*OFFICIAL* "All Powerful" M15x Owners Lounge, *Part 3*

Hi,

Is there a way to flash the bios using USB instead of burning a cd? How?

Thanks!

 

This is a little abstract, but I found a thread on remapping the touch sensitive media bar (for the M17x, but I would imagine it's the same for the M15x). Think it would be possible to write a basic program to apply the throttling fix (like the one already created, but automated) and map it to toggle on/off with the stealth mode button? The button would finally be useful!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=426563

 

The sound stuttering happends randomly when I play my game, MW2 and WoW. I've tried to update my audio driver from Dells offical website and my video driver from nvidia offical website.

Any help would by greatly appreciated

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=246530
TRY THIS LINK

 

I just got a M15x with a pretty good deal, should I return it and wait for the M15x refresh?

 

i don't think the M15x will get any major changes for the refresh, so if you got it for a good price, keep it.

 

M15x refresh already happened..they added in i5 and raised the price by $100. The 5870 probably won't show up for a while.

 

Thats a downgrade that happened....for the same price...

 

Someone yesterday mentioned that they might see the RGBLED display. For many people, this would be pretty major.

 

Man I freaking love UPS. Went from a EDD of 12/01/10 to tomorrow! Whoop! Makes up for dells rubbishness.

Although as I am fairly noobish in the technical side of things, the amount of drivers, and the like, that I have seen mentioned here that people have installed upon delivery scares me slightyly :S lol

 

@Amy189

New drivers are always being put out constantly. So the fact that new ones are out, that your new laptop doesn't have, is not an issue =) (Unless the driver is out to fix a major issue. Which isn't the case currently)

There isn't really anything you NEED to update it's just usually a good idea to do so. Don't let it scare you in the least.

 

Thanks!!! I'll probably have a day or two of playing and testing it out a bit then come back and re-read the forums. Hopefully it will make a little more sense then lol

 

any news on what the new drivers fix?

 

That sounds like throttling, as per Joker's thread. He's come up with some work arounds, but personally it's not something I want to deal with. (Hopefully Dell will fix it with a BIOS update at some point.)

 

Hello, I am replacing a old inspiron. It has a 15.4 "WXSGA+" screen at 1680x1050. I like the real estate that the screen has but reading it can get difficult at times. I can tolerate the text size I have now but cannot go any smaller. Can anyone give me some idea how the resolutions on the 15m compare to my current screen? Will the 900p give up any real estate compared to mine? Will the text size on the 1080p be smaller?

 

I can't answer from the Alienware's hardware but yes, the 900P will give up screen real estate, that's just fact. Comparing a 1680x1050 to 1600x900. The important thing though is that the Alienware is a 16:9 vs your current 16:10 aspect ratio. I had a Dell SXPS 16" 1920x1080P screen and even though it has a higher screen resolution, I found the 16:9 ratio a bit annoying that the screen felt "short" from top to bottom. On my current 1680x1050, it looks much better when browsing the web and having a window maximized going from top to bottom. And yes the 1080P resolution will give smaller text although the DPI feature to 125% will solve this problem and looks good, but you'll be giving up some window size and screen estate for the DPI change. After going from a 16:9 back to a 16:10, I much prefer the 16:10 for computer screens.

 

It was my impression that throttling only occured when both the CPU and GPU reached full power.

If that's the case... WoW does not cause that. Even at full settings.. with 8x AA.

If it is not the case... the rest of us would experience it too, right?

 

Speaking of Bios update is A03 for the M15x or just the M17x?

Does the A03 BIOS update fix the throttling problem?

Is it worth upgrading my BIOS A03 regardless?

 

I take back the post... I did some more recent readings about the throttling and it appears a WoW player did experience throttling.

So far I've not had any problems with WoW and throttling that I've noticed but considering I've not run any test...

So it's quite possible, and likely, Wolf is right Nivaku.

 

Check out Joker's thread. He started out thinking the CPU had to be at full (not the GPU), but it turns people have found it happening in all kinds of games. What he's describing with the uneven performance sounds just like what others have seen, and it's fairly easy to run a program to log the speeds in the background and catch it.

No. Dell has not fixed the throttling, and has not posted in that thread since before Christmas, if I'm remembering right (a couple of weeks). Joker and (sorry, I forgot his name) another poster have come up with work arounds to apparently force it to the correct clocks. Personally I wouldn't want to have to resort to stuff like that, but if you've already got the system that sounds like what you have to do unless Dell ever fixes it.

 

Dude every game works in Windows 7, fix yer puter.

 

Well, without the fan-made patch, Duke 3D would require DOSBox :-D (True of Xp though too.)

 

Anyone else having trouble installing AO3??

i can't get it to install

 

I sure hope Dell fixes the throttling problem is that's the cause of it. It doesnt occur often but still slightly noticeable. Once that's fixed my computer is pretty much working fine.

Should I update to A03 BIOS regardless?

 

As of now, do not update to the A03 BIOS. See this thread if for more info:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=449444

 

could you help? i have run FEAR as well as bioshock, heroes of newerth, and portal. both demos. im running direct x 11 but all i get for these games is a black screen. i just got this computer two days ago. i havent done anything to it except install the games.

 

Not to mention that when i go to nZone (Nvidia demos site) and check the compatibility it says most game i wanna play are not compatible with windows 7. are there any patches that i need or what?

 

thanks for the heads up..

 

If anyone has been able to run the A03 update without issue, please PM me or post in the thread concerning A03 bricking the system. Thanks.

 

My system came stock with A03 with no issues other my track pad issue (see thread)

 

IMHO you should have recieved a bricked system that would have been lulz

 

Have you installed the newest video drivers from Nvidia.com for your OS? (Uninstalling the old ones first?) If it's fresh out of the box you'd think it would work, but could be ancient drivers Dell's including on there or something.

I wouldn't put much stock in what a compatibility thing says. It's probably just designed to trigger on Vista, and hasn't been updated to include 7. They're basically the same OS, and even then I can't remember games that run on XP but not Vista/7 (and it seems like most stuff from 9x runs too).

One excption may be games using nasty DRM that isn't compatible with 64-bit OSes, or that sort of thing, but most stuff should run.

The only thing I've updated on my system since doing a clean install in October is the video drivers (plus critical stuff from Windows update).

 

When you update a bios for example from A01 to A02 and if you reinstall your OS Win 7 64bit for example because it got a virus or something, the BIOS version A02 still remains the same correct?

You don't have to do another BIOS update just because you reinstalled your OS?

 

yes it will ^^^

 

Well, the Dutch website off Delienware, I mean Dell, still does list the A03 Bios and says Dell recommends installing in your next update cycle. It does not state what is fixed.
In their software disclaimer they state:
HAS NOT VALIDATED ANY DRIVERS NOT DIRECTLY AVAILABLE FROM DELL'S WEBSITE, AND CAN THEREFORE MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS AS TO THEIR EFFECTIVENESS, STABILITY, APPROPRIATENESS OR SAFETY.
This does imply that they do test.... ahem.

 

umm I saw this and figured you guys ought to know if not discussed yet..

Bios updates bricking M15x

so I would suggest not updating BIOS at this time.

 

Many of us from the other thread were the source of this story for engadget.
Unfortunately, we are all too aware of this...and are awaiting an intelligent response from Dell.
If we thought there was true financial impact, we should also loop in media like the WSJ

 

Hmmm. Mine came with A03 on 01/02/10. Perfect. No problems at all. No throttling, nothing. I love my M15x. Uh huh.

 

what are your specs joeaux?

 

he got the 240m not the 260m therefore no throttling

 

Mine came with A03 as well and i have had no problem with anything no throtteling either. i have i7-720 with a 260M.

 

so you ran all the test for throttling? it would be sweet if A03 did solve this.

 

Correct, i was gonna run somemore just in case tho.

 

Any particular reason the Dell website still won't let you order a 260M with the new processors?

 

Huh. That's interesting. Maybe they just figure if you get a high end GPU you're going to want a high end CPU too?

 

lol 10char

 

mine came with a03 but i'm using jokers fix anyway, though i didn't notice throttling and i don't know how to get rid of the fix, although throttlestop for the cpu actually helps. but my system has one problem. it won't run portal.

 

I had some issues getting Portal to originally work as well. Try running Steam with admin then installing... or even just playing with Steam having admin. After that try it with some compatibility changes.

After a few guess and checks it ran perfect... I just can't recall exactly what changes I made. =)

 

thanks, anyone else have a problem with there gpu going back to normal after riva tuner cuz mine won't. also i'm running old drivers on my gpu should i update?

 

After a restart mine goes back to normal... but typically I just turn off 'Enable driver-level hardware overclocking' after I'm done doing anything intensive.



As far as the new drivers for the GPU... they're nothing special. The choice is yours. If I remember reading correctly they increased 3dmark06 scores very slightly, but people lost a couple FPS in their gaming. I'm currently running them and I've not noticed any difference in my gaming.