Got my Alienware M15x. Few Questions

So I got my M15x delivered to me but I wasn't around to collect it however luckly my uncle next door got the delivery for me

So a few questions:

1. When I'm playing my games theres two black bars at the side of the screen, how do I get rid of it?

2. What is the latest 260M driver? I heard the 196 driver has problems. What will be the most stable one out?

3. Any drivers for devices that is recommended to be installed?

4. When I went to Diagnostic Tool the BIOS is A03 1.00 is that the latest one?

I'm really enjoying this state of art machinery. Its very nice looking and is very smooth running programs

Thanks for answering the question and mind my noobness

 

1. Sounds like you need to go into settings, and adjust the resolution to a widescreen format.

 

How accurate is the windows CPU and RAM usage meter? My RAM usage is 35% average and about 35% CPU usage when I was playing Guildwars.

Junky, I've tried go to the option screen in Portal and change to aspect ratio to wide screen but it does not seem to change. I've also checked on Guildwars and I can't find the option to change to wide screen. Is there an option to allow me to use wide screen for the games I play?

Thanks for the reply!

 

1. Just do as import junky says.... (check out aspect ratio for the game if it has one. Change it to 16:9 and if it doesn't then set the resolution of the game to something like 1920x1080 or 1600x900

2. Download 195.62 whql from nvidia's website. Remove the current drivers first from device manager and select the option to delete files from hard drive and then restart and install the new drivers.

3. Do the same thng to remove the drivers for synaptics and let wi dows install the default driver for it.

4. Yes

 

The usuage monitor is not very accurate but yes it does the job and this is thing is a processing beast... That is what u should expect with the kind of games u mentioned

 

wow congrats man, yeah just do every the white wiz says, he's a pro. the black bar issues is just a driver thing, and updating your nvidia driver will solve it. seems to happen with valve games and a few others.

 

Mine had the 195.67 Nivida drivers right out of the box is that normal?

 

not really most of the time they ship with the old 184.xx driver. that is weird, hopefully someone else wiith a newly shipped one can confirm.

 

First of all, congrats on your beast man!
Before you change the synaptics drivers, though, see how your touchpad is working (I'm no whizkid but I assume this is why Whitewizzard recommends it), because my touchpad worked to perfection out of the box. I know lots of people have had problems with it, but the latest versions seem to have a great working pad. The drivers installed by WI are better than the previous drivers, however they're still not perfect. So if your touchpad is working the way you like it, just leave it that way.

Sorry Whitewizard, if this was not the reason you recommended it. In that case, ignore this advice.

 

I and many others also had problems with the audio drivers with lots of crackling esp with headphones. For some, changing to the Windows driver sorted it.

Do you guys know if anyone ever created an optimisation guide for new owners? The search function on NBR never seems to work.

 

The crackling noise is due to one of these problems with the i/o board or a loose connection with the motherboard and i/o board...

1. Go to control panel
2. Click on hardware and sound
3. Click on manage audio devices
4. Selecting speakers click on properties and now in the jack information it would just list out csub ... Instead it should be listing out 3 jacks. If this is the case call up tech support to fix this...

Some of the users who had this issue had only csub listed in the jack information. Because of this if u play music on earphones they can't handle the bass and it crackles but with windows default drives the crackling is reduced but still there... You also get a crackling or scratching noise once in a while from the speakers without playing any music...

Thnx inappropriatename and m15x thread is gone slow man... Me u J and mr. Pras have to give it a jump start... Some cpu O.C. I think lol!!

 

I un-install the drivers and try to install 195.62 but it gave me an error when I try to. It said the Nvidia setup program cannot locate any drivers compatible with your hardware, or something like that.

I downloaded from this site: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_64bit_195.62_whql.html

Then I tried downloading the 197.13 which was released today and gave me an error as well.
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/win7_winvista_64bit_197.13_whql_uk.html

I'm I downloading the right driver? Or I'm I doing something wrong?
Btw I had no problems downloading the driver from the Dell driver download page but it is a very old version.

Also in the install screen it said Windows Vista 64-bit in the top left hand corner, is that the problem that I'm installing the Vista version? If is so how do I install the window 7 version?

 

Hello,

You have to install the driver for the Mobile GPU. You are trying to install desktop drivers.

The latest for 7-64 are there: http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_winvista_win7_x64_195.62_whql.html

On Vista you install Vista Driver. On 7 you install 7 Driver. And choose the correct language.
You make your choice here: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index5.aspx?lang=en-us

 

Thanks alot CptDobey that clears up alot for me, sorry about the noobness

Also does it matter what language I use or more like will there be any difference between English(U.S) and English(UK)?

And thanks whitewizard for the drivers

 

I am pretty sure that on one side you have the "US drivers" and on the other side, you have the "foreign language drivers", all in one.

When you want to download the UK drivers, you get the "foreign language drivers", including "UK English". I do not know if they are different.

To avoid (a source of) issue, just use the drivers which has the same language as your OS whenever it is possible. I have 7-64 from UK. Thus I always get the "International drivers".