M15x Problem/Technical Question thread

sometimes my m15x seems to slow down out of nowhere and i need to reboot it in order for it to clock itself back up to normal speeds.

also what do you guys mean by power draining

 

power drain=
turning off
unplug
take out battery
press power button for 15-20
put back and reboot

when the system feels slow, try pressing stealth mode on/off, or unplug and replug to charger.

 

I'm having a recurring issue where ramdomly my machine will freeze, go blank, reboot the screen, go blank and reboot the screen, while this is going on, my mouse wont function. recently i got a blue screen saying that something was wrong with my ati card

 

what driver are you using?

 

It was happening with the dell's ati driver, then went to ati and upgraded to the lastest driver and was still happening

heres what I'm on.

driver packaging version 8.683.2-091217a-093134c-dell
catalyst version 10.6
provider ATI Technologies
2d driver version 8.01.01.984
direct3D version 8.14.10.0716
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.9236
catalyst control center version 2009.1217.1710.30775

 

that happened to me also when I was on battery with the webcam app open

 

well it should like the driver failed and then recovered. but try a few driver out, if none are better i would call dell about it.

 

Hey guys,

Having trouble with DVD drive. It can't detect any DVD I inserted.

I did system restore and it's no good. Did Regedit to look for upper and lower filter and it's still not working. Any ideas?

Thanks

 

call dell bro and get it replaced. also it could be the mobo too

 

It's saturday in Aus, if only their call center is open on weekend

 

I've had mine replaced in June for exactly the same thing TimA. I'm also in Aus. The call center can still log you in for the replacement. I got a hitachi this time not the optiarc. I gather the hitachi is similar or the same as the ones apple use so I'm thinking it's probably pretty good.

 

Yeah, I guess I'll wait until the call center open on Monday. This is freaking annoying though. I just got Starcraft 2 today and I can't even install it :/

 

Hello guys, i have a weird problem and dont know what it is or how to fix it....

I will try to say what happen, the other night i was playing with a friend the games of WLM, after a while the laptop just freeze... it was night so i simply turn it off (after wait 5 minutes..... just to see if it respond.. but not), then y try to turn it on, but just the screen its in black, no alienware logo of the bios, nothing.... just black... i was tired si i turn it off and went to sleep...

in the morning i turn it on and it starts normally, then after the logo of windows it says that chkdsk had to check c: that i have 10 seconds to cancel it by pressing any key, so I press enter... and the countdown still running... and then another letters, that do nothing, so i let it run and it take so long to do the check of c:... almost an hour or more.. i go to eat and see tv XD, then i come back and the system was too slowwww, almost impossible to use, so i reboot the system, and the same, but now after the welcome screen the system just show a black screen, so.. take out all my archives with an external HDD and ubuntu with a live cd, and reinstall the system (i have to reinstall it 2 times, the first gave me an error, in fact they do another chkdsk exam, but now this time do nothing..., after 2 reboots), now im in the alienware... and all appears to be normal, i run a program to check errors in the hard drive and it says it was fine... but there its a thing if i program the exam of the chkdsk at the beginning of the system it just stays in the countdown to 0.. and then nothing just freezes, the system its just installed, so its not a problem of virus, or other things, i have no programs except firefox, kaspersky, and nothing else, i dont know if its the HDD or what, i have another HDD and want to try it but first want to see if something have idea whats going on here


-------

Other weird thing that happen before was that when i turning on it doest show the logo of the alienware bios and the screen starting windows... just in the welcome screen it starts to see normal, before, just black

I have the gefroce gtx 260, core i7 720qm, 4 gb RAM, and HDD 500 GB, 7 Proffesional

Sorry for the bad english -.- i didnt speak it very well

 

hey guys, I just noticed some small rattle sounds from inside my laptop. I have opened the bottom to check the fans and they were all tight in their places. The sound is very small though, so I dont know if this is normal or not? and is it worth to call a dell technician over? I can play games (witcher, dragon age 2, and assassin creed 2) with temperature never go above 77.

 

could be a fan that is about to become faulty i had this happen with my gpu fan so i got it replaced when i could easily tell that the sound was coming from it.

 

well, I think the sound coming from both fans. So if I have complete care warranty, then do I have to pay any fee for the tech to come and check my laptop?

 

no its all covered even with advanced but with complete they like to do it even faster in terms of shipping and having a tech on site hopefully the next day after you call them.

 

ok, I will call a tech then. Is there something else I need to know in advance when calling for a tech? and will they give me the time to transfer my data to my backup hard drive if they decide that my laptop need to be send over or whatever?

 

no no they come to you pal. you paid for that service in complete as so i did as well with advanced. dont worry its just a quick switch of fans

 

I should get a phone call from dell technician tomorrow and 2 new fans. Thanks for your help.

 

no problem its pretty easy when you have advanced or complete care as they now have own up to what you paid for. its not like asus or other horrendous tech support that is supposed to come with laptop

 

I'm trying to see if my gpu fans are working, are there any programs that i can download to see if theyre working

 

I just received my new M15x and I can't seem to be able to update the ATI driver ( 5850 HD). I downloaded the driver 10.7, but after installing it, I do not get any error except that the CCC shuts down and I am unable to open it up after this.
Anyone can help?

 

Hello everyone i seem to have a problem with my ac adapter, for some reason my led light on the adapter isn't lit anymore. The charger still charges though, has anyone else had this problem?

 

no but i would call dell and ask for a new one

 

Hey guys, I got my M15x but it has a wrong name plate :/
Do you think can I get the nameplate changed by a call, any experiences?

 

ive not had that happen but i would call dell and tell them you've got the wrong name plate.

 

I recently installed Crysis. It doesn't seem to work. I tried all possible patches. I own an Alienware M15x, Core i7 740qm, 6gb ram, 1gb Nvidia 260m, windows 7 home premium 64bit. Please help me!

 

I think this belongs to mycrysis forums plus what is happening exactly? Just saying it doesn't work, doesn't explain anything dude :/

 

I just found out that there is an unknown device in the device manager. It is under "Other Device" and its location is on the PCI bus. I tried to update the drivers by searching on internet and inside my computer, but It could not find any driver. So what should I do now? I have my integrate camera up and running so I do not think it is the problem.

 

Its hard to say, My bet would be on the free fall sensor. You can grab it from here:
Drivers and Downloads

 

I'm sorry for not mentioning the problem. Every game works like a charm. But, when I run Crysis, the screen just goes blank! I waited or 2-3 mins, nothing happened. When I did ctrl+alt+del, I got a msg saying 'Crysis had stopped working.'

 

Could somebody please guide me to the apt forum? Thanks.

 

@wattos: yes, it is the driver I am missing. Thanks. And do I need to install drivers for optical drive on Dell website?

 

That is not a driver, but firmware. No need to install it

 

In my old computer, Crysis took atleast 5 minutes to get opened in the first try. Open it up and wait 5mins, if it doesn't work close Crysis and reinstall it. It sounds like a corrupt installation or a software conflict.

 

Thanks for that. But guess what? I clicked on Crysis 32bit and it worked. The screen used to go black if I clicked on the 64bit icon!!?? Anyway, thanks a million for ur replies. Cheers.

 

Hey, I thought you were running the normal exe (32bit). The issue with 64bit exe is somehow related to Win7. You can go use the 64bit one but first you need to set it to Vista SP1 (or SP2) compatibility mode. In case you don't know, to set compatibility mode, you need to right click on the shortcut, select Properties, then go to Compatibility tab. Activate Compatibility for Vista SP1 and click ok. It should run without issues in 64bit mode now.

If you have more than 4gigs of ram, running Crysis in 64bit mode may be a good idea. The biggiest benefit of running Crysis in 64bit vs. 32bit is while in 32bit you can only address a data at maximum of 4gigabytes size, while in 64bit you can address a data size of more than terabytes(you can check wiki for exact calculation, I don't remember right now but it was something like 2^64 bits). This means that in 64 bit you can use all your ram, but in 32 bit you can only use 4gigabytes of your ram. Althought, some people report that Crysis runs slower in 64 bit mode. I personally don't think Crysis will need more than 4gigs but if you feel like getting bottlenecked by your RAM, try 64bit mode.

 

Thanks again. I've got 6gb of RAM. I am aware of how to change the compatibility and also the full use of RAM in 64bit computers. I tried the compatibility fix u told me. I changed it SP1 or SP2, still no luck. Hopefully, I'll be able to fix it soon...

@ Wattos
Please help!!!

 

Sorry to hear that, this is all I know about the issue with 64bit.
inCrysis - Crysis Forums
You can check incrysis forums but the compatibility is the only fix I'm aware of.

 

Hello! A complete newbie here.

I just got my Alienware 15x a couple of weeks ago and right from the start I was experiencing problems. I think most of them went away after doing the power drain trick, but now I have a new one that's not really that awful, but it still annoys me (especially since this is a new machine).

A couple of days ago I noticed that when I start the computer the fans turn on and get...stuck. I know it's normal for them to turn on quite loudly at the beginning of the boot, but they used to turn off after 30 seconds before. And now they keep going. This doesn't happen all the time, but I'd say...1 out of 6-7 boots. The only thing that stops them is shutting down the laptop and turning it back on.

Help?
Thank you.

 

Did you also try the power drain trick after this happend?
I have a feeling like you'll have to replug the BIOS battery, it will be better if someone else comments too.

 

its just a glitch that happens, a reboot should solve it. what are your specs and drivers and bio are you using?

 

I have a question. Could you plzz tell me Intel 6300 WiFi vs Intel Link 5300 , which one better?

 

I don't think Dell offers 6300, they only offer built-in 1520 and 5300.. However if they did, I think I'd pick 5300 because its good enough and an upgrade to 6300 seems unnecessary at this point. I don't know the price difference between 6300 and 5300 so I can't compare them by price means. But if you have the built-in one (1520) and planning on upgrading, 6300 may be the better option but honestly I don't think you can feel a huge difference between 6300 and 5300.

 

Mandrake or Sleey0 would know

 

Another question. How I can restore to factory settings(Alienware) like Inspiron 9300 just lick Ctrl + F11 while the system is booting?

 

I'm new to the forums so please excuse my ignorance if this question has already been somewhat answered.

Specs:
AREA-51 M15X
AREA-51 M15X 15" WXGA+ W/CAM SILVER-PNT R1
INTEL 2.10GHZ T8100 SCREENED M15-17
ELPIDA 2GB DDR2 PC2-5300 SO-DIMM 667MHZ Y9540 x 2
M15X PRIMARY 6 CELL BATTERY-ACCESS
M15X PRIMARY 120WATT AC ADAPTER-ACCESS
M15X ODD SMARTBAY KIT-SILVER-PNT
M15X NVIDIA 8700M-GT 512MB
M15X THERMAL MODULE NB8P-GS & NB8E-SE
SEAGATE 160GB 7200RPM FFS HDD REV3
8X DVD+/-RW NEC AD-7590A
M15X ALIENFX KEYBOARD US
INTEL PRO WIRELESS 4965 A/B/G DRAFT-N MINI-CARD

Problem:
My FPS in World of Warcraft isn't what it used to be before I reformatted my laptop/did a factory reinstall. My FPS in a heavy populated area in the game would be 45-50 fps on avg during peak times than all of a sudden it dropped to 14-15 fps, I figured it may have been a virus or something so i decided to do a factory reinstall. I've done these reinstall's before but I decided to do something different, I decided to install the drivers in the order posted on Alienwares website before updating my machine with windows update. The new installed order is

Also note I installed WoW as I was updating everything via Windows update. I turned on WoW, went to my "Test Zone" and my FPS went even lower to 11-12 fps. I can't for the life of me figure out where I went wrong. The goal is to get my FPS back to where it was at the 45 fps mark. Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance

 

there is no speed difference. the 6300 just has better range. so if your outside alot then the 6300 is good otherwise 5300 is the same.

 

check stealth mode, turn it on then back off. see if that helps. use gpuz and log what your clock are at during the fps drops.