Another New Owner of the m15x!!!!

Hello Everyone,

I have been looking for a gaming laptop for sometime and this forum has been very, very informative. I decided to go with the alienware m15x because I loved the concept. However, I was scared when reading about how poorly constructed the laptop was (ie. keyboard flex, busted hinges, cheap plastic construction, gaps, etc.) because I planned to carry this thing around with me. I didn't want to just leave it on my desk at home. Nevertheless, I decided to go with it because this laptop was just so unique and I did want to give it a try.

I understand everyone's m15x is different and we all have our share of problems. For me, I noticed my hinges had alot of resistance when opening and closing the screen. It would creak alot and it really did feel like the hinge would break if I kept opening and closing it...so I tried something: WD-40

Since hinges are a moving part, it needs to be lubricated as the lack of lubrication could cause the creaks and the resistance. I got my can of WD-40 and sprayed both sides of the hinge area. I noticed it helped because the resistance decreased quite a bit (I really was scared to even touch the screen). It still creaks, but not nearly as bad as before. Maybe you guys can try it out and see if it helps.

Well, thank you all for your contributions to this forum. It has helped me alot.

 

congrats on your purchase

 

congratz and good luck and thanks for the input

 

Congratz on the purchase and kudos for the wd-40 idea. I was contemplating something similar as well but the creaking really was not all that bad when my unit arrived and it seems to have almost gone away now (must have "broken in").

 

Welcome to the club.

 

congratz dude, you may want to consider upgrading the display drivers for your graphics card to get the best out of it.

www.laptopvideo2go.com

btw, did you get 64 or 32 bit?

 

poor guy got a m15x ... lol jp

 

Congratulations on your purchase pbr!

If you ever have any questions or concerns, please feel free to ask anyone here in the NBR Alienware community. We'll be glad to help you out!

 

yup yup. :yes:

 

Congratulations on the purchase. What kind of specs did you get?

 

Hi everyone,

Thank you all for the warm welcome!!!! =D
Here are my specs:

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9300 @ 2.50GHz
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GT
250GB HD
4 GB G. Skill (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
Wide UXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD

Chutney Remix, thank you for suggesting that I upgrade the display drivers. Can anybody talk me though it? Also, I had a question about the 3Dmark06 scores. According to Alienware, my system was able to get a score of 10,355. However, when I ran it, I was only able to pull off a score of 9,145. Are they tweaking something I'm not????

Thank you again for all your input. =)

 

They probably ran it @ 1280.800 or 1280.720 resolution instead of 1280.1024 - does it specify? I've seen it several times before. That's a nice rig though, congrats

 

Hi E-wrecked,

I checked, but it doesn't specify. Thanks for the compliment! I hope I will be able to use this notebook to it's fullest potential.

 

I can't seem to download the latest display driver: 185.20 Vista 64bit - 2008-12-26

Is the link not working?

 

get it from laptopvideo2go.com.

 

Here you go. I tested these and they both work. Just make sure you put the modded inf in the driver folder and overwrite the one before installing it.


Driver - http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/nvidia/185series/18520_vista64.exe

modded inf. - http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/infs/185series/18520_vista64/nv_disp.inf

 

Thanks a bunch Dhoang417,

I'm trying to click on the link for the driver, but it says:

Empty Referer

We have recognized that you are attempting to directly link to our drivers. Please head over to the LaptopVideo2Go website and try downloading a driver.

I don't get it??? I appreciate everyone's help so far.

 

oops, I guess you got to get to this page then...

http://laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=22523

 

Hmmm,

The same thing happens on that page as well. I was reading the forums and it appears the servers may be down...I'll try again later.

Thanks again!

 

Nvidia just released some new notebook drivers,
http://laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=23069

I will test these out and report back.

 

looking forward to it.

 

dude you have the same specs as i, (apart from 8800M GTX and 9800MGT)(but they're the same thing)

Yea, i think AW just copy pastes the benchmarks there as a 2.8Ghz also seems to get 10000ish when Cnet did it. When I did it myself on 1200 ish display i got a 8000ish score so thats what my take is on it.

 

Hmmm alrite,

I was finally able to install driver 185.20
However, I ran 3Dmark06 and my score dropped from 9145 to 8800ish. I thought my score would improve.....

 

your gaming fps will increase, im not too keen on the benchmarks myself, just look into a cooler or a binder to place it on if you want to lap it

 

It seems like the 179.48 driver gives good SM 3.0 and HDR performance but dose not do well with the SM 2.0. I believe if you are going for the highest 3dmark 06 score, the 198.28 with the 9800GT unmoded inf would be the best route. But I do not like 3dmark thus why I use other tests. I prefer the 185.20, it is overall the best performing driver for the games I play.

Also, I noticed that the 179.48 driver did not have Nvidia power whatever thing, It stays at the stock clocks at all times, making the card stay around 70C when idle, I don't know if this is a problem with the install with the Nvidia .inf. I might try the install it again with a different .inf and see how that results.

 

That is very interesting information. I rather have better gaming experiences than a high 3Dmark06 score anyway. I just thought the 3Dmark was a good benchmark to see how well this baby would play games. Thanks again.

 

Congrats and good luck.