*OFFICIAL* "All Powerful" M15x Owners Lounge - Part 4

I guess you must have tried the 1600MHz option in the bios?

 

yes, it wont clock the ram above the SPD ratings.

 

Just out of curiosity, Which SPD settings do you mean?

Ram sticks have their own SPD which is preset PER board. I think the Controller in the I7 should read the SPD from the RAM rather than have a preset SPD to use, no?

I also wonder if tweaking the I7 Ram controller could work, since I've seen apps to do this, but never had an I7 to try it.

Just curious because when I move to 8GB I would like some low latency 1600MHz ram. Perhaps some bios or software tweaks would be needed to get the best out of it..

Memset 4.1 still seems to be I7-Read only (can't test yet) but maybe it will be able to help in future?
http://www.tweakers.fr/memset.html

 

Aiee.. So when I was putting together my Alienware I guess I never had the big picture in mind at the time. I ordered the 900P screen instead of the 1080. DOH! So I was wondering if I bought a 1080P monitor and hooked it up by HDMI to my M15x would I be able to get 1080P or would I still get 900P max?

 

You can change it to the monitor resolution

 

The max resolution for the 260M is 2048x1536, independent of your display. So if you hook up a separate monitor to the DisplayPort you may go up to that resolution on a device which supports it. Note, with the standard DisplayPort->HDMI adapter, you may only go up to 1920 × 1200 resolution.

Hope this helps

 

I mean The SPD settings on the RAM.

 

I was wondering anyone has come across this or knows how to fix this?

The other day I upgraded to W7 from Vista, and the driver for my wired network card did not update. So I got the correct driver online, but when I go to install it, it says

"Another version of this product is already installed. Installation cannot continue please remove existing version...."

So I went to add/remove programs in control panel and tried to uninstall it but then I get the following error
"this software version in not designed for this version on windows"

Which closes in uninstall window. So basically I am stuck with the wrong driver and cant uninstall it to get the new one on, but cant install the new on till the old one is gone....

Anyone know of a fix or any software that could remove the driver for me??

Any help is much appreciated.

 

edit

Also, my network card does not appear in the device manager, so i cannot uninstall that way.

Wierdly my wireless does work, though.

**sorry for the double post noob edit error**

 

Sounds like a right mess

What I would try first:

A) Go to device manager, Menu->View->Show hidden devices
See if the old driver is in the network adapters, uninstall or update it to the new one.

B) If that doesn't work, try the same action but in SAFE MODE.

C) If not, then find out the UUID of the device, go into the registry and delete it..

If C is confusing or sounds scary - don't attempt it.

 

I suggest doing a clean install of win7. I have seen many people with problems when doing an upgrade.

 

If you are thinking to reinstall anyway you might as well try and fix it since if you break it you can just reinstall. Otherwise you save yourself the hassle.

InNa_3 is right though, a clean install is always better. The downside is that you have to reinstall all the apps and MAKE SURE YOU BACK EVERYTHING UP PROPERLY (EG Outlook)

 

Could someone tell me if all laptops have the same LCD Connectors?
I am thinking go using the asus 3d laptop's LCD Panel alone and fit it into my m15x to get 3d enabled.
Would it be possible?

 

I tried reading this up but I didn't really understand it too well.

I'm getting the i7-720qm in my m15x with the 260m and 3gb 1333mhz ram.

Let's say that I only use 2 cores for an application I'm on (WoW or sc2 beta, etc.) , exactly how fast will those 2 cores be running since it doesn't require all 4 cores to run?

I'm just really trying to understand how these quad cores work whether 1 , 2 or 3 are just running and what speed they'd be at then.

 

My new M15x arrives tomorrow...just in time for my spring break trip

 

btw....rock on dell for being 2 weeks early 8)

 

Hi I just got the AW2210 and have successfully hooked it up via a HDMI->DP adaptor to the M15x and running on 1920x1080. Far Cry 2 never looked so good!

However, bizarrely, the AW2210 thinks that the M15x is asleep (i.e. no input) until I swap the cable to the next HDMI port. Can't have it all I guess...

 

One handy thing.

If you have say 30GB free on the hard drive, you can just install without backing up. Sounds crazy? well it should.

But, if you tell windows to install to a partition on which windows is already installed, windows will put all the data currently on the hard drive (the whole old OS and files bla bla) Into one folder named oldwindowsinstall or some name like that on the desktop. The installer will tell you it is going to do that and ask OK or Cancel.

---------------
Now this is really not the Best way because NTFS has no working way of preventing fragmentation. It doesn't even put the data on the disk in order or in the right physical place on the disk to begin-with.

(I have never used any other file system that ever gets fragmented. For real. Fore example, I have never seen ext3 file system get fragmented more then 4% but then after a few days it is down to something like 2.3% or less, all on it's own.)

However, if you don't have an external hard drive to make a back up this is vary handy feature.

 

Hi everyone,

It took me a couple of days to read through all of these pages. Plenty of useful stuff here, especially for someone like me, who uses the computer a lot without actually knowing anything about it. Thanks to all of you for that!

Just got the news that delivery of my M15X will be delayed until March 23 due to lack of video cards. Original ETA was March 10.

 

IMHO. Even if they do. This really is not something you should try.

If one core is under heavy load even if the other cores are under light load the one core will run nearly at 2.8Ghz. If 2 cores then it will run at 2.6Ghz. Each core will clock from 930MHz to 2.8Ghz or any 133MHz increment in-between. The base CPU clock multiplier is 7x the max is 21x but it will do like 8.13x or 20.2x, any 133Mhz step.

Basically, any core doing any work will be running well above 2Ghz. Or if say something is using all 4 cores at the same time then it will still run at 1.8Ghz and 4 cores at 1.8Ghz is vary powerful.....

So think of it this way. Your not getting a 1.6Ghz CPU your getting a 2.6Ghz CPU.

 

I am Still waiting on them to ship mine the ETA is 3/12.

 

The new bios update for the M15x a03 is trouble free right?
anyone got the link to the fixes, maybe throttling fix?
Either way should i update my bios regardless?

 

BTW guys has anyone encountered the unable to shut down thing on m15x? The laptop restarts itself shortly it shuts down every time I shut down windows. However, whenever I shutdown my laptop when there is a windows update, the shut down will work.
I havent been able to shut down my comp properly for weeks, every time I will have to unplug all the power cable and all other cables connected to my comp, to shut it down properly.

However, hibernating do works but when it wakes up from hibernation, AlienFX will go weird, power button and media lights will be turned off, and can never be turned on unless I do a complete shut down by unplugging everything.

I have turned off wake on Lan, all wake on settings for all my devices, checked all my power settings, unchecked the automatic restarts when there is an error thing, updated to all version of Graphic drivers, have my bios at A02. None help.

Any ideas?

 

Yeah, seems to be related to the Nvidia drivers somehow. Some people have fixed the rebooting by trying different driver versions. Mine was rebooting 100% of the time before but since doing a clean install on a new hard drive it's only been an occasional thing.

 

Diskeeper pro premiere 2010 has a system for that which works quite well at reducing fragmentation (not eliminating it) before the data is written.

It's actually quite decent at organising the disk in the background and positions files more optimally than a typical defrag program. Not as controllable as some (try Disktrix Ultimatedefrag if you want more control).

Diskeeper has some handy options for SSD also, and would recommend it to anyone - as a defrag geek, it's the best fire and forget solution I found

Sorry if this sounds like a promo, it's not

 

hey guys

when you restart windows, does it show an F10 option at bios startup to recover? I dont see it!

How on earth are we supposed to recover from our dell factory partition?

 

Thanks for the tips but unfortunately no luck with them. *sigh*

On the bright side, I already have 80% of my stuff backed up because I didn't realise you could upgrade, I thought I would have to do a clean install anyway.

I hate clean installs, you spend so much time tweaking everything to be just right, them bam, you have to start again. Oh well, thanks for the suggestions though guys.

 

Doesn't Dell usually use F2 for that? (Don't know about Alienware, though)

 

the guy on the phone said its supposed to say F10

on the manual it says to use F10 as well.

Page 59, "Using Alienware Respawn V2.0"
1. Remove any CD/DVD media from your optical drive
2. Turn on your computer (f the system is currently in wondows, restart)
3. When your computer boots, it will display a prompt on the screen for five seconds prior to loading windows. While this prompt is on the screen, press <F10>.
4. Your computer will now boot into the AlienRespawn v2.0 environment. If this is the first time you have run AlienRespawn v2.0, you must accept the license agreement before proceeding.

Problem is ... i restart and there's no prompt for F10! I have not reinstalled windows yet! Can i upgrade/repair my bios to get this option? The recovery partition is still on my disk too!

 

If im not mistaken you hold f10 or f2 then boot. On my Studio xps it was fn+f2 hold then boot

 

Hey, did you install any OS which might have overwritten the boot sector of the harddrive? If yes, you will never see the Recovery message

 

nope, my original dvd was even still sealed until earlier today when i tried to do a recovery from it

funny tho is that i foudn out you can go to "repair" from advanced boot options, and then that gives you the windows 7 boot recovery options menu... and then there's a dell datasafe backup partition there lol

but no alienware...

ALIENWARE F10 RECOVERY PROMPT MISSING - FIX!
so for anyone in the future who googles this and can't find their alienrespawn f10 prompt for the respawn environment, just hit f8 (i think its f8 anyway) for boot options, then choose repair windows, then cancel the repair as it happens and it takes you into the windows boot options. Near the bottom was the dell recovery option ... or perhaps it was in a couple menus, either way experiment in there and you'll find it

 

My Dell Studio XPS 1645 just shipped and I am having second thoughts. I think I want to return it and get an Alienware M15x instead. I am thinking I want a more future proof laptop and better gaming performance. What do you guys think? I saw the benchmark thread but I didnt see a lot of gaming performance results. How do a lot of the demanding games like Crysis run on this laptop? Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

 

answer is simple : if you plan on doing any gaming, get the M15x... the MUCH more capable 260m and SUPERB cooling of this lappy makes it rip through the latest games...

The xps 16 on the other hand, has a much less capable graphics card, and is known to heat up quite quickly, without playing games. Run a game on that laptop that pushes the hardware ( any game from the last 2-3 years will) and that thing will burn a hole in your desk. I'd suggest you get the M15x, but the XPS 16 is a decent rig, just not really for gaming.

 

i agree, get an M15x... best gaming laptop i've ever bought. Heat and performance wise, this thing is top notch...simply unmatched.

 

Ok, got my 3rd, yes, THIRD m15x today.

-this one is considerably louder than my last 2...hard drive pops on and off, even when I web browse and it sounds like a jet engine turning off and on.
-downloading pictures and videos still distorts music....looks like its a definite problem from the nashville plant....3 for 3 on this issue.
-the white colors on this one are pink and not white....wth?!
-and finally, the battery compartment latch is damaged and does not open properly....unacceptable.

Looks like I will be calling customer service tomorrow. As much as I want to love this beast, after 3 fails, looks like its time to throw in the towel and search elsewhere.

Thanks for the support guys and hope your M15Xs are perfect.

 

NO DON'T UPDATE THE BIOS !

A03 was Bricking laptops. New laptops like mine already have A03 BIOS and it works fine. But don't Flash your BIOS to A03.

Maybe they came out with a new A03 that will not brick your laptop but I still would NOT flash the BIOS.

Ya, there are third party solutions. That is the Microsoft way. They come out with unbelievably junk software. Then other companies make utilities that mask the problems and try to sell them for a bunch of money.

Fragmentation and physical organization of data is clearly the file-system's responsibility not user space applications.

Really, it UnBelievable.
Some people who have only used windows just can not understand that fragmentation is not "Just part of computer maintenance" but only a debilitating bug in NTFS that Microsoft has not fixed in the 10 years it has been in production. Classic Microsoft. Clearly they are not still in business because they make good software or even function-able software.

 

I ordered this beast last 02/18 and my EDD was 03/17 but then I had to cancel last 02/22 for a color change and my EDD was moved to 03/19. I had to cancel AGAIN last 02/24 because instead of 1333mhz memory they had it on 1066mhz so it was moved to 03/26. Today I got an email saying my unit was shipped on 03/04 and has an EDD of 03/09!!! Woohoo Im so excited to get my hands on this thing! I just hope mine will arrive in perfect condition.

One thing though when I look at my tracking number on Fedex site it indicates an EDD of 03/06 which is a Saturday compared to the email I had from Dell which states an EDD of 03/09 Tuesday. Now im wondering which of them is efficient? Do they deliver during weekends? Thanks!

 

dr3w: Cool I'm happy it finally all worked out.

Ya Fedex delivers on Saturday as far as I remember and if Fedex is saying 3/6 then 3/6 it will be, baring any crazy snow storm or something.

 

There is a bios on the forums which flashes without a problem, but its not really worth it. The only thing which is fixed in A03 is the Enter key issue. In case you dont know, prior to A03 the enter key was mapped to numpad enter, which made couple of games not register the key as Enter.

 

I see you hate windows.. Your choice.. But EVERY file system I've used is prone to fragmentation from OS's on Amiga, Atari, Apricot, Mac, PC (Windows, BeOS). Perhaps ExtFS doesn't fragment, that's just great! For me it's not a big problem, it is a slight inconvenience. There is an issue with NTFS compression causing huge fragmentation, I do see this as a bug.

For the most part, most of what MS does works. That's why most people GAME on MS. I think DirectX is actually a great software and enables much more accessibility for developers than other computer OS. This is more important than being technically perfect - accessibility enables an industry to move forward together. So that's one thing they did well, I think.

This is a gaming machine, so let's compare Linux Gaming to "crappy" windows gaming if you like? Personally, the idea of installing a game and just playing it is appealing. PC's require a level of configuration - much more than consoles for example. But Linux? In my experience, I have to compile my drivers before using them. Sorry but no thanks.

I think that if Linux was a better system for gaming (since the M15x is a gaming platform primarily) then people would make the shift to get those extra FPS and developers would be more seriously using it. I think that there is a trade-off when you try to create a middle ground - this is where MS are playing ball and they are doing very good at it in my opinion.

I like windows 7 and I like the way they are going in terms of listening to the users. I don't like linux at all personally, because I gave up programming 20 years ago and frankly it's a pain in the backside. I don't want to compile drivers myself thanks. But I don't go around shouting about it. Just enjoy your machine whichever way you use it.

 

Wow! That really blows, man! I can understand that you've lost faith, I probably would have as well. Maybe you should look into the latest Qosmio with the 360 card, it's supposed to rival the M17x and surpass the M15x.

Good luck with your choice.

 

Then call those up and tell them about your HORRIBLE experience and DEMAND them not to charge you the restocking fee. It is really unfortunate, as my M15x has none of those problems you mentioned . Perhaps you'd want to try your luck with the M17x? Although it is a little more expensive...

 

Since I got the 1year advanced warranty on my system, is there anything special I have to do once I get it? like fill out any papers, register anything, etc.. ?

Or is it just get the system, if anything happens call some number and give them my order # or something?

 

Do you M15x owners recommend the system for a non gamer?
Just for having a quiet, powerful laptop the M15x seems to be awesome.

 

haha is that really possible? They won't try to send some tech out to repair something and prolong it until I'm out of warranty will they?

I'd rather just get a whole new laptop then repairing a part.

 

They are building me another replacement....I can live with the SD card problem....I just won't listen to music.

They already gave me free overnight shipping, 200 dollars off, and a free Tactx Headset for my inconvenience.

Alienware just can't get rid of me

 

If I had to send 3 back I'd expect an M17x as a replacement

 

what number did you call? do you remember the extension of your agent? I am trying to send in my M15x for replacement as well.

 

even for non gamers the M15 is a great machine as its build quality is tremendous, screen is great and it runs cool,cool cool. Not the best battery life nor is it ultra-thin and ultra-light, but a a desktop replacement its way better than other machines. Plus you do get all the Alienware features, lights etc. that give the laptop that gaming cache even if you never game up -- warning, the laptop does entice you to at least try a game or two!