BIG M4400 problem: full system lockup!

It's Vista SP1, right? And did you also have the throttle down problem on maximum load?

 

I've had SP1 on my Vista since it came. Didn't make a difference.

 

Driven, hows the new system?

 

Don't know yet. I'm on the road. I'll set it up on Friday (when this week's trip is done) and let you all know by the end of the weekend.

 

I never heard about this problem. Are you saying that your processor won't run at full speed at maximum load?

Have you tried disabling wireless to see if your laptop stops locking up? Try giving your wireless button a flip or if it's FN controlled, try turning it off.

 

I mean the problem described here: forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=292245&page=22 (see also the last page of that thread).

And I do not own M4400 YET, that is why I am interested so much in those topics. If Dell fixes all the problems reported I'm buying it, but if not I can't afford several weeks/months of battles with customer support

 

Well that problem seems to come from heat generated by the video card. I have a 8400GS since I have a vostro 1400 and I have no problems with it. Apparently the M4400 has bad cooling or something if this problem occurs on all of them. It would make sense for the video card to downclock itself because temperatures over 90 degrees is pretty ridiculous. You better want it to downclock itself or else it'll end up fried.

Can't really think of any good way to fix this problem. Maybe get a good laptop cooler, find some new drivers that might make your card run like 1 or 2 degrees cooler, or clean your vents. You could downclock a bit so that it wont run over 90 degress, but you wouldn't want to do that because you paid good money.

Since you haven't gotten this laptop yet, maybe you could reconsider another laptop. Maybe the SAGER NP8660, fast 15" laptop with 9800GTS at a reasonable price and better customer support than dell, even better if you buy it from resellers!

 

Thank you CpxAzn. I am reconsidering it all the time. Sager is not that easy to get in Poland (that is where I am from) and I'm not sure if it is mobile enough. I'm looking for a solid and very portable system with good graphics (display+card). My choice so far was thinkpad vs. precision...

 

Believe me, these issues are being worked on right now. Dell is going as far as reaching out to the customers to recall bad systems and offering full replacements which supposedly work. And I dont know where you got the idea of battling with customer support for the business line, they treated me like a king. Pro support from Dell is absolutely fantastic.

I dont believe this is fully true. My M4400 downclocks 3D rendering at a GPU temperature of 54.4 celcius and a CPU temperature of 43.8 celcius.

 

Oh, from what I was reading, it seems like it happens when the GPU temperature is above 90.

Well I'm going to try to list a few things that I think may be the cause.

Is this problem on both XP and vista? (edit: seems like you're running XP) Have you tried different video drivers? I think this laptop comes with the Quadro? I'm not really sure what drivers the quadro uses but if you can, maybe try this
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showforum=10

You could also install nTune and set the setting on custom just to see if it'll lock your speed.

Some other things that I can think of are power option, maybe some of dells power maximizing utilities and other random utilities. Also the windows power options.

Is it only the GPU that underclocks or is it also the CPU?

It would make no sense if it is underclocking your speed if it isn't trying to save power/heat.