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

i travel alot and most hotel room have crappy tv's, so this was a must for me. at home i have my desktop with 30" screen and blueray too. for me i alway love screens with higher dpi. i love having screen real estate plus i do alot of photo editing and vector designing and this is perfect although rgb would have been nice.

 

Older game, but any one try Far Cry (circa 2004) out on their M15x? I hadn't seen it in all it's glory only my previous gaming machine, and was particularly keen on the extra detail with 64 bit.

Unfortunately, despite applying the two relevant patches I'm stuck with two problems:
1) It refuses to resize to 1600x900 with anything but low/medium game settings. I can increase to very high settings, but on restarting the game, as required, I'm back to 1024x800.
2) Unless I'm playing on low settings, I can't even see anything in-game. The first level loads up, and it's all white, with a few grey polygons.

Appreciate any suggestions.

 

Just a thought.......update video card driver? or perhaps a remote possibility is OLDER games dont' support the newer 16:9 ratio? 2004 was still 16:10 world.

 

hey everyone
question, other than the throttling issue, is there anything else wrong with the m15x?

 

Yea... You don't have one yet! so sell that asus and go get one! They're awesome and i can't wait for mine

 

Not That there's anything wrong with asus, they're actually amazing pieces of hardware for a legit price... Alienware is overpriced... but you got to admit... You won't get ppl coming up to you saying " Omg is that an alienware?!? i hear they're amazing!" with the asus... AWs got more of a WOW factor if u will... and its pretty rewarding after you invest all that money into one... and then theres those lights...just gorgeaous (sorry for the rant i just came back from the bar hehe... and damn do i ever love Mr. JohnnyWalker.. mm, mm, mmm)

 

People compliment me on my M15x all the time..

 

lol, leaving out the design (though it is a plus), and the fact that asus screwed g51j owners over!

I was just wondering if there were any other hardware issues?

 

There's no hardware issues at all with the M15x. The throttling is entirely software (bios) based.

 

Thankx Joker!
I'm seriously thinking of ditching the g51j for the m15x, throttling I can handle I can't handle constant and randum BSODs!

I think it's time I went alien!

 

You won't be disappointed, the M15x is the best notebook I've ever owned.

 

Thankx Joker, your the man

 

totally agree with joker

go get alien and thanks to joker and unclewebb, the throttle issue is a piece of cake and negligible

it´s my first alien too and freakin happy and satisfied, never had a machine like this and i´m 40, so i owned some in the past

 

just to my new M15x so im back in the world again LOL
i missed my system and now that i have it back im so happy
and this GTX260m it rocks
im just wondering i dont know why but the system feels like it runs a bit slower but its all the same config exsept the gpu is the 1 gig and not the 512

 

i've just installed dragon age origins and it looks really good but i've never played games before i ran it at 1920x1080 max settings and 4xaa and fraps was between 29 to 44 but most times at about 36 is this good or bad i will probably spend next week learning how to play it hope i don't get addicted

 

Interested in yor Far Cry 2 experience Jonaz as I have similar setup. However, mine slows to almost a halt (1600x900) i.e. <10fps and this is just the first level! Indeed, opening up the 'diary' section while in game, the mouse moves appallingly slowly (need 3 swipes to get it across screen!). Can you describe what settings you're playing with / 260m driver you're using?

Have updated FC2 to 1.03, using 186.something driver myself.

 

Thanks Howard. I've got the latest suggested Alienware driver 186.something. Will give different display ratio a go.

Which 260m driver(s) are people using, if not the one that came with the M15x?

 

i am curious if somebody else run this benchmark before and how much they score with their m15x

 

has anyone seen the M15x refresh today? Glad i ordered before this...

i7-720QM Quad Core Processor 1.6GHz (2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache) [add $100 or $3/month1]

i7-820QM Quad Core Processor 1.73GHz (3.06GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache) [add $500 or $14/month1]

i7 920XM 2.0GHz (3.2GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache) [add $1,050 or $29/month1]


Now that just doesn't seem right ... any idea why they would do this? Glad my i7 820qm came with the 8mb cache

 

It is a typo, it should be 720 - 6mb and 820 - 8mb

 

Also, I've been searching the net for cheap gtx 280, and i found a wholesaler selling 5 of 'em for $320 a piece... actually it was the gtx 285 1gb.. does this fit in a m15x? If so, i am willing to buy 5 and distribute them to whomever contacts me first =D. This seems like an excellent deal to me...

 

not sure but if its like the 280 you will only see min difference. just a few more fps. not worth the price wait for the ati's those will kick butt in performance but price will prob be real high

 

Ordered my Alienware M15x a few days ago. I've been keeping up with this topic and it was very helpful in convincing me to purchase the M15x. Can't wait!

Jstarnino, if you do end up taking that deal then i'd be happy to take a 280 of your hands, though from what i've read the 260m is pretty awesome.

 

The GTX285 is a desktop card.

 

There is a 285m gtx for laptops

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-285M.23822.0.html

kinda interested in the card now
hope this info is helpful

 

GTX 280m is not worth the extra money over 260. 128 stream processor vs 112? just lower that 4X AA to 2X or something

 

my new M15x with core i7 820qm got around 11700 3dmarks (2006), seems to be all working well

My 128gb dell mobility SSD seems to be underperforming though, I benched that to be around 220mb/s read and 140mb/s write (sequential). Based on samsungs website, the PB22-JS3 should be capable of sustained 220mb/s read and 200mb/s write.....

Im pretty satisfied with my M15x, although there are a few quirks I am not happy about considering the price I paid for this laptop.

1. Touchpad... I have no idea whatever happened to this. But i do suspect it to be a driver issue because uninstalling the Synaptics driver improved the performance a little. Still significantly sub-par compared to every other laptop I have used in my entire life. Alienware are supposed to test these laptops before mass-producing them...

2. Dead pixel? I think it is, or its a little pixel scratch on the plastic that covers the LCD. Not too annoying.. but could have given a laptop that was thoroughly tested without a dead pixel/dust behind the screen.

3. BIOS A01 reports single channel memory configuration in the BIOS, even though theres 2x 2gb sticks populating the 2 SODIMM slots. A bug in the BIOS? possibly, if someone with a BIOS that reports "dual channel" could confirm memtest86+ bandwidth performance with me that would be great. Apps like CPUZ say I have a dual channel configuration, but Im not confident in those reportings, so a memory bandwidth comparison with someone would confirm whether my memory is really running at dual channel.

 

Yes, thats been one issue on the forums for a long time. Just use a mouse

Is it a dead pixel or a stuck pixel? If it is a stuck pixel, (e.g. visible on a black background) then you are eligible for an LCD replacement.

 

well if i turn my laptop off, i can see the "grey" pixel on the screen. Is this considered a dead pixel?

 

Dangit! Mine was ordered on the 14th. Order confirmation says I won't get it until the 2nd of Feb. Did yours arrive much earlier than the expected shipping date?

 

yeah their estimated delivery date is away been around 15 - 20 days, but most people will get theirs early around 7 - 10 days. so be happy its gonna come early unless something is out of stock.

 

Ahh, awesome, good to know!

 

After i got mine, a friend of mine also bought an M15x and bought one for his daughter. I installed these 2 and could not resist taking a picture.


With 24 cores that is some serious processing power

 

freakin amazing, mate, love that pic´s, guess i will use it as a background

 

Hey there.

I have been having an issue with my M15x lately. For some reason it keeps rebooting when I shut it down, but only while on the AC-adaptor.

It randomly did it in the past too, but not so much that it was annoying. once every month or so. But since a week or so ago it has become impossible to shut it down while plugged in. I've tried shutting it down 5 times in a row and it kept rebooting. Google wasn't that much help, seeing as most results talk about reboots when hitting the desktop, but I'll keep searching.

In the meantime I thought posting it here couldn't hurt. Lots of semi-professionals around here it seems ^^

I do have the latest bios installed, so I don't think that's the issue neither.

Hope someone can help. Thanks in advance

 

O_O
O_O
Woaaa

 

Well I'm far from being a professional, but I'd do the usual check-up, look for virus (Hijackthis/malwarebytes), run CCleaner, update all your drivers.. The if it doesnt help, I'd suggest you to call for support @ Alienware!

 

Wish I could help cos mine does it too, same as you it started gradual and now does it every time.

 

So turns out the GTX 285 i was looking at is indeed for a desktop ... But i found the 280 now! But i still think i'll wait for the next refresh and maybe slap in an ATI 5xxx series in there... with DDR5 . Think it would be compatible? Damn i'm already thinking about upgrades i didnt even get my M15x yet! lol

 

Hmmm...Try going into the BIOS, and look for something like "Wake on
LAN", normally im Power Management options and disable it. This SHOULD solve the issue, if not the only other thing i can think of that is causing this problem is that sometimes, Windows stops responding during a typical operation or during the shutdown process. By default, the computer is configured to automatically restart when Windows stops responding. You can modify what it ddoes when this happens by :

1-Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2-Under Pick a category, click Performance and Maintenance.
3-Under the or pick a Control Panel icon section, click System.
4-Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
5-Click to select any one of the following check boxes under System Failure:
-Write an event to the system log
-Send an administrative alert
-Automatically restart

Uncheck Automatically restart and click write an event to the system log.
This will help diagnose why exactly its restarting. Once you do this and you get a log, we'll take it from there. hope this helps!

 

I just checked and when I inserted my 4Gb Ram (2x2Gb) I also had only single channel in the bios. That 4Gb was faulty as reported by memtest. Now I inserted my newly bought 8 Gb Ram ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231299) and it does indeed show Dual Channel. It might be a fluke, but it might show up as single channel because:

* the ram is faulty
* the ram does not have identical PCB's.

Maybe double if the ram is not faulty and then if its identical. Hope this helps

 

I have followed your instructions, and unfortunately nothing has changed yet.

I could also not locate a setting in the bios which was named 'Wake on LAN', or something similar which fitted the description.

Perhaps it is worth mentioning that the system does not reboot itself when shut down in the safe mode.

It is quite peculiar that this issue only seems to be happening while hooked on the AC adapter.
I'm unsure where to look for in the event system logbook, I'll write down the first few entries in the system tab when rebooted in a minute.

As I am writing this reply I'm reinstalling/updating all my drivers. Hope this helps, but I doubt it.

Very strange. Wonder if there are more M15x owners who are experiencing the same.

 

Maybe we've overlooked this problem? and the solution is something alot simpler? lol... i know that my HP laptop has settings in the power management menu (not in bios, but rather when i right click on the battery indicator in the taskbar) that allows you to modify what happens when you:

-press the power button with the laptop plugged or on battery mode ( when in battery mode, i set it to shut off, and when plugged, i have it set to hibernate)

There's also other settings that control what happens when i close the lid, both on battery mode and while plugged in.

Maybe theres a setting similar on the M15x ( its hard to help you here, because i haven't received mine yet! and i am only using my experience from past laptops i've owned) that when plugged in, does not shut down completely, and when a button or something is pressed, it simply resumes and starts up windows again.

You might or might not have tried this, and although this sounds like a dumb solution, sometimes its the simplest things that cause us to go insane! So give it a try.

Also, can someone with a M15x go in the bios and locate what im talking about in the power management menu, and help this guy out! I would but i don't got my M15x yet and i am not familiar with the bios it uses. I would really be surprised if it doesn't have the option i am talking about...

 

Just a quick question, sorry if its dumb, but is the M15x compatible with Nvidia 3D Vision?

 

Any monitor/screen needs to be at least 120hz to be compatible. M15x's screen is less than that.

 

Alright good to know.

Btw, assuming the new ATI mobility HD5870 cards are as good as they're being touted to be, will I be able to replace the gtx 260m with one sometime in the future?

 

Out of box, my M15x (received early Dec) would always automatically restart when I shut it down. It was a nuisance but never really bothered me to the point of trying to fix it, partially cause of my laziness. It happened whether I was on power or on AC power.

Then I don't know what happened, ever since I installed the latest Nvidia video card driver 196 .. blah blah.. the restarting problem went away. I have no rational or justification for it just that the restarting problem that I experienced for a month just poof.. gone, no more auto-restart after updating video driver.

 

@Howard911
Lowered the display ratio to 1280x800 for Fary Cry (1) but still no cigar. Can only play at 1024x768 at most and even then only on medium settings. Think I'll get it on external monitor.

By the way, you mention 196.xx drivers. Anyone else using these?

 

Hey, the M15x does have those power options but sadly they don't help. As for the Bios I know it does have an option to wake on USB, when I get home I'll check for a wake on LAN option.

 

I checked and USB Wake is the only Bios option. Sadly telling windows not to restart on crashing didn't fix it either.