Area-51 m5550

Hey all. New to the forum and also a first time alienware owner.

Couple questions.

1. I bought this laptop from a friend on mine. Now to login to the Alienware website its requires a account number and email. I spoke with my friend and he doesn't remember if he signed up or not. I try some random information he gave me and no dice. Wondering if Alienware has a change of ownership program?

2. No where can I find what I can do with this laptop in way of upgrading. Like to know how much ram this can use and what the max size HD I can put in it. Also would like to know if I can upgrade the videocard in this laptop.

Thanks for you help.

 

the AW guarantee is non-transferable. your friend will have to remember his login details if you want access to MyHive. note that you can click "i've forgotten my password" at the login screen. enter your friends email addy and you'll get the password from him.

about the updates: 500gb hard drive, up to 8Gb RAM (with a 64bit OS). might be able to upgrade the GPU, but nothing spectular/new.

 

So nothing better then ATI x1400?

 

according to mxm-upgrade.com, you might be able to fit an Nvidia Go 7600.

 

One more question. I can't figure out what the button that has a fan logo on it does. I push it and a fan light turn on (on the lcd panel)

 

That is the stealth mode. The button will cut your processor speed and GPU clocks increasing battery time. I used to own an m5550 by the way.

 

So by the sounds of that, i game, light should be off lol

 

Just full of questions, and i'm sorry if this is a annoying to some. The computer came with a Alienware branded version of Windows XP Pro. I installed my purchased version on xp home. Is there much a difference between my version and their included version? Should I install theirs and uninstall mine?

 

Anybody know?

 

It's the same thing. It's all Windows XP. Oh and when you do game, that stealth mode button should be off.