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

Ha ha ha! maybe I should have lied to spare your feelings, Mandrake.

 

But telling the truth spares him some cash.

 

update CC to A07

 

Anything special with A07?

 

no, but im thinking updating CC should resolve his settings to stay the same on each boot as my touch panel buttons before would be teal on boot and would need to be changed once logged in. now since updating no problems at all with my lighting.

 

Does someone know a good guide that is showing how to install everything on a new ssd/hdd? Getting the SSD tomorrow !

 

Thanks a lot. Benchkmarking is everything but important for me, so I may uninstall the nvidia drivers and leave the ones Windows install afterwards. Is the performance increase notable? I'm happy with how games perform with nvidia drivers, and my policy is "don't touch if it works".

I had problems with stealth mode as well. I enabled it by mistake, and I was desperated with how games performed, until I disabled it, and everything just run great.

 

Listen to these guys, they are real pro!
I followed their advices and got a boot time under 20 seconds!

 

Too late bought it already. I guess I need to be more patient.

 

Sometimes its comments like those that make me happy to upgrade to a M17x

 

I'd like to know why. I mean, an M15X can handle Counter Strike very very easily. And the clock issues, as far as I know, isn't common, except if you enable stealth mode, which has a very easy solution

 

You should wait until it's in your hands before making comments like this. Thank goodness for Dell's lax return policy.

To make crossfire work Dell had dumb down the Cat 10.5 drivers. Stuttering and poor performance is in his future and he won't be allowed to change the drivers unless he chooses to stop using crossfire.

 

Didn't know that. Hope he enjoys his M17X despite this "small issue"

BTW, it isn't very serious that such problems happen, with the cost of the laptop. And Alienware and ATI aren't small companies that can't solve them. Neither can they allow this to happen for a long time, cause that removes lots of credit and confidence on them.

 

You have to think of the system as a whole. Companies like ATI cannot test their products in every possible notebook made so it's up to the ODM's to make that product work, of course ATI will help. Companies like Dell have to rely on the ODM's to get this right or simply choose a new ODM. Moral of the story is Flextronics is more to "blame" for the issues than anyone else.

 

We seem to have the same policy, that's why I am still on BIOS version A03! If you're happy with the performance of your machine I would just leave the drivers as they are. It's only noticeable when using certain software (which I need for my work, so for me it was better to change back) but not in anything else.
As far as Stealth Mode is concerned, you can download Wattos Stealth Mode indicator http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/463382-stealth-mode-indicator-2.html#post6037630 (in his sig).

 

Sometime when I benchmark or have intense gaming session, my card will downclock itself so it can chill ou. But sometime it also results in locked clocks, which is probably what happent yesterday. Usually installing a new driver helps, but this time I had to reset the bios, no idea why..
Anyways, my lappy is now working flawlessy so I'm happy

 

Soccer i would suggest getting OCZ Freeze is $7 cheap and effective thermal compound that doesn't conduct electricity which is good if you have some spill over onto solder pins causing shorts. which would be a good idea since your card is having temp issues. i just used MX-3 and my gaming temp went from 72-73 to 66-67c so its something to think about.

 

Indeed, I probably need some of that magic paste!

 

I really want to comment on this statement, but for the greater good of the forum I'll just say that paste is a good thing for gpu/cpu's.

 

Off topic but thought it was kinda cool! Got an iPad, M11x and my SSD today in the same shipping haha

 

Is there any way to start up the M15x without using the touchpanel?

I was just on it about 5 minutes ago and restarted. When it started up the touch panel didn't light up so i just shut down and tried to turn it back on and now it won't turn on.
Yes the battery is fully charged and i've tried with and without the power plug.

I've already tried a power drain, taking out the bios battery for a bit... I've even unscrewed the damn thing and replugged the touch panel but i just can't turn it on. Did my touch panel somehow die or is there something else that i haven't tried yet? I'm really losing my patience with this laptop considering i was without it last week due to the ignorance of tech that Dell contracted to replace the motherboard.

 

Touchpanel? I use my alien in the top center of the laptop above the touchpanel. I had no idea I could turn it on using the touchpanel? where?

 

The alienhead is part of the touch panel.

But yeah, i meant if there was a way to turn it on besides the alien head.

 

I find myself thinking that perhaps the alien head is part of the touchpanel assembly? perhaps. but it is in a different zone in the CC and while you can touch it, it is not really a touch panel item per-se.

Apologies I am not trying to offend, just thinking outloud.

 

try taking out the cmos battery then doing the power drain again. if no go then i suggest checking the connections, its under the keyboard.

 

I'll try the power drain again without the Cmos in. I've already checked the connections. I can't quite figure anything else to try out.

 

yeah gave it a try, keep me posted.

 

Hey Inap! Do you know a good guide that I can follow to install windows and all that stuff on the new SSD?

 

Well, no luck. I think i'm running out of options.

Should i just call support and try to get that peice replaced?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/492865-help-new-m15x.html

it should be second post, sorry lazy to retype everything,lol

yeah definetely gave them a call, thats what warranty is for. are you sure the connections are good on both ends?

 

Yeah, i've checked the connections twice. I swapped sides and everything just in case of anything.

Oh well, time to deal with Tech support.... again -_-

 

bummer, sorry you have to go through that again.

 

Awesome man, thanks! Gonna do it Sunday when I get back to Sweden, my brother took the laptop with him because I can´t take two you know.

 

sounds awesome keep me posted on the results. enjoy the awesome speeds.

 

Thanks man, you make it sound so easy ! I don´t know anything about the partitions though, do I have to do something special with them, like make a new one you know?

 

since its new there is none, so its even easier for you. all you have to do it take out the hdd and take off the little adapter and put the adapter on your new ssd and screw it back, then all you have to do is put in the os disk. and in 20 min you are set.

 

Oh sweet! Know how the change the actual SSD/HDD but wasn´t sure about the software stuff . Got the lappy today and installed stuff on it before we left to the airport so I didn´t have to pay any taxes or anything like that on it

 

hahahha enjoy bro, once you go ssd you will never turn back.

 

Haha thanks man!

 

Thanks man! Hope you can solve your GFX problem.

 

I'm using my M15x to talk to people via Live Messenger and using the integrated camera. Is there any software/drivers for the cam? I check the Dell's site and there's nothing that I can see. It's really annoying. The driver thats installed right now seems that it's the Windows default drivers and that it's barebones. I'd like the option to change the color saturation and such. When the camera is in use with the windows driver it, it doesn't allow any customization.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

There is the youcam software and driver in the resource disk.

 

I lost my Resource disc in Las Vegas about 3 weeks ago, I was forced to format after someone infected my HDD with an absurd amount of mal/spyware and a couple of trojans When I got back home I checked the manual and it was missing though the Win 7 disc was still there. Must have left it on the dresser or something. Does dell have it on their site somewhere?

 

You can download it on youcam site

 

I haven't bothered to look at what BIOS version I have. Everything works just fine, so I won't change anything.

Anyway, I'm going to investigate if there's any major improvement from the BIOS I may have, to the last one.

And thanks for telling me about that stealth mode application, seems it will be very useful for me.

 

Found an ISO of the M15X disc online. Installed the Youcam software, there's no drivers included, it's just webcam software for adding pretty overlays. Is there an actual driver for the webcam from the webcam manufacture?

 

Currently using the breed theme. Didn't know Dell had it in their drivers section, so I just downloaded it from there.

Looks pretty good, though finding the icons sizes are a bit small and difficult to see. Pretty cool though overall.

Only thing now is, the log-in screen has the red glyphs but the breed theme is completely different. Oh well.

 

Talking about theme, It's been years since I last saw the OSD, am I the only one with that problem?

 

so the osd isn't popping up anymore? have you tried reinstalling it?

 

Inap, love your icon and saying above it.