M17X R2 big problem.

Hello! I got my M17x exactly a week ago, and it has been great! Except for a few things:

• Static coming from right vent
• Freeze and sound loop

And the big one: Randomly stopping everything and the screen just turns random colours.

The first problem usually happens when playing games.
The second one has only happened twice while playing Starcraft 2.

The one that really concerns me is the last one, it will seem to happen at any random time, when no graphic eaters are going on, it has happened when playing Garry's mod (Half life 2 mod), when surfing the internet and just then when surfing the internet while World of Warcraft was minimized at the title screen and I was downloading something on Steam.

Please help, I don't want to lose my babeh :'(
specs:
Intel i7 840
8 gb ram
Nvidia Geforce 285xm (I have two in there but thats what dxdiag says? Might be because I have SLI disabled.)

 

sadly i think your going to have to get a rma from alienware/dell and ship it back to them, these problems sound pretty bad. goodluck man. send them a email and they should help you, i just sent my sager 8760 back for fixing free of change, take advantage of it.

 

Really? That sucks .

 

Hey Snake,

Are you fully updated on the main BIOS and video BIOS? If you have ATI/AMD video card(s) then there is a VBIOS update available at Dell's site. Mine needed it, and it is only about 3 weeks old. In fact, several drivers needed updating.

 

I have NVIDIA 285m's, and what is a BIOS? I probably haven't got that update lol, where can I get it?
EDIT: I updated my NVIDIA drivers though.

 

The bios is essentially firmware that is stored on a flashable chip on your motherboard. The latest version for m17x r2 is A09:

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=417210

Make sure you follow the instructions perfectly because you don't want to screw up the flash and have to get a new motherboard installed...

 

can i join in on this thread cause i'm having the exact same problems. no sound issues but the video lockups and screen flashing random colors, spot on. these occur during videos (online only) and game playing, though i did experience a few lockups during microsoft word use. what's worse is this system is a warranty exchange for my pos m1730 and its just looking like my problems are never gonna be over.

specs:
m17x r2
i7 940
6gb ram
nvidia 285m gtx sli
bios a09

now i will say i'm beginning to think this this a driver issue. i've only had these issues with drivers in the 200 series. below 200, have yet to run into issues. hoping its hardware so i can use the latest driver but we'll see

 

if its crashing while paying online video then right click on the video>settings>display tab(first one>uncheck hardware acceleration... done

 

On some other threads people have claimed that the recent nVidia cards don't need VBIOS updates; that may be true. Definitely, the ATI 5870 cards do need an update, and it isn't hard to do, but in all flash updates you MUST follow the instructions perfectly or you might ruin hardware.

There have been some other threads pointing to peculiar other driver problems. In most cases, there are updated drivers available for many hardware components, even when your Alien is essentially brand new. Amazingly, Dell seems to build them with NOT the latest available drivers installed, so go there first for all updates before suspecting hardware. After that, I guess it will be a "bug hunt." Oh, by the way, the so-called Resource disk that they include with the machine is probably a very bad idea to use. Mine (again, only three weeks old) was way behind on its driver versions. Go to the website and carefully research your system's components before getting the latest there. I even read on one page of a Dell support site that the command center application that is on the resource disk is corrupt and could be damaging!

 

Welcome to the world of nvidia sli freezes and lockups if you look around in some threads most of us who use nvidia have experienced plenty of lockups mostly with 200 driver series , while watching youtube videos (although if you disable hardware acceleration in flash player options it stops) while gaming or even while doing nothing although last drivers where stable for me (still some freezes with sound loop included from time to time)

 

I updated my BIOS and it crashed with the flashing again happens about once a day, I'll try this thanks .
EDIT: Actually I'm not going to try this because it lowers FPS so I have heard.

 

I've only used SLI once and that was with MAFIA 2, I didn't even get a better framerate, I took the cards off SLI and dedicated one to Physx lol. So I basically haven't tried out the SLI yet as I have just been playing Blizzard and Valve games which usually run better in normal mode rather then SLI.

 

260.99 right?

 

The Nvidia issue doesn't "hold water" because my M11x never ever freezes and it has an Nvidia card. I am talking about using it with MS Office, WoW, Internet Browsers, with nary a freeze. Yet My M17x R1 freezes al the time in woW and only in WoW...well it also has the occasional boot problem, says corrupt disk but then once repaired goes away for six months....odd hmm. Now my M17x R2 will be here this weekend, hopefully no issues with that.....

 

m11 x doesn't freeze as m17x won't freeze either if you are using only one card the problem seems to come when you use both cards,I haven't tried dedicating 1 entirely to physx but I assume lockups could still happen because it appears to happen when both cards are actively used

 

Good luck.

 

well i've disabled SLI and hardware acceleration and i'm still having lockups and crashes. my next step will be to downgrade to a 190 series driver. should i go ahead and call this one in?