M11x Problem/Technical Question thread for New Owners

Ok, it works great! I just feel really dumb!... near thought to press it... ha ha *crawls back into bubble*

 

That question comes up quite a bit. Don't feel bad.

 

anyone know that how to set the alienhead to notify me when the battery life went down a certain %? I remembered last time mine will flash when dropped under 20% but now no more...

It will only flash when under 10% and i didn't change any setting on it.

Thanks.

 

My m11xr2 won't hibernate or sleep. I click the hibernate or sleep button in start menu, and the screen shuts off, but the lights do not go off, and I can not wake the computer. I then have to use the power button to shut it off and then do a cold boot. Also, I already tried reverting back to stock clocks, and re-installing Command Center. Currently using the 258.96 modded drivers.

Any Ideas?

 

Go back to the stock driver and not the modded driver. If it resolves the hibernation/sleep problem then you know its the driver you are using.

One of the first steps to try when troubleshooting is to revert back any recent driver changes in addition to using the Dell provided drivers. Once you have ruled out the 'driver' factor, then you can proceed on...

 

Assuming that the right side LED has a different hue than the other speaker or other LEDs when doing this, yes, you have an LED problem. Replacing the palmrest should resolve. If the hue is off in all zones (like white looks a little pinkish), this is just how it works and replacing parts will not resolve the issue.

 

Please PM me with your service tag. I'd like to look into this a bit further - thought we had all this stuff resolved a long long time ago...

 

Hey umm...

I just got my new Alienware m11x r2 yesterday.
It was working all fine, and I installed some programs which were working fine on my desktop, i.e. MSN, Firefox, BitDefender.
But after i restarted to install the bitdefender, the m11x became HORRIBLY slow... it takes ages to start up, and ages to shut down. Sometimes, it just goes from the login screen to a black screen with just the mouse...
Some people say that it's the bitdefender but I'm not sure.
I really need help!!!

Thanks

 

Uninstall whatever it was you installed and see if that helps. If it doesn't then try a restore point.

 

i recently bought the alienware m11x and i couldnt find any topic about this but does anyone have the same issue as me. whenever i close the lit and open it back again. the screen just blacked out? even if i click on the powered button the screen is still blacked out but my mouse seem to be working since the light is on but i have to hard reset the laptop everytime to fix this problem. should i send it back?

 

Look up a few posts from yours, and you have your answer

 

resetting the ram? i already tried that it still doesnt work...

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...uestion-thread-new-owners-26.html#post6604543 is what I was referring to, but rereading now, it's not quite an answer. Sorry about that. It might be worth trying, though.

 

Hi, I need help. I was having trouble playing certain games like starcraft 2 and WoW and the whitelist wasn't working properly (anytime I added something to it there was no result and the settings on the control panel seemed to reset even if I applied them, clicked OK, and rebooted)

So I tried sweeping the drivers so that I could either rollback or reinstall.

I downloaded driver sweeper and sweeped the Nvidia display and Phsyx driver.

It asked me to reboot and then this cmd prompt came up asking me something about Nvidia with a Y or N. (I tried it both ways btw)

Anyways when i tried to install the Nvidia driver for the 335m (both dell and Nvidia versions) it tells me that it cannot find a device that uses the driver!

How can I fix this?!

 

i guess nobody solve this issue?

 

What have you done since you got the laptop? Installed any drivers or applications? Changed any settings in AlienFusion or Windows 7's power plans? We need more information to help.

 

It only been a week old. It happened since day one and I thought it suppose to be like this. And all I Installed was sc2 and medieval total war 2. And updates the laptop. Nothing else.

 

did that and no change. I first noticed the problem when I started using AlienFXlite 0.4b

 

FWIW I use the same version of fx lite and don't have that problem. Did you uninstall Alienware's light controls? Mine are completely gone. I wonder if they're interacting poorly.

 

Hey everyone, new owner here with a couple questions please.

1) I went into BIOS and enabled CPU OC. It is currently at 160. When I save and boot into windows, i right click on my computer and go to properties. It still lists the CPU @ 1.20. Does it not display the OC here?

2) When you go dark on alienfx, how do you disable the annoying pop-up that comes up everytime you start the machine telling you that its disabled?

Thanks in advance.

M11Xr2 - i7, 320gb HD, 4GB

 

download CPUZ from here, and tell us what speed it reports. It also shows if turbo mode is activated.

 

I completely uninstalled Command Center, and then started using AlienFXlite, when I noticed the problem.

 

I just did this and it still shows 1.20GHz for my i7. Any idea what I may be doing wrong? Im on BIOS A02.

**EDIT**

I think I may have been looking in the wrong place. On the bottom left it says the bus speed is 162.4MHz. Does this mean its working? before I was reading in the middle under specification. I pulled a txt report and here is what it shows:


Processor 1 ID = 0
Number of cores 2 (max 8)
Number of threads 4 (max 16)
Name Intel Core i7
Codename Arrandale
Specification Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU U 640 @ 1.20GHz
Package (platform ID) Socket 1156 LGA (0x4)
CPUID 6.5.5
Extended CPUID 6.25
Core Stepping K0
Technology 32 nm
Core Speed 974.2 MHz
Multiplier x FSB 6.0 x 162.4 MHz
Rated Bus speed 1948.4 MHz
Stock frequency 1200 MHz
Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, EM64T, VT-x, AES
L1 Data cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 4-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache 2 x 256 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L3 cache 4 MBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control yes

Turbo Mode supported, enabled
Max turbo frequency 2266 MHz
Max non-turbo ratio 9x
Max turbo ratio 17x
Max efficiency ratio 5x
Max bus number 255
Attached device PCI device at bus 255, device 2, function 1

 

your best bet is to open CPU-Z and screenshot and post it, that way we can see what you see

Example:

Spoiler

This is not my M11x btw, it's my Q9650 just showing reference

You can see it still says @ 3.0ghz
But below to the left it says Core Speed 3600mhz

 

Well guys, FedEx has my M11xR2 and I just impulse bought this earlier today :

Newegg.com - HP Pavilion DV6-3050US NoteBook AMD Phenom II Quad-Core N930(2.0GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 640GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650

Not very light or portable but the price seemed right for an Ati 5650 and quad core. Can't stand Hp but I have seen these in person and the build quality is very good. I can't deal with another laptop falling apart disaster. I am glad that you guys are happy with your AW's though, I just could not give Dell/AW a second chance. AW is not what it used to be. Eh, I may be romanticizing the past, perhaps AW's were always kind of crappy but youth blinded me lol.

Thanks for all the help and advice though I really appreciate it. Maybe when I get my Pavilion I can finally enter the gaming world, see yous on the flipside yo (sorry)

 

glad you found something, my 2nd choice to a AW would probably be MSI tbh though

 

I have this problem also.

 

I've been suffering from a failure of WiFi to work correctly, this started today. I have owned my R2 for about three weeks now, with ZERO WiFi problems of any kind - it detected my wireless signal, asked for a password within the first ten minutes of unboxing.

I've got the 1520 WiFi card - and I must also mention the system works fine when an ethernet cable is plugged directly into it - alas, all wireless capabilities are dead as of today. There has been no system changes, no hardware changes, nothing has changed for about the past ten days - when I installed Skype; hardly earth-shattering.

Steps I've taken so far:

• Updated drivers/downgraded drivers
• BIOS settings are correct
• Firewall settings are fine, I'm suffering this problem regardless if a firewall is up or not
• Router is fully functional, no changes to router
• My Asus laptop, iPhone/iPad, and a friends Inspiron 1720 are all functioning with wireless at full potential
• My wifi indicator on the computer is telling me I'm connection, and data is being transfered/received

Thoughts? Short of an entire system recovery, which would not fix a hardware issue if the wireless card went bad; then my only option would be a warranty call - correct?

Thanks in advance for the help!

ps. Not sure if it matters, every browser I use fails - and Chrome for example is getting stuck at "resolving host".

WIRED Internet = good
WIRELESS Internet = bad

 

Here you go. So is it OC'd correctly?

 

yes. you will see the multiplier and clock change in the lower left hand corner. You are underclocked right now, because speedstep is stepping in to save power, but load something CPU-intensive and watch the multiplier jump from 7 to 14 or higher, even up to 17, and the core speed goes with it.

 

So the laptop rarely runs at the stock 1.2ghz

 

Thanks for the help everyone.

Back to issue #2 - Is there a way to disable the pop up box I get everytime I turn alienfx off? I didnt see an option in the program settings.

 

There is no setting for that within CC or AlienFX. You can however hide the icon and notifications altogether. You know whether or not lighting is on/off and bright/dim so the icon is superfluous.

All Control Panel Items > Notification Area Icons

 

Without causing a "bump" war, any thoughts on the following post of mine?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/492429-m11xr2-problem-technical-question-thread-new-owners-28.html#post6610909

I decided to reinstall Windows 7 tonight, because if it is truly a Wireless Internet Card failure, I'll need to send away for a warranty repair anyways.

edit: For what it is worth - a completely fresh install did not do the trick. Obviously a bad WiFi card, as I can't think of any other possibilities. I'm still anxious for anyone else's thoughts on the matter. Worked great for about 2/3 weeks - then kaput.

2nd edit: To add to more confusion - now everything is working great again. All I did this morning was turn my M11x R2 on since I was going to call tech support about a warranty exchange, and bam! WiFi is working again.

...oy. Bluetooth isn't working, however - shoddy workmanship I'm guessing, to many internal component problems.

 

I realized this today but I think something is loose inside my laptop. When I tilt it right and left, I can hear a noise as if something small is moving around inside. I think the sound is coming from where the right side CTRL key is located.

 

I would immediately remove the bottom access panel, and see if you can find and remove it. Whatever you do, do NOT attempt to make it move or rattle around while the laptop is turned on.

 

I'm guessing that one of the bottom panel screw retention clips came off. As mentioned before, take the bottom panel off and see if you can find it. Not a good idea to run the laptop with something loose inside, especially if it is metal.

 

also, The system can hibernate when I do it immediately after starting the laptop (before logging in).

 

Somewhat of a shot in the dark, how much free space do you have on your hard drive?

Hibernation stores your RAM to the hard drive, so it potentially needs an amount of space equal to the size of your RAM. Also, if you use a paging file (which is on by default), it can grow larger--taking up more hard drive space--over time. I pose the question above because the those two facts together could explain why hibernation works right away but not later.

 

There is 350 GB free space on my momentus XT. I'm re-installing windows on it right now, because it used to work, but stopped. I already tried system restore.

 

Thanks Slickie and erawneila for replying. I unscrewed the bottom cover and opened it up. However, I could not find the loose piece because it's under some other hardware.

 

If you're not up to doing a tear down on your baby then call Dell and have them send a tech out to fix it. If it's metal then the potential for it to damage your notebook is pretty significant.

 

Alright, thanks

Edit: lol, I tried shaking it violently and I think I saw it for a split second under where the ram is. Sometimes it gets stuck between something and I have to shake it some more to get that rattling sound again.

 

For some reason games I downloaded on Steam don't seem to play very well. I know how to add games to the NVIDIA Optimious mode but I can't seem to do that with Steam games.

Any help?

 

I would not suggest that, as you might just ruin your hard drive...

 

Quick question, how do you reinstall all of the Alienwaer themes after a Win7 Reinstlation?

 

You'll need to go into the Steam\SteamApps\common[specific game folder] and add the .exe from that folder via the Nvidia control panel format.

It's annoying, but seems to work for all the Steam games.

 

Ok, would it considered ok just to use a can of compressed air to clean out the fan on the M11x? As in just shoot it directly into the intake fan (on the bottom) without taking the laptop itself apart? Cause I honestly do not want to deal with all the hassle of take apart the laptop.

 

It takes all of 45 seconds to remove the bottom access plate.

 

Hey,

I'm having a bit of trouble with the m11x. I bought the stock r2 model with i7, 320gb and 4gb RAM with bluetooth. I just got it today and used it for about 2 hours when it suddenly shut off. I tried many times and couldn't boot it up again. After I got home, I pulled out the battery and hard drive and restarted, which seemed to work for a couple hours, but then it began shutting off again. I let it rest, and it seems to work for now. Does anybody know what's wrong?


PS. I JUST disabled the defaulted sleep mode because I saw people had issues with it, do you think that's it?

PPS. Sleep mode is not the issue. I disabled it and it still shut off by itself.