M15x Problem/Technical Question thread

I've been down a similar road, when i had to get my 260m swapped for a 5850m. It's going to be very tiredsome, long, and patience exhausting. Also, you'll have your story/issue so down packed at the end of all this (from repeating yourself so many times to diffrent reps) that it'll sound like your reading off a script. Eventually, you will get passed to the right guy, and they will escallate your issue, if they indeed told you they would.

You can try another approach and call up dell , and as soon as you talk to them ignorant first level reps, Demand to speak with their boss, and then ask for that guys boss lol. Tell them your horror story, be calm, persistent, and you'll get your brand new system. With enough convincing they'll even throw in extra's for all your troubles. But like i said, it all takes time, and ALOT of patience. i wish you luck my friend.

 

replacement systems are supposed to be new, if its a refurb then its wrong. get a supervisor or customer support. i just got a replacement a few weeks ago, and it was brand new.

 

I had a same problem
I uninstall 258.96 driver from nvidia & reinstall a driver i took from dell site , but last night this error came back ...

I still don't know what is that ???

 

Do you remember what did you do with your laptop, so we can compare and find out the reason of problem.

 

i would call a complain to dell...(dont be nice be angry curse alot, and threaten them) then have them send you a new system and keep both the refurb and the other broke one....mix and match the hardware and BAM you now have 2 AW..sell one =) if they say send it back tell them no because you shouldnt pay for shipping and waste your time...maybe the will compensate with an upgrade

 

best way is to be nice n calm, and persistent. Don't take no for an answer...

and they'll charge you for both systems if you don't send it back within 10 days...

 

OK, thanks for all the input.

Heres my next question. I am worried about getting charged for the refurb system also. Dell keeps saying dont send back the refurb in the same box, something about that box only being for my original system.

I have contacted the company that wants the system back and told them that dell said not to send back the system. I am tempted to just box up the refurb anyhow and ship it to them....after all it is defective.I am just worried that i will wind up getting screwed here, maybe they will say that i kept it too long or something like that.

anyone been in this spot before?

 

you didn't receive a return slip? you know, those UPS slips that you slap on a box and arrange for them to pickup?

Come to think of it, i think they send it to you by mail a couple days later. Anyways, if they don't send you one of those return slips, don't worry about it it's their fault You won't be charged for it then. I was referring to if you did get them, and decided to keep it anyways.

 

Oh yes, i did get a return slip, however, they want my orig M15, not the refurb. They told me not to ship the refurb back. I am not going to give them my orig cpu, i feel it is my only bargaining chip and if i send it back, i am accepting their refurb.....so, do you think i should send back the refurb even tho dell "said" not to?

 

i understand now... no way, you should call, and ask them to speak to their boss. Don't take no as an answer. Or you can always swap out the parts yourself (only if they are the exact same).

 

yea tell em to F them selves they are trying to cheat you they send back the one to dell as defective the get money backk on the more high priced one as you get the crap end of the deal....dont send it back cancel any card info you have with them...and if they do charge you go to the bank and tell them that you want what you paid for..they cant screw you then charge you for not getting you the right system...so they would be in trouble not you

 

Hi guys i ve had a 5850 installed last night. ever since then i ve been getting power cuts during game play. Dell thinks its a software problem. i have reseated the card etc. Anyone got any ideas? if so please write in the following thread. http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/518281-5850.html

 

Jackal I was in the same situation with my m17xr1 I had your best bet is to go check out the *Dell-Alienware & AW Legacy Replacement Systems-Warranty Repair Issues* thread. Tons of good advice. If they tell you not to send it back, don't. The company demanding a computer back is just division of Dell. Your best bet is to email the corporate resolution center, pm me for the address as we aren't supposed to post them in threads. Needless to say it took almost two months but I got a decked out m17xr2 that was new out of a used low spec'd m17xr1. PM me if you need help!

 

So I installed the Dell 2209Wc driver and I plug in my monitor to the M15x but I can't get 1680x1050, which is the optimal resolution for the monitor. I used to use this monitor on my PC so I am 100% sure it is capable of it.

I have a 5870m with the ATI 10.8 drivers

Any ideas? The max it does is 1600x1200 on the list

 

Hi i am new to this forums and have a few things i need help with.
which are 2 problems and 1 question
First problem is my display driver crashes everytime i watch a movie in full screen or somtimes it happens randomly i have tried reinstalling the driver and running ccleaner but still the problem comes back may it be in a week or so and pretty much when it stops responding it either send me to a blue screen telling me it had to shut down...
Second problem is my wireless card before it would run really great but since i had looked up on youtube how to speed up my internet and stuff and well wich lead to me downloading a program that lets you adjust your card so basically i dont know if it was that or somthing else i have done but yesterday i have formated my whole hard drive and did a fresh install on windows 7 ultimate yet my internet is running really slow somtimes it loses connection and i have to keep connecting
And well last thing is my question i have that when windows starts up my intel rapid storage says its not working properly although after a few minutes it does get running and says its running fine i just wanna know should i be doing somthing about that or is it fine?

Operating System
MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i7 740QM @ 1.73GHz 56 °C
Clarksfield 45nm Technology
RAM
4.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 648MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
Alienware (CPU 1)
Graphics
Generic PnP Monitor @ 1600x900
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series
Hard Drives
488GB Seagate ST9500420AS (SATA) 46 °C
Optical Drives
Optiarc DVD+-RW AD-7640S
Audio
IDT High Definition Audio CODEC

 

what bios version are you on? also what driver are you using?

 

Where you reffering to me or...??

 

yes, sorry forgot to do the quote thingy, hehehe

 

My DVD drive on my Alienware M15x isn't working, and I was wondering what driver I have to download in order for it to work..? I looked on the Dell driver site and downloaded the drivers in the DVD section, but none of those worked.

In device manager, the Optiarc DVD+-RW AD-7640S ATA Device says "Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers required for this device. A recent hardware or software change might have installed a file that is signed incorrectly or damaged, or that might be malicious software from an unknown source. (Code 52)"

 

Try this -- go Start|Control Panel|Network & Internet|Internet Options, then click on the Advanced Tab, scroll down to Security and select (check) "Allow software to run or install even if the signature is invalid."

 

I tried it and it still didn't work.

 

i have AO6 oh and by driver what do you mean the graphic card driver?

 

yes the graphic driver. i recommend updating your bios and your graphic driver to 10.7 or 10.8.

 

ok ihave the lastest bios so all i need to install it now as for the graphic driver i have this one http://forum.notebookreview.com/6388616-post18.html

 

dell drivers can be found here:

Drivers & Downloads

makes sure to select win7 as your os in the os option.

and here is 10.8 direct from ati site:

ATI Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

make sure to download the small 1.1mb file, and run it. that will run a downloader for the actual driver.

both drivers work fine with the system, just select the one you prefer.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...play-driver-5850-vbios-discussion-thread.html

 

uhm, Stupid question:

The dummy media card got stuck (pushed in to the max) in the media card slot. Is there an easy way for me to remove the dummy? I ttired to get it out by pushing in, but it does not move an inch. This never happened to me before and it seems that a spring or two might be broken in the slot. Does the card reader live on a separate pcb or is it on the motherboard?

Any ideas?

EDIT: it seems that the thing is soldered on the motherboard. And its also not enought to take out the palm rest to get access to it. Guess I need a new mobo >_<

 

if its the sd card read then it on the mobo itself.

 

i got it out with a little of prying. It seems that the spring on the slot is kinda broken :/

 

I have a quick question, after my m15x was dismantled and put back together to replace a mother board, the corners of my palm reast creak with i rest my palms onit, and it slides out a lil;. if i push the grill in and the palm reast it seems to stop. will opening it and and tightening everything help?

 

it should help. just open up the buttom panel and there is 2 long screws, 1 on either side of the hdd, take it out and push in your palm reat then put the screw back in and tighten. hopefully it should solve your problem.

 

The screws are labelled "P"

 

Just got my palmrest replaced. The tech was nice, but kinda creepy... Whispered a bit for no reason. o.o Still nice and got the job done quickly and now no palm rest creaking. DD

 

and your blue lights still match?

 

Just a quick question, is the right fan more powerful than the left fan? It seems so for my M15X. Or is my fan broken? -_-

 

what kind of load temps are you getting?

 

if i am not mistaken you are talking about the GPU so i would imagine the GPU fan would be spinning faster than the cpu when you are gaming but if you run a prime benchmark you will notice the fan on the left CPU spinning faster since the CPU has a higher load. The fans should fluctuate but during gaming the right fan will be louder than the left unless you have a XM processor than everything will be loud lolz

 

YEP. Well, I haven't extensively tested it yet...

Just tested it. Changes colors flawlessly and the lighting is more even than my last touchpad.

 

Eh, that's happened with 2 other laptops I've had. I guess calling up Dell would be the only solution...

 

I'm using SpeedFan and I think I have somewhere around 85 when I'm gaming. I think max was 87. Idle is around 53ish with CPU around 55.

I'm using nvidia 260 with bios A08. The graphic driver is the one from Dell support site, I can't remember what it is.

Yeah, I had thought that the GPU was on the left instead of right. When I opened my m15x I saw the GPU on the right, but then my laptop was inverted upside down, so it was on the other side normally lol.

 

yeah then its very normal the fans don't start kicking in till 65 i think. your cpu temps are good, but your gpu is slightly high but not dangerous.

 

I have a notebook cooler with 2 fans, one in each top corner corresponding to where the M15x fan junctions are

Should I turn those fans off? I don't know if they're more powerful than the M15x's fans

 

I know that this isn't exactly a M15x question, but I've been getting some insane lag spikes in GW since I got my baby.

It certainly isn't a connection thing; I can play GW totally fine on my craptop, in the same room, on the same connection, using the same cable. I use windows firewall on both machines, and both are windows 7 with the same exception set. My craptop has norton and my baby has Microsoft Security Essentials (but I don't think this is a problem in any case... it's just a virus scanner as far as I can tell and I've tried playing with it off).

Any ideas, these strange lag spikes are kinda troubling!

 

what's GW?

 

i'm guessing guild wars. but not sure either way i don't play it so its hard to comment on it.

 

Yeah Guild Wars, I found out what the problem was and facepalmed when the solution was so simple.

Set on win xp compatibility mode. Lagspikes go away! /cheer

 

Sweet. I found out I have stuck/dead pixels. Like maybe 6 or 7 of 'em, really hard to notice though. WHAT DO I DO NOW. DO I CALL DELL???

 

I've got a major problem. My 3 weeks old M15x all of a sudden started to have a huge down in framerate when playing games. I have been playing Starcraft 2 on high settings/1080p @ 60fps since I got the laptop. Yesterday when I woke up, I played 6 games, no problems whatsoever. 6 hours later when I return from school, I decide to play a few games. I start SC2 and noticed that the menu screen is ran at an extremely low FPS. I try to start a custom game but it's no good - still low FPS. I then try to play CoH on high settings. It doesn't run as good as I wanted it to, but it is no way near the "laggyness" I got in SC2. I then tried out TF2 - still laggy. I installed Futuremark Vantage. The first test took forever to load and when it finally got done it ran at FPS of 1-4...

So far I've tried to reinstall DirectX and the GFX drivers (both through windows update and nvidias download site). I'm not sure if it's GFX problem, because the Aero in Win7 works fine. Could it be a harddisk problem?

Anyone heard/tried anything like this? I seriously need some help!

 

^^^ did you check stealth mode? while your at it do a power drain.

 

Also be sure that PowerPlay is enabled in CCC and is set to Max Performance when plugged in, but does sound suspiciously like dear old Stealth Mode.