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

Lunar Shadow
i7 720qm
GTX 260m
1600x900
250gig Hard drive
intel wifi 5300
9 cell battery

Can't wait till i get it.

 

Welcome to the community

You will love your new laptop. Best money you ever spent.

The Alienware M15x is the laptop I've been looking for all my life. Two Virtual Machines up and running and I STILL have Loads of system resources unused

Best Laptop Ever

 

I'm looking at this CC update 12 February 2010 with trepidation. There's nothing majorly broken with my CC - is it worth the hassle / should I wait until the next update comes along?

 

What happened with the A03 bios? I know it was released, broken and pulled, but I still can't see anything newer than A02 on the support sites I've checked...

 

well i had no issues with updating mine just ran the setup so i would recommend do it

 

I ordered mine on 1/29 and received it a few days ago. It came with A03 so I'm assuming it is a good one. Haven't had a single problem.

I just love the feel of this keyboard. Best one I have owned for touch typing.

 

Thanks for the welcome ;D

 

I have the A03 bios too,
Though I'm getting a little worried about my benchmark results D=

 

Is it just me or since I updated the command center i cant disable Alien FX anymore?

 

Fn+F11 still works for me

 

Well Its not working for me!
I'll reboot when I find the time to!
Thanks.

 

The new CC is definitely buggy.. I'd advise to avoid it if you don't have any issues with the older version. The only changes I've seen so far in the new version is:

1. Using the color wheel to select the FX colors
2. No UAC prompt when starting command center
3. Backlight improvement (white screen) in Aliensense.

Just wait till they release a newer version.

On a side note, I was finally able to restore my Command Center and AlienFX to factory settings. Here is what I did:

1. Used CC Cleaner to clean up my registry, temp files, etc.
2. Reboot PC
3. Uninstall Command Center
4. Use CC cleaner again to clean up registry, temp files
5. Shutdown the PC, remove the power adapter, remove the battery, hold the power button for 1 minute (to be on the safer side)
6. Start PC
7. Run Regdit and remove all entries for alienware, run CC cleaner again and then reboot
8. Install older version of Command Center (from the Alienware utilities DVD). Don't reboot PC after install - wait for at least 5 min
9. Shutdown, remove power adapter, remove battery, hold power button for 1 minute and then reboot

Wola! My alienFX is working like it is supposed to be. I don't have a preference reg the new vs old Command Center. Let me know if this works for you other guys having issues with the new Command Center.

 

yea i know just a lil wishful thinking..

And so i installed the new CC, and been having some of the problems mentioned already. I'm gonna have to go solve them now (but who feels like it?). What i want to know is, WHY THE BEEEEEP does Dell release faulty drivers? It should install quickly and smoothly without any damn problems, or why release it at all? I thought NEW drivers were supposed to fix past issues not create new ones...Ugh its annoying..anyways... I'll be back in a bit with hopefully, a positive update.

 

Yeah, I agree. They should release a beta version for those willing to test the drivers. Although it installed fine on my computer, I noticed the eyes on the alienhead on the lid flicker.

 

OK, so all is well now . If your happy with your current CC then i don't think there is really a need to update it. However, the overall look of the newer one is nicer in my opinion. Also, Fusion is finally supported with Win7 which is nice (although clicking on your battery and managing the power settings does the exact same thing). The Facebright feature is also nice to login in darkness, say in the wee hours of the morning .

That being said, These are the steps i recomend everyone to go through when installing the new Command Center , as it worked for me So here it goes:

1. Download the new Command Center http://support.dell.com/support/down...g=en&TabIndex=
2. Uninstall your current version of CC in Control Panel.
3. Restart
4. Install the new Command Center.
5. Shutdown the system, and do a BIOS reset. (remove battery and hold power button down for 20 secs)
6. Turn on the system, check if everythings working. Some things probably won't.
For Example:
- Face login at startup says AlienSense is starting up but never does. Just login with your password for now.
- No AlienSense face login at all, just regular Windows 7 login screen. Again, just login with your password for now.
- Message about Quick Access Toolbar requiring a reboot to be fixed once windows has started up. Ignore this, it doesn't fix anything.
- Alien Fx lights do not turn off when Fn+f11 is pressed
- And so on...
If your not experiencing these problems, then your lucky and your done Installation . If not, don't worry this is "normal" and just ignore all these things for now and proceed to next step.
7. Go to your Dell Drivers folder, and start up the setup for the new CC again. This time, do a Repair. When it's done reboot.

And thats it! Everything SHOULD work the way its supposed to. You'll know this right away by the face-login screen ( No longer says it is starting up for an indefinite amount of time, and your Biometric data will be reset) and the Message about your Quick Access Toolbar malfunction disappearing, along with all the other problems being fixed!

Hope this helps! It did for me

EDIT: Props for InappropriateName_3 for providing most of these fixes individually already I don't want to take all the credit here, i just summed it all up.

 

The A03 BIOS for the M15x is still not out yet I take it?

 

sweet write up man, this should help alot of people.

there is a unofficial A03 floating arounf that works. If you want it ket me know.

 

everyone with cc issues what bios do you guys have, mine is A03.

 

I have A03, only issue is that disable button not working...

 

Hey it's just a sum of all the problems/fixes you mostly provided already hold up im going to edit something in that post...

 

Did you follow the steps i wrote up? Should fix it

 

try a bios reset again.

 

Same here. The December 16th, 2009 version to be exact . Lol

 

I have the A02 version.

 

^^^^ man was hoping it was isolated in A03 only, but guess not.

and thanks J for the credit, thought you were gonna hog it all for yourself, hahaha lol

 

Nah I've been working on that paper for school the whole day, I didnt take the time to do that But I certainly will as soon as I finish that freakin work >.>

 

Camman! I wouldn't do that to a brotha loll

Alrighty then.. Talking about school... I got midterms alll week that i gotta study for! What the hell am i still doing on NBR!!?? I think i better hit the books now

 

any update?

sorry to hear that man, can more people confirm this happening. i don't have this issue but i think its because i have an ssd.

 

good luck with school guys, glad that part of my life is over. well not really, good times.

 

hmm that's weird... Just tried this out since i don't got an SSD...

I have itunes open, playing music, downloading large files, on the net browsing, and i just popped in a SD card, xfered about a gig of pics just to see if this would happen, and it didn't? All smooth sailing for me...no crackling? i don't even know what the problem might be...
maybe a driver issue with the SD card reader? who knows...but tech support would have been able to fix it if it was just a driver problem im assuming...? Bope, sorry man..

 

regarding my issue....I will call tech support tomorrow, since today is all about my sweetie. I am feeling horrible because I really love this laptop, but am confused as to why I would have this issue twice. Its a total turn off.

One thing that I am confused about is this exchange. They just sent me a new laptop without giving me any return instructions or e mails...nothing. My credit card didn't even get temporarily charged like it says it should on their website. Im just sitting here with 2 alienwares....maybe I should try and keep em

Too bad I am an honest kid and will give em a buzz in the morning.

 

My university is offering LoJack for laptop 4 yr subscription for $90 bucks. Anyone has any experience with LoJack? I believe that the BIOS supports Lojack.

 

Doesnt it say something about lojack coming free on all systems on the EPP page? I'll try to find it and link it

Theft Protection
All EPP laptop systems come standard with 1 year LoJack for Laptops.


http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/temp_program?c=us&cs=_eep&l=en&s=eep


Dell EPP includes students too right? If so you should get that free when you buy a system?

 

I was thinking of going for another laptop similar to my sig, i couldn't use the coupons last time so i just canceled my order. But now I'll try again using that $50 coupon.

I'm stuck between these 2 cpu's for the same price:
Intel® Core™ i7-620M 2.66GHz (3.33Ghz Turbo Mode, 4M cache)

Intel® Core™ i7-720QM Quad Core Processor 1.6GHz (2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)

Can anyone with these two cpu's show me any pros/cons between them? I play games like Wow, SC2 when it comes, sims3, and some programming stuff in college. Just not sure which to go with.

Also would the difference between 3gb 1333mhz and 4gb 1333mhz be a drastic difference? it's $45 more to get 4gb.

 

for gaming the 620 is better for games like wow. but multi tasking and if you run vm's then the 720 is a better choice.

now for ram, it all depends on what you want to use it for. almost everyone gets 4gb, but 3 is fine for just gaming. if you do stuff like photoshop and video coding then the more ram the better. 3 gb should be fine, and if you want to upgrade later on, a 2gb stick of ram is pretty cheap.

 

what do you guys think of my wei score:

 

ah nevermind, just realized you can't get the 260m along with the 620 cpu... looks like i have to go with the 720..

well atleast it's the same price. How big of a dip in gaming performance will that cause?

 

not much, they are both very good cpu's. i forgot about the 260m only is compatible with 720 and up. you'll benefit more from the 260m, but some game like wow tend to work better with duo cores but with 720 it will still do fine.

 

LoL, Shenanigans! How'd you manage to get that score?

 

Cool man 9.9/7 = 141% ... orsm!

 

Was that a hack?
If so I'd like to know it because I have always thought that, that wei was retarded. How does windows come up with the scores anyway?

 

Oh I use winbubble to change the score. You can google it, but I really don't reccommend using unless you really know what your doing. But it a pretty sweet program to customize windows.

 

Yeah it's a simple hack, you can change the score to whatever you want. But be careful with that program. Make a back up of your original Wei score in word pad or something before using it. But google winbubble it has slot of features.

 

I was on the wall about toughs two CPU's too. But in the end I found out that you can't use the integrated GPU with the PM55 chip-set. That is the one thing that is better about the intel tock for this new round of CPU's. On the negative side of this tock is that the Memory controller is on the GPU die and not on the CPU die like in the Nehalem i7-720QM. That is why the i7-620M only supports 1066 RAM.

Also, you have far more computing power with the effectively 8 core i7-720QM that is almost always Turbo-Boosted above 2Ghz. Then you do with the effectively 4 core i7-620M.

The i7-720QM is Super powerful. Even if the i7620M "may" be better for "some" games. You want the 8 core i7-720QM. I pat myself on the back everyday for not getting the i7620M.

--------

As for the RAM. You want 4GB. However, you can always upgrade latter when you have more money. So, just worry about getting the good CPU and Nvidia card. Don't worry about the RAM or Hard Drive.

But, Ya in the end you want to get 4GB in their. The Nehalem CPU's are based on a NUMA memory architecture. So, you want the RAM on both memory channels the same. Other wise the memory will not be evenly mapped to your CPU cores and it will slow down the system. (Granted probably only like by a second or two.) Also, even on a non-NUMA system you want every memory channel to have RAM with the exact same capacity, same speed, and preferably the same model from the same manufacturer. All memory chips work at slightly different speeds. That can cause errors to occur in both the memory and CPU. Causing problems that are vary hard to trouble shoot.

So, when you do get more RAM your best bet is to get 2 new RAM sticks of 2GB each and not just one 2GB to replace the 1GB sick they put in to make the 1GB + 2GB = 3GB of RAM.

 

Cool, I checked it out and Winbubble is far more than I need I use Sunrise Seven for simple stuff like removing arrows from shortcuts and changing the log on background.

 

Yep - Winbubble FTW. Used it quite a bit when I was running Vista 32-bit on my old lappie. Not sure if he ever validated it for 64-bit. I remember he mentioned he didn't have 64 so there was no plan to validate functionality between the two. Then again, this was 1 yr+ ago at least. Stellar app - he has some very cool stuff.

Check out his offerings if you are unfamiliar with Lawerence's work:
http://blog.unlockforus.org/

 

The one on the left is a bit tight, but not bad. However, the one on the right (not the hybrid eSATA) got a mouse transmitted stuck, and I cannot get it out. I actually managed to destroy the mouse transmitter trying to pull it out. Am not sure if getting accesss to the port by removing the keyboard will help - or if I should take it in. Fortunately, with a port expander, I'm ok - and can use the hybrid.

Joe

 

Baw,I still dont have my Alienware Boot screen back
EDIT: Btw today my alien FX works beyond perfect!
8D
Am I the only one who found out that when I hit the stealth mode button, it triggers the w key? O_O
EDIT2: ok I'm stupid thanks for the help, forget about my boot screen

 

Hi SoccerThierry,

For the login background, you need to make sure that the registry setting for OEMBackgrounds is correct. Open regedit, and navigate to this key:

Computer\HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background

In there, make sure that you have a DWORD (32-bit) value of 1 set for the OEMBackground key.

If that is set to 1, check in this folder for the custom background:

C:\Windows\System32\oobe\info\backgrounds

You should see a file called backgroundDefault.jpg

If that file is missing, just copy a jpeg image into that folder, and re-name it to that name. As long as the file is no more than 256k in size, Windows will stretch it to fit your resolution.

If you don't like the default Alienware background, you can also replace this file with one of your choosing.

Good luck!

Rich S.