Fancy helping me find a solution?

Hi guys,

Over the past 2-3 days I've been having major headaches with this AW 17 880m. The 880m isn't performing how it should. Anyway, I called the dell techs which transferred me on to the AW techs. After 5-6 hours of talking on the phone, the AW higher tech team couldn't understand why my problem wasn't being solved by newer drivers. So after the tech guy messed with my computer remotely, he asked me to do a windows refresh. So I did that and what not, then he called me back. We tried for another 2 hours to solve the problem. No solution was found. I kicked off and asked for a refund. AW transferred me back to Dell who then refused to refund me. I obviously got really annoyed and kicked off more. I got to speak to a tech supervisor who eventually agreed with me that a refund should be given. I said "ok" and then we went through the whole refund process. Basically, I had 3 days to wait before my refund would be given as I would have to wait for the pickup driver to collect my AW 17 before they would refund me my money. I agreed and put the phone down. Later this afternoon, I thought sod it, I'm going to get to the root of this problem. I got in touch with Nvidia. They ran a test remotely and said that the card is showing 954mhz core clock, however, the core clock is running at 250mhz for some strange reason. Anyway, Nvidia called the same AW tech guy who I had previously spoken to. I don't know what they exactly said to the AW tech guy, but the AW guy called me back. He now asked me if I wanted to straight up exchange for a new AW 17 with the same config. I said no, I want to upgrade. I upgraded to the 18 880m SLI. I have this AW 17 with me now until the new AW arrives. I want to solve this problem for future knowledge if this happens again.

Basically, the 880m has the original driver right now installed. The driver is was made back in January this year. When I run 3D Mark 11, I get 250mhz (core clock) solid throughout the entire tests. In HWINFO it's showing the maximum potential of the card which is 954mhz. I'm running the A10 bios just for the heads up.

Oh, and in short, do not ever go to Dell to claim on your warranty. Dell are garbage and should be disbanded after the way they treat there customers. AW on the other hand, don't really have a clue when it comes to Nvidia GPU's. That much was shown when the tech guy asked me to use the drivers from the resource disc which aren't compatible with my 880m.

 

Have you tried nvidia inspector and forcing a Pstate?

 

How do I go about activating this Pstate?

 

A lot of people have been having performance issues with the 880M. I think it's related to the BIOS. Drivers don't seem to do much of anything.

What temperatures are you getting?

 

It's a very odd thing. I just ran rivatuna and hwinfo to se my core clock speed during playing Dark Souls 2. I was throttling at 786mhz which is weird since the core clock throttles at 250mhz in 3d mark 11. My temp for the 880m is at 61c under load, and 35-36c at idle. I've tested every known stock bios and none of them have changes the core clock.

 

Sounds like you got a bad GPU or it is in need of a re-paste. And are the words about Dell/AW customer service really necessary? I deal with Dell tech support on an almost weekly basis and they're great. Just because you are upset doesn't mean they aren't trying their best to make you happy.

 

Yes they are necessary. You have no idea the ordeal I've had with Dell today. That company needs disbanding as far as I'm concerned. At the end of the day, this is my opinion. If you choose to side with Dell, then that's your own choice. Either way, it was absolutely necessary to post all the bad thing's I've mentioned about Dell in my first post.

Anyway, back to you mentioning repaste. I've repasted it with IC Diamond 7 and Liquid Ultra. My temp speaks for itself as far as I'm concerned. The GPU is either bad, or the bios is really crippled.

 

It's could be the BIOS. If switching drivers or rolling back doesn't do anything at all, then it's definitely not the driver.

Your temperatures are great, in fact. There may be something else holding it back, though. Have you opened the NVIDIA Inspector and looked at the overclocking tab? What is the temperature limit set to? 3DMark should make the temperature rise much further than 61C, even with a good re-paste. You may have to raise the temperature limit, which will allow the card to function properly, and is completely harmless.

When the Alienware laptops first came out, Alienware set their GPU's to "63C" maximum, which is nothing. What was happening was that people experienced what mimicked "throttling," when in fact, there system was being underclocked because of this limitation.

 

That could be it. Let me run a quick test. I'll get back to you in a few minutes

Edit: Here's my Unigine score



It was still showing as more core clock was at 250-270mhz throughout this test. My max temp is set to 93c in NI.

 

That's odd. Perhaps the card is screwed up. It could be the BIOS, as I suspected earlier. In that case, I don't think Alienware "flashes" the card for you in a Tech visit. They'll just have to replace the entire card. By the way, I'm referring to the "vBIOS" - not the system BIOS.

 

And yet you jumped on the opportunity to grab an 18 with two of these cards in it.....yeah makes sense.....can't wait to see the endless threads about that one. You have been screwing with stuff and asking how to OC and flash vBios's since you got your machine, honestly have you given any thought to the fact that you messed something up? You are not going to get very far coming onto these forums and bad mouthing the company that these forums was formed to talk about. If you hate them that much then get your money back and go buy another brand, see how they treat you when your computer isn't running as you expect it to. Maybe you got a dud, it happens, wait for the new one and have some patience and it will probably be fixed with that one.

 

Calm down. I didn't bad mouth Alienware, and for the record, I gave my opinion on Dell as a company. Whether or not you choose to listen to my opinion is up to you.

Yes, I did jump on the AW 18. Did I every state that I had a problem with Nvidia or Alienware.. No I didn't. You know why, because it's not Nvidia's or Alienware's fault is it. In fact, it wasn't anyones fault. However, my customer experience wasn't good with Dell, so I'm obviously going to bad mouth that company regardless of what the people who praise them say.

This forum is for helping new comers and existing members with questions they may have in regards to over clocking and modifying. If you don't want to help me, don't post in my thread. I don't see any reason as to why you would post in my thread if you don't agree with the questions I'm asking. By the way, I haven't actually got anywhere with over clocking the 880m as there is no unlocked vbios as of yet. So really, what damage could I have possibly done to make this card down clock constantly.

Haha, yeah I gathered you were referring to the vbios. I'm guessing at this point it has to be down to the vbios. Ah well, at least we gave it a shot at finding a solution to resolve this problem. Thanks for giving me suggestions, I appreciate it.

 

uhm....

Sure looks like badmouthing to me..

 

Uhm no, thats not me bad mouthing Alienware. I'm stating that they don't know much when it comes to Nvidia GPU's. If I was bad mouthing them, I be saying things to hinder there company.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcjzHMhBtf0

 

Sounds like the speeds during the heaven benchmark are because of Optimus running. When I had Optimus on it would do something similar.

If that's not the case then try getting the card changed to the 780M and a 120hz display if you haven't.

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