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Hi, I bought a alienware m17x r4 a few weeks ago. The problem is: I have noise (distorsion) on the right speaker. Had anybody in past the same problem and is it a known problem regarding this model? I feared at the beginning that the soundblaster is defect but I tested it with headphones and everything is fine. I already ordered a new speaker pair and will install it within the next weeks. But if you tell me that this problem is known and not resolvable I can save my effort.

Every once and a while, my fan will start rattling, and everything works fine, but it is just extremely annoying and I don't know how to make it stop. I tried using the dust cleaning function of the lenovo battery application, and it helped a little but occasionally it will start making the noise, and it is really loud and concerning because I hope it is not indicating any other more pressing issues with the Y500.

Hi guys, I'm new to this forum, Mac world and also to eGPU world! So I decided the better thing to do is to put my hands right into the mud.. I purchased an used, original Akitio, a Palit GTX970 JetStream and a cheap Micro ATX PSU (Vultech GS500M) - My pc is a mid 2014 MacBook Retina with Windows 10 and Sierra (I5 2.6 GHz, 8Gb RAM, Intel Iris 5100, 256Gb SSD). First thing first, I prepared the PSU to power all the things. The datasheet says it is a 500w, with two 12v rails, 29A total (348w). I cut all the connectors, isolated the other lines I won't use (3.3, 5v, 5vsb and -12v), shorted the power on with a negative. Then I had six 12v positives, and all the commons. I gathered 4 wires and solder them to the positive of the two PCI 6 pin cables, same I did for the negatives, except two. I used the remaining wires (2 positives and 2 negatives) to make the barrel connection for the akitio. Tested without anything plugged, it works (fan spinning) Then I build a plexiglass enclosure to contain everything, i kept the layout of the original metal case, so the position of the board is the same; next to the video card, on the opposite wall I planned to install the psu, with the air intake obvously facing the outside, and the air output in the rear. In the front I installed a 120mm fan, plugged into the fan port of the Akitio board. I partially assembled all the parts, leaving the top and the right side (opposite to the board, to be clear), and power on. Surprisingly, nothing blew up... I managed to make the card recognized by Windows, installed the drivers, AND make some gaming - benchmark test to test the setup. I made a short session of Farming Simulator 2015 and suddenly nothing wrong .. BUT .. after some minutes the PSU started to buzz. The more the card required power (by doing some "complex" tasks), the more PSU buzzed. I also tested with Unigine Valley, in ultra setup. Everything worked, I made two benchmarks, I reached 85°C on the GPU and 96° (WOW..) on the CPU.. And now.. my concerns.. - is the PSU buzzing just because is sh*tty? Or I made some terrible mistake by wiring, soldering and so? I took a look inside it and TBH.. even if I don't know electronics so deep to reverse engineering I noticed that 12v wires come ALL from the same pad on the pcb.. so I guess it's not a problem to put them together. If the power table is correct .. I should get nearly 350 w from the 12v line .. during the benchs I logged the power consumption with HWINFO, and the 970 drew about 120w on its peak .. if summed with the Akitio I get less then 200w .. far more behind the limit.. - the temperatures .. ok 85° in full load would not scare me if the GTX was inside my good old desktop gaming rig .. but here I think the game is different, is there any risk to "cook" the Akitio Board? The space between the card and the board is really low (I'm not using a riser), I'm thinking about improving the ventilation by drilling many holes in the wall very next to the board, and maybe installing a more efficient fan connected directly to the 12v. Would it be ok? - the riser .. TBH I don't really know if I need the riser or not. By now the card is plugged directly into the Akitio Board, powered by the buzzing PSU, that also power the board. Everything works even if the mentioned troubles above. Any kind of suggestion is accepted, last things to say, I'm quite able to solder and etcetera. I own also a Dell DA2, but I preferred to make an "everything integrated" solution and last but not least .. JetStream GTX970 on review peaked quite 200w itself. I need more power, I guess. Ok I'm risking to be lynched .. but just to know .. I decided to mod directly the PSU by following a guide taken on the web .. stupid or not it's not my invention I attach a pic of the connection I made, of the PSU board and the power table Here are some pics of my setup .. on idle and with low gpu load it's running fine, no buzz BUT no load .. tested again Unigine and here are the results (AGAIN the psu is buzzing). Respect to the post I modified the case by drilling holes behind the Akitio Board, drilling the psu case, and most important, I dressed the power wires of the akitio board with a silicone-fiberglass sheath to protect it from the heat produced by the gpu. Again, thanks.. any hint would be appreciated.

I got a Clevo laptop, W355SS about a year ago. Everything has been going fine, but lately the fan has started to make too much noise. It's probably something structural, as I opened it up, cleaned everything from dust and re-applied thermal paste. Temperatures went down considerably (15-20 degrees in idle mode). This made the problem better when idling because the fan never turns on, but as soon as the fan starts even in its slowest mode, considerable noise is being made, disproportionate to the speed. Do you guys have any tips on how to improve this? It has to be something structural, maybe sth in the axis (dust?), but I don't know how to remove the fanblades. I opened the fan up and I don't know if I am able to remove the fan itself, as it seems to be held on its axis without screws, and it is plastic. Do you have in mind any tutorials for Clevo fans and heatsinks? Any website where I might be able to get a cheap replacement or a better heatsing and/or fan?

i was also having audio issues with my y500 after doing a fresh install of win8.1 no drivers were missing in device manager but that was only because standard drivers were being used for audio i only noticed after i realised the volume on full was not as loud anymore and after googling around i found Dolby Home Theater v4! v7.2.8000.14 which i believe was available on the stock y500 before this fixed my issue and also some nice options of equalization setting within the app

(First thread on the forum! I recently purchased the Zalman ZM MIC1 for recording videos, instead of an external condenser attachment for my ipod. I read the reviews and listened to numerous audio samples from this microphone. All of them seem pretty clear and noise-free. The only problem is that with my computer, the microphone has a HUGE background humm, along with a very large amount of static. I would like to know if this is a problem with the Y500's sound card, a problem with the microphone, or just a software setting I missed. Here are some links: The Micriophone with a good audio test: Amazon.com:*Customer Reviews: Zalman Zm-Mic1 High Sensitivity Headphone Microphone My test Microphone test.mp3 with the following settings in control panel: 100% volume, +20dB microphone boost, and DC offset cancellation. My Realtek Settings and information (Note some of the missing options): EDIT: I tested this microphone on some crappy Toshiba, and there is pretty much no static. It had a 24dB gain on it, and it sounded very good. So what I'm thinking is that the soundcard in the Y500 either doesn't have good specs, or that the "noise removal" feature on the toshiba (which was enabled) is non-existent on the lenovo. Other discovery: After installing different versions for the type of sound card I have, I still have yet to find any options for enabling a noise suppression effect. Realtek says that my card supports it, but it never appears in any option, in windows nor in Realtek. I really want to get this mic working, because I could use it for so much. I have also tested it with another microphone, and it does the exact same thing, and the static sounds identical.