64-bit vista on m15x?

Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere, but searching around didn't find anything.

I'm waiting for my m15x to arrive, and since I already have a copy of Vista Ultimate am going to be installing that over the Home Premium it came with (saved $100, why not?).

I'm trying to decide if installing the 64-bit version of Vista is a good idea or not though, so it take can advantage of all 4 gigs of ram. Does anyone know if there could be driver compatability issues? Since the laptop's new I'd hope not, but that could get really annoying if so.

 

yes i am also interessted and also have a 64bit Ultimate from my old Notebook...
is it possible to order without the Vista Premium ?

 

Dell should have all the 64-bit driver on its support page.

 

Yes, but even so, we can help!

 

Vista's 64-bit driver support is worlds ahead of XP's.

 

Their are plenty of us here to help. When your searching fordrivers, go to Dell and also to www.X-drivers.com who seems to have just about every driver imaginable for 64 bit systems.

 

maybee we should collect the drivers and add them to the FAQ ?
I think its also nice for 32bit Vista or XP, because many will set up a new system when they get the notebook.

 

Alienware has them for 32bit Vista & XP, but not for the x64 versions.

 

You will have issues right away with Video drivers. To date anything besides AW 167.55 X86 drivers fail to run at clock speed of the GPU. The GPU will stay in Sealth mode.

I hop ethey can get a fix for this. I have been trying other aeues with modding INF's bt nothing has really worked for me yet.

 

No, that can be avoided. You can just mod the inf. I can do that.

 

Hey FAde to black if you can do that itwould be greatly appreciated. I have been trying all monring with modifying the INF of the latest 174.12 Vista X86 driver from LTV2GO and have had zero luck.

To date any modified INF I try, downclocks the GPU the same as in Stealth mode. And it will not clock back to Sock Speed. 500/799.

 

subscription

 

I shall give it a try, maybe tomorrow.

 

I've been running vista x64 with sp1 for the past 2 weeks with no problem at all. I use XTreme-G 169.28 video driver and I didn't have to fix any ini files to get them to work (similar perf to base driver no downclocks). Only thing I can't make work is the command center since alienware has not released install files yet for download and the osd stuff. I have x86 in dual boot for when I need those (alienFX and binary GFX).

 

According to a sales rep i talked today the M17x should have an option for vista64. Then 64bit drivers should also be available for the m15x.

But I am not sure if we can trust these guys

 

I believe you can trust them. Alienware will have no excuse for proving 4GB of RAM to people and not letting them use more than 3GB.

 

Alright...so in a nutshell, the 64-bit drivers for everything exist, but aren't downloadable from alienware itself and a bit of hunting will be required.

Except for trying to use newer nvidia drivers, which won't come out of stealth mode. Hrm.

hemlok: So you're saying that the m15x doesn't come with a disk with the command center program? That means that trying to install ANY os other than what came with the system would disable my ability to use the lighting system?

My system's in stage 6 right now, so it could still be a good week or more before I get my system, just trying to plan things out so I don't spend the first few days frustrated. Thanks everyone for the informative posts so far.

 

on my notebook (not the m15x ) I installed vista64 and then all the drivers... of the 32bit version worked, except GPU drivers. maybe here it's the same.

newfieljudd, strange problem yors! GRB or others updated drivers! then they return to the original pack, because they were better, but they didn't have this problem I think

 

They were probaly better because they never noticed the downclocks.

Even with the downclocks I can still score over 8k in 3dmark06. But I must admit I really can't figure why it is doing this. I was hoping to try new Video drivers to pull just a little better performance out of the 8800m GTX.

 

Sorry to post such a newb question, but if 64-bit is such a hassle, why bother? Just to use 1 extra gig of ram? Does it run faster (i dont think so)? What's so special?

Also, w/ respect to video driver support, how do you know that its running in stealthmode (is there a test that says 'running in stealthmode?" ? Isnt 8k a strong 3dmark score?

 

in Crysis 64-bit makes all the differences from 20 FPS to 40 FPS in some cases

 

It should be more than 9K 3DMark points with the 8800M.
x64 matters very much, to me at least. It is the future and it should be used by anyone. 32 bit is the 90s, x64 is the third millennium.

 

ye im def. all ears to this thread
ive been asking friends if 64bit vista was possible on the m15x, and if so, wat all i wud have to go thru with the drivers n wat not...
i guess ill wait and see someone do it successfully, n then copy their setup. 64vista and 4GB RAM ftw

 

I heard vista64 lets you have good improvment for the processor, but a little bit less performance on 3D apps. indeed I installed vista64 and I can confirm that

 

Hey guys, I just got the m15x yesterday and played around with it for half an hour before wiping the hard drive to install vista x64 ult. I got all the drivers and programs to work except for Command Center and OSD. Also, the Binary GFX can't seem to be activated in vista either. Aside from that the computer does work, just with an underclocked GPU.

If anyone has solutions to fix these problems, I will be very thankful :d

 

People are working on the INF's for the video drivers but no luck yet on teh Command center and OSD. could try the OSD drivers eventhough they are 32 bit.

 

yes, just try the 32bit drivers

 

I tried the 32bit drivers already. program would crash when starting. Windows gives a send error report box, but nothing beyond that. I really hope Alienware releases 64bit support...Especially because i like my Vista x64 SP1 version so much...

I've emailed Alienware about the command center app and they said it should be released soon and they are aware of the issue...but that might as well be all bs. We'll see soon enough. They did promise to send me an email when it becomes available and I'll update this thread when that happens. Aside from this, the m15x is a sexy beast.

 

damn. No full x64 bit support yet? Can we sticky this threadbecause I'd like to wipe my x86 version as soon as the x64 support comes out.

 

Just as an update: The alienware command center's downloadable at last. Haven't tested it on 64 bit yet, but that's hopefully one more obstacle out of the way.

 

you may have to start and disable any Device driver signing. Pressing F8 will give you those options when booting. YOU cna then selcet disable driver siging and it might be ok.

 

ill just wait for AW to have x64 as an option... hopefully by the time the m17x comes out atleast, so i dont have to mess around with installing any of the necessary drivers n wat not. ill add the RAM myself tho, and actually be able to use the advantages of x64. awesome

 

Just curious: where is the download? I've found the forum link for 1.09b, but they don't seem to be claiming it's x64-compatible, and it's still not in the My Hive nor Drivers & Downloads sections yet (at least not that I can see).

 

Tying my notes from the other 64-bit thread into this one: here.

 

Hurrayyy.... finally today I got success in running my m15x with its full power.
I am running Windows Vista Ultimate x64 with all the drivers except Alienware Command Centre

Windows rating is 5.1 and my system can utilize full 4GB RAM....

I am building a package for all the softwares and drivers you need to run m15x in 64Bit and soon will upload them to Rapidshare

Also I am working a windows driver+service for x64 which can simulate the same operations that AlienFX can. I don't see it coming from Alienware. Will post it here once I have a working one.

 

64-Bit does make a difference, if you are running a 32-bit OS on 64 bit architecture you will get poor performance than you running a 32bit OS on 32bit architecture because your Processor is not executing in Native mode but in 32bit emulation mode.

64bit gives more data bus to transfer data faster and it can be noticed everywhere. Even with network connections, you will get better data transfer rate than 32bit OS

I got my m15x working great today with 64bit drivers for everything except "Command Center", I am working on a fix for it and hopefully should have it before Alienware has it.

 

You get the OSD Drivers working then vikas? Cause that'd be great.
Tis annoying not being able to use the binary gfx/ shortcut keys etc..

Tom

 

I am using the Keyboard Utility from Intel which is very much similar to OSD but it does not allow you to switch between Integrated Graphics and nVidia. It just display the volume level on screen when you are changing it and is more responsive than AW's OSD.

Cons: it does not display the status of Bluetooth, WLAN, Command Center and Stealth Mode. But the touch pad's lights are enough for me to guess the status of them.

Working on Command Center as my highest priority at this time later on will try to fix the BinaryGFX thing.

 

Here is the HOWTO guide... hope you find it useful
http://alienware-m15x.blogspot.com/2008/08/alienware-m15x-drivers-for-windows.html

 

Ah good show old bean! Have a rep

Tom

 

Thanks! It is here as well... http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=285226
Give it a try and vote if it works or not for you

 

Will do, looking forward to your version of command centre too

 

Check out my updated GUIDE, you can use all the hotkeys now and BinaryGFX is fully supported on 64bit

 

Ah righto ill have to try it then Good show matey

 

If you got vista home premium with the m15x, does the windows cd contain both the 32 and 64 bit versions?

Edit: Nevermind, I found my answer. It does contain both.

 

For everyone else... If you do not have Vista 64 bit and purchased only 32 bit media, don't worry as single license entitle you to both versions of Vista. You can order your 64bit Media online and that's too for FREE DELIVERY (some countries may charge you nominal delivery charges)

Order your 64bit Vista DVD or CDROM media here
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/compare-editions/64-bit.aspx

Go to the end of page and select your country.

 

nope. that page specifically says "retail, packaged product". and ours came pre-installed, so it doesn't fulfill the criteria. but i guess it's always worth a try.

 

You really want to try it , Command Center is also working now.... I need some sleep in peace now....ZZZZzzzzzzzz

 

I was angered after I found that Alienware does not use 64bit vista on the m15x due to incompatibility issues with the hardware. This was the message I received from tech support after my angry inquiry.


"Thank you for contacting Alienware.
In regard to your inquiry, I regret to inform that we do not offer Windows Vista 64-bit with our systems. The reason for this is that we need to make sure that all the components installed on your system will be completely well-matched with the Operating System and in this way avoid any incompatibility issues. Furthermore, since the support (drivers, patches, fixes) for Windows 64-bit version is not as extensive as the Windows 32 version, we decide to not include this version of Windows with our system.
In this case, if you would like to install Windows Vista 64 bit; you may, but as mentioned previously the support (drivers, patches, fixes) for Windows Vista 64-bit is not as extensive as the Windows 32 version. Therefore, the amount of support we can offer is very limited.
We do apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you."

Now this would not have bothered me had I not run the compatibility test offered by Microsoft to test my current machine. Apparently my m15x hardware isn't even compatible with the 32 bit version (according to microsoft). If neither is compatible, but both work, why not offer us the 64 bit version so we can actually make use of the 4 gigs of ram we crammed in? Rediculous

 

System compatibility is a very broad term. No company can claim that their product works on all hardware. Not even Microsoft, just to be on safer side.

Just imagine a case, Microsoft claim that their product will work on any hardware without actually testing it on those hardware. If it work fine no one complains but if only it fails for 1 person he can come back saying that "You cheated and your product does not work on my hardware" Vista Compatibility Tool runs its tests and compare the results with list of hardware it has actually being tested.

If you really want to see if that works for you, you better try it for yourself. But if its about m15x then I can claim that it will work like a charm