M11x Problem/Technical Question thread for New Owners

Got my M11X-R3 back on Friday, in addition to the MB they replaced the memory and screen. Not sure why they replaced the screen as issue was with the MB/processor, but there you go lol.

 

grrr......received my intel centrino advanced-n 6205 only to find that it will not install drivers onto my R2

 

Does it say something about driver signature not working?

There is a work around for it, win7 sp1 screwed up awhole lot of driver install things.

 

it said drivers could not be found but when i find and manually install the drivers through windows' driver listing it causes my M11x to BSOD citing the file of netWS64.sys (or something like that) as the culprit forcing me to reboot.

EDIT: I first installed the latest official intel drivers for the adapter. thinking of trying the drivers that come with the R3 in my area (those have 6205s) and see how that fairs.

 

Hi, im new, and im just bought m11xr2 from outlet, and I have little problem with sound. Its normaly working, but when I put a headphone in first or second jack nothing changes. Jacks working on diagnostic tool, any suggestions?

 

so the audio isn't being diverted from the speakers to the headphones?

 

Yes. When im plug headphones nothing changes - sound still comes from speakers of laptop and there is no window or alert about pluging new device. Ive reinstaled Realtek HD Audio and still nothing changes.

 

Sorry, this may be a stupid question, but does the "dell" synaptics driver not support 2 finger scroll? I tried going back to their drivers so the Alientouch option to disable the touchpad with a mouse attached but 2 finger scrolling does not work and I see no options about it. Am I stuck deciding between 2 finger scrolling, and functioning Alientouch options?

 

Does anyone know how to connect a PS3 bluetooth headset onto an r1 m11x?

 

Hi Guys, Im new here and was hoping to find some answers!

I just bought an M11X R2 - i couldnt wait the 12 days dell wanted for delivery of an R3 as im taking the machine out to Afghanistan with me.

I upgraded the RAM, and have a brand new hard drive to put in it... however... My M11X didnt come with any discs etc, and once i re-install windows on the new drive, how do i get all the Alienware goodies back such as Alien FX?

Also, another question... I have an OEM version of Win7, and i want to use this disc to install the new OS... will the key for Win7 on the back of my M11X work to activate it, as if it doesnt, i have no way of switching over to this faster, bigger hard drive!

And Lastly, if i do install the new HDD and get windows installed... where do i find all the relevant drivers for my system? I cant find much on Dell's badly organised website

I only have 2 days left to do all this before i deploy out to Afghan, so please help!!!

Cheers Guys,

Alex

 

Aren't there some programs/hardware that'll copy Windows and your files to your new hard drive? I dunno... seems more convenient than doing a clean install and getting the new drivers. :| Sorry, I think you should ask some SSD owners; I've never tried before!

 

I'm planning to get m11x , what you guys think of m11x?

What's the battery life?
Does it hangs often?
Is NVIDIA Optimus comes with gaming problem.(I heard some games unable to detect Nvidia/intel Card in optimus)

 

which model are you getting, r1/2/3?

 

m11x-R3 10char.

I remember R2 use i7 first generation processor right? I dislike stealth mode.

 

I have a brand new R3 and out of the box, IE 9 takes about 2-3 minutes to load a page. Is this normal? If not, how can I speed up web browsing? My wireless connection has full bars and I can quickly browse with other devices on the network extremely well. Btw, it came with the upgrades Intel wireless card.

 

I have had my m11x R1 since it came out and not had one problem. That has now changed. Hopefully this has a simple fix.

Problem: stuck on integrated graphics.

Tried:
1) reinstalling graphix
2) changing bios versions
3) fn+f3
4) rebooting and switching options in bios
5) yelling at it
6)*searching forms for others with same problems and solutions found one with problem a year ago and no solution.

Specs:
m11x r1,AO5 bios, 280.xx graphics driver, 1.3 dual core, 4gig ram,
nVidia 1gig 335m
*edited in #6

 

How are you using 280.xx drivers? The highest official Dell ones are 263.xx I believe. If you are using official Nvidia drivers and not modded ones, you would be stuck in discrete graphics mode. The only way to be able to switch video cards is to use modded or Dell drivers.

 

Just got home and will give it a try hope that it works. Stupid for me not to try the dell drivers.

*update*
Now when I try to install the drivers from dell they fail every time.

Did a clean install and when it reboots and goes to install the files it fails...
On a side note when I went to nvidia site to check what drivers I need and tried to reinstall them it said nVidia hardware not detected.

**update**
Downloaded the beta drivers from the dell site and they worked. Then I tried to install the newest dell drivers got the same error for failing to install. So reinstalled beta and installed new ones over its and everything seems to be working.

Thanks i has m11x +1,I did not think that the drivers where the issue because I installed them about a week or so ago.

 

Just to confirm,

I have an M11x R2 that's just out of warranty. The hinges are messed up, Alienware will fix it for for even though it's out of warranty?

 

Yes, though you might have to send it to their depot instead of them coming to your house to fix it.

 

Hello guys my m11x r3 comes in 2 days (woop woop) and wanted to get my aftermarket RAM asap.

Can someone just put me out of my misery and tell me which to get?

I've tried to work it all out myself (honest) but i can't get my head around it. There's
So many different types on Amazon UK that I can't decide. I can't even tell which are for desktops and which are for netbooks!

So all I know is I want DDR3, I was thinking 8gb because £40 is fine, not bothered if I can save a tenner on only 6gb or whatever, just not sure about all the rest (pins, mhz, etc)

Please help wise ones

 

Does anyone know if there were USB problems with the R1? I have to experiment with plugging into different sockets to get something recognised

Purchased new from Amazon UK about 3 months ago.

 

Happens with my R2 quite often as well.

 

I'll have to find a really good powered hub but can't imagine one that will happily sit... the places I would need it to sit

 

I'd buy the cheapest 1333MHz DDR3 I could find. All the same really, no use spending extra for the name.

 

Hi,
I've just recieved my new M11X R3 and wanted to upgrade the RAM, as Alienware charge a crazy £30 for 1GB of extra RAM.

Anyway, I've seen this kit which is supposed to be compatable (@ Saprano187, this kit could be good for your system, it's good value and compatability is guaranteed)

My question is will adding this RAM invalidate the Alienware warranty?

Many thanks,
SW

 

Ram is considered a user upgradable part and won't hurt your warranty. The only way it would affect the warranty is if you broke something while changing the ram.

 

Hello guys, I have encountered a problem with my M11xR2. When I watch a movie or play a more demanding game (deus ex for example) after a while there is a buzzing sound going out of the speakers for a second and the image gets stuck for the time. I thought it was the video drivers, i rolled them back and it was fine for a day or two and that problem appeared today once again. I am worried if it may come from a problem with the MB or the GPU. Any ideas ?

 

Thanks mate much appreciated.

 

Well that was strange... I loaded up battlefield 2, went to pick up the laptop by the left corner (to put a dvd case under the fan cause I was in bed) and it just shut off. I have accelerthing-a-jig not installed. It turned back on normal, but then 45 minutes later I tryed to turn it on again and it was dead to the world, unplugged the battery and pressed power, plugged it back in and it works. Going to call if it does it again.

 

Can r1 GPUs run dx10/11? I want to be able to play DA2 on high graphic settings but I don't know if updating drivers for my GPU will ruin anything that Dell set up in my m11x.

 

Useing a non dell driver will make it so you cant switch to intel graphics.

 

For only $16.50 each when QTY 50+ purchased - DP (DisplayPort) Male to VGA Female Converting Adapter with built-in chip | DisplayPort to HDMI | DVI | VGA Adapters

Would this adapter work with M11X R3 without any glitches?

 

Hey guys!
I overclocked my Alienware M11X R2 I7 640 at 1.5MHz with ThrottleStop. My temperature while playing 3-4 games of Black Ops averages around 70-83, is safe? What temperature would be considered overheating? Thanks!

 

Hi guys,
Just wanna ask how long will this laptop last for non-stop gaming before it encounters problems/shoudl give it a rest.

 

Do you have a source for this? I've been using the current NVIDIA beta drivers and this doesn't seem to be the problem...

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/625320-switchable-graphics-latest-drivers-r1.html

You can switch sometime, but sometime you cant. Its not a reliable setup, but i sometimes works.

 

Hi guys using 285.62 and found that my media players (MPC, VLC and WMP) are stuck on integrated graphics - the preferred GPU option in the NVIDIA control panel / Manage 3D settings is grayed out.

Anyone else notice this?

 

I bought my m11x in May 2010. During the past few months when I close my laptop lid... then reopen it a few minutes later.... when the screen comes back on the contrast is completely screwed up (like it's set super high). The only way I know to fix it is to restart the laptop.

Comments? Is my laptop just getting old? lol Oh and it only happens occasionally. Not every time I close & reopen the lid.

 

I used to have something like that happen when I would alt-tab or switch users in Windows 7.

Have you ever messed around with monitor color profiles on your computer? That was what was screwing up my laptop. For some reason, whenever it would redraw the Windows desktop, it would access some old / screwed up monitor profile and mess with all the contrast and colors.

 

have you guys experienced any issue with the plastic chassie.

I recently noticed the LCD of my r3 does not balance properly.

the right side is higher than the left side,looks slanting.

is it very common? is it a rare case or some kinda design problem?

i had dell changed a a new lcd for me, but didn't help.

 

The problem sounds more like its in the base of the laptop and not the lcd. If you take the computer apart, you can use thin washers to shim the other side up a little bit. Or if your like me, just bend it till it fits right

 

Hey guys, I've been playing the D3 beta today and BSOD'ing constantly - which is fine, I expected that since I haven't found a completely stable OC yet on my GPU. However my concerns have arisen from the fact that I finally got a bit agitated with it and turned my GPU OC'ing off completely.

However I just got another BSOD which at first I thought may have just been because I recently tried to raise my CPU OC since I just installed new RAM a day or two ago. But after reading the BSOD message, it said "attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed" which doesn't really sound like it has much to do with the CPU, but I'm not well versed in such things. So could anyone enlighten me as to whether or not this is normal since i had no GPU overclocking on at the time of the BSOD.

Thanks guys!

 

I think I remember DeeVu having to underclock at one stage just to avoid BSODs. Maybe he can help...

 

Well, my biggest concern is that in the year and a half of owning my machine and playing A LOT of games on it, it has never done this before. Is there any chance that I actually broke/messed up something when I was overclocking my GPU? I used MSI Afterburner exclusively and I didn't max out the ranges, I started with 550/1350/875 and worked my way down from there.

Also, is there any way that this is an issue of trying to raise my CPU OC or is this dealing with my GPU?

 

Is it normal to have the webcam unmount from device manager when the screen is about 45 degrees from closed? My wife just noticed it and was wondering if I need to call dell or not. Thanks.

 

Definitely not normal. Faulty connection or a loose wire.

Call dell and have them fix it.

 

Does anyone know how to read BSOD .dmp files? I've experienced a few blue screens and I was wondering if I could send the files to anyone to be analyzed. D:

 

I've had issues with the My WiFi hotspot functionality since day one. Usually, a device will not obtain an IP address or it will drop out of the Intel utility's list of connected devices even though the device itself believes it is still connected. Sometimes I can fix the IP address issue by clicking "Unshare" and then "Share," but sometimes I need to restart. Often, I can only load a page or two on the device before it disconnects and won't reconnect. My perception is that it works fine with some devices and not others, as if it is sensitive to the way the OS handles IP packets or Ethernet frames. For example, I don't recall having the problems with my iPhone 4 on iOS 4.3 but my Nintendo 3DS was completely useless as was my HP TouchPad running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). With WebOS on the TouchPad, I could at least load a page or two before it would stop working. My Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY 4G (R800at) was as troublesome as the TouchPad until I updated the Intel drivers and utilities, but I still keep finding it disconnected after I download large apps and games.

I often have to disable/enable the utility too but the functionality is so fleetingly useful that I'm considering just not bothering unless there's a fix. I mostly want to confirm that it's not just me because if it is just me I will be requesting warranty service.

Oh: When testing the TouchPad and 3DS, it seemed that the issue was that it did not allow more than one device to be connected at a time (connecting a second seemed to bump off the first) but since then the issue has worsened and I can't reliably use it with even one device.

 

Why not give a fixed ip to your devices? This will take care of your problem permanently.