Leaderboard

When I recently disassembled my system to take a look at the mobo, I realized that I have a bluetooth module, lol, didn't know this... I didn't order (and pay) it when I configured my M15x in 2009, hahaha, and I had it all the time, lol. Anyway, I recently thought about getting an Intel 310 SSD (mini PCIe) for additional fast storage (as long asI can find a nice deal), now mrrey question... this should work in the slot where I currently have the bluetooth module, right? Would be great for having the OS (or maybe second OS) there.

Maybe the card simply doesn't work with this VBIOS, there might be a hardware difference between those two cards. You could try to reset the BIOS by removing the battery, this will make sure that it reads in the new hardware ID properly and sorts all addresses... though I don't think it'll help.

Yea we all pay a great deal for these laptops one repair is to many! and on another note one thing that i always try to do when dell screws up always try to get something because of it

So far I like it a lot. The build quality is good, the display is very vibrant and bright, design is sexy and it is quite fast. Best of all it's light and has igp support with optimus. I'll post pics of it later.

Got my beast couple of days ago (ended up bying it second hand cause i couldn't wait for dell to process my order). I only had time to do a clean windows install and now it's packed along with the rest of my life in preparation to move to Brazil this Wednesday It's a HUGE laptop, i didn't expect it to be that big, really well made, loved the gun metal color better than the black on my m17x-R2. I am pissed that i don't have time to mess with it right now, but once i settle in in Brazil i'll find the time

LOL

Here are some posts I made at NBR, easier to copy and paste, but these are my prelim benches on the 6970s in the R2. Here is a stock GPU clock run that I did last night. I havn't gotten around to overclocking till I can get the cards flashed. I'll probably have to do them one by one in the master slot with winflash first, then I should be able to through atiflash in dos. But here it is. Only thing I changed was put the CPU TDP at 74W. Vantage: 20593 CPU: 17538 GPU: 21862 Stock GPU Clocks. 3DMark11: 6400 Stock GPU clocks, CPU at 140MHz FSB with a 74w TDP.

Thank you! Yes, I already had some of the soldering equipment I'll probably get a SOIC adapter sometime, there are some on ebay available for about $10-15. I'll gladly help anyone to revive a dead GPU/mobo if possible.

Very nice article. and GOOD job. thanks to mention me.I've see yo also "not just started" repairing PCBs. I sure there will be a few people willing to pay you if they screw up something. and you could do the same with R2 BIOS wich is an SST25VF040B i seen sometimes the fn+B just won't work because the BOOT BLOCK in the eeprom missing or corrupt. BTW: something could help you is well... http://www.equinox-tech.com/products/details.asp?ID=1010 SOIC 8PIN ZIF Dont think of its price is worth to get it, if you working on repairing field... another one is need to be modded: http://www.warwickts.com/w8016-8pin-soic-zif-adapter-p775

Well so far my biggest complaint is the trackpad. It has no accidental touch protection like synaptics do and the scrolling speed is wayyyyy too fast. Other than that, the notebook kicks ass and its light as a feather. I get about 6 hours of battery life with it so it just makes it an all around nice machine. So far I don't regret sending back the AW but then again I do plan to buy the M18x again.

I'm planning to ask to swap my old broken M11x for this machine. I'll be looking forward to anything you comment about this laptop (I'll probably then either sell it, or my M17x-R2; more likely XPS tho... I already tried to part with M17x already and I just couldn't do it ).

Little update, I've contacted Chris M who created the list at the Dell community forums and told him about his listing with 580m/M17x r1. He has now removed this and also changed some other stuff in the list. He included the "GTX 470m N12E-GS" with part Nr. YT99J... guess it's a mistake as well. Maybe he meant 570m, no idea... Also there are now numbers for the left and right card of the M18x 6970m, and most important, he also changed the nr. for the 6990m. Apparently it's now "RDRGR" for the "AMD HD6990m Blackcomb XTX". So you might want to try this number in case the old one didn't work for the Dell reps.

It's official, the card can now be preordered - ETA 25th of July! MAP price = 59.99$ Even though Fortnax is one of the first in line to get these cards, the initial supplies will be very limited, so it's FIFO and max 2 per customer. The card can now be preordered here.

Crazy tennis

I feel for you see this is a post of mine in the M18x review thread. Dell has done me bad so far... here's my example. Im sorry its been such a hassle for you too. I originally ordered a week or two after the M18x release. It kept getting delayed since then and was supposed to be edd 6/29 after a bunch of delays. Then the order got canceled automatically when the windows home premium item number changed and was no longer in the system. so they orderded with new home premium item number. Plus the SoundBlaster software would be no longer available. Then they reorder with all new edd. So reorder happened on 7/7 and edd was 7/19. Now even just today I check the status and now its 7/22. Its a few days but I've been waiting months through this and the entire exchange process of Dell.Edit: This was on an exchange for a M17x R2 that was starting to die and same thing 3-4 repairs and I demanded exchange.