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

I'm having a problem.

When the M15x idles, the screen dims when I move the mouse or type on the keyboard the brightness stays the same dimmed level and does not go to the original full brightness, unlike every other laptop that I've ever owned with Win 7.

Is there something that I have to set? Also is it possible to turn off the LED's after a certain amount of time of system idle so they're not on all the damn time?

Thanks.
If

 

go to power option ( the battery thingy in the task bar) click on more power options and set it to never dim or whatever settings you want.

 

I have noticed a bug with Balanced mode. It wasn't like that before but recently in balanced mode the screen just drops to minimum brightness no matter what the setting is.

I've even seen it flip between the setting i have set and the minimum and then back..

Not sure, but it didn't happen until a few weeks ago.. Perhaps a conflict with the hardware and some new update from MS? Not sure.. Have you tried changing the power profile?

 

I want it to dim, the problem is when it dims, and then I move the mouse to get the screen to go back go full brightness it doesn't, it just stays dimmed and I have to manually press FN + F4.

 

strange, i've set mine to never dim, so i haven't noticed any glitches yet, could be a glitch from a new update like mr pras stated.

 

Yeah same here, once it dims it doesn't go back up. And after pressing FN+F4 it goes up but then drops back again within a few minutes even if I'm using the machine! aargh

 

Soccerth- you should try Battlefield bad company 2, it's completely different game from COD! try it, it's a blast. and if you are interested in something different, you should try EVE ONLINE... pretty cool game.

I got a question for you gurus, i like listening to techno music thru my iphone, my headphone does good job poundin the volume with Iphone, but whenever i plug the headphone to M15x, it wouldnt do the same level as iphone does, it's so weak, is there anything i can do to pump the volume even higher than what it is set right now on my laptop? (it's already at max volume from the settings) any advices would be great!

 

disable SRS in the IDT audio control panel

 

what if your headphones don't support the IDT Control panel?

 

I'm having the same Dimming problem on balanced mode. its strange.

 

i have dr dre solo headphone, it should work? and i tried to disable the SRS, it made it worse?

 

did you make sure headphones option is on?

also go to sound options in the control panel and right click and go to properties then to playback and mhz sure its on 44100 mhz cd quality

 

nvm found it.

 

also try bring the sample rate down to 44100hz, it helped overall sound quality for me. originally suggested by thewhitewiz

 

has anyone seen a guy with a record player needle in his arm. if so let the M15x owners lounge know.

 

I have the same problem! Maybe it's a driver thing? I'm using the DPC drivers 197.31 (with the M17x DPC fix, which I needed too to get rid of the jittery sound and sluggish performance)..

It keeps dropping to dimmed no matter what I set it (within seconds usually, r sometimes within 1 or 2 minutes). Doesn't do it on high perf mode.

That brings me to a point I want to mention: The DPC drivers are a fix and are supposed to be in the new release of the drivers. How come on the Dell site, the drivers are nearly 8 months old?

Isn't this laziness? We paid for a gaming laptop, so isn't it important for them to have more up-to-date drivers than 8 months old? If they don't feel the need to make a modified driver, at least just link to the nvidia site or repackage a vanilla Nvidia driver.

Their drivers means no direct compute or openCL, no performance updates for newer games etc etc.. Can anyone shed light on why this might be the case? I'm just curious.

He changed his avatar Jstarino - I bet he bricked his laptop like me

 

nah hes hungover his birthday was not long ago lol

 

if you knew that, why ask?

 

no just seeing if hes going to respond

EDIT: well just saw that too thierry a member is lost....................

 

Wow, bummer,
Jstarnino was banned..
Look at his profile page..

EDIT: Sadface x1000

 

Still a couple of things, Pras, what exactly is the DPC fix? I got horrible audio crackling at times, sort of like when xps 1640 was throttling but on a level far worse that only a reboot is able to fix it.

Also, the dimming, I don't know if it's driver related, highly doubt it. If anything its Control Center related as again every other laptop I've owned/used didn't have this dimming problem with Windows 7.

And finally the speakers... Does this laptop actually have 5 speakers? 4 + sub? cause I can't get anything out of the rear channels and I sure as hell can't hell the bass, not even out of a mini sub. Is there something I have to setup to get audio out of all the speakers? or is this a case of Dell false advertising ?

 

EGM92 could you please list your specs?

also have you uninstalled the idt audio drivers

also is your playback set to 44100 mhz in sound properties
control panel>sound>heaphones properties>advanced>change default format to 44100 mhz what it should be gives better audio quality

also go into nvidia control panel manage 3d settings and change the global setting for power management mode to prefer maximum performance.

try these steps and let me know this has worked wonders for my problems a LOT!

 

Specs:
i5 540m and i7 820QM (currently have the i7 installed)
8gb 1066
260M GTX
500GB 7200RPM
1080P
Intel 6300 Ultimate N
9cell battery

I currently have the IDT drivers installed, but I've also tried with them uninstalled. Not much of a difference either way.

I'll try the frequency change.

About the Nvidia control panel, if I change it to prefer maximum performance does that mean it'll suck the battery dry if I don't change it back to adaptive when on battery?

 

well it shouldn't in theory but i haven't tested it since im always plugged in for now due to it running off battery you wont hit the max clocks on battery i do believe. but just try this and see if it make the audio problems nearly extinct i barely have audio probs especially in games when running music at the same time. trust me this helps a lot.

also this process works better with the idt drivers uninstalled.

 

Still haven't got an answer, does this laptop have 5.1 audio? or is it false advertising?

 

it does with the idt drivers installed have to set the audio ports to be left, right and c sub. its on the right side of the idt sound control panel it shows the port on the right side of the window.

 

Great to see your system got fixed Pickles. It's a lot of money, so it should work the way it was supposed to work! Congrats!

 

Sorry I haven't been around guys, but I promised to help a colleague out who took on a bit more work he could handle. So I'll be quite busy for the next couple of days.

I doesn't look like I have missed much today, though. Probably due to Bruce Almighty.

By the way, my low WEI score turned out to be a glitch. After rebooting everything except the HDD went up to 7 or more again.

Well, friends, I'll call it a night. Maybe until tomorrow!

 

Hi, i tried 44100mhz, cd quality tab, it didnt help It bothers me that i am able to get louder volume from my iphone than my kickass mutha laptop. pfflt.

I was just on my gf's apple laptop, in itune there, there were something special with volume controls, and it really enables me to raise the volume REALLY loud on my headphone, had to tone it down a bit. There's nothing like that in M15x or window 7?

 

uninstall the idt drivers and reboot should install hd audio drivers try that it helps

if that doesn't work call dell and get a motherboard replacement

 

what is the best driver for gtx 260m?
could anyone please post me the url for download the driver
and tools for overclocking?
thanks

 

well what is good are the 197.16

also use nvidia system tools or nst

 

thanks!
whats the highest and most stable overclock settings for 260m gtx?

 

See here and here! But it really depends on your unit!
If you are planning on Oc-ing, make sure there's nothing blocking the fans.

 

Hi mate

Drivers and Downloads

check this link to the DPCfixed drivers on Dell..

Apparently they will be in the driver release next time around (although the GPU drivers on their site are 8 months old!!)

I'm using these and it virtually removes the whole DPC sluggish performance and sound issues. Definitely a big help, but yeah - disappointing still..

Why can't the guys get the product fixed BEFORE they release it? When so many people have DPC problems, surely it shouldn't have passed basic QC testing.. Go figure..

 

Jstarnino got banned, yeah.. I added him to my buddy list (posthumously)..

I know the mods complained about his needle in the arm avatar (after many months, kinda weird)..

Oh well, he'll be back in another form

 

-Hey everyone ! i'm so boring .... my friends has bought a G73JH with 5870 today and he say i'm so idiot because i buying M15X with the lowwer specs but with expensive price .... but i think G73JH design is very poor not like Alienware with Alien FX ..etc... but i'm just boring .... are everybody here thinks buying G73JH is better than M15X ????

 

Guys have a couple of quick questions

1. My replacement M15x has the LG DVD drive (HL-DT-ST - something) while my older one had TSST T633c. Any difference between any of these? I see on dell support website that the TSST has more frequent firmware updates.

2. The replacement also has a seagate HDD instead of WD. Any differences b/w them? I was thinking of switching my HDD but then, in a hypothetical situation, if I ever factory restore my laptop, windows would be preactivated using my previous serial number. Not sure if that could create problems. Don't wanna go into all that hassle if I can avoid it.

What do you guys have to say about these issues?

 

When you restore you can just change the product key to the one on your current machine.

The differences between Seagate and WD are minimal.. I wouldn't bother switching for performance or reliablity reasons. It may be that you prefer the acoustic signature of one drive over the other

I had a Seagate and it was fine. My Optical is an OptiArc (never heard of them before) and it seems okay.. I'm sure there is no difference if you don't NOTICE a difference..

More firmware updates don't make better drives also, if it's fine from the start it doesn't need firmware updates unless critical new features are released.. Since DVD and CD formats are so old, this is unlikely to be necessary (I think)..

 

I can only comment on the brands, I've used LG CD/DVD's in my desktops for the last 10 years cos they have never let me down. I prefer WD over seagate cos I have comparable 1TB drives (seg Barracuda vs WD Black) and the WD is about 25% faster in Atto benchmark. Not sure about the windows serial thing, I've moved bootable HDD's between completely different machines before but not with windows 7.

 

Thanks Mr Pras, I'm going to have a look at these drivers, dissect them and see if I can find where the DPC fix is located on the source and hopefully transplant them into a newer version.

I'm really disappointed with the m15x overall. The Command Center is the cause of many problems and software conflicts. I wish Asus would allow you to configure their laptops and buy from them, I'd be all over a G51 series laptop.

 

That would be wonderful!! Let me know please if you get that working

Yeah I'm also a little disappointed with the machine, but to be honest - nearly every machine I've ever had has problems like this and to be honest, Alienware does try to give a lot more than most manufacturers.. They all have bugs and issues that hopefully get resolved further down the line (especially the cutting edge machines like these)..

I do feel like we have paid extra to be part of a beta test program. But I guess it's always like that when you get leading edge hardware.

I have to add though, RAM in this machine is awesome! (nearly the fastest mobile in the world on many benchmarks). 14GB/s with 36.4ns access is pretty fabulous for a laptop.

The i7 is a bit sluggish and underpowered but I guess to get that working in a mobile form intel had to compromise. It's still fast (and I did buy the cheapest one).

The 260M is damn good, and not up to standard with the new cards but still a good gaming card for mobiles (should have been a 280M with a more powerful PSU though).

The build and look of the machine is awesome.. So yeah I'm disappointed in a few things, but overall still it's the best laptop I've ever owned and will always love it and it's flaws!

 

Yea the performance of the laptop is great compared to other laptops but just the little things irk me. The LED's not auto turning off when idle and stuff is a big annoyance for me. LCD power options are all messed up and it's uber heavy. To change the wireless card I had to remove the bottom, the top panel with touch / power and the keyboard :S that's a lot of work. The touchpad has to be the worst I've ever used. It's matte type material does not allow your fingers to glide, the buttons though big are only responsive at the edges.

Does the touchpad even have multi touch support? Synaptics drivers suck so bad for this laptop, when using the touchpad with the synaptics drivers the cursor lags all over the screen, never seen anything like it.


I'm going to look into these driver later on tonight and hopefully get back to you guys after some testing.

 

changing the wirless card is pretty simple its under the plam rest , so pretty much take off the bottom piece and 2 screws near the hdd and pop up the plam rest and the wireless card is right there. as for the touchpad just uninstall the synaptics driver and use the default windows one. still sub par but this way better then original driver.

 

wow thats sucks, but i think it was his new avatars that got him in trouble. man they are taking out all the fun in this place.

well if you go to the asus thread you will see that the g73jh has a few major problems. it true its more powerful but build quality and the plastic body turns me off. i don't hate it, i think it could be a awesome machine, if only the build quality is better. the M15x also have a few down falls of its own, but it mostly power limitations but the build is designed to last, and is upgradable unlike the asus.

 

Wow didn't realize how long this thread was... Anyways, I was wondering if anyone could give me any insight into the 1080p screen option for the M15x. I game at 1680x1050 right now, mostly playing WoW and was wondering if it was worth it to choose the higher resolution screen option on this system over the default. I need to get a laptop for school and I would like to get something that can play the upcoming WoW expansion in high detail. (I know WoW isn't super graphics intensive but with high populations and spell effects slowdown can occur.) I feel like I'm rambling on haha but to sum it up I'd like to know: Quality of the screen, gaming experiences, and pros/cons of choosing the upgraded screen. Thanks for any help you guys can give me!

 

Yeah, as if anyone is offended by that.. Well I understand their view, I used to be a mod on IPMart and you have to protect the young folk! He was kinda being cheeky with the Avatar and I can understand that as a mod, when someone is purposely antagonising you kinda don't tolerate it.

The M15x isn't just about performance for me, it's also the first time I've bought a machine for more than just the electronics.. It looks awesome and the ownership value is much higher. It's a beautiful machine which is solid and covered in metal. Metal.. I mean woohoo!

Darth Vader wouldn't be seen dead with an Asus! haha

 

Its all going to come down to screen real estate in the end. If you upgrade to the 1080P display you can support full High Def Video. Wow will run a max graphics with whatever card so you'll be fine.

 

Wouldn't settle for anything else than a M15x. The FX itself makes people go

I brought along my beast during one of my hospital conferences. There are people with their "look at me I'm so cool" macbooks. Then I pull out the M15x and I see heads turn. Man I loved the look on their face.