i think you should try to do a clean reformat, clean all the things in hard disk, and clean re-installation of your windows. that should be able to help solve the problem. my near 3 year old alienware m11x has that problem of alwaysa having high cpu usage, but i did a clean reformat and solved the problem.

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Added on December 25, 2012, 11:48 amHello guys,

The Dell technician came today and he replaced the heat sink, did not solve the issue. The temperature was 3C higher than the stock.

He did not change the thermal paste, because there was thermal paste already on the new heatsink. Same model but different manufacturer heatsink.

Please check my blog for more pictures and details. Thank you. I will replace a new thermal paste (Arctic Silver 5), or if it doest solve the issue, I will get a new heatsink.

wordpress

This post has been edited by Michaelbyz23: Dec 25 2012, 11:48 AM

nice , thanks for sharing

my alienware m11x had everything replaced. practically new now

they replaced the motherboard, plastic palm rest, chassis etc. but there are 2 problems now. I am trying to get them fixed.

the fan is constantly blowing at high speed, and temperatures are high. gpu temperature is idling around 60c, CPU is idling around 50c, even though im just surfing net, or just leave the laptop unused.

previously the idling temp is just around 35-40 for cpu and 40-45 for gpu. fan speed is always quiet unless i stress it up.

second issue is the lighting got problem. the one at zone 3, the speaker light on the right hand side does not work properly. when i switch to red color, it turn purpple, when i switch off the lights, it become blue, doesnt switch off. the left hand side works fine, but the right hand speaker light problematic. already tried reinstalling the command center it doesnt hlep. i even reformatted to see if it solves the fan speed prob and the lighting, didnt solve at all.

This post has been edited by Michaelbyz23: Dec 30 2012, 01:42 AM

what is wiring mapping problem?
hmm basically i cant turn on my laptop for more than 30 minutes. the temperature keeps rising till 80 over. the technician tested the temperature using unigine and it hit 96 for GPU and 84 for cpu. i really dont know whats the problem with the new motherboard.

even if i just turn on and leave it there, the temperature keeps rising and the loud fan doesnt help too. i tried switching to intel graphics, then its fine. but once i switch back to GPU, the fan starts becoming loud and temperature rises, about 30 minutes later, the palm rest is very very hot. the bottom aluminium cover is basically boiling hot already lol.
any idea what is the problem?

hello guys, I've upgraded my m11x r1 hdd to 256gb SSD. here are the links on the procedures and you can see pictures on how you do it. Hope it helps!
How it boots up in 33 seconds.

blog

Yeap, btw i am selling off my practically new Alienware M11x, anyone interested please pm me or check out this link quick sales!

WTS thread

Good choice Ryens, I am not leaning towards the M14X R2 already

Reasons:

1) Asus G46VW runs on Windows 8, the drivers are on the website are only for windows 8

2) Asus G46VW cannot upgrade HDD by ourselves as it will void warranty. even if can, it is relatively harder to upgrade as compared to Alienware M14x. I saw some of the teardown pics and it really looks like a little bit complicated

3) Asus G46VW does not run on Msata. it only has half msata slot, which is not in the market yet, have to wait for few more months for the half msata driver to be released.

4) the screen (even though matte), is lower resolution, and much less vibrant, more dead, not beautiful as compared to (to me i personally dont like glossy) alienware.

5) only offers i5, and it is already $999. Imagine if i7 etc.

Why I am leaning towards Alienware:
1) 900p res screen

2) for about $1100, I can get better processor: i7 3610qm

3) easier to upgrade HDD, no need to worry cuz wont void warranty. I am familiar with alienware system as well.

4) I can choose to keep the stock HDD inside, and buy a MSATA card 64gb for windows and bootup because there's msata slot in M14x

5) The warranty is transferable, meaning it's international.

6) love the aftermarket service, eventhough I must admit, as an alienware user for years, there are actually quite alot of problems with their systems. but they always provide amazing service.

7) only downside is gt650 vs gtx660. but for me, I only play less demanding games like dota2. plus, i already have the alienware x51, which runs on gtx660 Ti SC and i7 3770. The laptop is just for portability, which I bring to college, or to friend's place for lan party.

8) Dont forget, it comes with Optical Drive!!!

9) I can choose Nebula red, or stealth black (Which color do you think is nicer)

10) Thumbs up for the Windows 7 too

Extra Downsides which I can think of now:
Alienware is about 500grams heavier
Alienware has glossy screen (like i mentioned earlier i prefer matte over glossy, less eye straining)
For the price of $1100 for i7, the Alienware unit is refurbished, so no unboxing etc for me
Alienware is nothing new to me, nothing to discover since I am a M11X user

This post has been edited by Michaelbyz23: Jan 11 2013, 10:44 AM

how much did you pay for? isit new? Specs?
share share

just ordered my alienware m14x r2 from dell, ordered on 22nd jan, edd on 2ned feb.

i7 3630
1gb gt650
900p res
500gb hdd
6gb ram

$1180 includes tax.
Is this a good deal?

i also ordered screen protector from ebay, crucial m4 msata 128gb $115, and corsair 4gb vengeance ram x1 for $28.

try look for it on ebay. I bought mine for $20 includes shipping. I went for the glossy, but there is matte type. the reason i went for clear glossy because i figure out matte might degrade the quality of the screen. like somehow cut down the brightness. and also the matte protector will look weird on shiny alienware the "Alienware" wording will be covered by matte protector, and it will look blurry xD just my personal preference.

Received my alienware M14x r2 yesterday. had a white/stuck pixel at bottom right corner, only visible when on bright screen. and the button "V" on keyboard is abit slanted. but works fine. oh well, i guess i have to live with it.
but anyways, anyone runing dota 2 max settings at 60 fps? i have to turn off some graphics options in dota 2 to run it around 45-55 fps.

when it was on max settings, fps was generally 40-50. during fighting scene fps drop to 30-40. driver is 307 from dell. i updated to 310.90 from nvidia and it appears to be worse. help

This post has been edited by Michaelbyz23: Jan 31 2013, 09:48 AM

yeap i did, i tried reinstalling all the drivers, and etc. none worked. sad that such an expensive alienware system cant run dota 2 smoothly maxed out.

@kris, yep its either i leave the AA on but with several options off, or leave the AA off with the others all on. Then I could hit 45-55 fps.
yep i did that too! that didnt help cuz my optimus is working fine

gt650m is not a *just* gpu as you mentioned, and not "what do ya want more" mentality. probably you have millions of dollar to spend and dont mind paying hefty amount of money without zero expectation. and probably you havent played dota 2, or the alike games yet. so you may not know how 40-50 fps is like. i suggest you try out and see how its like and come back let us know whether you will be satisfied with a RM4000 over machine, performing 40-50 fps on dota 2.

but to me, it is really below my expectation because 40, and sometimes around 30-38 depending on fighting scenes, is just not playable on dota 2. don believe me , then you go ahead and try like i said just now.

anyway, i just did some research and realized that even gtx 660m also have this issue on dota2. they said after valve released the update after greeveling, they faced this sluggish issue, particularly on mobile graphics. so yea, im glad that gt650m can run about 30-45 fps on need for speed most wanted maxed out. that is playable and acceptable

This post has been edited by Michaelbyz23: Jan 31 2013, 12:38 PM

@rezraz it depends on your luck.

I received mine and had 2 issues cosmetically.

the first one is there is a white dead pixel on the bottom right corner, and the second one was the "V" button on the keyboard is slanted. hence the typing experience on the V is a little bit odd. Others were fine.

when i first bought my m11x, it came out perfect out of the box, had great customer service, and the service was amazing. this m14x r2 that i got , has abit of bad luck. but its fine i guess, i could live with those 2 problems. dell offered me to replace it, but i dont want to wait for another 2 weeks. maybe in the future just before the warranty ends, i might just get the lcd panel replaced by dell, so that it looks brand new again.
but in short, i like alienware. if u ask me, i would say go for alienware. better design, cool looking too and dont forget, the aftermarket service is great! gd luck!

Sorry bro, my bad yea, I have off some settings to get better FPS. But thanks alot!
I have another question, does the frame rate drops after some time of gaming dota 2? And what is the cpu and gpu temp? My GPU temp is 64C, and CPU is about 78-80C after 1 hour 30 min gaming dota 2.

but again really sorry about prvious post. cheers !

alrigh thanks bro for the info, seems like my case, and its pretty normal. what nvidia driver are you using? I realized that 310.90 has the issue similar to yours. if i roll back to dell's 307 driver, it seems more manageable. i noticed slightly better and consistent fps throughout.

thanks man, how's the fps on assassin creed 3?

i sold my r1 for RM1400, its literally new. had the lcd panel, whole chassis, motherboard, heat sink fan, keyboard, palm rest, all replaced. the only few parts that are not replaced are the hdd, ram and wifi card. i still love the aluminium chassis of r1. good luck.

buy a base model and put in a GTX660 TI or GTX670 yourself, much better and cheaper.

normal, happens to everyone including me
when gaming, the battery cannot really support 45w of gpu. the fps on my games drop as well if i unplug the charger.

bro i am still here upgraded to m14x r2 and x51 xD