*OFFICIAL* M11x Owners Lounge - Part 3

I recently purchased the M11x (coming from a 13" Macbook Pro) and really excited about this as my main laptop and gaming pc. I basically use my current laptop for syncing iTunes with my iphone and browsing the web on Safari because I keep thinking the Mac OS is safer. I spend more time with Bootcamp and Windows 7 gaming and really like the portability of the MBP. I am wondering if there are other folks switching back to Windows from Mac because of this particular notebook? Also, how's the Macaffe security suite that comes with the m11x for 15 months? I actually have Symantec Endpoint Protection 64-it on my current laptop and was wondering if I should keep Macaffe on the Alienware or remove it and install my copy of Symantec?

 

Nope not in my public folder. Oh well.

 

Is that the Scrybe software? Someone mentioned it didn't work for them.

 

what is this so called "two finger scrolling"

 

Probably to be on the safe side, get everything setup first. Reboot, go into the BIOS and then enable the OC.

 

@bunny..
Macbook Pro's have this thing called multigestures..
lets say you're in a program that has a scroll bar.. instead of having to go to the scrollbar and scroll you just simply put two fingers on the touchpad.. and go up or down to scroll.

for MBP's at least, also has the feature to go back and forward on your browser by using 3 fingers swinging left and right.. there's also a bunch more uses for multigestures.

Some people are probably more familar with twirling your fingers in a circle to scroll but some prefer the method i described above

 

@bunny
you can use 2 fingers on the touch pad with vertical/horizontal motions to scroll vertically+horizontally on ie a web page

 

and patches are in the my documents folder I believe.

*edit* two finger scrolling beats the hell out of edge scrolling. can't wait to try it out on the M11x's touchpad

 

I'm actually switching from OS X to Windows for this netbook, but I'll still have my MacBook in case I need to jailbreak my iPhone or something later. In reality, I'll be using Ubuntu Linux unless I want to game, but yeah I'm coming from OS X as well.

 

oh wow just tried it and my netbook does this. but i prefer the edge scrolling

 

OK, so mine arrived today...and it is going back tomorrow...
I opened it, tuned it on and there is a dead pixel right in the middle of the screen - Epic Fail Alienware!

 

Synaptics pads have had "scroll zones" and "tap zones" for years that do all of this same behavior - I guess it's just easier for people to use multiple fingers instead of tapping/scrolling within a certain area of the touchpad to accomplish the same tasks..

I'll try the scrybe and see how it works - though, as with any new "way" to accomplish the varying tasks - I'll probably end up going back to the typical drivers. It's just really what you're comfortable in the end with.

 

I do not know if this helps, mine is going through chicago to oklahoma, shipped on the 19th and I will get it in the mornng of the 24th. I ordered right before they stopped stacking the coupons, it was on 2/3 afternoon, and after i ordered mine, about 10 mins later, people on the sites were saying that the coupons did not stack. I was able to get the 3% dpa also. I am curious about one thing, on my original order, the memory was @ 800mhz, and on the order page it shows 1066mhz. Has anybody else noticed this?

1 224-9555 Alienware M11x, Cosmic Black
1 313-9589 Intel Core2 Duo SU7300 1.3GHz (3MB Cache, 800MHz FSB)
1 317-8954 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
1 421-1596 Alienhead Chrome Red
1 320-9963 11.6-inch WideHD 1366x768 (720p) WLED
1 320-9857 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M
1 342-8742 320GB SATAII 7,200RPM


confirmation email:
224-9555 1 Alienware M11x, Cosmic Black
313-9589 1 Intel® Core™2 Duo SU7300 1.3GHz (3MB Cache)
317-8954 1 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 800MHz
421-1596 1 Alienhead Chrome Red
320-9963 1 11.6-inch WideHD 1366x768 (720p) WLED

 

I think there are ways (programs?) to try to get the dead pixel worked out? That or rubbing it which is impossible with the E2E screen.

 

I'm fairly sure they're just not looking in the right place. The Scrybe software installs a generic Synaptics driver that includes all the features. You enable two finger scrolling (and other multitouch actions) from the touchpad settings, not Scrybe. It shows up under Multitouch in the Synaptics driver configuration (not Scrolling, oddly enough).

 

I was a little apprehensive about the wireless card in this bad boy, but it's great after all!



I can also confirm the lack of bluetooth in the Canadian models.

 

I tried several programs for an hour, but nothing works, and since cant touch the screen, can't do anything about it.

 

can i configure something like that with scrybe program? cause i download it to my computer but i cant find how to

i was just telling a friend how i hated touchpads cause they didnt have scroll wheels or forward and back buttons. using the the single finger on the side to scroll of the touchpad technique gets frustrating cause its not to accurate. using to fingers to scroll can really change my mind of what i think about touch pads.

 

I have one near the top, center-left. Not a whole lot I can do, but it's a bit of a bummer regardless.

 

Ok, i ordered mine this morning. just had a panic attack on the name plate. I thought i had my name there, but it doesn't say anything here:
"1 330-9552 Personalized Nameplate
1 330-6106 Personalized Nameplate Trigger"

umm... is this normal?? sorry for the bugging, but i want to have it right...

edit: trigger has nothing to with anything i would have put there, FYI.

 

That is the first laptop in a last 10 years I owned that have a dead pixel, and I am very disappointed, it just kills my whole excitement, just knowing that is right there makes me stare at it all the time, I am sending it back to have it replaced.

 

get them to send a technician to you to replace the screen.. they have in home repairs.

 

Yes, some one just suggested that too, I am going to call them tomorrow and see if that is a possibility, thank you for the advise.

 

@Freeride600

The email confirmation should say the name on the nameplate
while the dell website will just say you got a nameplate

 

Received mine yesterday haven't had a whole lot of time to spend with it work etc.
I will this coming weekend plan on running it through its paces.

I really like the build quality of this ultra portable gaming notebook the keyboard doesnt flex and the screen is beautiful. Cant wait to game and bench the hell out if.

 

Well AVP runs outstanding No Lag what so ever 16x highest settings. Kinda makes me mad my $4300 M17 cant play AVP near as smooth as the m11x

 

Not sure if anyone has linked this but notebookcheck.com did a brief review on the m11x : http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Preview-Alienware-M11x-Performance-Check.25736.0.html , unfortunately has to be translated but they got up to 6462 points on 3dark06 at native resolution and OC'd...
I think a more comprehensive review will up in the next couple of days.

 

cool, thanks. I won't panic yet lol.
also, that confirmation would be after the order is processed, right?

 

Yea I think you get it when they validate your payment or something. I don't recall when I got that email but it wasn't immediate after i placed my order

 

can anyone tell me how to download the drivers...
i have the dell driver dowload manager but it says i have no drivers to download... yet i click on the drivers but they wont download...

 

They seems to be very thorough even with the preview. Heck, their preview is better than most reviews for devices. Besides HH's and our own Chewie for the M11x, the preview rocks hard!

German's are intense! This review could get pretty deep

 

I just want my fan noise to subside if my fan keep operating like an aircraft carrier, I'll have to seek alternative...

 

http://translate.google.com/transla...1x-Performance-Check.25736.0.html&sl=de&tl=en

Google translation of the German review!

 

They show cpu-z with the cpu at 1.6 GHz multiplier at 6x and the voltage above 1v. This differs from what we have seen here with ppl's O/C the voltage @ 0.9V...

 

@chunk = You're a sharp one ay? Probably AW sent them one with a fixed BIOS... HMMM???

 

I want to order this beast but nooo discount... so lucky chunk lol.
Yea, they had a pre-final release maybe.

 

shenanigans

 

POS!!! quit workin already, was just video chatting with my girl on windows live messenger and it quit working. Now i've been oh hold with Dell for like an hour, thanks alot!!!!

 

@des103 = Huh? What happened to your unit?

 

What does "quit working" mean? :O

 

I'm on wit a tech now and they just ran me through a system restore, and it say The disk OS (C has errors.

 

Strange... So your OS died on you?

 

Hard drive failure maybe?

 

anyone know how to get the command center yet? im running on a fresh windows 7 install cause i took out the hd and put in my ssd

 

Yeah, make an image of your old drive using Macrium Reflect, then put that image on your ssd.

Seriously though, that's what I did. With all the driver and utility downloads not being sorted out out, it might be easier. Just keep in mind that the original partition you make an image of has to be smaller than the new drive, so you might have to shrink the old drive's partition using something like gparted, then use macrium reflect to make an image (and use its recover disk to restore that image to your SSD). EDIT - Full details in this post.

And yeah, sounds like a hard drive failure with that other guy. Most common type of failure with any laptop, so not surprising to see one flake out after a couple of days. If that's all it is, then there's no need to worry about a widespread design or build defect (except for the design flaw of using HDDs instead of SSDs ). More concerning is the multiple people having overclock issues, but luckily I'm doing just fine on the standard BIOS overclock.

 

So this Antonio rep had me do a few things and the last thing is now to let it sit for half an hour so it can check some sectors and it should be fine he said but I'm not so optimistic. First alienware and it doesn't even make it through the first day wow, thanks a lot dell.

 

Can someone else with a M11x purchased in Canada confirm this?

 

Tried the one from the m15x dell driver page? I'm not sure what date the newest version with the problems came out but the date on the one there is 02/12/2010:

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...WLH&osl=en&catid=&impid=&SystemID=ALW_LP_M15X

 

Yes the Canadian model has no bluetooth, unless the rep adds it! It does not come standard.

 

I'll make the same suggestion I made in the Owner's Lounge - do what I ended up doing:
You will need (to do it exactly as I did, there should be multiple variants):
USB CD drive
A USB HDD
gparted live cd
macrium reflect

1. Shrink your current HDD's biggest partition using gparted.
2. Install Macrium Reflect (it's free).
3. Make a boot disk in macrium reflect.
4. Make an image of your current drive and save it to the USB drive (I actually just made an image of the main partition, but this added some work as I needed to then use a Windows 7 disk to fix the SSDs boot record, still this saved me 14 precious GBs of space by dumping the recovery partition).
5. Install the SSD.
6. Boot from the macrium disk you made earlier. Have your usb HDD plugged in.
7. Restore from the image file stored on your external HDD to the new SSD. Be sure to make it fill up the drive (macrium reflect will give the option to increase the size of the partitian) instead of leaving it the shrunk size from gparted.
8. If Windows does not boot properly, boot from a Windows 7 DVD (a Vista DVD might work as well, but for whatever reason the disk that came with my M11x did not, I used a retail Home Premium upgrade disk I had), select your language, then select "Repair" instead of installing the OS.

That method worked for me. A bit of work, but at least I know I got all the right drivers and utilities.