The Official m15x Owners Lounge

Also very true.

 

SO TRUE, the alienware people kept saying " oh we have sold thousands of them and no one complaine" yeah because most people are just average users. they dont know how to check things like that.

 

I would like to add that today I gamed for over two hours COD4, CS:S and UT3 and not once did the temp rise above 82. THere has been one confirmed time in 2 weeks of ownership where i went over 83 and that was 93 the other evening. Of course I am upset but I wanted to post that I have not had that "hopefully anomoly" since then. I have downloaded rivatuner. How do I get the graph open to monitor my GPU to see if it downclocks? I have only used fraps as a measure and never has my gaming dipped or cut in half performance wise to my knowledge (again knock on wood). Help with rivatuner will be appreciated.
=Dave=

 

so far today mine's behaving as well.. first check after 20 mins of COD4 it was at 81, then when i exitted maybe 30 mins i saw it peaked at 86. i will play longer later..

maybe its days? mondays bad? tuesdays good?

actually i know part of the reason. yesterday i had the issues and i was toasty in my office because the heat had been turned up to 75 in the house. today its a lot chillier in here. does not bode well for summertime when its gets near 90 in this house.

 

This is what i'm hoping to find with mine... if the anomalies do eventually become common, and the system eventually suffers from it, at least there is the warranty.

 

The fact is it shouldn't be happening period.

 

Nice Silkex! So far my experience with customer support has been A+++ as well...minus the Free Backpack!

 

Wow alienware Customer support improved. Now i am definitly getting an m15x and il talk to CS lots of times to ensure my order is great. This is what i think happens with m15x with dents scratchs and stuff. When they are boxing it they may accidentally Drop it and that would cause scratch/dents then they just pick it up and rush it into the box. I can't confirm this but why else are there dents and scratchs in some peoples. Well i have 2 question:

1. I havn't heard anything about free backpack, do you get from buying m15x?

2. Arn't Alienware supposed to build the systems on delay about now? Why do i see people still phase 4?

 

There is no free back pack.

 

Can I get a complete list of problems with this laptop?
right now I've got:

Driver/overheating issue
Touch sensitive controls
Screen Wobble

I would really appreciate it, if you guys can add post your problems. I will be e-mailing and talking to AW tomorrow.

thanks

 

Driver/Overhaeting Issue
Touch Sensitive Controls
Screen Wobble (I haven't heard about it)
Case cracking near Ethernet port.

 

The first page of this forum has all of the answers:

Cracks
overheating
underclocking
screen wobble
lights don't work

 

Aww that sux i would really like a free backpack with alienware writen on it. Yet again its just sticking a big "STEAL ME" sign on the backpack

 

1. There are no free backpacks. Silkex just got one because he called in to cancel and had a nice person on the other end of the phone that really didn't want him to cancel.

2. Depends on why your sys was delayed. If it's because of the screen, those will be back in stock in about 2 weeks from now, 3/24. I don't know if there is another one coming before then or not. Don't worry about the phases. Call them up or email them asking out your est ship date.

 

which lights don't work?

So far:

GPU Underclock/Overheating
Cracking (we only had one person with this problem, correct?)
Screen Wobbling and the hinges making noise (anyone else hear noise when they open and close the lid?)
Touch Sensitive Controls
CPU Underclock (Anyone having this problem?)
Keyboard flex and slow response (only couple of people having this problem, not many right?)



I will keep updating this list, until I have almost all known issues.

 

Is the fan loud?

 

The only question I have, is about the GPU undeclocking. In all honesty, how often does it really occur (while gaming - Crysis, COD4, etc)? And is there a way that the software can be changed so that the card won't underclock (unless it hit something like 120F). Thanks

I am just looking for a quick answer. I AM NOT trying to turn this into another M15x thread - I just need one honest answer.

 

The only question I have, is about the GPU undeclocking. In all honesty, how often does it really occur (while gaming - Crysis, COD4, etc)? And is there a way that the software can be changed so that the card won't underclock (unless it hit something like 120F). Thanks

I am just looking for a quick answer. I AM NOT trying to turn this into another M15x verbal assault - I just need one honest answer.

 

If you reset the bios you could change when, if, and how it downclocks.

 

2 people had cracks over ethernet port, 1 person had it on the botom of Lid. Keyboard flex i think 3 people had it

 

Ok how about future owner? I mean from what I understand, Stone is trying to warn or enlighten those future owners who have no idea what Alienware doesn't tell them prior to purchase. So if I don't own one yet and supposed to own one to complain, it defeats all the purposes Stone and friends have tried to bring here. The thing is, we are not supposed to receive these all problems, so there comes the engadget and digg idea.

If I need to own a problematic one then I could complain (which seems like most of the owners do), that doesn't seem fair enough to me. We all hate to spend unnecessary time after investing huge amount of money with this product. Most of owners should be enjoying their m15x for now and leave the forum empty with potential owners. But it's not. Most of owners are trying to handle the problems themselves while Alienware keep running away from handling the problems. Alienware needs to step up and do something about this now, especially to people who already own them.

Sorry but could anyone please explain, it maybe just me so I would appreciate some explanations. I swear I want a black m15x SkullCap, but why do I must stumbled upon problems then I could say anything?

Have any of us see Alienware support reply and make things happen? All i see a loop of bad customer support that they have since m5550. I have story of mine of bad support here and notebookforums. See people like Stone and myself obviously want to buy Alienware later on in the future but with these continuous same exact support problems from Alienware, I believe it hurts us more than Alienware (it seems to me Alienware doesn't care about their customer or product more than we do )

 

You can stop it from downclocking but it only does it above 85c. 120F (or roughly 49c) would be a constant underclocking... on idle even.

As for frequency, that varies. Look up graphs others have posted.

EDIT: oops, i guess mine would the the second honest answer... more than what you bargained for.

It is not loud at all from what i hear (no pun intended). Many believe that it's actually underutilized and should be pushed a little harder before the GPU downclocks.

 

From my experience and understanding, the issues and possible causes are:

Cracks in the case

Location: Commonly on the upper left corner of the laptop, between left speaker grille and ethernet port on the side. The thin top plastic layer is affected.
Possible cause: Poor structural rigidity around the ethernet port and speaker grille. Ethernet port location is not optimal. Also the thin top layer of the laptop isn't properly sealed to the side of the laptop. When the lid is opened, you can visibly see the thin plastic flex upwards. When the lid is closed, you can see the thin plastic pressing down on the side of the laptop.
How to prevent (user): Hard to say, but be very careful when opening the laptop. I open the laptop a little, and hold my finger on that section before opening it fully. Short of a new case design and better sealant, I can't see how this can be prevented in the long term.

This issue ties in with....

Screen Wobble

Possible cause:: Loose hinge? The screen wobbles a little more than average when shifting the laptop.
Catch-22: Tightening the LCD hinge to eliminate this issue could result in the above mentioned case cracking issue, as there would be that much more force applied to the thin top layer of the case while opening.


Underclocking:

Possible cause: One or more of many possibilities, including inadequate cooling measures (heatsink/heatpipe/fan), the fans may not be kicking it into high gear, or faulty GPUs.
Possible solution: I think a good first step is to enable fan control in BIOS, or at least to enable higher fan speeds. If that doesn't alleviate it, a higher RPM-running fan. If that doesn't work, better heatsink/heatpipe design. If all three doesn't work...****.


Lack of performance:

Possible cause: Either related to the above underclocking issue, or a driver issue, or both. Many complaints about Crysis (including my own - admittedly a little prematurely)...but until we can try other drivers than the stock 167.55, we can't really narrow this down. Hence, we can't really say it's the GPU under performing, but could be under clocking.

Of the issues above, I feel the case flaw causing the cracking issue is the worst. Aside from a new case design, I don't see how we can prevent this from happening. While it hasn't happened to me yet, I can clearly see the flex in the thin cover, and I feel this will inevitably happen at some point. Once it cracks, it could lead to the top cover slowly beginning to wrench off of the unit.

All that said, I still like this laptop. I'm confident AW can deal with most of these issues in time. Unlike others, I don't have any doubts on this; this is their flagship laptop as of now. They haven't had a new laptop in some time now, and with laptop sales in general booming, I just cannot see Alienware not addressing this. I don't mind being a beta tester as long as I get taken care of eventually, whether it be better sealant, new case, new heatsink, whatever. Time will tell, yeah? This isn't gonna happen overnight.

 

As a note, it could be that the computer it cold, then when the monster 8800M GTX starts up, it doesn't have time to warm up and that could make it crack (like a glass when in hot water and then put under cold)

 

I cant believe gpu temps can reach over 100*C or even close to it. Thats the boiling point of water people. This is a really serious problem. When i get my m15x anf if it has this problem, i ill play cod 4 for 2 hours then i will open it AFAP (As fast as possible carefully) then touch the GPU, i am gauranteed to get a burn or 2 like you would when you put your finger in a pan of boiling water.

 

the gpu is on the right side and the processor shouldn't warm up tht much to cause the crack seen in the pictures. Highly unlikely imo.

 

Its a good # of steps but its ultimately worth it to get it working. Its also not too complicated (im completely new to all of this stuff). You can monitor temps, fps, and downclocking while actually gaming... its great.

1st step: from another post (do this by opening the .cfg file in notepad):
"Okay first an info for all of you, who have tried to use Rivatuner 2.06 without sucess. Rivatuner won't detect the 8800m gtx as a known device. To solve this problem you have to edit the file RivaTuner.cfg in the directory, to which you have installed Rivatuner. In this file is a section called [GPU_10DE]. Change the last line by appending some IDs in this section to

G92 = 610h-61Fh,600h-60Ch"

2nd step: after doing the thing above, follow the directions from the original thread post:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=81852

3rd step: in 'hardware monitoring set up" in addition to adding fps and temps,check off "core clock/ROP, core clock/shader and memory clock"

4th step: to see the figures while actually gaming, a) make sure the hardware monitoring window is open and b) open "rivatune statistic server" which is in the rivatuner folder.

that should be it. again, i encourage everyone with an m15x to test their systems under gaming conditions

 

Oh, well, I didn't know it was on the right side. Oops.

 

In an attempt to better distribute/share information, a new m15x owner's lounge thread has been created. Please continue there:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=228659