M17X R4 problems 2 days old

ive had a few problems with theM17X most have been sorted apart from the GPU issues i have the amd 7970m card and dell have installed furmark and my results dont seem right my FPS are 46 GPU usage is 99% and the temp is 68c is this right for this card

also i cannot install gpu-z for some reason

anyway of turning the GPU fan on

 

Have you switched to dedicated graphics? Press Fn+F7 and let it reboot. See if that works.

 

yes i have thats on the 7970m GPU

 

BURN-IN SCORE: 2215 points

21780 frames, 24 FPS, 69°C

Resolution: 1280x720 (W) - AA:0 samples

FPS: min:25, max:26, avg:24 - OPTIONS: DynBkg

Catalyst 12.6 - 8.98-120611a-141411C-ATI (6-11-2012)

GPU core: 850 MHz, memory: 1200 MHz

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3820QM CPU @ 2.70GHz

cpu speed 2693 MHz

memory 12258 MB

 

Score
26259 3DMarks

SM2.0 Score
10369

HDR/SM3.0 Score
12664

CPU Score
7010

 

Did you install the 7970m drivers when you recieved the computer? Most peoples laptops have been arriving without the dedicated graphics card drivers installed.

 

also, to answer your other questions. 99% GPU usage is normal when gaming or benchmarking, 68c is a perfectly normal temperature during use. The highest I've ever seen mine get is 71C while playing Crysis.

Which futuremark software did you use? Post the link to your scores. It appears that you used 3D Mark Vantage. Use 3d Mark 11

EDIT: Sorry, I keep editing this post. But 46 FPS during a benchmark is fine. You will not be hitting 90+FPS while benchmarking. On some games though, you will.

 

That's a 3dMark'06 score, and it is excellent for a stock 7970M, unusually so. This may be useful for reference: Alienware M17x R4 Notebook Review - Notebookcheck.net Reviews. Nothing wrong with your GPU; enjoy that new toy.

You can control the fans manually or by custom profile with HWINF64. http://www.hwinfo.com/download64.html. Google "HWINFO64 fan control" for numerous guides and discussions about its configuration and use.

 

Futuremark 3D 06 these are my scores

Score

26259 3DMarks

SM2.0 Score

10369

HDR/SM3.0 Score

12664

CPU Score

7010

 

any tips on how to have the fan on in Hwinfo


thanks

jenko

 

I dont think you really need to mess with your fan speeds. It appears to be working perfectly. 68C is a great temp while benchmarking.

 

ok thank you very much for the advice Anthony212

2 other questions if i may

1. memory why does it show only 800Mhz?

2.my 64gigmsata drive only has 5gig remaining on it the other part of the drive is 500gig i also have a vertex3 ssd 256gig what would be the best config option however i dont play any games

jenko

 

1. I beleive this is caused by the way the system is reading the hardware. I assume you have 1600Mhz dual channel memory. Because of this, for reasons I do not know, it displays it in half.

2. This is kind of whatever you want to do. The 64g mSATA drive is designed as a boot drive. So it has some room for applications to be installed, but not much. Try to uninstall some unecessary programs and perhaps install them onto the 500gig drive. Also, decrease the size of the windows page file. That will free up some room. Performace wise, you would be better off installing Windows to your 256g SSD rather than the mSATA becasue the mSATA operates at half the data transfer speed compared to the hard drive bays

 

thank you ever so much Anthony212

 

You are welcome!

 

how long will it take to format the 3 drives and reinstall everything ?

 

To erase everything, re-install windows, and get all the drivers reinstalled I would budget yourself a few hours.

if you plan on doing a clean install here is an excellent guide for that:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...r-install-order-guide-alienware-systems.html#

And here is another

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ook-feel-after-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

 

Hi there, just thought I'd jump in with some info here

I'm assuming you have the 64gb msata boot drive, a 256 SSD and a 500gb HD.

Anthony212 is correct about the speeds, the MSATA port is SATA2 and the drive bays are SATA3. Your HD is almost certainly a Sata2 device so it will operate at that speed wherever it is connected.

In the real world you are not going to see any real difference on an SSD between them. My R3 was using the SSD at SATA2 and I never even knew till I saw something here about it. I fixed it to get maybe 2 seconds on windows load. Not worth the effort of a reload IMO.

If you put your windows on the 256 drive then you still have a 64 gb SSD separate unless you use the RAID to add it to the 256 drive. And then it will slow down the 256 to SATA 2 so defeats the object.

My advice is to leave it as it is. Uninstall your programs and when reinstalling use the 'custom' option and change just the drive letter to the SSD (or the HD if it is very big and not used frequently). OR just do this for all future installs.

You will not see any difference between the SSD's in normal usage so the object is to leave your boot drive with it's limited free space and use the 256 SSD for program loads

Oh yeah, your question re the ram speeds. The true speed of 1600 ram is actually 800 but is double clock speed so some programs report the true speed, others the operating speed. Confuses a lot of people

HTH!

 

Any idea what the total space is left on the 64gig ssd with just the main OS i only have 5gig spare on that drive ?

Micky are you saying put all other programmes on the 256ssd or the 500gig HD ?

What upgraded ram would you guys recommend i have 12 gig of dell in at the moment i was thinking od putting in 2 sticks of 8gig or 4 sticks of 8 gig vengance ram ???

 

Not a lot of idea on what the free space on the boot drive should be with just the OS and AW utilities. Larger 'bits' are taken up with: the page file that is unnecessary on most machines of 6gb or greater; The hibernate file that is hidden; a small partition with dell diags on; and another partition (hidden) with the factory image on it. The overall size reported and what you see as in-use will sometimes not add up.

If you were to be chasing every mb on the boot drive then you can delete the dell partitions, reduce the size of the paging file, and disable hibernate. A lot of work when you don't really need to.

What I'm saying is kinda generic and depends on YOUR usage. From what I can gather, you should put all the programs on the 256 ssd and leave the boot drive for stuff that does not offer a folder change (or it's something you feel is better kept with the OS but it won't matter to the program). Leave the 500 unit for pure data like videos, pictures, etc. Makes a backup easier as well

More memory? The general consensus it that anything above 8mb is not used except by hardcore business programs or running many programs simultaneously.

 

Dude, why don't you use punctuation? Your stuff is really hard to read. You're pretty lucky that people around here are nice and willing to read it and decipher what you're trying to say.

Kudos to those people.

 

Ive had 2 system crashes today 1 of them was just a blue screen the other was light grey and black lines spoken to Alienware tech support and we removed AMD drivers and reinstalled them hope its not a GPU issue

 

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^^Nice deflection. You're a gentleman of the first order.

 

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Kudos to you Mickey

 

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This sounds similar to what has happened to me a few times. It's usually after I apply an OC, then revert back to stock settings. The screen will go black and I'll get some lines (grey, white, red). A restart fixes this for me. I'm guessing it's a driver issue. Anyone else having this issue?

 

The GPU isnt OC its running @ 850/1200

 

I was really asking a genuine question - not even trying to be that nasty. It was nice of you to stick up for him, but pretty unnecessary. English is his first language, I assume, so it's not like he can use that as an excuse.

I'm sorry to be "that guy", but it really does strike me as rude for a person to go to others for help and not have the respect to ask questions in a way that is easy to understand. It's a shame that expecting people to speak properly on the internet has gone so deeply out of style.

 

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Tapakidney i think you have the issue of understanding the question's, if it offends you with my grammer and punctuation dont bother replying i do appreciate members help however if it p155es you off you know what to do at the end of the day its only a general discussion forum

 

MickyD, was talking to the OP originally, not you. Your understanding of the language is excellent from what I can tell. I'm sorry that wasn't clear. You use plenty of punctuation

And sure OP, go on accusing me of being the one with the problem. Good luck writing a resume, a dissertation, a professional letter, or being respected by people with no patience or tolerance for your sophomoric writing ability. My original question was not rude, but your reaction to being called out and justifying your willfully bad use of language is rather pathetic. Now, yes, I am being rude - because people like you are the reason the world is going to pot.

 

Tapakidney,

I'm terribly sorry, but I find his postings perfectly understandable. Could it be that your own interpretation skills may be somewhat lacking?

If, as I suspect, you're not a native English speaker I apologise for my rudeness.

Best regards

Corius

 

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Haha, fair point. Nevertheless, I wasn't really crazy about creating another copy of his writing to further weigh down the intrawebs. Even still, it was very nice of you to wade through it and offer your incite. You seem to be a very nice guy

 

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LOL, beaten at my own game! Hey, it happens sometimes

 

MickeyD,

I think it is very generous of you to make light of Tapakidney's errors of English usage. However I do think you are being unnecessarily harsh!

As a native of Alexandria, I think that his English language skills are to be commended. I know many other Egyptians who's knowledge of our language is much inferior to his.

Tapakidney, keep up with your studies! Very soon your knowledge of our language will put our younger children to shame!

Best wishes

Corius

 

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No, he's just obviously a friend of the OP who started an account to attempt a weak troll in my direction. I guess his joke is that I am indeed the one with the language problem. Good one.

 

Karma's a it came around quick for you thou PMSL

 

Tapakidney,

Actually, I have no idea who the OP is. I joined yesterday but have been lurking and learning for a week having ordered an m17x R4.

What I do know is that it is very dangerous to judge people on the internet. You have no knowledge of people's nationality, background, education or life skills. People come to these forums seeking help, and I think the best thing to do is to try and provide that help with a good will and an understanding that not all people are the same.

I hope you find our dialogue instructive.

My best wishes

Corius

 

Huh? Seriously, English classes.

And thanks for the constructive point, Corius. You're mostly right, except for the OP's admittance that he obviously has no intention of trying to write intelligibly. My point stands.

MickyD, who states that English is not his first language, uses it perfectly well, and even shows shame at the thought of not being able to do so. That's how a normal, intelligent, contributing member of society handles himself. Someone who goes to a forum and defecates all over it with his drivel is none of the above.

 

Tapakidney your a knobjockey get a life your starting to bore us now if you have nothing constructive to say stop posting crap

 

Wow. This whole thread has devolved into a big pile of crap. I was going to comment but then I had to read through 3 pages of a stupid argument...

On to the next thread that is actually on topic...

Maybe an admin can move or delete this if it doesnt go back on topic?

 

I concur whole-heatedly. It is not the job of a forum user to police the forums and pick at someone's lack of etiquette, or their lack of knowledge for American English or Queens' English. If he has the dire need to express his silver-spooned attitude on the Internet, he's better off doing it somewhere else.

 

Sorry guys, I did apologise to the OP earlier, shouldn't have responded

Back to the real reason I'm here, to offer help where I can.

 

and i cannot thank yourself or anthony for the advice you both have given

thanks

jenko

 

'Nuff said' Just sorry I can't offer any more on the problem. maybe a kind moderator will tidy this up for you?