Alienware M17x R1/R2 Various Problems

tombomb102

Commendable
Jul 29, 2016
3
0
1,510
Okay so I recently got an Alienware M17x R1 or R2, I don't know which one it is (I will provide specs below if interested) from Craigslist about 2 days ago for $150 (sweet) off a guy who said the hard drive didn't work. When I picked it up he had put an HDD in it with Windows 10 and said it was working fine and he had put the drivers on the desktop so I could install them later.

Turns out he gave me the drivers for an R4 and Alienware doesn't even support drivers for Windows 10 on the M17x anyway, regardless of model. I was going to put my own SSD in it anyway so I put Windows 7 on it and replaced the hard drive.

(First Problem) When I looked at the back to see where the battery is so I could take it out, I noticed that there was no switch to take it out of its socket.

(Second Problem) I noticed a second slot on the hard drive area for another hard drive to go, so I said "sweet, I'm gonna put another hard drive in this baby" but noo. Apparently the second slot requires a missing proprietary adapter you can find NOWHERE. I found one thread that had the same type of connector but I believe he had the adapter for it: http://www.overclock.net/t/1197422/
So that idea was gone.

(Third Problem) Another problem I knew about from the start is that the power circuit board was taken off. Luckily I asked the guy if he had it, because he found it in some bag downstairs, mostly intact. Right now I have to abrade the power ribbon on metal to turn it on/off. After I pried the battery off with leverage and got my SSD in etc. I downloaded drivers from this page I found (forgot the address) and got everything running; laptop colors, Alienware Command Center, GPUs, SLI, etc.

I noticed my wireless network driver was not working properly. It wasn't picking up any WiFi connections. I uninstalled it and Ethernet cable'd my laptop so it could reinstall proper drivers, but to no avail. I guess this guy completely didn't care about this laptop's aesthetic condition, because the screen was smudged to s--- when I got it. Lots of screws are missing everywhere I look, and there are just missing bits and pieces. Any help on anything listed here would be much appreciated.

Specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 @2.3GHz
4 Gigabytes of DDR3L RAM
Geforce GTX 260M + Radeon HD 6970M
Sandisk 128GB Solid State Drive
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

~Daniel

[Moderator: long wall of text with no spaces edited to make it more easily readable]
 
I have to say, were it me, I wouldn't find it worth all the work and effort, not to mention parts, that you are looking at to fix it. It would be easier to purchase one that is working (used, seen on ebay for less). Alas, since you got it on craigs returning is probably not an option.