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

I think I have the same problem. Stuttering sound when the headphones jack driving the sound out. It's pretty annoying. I will keep it this way because I don't trust Dell's technician. They tend to mess things up and do scratches on your Alienware. So, guys, any advice?

 

Try uninstalling the IDT drivers and check the box to remove the driver from the system. Let windows install the default driver... worked for me...

 

For the integrated webcam, I know its 2.0M so why when im on a video conference program other people say my video is coming through grainy. I was using tokbox.com when this happened and people with cheaper webcams were getting better pictures? I tried looking for webcam drivers but I cant find any? Anyone else encounter this problem?

 

Damn.. Check this out...

GPU score without beta driver and no OC was 4962

http://service.futuremark.com/home....4905E164CC40F2?resultId=1992719&resultType=19


Now

VANTAGE SCORE: 7411

GPU score 5986 ...

Missed 6000 by 14..

GPU OC to 650/1100/1700

Attached Image
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3dMark Vantage Benchmark for GTX280m done by nootebookcheck.net was 5314

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=359172

GTX260m OC gives me 5986...

 

W00t!! M15x rocks!

 

Has any one had a problem trying to turn there m15 on at times only i am starting to get times when it will not turn one at all , only get the alienhead light up as normal but when i press the button to turn laptop on the light go,s out instead of turning lappy on, then i press it again only to have the alienhead light up again getting more common on my lappy now, and me getting worried

 

could be a windows problem: try to do a repair install of windows to see if it helps.

 

wow impressive score. did you flash your gpu yet?

 

no i Didn't flsh my gpu.Tthis is without a bios flash of gpu its just Nvidia system tools overclock and it outperforms GTX280m @stock.

OC @ 650/1100/1700

 

Did the Resident evil bechmark as well. Last time at stock with rivatuner it ended with a 45 fps avg.



Now @650/1100/1700 it gives a 64 fps avg with 1920x1080 res no AA no Vsync rest all HIGHEST settings....

 

Now, GPU OC @ 675/1150/1750

3dmark Vantage

Score 7785

GPU Score 6263

http://service.futuremark.com/home....F59FCD63A47C4A?resultId=1995562&resultType=19



M15X ROX....

 

I finally got my replacement request approved. They are building me a new M15x and will ship in the next 3 weeks. Can't wait to get rid of this one. Damn you biggy command center...

 

They should send you a years worth of free Subway sandwiches or something. That's like the fourth one now? You should send an email to the top Brass at Alienware so they know that this happened..

 

There was a problem with the M15x (not sure if it has been fixed with the bios updated). When you set the screen brightness to the lowest setting and restart/turn on the laptop, the screen backlight wont turn on until the login screen.

Try what have mentioned to see whether that is the problem.

 

You flashed your gpu im guessing? I'm pretty sure there's no way those clocks are stable with the stock .9v .... Do you use ati-tool to check for artifacts? DO they run 1hr stable?

If they do then your damnn lucky to have your hands on such a beast of a card...haven't tried mine yet ... but a friend of mine just told me he has trouble reaching 600/1450/975 on his (with stock voltage)...

 

I haven't tried 675/1150/1750 but I imagine I would get a lot of artifacts..

If you managed that without upping the Voltage then you are indeed lucky!! Someone has to get a pristine part every now and then

 

No, I did not flash the bios of the GPU. Just used the standard Nvidia System tools. And did the benchmark without increasing any voltage and finsihed the benchmarks without any errors....

But i didn't overclock it for an hour. around 30-40 minutes had no errors but just downlocked it to stock. I heard someone say that it shorten the lifespan of the Card. Does it really???

I had 600/1100/1700 on stock for around 2 hours.. no problems did 3dmarkvantage, 3dmark06, Resident Evil 5 Benchmark on stock settings, 1920x1080 no AA no VSync and also tried it maxed out(FULL AA and VSync on). Did not encounter any problems doing all these.

Is the ATI tool any good. Never tried it.. Just send me the link for it I'll try that as well. Am loving my M15x.. Do I need to be running games for an hour (demanding ones).. How do I test the stability. I thought if couple benchmarks run succesfully.. it is pretty stable.. any comments..

Whats the artifacts u guys referring too... errors ... what Kind??? So I'll keep an eye for them..

 

In about 2 weeks or so I should be expecting mine. Does the keyboard really have a slight rubbery feel to it?

 

Meh, it might feel like rubber, but it definitely does feel great.
I really like the keyboard on this one, much better than the one I had on my ol' dell!

 

All i can say is...wow...You are indeed lucky then my friend. I hope i have the same luck with my card, i think i'm going to do a few rounds of overclocking tonight (it's extremely time consuming...lol)

But yea if its stable for 30-40 mins then i'm pretty sure you're good. ALthough they do say benchmarks do not fully test out stability, and the best way is to play a recent game like crysis or something for about an hour, to really test it out in real-time. What i was talking about earlier (to watch out for artifacts) is really quite simple. If your clocks are too high, you will visually notice artifacts, or in simple terms, graphical distortions like random lines, squares, blotches on the screen that flicker. These are called artifacts and mean your card cannot handle the clocks, and you should turn down all clocks by 2-3 pts untill they stop.

As for damaging your card, i wouldn't worry about that. Especially if your not upping the voltage you have nothing to worry about. The only way cards get damaged is by high temps, but because the M15x has an amazing cooliing system, and your not increasing the voltage to the card ( the main culprit for frying cards) Even at those clocks you've reached your more than fine. And if you think 73degrees is hot, don't worry its not enough to damage anything. My hp dv6t runs at that temp surfing the web... LOL... Hot means like upper 80s... then you REALLY start degrading your card...but either way, these things are made to take a beatings nowadays and are rated at above 100degrees, and both Nvidia n ATI cards have several measures to protect the cards ( yes like the infamous powermizer which is said to cause throttling).

ATI tool was basically designed to measure stability and has a feature to with time so you know how long you've been stable for. Also, it has a artifact testing feature and is alot easier to run than say, 3dmark vantage, so if your overclocking, it makes it alot easier to do preliminary tests. Here's the link:

http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

Don't worry about the certificate errors and ATI tool not displaying your card/clocks, as you won't be overcloking with it anyways. just use it to test for artifacts and stability.

Enjoy .. Now i'm off to overclock my own .. wish me luck on reaching those clocks! ( i HIGHLY doubt it)

 

^^^ dang it J was about to answer this one, hahaha. and good luck with the oc'ing. white wizard is making me get the oc itch again ,lol. btw white wizard did the windows login thing work for you?

 

Hahahaha! Yeah same here! But he already suckered me in! lol... When i first got my M15x im like, ahhh i'm never gonna OC, but Thanks to white wizard Here i am Ocing again... anywho after 2 hours of playign around with the clocks, i managed to get:

590/990/1460 Stable across the boards. ( Ati-tool for 50mins, 3dmark06, Vantage, furmark)

I know the clocks aren't that high yet, but i got my base. I know those are Rock solid. Haven't tried them in real-time though, but the synthetic tests are pretty damn promising. I don't like to rush into turning up the clocks and i've always had great success in the past, finding a rock solid base, and working the individual clocks up from there.

I Still don't see how i'm ever going to come anywhere near White Wiz's Clocks with stock voltage... It just seems way out of the 260m's league for me...especially the shaders...but props anyways White Wiz... You might just have set the record there as far as i know...

 

hmm, 600/1100/1700 - will try that lower core clock might help

Artifacts = glitches.. You'll see them when you get em, or your machine will just freeze..

 

I'm quite sure you can push the shaders way further on my lowly 8600GS I pushed the shader clock ONLY and got a 60% increase in MHz which equated to around 30-40% increase in most games' performance.

 

Yes hopefully you are right, like i said...i only did a couple rounds and found those clocks to be extremely stable so far...I am by no means satified yet with them loll... i'll just use them to revert back to when all hell breaks loose and i can't seem to get stable anymore...thats what i mean by building a base...well wtv thats my technique anyways...to each his own. lol

 

Ok hold the phone.

Why am i seeing diffrent clock speeds in Rivatuner's Hardware Monitor than the sliders i've adjusted? Can anyone check if this is happening to them as well? Im assuming the hardware monitor isn't right...As GPU-z reports the same clocks as the sliders do...Also, i found that using rivatuner, i was getting artifacts at low clocks, but when using Nvidia system tools, i didn't at those same clocks...i still don't understand the reasoning behind this... maybe a driver issues with rivatuner? i don't get it...

That being said...I got amazing results using NST!! White Wizard and Mr. Pras you guys are absolutely right! The GTX 260M REALLY IS UNDER-RATED!! I mean i never had a Graphics card which OC so nicely at stock voltages! This thing is a beast!! i'm officially @ 675/1690/1100 Stable and still feel like i can squeeze more out of it with further testing! I've tested those clocks over and over and just finished playing about an hour on Far Cry 2, and saw a Considerable Performance increase. I used to avrg about 25-35 FPS running 900p,AA 2x,V-sync,All settings Ultra Hhigh .... Now I'm getting 35-50FPS at those same settings! And when i cranked it to 1080p,AA 8X,V-sync on, Ultra High (Maxed out Completely) I'm getting 28-35FPS, with my lowest dip down to 25FPS...And the best part is i checked the GPU-z log and my temps never passed 66 degrees! I'm just in awe...My last overclocking experience i got such tiny improvements that i never did bother to keep the OC...But THIS IS WORTH IT

Who needs a GPU revision? I Don't! lol... Sorry i doubted you guys it just sounded too good to be true...but now that i've tried it for myself... I Advise Many of you on these forums to give it a shot...as these 260M's are really proving to be diamonds in the rough...

Tomorrow i'm going to run Crysis and see how well that does. And to think at the beginning i was taking it easy on this card...now it blows a stock 280M right out of the water!!!

 

Anyone tried metro 2033 on their M15x yet? i would like to know how it performs on the system. thanks

 

I've got the original Razer Lycosa so the M15x's keyboard in comparison to that it's not rubbery at all. Having said that the M15x keys do have a little bit of texture, so maybe that's the slight rubbery feel you've heard of.

 

For you M15x owners:

I know it weighs around 9-10 pounds, but is this thing more portable than say a 17inch notebook? If so, how much more? I'm coming from a 17 which weighs just as much as the M15x, but I'm banking that the actual size will make it easier to carry around.

Secondly, how does the 260M perform? I read its been around for almost a year now, so I was kind of hesitant to seal the deal (even though I did anyway). Anything about it you can tell me that will make me happy about my purchase?

 

What drivers are you using? I tried OC'ing with Nvidia System Tools once before and I could not get it to apply the clocks that I had set with it. RivaTuner is the only one that has been working for me, but if you get so much improvement from NST then i'd like to try it myself.

 

Hello everyone,

I ordered the M15x last week on Wednesday the 10th but the order was only confirmed on Friday. It went into production around Monday the 15th and then today Wednesday the 17th my order status changed to "Order Shipped".
It also have a Tracking Number that doesn't work. It will go to the UPS but it will say "UPS could not locate the shipment details for your request. Verify your information and try again."

I didn't get any emails from Dell about this early shipment and my EDD was suppose to be 31/03. Is this a normal thing for Dell? What should I do?

 

Order shipped means that they have finished it and it's in the box. The tracking number will appear when the courier picks it up (happens every few days).

Don't panic! It sounds like everything is okay. Just give it a few days.

You'll probably not see your computer for at least another week so just enjoy the excitement.

After a few days you will see that the link works and sooner or later (if not already) you should have an email from Dell which confirms the delivery date exactly.

For me this date turned out to be accurate.

It's worth the wait my friend, welcome to computer love haha

 

When you get it, and especially if you OC it (see Jstarinos previous post) you will love it..

It's not up to par with the newer Desktop chips of course, but expect highspeed 1080 maxed out goodness.

The size is okay, it's pretty big for a 15inch nearly a 17inch. And yeah it's heavier than the average bear

The thing that will make you the most happy with your purchase is just using your machine. It's the best built Notebook I've ever owned and certainly performs up to expectations.

 

I'd imagine yes...and i lug this thing to school almost everyday. Yes it's bigger than most laptops, but i don't find it a problem bringing it around...Plus the bigger size makes it the laptop with the best cooling system around... i mean you could overclock this beast without worrying about temps! That's unheard of in the laptop world!!

As for Performance? This thing really is a mobile powerhouse. Rips through anything i've ever thrown at it, even the most demanding tasks with ease. never skips a beat, and never experienced bottlenecks since i got it...just pure speed! As for the 260M, even at stock clocks it played all the latest and greatest at more than satisfying settings ( Crysis, Farcry 2, BadCompany2, MW2...you name it!) ...And if you OC it (like i just did) this card gets huge performance increases by doing so, and it'll feel like a much better card, and will surpass the performance of a GTX 280M by quite a longshot! Don't let it's age fool you, the 260m is really an amazing card, and i have recently just gained a lot of respect for it.

I'm using 195.62 ... Hey since all is well with Rivatuner for you, can you check what clocks the hardware monitor displays for you? even at stocks clocks it showed higher mhz than the sliders displayed when i used it last night...And like i said in my last post, i couldn't OC the card without artifacts showing up even at low clocks with rivatuner....weird i know.. considering i've only used rivatuner in the past...first time i use NST (also first time i have a Nvidia card actually lol)

As for it not applying the clocks... for me as soon as i press apply they changed instantly....however now that i think of it... after a while of OCing, i remeber the laptop being stuck in 2d clocks, and even when i ran 3dmark06 it wouldn't trigger the 3d clocks... is this what you mean? i just restarted and all was resolved...

Also, 3dmark Vantage STILL DOES NOT trigger the 3d clocks for me.. and i'm not sure why. I'm thinking of running rivatuner to enable "force constant 3d performance mode", but would rather solve the problem than override it with that...anyone's take on this? Possible reasons/fixes? Thanks

 

Hey how high can I expect to OC my i7 720QM? I never owned an i7 Processor before. Does the M15x limit processing power when the M15x is running on battery life?

 

Thnx!!! for the help.. I've tried the ATI tool it shows no errors but still can see a lot of glitches like yellow spots and patched when OC @ 675/1125/1725
Reduced it to 680/1000/1650 very few glithces. But can run benchmark on the higher OC. Did testing for 50 min on ATI tools 680/1000/1050. The program found no errors. But if you keep staring you can spot couple of micro second glitches in a duration of 6-7 minutes. I think this should be fine... But I can run resident evil benchmarks and play games on 650/1100/1700 without any glitches. Except you can see the artifacts when using ATI tools on these clocks. I cannot change my shader clock with 1mhz increments .. It increases by 50mhz. I also used both 195.62 WHQL driver and 195.81 BETA for OC and found out that there were relatively less artifacts with beta drivers more stable OC with the beta drivers.

When I set everything at stock. My memory clock is set at 950.4 instead of just 950.

You jumped for the OC so quick couldn't even wish you luck. Even though it's bit late BEST OF LUCK...

Thnx!! for all the help!!! and are you referring to restart problem. If you are then it is resolved. The problem was due to rivatuner... USING NST now.. So everythings resolved...

 

Yep!! u were right about the artifacts.. SPOT ON!!! but with beta drivers I ran the ATI tool for 30 min and spotted couple of artifacts (spot or small box yellow patch but still says no errors for xxxx sec) in a duration of 10 minutes (OC @ 660/1100/1650). Is there any fps gain, if I increase the memory clock. If not, might as well reduce the memory clock to 950 for more stability.. And the 2.5 ratio of the core and the shader clocker is it neccessary.

Thnx!! The moment u mention NST and OC GPU... everyone just started the OC.. Damn pushed it to 675/1150/1725 (loads of artifacts though only in ATI tools) .. DAMN... Did a 3dmark Vantage Benchmark as well...

Temp like 70 degrees when running ATI tools artifact testing...

ONLY THING LEFT GPU BIOS FLASH for stability!!!!!!!!! LOL!!!!

 

M15x ROXXX....... ENJOY !!!!!!

 

Even I cannot push the GPU with rivatuner the driver crashes...

 

After OC the GPU.. NOw lets talk about OC the CPU.. Any Comments J, Pras and Inappropriate name

 

Hey WhiteWiz, nice catching up now its my turn loll...
About the artifacts...When ppl speak of stable clock speeds, it implies there is ZERO artifacts, even if they are really minor! And the thing about Ati-tool is that it does not detect all of them, only the major ones i guess... it really needs an update...but yea i would trust your eyes more than the software to pick up artifacts.. if you see tiny yellow dots within ten mins, you should lower your clocks even if it says no errors if you're not going to flash the gpu for stability...as i think this can damage the card in the long run. Unless all you wanna do is bench, then you don't need stable clocks, you just need them to last the time of the benchmark without crashing...that's how you see those rediculous scores posted on 3dmark...but if you plan to game for long periods of time...you need PERFECTLY stable clocks, with zero artifacts, cool temps and smooth benchmarking every time.

Its nice to see i'm not the only one.. i guess it is a driver issue then... ohwell NST does the job

about OCing the CPU....i think that's going to be alot harder with the i7's, and quite honestly... i'd have to read up on it bcuz i really have no idea of how to go about that... but i heard its alot harder/riskier becuz there's no FSB anymore...and that's the only way i knew how to overclock the cpu on the old core2duo's...

And just a note: played Crysis 1.5 hours on 675/1100/1690, no artifacts on Ati-tools whatso-ever... Crysis topped out at 73 degrees only for an instance...and avrg about 68degrees...and as low as 63 degrees! Now thats a coolign system my friends

Running 1080p, 2xAA, Settings on ULTRAHIGH, (except textures,physics, shadows on high) i got 23-30 FPs..never went below 20... Same setting before OC were usually always under 20FPS...

 

Jstar, did you flash to 1v?

 

Nope... i know...hard to believe isn't it!? it didn't make sense to me either till i tried it and sure enough...the 260M could handle it no prob

 

as of the moment only the 920xm can be oc'ed with evga eleet tuning tools. hopefully i'm wrong but if you wish you can download it and test it out. i did oc my cpu for a while but thought it was overkill.

did a few oc test for the gpu last night so far only running 600/1100/1650 using nst, if i have time tonite i may try again. but i doubt i can match white wizards clocks without major artifact. kinda tempted to flash the gpu, dang you white wizard, just had to oc huh,lol.

 

LOL!!

THE OC itch is irresistible... Can't explain why but its just one of those things...

I'm tempted to flash the gpu as well.. Checked for artifacts.. 640/1100/1600 ... rock solid checked with ati tools for more than an hour max temp 65 degrees.. maintaining the 2.5x ratio of core and shader clocks...

The OC also depends on drivers as well. 186.47 overclocks further than the rest while maintaining stability. 195.62 OC but you can notice artefacts. The beta driver 195.81 is a bit better than 195.62 in terms of stability. I have managed 675/1175/1725 (195.81) with loads of artefacts on the ATI tools... didn't notice anything on benchmarks and games though.

overclocked to 660/1100/1650... No artifacts on Ati tool. But they appear after 70 min or so on the ATI tool ( was running ATI tools for 80 min) ... DAMN.... Hey J check yours as well (effects seen after 1hr 10 min). What driver version are you using J...

If i am not wrong JOKER already flashed his GPU (i.e. before he returned his m15x..) What stable clocks was he hittin... If it was as high as 700/1200/1800 stable... I would flash my GPU instantly.. highly doubt that.. Before I flash would like to know the effects of BIOS flashing first and would like a hassle free way of flashing the GPU as well....

There is one shown on the M15x throttling thread. But its like a bit... U know what I mean..

 

hey Jstarnino... check your GPU-z does it show 1670 for shader clock or 1700.. because if I push it... The increments are like 50 mhz in GPU-z.. It doesn't show 1680 or 1675... only 1650 or 1700...

 

Now, Does the SSD give a HUGE performance gain as compared to the stock 7.2k ones.. Because looking to get one.. But 300 pounds ($500) is really pushing it... Is it worth it...

 

^^^ for gaming just faster load times, but it won't gave you better fps. but pretty much everything else you would see a performance increase in. opening apps, big file and saving info happens almost instant. get it you will never regret it, you hdd is your biggest bottleneck in your system, once you get an ssd your system will feel totally different. i suggest a 128gb or 160, the 256 is really over priced right now. example i have a picture folder with over 100 photos, i open it and all photos pop up in 1 sec instead of seeing all the photos load row by row in a regular hdd.

 

My baby has finally landed!!!!!!
I don't know anything about overclocking or anything, but it runs faster and smoother than anything I have ever owned right out of the box. Keyboard is the best I've ever used, my touch-pad is even great. No cursors flying around, no stuttering, nothing. The lights are great to play with of course and all my work software was installed in a breeze. So far I haven't experienced any problems, no sounds or creaking, no flex, no loose parts, no uneven lights on the keyboard...
And the display is absolutely gorgeous! God, I love this machine!

The only minor downside is that it came in Spanish although I had ordered it in English, but that's no problem for me.

BTW - According to the Nvidia folder in Control Panel, the GT 240 is indeed 1 Gig, just as posted a couple of times on this forum. So why do both Alienware's and Dell's website say it's 512MB?