using driver sweeper, but it kept crashing on me. I begand wondering if the gpu was the issue. Eventually I just re-installed Windows 7, and installed the 1st driver on hand (an old 186.03 version), and it worked just fine. I think the previous owner installed a corrupt Windows 7 copy or something (I bought the laptop cheap on ebay because the original owner couldn't get the 8800m to work, lol). I ended up getting a hell of a deal (M15x w/ X9000, 8800M GTX, 320GB 7200rpm hdd, Intel 4965AGN, & a new AW Orion backpack) for $515 shipped! This X9000 sells for $300 by itself.

 

Hi,

I have area-51 alienware m15x - R1 (originally windows Vista) with windows7.

My touchpad stopped working few days ago, at first a little now completely. Doesn't respond at all.

Spoke to alien tech and they wanted me to install / update Synaptics driver, I uninstalled my old touch pad driver and download m15x_Touchpad_Win7_x64_13.2.9.0 from alienware.co.uk site and try to load the installer but it wont let me get past accepting the agreement stage. Alienware tech said looks like a complete reinstalll .... ¬¬'

I don't want to do that so im here, tried to install the synaptics Touch pad Driver from link on first post followed by touch pad fix before reboot. After reboot fn+f12 works but touch pad doesn't respond

Some tips / advice / help would be appreciated.