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

congrats guys. you'll love it.

 

well i deleted it and thosnt seem like anything's a miss. Not sure if thats what was causing my problem but guess i'll find out if it happens again.

 

i have the service1 exe in my osd folder too. so what problems are you having?

 

@InappropriateName3

I'm using your color morph theme and this is what I get (look at left speaker) after updating to new CC (happens even after reverting back to old CC). What do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neVwa7-S0UQ

 

I got the sidewinder x8 in the mail today, I won it for free from a contest online. It's a really nice mouse, it's just the wireless receiver which acts as a storage device for extra sliding feet for the mouse, cable storage to charge and play the mouse, and use as the recever is kind of large. I can't complain though as it was free. It'd be great for desktops or for leaving at your desk for when you put your laptop on there. Definitely not mobile though.

 

it could be the theme it self, it was made with the old cc. i haven't used it in awhile, but i just set it back and have the same issue. if you want i can write up a new color morph for the new cc.

 

In my opinion, that is a bug in the latest firmware of the Command centre. There is a thread on the forum on how to revert back to the old version. It is a bit more involved than just installing the older version (since you need to reflash the alienFX firmware)

 

Congrats mate! Just a couple of days and you'll be ready rock and Roll!

I hope it runs flawlessly out of the box.

Enjoy it man!

 

My keyboard would randomly type old text that i've written before but i think i found the little bugger that caused it.

 

yeah i checked it and it was the theme itself. with the old one the sectors were numbered differently then new one. just download the new theme in my sig and enjoy.

 

can you share what you did, just in case anyone else runs into this problem. glad you fixed it though.

 

The 240m in the M15x, it's listed as 512mb but I read it's actually 1024mb, true or false?

Thanks guys

 

true, its been proven a couple of time already.. We still dont get you, dell!

 

I changed my sig, sorry. I have the 1600x900 screen and that's the res I run as well. I've only got i720 but you have the slightly slower RAM...not sure how that works out.

 

Nothing really to say about how i fixed. it was a file i got from ym school that seemed to have been infected.

 

hmmmmmmmmmm

 

Cheers mate the other workaround I've been using is only plugging in the cable into the M15x when I'm at the login screen (Windows 7). If anyone knows of a better workaround let us know.

 

I've got some scratching or popping noise comming from the speakers connected with the 3.5mm jack when I browse my computer and sometimes randomly. Is this to do with static in the sound card for m15x... I have also tried the same speakers with the other m15x same spec and no such noise comes on the other one...

 

moondy is kind of correct. "Venting frustrations"? What? No no, you have gotten the tone of my replies all wrong. Like I said before, "Use what you like, I do." I am simply correcting gibberish being said.

I am not saying, "Use Linux, It's the Best OS." That would be stupid. The best OS depends on what you want to do with the computer. All I am saying is what I am saying, nothing more nothing less.

If I read someone say, "NTFS is a rock solid file-system." I am not going to let that stand uncorrected. I am doing you a favor by teaching you the basics. You sound like a idiot. It doesn't matter what OS you like to use. You should still know this stuff.

No moondy I am not saying Ubuntu runs grate on this laptop, even though it dose. I hate Ubuntu. I was said all that "No Problem here" stuff because the other guys were saying that Linux is "So hard to use." I was simply pointing out that it is not. It is harder to use Windows. You guys are having loads of problems. Really guys Linux is far simpler to use then Windows. What is hard is learning a completely different OS. Enough with the compiling complaints and “it takes days to get a basic system up and running.” Really? Are you that stupid... come on guys I know you are not. You can install Linux and updates in 45mins and be playing games like WOW, EVE Online, Regnum, Racer, Torcs, FlightGear, AlienArena, Steam Games like- Team Fortress 2, Call of Duty 2, Left 4 Dead.... editing video, or watching Hulu. 90% of people using Linux use a binary distro not a source based distro. This is not 1992. All you do to install software in say Ubuntu is click on it and click “install.” All you do to install software from """Source Code””” in Gentoo is type... emerge firefox … and hit enter.

Really Wolfpup really...? Linux is not as big of a target and that is way there are not viruses for Linux...Really... you want to go with that? First off I already responded to someone who mentioned this blatant fallacy but I'll give a short explanation again.

No one cares what your doing on your laptop. An Attacker wants to get into Corporate, Military, Bank, Government Severs, deface Web pages, and get useful information. These servers are normally running Linux or some other Unix type OS. Like the US DOD and it's sub-contractors run RedHat Linux. The normal coarse of action is to own up a bunch of Windows computers like your laptop. Then use them as a bot-net to run DDOS and Brut force attacks on Linux/Unix Servers that contain useful data. Really Linux and other Unix OS's are the BIG target. Your Windows laptop got owned just because it was so easy for the Attacker to do.

Really the reason users of any OS other then Windows don't have any problem with Viruses, Ad-ware, or Spy-ware are far too numerous to count or explain to you. However, I can explain why no Unix type systems have Viruses. I can also explain why Linux users don't have Ad-ware or Spy-ware.

On Windows, you can download a mp3 and playing that can execute code which could say install a key logger on the system. However, in a Unix system nothing is executable unless you make is executable and nothing executes unless you execute it. Moreover, if you are using BSD or use a Linux Distro that uses it like Hardened-Gentoo. Even when you run a program with Root permissions. If that program modifies any files it is only modifying its own copy of that file. Everything on these systems is run in a sandbox. AND I know you going to say it... “you can use sandboxy in windows” BLA, that is not the same. The OS itself is built to do this “sandboxing." It's not some slow user space hack, it's in the Kernel.

The reason Linux users don't have Ad-ware or Spy-ware is because Linux is Open-Source. If anyone put malicious code in some program it would simply be removed. Also, Linux users download most of >90% of there software form their distos package repository which is all known to be clean code. Obviously the Windows games your running with WINE or Crossover Games are not from here and there for are a security risk.

And of coarse. Linux is Open-Source so if you find a hole you patch it. If you find a hole in Windows there is simply no way of patching it.

Wolfpup.... Really? Apple zealot? no dude NTFS is the only production file-system that has a problem with fragmentation. That is not a Linux fan boy thing to say it is simply the truth. Really ext sucks balls compared to Sun Microsystems ZFS. I don't know that much about MacOS's file-system, but I would not be surprised at all if their file-system doesn't have a fragmentation problem ether. In fact I would expect MacOS's file-system doesn't.

I guess I have to give you guys the short and sweet of how a Journaling file-system handles fragmentation. (Yes yes I know all about extents and everything else that NTFS could make use /or better use of, but this is the main thing that is wrong with NTFS.)

You see with a Journaling file-system, files get written to the physical disk. Some of these files grow, such as log files. Some files get deleted. What a Journaling file-system dose is it keeps a record of what files grow, what are the most common file sizes to be written and deleted, and yada yada. So, what happens is that the file-system learns that files in the log directory grow and by how much, what are the most common file sizes, yada yada. This way after you use the file-system for a bit it learns to, say leave a lot of 700MB spaces because I write a lot of 700MB movies to my disk and delete them. It learns to leave space after log files or other files that tend to grow. The method of doing this is called the algorithm the file-system uses to decide where data is written to the disk. When this algorithm is good, the file-system under normal use, like your laptop, will never have a fragmentation problem but always be just a few percent fragmented. When this algorithm is bad, it never gets things sorted out resulting in the level of fragmentation getting grater and grater, instead of less and less.

So, the reason I say NTFS has a debilitating fragmentation problem is because of the behavior of NTFS file-systems. A user can use the NTFS file-system on their laptop and do the same stuff all the time, such as download large move files, music, make documents, run a OS like Windows or Linux and over time the file-system never effectively makes use of what it has learned of the usage profile resulting in a file-system that gets more and more fragmented. It will never get back down to a few percent on it's own.

So, the reason I say ext3 file-system doesn't have a fragmentation problem is because of the behavior of ext3 file-systems. A user can use the ext3 file-system on their laptop and do the same stuff all the time, such as download large move files, music, make documents, run a OS like Windows or Linux. At first the file-system will get up to 6-7% fragmented but then over time the file-system's algorithm learns the usage profile and stops fragmenting files resulting in a file-system that gets less and less fragmented, 0-3%.

Now, there are extreme usage profiles such as the usage profile of the servers at RapidShare.com. There is simply no way to gauge what size file a user will write to disk. The file-system that is handling these extreme usage profiles simply can not be expected to keep themselves under control unless the servers have massive disk-space but that costs money. So, under these extreme usage profiles it is expected to use a defragmentation utility. However, under normal home computer use, your file-system should never need a defragmentation utility and if you do it is a sign of a big problem.

Yes, it dose have a registry. It is the configuration files. You see, on a Unix type system you make registry changes by simply telling the program what you want it to do in the well documented and easy to read configuration file. In Windows it is some cryptic hex value you have to change. In Windows if you have a whole bunch of conflicting registry keys it can cause problems. Even InappropriateName_3 was mentioning how using CCleaner to clean out the unused registry keys can solve problems.

 

Nice, my order was supposed to come the 12th, but Fedex tracking # says the 11th.

 

Hey, dont get me wrong, I am a supporter of Linux and only use Linux for any work related stuff. However, it is not entirely true what you just said. Something which used to be a very common programming error was buffer overflow. If a program would not check the input size of the buffer given, pne was able to "overwrite" the stack frame (and thus also the return address of a given function)and execute any particular piece of code. Im sure youll still find one or two programs which suffer from that problem and you could make it execute your piece of code given the correct input.

 

I have this same problem. I had it on my faulty M15x and I have it on my new replacement. I assumed it was the sound card too, but I'm really not sure.

 

Ok so my Alienware is coming tomorrow,

What should I update to? bios/drivers/etc?
And where do I find those?

What are the best ways to make sure everything performs how it should?

Do I have to register the machine for any special warranty issues or anything?

Will 3gb of ram perform well on a 64bit OS?

How long should I stare at it before tearing it open??

Hoping for a faulty free system(knock on wood)! I'll try to post some pictures after I do the above steps. THanks for any help all

 

its a new system so i'm guessing the bios should be up to date. maybe just uninstall your touchpad driver. everything else should be fine. 3gb ram is fine for your os but 4gb is the norm for M15x. also you do not have to register anything for warranty, everything you need is underneath the laptop.

anyways just fire it up and enjoy the pretty lights, congrats. also i just updated my color morph theme for new cc, if you want just download it and enjoy the light show

 

Man just notice my new theme still has a glitch every few cycles, flashes blu for a second on the left speaker. sorry guys back to the drawing board.

 

Just got the lappy and i love it
Fair change from the D900F
InappropriateName I tried your theme but no luck "Not compatible"
Any solutions?

Damned french KB

 

i think you still have the original command center, gave me a few minutes and i'll upload the older one for you. i just revamped the the new one so it doesn't have the blinking speaker, will upload that too. btw congrats on the new lappy.

edit: just added old them to my sig, just download old cycle morph if your using older cc.

 

I have A03, I installed A05 and it borked my Win7 x64 install (Keyboard got all messed up) so i went back to A03, any chance the new A05 will be fixed anytime soon?
Cheers man

 

yeah new cc is really buggy, but a few people including myself have got it to work. i recommend waiting a bit for a newer version. also make sure to download and run ccleaners to clean up old registries when installing and uninstalling drivers and programs.

 

Much change in the new version of CC?

From what i saw it just looked like a new GUI?

 

They came in and replaced my keyboard bezel, speaker lights and touch pad.... They don't seem to think that the light flickering and other alienFX issues are due to the new CC bricking something in the system.

I finally got in touch with a tech supervisor. He will get in touch with me in 2-3 business days for getting a replacement.

 

yeah just a new look, makes it easier to make themes.

wow they did all that just for the blinking light for the left speaker. keep me posted.

 

Right on a logical correction to something I wrote. But I am pleased that buffer overflows/stack smashing and the like are not possible in RedHat or SUSE based distros or any Kernel in which you have enabled PAX & SSP. Even the vanilla Kernel has implemented much of PAX. The BSD Kernel dose this too.

A small bit of what PAX and SSP do is they randomized the location of everything in memory, they put a check bit in the front of all executable memory blocks, they also make all executable memory blocks read only. This way if you overwrite a buffer there is no way to tell where the next executable memory block will be, rendering buffer over-flow attacks and the like imposable. If the Attacker somehow found a way to over write an executable memory block they would be overwriting the check bit. Any time the computer is going to execute code form memory it checks that bit and if it is not there or has been changed it doesn't execute.

http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/hardened/
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/hardened/pax-quickstart.xml
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/hardened/pic-guide.xml
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/hardened/pie-ssp.xml

 

Cant find my service tag
Looks like i might be stuck with an M15x with a french keyboard which gets very annoying >.>
Dell wont let me email them without my service tag, which i dont think i have as its a refurb, I checked underneath and i found one code and tried it but aparrently its invalid

 

Yeah you can DIM the lights now - woohoo.. A few other under the hood upgrades I think.. I wish they would allow you to dim the lights to the lowest level. I don't need much light to see the keyboard in the dark!

 

So I had the laptop for a few days now.. Working great.. Solid machine. just hammering as many games and tech demos as I can. Great for editing, encoding etc. So far so good, no build issues

 

Nope never was. Just telling you how it works. Sorry if you wish to remain ignorant then don't read it. If you want the best gaming experience then use Windows. If you wan the most secure OS then use NetBSD/OpenBSD/Hardened-Gentoo. If you want the best overall file-system then use ZFS. Fastest file-system for large files use XFS for small files use RaserFS. Best file-system for a SSD on Unix for a workstation use ext4/ZFS on a server with a mixed disk setup use ZFS. If you want to develop really solid C++ then use Solaris.

 

nah you were *ing about windows, and going on about how great linux is (preaching). its kinda boring and you'll find quite a few posts from yourself on that topic. Anyways, whatever man.. I just come here to read about the M15x, not interested in OS-bashing or comparison.

Thinking that I "remain ignorant" by not reading your great wonderful advice is just arrogant mate. I don't go discussing my own research or interests here because it's a forum about a Gaming Laptop by Alienware and I don't feel the need to "educate" people on what the best file system or operating system is. But good luck to you.

 

Linux is only great depending on what you want to do. Never did I say Linux is great. I said there is not viruses, bla, fragmentation problem and all that is true. That is not saying Linux is great that is just saying that it doesn't have those problems. But ya, Windows dose suck and Microsoft dose make crappy software. That is not bashing that is the truth. However, if you want to play the most Windows games then you should use Windows no matter how bad the file system is or how insecure it is. If you know how to make Windows do what you need then should use Windows.

But just because Windows is the best OS for what you want to do with your computer doesn't make the software good nor dose it make NTFS rock solid.

I have not been preaching I have been defending what I said. I said 2+2=4 you said it =5 I said 1+1+1+1=4 you said math is stupid. I said if you take four sticks and put them in a pile you have a pile of four sticks. You said stop preaching I don't like math 2+2=5 I don't care about 1+1.

 

Damn, I wish this was accurate

 

hahaha no mate.. You don't realise that it's not ignorance. I know Linux very well and have been programming in assembly since 1986. So ask yourself what I am reacting to. It's the bad attitude. You'll see if you read back your posts.

Prefer one, prefer another. Your choice. I just don't like the way you subtly condemn as you tell everyone how solid and stable and secure Linux is. Linux can be great when set up by an artisan. But for the general community and gamers especially, Windows is miles ahead.

As I said 20-30 posts back - this is off topic and we should both stop.

If you can't get off your high horse about your computing skills, that's fine. I'll just ignore it

 

I have no high horse about my computing skills. I sure hope you don't.... I said Microsoft makes crappy software and NTFS has a honorable fragmentation problem. I NEVER said Linux is the best OS "nor would I ever say that." I was simply showing you that there are other ways of doing things that work better rather then just saying NTFS should not need a defragmentation utility. Rather saying Windows is insecure, I gave examples of OS's that do not allow for those vulnerabilities.

 

Linux is good for servers and computer nerds. Windows is a balance between access to the industry of computing and ease of use - it's not crappy but you are entitled to your opinion.

My opinion is that MS make some damn good software sometimes. Windows 7 included. That's my opinion, it does the job for me, I use Linux on other machines for other tasks.

Personally, I bought my M15x to play games, edit video, render 3D, write music, browse the internet etc.. Running Linux on it would be a waste of a good computer in my view. Better use a smaller, lighter setup.

It's not important if you think MS makes crap software or if windows is insecure. This forum isn't about enterprise security management or why ZFS is better than NTFS.

I just don't like people trolling and nagging. Let's all just enjoy and help each other out. Computers running any OS will run great if in the hands of someone who knows how to work around the quirks.

Honestly though, the majority of your posts have digs at Microsoft in there. What's wrong? Did they steal the water from your village to make their soft drinks?

 

But yeah, apologies to the rest of the forum.

@echoblack - if you really want to talk further about this, let's do it by PM. We are both clogging up this fine thread.

 

Yes by far Window7 is the best version of Windows. Windows7 solved a whole boat load of problems. It is much more secure then XP, is a snappy OS and is light on the system resources. It even runs great on my room mates really old dell laptop with 512MB of memory.

Ya, I dinged Microsoft left and right and gave examples. People were saying my examples where wrong and so I gave more examples as to how it I was not wrong. From the stand points I was making my remarks I was correct form a gamers stand ping I was wrong, well the OpenGL verses DirectX is debatable. A developer may be best to go with OpenGL because he could hit a larger market share Windows/MacOS/Unix much more easily. But fundamentally OpenGL and DirectX are not the same.

Yes, Microsoft has hurt me directly. They will not give me my money back for the copy of Windows I never used. They perverted the ACPI standard. They gave a solid shot at perverting Web standards. They do much to use there market share to force businesses out of business and other under handed things like trying to cripple net-books memory to 1GB. They make frivolous lawsuits against OpenSource projects in an attempt to drain there funds and spread FUD. They have been found guilty of Anti-Monopoly charges by both the US Supreme court and the EU.

But ya, use what you want. I never said nor would I ever say Linux is the Best OS. That depends solely on what you want to do with your computer.

-------------

Sure lets drop it now. We are only be repeating ourselves at this point.

 

Hello, a friend of mine wants to buy a m15x for Audio editing.
I have a m17x and i know how much trouble we m17x owners have been through cause of stuttering, audio/fps issues etc...

I wanted to ask if the m15x got any stutter/audio problem, can i suggest it to my friend or does m15x have any major issue? thank you

 

I did notice some audio stuttering issues when playing music while multi-tasking. Not sure if it was my system though. I've got issues with other stuff as well and am waiting for a replacement authorization.

 

patiently waiting for my system to be delivered today.... hopefully the fed ex guy comes soon

 

Hey gotta fix for it just uninstall the driver for the audio and let windows install the driver. It will fix the issue. I don't know why it is a issue with some m15x and not with others. Its more of a random problem than on all m15x. It would be better if you do a fresh installation of windows 7. any advice Inappropriatename...

And Enjoy your M15x ... steelcurtain... its worth all the wait.... every second of it...

 

Waiting down stairs all morning for it to come.. see a fed-ex truck drive down the street but doesn't stop?! dang... hopefully another one comes around soon.