Just got my brand new M15X my thoughts...

After the **** that I've been through with AW I can no longer recommend them to ANYONE.

 

I would say for a expensive notebook as AW the build quality is poor.

But also, before loosing money with the restock fee, once boarded you should see where the journey will end. Since it will be a mark if you will buy or not future AW products.

 

Agreed. Just take care of it. The notebook is expensive as hell already, isn't that a given?

 

Most of the problems I have read about are from owners who had their's built a little while ago. I brought the hinge issue and everything up with support and they said that they were aware of the problem, but didn't say too much about a fix... just take care of it.

 

My first problem is the most annoying one, I dont blame Alienware but I do blame Windows Vista and so far all these little issues are making me regret not going with Windows XP...

After I transfer AVIs or Mpegs to my Alienware from my old computer using either a USB Flash or DVD-ROM either during or after its finished transferring I get the following error message repeatedley.
" COM SURROGATE HAS STOPPED WORKING " A problem caused this program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

What doesnt make sence at all is that if I double click on the movie I will still get the error popup but the movie will play in the backound find with no problems. Also if I just open DIVX and browse for the movie in DIVX it will play with no problems but if g-d forbid I open the folder where the movie files are I get that error message NON STOP until i get out of that folder. Anyone else get this or know the fix to it?


---------------------------------------------------------

My 2nd problem I believe is Alienwares fault, when I close the lid on my laptop, it goes to sleep but when I bring the lid back up its a black screen and no matter what button i press it wont wake up, the only choice i have is to press the power button and then it shuts it off... Any ideas?


P.S. For those of you who want to know the status with the scratches I got on my "BRAND NEW" alienware , i spoke to them today and basically they were very nice and said i can send it back to them after they get the scratches picture from me... Problem is my son doesnt want to send it back being that they are so small and its not worth the wait so hopefully alienware will step up and compensate me for them somehow... Will fill you in when i get the chance.

 

Good to know they offered to handle the scratches issue.

I'm not sure I can help you with the first problem but as far as the lid closing issue goes what is your m15x set to do upon closing? You can find it in Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options

 

The second problem is the default setup for Windows. It's set to sleep/standby when you close the lid. To change this, you can go to your power options.

Go to Control Panel > Power Options > System Settings.

Edit: XD ****, Ennea got to it before I did.

 

You can blame it on Vista Codecs that you have, update them from here - http://www.free-codecs.com/download/vista_codec_package.htm

Blame it to Vista 'again' .. I have a workaround for you unless Vista fix this issue. It's an open bug and you can talk to MS about it. Change your power settings and set the Lid-Close action from 'Sleep' to 'Hibernate'... it will take little longer to wake up but will make sure that it wakes up for sure...

It has to do with Intel 945GM Board - see this KB ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929909)

 

Nice find! I need to bookmark that for future references.

 

shaknbaknyc for your first problem i would make sure your video codecs are installed properly by completely erasing the old ones and reinstalling or trying different ones seperately(FFDshow, combined community codec pack, Vista Codec Pck, and K-Lite) you want to install as little codecs as possible. Also try using a different media player and see if that solves the video problem. Alternatively you could also try using VLC media player because it doesn't use codecs.
For the Second issue it is known problem with vista and it is caused by plugging or unplugging your laptop after you close the lid. There is nothing you can do except for restart until MS fixes it. You could also make sure you have the x34 bios, but I'm almost positive it won't make a difference. It only solves touchbuttons deactivation when resuming from sleep and over heating X9000

 

OK I got that COM SURRAGTE problem fixed, I read online its a big Vista bug and can be caused by several things, in my case it was Nero 7 that came with the laptop, I uninstalled it and it works fine now...

As for the closing the lid thing, I guess that easy way out is to change it to hibernate can someone tell me what the difference is between sleep and hibernate? what saves more battery...

As for the scratches my main issue is that its really my sons laptop because i got it for him as a gift plus he uses it for his computer courses but a scratch is a scratch especially when you pay $2600.00!!!! He doesnt want to send it in and hes right the scracthes are very small but hopefully Alienware can take care of it for me or im gonna get realllll upset at them.

thanks for the reply guys !

 

Hibernate saves more battery as it is like 'pause'.. every program running will be paused and entire RAM will be saved in c:\hyberfil.sys file.. (the file size will be exactly as your physical RAM)

Once you resume, you need to press the power button as the computer is physically turned off and has no sense, it will reload the RAM from file and resume from where you stopped it.

 

Since Alienware has already offered to help you with the scratches, it's really up to your son (or you) on whether you want to send it in or not. Convince your son to send it in if it really bothers you that bad.

 

Im thinking of selling my desktop because my dad just got me the m15x, my question is I am allowed to leave my laptop on 24-7 and maybe turn it off 2 days a week? I LOVE to download and in order for me to download the large files that I normall do I would have to leave my laptop on overnight,

When im downloading and leaving the laptop on overnight what is your best recommendation to get the laptop to run as cool as possible, im not sure it this would work but i was thinking to switch from the nvidia card to the on board card and also turning off Alien FX does anyone else have any ideas or if you think its a bad idea all together please tell me. I would love to just have it sit on my desk as a replacement but again im afraid of it overheating...or getting other problems which i dont know about. thanks for your help

 

just get a cooler and use integrated graphics. you should be fine with that. the overheating issues has been solved a while ago so you shouldnt have a problem.

 

Yeah. Even with the 8800 on, I idle at safe temperatures. A cooler and decent AC helps. I leave my m15x on constantly.

 

get m17x i'll say

 

Do you guys think Alienware does Credit Trade Ins, like lets say I return the Alienware Notebook and wanted an Alienware Desktop would they do a 1-1 trade of would they take out the 15% restocking fee first, im probably not going to do it but im just curious.

 

They have a trade-in, but it's not going to be an even 1-1 trade. Since your laptop now has a depreciated value (from using it), they're going to give you some credit + $200 bonus (for trading in an existing alienware computer). You may be better off selling it on ebay or something then using the money you've earned to purchase an Alienware desktop.

 

Only problem I have with the m17x is it's not as portable. HOWEVER, the thread name should mean that portability is not an issue. It's one of the best desktop replacements, (if not the best ) IMO.

 

Ennea you sure its cool to leave it on all day ? this baby gets really hot...

Should I also put it on basic performace or power saver?

 

I wouldn't leave the laptop on all day, especially the one has higher temperature than average. In the end, it's a "laptop".

 

I don't literally mean leave it on all the time. I do leave it on for a huge portion of the day though if I'm not in class. I turn it off while I'm taking a shower and such. You sure it gets that hot? Air conditioning and laptop cooler should be totally fine. I've never had a heat issue.

 

Strange words there Ennea

I would guess japanese

When so why being surrounded in the many people who probably will be about, one person drill the air doing in this world, your form you search, it is

けれども生命は住んでいる

Back on topic

If you keep on your laptop temps and cleaning them they will run great.
I clean mine every 3 to 4 weeks.

 

《主語なし》However, it cuts 1 person throughout the world of ほ where when it is enclosed to many persons who may be why and a/the な feeling does and have searched your figure

2 different translations???

 

Haha, yeah it's in japanese.

"でもなぜだろう たくさんの人に囲まれているときほど
この世界中で 一人きりな気がして
君の姿 探してしまうんだ"

means:

"But why, even though I was surrounded by so many people,
I felt like as if I was the loneliest person on Earth.
I started searching for your shadow."

Did you guys use an online translation?

 

AHAHAHAHA!
Excellent translations!
That was funny...

 

STOP!!!
before you press hibernate.
this may not happen to you but it has happened to me and a few others on here so just a warning if it does.

i pressed hibenate and it switched of the screen and that was it. the mouse,all aw lights and fans were still running. when i tried to turn it back on nothing happened. rang tech support and they had not heard of this problem before.their advice was to remove the bottom plate and press a reset button on the motherboard. that done nothing. in the end the only way to reset it was to remove the battery. this worked. only problem was that doing what they said fried my motherboard. 3Dmark06 scores went from 9698 to 3559 overnight.

so if this does happen to anyone else then best way is to unplug from mains and remove the battery.
also if you do a disc cleanup you will see a file in there for hibernate which is over 2gb in size. if you dont think you will use hibernate you can delete this file to give you 2gb more space on your HD but hibernate will then not work after that.

as i said this is just a bit of advice if the same thing happens to you.

 

nevermind... alienwares customer service is gettin better

 

I didnt want to open a new thread for this question so i put it over this topic,,,
Whwere is the cheapest place i can buy DVD-R Dual Layer DVDS???? thanks

 

keep the ram in case your m15x get broken, replace it and send back to AW.
I hope you would never to do it.

 

stash it away in case you have to send your lappy back to AW at some point.

 

you might be better off creating another topic. were running out of new topics anyways.

 

Well its that time of the year again, im running low on DVD R disks and was using Tayio Yuden which were excellent.


My first question is, Is there such a thing as Dual Layer DVD-RW or DVD+RW disks?

Is there such thing as DVD-RW Lightscribe disks?

Where is the cheapest place I can buy DVD-R?

Should I get DVD+R or DVD-R for my M15x, and does it matter?

 

Cheapest place? Hmm. Amazon? Newegg? I buy mine local, and I know I pay a bit more, never bought DVD-R's online before.
Don't know about DL DVD-RW's though.

 

I like Meritline and Supermediastore.

I like my Ritek's (aka. RiDATA).

 

Lets say I burn a movie on a DVD-RW, and i finished watching the movie can I erase that from the dvd and it will be as good as a new blank dvd r disks, how many times can I erase and write onto a dvdrw ?

 

you can re-write it about 500-1000 times... on average.

 

The answer is most definitely Wal Mart, because you can bring in any Sunday Add from Best Buy, Office Depot, Circuit City, Office Max or any other store and Sam Waltons spirit will carry you to the register and match any of those prices.I recommend DVD-R disks for they are the most compatable with existing DVD players on the market(according to VSO software and they ought to know). I like the Maxell 16 times write gold disks( they also have a tannish colored disk that they call gold that is more prone to write errors). Verbatim has the best all around reputation for Blank DVD's.

 

this is kinda the wrong section but http://www.mediasupply.com

 

P. S. It's also a good Idea to stick with what ever brand of media works best in your particular DVDRW, so if you have been having good results with Tayio Yuden , I would stay with that.

 

ok think you should sell the ram to an outside party, or toss it away somewhere. sure you can only get like 20 bucks for it. maybe you can get more its alien ram! i doubt alienware cares if you upgraded it.

 

PM a Mod and ask to have the title changed. Easy fix.

 

They do care. Keep the RAM in case you need to return the system for repair.

 

Are you guys sure about the RAM? It would be great to get a little extra $... Does anyone know for sure if Alienware really cares if you send them back a laptop for repair with different RAM? Sounds silly...

Another quick question, how do I scroll down with internet explorer using the touchpad, I tried doing it by moving my finger vertically near the right side but its not really doing anything.

What is the absolute BESTTTTT laptop cooler I can buy?

 

You need to install the synaptics driver to be able to use the scroll bar on the touch pad. Also, there currently is no best laptop cooler for the m15x. I would highly recommend the Zalman NC2000, NZXT Cryo or the Belkin Cooler. OR LEGOS!

 

I was so tempted to make a lego cooler but I didn't want to bother going out to buy the switch between the fan and the batteries.

 

I just got to test this laptops power with the Grid demo and it really looked beautiful, the only problem i had was that it actually had a few slowdowns when a bunch of cars were near each other or when making sharp turns... I really thought this laptop would be able to handle anything... Do you guys this its because of the 2.4ghz processor? Please let me know if you tried the Grid Demo and you got slowdowns sometimes, maybe its the demo and not my laptop

 

what drivers do you have?

 

Update your drivers. Your current driver gives you like half the performance.