More M17 problems

Now, on top of my keyboard not lighting up, my DVD drive don't seem to want to work for crap either. I put in a disk to install and it starts seeking the disk and then it will freeze up never acually bringing the program up. If I put in the disk for Crysis, after it seeks it for about 3 minutes it comes up and says put in the actual disk, not a back up (this is the actual disk). Other programs won't open at all. It just freezes and keeps spinning the disk.

Anyone else had this issue? Is it a driver problem for the drive? This is getting to be a pain. I'd expect more from a 2,000 laptop.

 

I'm sorry to hear you're having issues, Silarous, please don't go JellyBeans on us.

Try a laser lens cleaning disk maybe. Maybe a driver or firmware update. I'll be researching other options.

Again, I'm sorry you're having trouble. AW isn't getting off to a very good start.

 

i can see that one turning into a running gag. +rep

 

I am relatively new here but from reading through the treads and post’s I would have to agree with this statement.

Silarous,
What disk did you attempt to install when the drive began to act up?

 

does this happen with all discs? movies, games, data, music?

 

Also have you recently installed or attempted to uninstall any recording software, DVD, music, or otherwise just before the problem started?

 

Once, I was so stupid that I didn't put the DVD all the way "in" the driver, then it keeps seeking and can't find the dvd. So I eject the dvd, and push it more downward to get it locked in.
I felt I was stupid.

Could this happen to you ?

 

I was actually trying to install Archlord when the problem started. It's wierd, sometimes it has problems, others it don't. I played Crysis just fine today but yet it wouldn't play last night. No recording software or drivers have been installed since I got the machine. Thanks for all the responses

 

Triple check to make sure it's not user problem, or disc problem. Once you done that, give AW a call and explain how you can reproduce the issue.

 

Glad it’s working again for you, nothing more frustrating than problems on a new machine.
As fusionsenses recommends if the problems returns (hopefully not) contact Alienware about it and let us know what resolved it.
Enjoy

 

Hmm.. just an idea. This is at your discretion. You can remove 2 screws from the base of the rig towards the front edge of the ROM. Then slide the ROM out and boot up.. Delete the drivers from Device Manager for your DVD-rom and reboot.. Let vista load..then shutdown the system. Re-install the DVD-rom and reboot, let vista recognize it and install drivers. Just an idea, and should only take 5-10 minutes worth of effort.

 

Ok, question is, when you double-click Computer can you see the drive? Among all hard disk listed?

If not, I had same problem, and the solution was:

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B929461&x=13&y=16

 

Haha I think Jelly is the 2nd guy to go "crazy" on us and get banned. the first one to my knowledge was Sir Travis D (many of you might not remember / know him).

Anyways, that sucks that you are having these problems. If nothing else you might have to re-install vista but I would wait to do that until you go through all of your other options. I'll look into these problems and post back if I find anything substantial.

 

Hope you don't have to "Get Jelly Wit It" , good luck!

 

i never did find out why he got banned... was it because of AW?

 

Apart from the spamming in every thread that M17 was useless ?

 

Meh. He had a bad experience. He was praising the M17 in every way possible, and then decided he was returning it. He was mad that it didn't run Crysis at 60 fps. He had only tested it on a select few games, all of which did happen to run better on Nvidia GPUs (or so I hear). He had the QX9300 option, and with a little 'tweaking', that thing could have been a killer.

 

no, i mean Sir Travis D.

 

Oops, sorry whizzo.

 

You Might Need To Update The Firmware For Your DVD Drive
The last Computer I built I got an OEM dvd burner and it was like 40 bucks at the time it was a real good deal but it never worked right, So I updated the firmware and downloaded NERO to burn dvds and it pretty much solved my problems. before the firmware flash it wouldn't read dvd's or burn them in windows.

 

And... if you were nice you'd let us know the status of your issue so we don't keep wasting time attempting to blindly help when it may already be resolved

 

Maybe he is a come-and-goer.

 

Hope not, I wonder what was his problem.

 

Sorry about the delay. It is sometimes awhile before I can get a internet connection. Always on the road with my profession. Anyways, the DVD drive seems to have stopped acting up but the issue with the keyboard still exisits. I'm not sure how to remove it without messing it up so I will give Alienware a call tomorrow. Seems like it just has a loose connection.

 

It takes about 5 minutes.. and 12 screws, while not driving to remove the keyboard and check the zip connector. Here's the instruction manual for removing every component. You may wanna just stop @ the keyboard in your case
Direct Link to Disassembly Guide

 

Yeah, screw that. I started to follow that guide and there is a lot more then 12 screws that have to come out. Even after the screws are out, there is still something holding it in place that the directions don't mention. I don't want to end up breaking the plastic. Alienware can come out here and fix it.

 

good luck with that!

 

That must mean...
that you want to send your laptop to them to fix it?

 

You don't have to remove all the things it asks you to. Remove your HDDs, remove the base plate.. remove all screws toward the screen base, and on the rear of the rig. There's one screw under the baseplate, just to the right of the GPU heatsink(the y shaped sink), in the middle. It's on the MOBO with a copper circle around it, and it should be a black screw. That's the one that holds the keyboard on by a hair. After it comes out, the keyboard should easily finish removing. Of course, you gotta remove the strip up top(easy) to access the keyboard screws(2). Really, it took 10 minutes max when I added the Wifi card to mine. And, that's under the keyboard.

 

Ok, a few things ive noticed so far. Please tell me if theres a way to fix them

1. The scaling problem with games (hopefully E-wrecked drivers will fix that).
2. LCD brightness is waaay to high. I can barely look at the screen for more than 10 mins at night. The only way i found is to play with the gamma/brightness/contrast settings in CCC(ati) since reducing only the brightness makes things look weird. Is there any way to "calibrate" the screen brightness ? (without having to adjust all these 3 settings ?
3. Theres an odd "glitch" than when you minimize/maximize games, it takes them a few secs more to restore the window and it maximizes like its a kind of sideshow :S (bit hard to explain this one)
4. On the welcome screen (while its loading) i get some strange artifacts for 1-2 secs like when the card fries for example, is that normal ? (vista issue ?).
5. On my old laptop (same resolution) i could select another resolution option for the desktop too without being forced to use the 1920x1200, when i do the same with M17 the screen just scales down, so basically half of the screen (theres an area formed around the background that you cant "access") is not usable.

Apart from those plus around 10 programs i had that dont work on Vista everything else is running pretty smooth.

Please let me know if theres a way around these issues, thanks

 

I gave Alienware a call today and we got my issue resolved. It was infact a loose ribbon cable. Together over the phone we got to it and secured it in place. Works like a charm now. The Alienware rep gave me a guide that is much clearer then the other one provided. I unfortunately can't provide the link because I don't have 15 posts. Go figure.

 

1. Driver fixed it
2. Use the "Function" key and either F7 to dim and F8 to brighten.
3. That's crossfire syncing
4. You mean the weird black lines that streak across, or something different? Im thinking that's also crossfire syncing
5. Driver fixed this. That's why I made the driver. Fit to screen resolutions.

 

Ah thats good news Gotta test the drivers now. Not my day today, got a rootkit trojan...

After 6 hours im not sure if i go rid of it but im gonna find out soon, sigh.

As for the brightness yea i know u can reduce it with the fn + keys but it doesnt look good at all after you reduce it a bit

 

Ew..trojan. Guess you gotta just toy with those gammas and stuff.. I like the blinding bright light emitted by the screen

 

Nop, not just a trojan... rootkit... Cant find it even with system files and hidden files showing... Last time i had to deal with those was like 5 years ago on linux, didnt know they started doing this on windows too.

 

Sounds like a fresh install may be in store.. good luck with that. There's been a nasty one going around, my buddy has XP and it took all his administrative rights away from him. lol - he couldn't do much other than turn on the comp and watch adware flash popups

 

Basically what this one does is that it changes your dns settings (internet still works kinda), for eg, windows update doesnt work, half of the downloads dont work and not to mention since your info go through a dns server... phishing anyone ?

Change the dns settings back ? They last 2-3 secs, then back to the old ones.
Reset all the registry settings of tcp/ip ? Same
Delete the file ? A new one with a random name appears... Fun

 

Mhmm.. maybe I shouldnt be downloading that .inf - you may get me sick

 

Nah you cant get infected from that thats why i said "virus"

Since the rootkit is a file hidden in the ntfs data streams.. You cant really get it since its an actually file

 

try the dr web clean it. its free and does not need to be installed.

 

I got those streaks on the loading screen with my Sony AW that uses a single 9600 card. I think it's just Vista being slow on the boot.

 

Think AVG rootkit scanner fixed it at the end. Although i think there are some leftovers since that app still detected another file left and whenever i delete it a new one appears but atm it doesnt seem to do anything. Checked the system with 3-4 Antiviruses 4-5 spyware/adaware/malware programs, seems like its ok, just keeping a closer eye on the dns. IF they ever changed im just gonna format it, dont have the patience to start over again Still been running the system for about 6 hours after the cleanup (restarted it around 20 times at some point just to be sure lol) and everything seems to be in order So far so good

 

I got a rootkit trojan before summer of this year on my really old desktop.
(Very stupid, long story short: tried to download a 3d program lol)


After a couple days of frustration (computers slow, blue screen instead of background saying "your computer is infected with blah blah blah, click here for a virus blah blah blah remover", admin rights locked, a million pop ups) I was thinking about giving up...

Then I downloaded avast, took care of everything via reboot scan.. and google'd a way to unlock the admin rights.

Everything else before avast didn't do jack IMO. I highly recommend it.

 

Its a matter of luck as far as AV's go for me. Since Avast might miss something else one day

 

He praised AW and said that they were the best company ever to exist. Then he recived his M9750 even though pretty much all of us warned him that he would not like it and it would be too heavy.

He gets it and complains and eventually gets a M15x. Then he started to complain about the M15x as well. He turned from an AW fanboy to a Super-AW basher. He also lied on other forums about notebooks. Making claims such as "I have that notebook and it's not good" or stuff like that (I called him out on it). Thats the short short version.

This post will probably end up deleted. Chaz if you do delete it I'll just change it to a PM if that is alright with you.

 

Can you do us a favour and stick to one thread about this? I just browsed three threads and it's the same complaint in all of them.

- F