The "Why you shouldn't buy the M15x" thread [OUTDATED] [FIRST GEN MODEL]

Wish you the best Milcs.

 

holy crap,what have i missed. i dont check up for a day and the situation has changed again. this is almost as bad as the tennis watching the ball go forwards and backwards. make your mind up milcs im getting giddy now.
good luck geezer.

 

Does anybody have the same kind of heat problems with the 8700GT graphics card?

 

the 8700 generates far less heat than the 8800, so you should be fine.

 

I was hoping you'd say that - fingers crossed the rest of it works too

 

Dan, don't let the heat issues dissuade you from getting the 8800. Yes, it runs hot but thermal cooling of the 8800 gpu is not broken and we have workarounds on this forum to decrease the running temps even further. You have far more to worry about by purchasing the x9000 processor than you do with the gpu.

 

I actually couldn't afford the 8800 anyway - I just wondered!

I ordered mine last Thursday and it's reached phase 4 - no doubt that's where it will stay for a while. Doesn't stop me checking the order status every 4 seconds.. it's gonna be a long month

 

@Bigdan - Yea I remember when I ordered my AW laptop I was always checking to see when it was going to ship out any everything. I have to admit that it is a very exiting experience.

 

Are you able to undervolt it so much because you are using the 1440x900 screen? If you were to play at 1920x1200, that would drain more power right?

 

I don't know about you guys, but that temp even with the undervolting is HIGH. I would bet that with long term use the system would encounter more issues. That is a large thermal range. And as well all know it is the thermal cycle of hot and cold and hot again, that eventually causes unwanted stress upon a GPU or CPU for that matter.

 

I did tell Groove to contact CS, but he says it will be fine with those temps. I think it's just like mine, and they told me mine was defective... Like so many others and so many other cases and owners.
Oh joy... why is the M15x so brilliant?

 

hey has anyone seen this article? ( http://blog.laptopmag.com/alienware-ignoring-m15x-issues) I don't remember if anyone posted it before but its a pretty good read.

 

I am glad that I bought a MBP instead of m15x yesterday.

 

Well yeah started as excited, now mixed with a big dollop of preying that when it comes it is in working order!

 

That's a brilliant finding Taco. I'm happy all our "voices" made it somewhere.
Maybe one day AW will drop the "We only receive some complaints" talk and will actually start doing something towards changing the M15x's big mess.

 

hey milcs, what about your own system btw, its away for almost two month now?

 

My system is never coming back again.
I will post something about it soonish.

 

wow that sucks milcs yeah don't forget to let us know

 

I will make my "final" post! I'm sure lots of you will feel happy to get rid of me!
Let's just say... it involves AW refusing my rights as a costumer, practicing censorship (to my interventions in this forum) and etc...
Anyway... I will explain everything soon.

 

When can we expect one?

and google for dell investors.. so you can copy them in

If as you say over: "practicing censorship (to my interventions in this forum) and etc" this can be very fun, very fun indeed!

 

In the next week or so...
I want to write something decent and proper (well... at least, try).
Regarding the "censorship", it's my conviction that this was indeed the case... but obviously, it all comes down to my interpretation of things.
I can only say I feel profoundly depressed with the way I was treated by AW.

 

Wow I can't wait to read this. They still screwed me for $200 bucks. They say it was because of the exchange rate. I hope AW gets every little bit of bad publicity it gets. LMAO

 

fun to see previous AW potential or even buyers got Mac's, you are not the only one...

 

Yeah I really enjoy the mac actually..

 

I am leaning towards one as well, here is why:

I wanted the AW ( but as it has turned out to be more a lemon than not and cheap plastic, I'd rather not)

Dell: unless business line, not really rugged..same with HP, so unless I go for the max warranty from Dell, like the "I dropped it by accident" down the stairs...

Sony: good build, but options are crap in the UK, no build options, just pre config....I want a ssd and better gfx

so that somewhat leaves me with either Sager or Apple

any other tips for someone living in the UK..

 

I would go with dell I think they are pretty damn rugged. My sister dropped her E1420 and part of the case was missing and it worked until the onsite tech today I guess dropped it replacing the cover that was chipped (he was working outside) and killed the mobo and LCD which he insisted was happening before hand

 

i think this thread is darn useful! informative too! +reps!

 

To Milcs: Thanks for all you've done. And you BETTER get a full refund. having your laptop gone for that long ... i would march my a$$ down to miami and kick some alienwares in their nads. LOL.

 

Thank you for finding the time and effort I put into this useful. It's always good to hear someone saying something rather than "Stop flamming!".
Cheers
M

 

wow, i've been away from these forums for a few months, but i see nothing has changed with m15x quality and support issues, and in fact gotten apparantly worse for most folks who are having problems with their m15x.

I'm so sorry to see that the original issues were never fully resolved, and that a new pack of issues have surfaced, but i'll take some solace that i made the right decision in shipping mine back.

even with the fact that my credit card company failed to get the restocking fee back for me, and i'm still nearly $600 into alienware's pockets with little hope of getting that back, at least i was able move on, purchase a different brand notebook that perfroms comparably, one that i've been able to rely on and has given me zero cause for complaint, instead of still having to deal with this kind of frustration.

the other notebook i picked up was about 600 cheaper anyway, so i can pretend it all balanced out, still hate to see these jerks make profit off causing misery and frustration to people who just wanted a high performance notebook.

call it sour grapes if you want, but my experience with Alienware is not one I will be repeating.

 

who called you a flammer? just the first letter of the name will do..*pulls sleeves up*

 

Wow, thanks the OP for writing this up. I was reading issues everywhere but like everyone else I kinda just figured maybe there was the bad one here and there..

I don't care if it's just the people that got a bad laptop that are choosing to post their issues. Fact of the matter is, Alienware is supposed to be a top-of-the-line manufacturer and consumers shouldn't have to deal with issues like the ones we've seen on a repeat basis. The screen hinge breaking? Like come on, that's ridiculous.

I had ordered an m15x and I was in phase 4. I sent them an email with my order number and told them to cancel it tonight.

After hearing about Sager I looked into them and specifically xoticpc - and I wouldn't have found either of those laptop brands if it wasn't for this site and the community here. I went ahead and customized a laptop on XoticPC and I even ordered the custom skin for the front, which will turn out to be a nice little Heineken beer advertisement in the end.

The best part about all of this? I'm getting a laptop for the same price as Alienware's just with the following in comparison:

4x the RAM
2x the Hard-drive space (Almost 1TB)
An extra graphics card (2x 9800's)
17" screen vs 15" screen
A Unique Outer Design for Myself
Integrated miniature subwoofers
Guaranteed 64-Bit Vista Installation
...And more that I'm sure I'm forgetting.

OH YEAH

2.66 GHz processor with 12 MB cache (vs 6) and 1333 MHz FSB (vs 800)

Alienware? Pwned.

I don't care if the laptop is pretty or not - sure, it was an added bonus with the Alienware. But I was also looking for reliability which is much more important to me. Thanks again to the OP that helped me make a much more educated decision on this - probably saved me in the end.

I always thought Alienware was a respectable company that would live up to their standard.. It just sucks to know I was wrong.

 

For some reason, a lot of the problems that were from the m15x have eased down starting late May. Systems that have been made before that have had bad feedback all around, but systems that have been made after that have been fairly decent and have had some positive feedback lately. That's what I've speculated at least.

Sure with all of these negative feedback weighing down on the m15x, a lot less people have been willing to purchase one, but I do admit that they have been making an effort to fix problems that have been reported to them. I think at this point, a lot of people have just been overreacting to the bad reports that have been written about it.

I'm still going through with my order (and will in time write a review for it). I think I'll give it a chance for now.

The one thing that HASN'T changed, however, is their normal customer support representatives. Some of the ones I've called (to check in on the status) are hard to understand and seem impatient with what I say. Hell, some even talk over me and don't even give me a chance to explain myself.

If only the normal customer support representatives were more like the Roswell crew, that'd be awesome.

 

Haha I know what you mean about the customer service reps - I couldn't really understand the ones I spoke with either. I had to call to cancel my order so I did that just an hour or two ago. The phone call lasted just over 15 minutes , with being on hold and all that. Oh well, it's done though, it was easy enough despite the foreign accents...

Anyway, I'm glad to hear things have been reshaping up with Alienware. The best of luck to you and your laptop man, they're really impressive looking, which makes them a definite competitor when looking for a machine. I kinda just read all the bad feedback and particularly this post and just said, "screw this, I don't want to take any chances" and went ahead with XoticPC instead.

In the end, you're just braver than I am. Lol.

 

Welcome

 

UPDATE

- As of now, the CPU downclocking problem has been solved with the release of the new X34 bios. It's still being tested, but all indicated that AW techs reduced the voltage on the CPU, making it work cooler. On a "downside", now the fans run faster and for longer. So it increases a bit on the noise part...
It remains to be tested what is the effect of the new bios on GPU temperatures.
This new Bios also integrates a board upgrade that increases touchcontrol sensitivity and improves keyboard response (decreasing the lagginess that has been reported by many).

- Build quality still remains the same, no improvement on hardware level. Same wobbliness, creackiness, general feeling of "cheap plastic". Also, several users still report bad webcam, some flex, etc etc... The same problems that existed in the past. The less than perfect build quality of the M15x is one thing you have to take for granted. Whether it's a big issue or not, it's strictly a personal opinion.

- Security lock: Several people reported that using the Targus Defcon CL (with a lock combination instead of a key lock) without the rubber protection that prevent the metal lock to directly come in contact with the laptop, solves the problem. The same might be true for other locks.
This proves the point that there was a problem initially on the design of the M15x and the lock is just to deep for a lock to access it normally.

 

regarding the keyboard lagging there is a new patch out that fixes the problem. the keyboard only lagged when you typed 2 type letters together like aa , bb ,cc etc. new patch fixes that problem.

 

Corrected it to be more accurate then! Cheers

 

I haven't read the entire thread, but I read the first post, and I must say I disagree with everything it says, except for the build quality, which compared to my old Alienware m5500 overall, feels a little clumsy/fragile, but at the same time I feel like it is very hard to crack and break, since it feels much more stable than the m5500. I must say there is no area on the m15x more fragile than the ventilation grill on the m5500, though, which is nearly completely broken on my old Alienware 5500.

I can say three other issues though:

1) On the old Alienware m5500, I could play games like Halo, Half Life and Crysis, using the touch pad. For some reason the m15x disables the touch pad when you press the keyboard, and you are unable to shoot while walking on FPS games. Has anyone got a fix?

2) When I go to sleep mode, there is no way to wake the system back up other than forcing it to shut down and turning it back on, losing all my data. Since I havent found a fix, I use hibernation instead.

3) I believe the webcam is very high quality when it comes to colors and using it in dark places, however, it isnt good at capturing fast motions. Is there a new driver or an update to the webcam software?

For heat issues and fan noise, I have to say my system is very quiet and doesnt overheat. It is a tiny bit hot only while playing games. I have an nVidia 8600M and Core 2 Duo 1.8 though, so maybe if I had an nVidia 8800M I would be complaining, which by the way reminds me to ask.. Where can I get an nVidia 8800M GTX for my system? Alienware refuses to sell one to me.

 

yeha, that's been discussed lately. you have to adjust the "palm check" (or something like that) in the touchpad settings. i think you have to adjust it to level 5. the m15x normally doesn't let you use touchpad and keyboard at the same time because it thinks you're accidentally brushing the touchpad with your palms while typing.

press the power button?

they won't? have you bought on ebay? anyway, mxm-upgrade.com or ebay should help you.

 

UPDATE 1st August 2008

For the people that still insist on denying the obvious reality:

Today, another unfortunate owner (Taco, one of the oldest people around in the forum) got this hinge broken.
This makes a total of FIVE people whose Lid's hinges broke due to the fact they have plastic supports and not metal supports.

The unfortunate owners are:
Fex
Jayonhavok
Buzzin
MrFro
Taco

I hope their testimony will help people get a more clear idea of what the M15x really is, underneath all those mesmerizing lights.

 

I wonder of how many had this issue. We see 5. Yes it bad. But how many had the same problem.

 

Your point being?

 

How many people had systems that had no problems vs the ones that had problems is my point. By looking at Alienware forums there is very little.

 

well that's true- however the m15x is by design weak and should be fixed- how many times

 

But do you own a M15X? or a M17X maceto?

 

I do (or did)... so what's your point Atol?

 

The question is miles. Why do you make a another pointless thread. When you already posted on "why you shouldn't buy the M15X thread"? Which explains it all. Which talk about all the problem already.

Please let not forget the othere pointless treads which are also on The "Why you shouldn't buy the M15x" thread.

 

Dear Atol,
As I already told you, all your interventions seem to bypass my inteligence as I'm not capable of understanding anything you say.
I'm growing tired of your personall attacks and insinuations to my person and my participation in this forum. If you are not capable of putting your opinions forward without attacking people, then I can only suggest you to avoid making comments such as this.

I think that you and your interventions are quite pointless... But I'm not replying to your posts, every single time, saying you are quite pointless. More ofthen than not, you are rude, agressive and your interventions really makes me feel uneasy... If you can't deal with people having different opinions from you, then I can only advise you not to participate in open forums such as this.

Please refrain yourself to avoid any further complications.

Thanks,
M.