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Hey folks,
M17xR2 here, I have a few issues that I think would be best to consolidate in a single thread, so here we go:
1. Every video driver install guide I've seen around here has made liberal use of CCleaner and Driver Sweeper and right now I'm at the point where I'm needing to nuke my video drivers and run a clean install again (for some reason I'm starting to get horrible FPS issues even in very system-light games like ME3). As I'm sure many of you have noticed, Driver Sweeper is discontinued and replaced with something called DriverFusion, however I'm quite iffy about using it so I think I'll ask for your advice and experience so far.
I realize that all Treexy sources claim that the successor DriverFusion product is superior in every way, but of course that is to be expected as no marketing campaign will ever say their product is worse than another. I've half a mind to simply use Driver Sweeper 3.2.0 from now on (the latest Driver Sweeper release that I am aware of) however, based on the judgement of my fellow end-users (NOT anyone "official" linked to Treexy, because of course they will be biased in saying DF is superior) I will make a decision on whether or not to use DriverFusion over Driver Sweeper. Sadly, DF appears to be split between freeware and pro versions and it would appear that the freeware version has limited cleaning capability (because "enhanced cleaning" is listed as a pro-only feature). It says that the freeware version will be unable to delete files in use or that are locked, does this mean in the same cleaning cycle or if I use the freeware version of DF and run a few restarts will that give me the same level of cleaning as the pro version, or is there simply no way to delete those traces without the pro version? In the end, between Driver Sweeper 3.2.0 and the freeware version of DF, which is going to give the more thorough cleaning?
I realize this isn't a driver forum, but what are you guys using for your graphics update cycles nowadays?
2. I have so far been operating under the assumption that these performance issues are in fact caused by my video driver, but I'm starting to think that this may no longer be the case. Basically what happens is this:
My FPS starts dropping horribly and everything gets very stuttery, and my game and system audio begins to go all echoey and strange and choppy as well (Actually, I think the audio starts to stutter and go before the general FPS drop, or they happen at the exact same time, or something). Does weird blaring noises sometimes, too. I did a clean install of my OS and all the drivers a few years back, but it was after the very last time Dell ever released another driver for the M17xR2 series so according to what's available there I do have a clean install of the "latest" (lol) drivers. I think the audio part may be tangentially related to the BSOD issue which I'll describe later, but I have nothing whatsoever to support that idea other than the fact that the BSODs cause blaring noises to go off over my headset (TactX), and these performance issues also manifest with the audio going wonky.
The exceptions to these are my graphics and wireless drivers, both are from AMD and Intel. (By the way - After the latest Intel update I'm missing that MyWifi icon, anything I should be concerned about?)
Someone on another forum a while back told me it was likely because of overheating, but considering how well ventilated my laptop area is I highly doubt that's the case. I would admit that my laptop feels hot when I'm gaming, but I honestly don't remember a time where my laptop didn't feel hot unless it was turned off.
Someone else mentioned maybe my CPU couldn't keep up with the rest of my machine, but I don't know about that, if an Intel i7 920XM isn't good enough for something as light as ME3 then I have no idea what is. (I end up sticking to less-system-intensive games because for some reason my M17x can't handle high-performance games like Crysis 2 or 1, which is really weird because when I was purchasing my laptop I maxed out all the options)
Anyone have an idea what's causing this?
3. Every now and then my laptop crashes with a BSOD with some message about USB or something or other. A few minutes before the crash, my mouse will typically stop working and the touchpad will not reactivate. (The touchpad automatically deactivates when a mouse is plugged in - in this case, the Alienware TactX mouse)
It's never crashed while I'm in-game or doing something similarily system-intensive, just while I'm browsing the internet or letting the computer idle while I go eat dinner or something. Once it actually happened on system start-up - Only that was before I had a chance to realize the mouse wasn't working, it was the facial recognizer crapping out along with the webcam, and my mouse was simultaneously disabled, and the headset was emitting a loud constant blaring noise (this is what I was talking about earlier, what I think could be related to the audio and FPS issues I get in-game). Now that I think about it I think the headset blaring usually does happen probably every time the system BSODs, but I usually don't notice it because I usually don't have the headset on. This is just a suspicion, though.
When it does BSOD, the entire screen will go bright green for a very, very brief instant before giving me the regular blue crash screen.
Recently though, I've noticed occasions where the system will manage to "recover" - Basically whereas before if the mouse and others crapped out and stopped working, I knew for a fact that a system crash was imminent and if I wanted to save what I was doing I had to unplug my mouse from the right side of the laptop, hook it up awkwardly to the USB ports on the left side, and try to save everything. However, nowadays it (sometimes) manages to reactivate and recover from that state without me doing anything at all, and averts the potential crash. Still doesn't do it all the time though, unfortunately.
....Whew. That was a lot of typing, sorry about the whole text wall there. Anyone have any ideas?
Edit: Sorry, forgot to list my specs. M17xR2, AMD CrossfireX Radeon HD5870, Windows 7 Ultimate, 8GB RAM, Intel i7 920XM, Samsung SSD.
Clean AMD driver install/FPS and audio stuttering/BSODs
Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Brigadier, Jan 22, 2013.
