Alienware m17x teardown

erichblas2005erichblas2005 Your Native TexanHouston,Texas Member
edited May 2012 in Hardware
In previous post I was having some issues with my laptop. As it turns out the SLI cable was defective. So I thought why stop there so went ahead and did the following.

Clean the copper heat sinks.
Remove the caked on thermal compound on the cpu, and gpu's.
Optical disc upgrade from dvd to blu-ray.
SLI cable replacement.
Memory bank thermal pads.

I just got the SLI cable in the mail yesterday. So I'm waiting on my thermal pads & blu-ray drive.

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Comments

  • erichblas2005erichblas2005 Your Native Texan Houston,Texas Member
    After this is done the system should run 15-20 % cooler.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    The closer you can get to 20%, the better.
  • erichblas2005erichblas2005 Your Native Texan Houston,Texas Member
    Ya after I got the cpu heat-sink removed I couldn't believe how much thermal paste was used. No wounder it was running so hot.
  • erichblas2005erichblas2005 Your Native Texan Houston,Texas Member
    Well i got it working. I used ANTEC formula 7 thermal compound, and phobya thermal pads. The 260m gpus on full load hovers around 60c-69c and the intel core 2 quad temp on full load is 55c. The installation of my blu-ray drive was easy and works like a charm I wanted to put in a bdd-burner but the bios wont support it.

    I will never use frozencpu to get my stuff. here is why.

    I purchased (phobya) thermal pads for my alienware m17x. during the process of placing the order I put my current address on the order and after placing the order I received a confirmation e-mail stating both my current billing & shipping address.
    The tracking number they provided indicated the item was delivered at my old address on my paypal account. When I placed my order it gave me the option of the shipping address and I choose my current of course. I contacted the customer support hotline and someone claiming to be the manager picked up the phone and said it was my fault for not reading the disclaimer that by using paypal they will only ship to a confirmed address. Furthermore a shipping receipt come with my package with with my current address and yet it was shipped to my old address. luckily my old land lord signed for it. I did have to drive 25 miles out of my way in order to retrieve my item.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    That shipping thing is pretty strange and not to take their side, but shouldn't you have your new address on PayPal anyways? :P

    Cool documentation of the project though. What were your % reductions in temps?
  • erichblas2005erichblas2005 Your Native Texan Houston,Texas Member
    I did put my current address on paypal but I just wanted to vent.

    The temp over all was reduced by 10%.
  • erichblas2005erichblas2005 Your Native Texan Houston,Texas Member
    I mostly took the pics so that i wouldn't loose track. Little plastic baggies come in handy with all the screws.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    I totally get that. I had a very poor experience with Asus support once in much the same way.
  • erichblas2005erichblas2005 Your Native Texan Houston,Texas Member
    There is always a bad apple.
  • erichblas2005erichblas2005 Your Native Texan Houston,Texas Member
    edited May 2012
    here is the reason why i was having so many issues. a faulty SLI conector. after doing research on google i'm not the only one. After all of this i'm so surprised dell didn't issue a recall.

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    I did contact dell for some input on this issue and when i mentioned i got this from a pawn shop they automatically started assuming my laptop was stolen and if i wanted help i would have to get the original owners name from the pawn shop and I was like huhhh. They were so condescending and I even informed them i work for a law enforcement agency.

    I must be a magnet for bad luck. However on the plus side i managed to fix this on my own with out dells help.
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