M15x Problem/Technical Question thread

Hi all.. Dell has been replaced my Hard Disk.. Blue Screen problem has been solved.. Installed OS again but lost Alienware Default Windows 7 Theme.. And also facing a problem that I always have to Install OSD_V106_W670 for every restart to change my screen via shortcut FN+F6 or else this shorrtcut Do not work.. How to solve this? Thank you..

M15X/i7 740Q/460M 1.5GB/4GB/1080p/BR ROM

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ook-feel-after-clean-install-windows-7-a.html.

 

Thank You The Revelator..

M15X/i7 740Q/460M 1.5GB/4GB/1080p/BR ROM

Can you also solve my OSD problem @The Rvelator?

M15X/i7 740Q/460M 1.5GB/4GB/1080p/BR ROM

 

Hi,

Does anyone know if the m15x lid panels can be swapped? i.e. I have an Area 51 m15x (first version), will the lid for the newest m15x fit it or do I need to find the exact m15x model I have?

Thank you.

 

Hi, Im thinking of moving on from the M15x to something a little more powerful and need some advice.
Will there be a major difference between:
i7 820qm and i7 2630qm?
ati 5850 and geforce 560m gtx 1.5gb?
4GB ddr3-1333 and 8Gb ddr3-1066??
would I see any performance increase in gaming etc??

Thanks

 

The easiest part is the ram question: for most games, increasing ram beyond 4GB has little effect on performance. I am not sure why you would go to ddr3-1066 when moving to 8GB - the decrease in speed from 1333 to 1066 would probably negate any advantages from increasing ram, except in a setting where multiple apps are running and using a lot of ram each. In general, the Sandbridge (2xxx) processors (not compatible with M15x) are significantly faster than the older i7's. How much this would show in gaming might be difficult to predict, since many games are more affected by GPU speed than CPU speed.

For your present M15x, the upper limit for upgrading would be 920mx/940mx processor, 6970 graphics, and (if desired) 8 GB DDR-1333 memory. You may want to check the benchmarking thread to see best scored for the various benchmarks. BTW, these are all upgrades you could do yourself, with reference to threads from Revelator, svl7, UncleWebb and other experts on this site.

I am sure any new laptop you would be looking at would also have results of these benchmarks run. As a matter of fact, you should check the m17x and m18x boards to see what performance they are getting with the Sandbridge processors.

Happy hunting

Joe

 

wow!!...exactly same with me your problem...n now i found the culprit..my gpu..what i done...i oc my gpu...n now resolved...n now thinking to upgrade to more powerful...any advise which gtx compatible with m15x

 

then after download..what should i do..where to paste this???

 

You need to get NVflash and a DOS bootable USB drive. Check the tutorial which Teh Rev wrote in case you don't know how to create such a drive, the tutorial can be find here, check steps 1 &2.

Then put NVFlash and the extracted VBIOS file to the root of your prepared USB drive.
Then you're ready to do the upgrade:


Put the USB drive in your system, boot your M15x. Press F12 at the boot screen and boot from the USB drive.
Then make a backup of your original 260m vbios! Use the following command:

Code:

nvflash -b orig260m.rom

This will save a copy of your original ROM to the USB drive.


Now flash the modded vbios:

Code:

nvflash -5 -6 volt260m.rom

Reboot your system and see whether it helps.

 

tanx so muc...i`ll do it..since this is my 1st tyme to do so...

 

Hey everyone. I'm new at exchanging components in PCs, so could someone please take a look at this hard drive:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-Bar...1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1316894867&sr=1-4
and confirm that it would work in an Area 51 m15x? I'm not sure how to check compatibility with hard drives. :S

(if you know of a better one for around the same price, a link to it would be amazing.)

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

(also, does anyone know what material the chassis of the area 51 m15x is, or if any of the other alienware model chassis will fit onto this one? :S i thought it was plastic but i see some people have powder painted them because they're magnesium?)

 

You've done computer stuff before, where exactly do you think a 3.5" DESKtop drive would fit in our laptops?

 

How did u fix the problem?
And think the gtx 460m is compatible

 

Follow my instructions here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/7921779-post1050.html

And here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...5x-problem-technical-question-thread-106.html

Before you do this, what are your temps?

 

My GPU temps are around 50-55 degrees while idle and it freezes at around 85-90, always. Iv read that when the GPU is the cause it would make lines or something on the screen and that the freezing thing is more likely a symptom of memory overheating but i undertand nothing about either so......?

 

Well, it depends on your ambient temps, but 85-90 is generally too hot for the 260m, my 260m went up to about 75°C during benchmarks, overvolted and overclocked to the max.

I realized that slightly increasing the voltage can help to prevent these crashes, so you might want to give it a try, but you'll have to clean your system and reapply the thermal paste for this, otherwise it runs too hot.

 

Hi good day to everyone,

I encountered a problem on my one and half year old Alienware M15x.

System info:
Black Chasis
Liquid Crystal Display, 15.6, Full High Definition, Light Emitting Diode, True Life, Lg , Philips Lcd
Nvidia GTX260m - 1GB
Dvd+/-Rw, 8X, Serial Ata, SLOT, Hitachi Lg Data Storage
Processor, I7-720QM, 1.6, 6MB, Clarksfield, B1
Battery, Primary, 85WHR, 9C, Lithium,
Windows 7 Home Premium
Dual In-line Memory Module 4GB, 1066MHZ
Hard Drive, 500GB, S2, 7.2K, 2.5, SGT-HOLL

Here is my problem:
I didn't turned on my alienware M15X for the last two weeks, since I was out of town. Today when I turned it on, it turned on but stopped at the start up screen -- with the alien head displayed in the middle, "F2 bios setting, F12 boot menu" at the right down corner, couldn't pass through. The keyboard was lightening up and every key seems working, when I click the F2 it beeped once, but nothing happened. I also pressed F12, F10, but nothing happened. The laptop was secured when I was not around, so no one touched it. I called Dell and the technician helped me did a power drain and I re-installed the hard drive, but nothing helped. After that, I inserted the alienware resource CD to the CD/DVD slot trying to see if it could help, but it turned out the CD was not read and couldn't be ejected out. My Alienware worked flawlessly and perfectly all the times before this problem happened. I wonder do you have any suggestion? Thanks and please let me know ASAP.

 

Are any of your keyboard lights for Scroll Lock, Caps Lock or Num Lock lit up or flashing? Those are error codes relating to failures to POST that can narrow the issues.

 

Thank you for helping me. I have taken off my hard drive and powered on my alienware, and it passed to read my alienware resource CD. Great! However, when I change my boot menu to CD ROM and reinstalled my Hard drive, it freezes at the start up alien head again. Wierd. Also, I tried to boot it from USB (with the hard drive in a hard drive dock), no luck, it says no operating system found. In conclusion, I installed back the HD, it freezes there. I took off the HD, it reads the CD I inserted. kind of I can't chage the boot sequence. Please help. I tried to reformat the HD to see if the HD still alive, but can't.

 

Have you tried tapping F12 at the boot screen and selecting the CD as your boot drive? You could also run Diagnostics while you're there for a quick check on the hardware. That would at least let you try to read the HDD or see whether it is still alive? Also try the old power drain trick -- turn off, remove battery, unplug and hold the power switch/button down for 15-20 seconds. Then put it back together and try to boot. Sounds suspiciously like a bad HDD, but too soon to tell. Good luck. Lots of people around here to help.

 

Hi guys, got a problem with my DVD drive. It seems it can't read any DVD, everytime I put in a gaming DVD, it will just identify it as a blank. However, when I put my resource DVD and my office 2007 dvd it works fine. Anyone knows what causing it?

Thanks in advance

 

Overclocking my 5850 for BF3 to 800/1150 (I have done so in many games without problems) and I'm pushing 100c while playing.

Is that too hot?

Someone suggested new thermal paste but I have never been on the inside of a laptop before, and I don't really want to start.

 

Yes, that's too hot. Repasting isn't a big deal, especially not in the M15x. Check out Inaps guide, I'm sure you're able to do this.

Edit: Also check the vents for dust...

 

Hello,

I bought my Alienware M15x i7 260m about a year ago. Everything was fine except recently I formatted the hard drive and installed windows 7 64bit again. Now I have issues where my laptop would freeze anytime the GPU temp goes above 60ish C. When in stealth mode everything seems to work fine but has very low fps.

When it freezes the screen shows the same picture and I can hear the sound of the game (background sounds of the game usually) still playing.
One of the rubber pad that keeps the laptop balanced has fallen off. This makes me think that this might have to do with the problem. Although the pad fell long off before the format and I did not have this issue.
I have tried the power drain method and increasing the voltage of the GPU (svl 7 suggested to another person with the same problem) none seem to work. I’ve run the diag cd but it shows everything is fine.

I have been reluctant to take it to DELL because I live in Saudi Arabia and the support provider here is a small company that im pretty sure doesn’t have experience with Alienware.

All drivers are up to date from the dell website.
Any help would be extremely appreciated.
Ohhh and sorry about the long post

Greetings from Saudi Arabia

 

Alright guys,
I'm having a weird issue and cannot figure out what is causing it. I am assuming it is a Windows 7 thing, but have tried just about everything to remedy it.
What is happening is that after leaving my MX15 w/Windows 7 pro on for some time, the WiFi connection speed slows to a crawl. The time frame I am speaking of is less than 24 hours before slowdown occurs. A reboot (AND ONLY A REBOOT) brings the speed back up to normal.
Here are 2 screenshots to show you what I mean.
After being on for a few days: (the transfer in this shot failed shortly after this image)


After a reboot:


Could it be a hardware thing? Has anyone heard of this or have any suggestions to fix this?
I am stumped
Any help would be greatly appreciated...

 

Have you tried pinging your system or running speed test; Do the power drain trick; restart your computer run speed test; then rerun the test every three hours and post your results.. ( I assume you right-click on your connection and run troubleshoot problems )

Also test your system plugged directly in eliminating Wi-Fi.

 

You say ONLY A REBOOT, yet you don't say in detail what else you tried.

Please elaborate, so we don't suggest all the things you've already ruled out.

Is your connected speed to your WiFi router constant before and after the issue occurs?

Drivers updated?

Happens when connected to all wireless networks or just your network at home?

 

The issue is not really with internet access speed as much as it is the the data rate of my link to my router. I did try the troubleshoot once and windows didnt find any issues, as to be expected.
I kinda didn't want to test with a corded connection as this doesn't happen to any of my other wireless devices and only use my mx15 wirelessly. Plus, my gut tells me a corded connection will work fine.
I see what you mean about a corded test eliminating factors, but it didn't start doing this, it always has. Also, not sure if the corded test will eliminate many factors other than hardware (which doesn't seem likely because a reboot fixes it so it is acting like a software thing). I will try it anyway i will try anything at this point.

When I say only a reboot will fix it, I mean that I have tried disabling and re-enabling the WiFi card, flushing the DNS cache (when I thought it was an external internet issue), releasing and renewing my ip, and killing the svchost that is controlling the network. I even disabled all ipv6 because I read of some people having slow network because of this. I also disabled Windows RDC (remote differential compression) and windows firewall.

Ive been living with this issue since I purchased my laptop and it wasnt a big issue because I rarely kept it on over 24hrs, or would just reboot. Now this thing has me dedicated to try and fix.

According to Windows, yes

Yes, but updated to try to fix the issue. An update did not create the issue.

Only use it at home.


I know it is not my network because my other computers and devices (5 laptops running XP, 1 all-in-one running win 7, a couple of iPads, etc...) do not suffer from this issue. I have only one other machine with Windows 7 and it does not have this issue.
Also, this is not an internet issue because the screenshots above were while transferring a file from my NAS.

After posting my OP, I got to thinking and decided to look at the device properties under device managment. I made some changes in the device that I think might help. I diasabled A mode, leaving only B,G, and N. (I run N in my home) I moved N from 20 bandwidth to Auto, and I turned off the option for Windows to turn off device to save power. It's been fine since my OP, but please keep the suggestions coming.

 

I believe I may have solved my own problem. It's been 24 hours and still good
It must have be A mode or switching the 20 bandwidth to Auto. I'm saying A mode because my router is set to 20 bandwidth.
It wasn't the windows power management of it because I looked at the settings again and it was checked again to let windows turn off device.
I will continue monitoring and then (after 48 hours) start testing settings to pinpoint the problem setting. Weird though because I have never changed those advanced settings.

 

Nope, back to its slow rate again.

 

Hi Guys,

I need your advice. My lappie got a BSOD ( has been randomly for weeks). I done diags via Seatools and got DST Short Test: FAILED.
I can't do a chkdsk as it says the drive is in use and if I schedule a chkdsk on next boot it doesn't do it just boots straight to windows.
I can't boot for DVD as my optical drive isn't work ( getting spindal spin up fail error in the alienware diags) so when i put a disc in it just clicks loudly.
I've tried booting from a USB with a windows boot usb key and also using bootable usb drive with spinrite. Both getting PXIe error: no operating system found, check cable"

Any ideas guys? I really don't have the money for a new HDD or optical drive ( getting married soon so saving for it is making me broke)
Cheers,
Robbie

 

Maybe try disabling autotuning. My knowledge of why one would want to do this escapes me at the moment, but it's on my list of tweaks I often do on my PCs.

It's a command line thing (open the command line as administrator):

"netsh interface tcp show global" will show your current settings

"netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=disabled" will disable it

To turn it back on, just replace disabled with enabled. I think the impact is immediate but I'd probably reboot to be safe.


edit: this is for the wireless connection getting slower over time issue.

 

Hey guys

I was wondering if you could assist me with a problem I've been having recently...

My laptop was in perfect condition until recently, when it suddenly no longer booted to the desktop, it gave me a blank screen after the "starting windows" phase. I can boot into safemode just fine however; and initially a system restore was able to fix the problem, which I *thought* I had localised to the ethernet (driver or hardware, I'm not sure which, but I just left it uninstalled for the time being)

I reformatted my laptop, and left ethernet uninstalled and all was fine for another 2 days, but this morning, it again stops at a blank screen, but safemode still works.

If I wait long enough, I get a bluescreen giving me error code 101, or "A clock interrupt was not received on a secondary processor within the allocated time interval." Does anyone know what this error code actually means?

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeers

Also, spec:
i7 740QM
4GB DDR3
ATI 5850
500GB HDD
A09 BIOS

 

did u happen to do any overclocking?

i used to get that BSOD when experimenting with multiplier of my processor

 

Nope, no overclocking whatsoever. Upon removal of the graphics drivers, however, it seems to be working. I am about to try installing different drivers and see how that goes...

EDIT:

I think I've nailed it down to graphics, uninstalling drivers = windows boots up. Reinstall drivers = windows no longer boots/BSOD.
I installed the 5850 drivers on dell's website from a year ago (which I knew worked with the laptop), no luck. I also installed the latest drivers, again, no luck. Could it be that the graphics card has taken a hit?

 

hey, i have a problem with my M15X, last night i was using it on battery and i shut it off cus the battery was dying, well afterwards i plugged the charger to it and the blue light of the charger immediatly turned off and so it wont charge, the laptop wont turn on at all (no flashing lights, no nothing), even though the battery still has 1 blue dot of charge still.

wel then i started investigating, and found out the posible escenarious were, fired mobo or fried gpu.

i dissambled the laptop and took off the gpu and tried to turn it on. this time the blue line in the charger doesnt turn off, but, when i tried to turn on the laptop, the alienhead just keeps flashing.

i dissambled the laptop again and put back the gpu, and it went back to the beggining (wont turn on, no flashing lighst, and chargers light keeps turning off everytime i plug it to the laptop)

i also tried without the battery, and still nothing. the best progress i could get was taking off the gpu and the gpu fan, that way the alienhead stays lit, and the battery could charge... but still nothing... not even the screen turns on

does it means its the gpu's fault? should the laptop be able tu turn on without the gpu?. if its the gpu i could buy another, but i want to make sure that if i do, it will be fixed.,

my gpu is the nvidia gtx 260m

 

Sounds like it.

This could be a number of things. It may be as simple as an issue with the AC adapter, but it could also be something more serious.

If you have switchable graphics it might boot without the GPU installed. (With the Intel HD IGP it will, but I don't know about Optimus.) If you don't have switchable graphics, then it will not boot without a display adapter installed. At any rate, this does not sound like a GPU-related issue. Was there something in particular that lead you to explore removing and reinstalling the GPU to try to correct the problem?

Try unplugging the CMOS (coin cell) battery for a minute or so, then plug it back in. If that does not work, you're going to need to call 1-800-ALIENWARE for hardware support. Is your system still under warranty?

 

i have no idea if i have a switchable graphics...
what made me think this was the gpu, was that i've been researching about it, and found another guy who had a similar problem and it ended up being a faulty gpu.
also i read somewhere that the behavior of the charger (that it turns off as soon as i conect it to the laptop) comes from a short circuit or something like that from one or more components inside the laptop, and when i take off the gpu, it stops doing that.

i tried taking off the coin cell battery already, and it didnt help... and i cant call alienware cus i dont live in the US and my warranty expired a year ago...

 

I had already tried this before my OP and it is still disabled. i forgot to mention that in my OP.
I actually think it is fixed now.
It seems to be an issue with the MX15 and the WiFi Link 5300. So far 4 users have similar issues.
I went to the intel website and used their auto driver update tool. Then I disabled A mode and set my preferred mode to 2.4GHz. Not sure if the 5GHz had anything to do with it, but I don't use them and I've been up for several days without any issues with my WiFi.

 

Hi people.

I've had my M15X (460M, i7 Q740) for about 7 months now. Its only recently that I started to notice how hot it gets.

The temperature spiked to 75 degrees while running Skyrim. So I tested it out with other games (ME:2, Battlefield 3, Crysis 2, etc.), and found that it goes up to like 80 degrees.

Now, I'm not overclocking the PC, mainly cuz I have no experience with overclocking, and haven't felt the need to so far. But I know that 80 degrees is quite high. Any ideas as to what's causing the temperature spike?

Cheers,
T.

 

80c isn't really too high. You could use a can of compressed air to clean out dust in your system and open it up to make sure there is no dust build up in the vents. Repasting is always a good idea if you see your temps creeping up. Another thing that I always do when I game, is elevate the back end of my laptops so my fans have better air flow. Just doing those three things my temps have never gone above 75c even after overclocking my 5850m pretty high (800/1100, no voltage change).

 

Here is a video to show you how to clean everything if you need it.

Cleaning the Alienware M15x - YouTube

 

^^^Thanks, T_man, I'll give cleaning it a shot.

 

Just had the 3 flashing lights on startup (scroll num caps lock) ,checked on dell website and it means 'replace mobo' I was in shock as I paid a premium for the laptop,and now this . Anyway,i removed battery,kept in power button for 30secs, still nothing. Then I removed bottom cover of laptop,removed cmos battery for 30secs, put everything back together and it worked! What a relief.

 

Ok so I've noticed that if I have my laptop plugged in on AC when I put the computer to sleep and wake it up without it plugged it I can't change the screen brightness why is that? Have to do a complete system restart just so I can adjust it....

 

Easy. Adjust your power saving settings. I never use sleep or hibernate its annoying for a whole generation of computers

 

I posted in 6970m forum, but I still couldn't get a fix. When I try to install Catalyst drivers, my screen ends up like this and I have to system restore..


Have any of you experienced this or maybe know a possible fix? I can't access Catalyst Control center for my card but my computer says I have the drivers installed.

 

What drivers did you install? Did you remove the old ones from add/remove programs then remove all files using driver sweeper in safe mode before installing the new ones?

 

Should I remove ATI Install Manager or something like that? I just noticed that haha...probably going to try it tomorrow afternoon after I finish classes.

 

I believe that I am currently running the A04 bios and would like to update it so that I can upgrade my GPU. Could anyone help me out with this or point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance.