Stevenxowens792

Ok.. lets back up here. Please be honest (i don't work for Dell or Alienware).. What were you doing that caused you to have to reload your OS? Were you overclocking or can you provide details? What we have seen (even in the more extreme overclocking cases) that the Drivers usually just have to be re-installed to function normally again. These are the whql drivers from Nvidia. Graphics Driver - Verde 285.62 Driver - GeForce The Intel Drivers should be installed first before these. If the intel drivers do not install I wouldn't bother trying the nvidia drivers. You may have a bigger issue that needs to be escalated to alienware tech support. If you can get the Intel drivers to install and still have a problem with the nvidia drivers, try these drivers instead. They have an updated INF file which will force the notebook to see the nvidia 555. v285.79 Windows 7/Vista 64bit | NVIDIA OEM Mobile - LaptopVideo2Go Forums What you do is download the driver first and then EXTRACT it only. Don't actually install it. It may have a self extracting file or something but just let it do its thing (it will fail) no biggie. Then download the file in GREEN writing called INF MODIFIED and copy it into the folder the driver extracted into. If you copy it to the correct spot it will ask you if you want to OVERWRITE the existing file. Choose yes. Then try installing the driver again by running the setup in the extracted folder (NOT THE DOWNLOADED EXECUTABLE). Let me know if that works... Good Luck. Sounds like your having a crap day/night so i hope it gets better. Take Care, STevenX

@Engrage - please download the Intel HD driver from the Dell/Alienware website and install it first. Then go to The nvidia website and download the latest WHQL driver for the Win7x64 and 555M. These should both install correctly without modifications. Good Luck and let us know if you run into anymore road blocks. Best Wishes, StevenX

Gears.. oh damn.. Please explain step by step what you did! That looks outstanding!

Shadows low gives you a huge increase but I can't stand not having full shadows. Even though im almost 40, I love comics and graphic novels. In my opinion, shading and shadows really help make the art stand out. It also makes gaming stand out as well. So unless I absolutely have to remove or lower shadows I usually wont. Now certain games like BFBC2 and BF3 lowering shadows is not as big of a visual impact. Maybe the edges aren't quite as smooth or something like that but I can deal with it. In games like SWTOR where setting it to LOW almost removes the shadows it just doesn't look as good to me. (again this is just my opinion here, not the gospel) Thanks for the update. Best Wishes, StevenX

Neither system. Both are 1 generation back so I would try to get something with low end (I7) cpu and the 6990 or nvidia 580. Go with cheapest hd and mem as they can easily be upgraded later. Also go for the 1080p if you can. Just my .02 StevenX

SGT Wifey - 1. Palm rest. Im not sure on this as every time I have taken the machine apart and re-assembled it I have never had an issue with loose screws around the palm rest. Unless some of the plastic parts around the rest are loose im just at a loss as to what it could be. You can safely remove the spring loaded bottom screws (be careful not to strip them) and take the bottom cover off. Once off see if anything flexes or feels loose. 2. Battery performance. Top 3 things that drain the battery on this notebook. A. CPU (turbo) so make sure your battery profile has the cpu set to disable turbo and you do that by setting the cpu to 90 percent max. Technically 99 percent works but 90 percent to be safe. B. GPU - make sure battery has the dedicated GPU set to balanced and the nvidia control panel profile is set to either Intel HD or Auto. C. The LCD panel light. It has 7 brightness levels and I never keep it above the 3rd brightness (from the bottom). The lower you can keep it the better. If you can adjust those 3 it should help increase the battery performance. Other items like alienfx eat the batteries but those are the top 3. Good Luck, StevenX

Stamatis.. whats your story bro??????????????????????????????????????????? Wheres Mdub86 at?

Anytime the notebook switches from the Intel HD to the nvidia 555 you will have flicker. Should be 3-5 flickers then stop. It should ONLY happen when launching the game. Some older games COH (old for PC game) may not be fully compatible with our switching technology. This will force the game to use the nvidia processor. 1. With no games open, right click on your desktop. 2. Choose Nvidia Control Panel 3. Right hand side (global settings) PREFERRED GRAPHICS PROCESSOR: Hit the drop down and change it to HIGH PERFORMANCE NVIDIA PROCESSOR. 4. Click apply on the bottom. 5. You probably don't want to leave it that way forever but it might help.

@unreal - do you remember rollerball and the olympic games for C64? My budy joey on the corner was the only one of us that had a c64 and we used to go play those for hours. I loved the roller derby game. Those stupid olympic games where you had to "whack" the joystick back and forth was sooo annoying but everyone would challenge everyone else for the title. Reward was usually home made pizza from joey's mom (they were from Jersey) but relocated to Tx due to work.

You kidding me? Your welcome to add whatever you want to any thread man. I just appreciate the updates/feedback. I can't wait to get to Alderaan. May get some more time to play today. ONly lvl 19. Im making purple stuff out the max!

Welcome SGT family to the site. Hope you love the alienware notebook. All of them are quality and I doubt I will buy anything else. Please keep us posted on your experiences and let us know if you have any questions!

Could write a long one here... Spend time either working Or taking care of my special needs son Or trying to make my wife happy Or Playing games. 1st computer of my own (apple II+) (1st computer i ever used TRS-80) 1st RPG or serious pc game I played - ultima 3 then ultima 4 1st notebook (honestly don't remember.. some 50mhz thing in the mid 90s) 1st computer support job was at the rail road supporting the lotus suite and print mess. I don't claim to be an expert at anything. Pretty much sums it up. (in closing) Love this site. Need to makes some vids over the holidays to plug it a bit more. Finally about to hit 100k viewers on my youtube profile. Best wishes, StevenX

MMskate - let me do you a solid here and add to your discussion. Career goes hand in hand with demand and location. Realistically most come out of college thinking they are going to pull 60-100k right out the gate. Most of the time its more like 30-60k. Whether its computer (IT), Teaching or Nursing nobody will pay well until you get some experience. As I have mentioned before your shifts will be the worst due to seniority and thats just how it goes. Nothing you can do about it. What people fail to think about is location. If you jump out of school and make 45-60k, you get so much more for your dollar in states like Texas or Oklahoma or Arizona than you do California or New York. This means you pay your school off faster and obtain that experience. Dont be fooled be a "bit" higher salaries in states like Cali or Ny. 100k goes less in Cali than 75 does in Texas. I have a friend that still works where i do but moved locations from Texas to Cali and the median house in Tx is like 150k and in Cali its hard to find anything remotely close to work for less than 350-500. (The Cost Of Living) Also something else to think about. Its nice to have a Career and then have a "backup" career. It gives you options as a "just in case". In this day and age, if I were starting all over again I would be thinking about a career in the "essentials". Things that are essential for survival. Whether it be in the first world of the third world you need Medical Staff, Food, Water, Engineering, Supply Chain, etc... Nobody gives a shit about if their laptop boots up when they haven't eaten in 3 days. So I would most likely do some things different. I think Brian made a much smarter career choice than myself. Ive been very blessed and can't complain. This is a great discussion and a good time to have it. Good Luck, StevenX

@MMskate - Any City/State/Govt worker makes the assumption that the respective City/State/Govt doesn't go bankrupt or reorganize or change benefits. No money = no benefits. Money = higher Taxes. Broke Citizens don't pay taxes. In the end, if we don't do something about such a huge divide in pay and social status we are doomed.

@Staff - I can only speak from previous experience (about 9 years ago) when I took the certs for work on all the old del 24xx, 25xx series servers, assorted notebooks, desktops, etc.. you just had to take a test. It was open book and web based and once you were done you were certified. I don't know the cost to take them as my employer paid all the costs for each test we took. My advice would be to get A+ cert first and then move on to Dell or HP whatever else you want. Good Luck! StevenX

Reserving for screenshots, performance review, optimization techniques, etc... Performance: System: M14x, I7-2630qm, Nvidia 555mGT 1.5, 4gb ram @ 1333mhz, 60+64gb SSD Game Graphics Options: Native Resolution 1366x768 (full screen or windowed full screen) All Option Enabled and HIGH Grass - Max Trees - Max FPS - As with any MMO the FPS will fluctuate depending on server latency. Intro Area I average around 40fps with dips into low to mid 30s. The game does not require TURBO with the I7 processor as detected with FRAPS. It made zero impact nor did it impact loading times into different zones. Overclocking the GPU makes a large difference as I noticed on two screenshots that it was a 10 fps increase and its much smoother. The settings file is located at C:\Users\admin\AppData\Local\SWTOR\swtor\settings Shadows High causes the largest impact to FPS. If you try it for yourself you will notice as much as a 15 FPS difference going from HIGH to LOW shadows. I didn't see much of an impact going from LOW to NONE. It would be nice to be able to edit the config to allow a "MEDIUM". Low shadows are just a minor step above NONE. GPU Utilization during game: 99-100 percent GPU Temps: 70-71c (post IC Diamond 24 re-pasted 2 weeks ago) clocks 752/1002 CPU Utilization during game: 36-45 percent (6 out of 8 threads active) CPU Temps: 80-87c (Depends on if I enable turbo and set to max or use Tstop to disable it) Here are 69 screenshots. Sorry I didn't post them inside the thread but too many. Planning on making a video as well when I can clear up some space. Thanks! http://imageshack.us/g/412/swtor2011121511410394.png/ Gaming on the go? No problem! Just make sure the executables are set to use the Intel HD GPU and set the game preferences to LOW. Works great at native resolution but you can drop it to 1280x720 if you need a few extra FPS. Had no problem keeping the game around 30fps.

The best comparison will be to take the cards 555 vs 635, clock them both the same and then run benchmarks (both shrink-wrap such as 3dmark11) and in game FRAPS to see if any real performance difference is achieved.

144 cores with 192 bit interface with ddr3 is comparable to the nvidia 555mGT. The difference is up to 675MHZ stock speed up from our 590MHZ. Right now I can play stable all the way up to 800mhz gpu speed without issues. I wonder if the new cards will allow a 200MHZ overclock as well from stock speeds? 675-->875MHZ?

m14x for the portability.. m17 for the power. Choose whatever you need for your lifestyle. I just hope you get it sorted. I like my m14x. but thats just me.

Gaming test (1 hour) Was playing DC Online last night while watching storm chasers. Overclocking the GPU to 752/1002 (game settings) and leaving the cpu on Turbo enabled my previous max temps would be around 96c. Last night temps peaked at 90c. So a nice difference. Fresh paste jobs are nice. I would recommend doing it about once every 3-6 months. (just understand the risks).

Kris - I think we already have a guide and pics somewhere on here. The main thing is to be prepared ahead of time before you even begin to attempt it. 1. Another notebook with the alienware assembly guide (or print them) 2. High quality alcohol for cleaning (rubbing alcohol works, just give a little extra time for drying) 3. Q-tips (lots of them). 4. Cardboard to put your notebook on while dis-assembly. 5. Scotch tape to attach your little screws as you remove them. 6. Small IT (quality) Phillips screw driver. 7. Small credit card or equivalent for prying (without scratching). 8. Paper towels (soft). 9. Anti-static bracelet. 10. TIME (I don't rush). I take my time and it takes almost 1hour45 to finish. Others are much faster but I want to do it right and not break anything.

NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor,Alienware M14xR1 score: P1933 3DMarks 805/1080 stock a01 bios (outstanding for stock) 1933 3Dmark11 score -------------------------------------------------------- Here is my score at the clocks I normally game at 752/1002 1805 http://3dmark.com/3dm11/2292950 -------------------------------------------------------- Here is stock http://3dmark.com/3dm11/2293009

Im still recording temps. I can tell you that with any fresh repaste its going to look much better until it sets in a bit. My last repaste was with the highest quality shin etsu sold. It was about $11 a tube a fry's. So I cleaned it all off, and unloaded the IC Diamond on it. Before at 99-100 percent GPU with CPU being utilized heavily as well (74-75c) Post repaste with Diamond (71c) with high cpu utilization. Again I dont consider this the final figure. Ill continue to monitor and check again a week and again in 2 weeks. I love repasting because I clean every part I can inside the notebook and the rest of the machine. Best wishes, StevenX

Here is my 3dmark 11 score following the IC Diamond Repaste and cleaning. NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor,Alienware M14xR1 score: P1909 3DMarks 1909 is outstanding for bios a01 (stock) with clocks at 800/1080 and CPU at default settings (completely reset to bios after fully disassembling the m14x.

I like that people are doing this for themselves and not for publicity. (yes they are getting some low end publicity but not like talk show type stuff)