Windows 7 on the M15X, thoughts and remarks

thought id start a new thread for all things windows 7/m15x related. Windows 7 itself is running very smoothly on my machine. i havent had any major problems, IE8 has crashed a few times, but has reloaded itself back to where it was and been fine(something that didnt appear to work for me on vista!)
ive had to run a few websites in compatability mode also, but neither of these are major probs so i can handle a few niggles. also, i havent updated my bios to the x36, but the fans on my laptop do seem to be blasting away quite a bit nearly constantly.
out of interest i ran 3dmark06 just to see if i got any different results to my vista tests. the results were as follows:
32bit vista ultimate - 9214
62bit vista ultimate - 9804
64 windows 7 - 9826 , so a reasonable difference btween 32bit and 64 bit, but not between 64 versions of either.
as i had mentioned in another thread. the only program that has given me some jip is AW command center. having tried Findvikas thread, although not to the letter, i got it working to a degree. had to install his theme file to get keyboard FX options, but couldnt get the facial recognition to show at all. so i tried the new 64bit versions of the files some kind person had posted in another thread, but the results were still the same
im thinking im going to uninstall all AW programs(again) and follow findvikas' thread to the letter for his 64 bit vista and see if that throws any better results. Its not a major problem, but just thought it would be nice to get everything working properly, as yes, i am currently only running the win7 beta, no dual boot here. i dont use the laptop for any important things, mainly browsing the internet and downloading things and watching football(oh how i love watching arsenal with south american commentators lol) so i may be foolish, but everything is backed up to my ext HDD so any serious probs ill just reinstall vista.

 

Hey good to hear your positive results. I just finished getting most of my stuff installed on windows 7 64 on my m15x and I have to say I may never go back to vista again. This operating system is so much smoother and everything runs better. I had 65 processes running on the old config, and there is 40 running now, and ram usage has gone down as well. I havent had any bugs except for the command center issue above, but I dont use the facial recognition software anyways. I did a counter-strike: source stress test and got 217.15 fps on vista and 220.45 on windows 7; not much of a difference but at least it went in the positive direction(unlike xp to vista).

 

ok, so im up early (the joys of my 6 month old daughter!!) and have been trying again at getting CC to work properly. i wiped everything AW and restarted, following Findvikas' guide. i dont know for definate, but i think the problem could be, that when he says:

5) Copy the following file (make sure you COPY it and do not CUT it, this file is required in both directories)
C:\Windows\System32\alienfusionapi.dll TO C:\windows\SysWOW64\alienfusionapi.d

this file isnt actually in system32, it is already in SysWOW64 ?? so, is that a major problem? i have tried copying it the opposite way round, from syswow64 to system32, but i dont think it has any affect, as CC still doesnt work.
i now cant get my keyboard to light up at all, even after trying his registry changes, and his theme file.

also, it appears to me that quite a few of the vista x64 drivers dont work in win7, as the install boxes appear, but then just dissapear and nothing happens.

EDIT: i have now got the keyboard to light up again. this time, i didnt follow this step:

NOTE: Delete these two files before installing new command center. If you do not have then then there is no worry.
C:\Windows\System32\alienfusionapi.dll
C:\windows\SysWOW64\alienfusionapi.dll

which i dont think has anything to do with the lights anyway? but then changed the registry, didnt work, unchanged it, and extracted the theme file and opened it through CC and the keyboard came back again. but still no aliensense

 

I doubt this has anything to do with it. If you've installed the 64-bit version of CC, then it'd make sense for the alienfusionapi.dll file to already be in the SysWOW64 folder. Findvikas' guide just shows you how to get the 32-bit version of the Alienware Command Center to work on the 64-bit version of Vista. (Findvikas' guide was created before they released 64-bit drivers for the m15x, including Alienware Command Center x64.)

Also, you have to keep in mind that the x64 bit Command Center is for x64 Vista, not x64 Windows 7. Installing drivers made for Vista is a hit or miss since it's not optimized for 7.

 

yeah i fully understand that, but having tried the actual command center 64bit version, which just didnt work at all really, inc the 64bit OSD, i thought id follow his guide to see what happened. as i just said in the edit, ive got the keyboard back, so following his guide has done a better job than alienwares 64 bit release of CC.

it obviously just doesnt like aliensense

 

Ah. Well in that case, I suppose there is one more thing you could try.

Download this patch and see if it helps.

Webcam FA v3.625 (64-bit)

 

i have tried that, it is one of the files that when you run it, it opens the little alienware setup box, you click run, the line fills up, and then...... nothing lol.
the webcam is working, it is obviously(i think) a part of CC that just isnt loading aliensense. when i uninstalled CC(twice) it does throw a message saying "aliensense has stopped working and needs to exit) , which is funny, as it doesnt seem to have started working to me!!
cheers for the heads up though.

 

It runs a dream on my m15x. It automatically installed every single driver apart from the webcam and microphone, audio, wireless, bluetooth and everything else was pre-configured!
I HATED vista, but i love windows 7.
I think XP is a gonner now!

 

yeah, Win7 is running great here too. only problems so far are the driver for my ROCCAT mouse not working, and the CC not working fully. but that'll all get fixed over time.

 

I take that back . My only account is a guest account :S, and it was an admin account.
ing thing :/.

 

ive just worked out how to run things in compatability mode in win7, and have kinda managed to install the turbo memory drivers, although it installed, but hasnt worked properly. it would only install in windows xp mode, not vista. so imust gonna try installing CC in vista compatability. ill let you know what happens.

 

right, progress has been made. i have installed the 64bit m15x-m17x command center in vista compatability mode, over the top(i didnt unistall the other one first) of the findvikas' thread command center, and, after running the m15x 64bit webcam driver in vista compatability mode after, aliensense is now working and logging me in as it should, so im pretty happy.

ive also run the intel turbo memory driversagain, had to do it again in XP mode, and this time, the matrix storage driver has installed correctly, but the turbo memory manager has not installed at all, so that obviously still has issues.

now in CC,fx, sense, and touch are all working, it is just fusion that still doesnt work. the alienfusionapi.dll is still in both my sys32 and syswow64 folders? not sure if it should be?

 

Yeah, they should be in both directories.

 

ok, well, im not sure why it still freezes CC then, as everything else seems to be working(although slightly tempermentally) i now keep getting a "windows installer" error every 5 minutes or so.im gonna uncheck all AW stuff at startup in msconfig to see if it makes nany difference.

 

I didnt want anyone getting mad at me for starting a new thread so im asking here, I had a few minor questions and I appreciate your help...

first question is, can i put windows 7 on my M15x ( 2.5ghz, 4gb ram, 8880GTM)

2nd question is Windows 7 64bit only? What computer do you need in order to have 64bit? Because when I purchased my m15x it came with 32bit vista..

3rd question is when is windows 7 official coming out, and is the beta any good?

thanks

 

#1. Yes.
#2. Windows 7 beta comes in both flavors: 32-bit and 64-bit. You're fully able to run the 64-bit version if you'd like with your specs.
#3. Windows 7 won't be coming out for a good while, but beta is looking great so far.

 

Whats wrong with the beta? Does it do everything my vista could do or did they leave out some stuff?

 

If you like Vista, then I suggest you don't try 7 until the final product is released. Beta is for people who would like to test it out and also to iron out some bugs that might have been overlooked.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

Windows 7 Beta looks good. I'm keen on trying it, has anyone here tested any games? How does gaming compare to Vista?

Also, do I just use the appropriate 32bit or 64bit VISTA drivers? Or are there specific Win7 drivers for the Beta?

Cheers

 

On my deskop i got some more frames @ Crysis:

Vista 64bit ~ 25 19-37
W7Beta 64bit ~27 21-40

I play Crysis @ 1024x768 and full DX10 (8800GTX) and used "r_dispalyinfo = 1" to see the fps rate.

Greetings
Julian

Edit: the reason can also be related in less processes or so^^

 

Is anyone also getting spikes with the DPC latency checker like me on windows 7?

 

yep. every 10s, noticable spike.

 

Whizz, are you dual booting with Win7 and Vista on your m15x?

 

yep. Vista home premium 32bit and Win7 64bit. why?

 

Cos my laptop is my only computer so I want to dual boot too but Vista Home Premium 32bit and Win7 64 bit, but I'm not sure how to do it. Any advice?

Cheers

 

http://lifehacker.com/5126781/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-with-xp-or-vista

i had to use EASEUS partition manager to do the partitiong though. and i had to run a full CHKDSK as well.

 

Hey Whizzo, thanks for the info. Am now running Windows 7 64bit and Vista Home Premium 32bit. Had no problem partitioning with VISTA.

My cpu and ram are now both fully utilised with a 64bit OS. Nice one.

Are you using the VISTA 64bit drivers for Windows 7?

 

hi i installed 7 also on a small partition of my main hdd. everything looks working except it doesn't recognize my smartbay hdd any tips ??

 

haven't updated any drivers yet, only tried to install CC, and that didn't work...

@dj_wb: do you have the SB drive in the slot the whole time? or does the system not recognize it if you try to hot-swap?

 

when i installed 7 not because i needed the cd player....

after full installation, i removed my cdrom (savely) from the machine and put in the HD. this didn't work so i rebooted the system.
after the reboot it didn't recognize it also. normaly in vista this works (the rebooting)(i already said that in the m15x topic)

i also have vista 32b on the same hd (the main one) running and when i went to vista the HD was available.
after that i went back to 7 but without any luck

i wanted to convert to vista 64 bit but i'm a little bit scared now that i'll get the same problem...

 

*stupid mode on*
it's not the smartbay that isn't shown. it's the part where vista is made invisible :S

 

how exactly is vista "made invisible"?

 

what he said.....

 

It is not invisible just has not drive letter associated to that drive when 7 is first installed. If you want to use the drive vista is on then, go to Windows key -> right click computer -> Manage -> Select "disk Management" -> right click on the Volume that Vista is on -> Select "drive letters and paths -> add the drive and name it what ever pleases you, I named mine V:.

 

I was trying to dual boot my m15x with vista ultimate(32bit) and 7(64bit)
But I was having problem with hard drive
the WEI score for the disk data transfer rate is at 2.1
the rest are above 5
when I go to the device menager,
I found that one of the storage controller is not install

 

1) WEI is useless.
2) Win7 is biased towards SSDs.
3) win7 is a beta OS, problems are to be expected.
4) install the storage controller

 

the problem is I can't install the driver for it
I downloaded it from myhive, runs it, and click on install
nothing shows up

so I decided to delete the windows 7 and wait for the official release

Now I have another question
After I reformat that drive, and add it back to the main one
the screen for the Alienware Respawn is gone
I mean the screen you see for you to press the F10 key to enter the alienware respawn is gone
I can still see the hidden space for the respawn in the computer management but can't use it to respawn

 

when booting into Vista? or before the point where you choose the OS?

 

with just the vista install
there should be a screen showing
"Please F10 to start Alienware Respawn"
for about 5 seconds
then it will jump to the windows loading screen

 

How so?

(Sitting on 128Gb SSD)

 

well, not the OS itself, but the WEI score for the HDDs.

 

Is there a driver for Intel Turbo Memory?
This is the only driver missing for my m15x windows 7

 

As far as I know, Turbo Memory is not supported in 64 bit Vista or 7.

 

Any new developments on the ITM front? Does anyone have success with ITM and 64-bit 7?

 

Me here, i got the same. Is there any fix there ?

 

I recently went to Windows 7 but i get a Bsod, So i try to go back but i cannot find the alienware recovery system, It used to be F8 or something on bootup but i cannot find it anymore...

 

I was wondering the same thing... I get lag spikes (past 1000) but only occasionally. I tried downgrading/upgrading a bunch of drivers, but still haven't been able to pinpoint the problem.

 

When you installed win 7 you probably wiped the recovery partition off the disk

Hope you have a copy of vista or xp laying around...lol

 

Just about to install the Win 7 x64 RC1. Anyone done this yet?

I've got an m15x with a 9800M GT. Which video drivers, chipset drivers and sound drivers are you all using?

Cheers

 

I am using the ones from the support DVD, or you could get the driver from nvidia themself, also check your power settings once you install my install was set to balanced and had to add high performance to it