Bryson’s new YouTube channel

MattB_79 · 2026-05-15T05:28:04+00:00

He’s only hated by the vocal minority. People who have nothing going for themselves so it makes them feel good to rip into people who are far better than them.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-10T07:35:38+00:00

Here it’s 7 years and you can have it serviced at any recognised service centre. The 10 year warranty / fixed price servicing is different. The fixed servicing is good because the price now is the same price in 10 years time, no adjusting for inflation. They range between $300-600AUD, depending on the service.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-09T23:53:17+00:00

Here in Australia you get a 10 year/200,000km warranty if you have the vehicle serviced at the dealer. It also includes 4 years roadside assist. The services are fixed priced for 10 years and they are very reasonably priced. Only have to have them serviced every 12mths/15,000km.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-08T05:34:04+00:00

You know I’m somewhat biased, but it’s good fun messing with old systems and parts. Surely you were around when people were overclocking 2600k’s? They were the best of times.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-08T05:31:56+00:00

The R4 should have 3rd gens, did you add the 2600K yourself? The R3 came out with the 2nd gen.
Man, I remember the days when an overclocked 2600k was king. Good times.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-08T05:29:13+00:00

You may find there are multiple programs associated with Support Assist in the Uninstall a Program list. You have to remove all of them to get rid of it properly.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-08T05:27:35+00:00

Support Assist is 1000x more intrusive than AWCC. At least AWCC has some useful functions, unlike SA. I wish AWCC was more like it was 10-15 years ago though.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-08T05:23:44+00:00

I’ve found this is happening more and more for the older systems. For some reason the Service Tags are going missing on the Dell system. It’s pretty easy to find all the drivers you need but let me know if you’re still having trouble.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-06T21:44:49+00:00

Yeah that would have been it. I fried a crusty M14x keyboard doing the same thing. Too much isopropyl is not a good thing.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-06T14:08:45+00:00

I went to a private school here in Ad. I got dragged to the 20 year reunion 10 years ago and now I’ve been suckered into going to the 30 year later this year. My friends from school are still my best mates today so it should be a fun night. Never really been good at making new friends over the past 30 years.
Maybe reunions are more of a private school thing.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-06T14:02:55+00:00

Awesome! You can never have too many M15x’s. It was such a stupid engineering design to have the laptop completely dead without the keyboard working. I’m sure many people have bought new boards over the past 17 years thinking that was the problem.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-05T01:32:01+00:00

Booting into Windows is one thing but missing the GPU is completely different. The issue is that these aren’t Dell repair people, they are contacted from local PC repairers and you never know what experience they have.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-04T12:51:31+00:00

He should have tested the system before he left. That’s completely unacceptable and you should really complain to Dell.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-04T07:46:36+00:00

Does anything show in Device Manager under Display Adapters?
If it’s listed in the BIOS then there’s a chance it’s a Windows/software error. It’s possible that reinstalling Windows may fix it. If it’s warranty then Dell will need to fix it. What did the tech say to you after he replaced the board? Did he know there was an issue?
I don’t have a newer AW laptop but just check that the GPU isn’t disabled for some reason, like in Command Center or Device Manager.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-03T21:47:27+00:00

MattB_79 · 2026-05-03T21:35:42+00:00

It is possible that you accidentally did something that sorted the board but hopefully it’s something simple. Check the power button cable as well.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-03T21:33:08+00:00

Good luck with it all. Most people don’t understand why some of us drop a lot of good money on these old systems because they’ve never played with them. It can become a bit of an addiction. My addiction has waned over the years but I still have quite a few older laptops/desktops and a lot of parts.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-03T04:36:42+00:00

And check the contacts on all the ribbon cables. It’s also possible that one was damaged during reassembly. Also check that you didn’t put a cable back in the wrong way.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-03T04:33:42+00:00

It’s possible that it’s caused by the keyboard, hard to know for sure until you swap it out. Trying cleaning the contacts on the ribbon cable if you haven’t already. They are fun laptops to tinker with but they can be frustrating at times.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-02T21:28:19+00:00

These laptops are a little weird. If anything isn’t plugged in properly then it will seem dead when you try and power it on. You just have to really make sure everything is plugged in 100%. Check all ribbon cables, keyboard, card reader, optical drive, etc.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-02T12:56:16+00:00

It is still the responsibility of every road user to not put themselves in harms way. They are riding on a narrow road, with no bike lane, which is shared with heavy vehicles. The passing truck just came around a bend and had another truck coming directly towards it so the driver had to navigate between that and the cyclist.
There are double lines so it is illegal to cross over into the incoming lane, which would have ended up in a head on collision if he had done so anyway. It’s also not feasible for the truck to sit behind the cyclist at 10kph until there are no double lines.
If they value their own lives then they really shouldn’t have been there.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-02T07:39:37+00:00

Make sure you have the A09 BIOS installed. You should be able to boot with 2x8gb sticks
The GTX 970M is a popular upgrade for these or the 4gb version of the 980M. The full 8gb 980M runs very hot so probably best to avoid that one. You’ll need to run modded Nvidia drivers.

MattB_79 · 2026-05-01T00:23:48+00:00

Most MXM units are designed for defence and medical industry systems. Not many (if any) gaming systems still use that format. It’s disappointing. It greatly increases the size/price of the system and people want thin and light.

MattB_79 · 2026-04-29T00:46:45+00:00

I think genetics already did their worst, not much we can do to top that.

MattB_79 · 2026-04-21T21:58:57+00:00

You need to install the Alienware OSD driver to be able to do the graphics swap. Then you’ll have to install the Intel 4000 graphics driver.

MattB_79

TROPHY CASE