alienware m17x r4 issues

Update 04/11/2014

A lot of stupid driver update programs will download all the drivers latest versions without knowing what system u have, well for Alienware, whatever u do, DONT INSTALL INTEL USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver
because it is incompatible and will render all your usb ports useless. (go to add/remove programs to uninstall it if you did accidentally install)





Update 19/01/2013
the more i use it the more f*cking issues there are, everyone uses Samsung TV so fk Dell.  HDMI to my 50inch samsung plasma tv doesnt work via the hdmi port.

while I am complaining fking aussie post at hunter connection in sydney australia, always pretending to make escalator maintenance.  been over half a year. they should just fking reverse the direction of the other escalator and make people exiting walk down. I pay so much for po box each year, the least they can do is provide a working escalator. especially in summer here it is 48 degrees celcius!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/700477-alienware-m17x-r4-hdmi-hd-tv-samsung-problem.html

Update 01/10/2012  Alienware USB 3.0 does not work
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/675401-alienware-m17x-r4-usb-3-0-problem-17.html

Its like my western digital USB 3.0 external 2'5'' hdd kept disconnecting and reconnecting when transferring files.

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I finally got my lovely new alienware m17x r4 with gtx 680m delivered today.  so I installed all the stuff I had in my last post, and I can say that the sdcard question I had in my last post was solved - it appears that the acer sdcard reader on my old notebook was the bottleneck (6mb/s max) as the alienware notebook's sdcard reader got 30mb/s easy, then when I got home, I installed adobe photoshop cs6 and some games to test out the graphics card.  The SSD is so fast, installing games and adobe took next to no time.

I installed street fighter x tekken and when I was in the game, I connected my good old logitech rumblepad and the alienware detected that no problemo :)  I played 2 rounds on everything at max settings and got 60fps, if I had it at the default settings, I got over 235fps

The alienware is sooo much better looking that my old asus g73jh. After using it all week for my assignment due tomorrow, the keyboard is signicantly better than ASUS chiclet keyboard as keys all have a nice bounce.  The keyboard coloring is easy to configure (top right button above numberpad) and the trackpad is much more responsive than ASUS's one.

The dvd drive is interesting because there is no dvd tray, ie you just stick the dvd into the drive and have to use the windows eject to get the dvd out as there is no eject button

When doing homework and not using the gtx 680m graphics card, the notebook is super quiet.  However, when you start playing games, you then hear the fan noise. It is not loud, but noticeable when do not pay attention to your game :)

I then decided to install a free software firewall and chose comodo.

I ordered a keyboard protector from ebay for a few dollars :)

Apart from fan noise (only when gaming using graphics card, watching movies does not have fan noise)
the major annoyance of the alienware keyboard is there is no right click menu key so I have to go use the alt + something + something in excel to use keyboard shortcuts....

Ok I now find that the sdcard slot being above the dvd slotdrive is very annoying.  Normally a dvd/bluray drive has a tray that precludes anything from going into the dvd drive.  unfortunately the design of the alienware is such that you just stick the dvd in directly without needing to first open a tray.  I found on more than one occasion I didnt look and shoved the sdcard into the dvd/bluray slot.  Luckily I did not use too much force or getting the sd card out would have been a laborious exercise.
I guess the only remedy going forward is to stay awake and look where I stick my sd card ha ha

Its like these keyboard designers need to listen to customers.

This post will be updated when I find more benefits or annoyances with my new notebook :)

ps the keyboard protector I ordered from ebay fits perfectly :)  Its like as always, I should have ordered more to save on postage but the first order, I don't know if they guy could be trusted (even though he had ebay stars coming out of his a$$).  I live near several construction sites so there is a lot of dust so if you leave your notebook on overnight (watch movie & fall asleep), you can see all the dust on the protector the next morning.  That is why to protect your investment, I highly recommend keyboard protectors.  You can type with the keyboard protector covering the keyboard keys no problemo.

One useful feature the alienware has is when you disable the trackpad (fn + f12) and plug in a mouse, the trackpad is disabled eg when you are gaming, you dont want to brush the bottom of your palm against the trackpad and you use a mouse for navigation, then when you unplug the mouse, the trackpad becomes automatically re-enabled :)  I use the same mouse for both my notebooks to save space on my table.