[Advice Needed] Buying a used M17X R2

[LiquidNitrogen]

Hi all,

I'm probably going to be getting the chance to buy a used Alienware M17X R2 today (EDIT: Family stuff came up, opportunity moved to this upcoming week), if all goes well. I'm going to get the chance to see the unit in person before I buy it, but I'm not sure what defects I should be looking for besides the typical dead pixels / dents / etc.

So, is there anything in particular I should be looking for? Is there any common issue(s) that I should be looking out for?

Also, here's the specs for the one I'm trying to buy:

- Lunar Silver

- 8x DVD DL Driver

- Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHZ (2.8 GHZ Turbo 6MB Cache)

- 8 GB Dual Channel Memory ( 2 x 4 GB DDR3)

- 17" UXGA 1920x1200 RGB LED (1200P)

- Crossfire 1GB ATI Radeon Mobility HD 5870 X2

- Alienware M17X 240W A/C Adapter

- 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 2 HDD

- Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR

- Intel Ultimate N WIFI 6300 A/G/N 3x3 MIMO TECH

Edited August 28, 2011 by LiquidNitrogen

[StamatisX]

I would run a Prime95 for the CPU and a Furmark for the GPUs to make sure they are not overheating or anything

[Nospheratu]

I may be too late since you might have already picked up that beauty but you you should look at the screen closely, preferably with an all white and then all black background to see if there's any dust that's collecting under the screen. Its not a common issue but it does happen. The only real fix for that would be to replace the entire screen assembly as its one unit. Trying to pry apart the lcd to "clean" the dust off is a mission and not recommended at all.

Other than that there's no other real common issues that I can think of apart from the intermittent "plugged in not charging" problem which shouldn't stop you from buying it at all. Its a very well specced example and the rgb screen is where this laptop really shines. You should seriously consider upgrading to an XM chip to get the maximum performance/value out of it although it really depends on what you intend to use it for.

[LiquidNitrogen]

Thanks for the replies!

Some family stuff came up yesterday so I'm working on rescheduling the meet with the seller to early this week (monday/tuesday-ish). I'll definitely check for those issues. If there's anything else anyone can think of that I should check for please let me know.

Also, what is the deal with the "plugged in not charging" problem? Is that only intermittent or would that ever become a serious problem?

I'm intending on using this laptop for school and work (I love that the screen is 1200p because my work requires as big a vertical resolution as possible), so I'm not sure I would need the XM chip but I think I'd probably get it anyways sooner or later just to futureproof the laptop a bit. Though, I definately would like to get good battery life out of the system (~2hrs) so I'd be a bit hesitant to put more powerful components in it in case it degrades the battery life further. My first priority is to stick an SSD in it, though.

[Nospheratu]

You can read up about the plugged in not charging problem here. Its just a bug that sometimes shows up when the laptop is plugged in and the battery doesn't charge. The quick fix is to pop out your battery and back in. I've only experienced it once but my Alienhead does change colors often to indicate its "charging" even though the battery is fully charged. It generally isnt a M17x R2 specific problem as most of Dell's line up have experienced it. From what I understand it stems from the use of the use of their propriety chip in their PSU's so that prevents you from using a generic PSU.

Our PM55 chipset has issues with 4K read/writes with SSD's. Theres two well known tweaks to optimise SSD performance on this chipset. The first is @StamatisX Intelppm method here which he is using atm and the other which I am using is JJB's power profile tweak which you can find here.

The SSD will help with the battery life but I think you would have to disable crossfire and optimise your power plan to reach two hours. Also Throttlestop is a handy tool to reduce CPU power consumption. It has profiles you can load with hotkeys for max performance or least power consumption. Its a really powerful tool for this laptop. Bear in mind that the newer generation of Alienwares have excellent battery life due to the onboard gfx controller.

Don't let this info deter you from buying this laptop though. I can honestly say this is the best laptop I've ever owned and everytime I use it/look at it I think to myself, "What an awesome piece of industrial art"

[unreal25]

I think to myself the exact same thing even after owning it for more than a year. Metal case + RGB LED + Core i7 CPU + RGB LED + CF = awesome.

[LiquidNitrogen]

OH YEAH GOT MY FIRST ALIENWARE TODAY!!! :D Frekin AMAZING laptop. I couldn't find anything wrong with it, its in mint condition. I didn't get a chance to check out the benchmarks yet but I'm sure they'll turn out fine. I opened up the lid in the bottom of the unit and couldn't find any evidence of overheating. Pretty much everything is perfect on this laptop. The only exception is that the mouse cursor is a bit weird - its not smooth when moving it but I think it might just be a software thing. I'm reinstalling the operating system right now so I'll soon find out about that.

If anyone can recommend any useful threads to read in regards to the m17x R2 please post them, I'm interested in finding out what the optimal bios edition is specifically though I want to read up on what I can do with this baby. :D

EDIT: Unfortunately, when I was booting it up I started to get BSODs around when the windows logo came up or the login screen, and could not get past it. I kept rebooting but it was no good. I am reinstalling the OS now, but I don't think that's the problem. Does anyone know what this issue could be?

EDIT 2: After doing some research, I'm fairly certain its because the previous owner did not flash the gpu cards with the new vbios. I'm going to try to do that after I get win7 reinstalled. I'm gonna try to use Dell's official flashing tool, hopefully there'll be no issues.

Edited August 30, 2011 by LiquidNitrogen

[Nospheratu]

Congrats! Lunar Silver is the best imho, pity the newer generation don't have the option. Its like the RGB screen, if you don't have it you don't know any better

The touchpad polling problem was fixed in a newer revision of the BIOS so the laptop probably has an older version atm. Update to the latest A10. There is also the A10 modded but I've read some users have stability issues, cant remember with what exactly though.

If you're having issues with the vbios flash see my post here.

[LiquidNitrogen]

@Nospheratu : Thanks!! I've wanted one since I was a kid.

I updated the bios and it did fix the mouse, which is awesome because it was very poor before but now its pretty good. Also, I believe I flashed the VBIOS correctly as I used the Dell tool to create a bootable ISO, burned it to disc using burniso, booted off it, ran the flasher which told me that the installation went fine, and it's working fine so far.

Also, I agree - Lunar Silver is definately the best color. I'm surprised Dell took the option off for the new ones. It's part of the reason I got the R2 over an R3.

The RGBLED screen is AMAZING! It's even better than the LED IPS screen I've got in my Lenovo x220 tablet - and I thought the tablet had the best screen ever. Man, I can't believe how rich the colors look on the RGBLED screen. Especially the the greens and reds.

Anyways, I'm lovin' this thing. Hopefully now that I've got the drivers, BIOS, and VBIOS up to date it'll run fine. The only concern I have now is if the i7 is overclocking itself as it should and if I'm going to experience any throttling of the CPU while on battery.

EDIT: Also, what I can't believe is that Windows is giving me a battery estimation of 2hr2min and that's without any battery optimization or power saving features turned on. Looks like I won't have to be fighting with the settings too much to get a decent battery life.

[aldam]

First post

I'm also waiting for my R2 (i7,RGB,CF5870m). I've got 920xm oem waiting for it;)

Thanks for your all advices.

My concern is only noise level.

Now I've got M6500 which is very quiet even when I play games.