M11x Problem/Technical Question thread for New Owners

If you bought an Alienware M11x R1 (Core 2 Duo CPU, and VGA port on the side), then go to Welcome to Dell Technical Support

If you bought an Alienware M11x R2 (Core i5/i7 CPU, no VGA port on the side), then go to Welcome to NVIDIA - World Leader in Visual Computing Technologies

 

The clock speeds of the M11x R2 Core i5/i7 CPU's are running at default Intel specifications.

The Core i5/i7 CPU's have Turbo Boost, which can dynamically scale the clock speed depending on demand, power consumption, and heat production. The ultra-low voltage CPU's in the M11x R2 intentionally use very conservative settings to save on battery life.

And it makes sense. The reality is that incremental changes to CPU clock speed has very little benefit on actual real-world performance. But users who want to override Intel's conservative Turbo Boost settings can use a program like UncleWebb's ThrottleStop application. ThrottleStop allows you to tweak the power/heat thresholds used by the ULV Core i5/i7 CPU's to determine when to turn Turbo Boost on/off. This essentially runs your CPU to run at higher Turbo Boost clock speeds more frequently, giving you more CPU performance.

 

ye i got the i7 thank you

 

Hmm... After reformatting my R1 I can't seem to change the graphics cards anymore and there's a huge slowdown in internet speeds. I downloaded the A05 bios but it says that I'm already useing the latest version. Though I'm pretty sure that I'm not since I just reformatted and all.

Any ideas on how to get this working again?

 

BIOS has nothing to do with reformatting your hard drive, Most likely you do, indeed, have A05.

Anyway, I'm assuming you've gotten the correct LAN/WAN and GPU drivers? For your internet, how are you connected?

 

which realtek driver would people use?

the dell ones or those from realtek?

 

Turns out I had to go to the CMD thing at start up and disable something. It fixed the Internet speeds there.

 

which is the best version of the nvidia driver to use? the latest or 260.xx?

 

Help! My one month M11x is died. I can't switch on it at all. Morning it works like charm but when I come back from campus and use it at room.. It is totally no response when I on it. No alien head. The screen is absolute black like when we have off it. Processor and fan weren't working as well..I try many times to press the on button but no response. But a weird thing is I manage to on it one time when I make more than ten time attempt. Until now it can't on yet after I shut down again. What happen actually? Anyone can help me ?

 

It is time to call Dell/Alienware. That is what a warranty is for, it is definitely not normal

 

Anyone else hear this? My R2 makes a beep when it's sitting idly near me ... it's a very small barely audible "bip" noise. My R1 has never done this. I am wondering if perhaps it is the Momentus XT drive perhaps.... anyone else with this configuration know is this drive parking or something along those lines? Seems to come from the right side looking down on the keyboard but that could just be my imagination...

 

Not quite sure where to put this, but since I replaced the Wireless card I have no use for the dell utility, but I can't seem to uninstall it, I keep getting the error shown in my attachment, is there anyway I can get rid of the utility?

EDIT: I hate to ask two questions at once, but I've noticed a big issue with my alienware recently.

For some reason I can't seem to figure out, every 5 minutes or so the internet connection on the laptop will hang and nothing will seem to load. At first I thought it was because I replaced the wifi card (so I changed the driver), however the issue persisted even under wired connections with wifi turned off.

I recently started using Chrome, however the issue has affected Firefox as well, and I have tried restarting both the laptop and my router/modem however nothing has seemed to work.

I'm unsure as to why this issue has occurred, as nothing has changed over the last week other than what I mentioned above, and yet at the same time, my Asus laptop has not experienced the problem, so I'm assuming it's some sort of issue with the Alienware. This problem only seems to occur at home, but my other laptops seem to be fine, and it even occurs under regular browsing with no torrents running.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what the issue is, or if it's related to the Dell utility?

 

Does anyone have an answer to this issue or am I stuck with these lockups?

 

Lately I've been having severe rubber banding issues when playing games online. I'll lag around, getting stuck in things I jumped over 5 seconds ago.
I read about others having the issue, and it seems to be because of the way the wireless scanning works in Windows 7. It'll scan for other more preferred connections every 45 seconds.
It does seem to add up, about every 45 seconds I get the lag I'm talking about in the games.
I've tried WLAN Optimizer, but doesn't seem to fix it, only improve it.
Anyone with this issue? Or does anyone know if there's a thirdparty wireless connections manager for the M11x?

 

does alienware/dell have international warranty? im in australia, and does the hinge problem affect the new m11x?

 

the hinge thing won't affect the R3, just the R1 and R2.

 

Hello,
I apologize in advance, for the noobish questions, since I'm an complete computer illiterate. here are my questions

1, if down the road, I'd want to replace my M11x's hard drive with SSD on my own, is that possible? doable?

2, if i managed to replace the drive, what about the OS and softwares, can I still use the re-spawn discs (recovery)? meaning that all the OS , original drivers, softwares are still usable?

3, If I want to fresh install another copy of win 7 ult, will the activate info from the OEM Win7 OS stored in the bios affect the new OS?

thank you all.

 

ok...I'll have a go at your questions..bear in mind that I'm as noobish as they come..
ok...1. Yes, replacing the hard disk on the M11x is very easy (I have swapped the original with a 500GB momentus), it's a simple act of unscrewing the back cover the pulling the harddisk out!
2. It's my understanding that a recovery (backup) disc only backups your personal files and NOT the os. (I'm guessing here)
3. I tried using the windows 7 disk my M11x came with on my Toshiba satellite, and activation failed to work on it. If, in your case, you're trying to use the alienware win7 cd on your M11x, I don't see why it wouldn't work.
It's more guess than fact...but hey! (shrug)

 

which intel drivers can i use for the integrated gpu? the ones from intel or dell?

this is for an R2 of course!

 

thank you for helping me out,
ok, so the CD that came with my 11x only has drivers? no OS on them?

 

No, the CD should have a complete version of windows 7. As to the Drivers, go to support.dell.com and you'll be able to get them all there. I would recommend, downloading the drivers to a Flash Disk or a CD, and then install them after installing the OS.
Cheers!

 

understood, thank you!

one more noobish question, I'm thinking to get the thermaltake hard drive docking station. any recommendations on HDD /SSD cloning software? thanks again.

 

I own a ThermalTake BlackX hard drive dock. I bpught it at the same time as my Alienware M11x, and it has worked like a charm ever since in both eSATA or USB mode. See the first link in my sig for pics of the dock.

And the cloning software to use is Acronis True Image. It is very popular among forum members for being a very reliable, straight-forward, easy-to-use cloning tool. I believe you can go on their website and download a 30-day trial of Acronis TrueImage Home Edition

 

Did Acronis finally fix the partition offset issue?

 

I've read from some thread saying, instead of using m11x right out of the box, do a 'clean install of win 7' , that got me, what does that mean? use the recovery CD to do so, or get another copy of win7 and such?

 

Not to sound like an elitist jerk, but if you do not know what a "clean install" is, then it is probably isn't worth the effort to learn how to do one.

A "clean install" basically means you reformat (wipe out) all of the data on your laptop, and reinstall everything from scratch. You re-install the base Operating System, reinstall all of your device drivers, reinstall all of your applications, and then tweak all of the settings on your computer just the way you like. The end result is a computer that is configured exactly the way you like it.

"Clean installs" are typically used by people who like to squeeze every last bit of performance out of their computer (like me), or for anal-retentive people who want their computer configured in a very particular way (also like me). The performance difference is actually pretty small. And it's a pain in the butt to do. And it honestly isn't worth doing all that work if all you are after is just that little bit of performance. But some people actually enjoy doing that work of reinstalling all of that stuff, because it gives them a chance to play with their new toy.

 

thanks for the fast reply,
I do know what clean install of win 7 is, what i meant to ask was which windows 7 should i use? the one came with the recovery CD or stand alone retail/oem version that i can get my hands on? if that's the case, I read that win 7 activation stores info on bios, if i use another copy of win7, will that cause any conflicts?
I hope that cleared up my question without being rude, it's been awhile since I played with computers, just being extra cautious. thanks again for helping a noob out

 

Ah, ok.

The disc that came with your Alienware M11x will be fine. It is a full copy of Windows 7 Home Premium OEM edition. It doesn't pre-install any Alienware or Dell software. It is up to you to install that stuff yourself.

Windows 7 activation does not store anything on BIOS. What it does is it takes a "fingerprint" of your computer based on some unique characteristics of your hardware (e.g. hard drive serial number, CPU serial number, network card MAC address, etc), and sends that information to a Microsoft server. The idea is that if someone else tries to use your Windows 7 Product Key, they would be trying to activate Windows 7 on a computer with a different "fingerprint" than yours. So they would know that it was an unauthorized copy.

There are a few "what-if" scenarios that are also addressed with this method, such as what happens if you upgrade a few components of your computer (and thereby change the "fingerprint"), and how Windows 7 Activation and the different licensing for different versions of Windows 7 handles the case where you want to un/install your legitimate copy of Windows 7 onto a different machine. I can go into that if you want, but it's not relevant to your original question.

So, the most straightforward thing for you to do is to just do a clean install using the Windows 7 DVD that came with your laptop. You paid for it, so you might as well use it.

If you want to find out how to install Windows 7 from a USB flash drive (in case you don't have an external DVD drive), then check out this article:
Maximum PC | How To: Install Windows 7 from a USB Key!
You can safely ignore step 1, and just start on step 2. Step 1 is just a very complex way of telling you "Format your USB flash drive as an NTFS drive with one partition." If you already have a USB flash drive formatted to NTFS, you are ok.

 

I'm not sure if this is the place to ask, but I think the OP should have suggestions for settings/downloads. Things that new owners should download/acquire to get the most out of their machine.

What do you guys think? Is there already a thread like this?

 

I'm 100% supporting this idea, I was about to ask for what(version) of drivers, bios update should I download once I've clean installed win7. and driver/update installing order would be nice too.

thanks!

 

yes, because there may come a time where you may need to do a reformat and you don't know which drivers to get.

 

The Dell Online Store: Build Your System
this one is R3 or R2?

edit: ah its R2, does anyone know when the R3 will come?

 

It's an M11x R2. The M11x R3 does not exist (or, has not been announced).

No, nobody knows when the M11x R3 will come out. People have their guesses, but nobody *KNOWS* with certainty. The only time anyone will actually *KNOW* is when Dell / Alienware makes an official product announcement.

 

bump.

please someone help out the new owners/noobs

best,tested drivers, bios version and installing order.
thanks.

 

Not to sound arrogant but all the drivers you'll need, you'll find at the dell support site (support.dell.com). period!
The ones up there are the most recent and have the seal of approval of Dell, so you can't go wrong with any of them.
Peace.

 

But older drivers can cause games to be incompatible or other issues.

 

well, by just reading this forum, you can see there are nvidia optiumis (sp) problems, different Vcard related drive issues.(version) etc. so it's kind confusing for us, the new owners to fully understand which driver, version, etc to get.

 

hey guys i bought my laptop m11x 3 months agoo.... and the only problem i find is after some usage it starts to lag... like facebook chat is slow.... watching movies the video starts to lag. even scrolling down of webpage has a glitch to it... these are basic operations and ofcos playing a game is the same thing... it happens everyday could u guys help me?

i got an 17 processor @1.2ghz 640 um... 8gb ram ddr3.

 

Well, ok you have a point there and considering that I own an R1, I don't have to worry about problems with optimus. But I'll stand by what I said, the support site @ dell will surely provide you with the latest and fully functional drivers for your devices. You can also go to Nvidia's site and download the latest driver for your Vcard. I believe you R2 guys can do that.

I don't understand...The only thing I said was to go to dells support site and download the "latest" drives..."latest" being the key word here. So, if you're worried about experiencing incompatibility issues with games, go to dell and download the 'latest' driver. That's it!

 

hey everyone, i just got my new m11x r1 a couple of days ago and bought starcraft 2 right after. I was wondering what is the best driver right now that is out that is best for starcraft 2. thank you.

p.s. this forum is awesome i've been reading so much these past few days and everyone here seems very nice. Im glad to be part of this community.

 

My M11X R1 seems to freez up after being untoughed for awhile (will time it). The only things I have upgraded ius the Wifi to Intel-N6300, and a Seagate Momentus XT 500gb. I have completly unistalled the wifi drivers, and reloaded them, still the same problem. Any ideas?

 

The only thing I can think of would be to ask you if you made any big changes, software wise, recently. I have upgraded my R1 with a Momentus XT too and I didn't experience any problems. If you have restore points that go back a while, I would suggest you do a system restore and see if that resolves your issue.
Good Luck.

 

Momentus XT hybrid drive causing headaches, Seagate working to fix -- Engadget

 

i wonder if it is ok to install and SSD on an overclocked M11x?

 

strange, i get a driver IRQL BSOD and a few hours later i get the "your display is not connected to an nvidia gpu" error.

both gone...hopefully but i don't expect it to happen after not using it for a full day.

 

There is a slight dip in my keyboard, like it was warped down. I've seen this on older laptops after extended use but not on a new one. Is this normal or should I be complaining to dell?

 

Are the other sides raised above the chassis?
Theres 2 clips on both sides of the keyboard and the middle.
Sounds like the middle one is clipped properly and the "left and right" sides aren't. Just put a bit of pressure on either side of the keypad and it should clip in and the warp should be gone.

 

Its not quite like that. Its all situated just right, except for this one part. The edges arent raised and the keyboard and f keys are right all the way across, its just tyugh and j that warp down a bit. Very odd.

 

Having trouble in Mass Effect with the touchpad. I did order a mouse, but I also don't want to connect a mouse if I'm feeling in the mood for some ultra portable coffee shop gaming.

I have the latest synaptic drivers with the scrybe suite, but I hate the gestures and removed scrybe from startup. If I game I can set it to the default synaptic settings (two finger scroll, pic zoom) or the default "point and click only" and it doesn't make a difference.

The game plays almost correctly. All the menus and everything works fine, but it stops recognizing the mouse if I'm trying to walk and shoot (important!) or if I go into the HUD/Powers menu. In both situations the mouse will be completely locked until I tap CTRL and then it will work fine, 100%.

It's a pain in the *** to start walking, shoot, tap ctrl, and repeat the process if I take cover and start walking again.

Got any ideas? ME1 by the way...

 

I'm not all that new of an owner; purchased my R2 in October, I think. But I'm not very technically savvy, either, so I'm posting here.

One of the games I've had installed on this system is BioShock 2. I played through it without a hitch. Today, I decided to load it up to see if the PC DLC they had been working on was released yet, but my system is now telling me that I don't have to resources to handle the game. That would indicate something wrong with Optimus, right? But I checked, and the game is set to run with the 335M. I refreshed that option, anyway, just in case. I even set the default, universal setting to 335M. Didn't work. The game just tells me that my system can't handle it and crashes if I proceed anyway.

Next, I completely uninstalled all NVIDIA drivers, downloaded them again (266.58 non-beta release, Jan 18), and reinstalled. Problem persists.

At this point, I have tried everything. With my ability and knowledge alone, it is downright impossible to run BioShock 2 now. Optimus/the 335M refuses to cooperate. Even though I completely played through the game before with the exact same installation on this system.

Any ideas for fixing this problem? Do I maybe need to install an archived NVIDIA driver/Is there something wrong with 266.58?