*OFFICIAL* M11x Owners Lounge - Part 3

Question: I am trying to do that battery on/off thing. I hit FN F2 and the battery enable appears, but I want to disable it. I hit it again, nothing. I hold it down, nothing. I hit the arrows left, right, up, and down, nothing. What am I doing wrong?

 

You have to hit it twice in a row. If you only hit it once, it will just tell you what status it's on.

 

i believe someone said you had to press quick twice or something

 

I do, I hold down FN and hit it twice quickly. I also have tried hitting it once, letting the 'battery enabled come up, then hit it again while still holding down the FN button.

 

Do you have your computer plugged in?

 

Did you disable it in the bios first? I think that's what it is.

 

you need to do up up down down left right left right B A start y0.

 

ROFLOL +1 for going old school

 

lol, not playing any Contra today, but I did disable battery charging in the BIOS but now it just says "charging disabled" no matter how many times I hit the FN F2 combo. My comp plugged in.

 

You'll have to get someone who has their M11x already, but this is what it says in the manual:

 

Thx guys. Anyone out there who has one can you let me know if it is as easy as FN F2 twice?

 

Doesn't it need to be enabled in the BIOS... not disabled?

 

Nop, fn F2 only shows u battery enabled or disabled. should go into the bios to change it. another bug???

 

Yeah it's a bug it seems... my FN+F2 button doesnt do anything but display "battery enabled" as well...

Should be an easy fix though. Just a software issue

 

The default (in mine, at least) had it enabled enabled. I tried the FNF2 to no avail, and then disabled it in the BIOS, thinking it might change something. It did, now no charging like expected.

 

Man these bugs suck, do they not test anything lol?

Edit: Perhaps we don't know how to work it...

 

I thought you can disable battery charging with FNF2?

 

According to the manual, you should be able to switch the battery charge enable/disable via Fn+F2. It's pretty clear about it:

 

That is what I thought. Oh well, I thought that was a great feature, too bad it isn't working out of the gate.

edit: very small issue, still a great laptop.

 

Just so everyone knows this has been confirmed by Alienware reps as a coming fix, Alienware had planned to have a new bios and software update ready for shipping models, however, the software is not done and so they shipped with the original software and bios that the pre-production models were using. This is why are seeing things like this glitch (which was present in pre-production according to hardware heaven) and the strange overclocking behavior. Chances are the software fixes in a few weeks will solve much of this.

 

That sounds really nice but I'm skeptical... I'd like to see something official before I get my hopes up.

 

I think it is confirmed in the hardware heaven forum thread for the M11X.

 

WOO HOO!!!!
Dell just updated and my new "Baby Alien" will be arriving on Tuesday. Cannot wait to mess around with it some.
FYI- USA order (AZ), I ordered on 2/3 SU7300, 4GB RAM, 320GB Hard Drive, and a custom nameplate.

 

I think they only mentioned that there could be possible tweaks to the bios for retail models.

 

wappaah! AZ isn't too far from california.. mine hasn't updated..

 

That's fine by me. The battery thing really is just a software side issue and should be pretty easily fixed

 

Yeah here's hoping for a 1.73GHz update along with battery fix. 1.6GHz seems to be doing fine judging by your benches but man 1.73 might yield something even more impressive.

 

Just ran 3dmark06. According to reports inc this forum it should be in the region of 6-7000. Well at native resolution I got... wait for it... 3866. Someone's been telling fibs......... or its at a much lower res.

 

Sure you're not running it on the integrated graphics?

 

@j1ngles

Yeah make sure it's not on integrated lol that I wayy too low. Don't scare us!

 

That sucks for me, I ordered mine the same day, and mine is still not coming until 3/4/10.

 

has anyone made any cool videos yet???

 

At least this system doesnt throttle LIKE EVERY bigger laptop that tries to game. Yes, even the M15x and M17x along with the xps stuido models throttle. Not sure on the status of their fix at the moment.


Im getting the M11x just because it can game and NOT throttle. lol

 

Afraid not, that's definitely with discrete. As a side, there was discussion earlier on regarding whether the 4100 can overclock. Well I can confirm it does, going from 1.3 to 1.73 using the bios overclock switch. I'll attempt another 3dmark tomorrow with the overclock on but I wouldn't have thought it'll make much difference. Interested to know if anyone else has any 3d mark info?

Google chrome is a lot snappier than explorer btw...

 

Are you sure it doesnt go to 1.6? Thats what everyone else's is going to. Confirm please. and Post screenies.

 

Someone else did a SU4100 Benchmark and it was scored around 5800 stock and 6200 overclocked. If yours is scoring half that then something is VERY wrong with your machine.

 

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/7071/3dmark06oc550core870mem.jpg

This is a screenshot from the benchmark thread, taken by chewie.

 

j1ngles post pics...

Not that I'm saying I don't trust you, but simply saying a score and then not posting it isn't helping us solve any issues

IE and Chrome all load fast. Windows Explorer etc. all run fast. Very fast especially coming from an Atom netbook side by side

3866 is extremely low. Look at the benchmark thread for some tools to use to check out your system as well

 

wat the ef, one of them reads 1.73 and the other 1.6.

Someone is lying

 

That one's actually the GPU OC'd to 550/1320/870. The score of the default GPU is ~6200 at 1280x768

 

3dMark06 and Everest read the CPU as 1.73 GHz

Intel Processor Identification reads it at 1.60 GHz, but the wrong fsb

CoreTemp and CPU-Z read it at 1.6GHz, with the right FSB... CoreTemp and CPU-Z are supposedly the most accurate though.

j1ngles just has to post actual pics, otherwise it's not helping his cred, nor us helping us solve his issue

 

@ jingles did you run on performance power not battery saver or balanced

 

Yeah, I realised the GPU was OC'd as well (How are temps with that OC, by the way? Is it something that could be used viably?), but it's still a good indication j1ngles scores are way off.

Oh, and would you recommend the laptop? I'm looking at getting something portable, but able to game, and this is a really, really tempting piece of kit, I have to say.

 

OC'd, the GPU never hit more than 61 or 62 C actually The Core 2 processors never went above 58-59C either.

Awesome temperatures!

Obviously, I've only had the notebook for one day, but so far it's great. Great cooling system, looks very good in person, and the build quality is absolutely top notch. It's up to what you need out of a notebook though

 

Alright fellas I hear what you're saying. I'll redo the tests and post tomorrow (its 00:30 here so tol late tonight). I can only only tell you what I've seen so here's the deal. If you tell me what to use to satisfy your benchmarks then happy to do it. For info I noticed that the 3dmark screenshot was showing the laptop at non-native res (1280x....) whereas mine was set to 1366x...).As far as the cpu OC that was was just what device manager showed me so that probably won't satisfy you. Let me know what you'd like and I'll post with the obligatory screenshots in the morning.

 

1280x768 is the default if you can't use the 3dMark06 default of 1280x1024

 

My notebook needs aren't amazing.

I want something portable, with decent battery life that I could also game on. Gaming wouldn't be a priority, I have my desktop for that, but I'm often away from home for weeks at a time, so something that has enough muscle to run some decent games would be great.

I've got a M1530 at the moment, it's good, I love it, but it overheats like hell and the GPU isn't exactly amazing.

This Alienware looks like a treat.

 

I think this would definitely suit your needs. It's definitely portable and will game just fine. I should take a few pics and compare it with a 15.6 notebook I have on hand... the difference is huge

 

@chewie,

Please do, I'm all for comparison shots.

 

I was waiting for a few more reviews to pop up, but it's hard to resist after hearing people are pleased with it - and seeing that it can obviously perform as advertised.