Fixing up a M11X R1

I have been wanting to get one of these when they came out and missed out on the black Friday sale when they were dropped way down in price. Since then I have been messing around and got one for a little over 300 dollars, it worked but was a "repair" unit. It is just your basic model. Even the plate on the bottom has the generic M11X on the ID plate. I was suprised even though it was a "repair" unit that it was in the original outer and inner box that was shipped out from the factory. Unopened users manual, alienware sleeve and blue and black box that holds everything, windows 7 restore dvd.

(4GB ram, 320GB HD 7200, no wwan, windows 7 home premium)

Last night I got home from work and took it out of the box to look at it. It seemed the back light was out and the left hinge was broken. I knew R1's had hinge problems but never read into it. While off at work I had ordered a replacement hinge thinking that was all I needed. Not knowing that the plastic on the screen housing was what was broken.

Fixed the backlight, the plug to the screen was partly pulled out causing it not to light up the backlight but the flashlight trick on the screen showed a picture. Must of happened with the left hinge flopping loose.

I started to work on the hinge thinking maybe for now I could just glue the brass threaded sleeves into the hole for right now. Most of the plastic was broke off so that wouldn't work. I took the brass sleeve and screws out and put them up for safe keeping for right now. I went out into the shop and got some stainless steel tie wire. I know this is strong stuff if tied up right. We use it all the time at work. I removed the screws from the pewter bracket to the left of the left hinge to give me room to work. I then cut two 4 inch long pieces of tie wire. I inserted the tie wire into the hinge hole and though the pewter bracket. I crossed the end and used a pair of pliers to twist it down tight. I cut the excess wire off and layed it down flat. Replaced the screws to the side of the left hinge.

The hinge still felt too tight, I got a 5.5mm 1/4 drive socket on both side and loosed the tension on the hinge until it felt right.

I don't call this a permanent solution but for right now until I can get another lid this will work fine. I am going to re-do this in a few days. Where the wire is twisted I am going to put it all the way on the top on the right, and all the way at the bottom on the left screw hole. The plastic has a little bulge there now but moving the tie location over will solve that problem.




Windows 7 was already installed back on it when I got it. A fresh install. It looks like it was done with the re-install disk as the system info shows Alienware as the manufacturer. Just none of the drivers were installed. I am guessing that is a second DVD that I didn't get with my system. I have downloaded a lot of them from dell trying to not get anything that would be considered bloat on my system. Maybe by tonight I will have it all sorted out and load up F.E.A.R or HALO 2 to try it out.

I have been reading a lot on this forum and still have a LOT of older threads to go though on the M11X. I will be doing that cooling mod that is posted and the wwan storage mod. No telling what I will get into after that, I do have a spare GPS card lying around if I don't do the wwan storage mod.

 

That's awesome! I know Dell has been fixing the hinge issue out of warranty, but I don't know about second-hand owners. I love that ghetto wire solution.

 

You can buy replacement screens from ebay or dell, I brought mine from dell cost $380. Most parts for the R1 are reasonably cheap now, the mobo I just purchased was only $130, includes CPU, GPU + fan + heatsinks so not a bad package deal.

Seeing as you have hacked the screen, you can install WWLAN aerials with a 3G card and your alive with 3G. Also most 3G cards have built in GPS modules, mine does not work with win 7 works with XP. The storage mod is another option but the cards are not cheap. I have two runcores in my mini 9's so know the cost.

 

I am always playing with something to mod on one of my toughbooks. I plan on replacing the top housing right later on, but I wanted to play with it now. I got everything loaded and it's working right. Time to load up a few games now and see what it will do.

I have noticed the motherboards have went way down in price, so much I have even considered seeing what it would take to mod one of the R1 motherboards into a toughbook case. The biggest challenge would be the keyboard and combining the fanless cooling with the fan cooling. A good video card has been hard to find on the fully rugged models. The newest one (CF-31) has a Dedicated ATI graphics on the I5 models. Other than that in there history they have had ATI 7500, 9000, 9600, hd 2300, 3650. None was in the fully rugged line, only semi-rugged and business class machines.

I was just looking at that GPS card I have on hand because there seems to be very little restrictions on what can be put in the wwan slot on the M11X R1's from what I have read. One thing that drives a lot of us toughbook modders crazy is what they have locked out in the bios.

 

Dell will fix the hinge out of warranty. In the process they will replace the whole LCD panel. I've had this done twice now, one in home warrantied and one out of warranty wehre they sent me a prepaid shipping box. All you need to do is transfer ownership of it to yourself first. Go to Dell's support site and enter the service tag. You have to know the name and zip code of the previous owner. If you don't have that information do a google search for a way around it, I'm sure it's been done.

 

GOod score, like others have said, give dell a call and they will fix it free of charge.

 

As others I have seen, I was having trouble with the ownership transfer not knowing the previous owner information. The trick of putting "No information" in the first and last name slots worked but I still couldn't continue with out some kind of zip code info. I tried "No information" in it but it didn't work. Using 1 didn't work either. I tried a few combos and nothing worked. I wound up putting in "Noinformation" with out a space in it for the zip code and that worked and allowed me to finish transfering the ownership. I will check back with them on getting the hinges replaced after giving it a little time in my name.

(double checking warranty status it hasn't been out of warranty long. One year, ran out 10-6-2011)

 

If you can score a new screen for free then this makes it a cheap R1. Unsure the point of buying a mobo yes they are cheap but you will need the correct connector and supported screen. Unless you plan on running via VGA or HMDI port.

 

The point of the motherboard would be to mod it into a fully rugged case. I am not sure of all the connectors yet, it's still a research project for right now but something I would like to see put together later on.

 

Dell replaces the hinges outside of warranty. Did you try calling?

 

Not yet, but I plan on soon. I have to go off to work in less than a week so it will be after I get back from work and they will have a whole month to get it done and back to me if they do it.