*OFFICIAL* "All Powerful" M15x Owner's Lounge, *Part 2*

Good job Froogle! It was very informative and useful for all of us gamers just to make sure that the i7 cores perform well without any overheating issues.
So for now, it is safe to say that when we play heavy games, temp should be around 60 or better below.
Thanks so much!

 

Can anyone suggest decent blu-ray software? I'm playing with PowerDVD 8 and it's real unstable, locks up more often than not.

Now for the kick in the teeth. I'm borrowing a Blu-Ray disk my friend bought a week ago and when playing it through the TV I get no picture. Regular DVD's work well on the TV screen using PowerDVD so I know the software is capable of doing it. With Blu-Ray disks the PowerDVD screen is just gray on the TV while being fine on the laptop. I reckon it's caused by blasted DRM because the Nvidia control panel says my display does not support HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection). When I got my TV 6 months ago, a Samsung LA37A450C1, I had not heard of HDCP and don't know if it should support it or not. I'm really hoping it's my cheap DP to HDMI cable but if it's my TV I'll be most disappointed. Ain't no way I'm buying a new telly so if I can't fix this with a new adapter or player software I may have to rip the disk to remove the DRM.
Wouldn't that be ironic, having to resort to piracy because DRM won't let you do it legally :confused2:

 

Glad to help. Hopefully your red baby is ok and you're not looking at the pain of replacing it.

 

hi smeggit just a thought does your tv support 1080p if not maybe you could try turning your resolution down on your laptop
all tvs that have an hdmi connection should support hdcp

 

Hey, Thanks for the suggestion. I gave it a shot at it's native resolution but still got the same problem. And PowerDVD crashed again, loving that program

 

the cable and the gtx 260m both support hdcp and your tv should also support it as it has hdmi connection

 

So I've been playing around with my new m15x for a couple days, and I am really impressed. Here are a few key experiences most people want to know. I won't bore you with drivers or specs, as 1. I'm not uber technical (experienced enough to build a computer) and 2. Most of the info on raw numbers can be found on this site.

1. The look and feel.

This laptop looks beastly. I've looked at all the pictures, but until you have in front of you, it's hard to really grasp how awe-inspiring it is. The keys are super-crisp and feel like they will last forever. The case, while not made of the same material as the M17x, still feels rock solid. What really strikes me the most is actually the matte finish on the hand rest. Other laptops finishes feel as though it will eventually wear off after a few days of use. The m15x feels nice on your palms as you type, and wipes clean any oils or smudges with a dry rag. While I recommend using a usb keyboard and mouse with any laptop, at least you won't feel as though you'll be ruining any resale value by messing up the handrest and keys.

The touchpad needs settings adjustments when you get it, for the slightest tap seems to always signal a "click" as far as the system is concerned. Easy enough to fix. Also, the scroll bar is a bit weird from what most are used to. It doesn't have a scroll area, but this is relegated to the lower right corner of the touchpad, but has no arrows or direction on where this magic zone is. You can set it in the Command Center, but until you get used to it, be ready to practice some trial and error on this function.

The screen is beautiful. Those who complain about wasted real estate on the top and bottom need to remember you have your camera and two directional mics above the screen, and you need to house your lighting scheme on the Alienware text at the bottom. Yes, it doesn't go edge to edge, but when you have one in front of you, you don't even notice it as it blends seamlessly with the look of the machine. If you want edge to edge, and no wasted space, go buy a gateway or some other prebuilt model that won't do a fraction of what this laptop can do. Or go the other direction and buy a Falcon NW, and spend 3k more on basically the same build.

2. The Alienware Experience.

Unboxing this bad boy was almost as much fun as firing it up for the first time. The premium box, custom foam, awe-inspiring manual, and of course the hat all lend to a wonderful memory as though you've just unwrapped the greatest machine ever made.

When you turn it on for the first time, setting up the face recognition and changing your light scheme a million times are all fast and lag free.

3. Extra features you may be wondering about.

The displayport DOES transmit video and sound. And quite flawlessly I might add. If you can get your hands on a DP->HDMI adapter, or a DP->HDMI cable, both available at Monoprice, then you can transmit your desktop to an hdtv. You may need to fudge with the resolution on the display, as at first your laptop will try to get your tv to run at (in my case) 1900x1080. If you are like me, your hdtv won't run that, so the desktop won't fit. A few tweaks in the Nvidia control panel will fix this right up. After that, it works awesome.

The battery life is abysmal. Yes, I have the 6 cell battery, mostly because I know it will be plugged into the wall for most of its life, but the battery went from 100% to hibernate with just setting up Windows and a few other programs, no gaming, in about 2hours 15 minutes.

4. Noises and heat

When you put in a disc, be ready for some noise and vibration. I have the Blu Ray reader, and it feels like a boat motor just turned on under my hand. If this laptop didn't weigh 9 lbs already, I would be afraid it might shake off my desk. It is loud too, so don't try to watch a movie or anything next to a sleeping loved one or anything, you'll wake them.

Running games triggers the gpu fans, obviously. Thankfully they are far quieter than the disc drive. I could tell they were on, but they provided almost no vibration, and the noise was easily drowned out by the sound from the game itself.

Therefore, I would suggest having an image mounting program installed so you can run your games from that, and therefore not hear the disc drive whenever possible.

5. Speed, performance and final thoughts

This laptop is fast. If you don't feel like running benchmarks (which I don't), just know that it boots up in about 30 seconds, every program starts right up, and you can install most applications quite quickly. (For instance, Farcry 2 installed for me in a little under 10 minutes). It also shuts down surprisingly fast, in about 10-15 seconds.

Graphics-wise, it is powerful. Farcry at full resolution with no hiccups, WoW is not an issue, and both Crysis's can run quite well, albeit at a lower resolution than 1900x1080.

The hard drive does it's job, is quiet and cool.

Overall, I am quite pleased with this laptop so far, and highly recommend it. It looks wicked in the dark, is quiet for the most part, and will handle long,daily usage without seeing wear and tear on exterior parts.

 

hey smeggit been looking around and it looks like there is a problem with samsung and hdcp samsung say their tvs are hdcp but a couple of guys have had to have the tv motherboard replaced and then they worked
i have a sony bravia and it says it is hdcp compliant i will let you know if mine works when it comes should be wednesday

 

just finished playing some Batman, and boy the graphics on this are amazing!!

 

Well I connected the TV via VGA rather than HDMI and this time I got the picture on the TV but the laptop was grayed. Also it forced both screens to a 1360x768 resolution but since my TV is not 1080p it looked as good as hoped. Not ideal but for now I'll gladly take the band-aid

Edit: Hey Mick, thanks for the info. No wonder the TV was on sale when I got it

 

Just installed Windows 7, and surprised i did not have to update the drivers for everything to work..

Made sure to update to the windows 7 drivers anyway...

 

Phys-X support on the graphics card helps too doesn't it

 

you have to admire dell customer service...lol
i sent an e-mail 2nd nov to ask why it was taking so long in (in production)
and i got my reply yesterday stating that it was now in delivery
which i knew cause i kept checking order status....so 6 days just to reply to an e-mail......wow.

 

hey guys

check this out:
ordered: 11/3/09 morning
shipped: 11/7/09
EDD: previous: 11/24 NOW: 11/12/09

not that i regret, but thats quite quick

 

where to get corei7 820QM/920XM? any link for me? from ebay i saw is from china, not confident at all......

 

Haha! Alright! Lets hope you get a flawless one. Let me know when you get it.

 

Does anyone of you experience pop and lag sound from the IDT High Definitions CODEC driver in Windows 7? Because mine has. :/

 

I think there's a big forum here in dell's own website
http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19142484/19265470.aspx#19265470
I am experiencing the same issue here. :/

 

you looking for one??

 

Has anyone had any problems with there aliensense? It worked fine at first but now it says I need to check the camera....

Also my alienfusion does not even show up anymore... everytime I click on it it does nothing?

Can anyone help???

 

by the way... is the Alien Respawn disc supposed to ship with the machine or what???

 

Only if you paid for it (The charge you for it now)

 

Fusion doesn't work for me either. I suspect it's because Windows is set to manage the power management side of things. I haven't spent a lot of time looking into that.

 

actually, i dont think we were given the option to purchase the alienrespawn. i believe the system just ships with the regular dell restore disks.

 

I only recieved the M15X resource DVD and the WIN 7 Disc.... what about you?

 

THe Alienware Respawn Disc has to be purchase. It's through the customization. You was probably too excited about your purchase that you jumped right to " add to cart ".

 

Me too =S weird...

 

Does anyone know how to go about rebooting to factory settings.... I want to go back to when I first got the computer but I don't know how.

 

about the respawn disc... I called and asked the lady and she said it would come with my order but I didn't unless its the win 7 disc I received.

 

i definitely checked over it a couple of times, and did not find the option.

 

i didnt see the option for the respawn disc on the Dell or the AAFES website.

 

You are right. On the m17x , we have to purchase it.

 

why is that...?

 

cos they realize that potential M17 owners have more money than sense, otherwise they would have ordered an M15.

J/k

 

im glad i had some sense...i actually ordered a m17x first, then i cancelled. im glad i did.

 

Unless you have gotten rid of the recovery partition you should be able to use that. I've not done it before but I imagine it would set it up as it was originally. The manual says during boot up when it gives the options F2 for bios or F12 for boot manager you can press F10 and get AlienRespawn Environment.

 

Hi all - checking out an M15x from a local Microcenter. How do you guys handle the touchpad - seems pretty lousy. I installed the BIOS update, but it seems the only way to get decent performance is without any Synaptics driver installed at all. I tried several different versions; they were all the same. The cursor just doesn't move smoothly and clicks seems to take 2-3 times longer to register via taps than the physical button (with the Synaptics driver installed).

N

 

use a mouse

 

Well, for games, obviously, but I wanted to see if anyone had any solutions to make the touchpad more useful. I like the computer but I think its crazy that Dell/AW can't get the touchpad right on a high-end machine.

N

 

Where do you get the bio update???

 

do what everyone else did and just use the default windows driver.

 

Yeah, I have; I was just curious if that *was* what everyone else did

BIOS update is on support.dell.com. It does solve some of the lagging issues.

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&fileid=356617

N

 

how do you post pics... mine come up small

 

i still cant figure out... help anyone

 

Upload your picture on http://tinypic.com
Copy the url under " direct link for layouts "
When you click on ' post reply ' on this thread, there should be a yellow icon on the screen ( a pic of mountain and sun? ). Click on that, and paste the url that you copied earlier.
Click submit reply.

 

@ Roxy.....how's your laptop doing ? are you having fun yet or what ...?

 

Hoping I get mine tomorrow :-S
Canadian dell site just says shipped and purolator says in transit.. no clue if that means tomorrow or in a week lol

 

4 business days from "in transit" to delivery by Purolator: next step is when it clears customs and its into Purolator's system

 

The laptop's great haven't stumbled into any problem so far. I really want to get dragons age but I'm broke atm... :'(

 

AMAZING GAME!!!!