Having problem with your M15x? Consider replacing your motherboard!

Hi thought I would bring attention to this!

Many of us have been suffering motherboard failures recently. Myself, Fatboyslimerr and Stephen0205 are some of the few people that have had to replace the board.

The M15x is already 5.5 years old. If you have an early system from 2009 or 2010 and you intend to keep this machine going smoothly it is highly worth considering to replace the board before problems are likely to develop.

Luckily for us the board can be had at very reasonable prices. The best deal at the moment is with Aliexpress.

Warranty 90 days Brand New 00G5VT laptop Motherboard For Dell Alienware M15X Notebook PC Mainboard 0G5VT 00G5VT

The board goes for a measly USD81 and shipping of USD14. Fatboyslimerr can confirm the board from this source arrives well packaged, swiftly and most importantly brand new.

I have ordered the same and will confirm shortly on the quality.

Before jumping to conclusions and blaming the fault on a far more expensive component such as the GPU try to check the symptoms carefully and see whether you are due for such a replacement.

The M15x has served all of us well. At over 5 years old though this performance laptop needs a new gearbox

 

Good post. This is especially true if you're into overclocking as it stresses components further.

If those boards are indeed brand new, then it is a good deal.

 

That is TBC. Fatboyslimerrs was. If mine is too then it is a good source.

True that OCing stresses components but that is not all.

I rarely OC the gpu and even more rarely overvolt the gpu. In fact I usually run undervolted and sometimes stock voltage to OC. Now the circuits are failing.

The cpu on the other hand I have completely abused. It seems like the circuitry feeding the cpu is incredibly robust while the gpu circuits are not.

This leads me to believe many more failures are bound to happen very soon and going forward.

Sent from my SM-A500FU using Tapatalk

 

A bit off topic but does the USB port on the left side of your laptop continue to operate after you shut down your laptop? I never noticed this until recently when I attached a cooling stand. I always thought the e-sata port does this but not the other USB ports. If it's not normal, I'm thinking maybe my m/b is starting to show its age.

 

My board died due to a bad bios flash, which is odd done all the steps then it just never came back on lol.

My board was only like £50 and the shipping could have been free but i paid the £30 postage to get it quick. Mines looked brand new as the listing stated and worked first go.

Replacing it was pretty easy, have to say by far the easiest machine ive ever worked on, seems pretty well thought out bar those silly wee back vents lol, but i suppose that adds to the structure support and it does feel like a well built laptop.

But alas it works now, im hoping to keep it for at least a few more years. If i had the spare pennies i would maybe pick up another motherboard for it but currently with a brand new one inside, id hope it at least lasts another 5 or so years.

 

I've owned lots of laptops over the years. The M15X is by far the easiest to work on and most solidly built. It can be completely dismantled in a few minutes. If the motherboard is new it should last a while. I still have much older laptops that still work just fine and none of them come close to the build quality of the M15X.

 

yeah seem to be going well the now, planning all my upgrades lol .

Bought the intel wif 3160 ac chip.... bought 2 actually, one for my dad and myself. He has the m15x as well, hes suffering from a screen issue right now, flex cable or the screen i suspect.

His wifi card worked a ok, mines was doa. Just my luck. But some more memory, and im golden till i come across a cheaper 920x. Gpu should be good for now with me, but if a cheap 7970 or 8970 comes about ill be on it like white on rice

 

Why did you go for 3160 ac? The 7260ac card is literally twice as fast and mine only cost £14!

 

Good job. The 3160ac is probably good enough. I can't imagine UK wifi speeds can best what equates to slightly above top out wireless N speeds.

The 720qm is okay for now. Mated with the M6000 you shouldn't be too limited by it. Do keep looking for a "golden" 920/40xm though and upgrade to that before upgrading the gpu though.

The reason for this is GPU is M15x main strength. Still upgradeable to the latest and greatest and that will include Pascal and Polaris so long as they come in MXM flavour which they will. On the other hand the 920xm isn't made anymore meaning demand slowly starts to exceed supply bringing the price up like old ram.

You want to get one sooner rather than later.

 

well wifi wise im on plusnet fiber 90mb package.

Router is a http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/cat-9_Archer-C5.html

So i could get the full transfer speed from the 7260 i presume ?

Yeah a week ago i seen a nice 920xm on the bay for 70 posted. Wish i had got it now but i didnt know if i could fix the m15x at that point.

Not sure what i would upgrade to gpu wise tho, the m6000 was just so well priced, and i have it overclocked and it plays decent game settings as well.

I guess if i got a 7970 or a gtx 770 or an m290x (doubt it) cheap, one of those, think the gtx770, 3gb ram and cheaper than the other 2 from what i can tell. Lower tdp and heat too.

 

If you get an m290x, keep in mind that native fan control will not work. You'll have to use Hwinfo to control the fans. I suggest looking at the 7970m (which I have now and it's awesome), or a 680m GTX which may actually be a bit better that the 7970m.

 

inst there problems using those cards, like them being throttled unless u do the pin mod, or use an adapter, and isnt it like 100w , how does the laptop take the heat and power draw alongside a 920/940

 

I'm running a 7970m now. It is flashed with a custom vbios that undervolts it (slight performance drop but much cooler temps). It idles currently in the mid to high 30s, and peaked as much as 64C after running 3 consecutive 3DMark benchmarks. It is pasted with MX-4 and 1mm thermal pads on the VRAM, and 1.5mm pads on the VRMs. The only mod I did was to file down the xbracket screw posts to the same height as my original x-bracket from my 460M GTX.

I haven't had a chance to game on it yet, but If I do experience throttling I'll end up pulling the pin on my right angle adapter. I am currently using a 210W power supply. At full load my power meter shows the laptop is drawing as much as 160W from the mains. This is during benchmarks with a 920xm at stock clocks.

EDIT: BTW, the 3160 AC card has 1 spatial stream meaning the fastest it will connect to your AC router is 433Mbps. The 7620 uses 2 streams which doubles the speed. Not an issue for your Internet connection, but faster throughput is better for local file sharing.

 

Good info on thicker pads for vrms as well as the WiFi cards. I share my downloads folder on my laptop on my network and even access it on my phone to cast it to my tv, whilst also downloading stuff. My WiFi card and router are not a bottleneck for this! Love it.

Sent from my m8 using Tapatalk

 

where did u get the 7620 ac card from mate, had a look and there all over 20 on the bay and about 18 on amazon

 

The 970M will probably run as cool as the GTX770.

Although it isn't cheap.

 

The motherboard works fine! I recommend the seller Fatboy and I used. Cheap, fairly quick delivery and above all brand new motherboard that is properly packaged.

 

So you fitted it ok?

 

No problem at all. I didnt seat the keyboard ribbon cable properly first time. Couldnt boot which scared me. Otherwise easy

Sent from my SM-A500FU using Tapatalk

 

We both are getting big upgrades, I'm getting a 680M.

 

I was about to get a 680m as well, but I've always had an affinity for AMD (ATI actually). In hindsight I think the 680m is superior to the 7970m. Looks like the m6000 didn't work out too well for us

 

Having owned a 7970M for 2 and a half years then it dying and finding a 680M for cheap I can hands down say the 680M is the better card. Its not just about fps, its the smoothness of those fps. Way less dips plus my card is an overclocking beast.

Sent from my m8 using Tapatalk

 

Well I still have the same issues!

I even tried different ram. Like before the cpu will ONLY run games smoothly if it isn't OCed at all. This on both 680M and 980M.

Motherboard is brand new so that is ruled out. As soon as the cpu is OCed. Even a little bit then the screen starts flashing dim to bright and the clocks are forced to 2d mode in games.

Anyone willing to test my chip in their machines to confirm it's death throes?

 

Looks more like motherboard problems rather than CPU.

 

If its dead do I have to ship it back?
You could throw it in the box with the 680m.

 

PM sent.

STiHial. I agree it "looks like" motherboard issues but it isn't as I placed a brand new motherboard in there. The motherboard is totally ruled out.

On the other hand I left the 920xm overvolted for months on end and since I put it back to normal voltage I haven't played any games. The cpu has been damaged. I know cpu's dying is quite unlikely but I have exhausted all other options. The cpu will go to Gofspar who will hopefully test my chip in his M15x. I am pretty certain at this point he will have the same findings as me.

I have confirmed it isn't GPU because the 980M also throttles under same circumstances. It isn't ram as I tried different ram. The ssd is brand new so that isn't the problem. It isn't the psu's as I tried the 210W before I shipping it off with same problems. It isn't the mobo as I placed a brand new one inside.

So basically the unexpected becomes the expected. Lessons to be learned: don't jump to conclusions and more importantly don't heavily overvolt a laptop cpu for extended periods of time or even at all!

 

Oft man that sucks, well at least your issues can serve as a warning to others mate. Im still looking for that golden 920xm, i plan on pulling the pin on the charger and over clocking that sucker, but not overvolting.

What do u think is a ballpark oc for that ? , i know all chps are different. Just a ball park ?

Hope u dont have to get another cpu mate, but it looks like that way

 

well a few weeks of waiting has paid off. My intel i7 920xm shall be delivered on tuesday morning for a lovely price of £75 , very ver yhappy with that. Will help towards my recent purchase of rise of the tomb raider at £7 as well lol

 

How well does rise of tomb raider work on your M6000? From what I've read I think I'll be stuck on medium details/textures and very minimal amounts of AA and Post FX due to it being a pretty GPU intensive game. Even a single GTX 980 Ti can not reach 60 FPS at 1080p consistently!

 

not really gpu intensive, optimized like ****e.
only hitting 85% gpu util

With my 980 Classified overclocked to 1590/2000 and my 5820K at 4.65 I only get 50fps on max settings.

 

Really hoping another driver release will smooth things out. The AMD core usage phenomenon is just plain retarded!

 

yeah seen alot of people werent happy with it. I havent had the chance to play it im in the division beta so ive been playing that, dosent run amazing either on the alienware but seems not to bad on my pc.

Have the amd 290 flashed with 390x bios and overclocked to 1100mhz cant mind what the mems at. But mines is on the kraken watercooler on a corsair hydro 100 with dual corsair sp fans on either side, the card was a nightmare before heat wise. But performance wise from what i can see is between a 970 and 980 pretty much which im happy with

 

Ordered a board from Terry Liu @ Champion Laptop Parts on Aliexpress using KOI's link in the first post. This board is perfect. It appears brand new because the black plastic insulating sheets don't have a single crease or wrinkle in them, and all the ports are a bit stiff which to me indicates they have not been used. Ran some benchmarks and diagnostics and everything checks out 100%. This is the third board I've purchased in the last 3 years. The first board I bought in 2014 on e-bay had a missing clamp on the BT slot and a damaged retainer clip for the DVD connector. The second board I got a couple of months ago from another Ali seller and it had a damaged pin header for the right side speaker LED port. This board is 100% perfect both physically and functionally (third time's a charm I guess ). I highly recommend purchasing from this seller. I used Hong Kong post and got it in under a month (21 business days) to me here in the EU. Here's the link again:

http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/7453102562.html?orderId=73770638095596

 

I bought one from Allied Express for my Daughter-in-Law's machine. She has a bad power jack. I will attempt to replace the jack on her board after get it out. In the mean time she can game on her M15x which she absolutely loves.

 

You got some lucky ladies in your life my friend

 

Thanks guys, DC jack just went on my baby a couple days ago. Can't wait to revive her!

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

You can always replace the DC jack itself. Those jacks should cost a couple of dollars. Problem is the solder on these boards is lead-free and tricky to work with. I tried to replace a damaged pin header on one of my boards and the solder would not melt at 30W. I raised the watts to 60 and ended up lifting two solder pads. The board was useless at that point.

 

I thought about that, but haven't soldered anything since metal shop in high school (I'm 32 now) and certainly was no expert back then haha

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

Is it possible to buy a new CPU bracket (the part that the CPU heatsink screws into on the motherboard)? My motherboard works fine, but I somehow stripped one of those sockets used for the CPU heatsink. So does anyone know where I can buy a new one, or fix the one I have?

 

I managed to strip one of those as well. It's gonna be hard to find one by itself since it comes with the motherboard. Best bet is to maybe pick up a confirmed dead M15X motherboard for a couple of bucks and salvage that bracket from it. Otherwise you can always get a new motherboard, but it may not be practical if your motherboard already works fine.

Or try this

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/alienware-m15x-cpu-socket-heatsink-screw-loose.761521/page-2

 

I have a dead motherboard I would be willing to part with.

Sent from my overpriced Galaxy S6 Edge +

 

Feel free to send me a PM.

 

I started a conversation with you. It's a bit different than a PM more like a private thread but it works.