M15x from a craigslist ad....

Hi everyone, I'm in need for a laptop and found this on sale. I'm a bit confused on the M15x issues/specs.

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/sys/5435062283.html

Asking for 400usd with very vague spec list, listing says that the battery doesn't work "needs to be plugged in".

1. Seller will be updating me on a piriform speccy screenshot tomorrow
2. Seller will be updating me on the PSU label (90/120/180w?)
3. Seller confirmed in email that battery does not work

I'll try to negotiate on the price, hopefully would agree to not more than 325.

Questions if I actually purchase.
1. What's the highest rated PSU for the M15x (not dual psu modded) and how much does said PSU cost?
2. What is the memory rated to run (in MHz) and the number of slot + max GB density per slot? What memory kit is recommended for total of 16GB?
3. How much does a 9 cell 85w/hr battery D951T cost? Where can I get them at lowest price?


I'm just looking to make it usable for now on, I do have an SSD to install windows 7 on the machine. Maybe will upgrade to 920xm/970m next year when parts price drops even more.


Thanks in advance.

 

Depends on specs really. What is the cpu and gpu?

The best psu for gaming is the Dell 210W adaptor. This adaptor wont charge the battery but will give you throttle free power up to 250w from the wall. I just picked up a couple at around 30 dollars each. Dont go for the 330w as it will only deliver max 240w before cutting out in any machine that isnt a m18x. 240w adaptor is also viable but not good quality. 210W also doesnt need to have pin mod to get full power either.

Simply keep the original psu to charge the battery.

Original 9 cell batteries are quite hard to source these days and pricy! It elevates the laptop nicely though which helps the cooling somewhat.

Max speed for ram is 1333mhz. Although what you could do is install a 1600mhz CL9 kit like me and others and enjoy CL8 1333mhz speeds.

Iam running latest kingston impact hyperX 8gbx2 kit in mine. Noone has tested 16gb sodimms yet if they even exist.

Enquire as to the spec. If it has old gpu but a 920xm then 400usd is ok price or vice versa but if both are slow eg 720qm and 260M/5730 etc then shoot for 300 dollars. The machine is nearly 7 years old.

Owner has to be realistic. M15x has great potential still. Look at my sig but specs matter at sale!



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Additional aftermarket goodies:

-Usb 3.0 via expresscard
-Up to 2tb secondary sata 1 speed HDD by using ODD caddy.
-New wireless AC cards work.

Also the machine remains the best MXM compatible machine. The system bios never interferes. There is no igpu so no switching headaches and so long as temperatures are kept reasonable no silly throttling measures built in. (Except the power one that has been fully fixed at this point hence advice to get 210w)

Certainly a fun machine to own as a project to work on.



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Seller haven't replied back yet.
Okay, I'll look around for a Dell 210w. I don't know what the included psu is like.
9 cell batteries sadly go for 50+usd on ebay, I can afford them but think they're overpriced ._.
I'll look around for CL9 1600 (2x4) - I'm used to 16GB ram, but I think 8 is workable.

I read a lot of positive thing still about the M15x, that's why I'm really interested in purchasing it.

Will consider USB3 card/secondary HDD later on. For now they are not needed and I'm not planning to spend money on them.

I'll take a look at wifi cards when I feel the need to upgrade, I don't think I need it now.

 

PSU type: CN 0J408P 48661 - 9&P 01IJ A00 Delta / V85 N17908




Seller will update me with piriform speccy screenshots in the late afternoon.

 

Actually I said I am using 2x 8gb. Total of 16gb ram.

No need to work with just 8gb.

What hasnt been tested yet is 32gb ram.



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So what's the wattage rating of the psu? 90w?

I'll try to find CL9 1600 2x8GB

 

That should be a 150w charger. It looks identical to the 150w chargers I have.

 

Okay, 150w is good enough.

210w is still required in the future for XM upgrade and better video card?

 

I'll shoot for 300 or lower on this one.

Spec seems good enough for school tasks.

 

Indeed. Note the 1600x900p resolution too.

A 970M would make games fly at that resolution!

210w is a necessity yes. The 150W will struggle to provide 200W if you are lucky.

 

I got the laptop for 290. Did I get it at a good price?

I'll have upgrade plans for this machine around end year 2016. So nothing crazy for now.

Don't know when I can pick it up. I will update on that.

 

seems like an ok machine but do not spend 400 on it. I got mine for stupid cheap at 60 CAD but i also had to rebuild it from the ground up. I currently have my eyes on a quadro 4000m as i can get one for about 200 CAD i think this machine would be awesome for you.

 

I got it for 290usd (405cad$)

Tomorrow I'll see the item, if there's excessive scuffs maybe I'll go -5 or -10 usd on the final sale price.

Does anyone have any recommendations on short term stability test? To see if the cpu, ram and gpu is in full working order or not.

 

First things first open up and apply new thermal paste on cpu and gpu. Take the opportunity to clean heatsinks and fans for dust too.

This before even powering it on.

Stability tests. Dont think you need bother. Yes with an XM prime 95 is necessary to find your max stable multi using throttlestop. Considering you are stuck with a qm neither program is necessary.

Keep an eye on the marketplace at nbr and ebay weekly as the 920xm and 940xm have pretty much bottomed out in price. You might well find prices start going up soon as demand exceeds supply.

Other than cpu parts price is not an issue while waiting for end of 2016.

Actually also check for a good deal on the 210w adaptor.

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Since you're gonna physically be picking up the laptop, why not just run the built-in Dell diagnostics (press F12 at startup for the menu option). This will do a basic test on the CPU, RAM, mainboard, screen, hard drive, etc. I'm sure the seller won't mind. Basic test takes about 5 minutes.

 

Dell diagnostics is available even after the OS is reinstalled?


I'm meeting the seller at starbucks, can't disassemble the machine.

 

Yes, just press F12 at the POST startup screen, then choose option 6 from the menu. It is OS independent.

 

I'll keep that in mind, thanks!

 

Battery is shot, system diagnostic reports everything is ok except the "HDD DST" (or SDT).

Bottom component part screw is missing (door that covers the internal components) - anyone know what type it is? I can probably find it at home depot.


Edit: battery check says there's 2 LEDs out of 5, but computer refuses to power up without the adapter attached

 

The battery is probably dead. Not surprising really could be very old!

Not that important tbh and the seller did warn the battery was shot.

Both screws are missing (there are two)? Ff there is one just take it out and head to home depot to find a matching one.

 

920xm deals can be found by just being patient mate. I was ready to blow £125 on my credit card and after about 3 weeks one came available fore £75 so glad i waited.

Id swap out the ram as well its cheap enough, get yourself some 4gb sticks. it can take 16gb in general (anyone tried 32gb yet ?) but 8gb should be good for pretty much most tasks.

Welcome to the club. Alot of love with this little machine

 

32GB is interesting. There is a Crucial 32GB kit available. Seems like it is either CL 10 or if lucky CL 9 at 1333mhz.

Really new. Anyone want to try?

 

I'll hold off upgrades till later, for now I'm wiping the machine clean and installing windows 10 (god be with me).

Seems like the windows 7 is infected with far too many viruses for me to even think about.

Does the M15x support UEFI installation on 2TB drives?


Edit: is there a newer version of alienFX (light controller) that's compatible to download? latest one on dell is from 2010...

 

Nope. The hardware is pretty old just never use the one from the resource cd!

I have never tried using the 2TB drive as the OS drive. I will let you find out and report back to us

W7 is virus ridden? Surely just your M15x? Anyways there is a good guide on here how to install Win 10 by NBR user Phoenix. It seems the only driver issue currently is the touchpad.

It would be cool if you could document the installation process on the M15x from clean install to fully functional with drivers and make a guide! You would get ALOT of rep from me and many others.

I don't dare upgrade yet as I have no idea how to do it. An M15x guide will help the transition process!

 

I'm running Windows 10 currently I have been since the get go. Installed fine and windows got me all the needed drivers , no issues with the touchpad.

Had to get the command center tho but even that works fine, only thing I had an issue with was the gpu. Installing certain drivers for amd I lost brightness controls.

So required a registry edit to fix but that was simple.

Oh and I had to get the osd driver as it performed like crap in games and once I checked it turns out without the osd driver laptop is basically in stealth mode.

But again driver install and bobs your uncle

 

You installed from scratch? Bluetooth drivers?

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Yep new ssd mate a patriot one. A little wasted in this right enought. Yeah with the intel chip the bluetooth works fine, i never had bluetooth in it before.

 

I wiped the HDD clean (used my 2TB pron drive). The Windows 10 usb tool you can find from microsoft
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

You will need x64 and use USB.

You will need to select USB from boot device selection menu. Select the drive you are installing to when windows 10 install prompt is loaded.

windows 10 mostly takes over from here, most of the drivers are functional and made by microsoft (as opposed to the manufacturer's)

Problem encountered at this point
1. Trackpad works fine and edge scrolling works, have right click.
2. After restart to install windows update, the right click and scroll doesn't work.

Once you are in windows 10, it will ask you to restart.

Use Firefox offline installer to replace MS internet exploder
I would recommend you to change update settings: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/make-...ore-downloading-or-installing-windows-updates
GPEdit.msc for W10 Home: http://www.askvg.com/how-to-enable-...home-premium-home-basic-and-starter-editions/

Use this offline detection tool: http://www.driverscloud.com/en/detectoffline
Follow instructions, then when finish uploading result go to "My drivers"

Here you can find most drivers for components, download all necessary for W10 64. Then you can switch to W7 64 and see for software not available on W10 64 (drivers for W7 64 works fine on W10) - you will also find Radeon Crimson for legacy card (like my ATi 5770) on ma-config
Don't forget to install Dell OSD and then Dell command center/etc etc from dell website - the windows 7 driver works on windows 10 no problem

Use DDU+safe mode to remove graphics driver


I have control over FN/media bar
Eject
AlienFX launch
Trackpad
Stealth mode?
Volume
Brightness
Suspend button
Mobility center shortcut




What I haven't been able to figure out.

1. LAN intel driver (running micosoft's driver as of now)
2. Bluetooth not discovered in device manager, don't know how to get the bluetooth driver from dell website installed
3. Trackpad driver fubar (no right click, no edge scrolling) - using latest driver from synaptics website.

Yes




I don't know what the purpose of stealth mode is. Can anyone tell me?

 

Welcome to the M15X club

For the Bluetooth drivers, try the link below. I remember using it with Win 10 and it worked but I think I had to install the drivers using Win8 compatibility, but it worked fine:

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=VY4F2

 

or get yourself a much newer wifi card a cheap one like the 3160 and have it built in to the same chip and improve your wifi at the same time

 

Will try, thanks!

I don't have any need for that atm, school network is plenty strong even in the basement and most of the time I just use a HDD.

I'll completely upgrade this machine by end 2016, and rather than buying an OK/slightly better wifi card I'd rather just go straight to the best.

 

If you have trouble with Win10 and the M15X's 370 BT card, you can simply remove it. I personally removed mine and use the empty slot for my mouse's RF receiver using this adapter. This frees up one of my external USB ports.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PCI-E-...569944?hash=item58d334b958:g:f5oAAOSwZ1lWfAN9

You can always get a Bluetooth USB nano adapter along with the mini pci-e adapter if you really need Bluetooth.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...m_re=adapter_bluetooth-_-33-139-027-_-Product

 

I don't really need it, and I don't have a BT mouse either. But interesting idea, will consider.


Is the M15x able to boot from M.2 installed on PCIE slot?

Edit: brightness control doesn't work. Anyone have a fix for ATi Legacy drivers? Maybe I can try the GTX 6x/7x/9x brightness control fix via registry editor.

 

That is a good find! Possible to stick bluetooth dongle inside!

Do the new wi-fi/BT hybrid cards work in the M15x? Would be very cool to put mouse receiver inside! This laptop gets better and better!