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    Any ideas why my brothers M15x is a dog

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by bigun08, Jul 22, 2011.

  1. bigun08

    bigun08 Notebook Consultant

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    I have had 3 M11x's and still have an R1 and R3 but my brother just got a M15x R2 I believe here is the specs
    1.73 I7 quad core CPU
    4GB DDR3 1333 Memory
    256 GB Crucial SSD (which by the way runs slower than any other drive I have ever seen)
    1920x1080 screen

    I have looked through the bios but there are no adjustments and also I have overclocked the gpu a bit.. but over all this laptop runs like a slug any one have any ideas.. The mother board was replaced by dell and so was the screen.. but I am really disappointed and I know that this thing should be running better than this.. Power settings are maxed for performance.. any other ideas.. thanks
     
  2. logan801

    logan801 Notebook Consultant

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    That thing should be lightning fast what are you doing that it seems like it's running slow, gaming encoding video surfing the web?
     
  3. kevmanw4301

    kevmanw4301 Notebook Deity

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    What video card?
     
  4. Fancysauce

    Fancysauce Notebook Consultant

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    update the drivers on ur graphics card maybe? there's a huge performance boost when doing so for the first time well at least for me it did.
     
  5. deceptron

    deceptron Notebook Guru

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    just remove the alienware B***s ( CC, sense, facial crap ) stuff and try rebooting. But i would suggest you re-installing the whole OS using the win 7 disc they gave you. Because i had the same problem and got it fixed by re-installing win7 and no alienware CC, OSD stuff.

    Still slow ? try cleaning up startup items in start > run > msconfig
     
  6. Perfracer

    Perfracer Newbie

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    Hey guys, this is bigun08's brother (Abe), with the M15x. We did remove all of the Alienware crap, and it is running better. I will say that when we first installed the 256 SSD and Windows 7, it ran great, it even had an index score of 7.1. When we started working on it tonight the score was down to 2.9, with the biggest issues being "Graphics" (Desktop performance for windows areo), which is what got the 2.9 score. Everything else was in the 7.1-7.3 range except "Gaming graphics" (3D Business and gaming graphics performance) which was 6.7. After messing with it all, we finally got back up to a score of 4.3. That score once again was generated by the "Graphics" score being just that, 4.3. The "Gaming graphics" is now down to 6.0. Just giving that info for reference.
    The video card is an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800 series.
    It's been updated to the latest drivers, too, 11.6.

    What I've noticed with the laptop lately is very slow response times for opening up windows, or programs. Gaming is very glitchy, and delayed. I have an Object Dock Tool Bar at the bottom of the screen, and it is extremely slow to cycle through the apps and attachments. It has gotten better, since my brother worked on it tonight. But, a score of 4.3 vs the 7.1 is still way off. And, gaming is still glitchy (Crysis 2, COD Black Ops). Response times are still slow for normal functions, too. I didn't do anything with the settings, or programming. So, I have no idea what happened. But, it wasn't always this way.

    Any further ideas? Anything else to check? Any basic/advanced setting suggestions?

    deception, it didn't look like anything excessive in the msconfig startup items.

    Thanks for all the suggestions so far, guys.

    Abe
     
  7. Fancysauce

    Fancysauce Notebook Consultant

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    make sure stealth mode is not on
     
  8. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    ^^ This. Stealth mode is usually the main culprit for over 60% of "slow" posts on this thread. Make sure that it is off. Also check that Speedstep isn't disabled in the bios.
     
  9. The Revelator

    The Revelator Notebook Prophet

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    Given that the low WEI scores are graphics related, run a GPU-Z log (click Log to file on the Sensors tab) while gaming to get a better idea of what's going on with your 5850M, a very fast card that should never be a performance bottleneck in a M15x. Post the log file here.
     
  10. Perfracer

    Perfracer Newbie

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    Guys, thanks for all the input and help. This morning I made a few more small changes, and cycled the "Stealth" button (what is that really used for anyway??) a few times, and whatever it was, I'm back up to a score of 7.1, with all graphics scores and such between 7.2 and 7.4. Gaming seems to be good, though I haven't tried COD Black Ops on-line yet. I'll post up when I do.

    Thanks again guys. Really much appreciated.

    Abe
     
  11. The Revelator

    The Revelator Notebook Prophet

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    Stealth Mode strikes again.
     
  12. xeroxide

    xeroxide Notebook Deity

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    reckon they should make it a slide switch (like how some laptops have for wireless)
    making such a feature in a touch sensitive button with little or no feedback is not a good idea.
     
  13. Perfracer

    Perfracer Newbie

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    That sounds like a better idea. I can't believe it was such a simple issue. I wish I would have read some more threads on the forum before starting one of my own for what seems to be a common issue/mistake, and bothering you guys with it.
     
  14. The Revelator

    The Revelator Notebook Prophet

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    No bother. Stealth Mode is a major PITA, mostly because it is so easy to inadvertently engage when striking the Delete key or toggling the wireless connection. Little utility called Stealth Mode Indicator, written by forum member Wattos, is probably the best defense. Install, create a shortcut and move the shortcut to the Startup folder. It places an icon in the Tasktray that continuously reports SM status, and it can be set to automatically exit SM whenever engaged.

    Download here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/463382-stealth-mode-indicator-10.html#post6592496.
     
  15. JWest

    JWest Master of Notebookery

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    I hear everyone talk about removing the alienware software all the time, but how would you go about adjusting the system lights, customizing the trackpad, seeing the brightness/volume indicators pop-up on screen (not a necessity, but a convenience), etc?
     
  16. xeroxide

    xeroxide Notebook Deity

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    well there are now 2 tools i know of which enable you to mod the lights
    Wattos alienfx lite
    this little baby allows much greater customization and has a smaller memory footprint than the dell option, it's not perfect with it's bugs but once you try it and seen what it can do...

    try going back to dells once having tried a morphing touch pad, power button eyes different colour to the head, seperate speaker colour control. ability to change power state colours.

    and then there's a new intresting app by another forum member Ixel called PCFx
    this little baby allows you to change the lights colour based upon your sensors. how about having the left side of your keyboard showing you your cpu temps and the right side showing you your graphics card temps?
    your speakers can show you hdd load and the alien head can show you cpu load... stuff like that.
    it's designed for the m11x but works with the m15x, it's not perfect either but both of these apps are more impressive and creative than dells offering.