*OFFICIAL* "All Powerful" M15x Owners Lounge - Part 4

yea it not even letting me select it at all.

 

before or after you ugraded to A05...oh wait.. ur in the process aren't you.. lol

hmm i don't know... the option is there though?

 

yea all options are there but can't select it to boot from anything other than hdd. alot of strange stuff happening today, even nbr site seems buggy to me, it doesn't show members names on when i'm on the site.

 

ok i just wanted to get some reassurance that i shouldn't wait it out and not have my new laptop because of a new gpu coming out. I'm just gonna upgrade probably next year when i have gotten in my apt for university and most likely then will upgrade it myself and keep another year or two after.

 

well if you have the chance to cancel do it, may as well wait a few more weeks to get the new gpu.

 

i would like to do that but i moving to my new university in canada and so i don't want to pay canadian prices and im moving in about a month and a half so i would like to but i cant wait for june to come around lol.

 

The site is actually playing up. I can't see any members' names either.

 

That's if its a few weeks...and not a few months... ... never know with Dell.. but yeah the M15x NEEDS a revision already...been too long...

If it gets released sooner than later.

 

good thought i had a virus or something, haha
thanks for confirming

still have to wait awhile for the 260's to run out of stock.

 

i wish i could wait that long but im happy with a laptop that can play games at 1080p and well im just gonna upgrade my laptop whenever it gets here to the 5870 a year from now so i don't mind the wait. I've never had a really good computer system period so this one is just as good as gold. also i don't want to become an upgrade junkie lol.

 

ok so i just flashed to A05 ... everything went nice n smooth...scary stuff after the initial A03 release bricked systems...

Anyways inapropiateName_3 from now im calling u Inap...cuz the mods made ur name just wayyy too long lol...( its funny cuz i know EXACTLY what name u had be4 they changed it...judging from all your other accounts ahaha)

that being said...

Anyways... yea...so did u test out the bootable cd after u burned it? i mean like insert it and see that screen pop-up to make sure everything went ok after the burn? Not sure why ur not seeing the boot form cd option after pressing f12...weird .. .. wish i could help ya out more...

And yea...make it a solid 3 months after the 260M is no longer offered just to make sure loll..

I'm going to test for throttling myself ( even though apparently it's still present) since i had no other problems with my A03 bios whatso ever! lol ..

 

Yeah tested the disk and everything. Sure call me whatever man. Hopefully have some free time tonite to check it out further. Thanks

 

yup she still throttles...lol

 

Flashed to a05 also. Is fine. My alienFX lighting glitches seem to be gone also.. But perhaps that's because I reinstalled Command Center a05 too, which reflashed the lightfx board..

I have to mention that I have never seen my machine throttle, even with Prime95+Furmark on max etc.. Maybe I'm lucky? It doesn't even throttle when the gpu hits 89 (my highest so far)..

Woo hooooo I guess

 

wonder if my system will come with A05.

 

inappropriatename_3 from today will be officially known as "inap" ... LOLZ!!!!

Checking on the throttling issue as well...

 

Thats crazy!? maybe you have faulty powermizer hahahaha... which in this case.. proves to be not so faulty

Also Good news for all you OC'ing junkies out there!

the new 197.16 drivers for the 260M , allow it to Overclock even further! ( compared to the 195.62 i used to have installed)

Im at 700/1100/1700 stable... ( previously 660/1100/1660) and there's ZERO sign of artifacts and instability! WOOHOO

I think i can push it quite a bit higher...but i'll try later

 

Damn.. NICE MAN>>>>>>> Back to O.c....... lolz...

 

well while your at it could you possibly run 3dmark06 to see the difference in benchmarking and maybe see how it stacks up to other gfx cards.

 

3dmark06? alright... just for you man cuz i hate runnign benchies.. take so damn long lolll

 

lol just would like to see the jump in performance that's all appreciate that your taking the time out of your day to do a little benchmarking.

also +rep cause might as well not let it go to waste

 

so i got everything to work, i just kicked my M15x in the face and it solved everything. for some reason my internet speeds just double, hahaha.

 

Woohoo A05 really sorts out the Audio.. I can now send different signals to different outputs (using ASIO4ALL) http://www.asio4all.com/

1 Speakers
2 HP out (headphone)

FINALLY I can use it as a proper audio machine Including my Expresscard soundcard that gives me 3 independent stereo outs WOObloodyHOO!!!

EDIT: There were also a lot of random latencies before, and they are now fixed too!! My jam sessions are much improved cos things trigger in time now (it should have been like that before but it still feels like christmas day)

 

awesome great to hear that this bios fixes audio issues ive been reading about and wondering if i was gonna be stuck with an m15x with that issue.

 

awww man sorry dude i just realized i have some massive files downloading that i can't stop....might affect the score... here's my first score though that i ran some while ago... but now with my current OC'd clocks it should be even higher...but should give you an idea... i've attached the file... later tonight ill run the bench again with my new clocks

apparently it fixes all the issues i've never had but i wouldn't know hehehe

 

Yeah mate it certainly brought the sound card into the realm of "what it's supposed to do"...

2 stereo outs is great for monitoring before putting something into the mix, or for sending a metronome to one output and the song audio to another etc etc..

 

awesome score for the 260m can't wait for mine to get here

 

Sorry to be such a nerd about this, but the sound-card is delivering 2.7msec latency (at 96KHz) (0.7ms + 2ms offset)..

That's really good for an on-board solution

Thank you Dell, you made the machine much better for me just now

 

How so much love for the new bios, lol. Man so busy with work today, no time to test anything. Sorry guys wish I had time to bench and test out stuff to add to the community. Dam work, why can't I just get free money for doing nothing, lol. Well at least I got the a05 up and running. Don't know what happen earlier but I took out the coin battery and everything is working great again and somehow my Internet speeds has gotten better.

 

hey pras are you using IDT drivers or microsoft default ones...

what do you use that software for...

 

Hey bro I'm using the IDT drivers (I reinstalled them after the bios update and everything works now, so far)..

I'm using the ASIO4ALL drivers (which is a driver for WDM devices to work as ASIO devices (a professional sound interface, like directsound but for audio applications)..

I use Renoise mainly to play sequenced music and trigger live instruments and samples. ASIO also plays a part in Cubase and Premiere (for example) but it doesn't help for my needs in either application.

 

Nice to hear that the bios fixed your audio issues. It fixed them for me as well. Using windows default drivers.. They seem to be better than the idt ones (more bass)

What software did you use to check the latency(was it dpc )... I'll check mine as well and compare it to your results... Thnx..

AWESOME MAN!!! Need to dig more on that stuff.. But do you still get the tearing issue when volume is cranked up with earphones

and bro, can ya please try the windows default drivers and advise which are better drivers the idt ones or the default ones.. Nd hey J what drivers are ya using...

 

How exactly do you update the bios? Also should i update the alienfx too? i'm on 1.0.52.0 now

 

Yea your going to love it man...its just friggin awesome..makes you want to use it ( i never used to be on my laptop THIS MUCH before lollll....)
Im encoding some video right now.. right after its done im going to run a bench again with my new clocks.. see what i get...

Yea man Dell finally has gotten some things right with the new A05 bios ,,,took a while though for problems that shouldn't have ever existed..,but better later than never... lol

And yea i too was surprised with the sound and quality of the soundcard this thing uses... never needed to upgrade ( usually thats one of the first things i do) Never had the problems you and whitewiz had with the tearing and stuff...and even though it only showed 1 jack be4, it still worked for me as if it had all of em...but now its nice to see it has all 3 actually showing up like it should

ok so here it is quick quick...

1. download the A05 bios here : http://supportapj.dell.com/support/d...eckFormat=true

2. Using nero or wtv u use to burn cds...(Nero just owns other burning software..hands down) burn the .iso you downloaded to a bootable disc.

3. Re-insert the disc you just burned... it should autorun and a message should pop up saying you have burned it correctly and files are not corrupt. close this window and leave the cd inside.

4. reboot...and press F12 at the first screen with the alienhead.

5. choose the boot from dvd/cd drive option, and the cd will then load up.

6. just follow the rest of the onscreen instructions and the rest is straight forward....pretty simple actually.. but those are pretty much the steps

The new Command Center is pretty much the same...just an upgraded UI...and the lights can now be dimmed when on battery....pretty much it... i would update it yea...but alot of ppl had some problems doing it when it first came out.. those issues are prob fixed ith the new bios though ( im guessing) ...but i posted another mini guide on how to go about updating that too a while ago... ill dig it out for you

 

^^^^ wow so pro man. hey J do you use anyDVD work very good with nero. i love it. encoding some stuff right now too.

 

never tried that one! But then again most of the time im not ripping dvds to my pc then burning new ones... im downloading them off the net and converting the files to make them compatible with dvd players...and i just noticed my "supposed full license" nero 9's NeroVision isn't licensed so i downloaded AVS converter and works nicely so far for converting video files...

 

thanks yea im pretty much walking on the ceiling waiting for this thing to get here lol

 

yeah let me know if you need nero key, i have an official legit key. but if copy dvd's anydvd is sweet to have and work for any burner.

congrats man, excellent choice in laptop. and stop pressing the refresh button on your order page, it does not make it ship faster,lol.

 

April fools shenanigans. On my fav Warez site it told me I was an administrator as a joke

P.S. I've been using AnyDVD for years and it's never let me down.

 

So bios A05 is a must eh?
Ill install it as soon as I have min... Which most likely be on saturday! Busy with my GF, then work, then school, then friends and then sports... oh and its easter, gotta buy a ton of chocolate 8D

 

The standard drivers worked for me when the IDT drivers were not performing well. But you would sacrifice some functionality.

To be honest, I have no reason to use the windows drivers now. The IDT drivers (assuming they work well - which now they do) are going to be better.

Even the horrible stuttering while using the SD slot has gone.. So yeah, there were huge DPC issues before, now are gone.. No reason at all for me to use the basic windows drivers now

In fact, I would assume that the hardware accelerations available in the IDT chip PROBABLY arent activated by the Windows driver (assuming there is Hardware acceleration).

If there is and it is enabled in the IDT driver, then it would improve game performance when compared with the standard windows driver. But I'm not sure if this is the case with this particular audio chipset, anyone know?

Definitely recommended bro.. It's the one that removed even minor glitches from my machine like the lightingFX random flashing or sound stuttering etc.

Th SD slot runs at a decent speed instead of the 3.5MB/s I was getting [shudders]. It's still much slower than it should be, but at least it doesn't make the sound judder and glitch like an old lady on speed.

I said it before and will say it again, they should have called it the A0K bios.

 

I recently Ranted on this forum regarding the Software delivery on the M15x.. I wanted to share it here and I wondered if it's worth making my own custom install package and sharing it here to improve on the default FACTORY shipped drive setup..

1 Don't release BUGGY SOFTWARE unless you call it a BETA.. WE ARE NOT YOUR TESTERS, WE ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS.

2 The keyboard lighting stays on when you close the screen. I often leave the screen closed while the machine is processing if I leave the room to go do something else. If the screen led goes out, due to time out or closing the lid, then surely there should be an option in AlienFX that we can set the lighting to go out too. Otherwise the lights just stay on inside the closed screen for no reason.

3 There is a 16GB recovery partition which is storing 4GB of data. It's positioned at the beginning of the HDD. Why waste 12GB of real-estate at the FASTEST part of the hard-drive? On SSD the locations isn't important but it's still 12GB down the tube. (5% of the 256gb SSD)

4 At least Defrag (or better, optimise!) the hard-drive before you send it out. All manufacturers I've seen send out horribly fragmented factory setups but I'd expect more from a boutique brand. Jeez this is basic maintainance stuff. You should really be optimising it properly too, you know - cluster small files, put recently modified stuff at the slower parts, boot files at the beginning etc. That might be seen as overkill, but if my job was to do that - even for the crappiest company - I would still do it much better that the Alienware guys currently do it. That's not right! We expect the best!

5 Why not include some Demos from Nvidia (they are free and give instant gratification regarding graphic performance). If you're going to include crapware like Cyberlink and McAfee then why not include those demos? While you're at it, update those crappy wallpapers and make sure that there are lossless (png) 1080 wallpapers in there for those of us who hate blocky crappy images.

Of course, it's easy for me to complain about the things that aren't right or could be better. This is a fantastic machine but it's worth mentioning in the hope that someone in Alienware might read this stuff.

 

agreed. on all 5 accounts.

 

Maybe one day I'll get around to making a custom build for M15x users. Got too much else to do these days and need to spend time earning money instead unfortunately.

 

if you do please make it possible to connect a xbox 360 for kicks

 

well you can connect the controller...couple that with the DP outputting to a nice lcd tv... and you got yourself a system WAYYY better than a 360.. thas forsure

 

im just sayin cause i already have one and would be good for multiplayer on certain games that you couldn't do with a pc

 

sweet rant bro, sorry thats not as good as j's rant though, but oh yeah good times.lol

 

Err, I have a problem
My M15x wont boot anymore, until recently I've had no problem with all the hibernate/sleep stuff, but lately it's been hard to make it come back to life after.. Now It seems that I'm not even able to make it boot!
My alienFx lights are on and the three lights in the upper right part of the keyboard (cap lock and all) are flashing O_O
Halp?
[I didnt flash the bios or anything yet O_O]

 

the flashing is an error code, how is it flashing? so all of them are flashing? either something got to be reseated or something just died out. probably best to call dell.