M11xR1 Troubleshooting Thread

thats some kinda messed up, did you call dell?

 

i got a little issue, the esc key one of the color leds must have gone out becuase its got a redish hue when i set the keyboard to white - i saw it happen when i hit esc quickly in a game, the light gave out and turned slightly pink on esc key and now its been like that. Only certain colors are affected depending on whats required to mix. it's very obvious, kind of pinkish compared to the rest of the white when alienFX is set to white.

I set it to red and it looks great, you can't see it so red is not affected and for now will be my color (looks great.) but small problem nonetheless and if i were to call in for it, i'd probably ask for a new screen also because mine has a small gap at the top.

 

No, I still didn't have time to do so, but I don't think it's an actual problem rather than a buggy BIOS. I could be wrong though. I'll see how everything will go this weekend.

 

I too am curious about this... Have you contacted Tech Support yet and if so, what was the outcome of the call? This is most likely a hardware issue - IMO. I dont believe there are other reports of the same behavior.

Really need to see what their take is on it. Don't delay. You are still in your 21-day period (most likely). If it is something major, you can always request a replacement be built and dispatched out. Upon receipt, the original unit is shipped back. Support can explain this process. Ask them about it.

 

for some reason when im playing crysis gray lines or bars if you will start appearing on the top of the screen, im playing on an a 1080p monitor and i have that set to 1080p and everything on med. is crysis just this buggy or do you think it's an issue with the m11x tho all other games play just fine... any ideas?

 

you using hdmi or vga out?
believe there are a couple of mentions on the hdmi out being a little touchy with the m11x. but cant attest to it being the same issue. if you can try a diff monitor or vga.

 

hdmi/dvi adapter so yea it is hdmi out. stange tho i changed the resolution right away and it went away so i dunno everything plays just fine with hdmi out 1080p i dont get it. it just happend once so i prolly should stop dwelling lol

 

I called tech support. They asked me to disable the over-clock, and call them back if anything wrong happens again...

 

i've actually got the same problem with the keyboard. when i turn the lights to all white the ec and cntrl areas are still pinkish. have you called dell to get a replacement keyboard? if so what did you tell them?

 

The pinkish color of the white is normal. Its just a limitation of the LEDs. Not much can be done. We see the same on the M17x and I bet on M15x as well.

 

I'm also having the wake from sleep problem. Goes to sleep fine, but black screen and no response when I try to turn it on again.

Not overclocked, as my experiments with that led to consistent reboots every 20-30 mins.

 

I had the dimming issues and black screen on my 1st day. I have not OC'd in bios yet until sure what folks will be having issues with over the next few weeks to be safe. I am running in GFX mode all the time and power plugged in. I turned off the settings for dim and sleep as they were set at 5 or 10 mins in batt/plug mode and no issues since..(duh)...Nothing else having issues with on day 3, I will note that I was gaming WOW for about 5hrs when I logged out when I was shutting the screen and opened it back up to turn off the Alien lights when the black screen started.

**Everything has been fine today.

~worm~

 

dang, also seeing the CPU at about 18% and the fan's on.

 

is anyone else having trouble with some of the function shortcuts? when i press FN+f1,f2,f4,f5,pause and print screen nothing happens?

 

I think mine is going back. Too many small issues for me to be happy with the purchase. I have a screen gap and back-light leak, the sleep wake problem, I got six beeps at start up and tech support indicated that it was a display/graphics bios error, my Fn + f2 doesn't work, the fan is throttling unless I re-boot and only use integrated graphics, dell tech support is a joke, umm I guess that is it. Sorry guys I know you love this thing as do i, but it has only been heartbreak for me... Maybe R2...

 

Saw a minor thing this morning that freaked me out, don't understand it either. Put my computer to sleep last night (closed the lid). This morning opened it up, the FX came on but no screen backlight. Pressed some buttons, nothing. Pressed the head and put it back to sleep and on again, nothing. So hmm. I press and hold the head for a power off. Turn it back on, and no screen action and didn't hear anything either. So I'm sitting there and mention it to my GF. She said to try closing the lid again, waiting and opening it. I was skeptical (what did she know right? ) well anyway screen finally came back on and it was at desktop. I didn't even hear anything in terms of boot up etc. I hope that doesn't happen again though, worried me.

*edit* I see people are having this wake issue too... thanks for the advice Batboy regarding the 21 day thing. I can't really be out of a computer, but if they can rebuild one (if this is a serious issue) and I have no downtime between computers I could take that route. If it happens again I'll call.

In the meantime, I have someone supposed to call me regarding my custom nameplate lol. I had 19 characters and I guess they can only fit 18. Need to do something about that on the site

 

Interesting find.

Do you know what those WBEM and CIMOM are?

Btw. I tried disabling the related service. This causes some of the alienware software to show a long error stacktrace when starting up.
Thats also why you have to stop the process each time after a restart or using alienware control center or the AlienFX Editor (assuming the service is set to manual).
It causes WMIPrvSE.exe to continuously do some unneeded checking.

 

Yes - it is the same on the M15x that I just received.

 

this is a bypass for my sleep problem, in hardware and sound - power options -edit plan, i have everthing never on both sides, just make sure the adjust plan brightness is where you want it on both with the slider, if that is not set, it still goes into some sort of power save mode on battery mode, but will keeps the brightness set where you want it. I know everybody paid to have all the options working, but untill there is a fix, this might help people.

 

So dose AW/Dell know about all these issues ?

 

madcow, hardware sound? do you mean set dim to never? Confused by your post.

 

I doubt it. A single support guy may know of individual cases, but i guess issues get rarely comunicated to a higher level where they actually fix something.

Firstly we would need to seperate the small issues just one person has from those that many have. That also means filtering out issues that are easily fixed with the help of others here...

Then find some contact person that is willing to deal with them...

Maybe Darkan can help us out here getting us in contact with the right people?

 

the one i stated was my only problem so far, my fan works just fine, i am not overclocking it, and I wont, i have a desktop at home that plays any game at max and a huge lcd screen, I hope people realize this is not a desktop replacement computer, its a beefy netbook that is portalbe, and can play most games comfortable right out of the box. Now, for people having real world problems, yes, you paid alot of money, you should be happy, if not, that is why they have a return process, and If your having problems, if its a crappy build, I feel for you, I have been there on other systems, it really sucks. i think the coupons actually hurt the build process, I would not have got mine if i did not save 300 bucks on this beast. I think they understimated how many people wanted this.

 

Well I just reported many of the issues again. Dell/AW is aware of a few of them including the Sleep/Wake + the Fn F2. I also sent them pics of the screen separation up on top where the backlight bleeds though. Mine M11x is going back to Hell tomorrow. I am super frustrated will never buy from them again. Their CS and Tech support are worthless. Damn my 13" Macbook Pro never looked so good. Good luck ya'll. I will put my money away until a better portable gaming laptop comes around or just game on my desktop... Sigh.

 

Good luck Sanmanatoo! Yeah I loved the Build Quality of the Unibody MacBooks, if only it wasn't the gamer in me =) Who knows maybe Apple will announce something and I have valid complaints for a refund.. Hope these things get fixed though with them knowing the issues mentioned.

 

i rang up about the function f2 today, he told me to reinstall the command centre and osd? i think it was, they are both up for download from the dell site anyway, and it worked for me, hope this helps

 

I know. I was soooooo excited about this laptop. I am going away for a month to Europe and thought this was the perfect travel buddy. Gaming on the go with something under 5 lbs. Man, it was too good to be true...

 

hey wow, interesting I'm gonna have to try that then.

*edit*

was able to install OSD and rebooted, but Command Center is having problems. I'm doing the repair feature and it asks for the Command center disk, or MSI file. Not sure where the Command Center MSI file is, figured it's all there in the setup file? Help? After just OSD install battery still just stuck at Enabled. When I disable it in Bios it just says Disabled as well, but in a different popup, but still no on the fly switching still. Yours goes from enabled to disabled just by pressing it a couple times?

 

good luck! he said its not hardware related as for example fn+f7 would work, so reinstalling the software should do the trick! He said as a last resort formatting and doing a complete reinstall also.
Could anyone give me some help with hdmi output? ive tried using the nividia software etc but the picture still appears to big on my hdtv...

 

start - control panel - hardware and sound - power options - click on change plan settings - my menu is set to never on all - and on the adjust plan brightness - mine is set to half way on battery and all the way on plugged in. hope this helps. It has not had the sleep problem ( screen dimming) since i set it up this way.

 

i see your problems, but mine has lived up to expectations, and yes, I have high expectations, i played MW2 at panera last night for 2 hours on battery with everything high. I wish you the best though

 

thanks, when you say your menu is set to never on.. you mean your dim the display is set o never? or turn off display, or all the options are set to never?

ok I got it, set everything to never.. I'll try this after I get another wake up problem..

blahhhhhhh

after removing command center and reinstalling it and rebooting, I now keep getting an error message to pop up saying

Fast Access Alert Tray Error older version blah blah reboot now to complete installation of new version. I reboot but says the same damn thing. over and over. I press okay and it pops back up again. WIll try to remove command center again.

*edit* apparently the fast access thing is related to command center. Uninstalled it and no more error message. But no command center now.. lol so lame. I'll try reinstalling CC again and see if the error pops up. BTW when installing CC it said something about updaing firmware of AlienFX board.. did you get that slw33t?

okay.. reinstalled CC, no more errors regarding fast track. Now installed OSD and things are back on track, but stil no battery disabled/enabled. So I'm back to square one after a little headache..

 

on the bottom of the (dim turn off put the computer to sleep settings), it says "adjust plan brightness" with a left or right slide action, i have mine set in the middle, or what you want it to be when in battery mode. i might have to find a way to take a picture of it

 

i can not disable the battery either, anybody out there that can ?

 

No, I cannot with Fn-F2.
Bios-disable battery is the only option for me...

 

thanks Madcow... I really wish it did not come to this. Also most of the Dell people trying to help were awful. It took about 9 reps and about 6 and 1/2 hours on the phone just to RMA. Dont even get me started about the hold music. Anyways I am off to the Ups store. Good luck everyone and happy fragging....

 

Anyone else think running on the IGP looks terrible compared to the actual 335?

Colors are washed out, brightness seams lower, text not as sharp.......

Tried redoing the color profiles but just cannot get it to look as good as being on the 335.

 

I havent noticed a difference on mine.

 

alright guys, here's the first issue i noticed on the M11x:

when the keyboard backlight was set to white, the left side of the keyboard (where the Tab, Caps Lovk and Shift key are located) tend to have some uneven hues of pink, purple and green. other areas looks fine (pure white).

those who have received their unit might wanna confirm on this issue.

 

@wingzee - this is normal, read the whole thread please.

 

yes i did read on that few pages back. was wondering if all the other users faced the same issue as well.

 

@wingzee - Yes, I have it too, this is a minor issue that it looks even smaller compared to the rest of the BS they are serving us, so no big deal for me, just don't use white color

 

yea still it bothers me, albeit it's a minor issue as white is the only color i fancy.

 

- Hey, It's a meter of taste! Said the dog and licked him self under the tail...
But unfortunately we have to deal with this one as well, it bothers me too, I want all to be perfect, but hey...nothing is, right?

 

@ Azn - When you re-installed CC are you getting that 5-15% CPU usage issue.
I ask because I had to do a fresh install yesterday since Dell's factory installed M11x OS image was FUBR from the get go (see Arrival thread from last evening). I re-installed everything except CC to avoid the Idling issue observed by others. So far no Idle issues but I'm stuck with default blue lights.

 

@threader hey I just noticed that WmiPrvSE thing, I didn't have it before I did my CC reinstall. Must be something in the file they have on the site, so yes I am getting some CPU usage even though I'm not doing much. I really want CC though so I can turn on and off the FX for backlight =( Hmm what to do. I guess I could uninstall it and just leave the lights on for now.

Batboy - here shows 1.733

 

Are you sure?

For me all was fine until I hit ESC key very hard (not THAT hard, but hard) in a quick move, then it changed. And its ONLY the esc keys, it affects all colors, and it wasnt like that before, the rest of the keys look great

 

Ok i've got the issue too, if I boot up with integrated, the fan throttling works fine. When I Switch to the 335M, it cranks up the fan period. If I go back to the integrated intel, the fan stays on and no longer throttles correctly.

Seems that in class I should just boot on integrated and not bother switching GPUs till they address this in a BIOS update.

I still dont buy the keyboard color thing if its only on certain keys, i believe its a defective keyboard. Because, when i first got it and set it to all white, it was fine, its when i was typing on it and hit the ESC key kind of hard and quick that it all of a sudden became pink!

 

just had mine randomly shuttup off and would not reboot for a good 15 minutes. if it happens one more time i'm going to RMA this thing. i've also got the keyboard and gap in screen problem.

So no one has FN+ F2 working?

 

Spunky, if you have an issue with the screen (gap) or are otherwise not satisfied, why delay? Get on the phone, report the issue and request a replacement system be created and sent out for exchange. You need to do this within 21-days of your invoice date. Up to you of course.