M17X BIOS A01 Issue

I tried the whole white background and changing it to a darker background. Sure it looks darker but the background is darker. I don't see the screen dimming.

Regarding my older comment I was trying to cover up different parts of the screen to see if it would change because I thought there was some kind of hardware sensor but couldn't make the screen change at all.

OK, when I go home I'll stare at my taskbar.

*sigh* I knew this day was coming. I'll go peacefully.

 

No but seriously, I just went over the technical spec of the PC. There is no mention of an auto-dimming feature.

 

gee wonder why

 

I am with Mandrake on this... No Auto-Dimming feature. The rest of you are smoking...

 

I will see in 3 weeks.....

 

Well, Quad, I did what you told would show the auto dimming feature.
And then (whilst staring at the fr*#kn taskbar on an empty screen), my girlfriend came in and she looks at me, (staring intensely at an empty desktop)... Well, do I have to explain what she must have thought... *FREAKY!*

But at least I found no dimming at all, so call me ill sigted or what. I do not have it.

 

haha....awkward.....mine would never believe that story either lol

 

Lol maybe you guys got lucky and have busted sensors or like my theory all along they are infact using different screens .

Sleey0 is convinced that only Samsung is making all the screens and i am not .

Never happened in the past and i dont think its happening now.

Enough people on the boards have confirmed Auto contrasting that all of us cant be wrong that i know for certain.

I have this same feature on both my Sony HDTVs and it cant be turned off either.

Just off the top of my head Axman, Mr butterbiscuits, Malignant, Sleey0 , me have confirmed it

 

Only Samsung makes the screen for the M17X that is confirmed. There is no way they have multiple manufacturer for the screen that would mean more than one driver and different coding for the same PC. No way...

 

screens don't really need drivers...they usually use the Windows PnP drivers.....

 

More then one driver for what ? screens dont need specific drivers lol . And there is no coding going on either .

The entire XPS line and many other Laptop manufactures use up to 4 different panels , are you not familiar with laptops ?

 

Nonetheless, it would be an economical non-sense...

Anyways, so far no one has reported another screen than a Samsung.

 

The XPS only used Samsung for their 1900x1200 screens even though there were different panels throughout the life of the PC.

 

Well you guys lucked out then if Samsung is infact making all the panels for the machines and you dont have Auto contrasting like many of us do.

Samsung also could be making more then one panel and that would also explain why some have it and some dont.

 

Haha no they didnt man i owned 3 different 17 inch XPS machine and all had different Panels . Samsung LG and Sharp.

PM Zfactor he would be happy to rattle on for hours about it.

Oh and the XPS 17inch line only came with 1920x1200 screens never WXGA

 

Well, then I don't understand because I remember reading an article on the XPS a while back and they mentioned the amazing panel Samsung was making for the XPS M170 and they were saying they would only use this company going forward.

I guess they changed their mind...

 

I know the M1730 used Samsung and LG. I don't know if there were any others.

 

If you read through the whole XPS 1730 threads it might take you a day or 2 but there are people that have had Dell swap there screen out many times till they got a good screen like 5 or 6 times. Zfactor might have had them do it 10 times since hes a pretty crazy about having the best screen.

Listen im not looking for an argument here im just stating what i know. If you guys dont have the contrasting going on like some of us do i think thats awesome and consider yourselves lucky . Nuff said on this matter dont need a war of words going on here .

The machine even with the contrasting is still an amazing piece of equipment .

 

Yeah, the dynamic contrast "feature" is kind of annoying, but it doesn't change my love of this machine. I've gotten used to it. Its definitely there on my machine (which was built on July 8th).

 

I'll gladly take it to get the rest of the laptop....if that is all I have to complain about, I am not complaining at all

 

And another person .

Maybe we should start a Poll .

 

I see it as well quad.. on all three screens that I have had.

 

actually a poll is an excellent idea. although it would mean SO much more if we could easily access the model and batch number of the panels on each persons machine

 

Yea im really more interested in the make/model of the screen vs if people actually see the auto contrasting because i know its there already .

 

its a shame that dell can get their $hit together and just tell us....

 

Like you said what ever you end up with im sure your going to love it . The panel is beautiful(atleast mine is) so thats all that counts in the end. I dont think its a bios issue myself either and i think its built into hardware. For it to sense whats on the screen IE all black would have to be in the panel IMHO .

 

I agree, is a firmware for the panel that would fix it.

And I will love this regardless, can't afford not too haha, had $33 in bank after ordering

 

Lol ouch . Talk about living on the edge .

As for a firmware update to the panel i have no clue if something like that would even be possible . I mean my TVs all have them Via USB but theres alot more to a TV then a laptop screen . There is the panel and the Inverter and im not sure either would allow flashing of any sort .

 

well you update firmware to a hdd via the sata bus...why not to a panel via the display connector?

 

Mainly because what i said above about the lack of anything on the panel it self like onboard memory etc. Something would have to hold the bios and im not sure it was designed that way from the get go.

The inverter wont have that either so i dont know for certain.

 

*facepalm*

you just love to argue don't you

 

lol NO THEY DID NOT.. they used exactly 3 panels for wuxga would you like exact part numbers??? they had a sharp, samsung, and lg.. i know i received all three directly from dell

 

he was warned you would give him an earful z, lol

 

So I got my machine today, it is of course beautiful.

My M17x came with the A01 bios on it just for the record guys. Purchased 7/31/09 shipped 8/10/09

So far it is running fine....

 

Good to hear your liking your M17x, scook!

How about pics/review? I know I'm going to post some when I get mine

 

Regarding the A01 release, I just got a doozy today from Alienware Tech Support.

I upgraded to A01 and lost my RAID config (two drive came up in Windows). When I reenabled it (to RAID 1), I got the wonderful "Windows failed to start" message. I've only had the M17x for a few weeks, so an OS rebuild isn't a big deal, but I figured I'd call AW to see if there was another way to recover.

Their response: "Upgrading the BIOS voids my warranty." Huh? The rep said that it's in the warranty text, and I should have read it. When I asked what page, she said that she didn't have that information handy.

In any case, I'm rebuilding the OS... but I wanted to send a note out that AW apparently thinks that loading a BIOS voids your warranty. I call BS!

[Follow-up: Since the call, I went into the AW warranty docs, which all refer to Dell warranty docs... no mention of the BIOS or anything close.]

 

RonR,

Just out of curiosity, did you call Alienware technical support or the Dell support number on your invoice?

Every time I've called regarding my M17x I've always spoken to Dell folks... Hell, they even say "Thanks for calling Dell, how can I help you?"... and they don't give the traditional Alien-BS.

From what our Dell enterprise account rep has told us, 'Alienware' tech support will be going away very, very soon... too many complaints and too ridiculous policies... the XPS group is supposed to be calling the shots shortly.

- Denver

 

Is there even an advantage to the new BIOS..?

 

Support for the ATI cards which they don't offer yet.

 

DenverESullivan: I called Dell Tech Support, and they transferred me over to AW after I gave them my Service Tag.

In the end, I was able to get my OS back up by using a Retail copy of Vista to repair the OS (the AW OEM CD didn't have the repair tool). The only bad thing was that I had to take the drives out of the RAID 1 mirror-set to do it, as the RAID device wasn't recognized by the Vista DVD.

 

No, it's not true I don't love to argue... But saying that Dell used different 1920x1200 screens for the XPS M1730 goes against anything I read before. It may be true but at least bring some proof should I say because it's too easy to go on a forum and make up stuff and confuse people like me.