The Official m15x Owners Lounge

@ Alienware/user

The temp barely goes down with cooler IMO. mayeb 2-10 Degree. How much does your cooler cool ur m15x?

 

LOL so your saying you could be treated better on a bus with the heads of AW? LOL

 

m15x is screwed... u should all return them.. its not worth the cash if it gets that hot.. it will be dead before u know it.

its a bloody tragedy this laptop.

 

I'm thinking about buying the Dell xps m1730 instead.. if They give me the 20% discount and all the savings atleast.

Atleast the XPS line is reliable.. non overheating and allmost twice the performance of the m15x

 

I think I'm about to go buy the 3 year warranty on this baby!
BTW, the new laptop arrived and It's been running very cool for me. It's a beautiful machine and very fast. Nicest laptop I've ever seen. Only thing I've noticed is one tiny little scratch when i received it, and this may sound stupid, but eyes of my alien dude (the power button) keep blinking like its having a seizure when its not being charged. I thought it was when the comp is loading soemthing, but it does it constantly, even in idle. I'm about to take a temp test and I'm going out to purchase COD and Crysis to push that to the max for hours when i get a day off of work. hopefully my temp readings won't be as high as some of you, I'll have to let you know if I got a "good one" to give some of you hope

 

wow lol online sales chat person is horrible :1.... they basically repeat what the "MORE INFO" button says, and doesn't try to sell you anything

 

i believe that's the disk activity indicator

 

you have exactly the configuration I want

if you can, try to run on battery with integrated GFX, stealth mode, minimum brightness you can see well on the screen, and tell me how much battery life you can get also BT and wireless off. thank you

what do you think about the screen? any light leakage? good colours and contrast? thanks a lot

 

I'm interested in Chaz's review of this thing.

I'm thinking about the 3-year warranty also since it seems that this machine is built to fry itself within a year or so. Either that or I'll just return the thing after some testing.

Granted, I'm sure it's still a great laptop. Some people still view this as one of the best out there... but i rather it not crash and burn on me randomly after just a couple of hours of gaming. It might not die after the first few times, but at some of the temps others are getting, it'll die in no time. IMO the $5k I'm dishing out should buy more than that regardless.

Of course, I'll wait for Chaz's review and my own testing before i decide to return or not.

 

Well, I'm leaving the m15x too... Maybe I'll try the sager NP9262 or the NP5793 or even the XPS... THnx eveyone and good luck with yours!

 

A question for all the people who have had overheating problems...if you where not monitoring the temp's would you have noticed that it was overheating

 

That's a good question. If the people were not monitoring the heat temps then they would still notice the GPU downclocking when playing games.

I don't think the computer will fry itself if the GPU keeps on downclocking. That's the reason why it is downclocking in the first place.

 

In theory, yes, if it downclocks "correctly". According to a tech from AW, it's supposed to shutdown when it hits 90c and not downclock. According to tests by users on this forum, the chip reached 93-95c multiple times... even 105c, which NVIDIA claims is the max this thing can handle. Granted during one of those test by a user here the vent was blocked, but where was the downclocking then? If it is "supposed" to downclock/shutdown at 90, but took and additional 15c to actually do it, this downclocking does not work as well as it should... i mean if it's supposed to work at all or should it just "shut down".

EDIT: i forgot to point out that some people have hit mid 90c with just 1 hour of gaming.

Still, I'm basing this on other people's tests and comments. I'll do some of my own when i get mine in.

 

i probally would return it for the m1730 or the h2c desktop (it has $500 bucks off this week) but thier is a 15% restocking fee. i cant see loosing 500 bucks. also if my keyboard broken?, if i press down on the blank spaces near the arrow keys the entire right side of the keyboard flexs down. it is the worst i have ever seen on a laptop, even my 600 buck compaq does not have that problem.

 

I have a way-off topic question: How do I know that it is on the Binarygfx? Every time I press fn + F7 (that is it correct?) it says "you have activated BinaryGFX. In order to switch between BinaryGFX and high-performance graphics your system must restart..." After I press it and it restarts it says the same thing. How do I know when it is or isn't in Binary GFX mode? Also, in BinaryGFX mode, when I shut off my computer and turn it back on later does it automatically turn on the Binary GFX, or do I need to redo it again?

 

Easiest way to check is after the reboot, right click on desktop - Personalize - Display Settings - and it should mention the Intel graphics instead of the GTX.

 

Just curious, what is a good program to monitor temps?

 

For GPU: GPU-Z and Nvidia nTune

For CPU you can use something like CoreTemp or NotebookHardwareControl or a bunch others

SpeedFan is another one recommended by AW.

 

The temp readings on Speedfan are off by 15 degrees for the CPU. GPU temp is accurate on Speedfan.

For CPU I use coretemp.

 

Well it's official. Without my notebook cooler my GPU reaches 85-90c and it downclocks. Funny thing is I can never replicate the downclcoking on the exact same temperature. It will only happen between 85-90c. Where it happens is like playing russian roulette you never know.

WOW now I am completly dissapointed. I was hoping my system was going to hold up. Hopefully they will ocme out with something to fix these issues. And I hope it's fast.

 

This is the same problems with my m5550. Man this really sucks for you guys. Come on Alienware!!

 

You misread my post and took 1 word instead of the whole sentence i said "seems to be the more reliable one" Never said Is the "Reliable" one I was going on the information given based on the earlier sandwich looking heatsink on one of the previous post. For the record i do have the REV A heatsink slapped over my videocard.

Sorry that your whole system was a lemon that totally sucks. Hopefully it gets the royal treatment of being repared.

 

Using CPU-Z and playing CoD4 for over an hour now, with a room temp of 75 F and I have not gone over 71 C.

 

but that's what i meant, i wouldn't call it more reliable if it's producing problems. but i guess i see what you mean, it's better than the sandwiched design.

Thanks! Now if only I could get some reps on the phone who speak clearly and stop contradicting one another, i can find out what's actually happening to my system right now.

 

.rant. hows your GPU?

 

SO the temp while gaming goes over 90*C whats the temp while idle or surfing net or not playing games?

 

right now 55C GPU, 50C CPU just sitting idle.

 

Quote from newfiejudd:

"I read the AW site (Support Forums) and I never see anyone posting issues with the M15x. If we don't post there they will never come looking here for customer feedback."

I agree wholeheartedly, especially on an issue as big as this. Having worked in Product Development, companies generally do not issue a fleetwide fix until a certain number of claims/cases have been recorded. We need to at least start posting about this issue there to speed things up.

 

Yeah what the hell is the account number you have to fill in to register ?

 

The account number is generated when you order with Alienware. So if you have an m15x in hand, you should have an account number. It's noted on the "My Alienware" file you get with all your burn-in benchmarks, as well as on the invoice.

 

Damn, I haven't gotten my M15X yet >.> so I can't start complaining just yet.

 

So should we slam the alienware forums with our issues regarding our m15x? Sounds like a plan to me!

 

Yeah and they will delete it. Someone in the forum has posted some problems and they were deleted.

 

I guess they're holding onto mine. Expected date is the 13th - this Thrus - and that was confirmed to still be the case as of last week. I haven't heard from them yet and i'm still on Phase 4.

Well i hope it's a good thing... that they're fixing the problems. Maybe i'll get lucky and someone is double checking my machine since I've written them a few times about the issues presented here on this forum. Either that or they all hate me there and just pushed my system aside and didn't feel like sending me an email.

 

I've ordered mine on Saturday so by the time it arrives, sometime in April I hope there won't be this many problems with underclocking and overheating.

 

Those were GPU temps. Max I have experienced was 75 C.

Did not even look at CPU temps.

 

Looks like yours does not have the problem!

 

i would love the honor of having my complaining post deleted but i can't even get my account created. damn thing won't accept my customer number.

 

ok here are my latest numbers using riva tuner monitoring. pretty much same as before, running COD4 warpig level. just not as long this time.

some points:

you can see how all the clocks (top 3 graphs) jumped up near the beginning on the graphs. thats because i was on battery and the power saving profile was underclocking everything, i just wanted to test how it would feel "in-game" and the feel was basically going from 30-40 fps to 60-90 fps

you can see that rivatuner is showing a slight "overclock" on the core clocks, compared to gpu-z on the left. shader clocks are also higher than they should be, but no comparison in this screen. everest had a similar problem until shima went over to lavalys, informed them, and they resolved it.

the cpu temps on the bottom are way off from what everest reports, not sure which is right really.

so... (and keeping in mind this is still with all the "this app is reporting different numbers from that app" uncertainty, which I am still assuming is due to a new notebook/technology that the apps aren't seeing properly) it looks like i still didn't break past 85, and i still have not experienced an underclock.

will be playing a lot of cod4 tonight, will report back if that changes. at this point i AM worried though because im my environment, in 6 months my ambient air temp will be 15 deg F hotter and i will almost gaurantee i will hit 90 C on the GPU at that point, i've struggled with temps during the summer before.

 

Same here. i have a customer number but it tells me either that number or my email is wrong... i know my email address is correct. At least i can still send them emails.

 

welp. finally got it to underclock. half-life 2, lost coast, all settings maxed. was peaking over 200 fps, but here's the riva graph to prove it hit 89 deg and underclocked three time...

now, because the fps was so damn high, i didn't even feel it, but its hl2, its not exactly the most punishing of engines.

will be calling them tomorrow asking if there is a solve, and if not i will probably also be returning it. is a shame, i really wanted to love this thing, and i do, other than this "i paid for a laptop thats the balls 100% of the time and i'm not getting it" thing.

edit: now it happened in COD4 as well (second attachment).. i'm officially in the club! i'm wondering if about 30-40 hours of use was the time it takes for the problem to expose itself, anyone experience it immeditately?

 

I dont get it, why all the sudden.. out of the blue.. it starts downclocking after it ran normal for a pretty long time.. it has to be something with the thermal paste or something... Just has to be.

 

Thats what ive been saying... people stop complaining and check your thermal paste!!!

 

And, lol.. Why hasent anyone come up with answers yet? Come on people figure this shiz out, how hard can it be to remove the heatsink and reapply some thermal. I'm thinking, that perhaps maybe the thermal paste is getting bubbles or something in it after it reaching those temps, and since you guys are jabbing at them hardcore with max visuals straight out of the box it could be the problem. Perhaps the thermal paste doesent have enough time to seat properly or something. I am just taking random jabs at this, sorry lol.

Like I said above though, there is no reason why the m15x's are just all the sudden overheating after being normal for a while. I also have no doubt that AW did some grueling test on these systems before they sent the m15x to production.. I mean, they had these machines runing at consumer shows for longer periods of time and playing crysis. As said, it has to be something with the thermal paste.

 

Then people are like I payed so much why should I do it? and I understand this but really... It's not that hard and you can't win them all. This is a relatively easy fix. There could be worse problems that are harder to fix... Also to those that disagree with me by saying oh it'll void your warranty or we payed so much yada yada yada... Are you debating that reapplying thermal paste will likely solve the problem? There was a thread before that showed the kind of application job from the factory and there is a lot of improvement to be had from just applying some AS5 in a proper way.

 

My hands are tied up, i'm blindfolded, there's a stinking apple shoved in my mouth, and I'm locked in someone else's bathroom... mind smearing some AS5 on your system and testing it for us?

 

OK, I downloaded speedfan, nTune, ang gpu-z. speedfan and nTune say nothing concerning the temperature of the graphics card, that I can find. (Where does it say anything about the gpu temp??!?!) on gpu-z how do I tell what the temp is while I am playing the game? simply close the game quickly and see what the temp is?

 

i'm not debating that it could be a screwed up TIM job

but if i wanted to drop nearly 4g on a notebook so that i could go buy AS5 to re-do the job alienware should have done right in the first place....... oh wait that's exactly where i'm at. seriously lax, don't you get it? you don't pay this kind money to have to fix it yourself. sheesh

i'll see what alienware says about it tomorrow. if they want to send out paste and their blessing for me to do it myself, or parts and an on-site tech, or whatever they decide to do.

 

in gpu-z hit the "Sensors" tab, but thats only good for what you can see right now..

temps will drop rapidly as you exit the game, not a good test to look at the temps that way.

ntune: should be an icon for "Nvidia Monitor" in your start menu, run that. click the " -> " button on the bottom right.

riva tuner would be the easiest way to capture whats going on in graphic form while in a game though.

 

Lax you don't even have an m15x. Just shut up and quit saying "Reapply thermal paste".