M17 R4 freezes up

Hey guys,
Long time fan, first time poster here. So, my laptop hates me. It will lock up, screen go darkish and force a restart. This started 10 days after my warranty expired of course and when I contacted Dell, they said it was due to overheating and processed to put around 15 things of Malware on my laptop. Fun stuff.

So, today I repasted both my CPU and my GPU Nvidia 675.

Here's the kicker, if I unplug my laptop and run off batteries, life is fine, no freezups?

I'm about at the point to buy a new GPU :/.

Thanks in advanced. All drivers are up to date.

 

Hi, when on battery the GPU is automatically downclocked to 75mhz. Try msiafterburner and set the on-screen display to show clock speeds and temps while gaming. If it is happening just in windows (when the card should be running slow, unless you have set power management in the NV control panel to 'maximum performance preferred?) then HW info will show you the temps.

Sadly I have had two 675's burn out on me and I did see one guy that for some strange reason was stuck with an overvoltage that he did not do - 0.92v, and the card was messed up. Again afterburner can show you the voltage while gaming and HWInfo in windows.

HTH

 

Thanks for the reply!

According to MSI as well as a few other temp monitoring thingies that I have tried, my GPU temp doesn't seem all that high? It runs around 62-64 (I could be reading it wrong cause Dell said it was around 90?) while gaming and in the 50's while idle.

One thing a friend mentioned was that maybe my thermal cutoff was somehow moved? I have no idea how to check this though or change it. My fan starts really moving around 63 degrees but never gets to the point where it's screaming at me. When I first got it, I remember it was a huge joke in my house how when I was gaming I had a 3 foot barrior behind my laptop due to the heat coming out.

I'm not sure what to do to fix it. My wife gave me the go-ahead to buy the 780m but...I honestly would rather not if possible. Maybe I should just pay the xxx amount to Dell and update my warranty and give it to them and go computer/lifeless for a month or two :/

 

Well, GPU temps sound just fine. The point you mention when the fan ramps up is the same is mine. The GPU thermal throttle does not start until 78C and at that point the card goes into a serious downclock, around 50mhz if I remember right.

What about the CPU temps, this will also shut down the machine if it gets too hot?

Re-reading your original post it's not shutting down just locking up so overheat is probably not anything to do with it.

IMO the dell warranty is gold. I renewed mine and since then my GPU crapped out (only start in safe mode!) and dell replaced it next day - awesome service . Even if they cannot figure out which part to replace and ask you to send it in, two weeks is the longest I have seen for this service (although the depot repair does not have good feedback here )

Also try the latest driver dell just released (it's on the new M17 drivers page), black screen lockups have been a recurring issue with a LOT of the later NV drivers....

 

I'll see if there are any drivers I missed than I suppose. Could a complete wipe possibly fix this? Should I even bother?

Only hesitation I have is, I'm a US contractor living in Qatar so getting Dell service probably won't be as easy as it is for most people since I have to go through a military base for shipping and such. I'll probably just renew my warranty later today though and give them a call. I still need to call them regardless about the fact that they corrupted the hell out of my system with whatever they downloaded onto my system last time they troubleshot it.

 

Dell released a new NV driver a couple of days ago: Driver Details | Dell UK

Look in the NV control panel and let me know the version you are currently running (Help, system information)

Personally I would not go down the full reinstall path yet. It's such a pain and may well not help if hardware is the issue.

Understand the situation you are in and yes it's going to take some time for shipping back to the US - unless dell sell/sold the AW in Qatar, whereby their international warranty cuts in and you can get local service?

If you do call dell about messing the machine up I'm sure they will do a factory restore - which may be a solution in itself, but of course get all your data off first!

Good Luck

 

I'll look that info up when I get off work in about an hr or two.

 

NVIDIA System Information report created on: 10/31/2013 16:11:46
System name: XXXXXXXXXX

[Display]
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit (Service Pack 1)
DirectX version: 11.0
GPU processor: GeForce GTX 675M
Driver version: 327.45
Direct3D API version: 11
Direct3D feature level: 11_0
CUDA Cores: 384
Core clock: 620 MHz
Shader clock: 1240 MHz
Memory data rate: 3000 MHz
Memory interface: 256-bit
Memory bandwidth: 96.00 GB/s
Total available graphics memory: 4095 MB
Dedicated video memory: 2048 MB GDDR5
System video memory: 0 MB
Shared system memory: 2047 MB
Video BIOS version: 70.24.43.00.0D
IRQ: 16
Bus: PCI Express x16 Gen2
Device Id: 10DE 1212 057B1028
Part Number: 1314 0005

[Components]

easyDaemonAPIU64.DLL 8.3.14.1 NVIDIA GeForce Experience
WLMerger.exe 8.3.14.1 NVIDIA GeForce Experience
daemonu.exe 8.3.14.1 NVIDIA GeForce Experience
ComUpdatus.exe 8.3.14.1 NVIDIA GeForce Experience
NvUpdtr.dll 8.3.14.1 NVIDIA GeForce Experience
NvUpdt.dll 8.3.14.1 NVIDIA GeForce Experience
nvui.dll 8.17.13.2745 NVIDIA User Experience Driver Component
nvxdsync.exe 8.17.13.2745 NVIDIA User Experience Driver Component
nvxdplcy.dll 8.17.13.2745 NVIDIA User Experience Driver Component
nvxdbat.dll 8.17.13.2745 NVIDIA User Experience Driver Component
nvxdapix.dll 8.17.13.2745 NVIDIA User Experience Driver Component
NVCPL.DLL 8.17.13.2745 NVIDIA User Experience Driver Component
nvCplUIR.dll 7.4.760.0 NVIDIA Control Panel
nvCplUI.exe 7.4.760.0 NVIDIA Control Panel
nvWSSR.dll 6.14.13.2745 NVIDIA Workstation Server
nvWSS.dll 6.14.13.2745 NVIDIA Workstation Server
nvViTvSR.dll 6.14.13.2745 NVIDIA Video Server
nvViTvS.dll 6.14.13.2745 NVIDIA Video Server
NVSTVIEW.EXE 7.17.13.2745 NVIDIA 3D Vision Photo Viewer
NVSTTEST.EXE 7.17.13.2745 NVIDIA 3D Vision Test Application
NVSTRES.DLL 7.17.13.2745 NVIDIA 3D Vision Module
nvDispSR.dll 6.14.13.2745 NVIDIA Display Server
NVMCTRAY.DLL 8.17.13.2745 NVIDIA Media Center Library
nvDispS.dll 6.14.13.2745 NVIDIA Display Server
PhysX 09.13.0725 NVIDIA PhysX
NVCUDA.DLL 8.17.13.2745 NVIDIA CUDA 5.5.1 driver
nvGameSR.dll 6.14.13.2745 NVIDIA 3D Settings Server
nvGameS.dll 6.14.13.2745 NVIDIA 3D Settings Server

[Licenses]

3DTV Play

 

Well your running the latest one so if it still locks up then my only suggestion is to try out an earlier one that was very good: 314.22. You can look at the earlier drivers on the NV site or get it here : LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers

The driver files are original and the modifications they do are in a separate download (ini file). Grabbing at straws really, but the dell warranty does at least give you full telephone and remote access support wherever you are in the world - and they should call you back if you ask

You can alweays try a hardware test as well. F12 at the bios screen and select it, again a remote possibility. Sorry, kinda out of ideas

 

Downloading that driver you said right now. I redid my warranty today too (I already miss that $400+ :'(). I'll try and call them tomorrow or later on tonight (stupid Halloween).

Thank you again for all the help and time you have spent on this already. I've been out of ideas now for..well, weeks lol.

 

lol, good call with the warranty IMO. The international bit is what kept me with dell for many years when I was travelling all over the place, oh yeah a quick vote for support in Hungary - you suck! Brazil was where I was when dell came through for me big time /rant_off ha ha...

Fingers crossed for you and please post back results. You probably will end up talking to Purto Rico, don't know how big Halloween is there

 

I'll call them tomorrow and let you know what they say. I spoke to Guatemala last time..that was fun :/. Traveling all over the world is why I didn't initially pick up the big dog warranty to be honest but..we'll see? I just want this fixed. Logging into my Eve Online account to change up skills is rough enough without being scared to death my laptop will crash each time :/

 

Funny, dell change their off-shore locations like the wind. Guess it keeps them on their toes. Always had India here in the UK and last time it was Croatia!

I take it the earlier driver was no joy

 

I don't think I installed the driver correctly :/.

I couldn't get the .inf file to download (said it wasn't available or something to that effect). I downloaded the other option they had and it ..well, it didn't do much? It opened the CMD thingy and acted like it was working but the driver number stayed the same. I than uninstalled the drivers, rebooted and ran it, seemed like it worked? Not sure though if it did though. I work on electronics in my daily life but...not computers..I work on specialized equipment and I hate not being able to figure this stuff out!


grrr..

 

The inf file on laptopvideo2go is for machines that do not have 'native' support for a specific GPU. Since the 675m was a stock option on the R4 you don't need it.

The way that the driver works from LV2go is that when you run their download it will expand the driver set as a sub-folder of the folder you placed the file in and run it from (the bit where you see the CMD widdow). After that you browse the new expanded folders and around two levels deep you will see the setup.exe. Run this and select 'advanced', 'clean install'. You might have to manually remove gforce experience if there are any errors with it but I never had a problem with it.

 

*edit...downloading an older driver from nvidia now. That site you linked didn't have anything newer for Windows 7 since like July of last year. We'll see?

 

I know this consideration maybe moot, but did you try resetting the power profiles on the pc

Install the setup.inf from intel on your motherboard
Install GeForce drivers

Check and see if this works?

 

Yeah a bit of a confusing site. For win 7 read win 8, it's the same driver, they just for some reason started labelling them win 8 only

 

Ok, status update.

After 5 hrs l, Miguel from Costs Rica decided that I need to send them my laptop.

They have no idea what's up. Initially they refused to use my warranty but, apparently management was listening in and decided its good.

I need to mail it back to the states cause they won't mail a box here.

We'll see?

 

I was afraid that would be their option. If they had identified specific hardware then you could have shipped it to a US address and have them service it there. Did they give any indication as to how long this might take?

 

Actually yeah, that's what they are doing. I'm shipping it to my father in law. Once it's there, they are having a tech come to his house and replace the video card. My father in law ship it back to me. Hopefully it won't take too long?

 

Just an update.

So I got my laptop back from Dell yesterday. I (living overseas in Qatar), shipped it to my father-in-law's house in the states. Dell sent someone to his house to replace the card than my dad shipped it back to me.

The laptop was fixed! worked great for 4 hrs..than locked up. Only now it wont' boot back up. I called Dell and they had me take off the keyboard and some other stuff. They initially were going to have me ship it back again and replace the screen, GPU,CPU, and Keyboard. I told them that we wern't that far from the cost of a new laptop at that point. The guy put me on hold, came back and told me they were going to send me a brand new laptop. I checked the numbers and such.

I'm getting the new 17 to replace my M17x R4 (unless I have it backwords). I don't know any of the stats yet and won't actually have it for probably close to a month but...oh well :/


Thanks again for your help peeps!

 

Sorry to hear that you have has so much trouble man

You handled that well though, a replacement IS in order but you do have to ask nicely for the rep to pass it up the chain for approval.

Now, you need to hassle them a little for the offer machine as what can happen is they wait a while hoping an acceptable model turns up at the outlet. Because the AW laptops are no longer a customisable machine like the R4 you should look at the model configs they offer and see which one is closest to yours. 'Like-for-like or better' is the rule for replacements. For many in this situation, myself included, dell give some upgraded parts when an exact match cannot be made. E.G. If you have a blu-ray player then the model that has that option may be better in other areas?

Once you agree the config of the replacement it will go into production and the wait begins....

Good luck

 

Habe exact same problem..
Today they are changing the motherboard again.. This is 3rd time.. And i also think these costs will exceed the cost of a new unit.. If the tech isnt able to fix it today. I also will ask for a replacement unit.. No matter what specs they offer (i7/gtx770m/120hz 3d.. Would be great)

 

Not sure, the site says in production? Seems like they are building me one? I've already contacted Dell about the replacement. It doesn't have a nameplate like my old one did. It's all better than what I had I think?

I had a GTX 675M - Getting GTX 770M

I had the 3D Screen - Getting the new 3D non glair Screen

I had a Killer Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n - Getting the 5G WiFi Broadcom 4352 802.11n/ac (aparently a Killer Wireless network card isnt' available?)

Had the 500Gb 7200 RPM and 32 Gb SSD - Getting the 750 7200 RPM and 80 Gb SSD

Had the 3rd Gen Intel Core i7 - 3720QM processor - Getting 4h Gen Intel i7 - 4800MQ processor




It's not showing my software on the new one though and the price diffrence is like $500 but I'm not sure what to do about that or if it matters?

Old price $2811.96 - New Price $2310.00 not including the fact that I had that old laptop with expired waranty and the new one is going to be using my $400 extended waranty :/...



So yeah..not sure if what I'm getting is better or not? It's new at least but it seems like I paid them $800 to maybe get a few upgrades and a lot of hassle?

 

That looks just fine to me, the 770m will be a step up as well. Curious that they are building that config though. I thought that the 3D screen was only offered with a 780m? But hey-ho, it's still better in all respects.

I'm not really following your logic on the cost thing though. The new models are quite a bit cheaper from what I saw compared to my R4 on a like for like build I tried.

What I have seen with replacements is that they come with a fresh warranty but I guess they have some mechanism for transferring one - just never heard of it being done.

What software are you referring to that is missing? And, yes they dropped the killer card option and the custom name plate.

Did they not send you the config and ask for your approval before starting to build it? Different regions have different processes around support though.

All in all looks like finally a result

 

No, they never asked me before they started building it. My rep wasn't at work yesterday when I emailed him (thanksgiving) so we will see if he gets back with me today on it when they open up.

My concerns (not really a complaint I suppose?) is, about 1 year ago I paid $2800 for a product. It broke 1 year later. They are giving me a new product, better product that is cheaper than the one I paid for. That would be fine except I didn't pay $2300 for the origional, I paid $2800 (not including the $400 to exend the waranty).

I am getting a better product but it costs less, I suppose I woudln't mind a better product that was as close to the cost of the origional? I suppose this might be unreasonable but, I did pay a lot more last year and it broke....they are giving me a better model but it isn't costing nearly the same amount?

As far as software, I suppose it's missing the Power DVD (I couldn't find any other way to watch 3D movies?). The R4's listing had all the programs and such installed. The 17 has a lot smaller of a listing lol.

 

Curious re the build going straight to production, maybe you agreed it when talking to them? We'll see what the rep says.

Just think of the lower cost of the new one as 'just one of those things'. Dell have cut a few corners to lower the price now such as restricted builds and no media keys or AW power button. They wanted to be more competitive (more mainstream) so had to reduce the price.

Don't know if the new one comes with PowerDVD but I would be surprised if it did not. You should be able to get a copy at 'my dell downloads' using the R4 service tag though.

 

damn alienware is expensive in your country then..
i paid 1700 euro.. dont know how much exactly that is in dollar or pounds, 1 and half year ago for:
675m
120hz 3d
6gb ram
500gb hdd

if they would offer me the exact same system they are giving u, i would be okay with that, and very happy...
i have the same issue, this whole week is about making time for a tech to be @ my home.
they changed mobo and gpu twice now. and some other bits and cables.. and it still doesnt work..
i have to send it to a different country, alienware depot, and let them fix it.. they come pick my machine up on monday..
if they arent able to fix it right that week, i will get a new alienware 17 too..

if thats the case, i might be looking at a similar specced machine u are getting, and i would be more than okay with that..
despite the price difference..

i mean, u written off a serious amount of money, since second hand alienwares very rarely sell *in my country anyhow\

 

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm totally stoked about what they are giving me. I'm just not thrilled at the price diffrence is all. If that can't be helped than so be it. I won't fight it. I'm just going to ask is all.

 

Mine jst got picked up by ups...
Hope i get a replacement too..

Dell broke my notebook a lot more than neccesery.. and im busy for 2 weeks to get it fixed..
I hope its back before next monday..

If the replace my unit, i will opt for same config, but with gtx780m,.,, if that isnt possible, i am willing to pay for the upgrade.. i miss my alien

 

I miss mine too :/. They still haven't finished mine or shipped it and they says they can't upgrade it till it's done. Also, apparently they are still doing the costume nameplates?

 

Well, my new one finally arrived (to my wife who is currently back in the states since I am here in Afganistan at the moment). I should recieve it in the next few weeks when I meet up with her in Qatar.

Some things to note though which I found rather odd about the process. I was told that I would have the option to upgrade it and the dude would let me know when I could do that. Then I get an e-mail saying "congrats, it's shipped!". When I asked him about me upgrading, he said that wasn't possible and I would have to..I don't know, he wasn't rude at all but said pretty much to do it on my own time.

I really wanted to upgrade the video card to the 780m since from what I'm seeing, if I do it now it will cost another $700 instead of the $200 (i suck at google and finding prices so if you see it cheaper..lemme at it) it would have cost during the build process. Don't get me wrong, the laptop is awesome from what I have been told but had I been givin any options, I would have done it a little diffrent I suppose?

He then passed me off to some other guy to discuss the possibly of me getting reinbursed the $150 in shipping charges to get the work done on my old laptop. The new guy said, it wasn't possible, linked me some very obscure and pointless stuff about the warranty process and says, we might pay for 1 of the shipments but not all three. He also said that I should have contacted the warranty guys in Qatar for service though none of us (my agent or myself) could get them on the phone at any point in time which forced me to ship it back to the states.

So yeah, I'm not sure how I feel about this whole thing. My M17 R4 cost me $3000 (roughly), and $400 for the extra warranty and I got a $2200 system.

I have the top of the line 3D monitor for instance but the 770m graphics card. I dont' have a clue with the diffrence between the two but I would guess the diffrence is enough when dell wont' sell the 3D monitor with the 770m card? I'm just...meh..frustrated I guess about the whole thing?

 

To the OP

If you factor in the depreciation, the new laptop will look very good.

 

Like I've said a few times, I'm quite excited about the new laptop. Free upgrade is always awesome! .

I'm just a little...put off maybe? I really don't know the right word to be honest but it's about the process, not the product.