Upgrading M15x nowadays

Hi everyone

I'm still in love with my Alien M15x, so I have decided upgrade it. I have read many posts here and now I know which components are "must have", but I don't know where I can buy them.

For example, 940xm and 970m, I've only found them in chinese sellers from eBay. Do you know if you can trust in these pieces? Do you know of a trusted place to buy them?

A lot of thanks

 

They usually are, pay with Paypal and test the hardware when it arrives and if it doesn't work, open a claim.

 

I use auction sites such as Allegro and OLX (former Gumtree in Poland). Can't help you with the 940XM (no current listings), but 970M are in an abundance, especially new ones. Most of them CLEVO, but some Dell releases can be found.

 

I have genuine 920XM available for purchase, pulled from a M17x R2

 

how much?

 

Just to pop in with info, there are currently three listings in my area with 920xm, averaging at 85-90USD, Poland, so shipping to US would be not worth the bother I guess. However for Europe I believe it is a decent price.

 

I’m from UK

 

Thanks for the offer, but actually the 920xm has been the easiest to get. There was a vendor near my town.

Next upgrade will be a SSD and this raises a question for me: is windows 10 worth it?

I am planning a clean installation of windows and I wonder if I keep W7 or jump into W10. Any advice?

Thanks!

 

We'll, apart from security reasons, by the way Windows is now fairly self-secure with Defender, compatibility issues and driver support does the job. Haven't had much experience with Win7 and 8, but on 10 I am satisfied with the M15X experience now.

 

Bad news... I just installed the 920xm and my M15x doesn't start. After the "windows initializing", the screen goes black and the password screen doesnt appear. I can enter safe mode and check that windows recognizes the micro. It even appears reflected in the bios.

I see that there are many posts in the forum, I have to investigate what is happening.

 

First things first, what BIOS are you running? Then what vBIOS on the card are you running? Maybe initializing a card in OS loses the output?

 

Bios version is A08. The rest I have not understood.

 

On safe mode go to device manager and uninstall the CPU and reboot.

 

Nothing. Ive tried a lot of things: uninstall cpu drivers, power drain trick, disable turbo mode in bios, fix registry with ccleaner, use of recovery tools in windows...

If the cpu was broken or misplaced, I couldn't do all that, right? I think is time to move to Windows 10. Maybe a clean install will fix it.

 

First of all try updating to the latest bios A09 using your old cpu. There's even an unlocked version of it which I've been using for years without issues. Just search it on these forums to find it.

 

Second, what gpu are you using?
Some cpu/gpu combinations are very power hungry, and a basic psu might just not be enough

 

Thanks for the replies. I use a 5850m (waiting for a 970m).

I restored to factory values in w7. Then, i moved to w10, and nothing.

Ill update the bios, but ive started to think the micro is broken. It’s weird, after “starting windows” screen, before selecting user, the screen shakes and turns off, then turns on but black (it’s lights up, but black) and fans still working. However, i can enter in safe mode, and the micro is recognized by bios and by device manager.

 

Bios update mate, should fix the problem, rare cpus go bad..

 

Yesterday i updated bios. A09 and EC1.18, and it still doesn't work. When i put back the 740qm everything goes ok. I don't know what to do anymore.

 

Ok, if the seller is near where you live, you could ask him to re-test the cpu in front of you. If he denies, then you know what the problem is.

 

Sounds like you bought a junk chip

 

This was my worry about the Chinese sellers

 

Hey there,

I have a M15x R1 pre-Dell which I thought was completely dead ( last time I tried to install Win10 on it I got a blue screen of

But ! I managed to install a later revision of Windows 10 today and its actually worked... Of course now I have a bunch of unknown devices in my device manager....

Is there a repository on line for old R1 M15x ?Dell site doesn't seem to have them...

Regards

~Win~

 

Most of the stuff can be found by looking up their hardware ID in Device Manager/Properties/Details/Hardware ID, and getting them from device manufacturer sites and other vendors (for example Broadcom BT card driver could be found on Lenovo site). Good hunting

 

Did you sell your chip already Raidriar? I've been trying to buy from Chinese sellers and have had massive problems.

 

I have one remaining 920XM available.

 

I have a i7 820qm and a gtx 580m on mine. I just ordered an i7 940xm from AliExpress and a gtx 980m from Amazon. I’ll let you know if I somehow make it work. I’ve seen a lot of comments about using two modded power supplies connected together in order to power up the system with this combo. I wonder if using a 330W psu would also work. Something like this, New Replacement 330W 19.5V 16.9A Power AC Adapter for Dell Alienware x51, X51 R2, M18x R1, R2, R3, M18X-0143 330w Laptop Power Supply ADP-330AB D, 331-2429, 320-2269, XM3C3, DA330PM111 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Z8S3RJP/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_Jy4sFbJ1HEHGB

I’m currently using a 240W power supply. I didn’t remove the central pin though. I found it easier and less permanent to just cut the chip cable from the inside of the PSU. The 240w psu are easy to open as they only use 4 screws. I can’t not use it to charge the battery and need to run throttlestop to get my cpu to work full capacity. Other than that, it works like a charm.


Enviado desde mi iPad utilizando Tapatalk

 

What would this cost me? Any idea what shipping would be to Australia? $20-30...hopefully less??

 

You are right on the money for shipping estimate.22 USD is about as cheap as it gets to send to AUS

 

Thanks man. I found one on eBay down here for $79AUD shipped ($58USD) so I'm just trying to convince myself to press Buy it Now.