M17x DPC Latency

No problems here. Until and unless someone's been impersonating me on the sly. I only had issues with A03. Using my Nvidias and the A02 BIOS, I am quite happy at the moment.

 

i guess you are one of those lucky users with proper chipset. i may have to try A02 with the ATIs too. with nvidia it was crap.

 

Yeah. Although, when I was complaining about A03, it was mostly ATi users that stood up to defend A03. It seems like A03 delivered the best results for ATi users, and created more 'concerns' for Nvidia users. Perhaps they should create different solutions for different sects rather than a poor pot-shots at 'one fix for all'.

Anyway, I think I am lucky at the moment. I have discussed this matter with BatBoy, and sometimes, I feel like we're the exceptions that prove the rule or something. I hardly even have any issues when I enable Hybrid SLi and run all three cards together.

But I am still keeping a close eye on things, and if this machine begins to act up--a potential future-possibility that I won't rule out--then I'll have Dell fix the problem one way or the other.

 

I've never noticed the hardcore stuttering that other people here have been talking about. I consider myself lucky as well, considering I'm running Windows 7 with a single 260M and the A03 BIOS. I will occasionally hear a pop in my audio, or sometimes a video will stutter, but it's not very common in my case, and not enough to warrant the hassle that it is to get ATI's or get a replacement unless they offer it to us as a fix when they can't come up with anything better.

I'm actually a music student at my University and so far I'd have to say that I've never had issues when using my recording and mixing software. Then again, I don't think that a laptop, especially this one, can substitute for a recording studio. The technology just isn't there.

Of course, I'm having issues with my LCD screen instead, and am just too damned busy right now to complain that replacing my GPU did nothing for that problem.

 

Yay! I am now getting stutter using the integrated 9400 by itself (enabled via bios, no hybrid on). 82605 us spike...do I win the biggest spike on the 9400? LOL! Watching a normal video on YouTube, but full screen. Totally made the video stutter, sound made one pop, but it was a loud one. This "thing" is a joke.

 

anyway with A02 or A03 Bios those huge spikes of 999000 occur once every thirty mnutes. MOTHERBOARD DAMN

no you dont. competition out there is very challenging. just search for them. lool

if you have problem with the screen you should replace the screen? lool. what kind of problems? thus as you are music student you know that minimum red spikes cause minor but important delays for audio. you may not have audio stutter so often but i am sure you have red spikes with nvidia and win7

 

im gona call dell up today if i have time. but definitely by friday if i still dont get a call or email reply from them which is probably the case.


can the dell reps monitoring this forum take some action to help out as well? i mean sure, dell is working on a fix but it obviously hasnt come to anything yet and some of us have useless paperweights that cost a few thousand dollars and tech support is really getting on our nerves. cant you guys like tell your tech support guys to buck up and stop being so sloppy?

at least send a damn memo out to everyone to say this problem exists

 

they are not very good with emails...if you need some action taken, you should call them

 

ive tried many times when i had time. out of 10 calls 9 times i couldnt get the people handling my case and some other techs asked if he could help and ended up asking me to do dell diagnostics and reformat because he hasnt heard of this issue before and insists its a user error problem.

last week i spent 3 concecutive days trying to call and at least thrice a day

 

sorry to hear about the lack of success there...in my experience though, emails to them often go unanswered (ignored I think)

did you ever try escalating the case?

 

i did ask for esalation via email and on the phone when i got to him. i told him(that was before i got my atis) that IF my atis dint help i want him to get a person in escalation to contact me to discuss a replacement or refund since he kept saying he cant promise a replacement.

in my emails after i got my atis, i repeatedly asked them to call me or have a senior escalation staff contact me but all of them so far have been ignored.

 

Ruby, if you still have your case# from the replacement ATIs, just reopen the case by filling out the webform and using the case#. Request a call back in your comments.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=449524

 

yea ive filled up a unresolved issue for my case three times already prior to my ati replacement. only 1 email reply. the most recent one is today, and i requested them to call me. hope it works..

 

I think you really need to call. Try and get the US support team in FLA. They seem to be much better. I usually get them evenings at this time.

My waits are never more than 1-5 min. Just tell them you have done the diagnostics during previous calls (which is true) and they won't give you too much grief.

 

er im from singapore. i can only get asia pac support.

 

DUDE! My mom's famiy is in Sing. I'm actually looking to come out there for my honeymoon in 1.5 years.

 

haha.. small world.

got an email reply. says the tech is checking on the product support team about the R2 issue and will get back to me.

i think thats becos i also said the R2 had issues so id like an alternative like a refund.

so since they are checking out the r2 status i might get an r2 as a replacement. but if the 920xm problems arent solved im going to fight for a refund or for their next gen m17x or whatever comes out if the r2 issue isnt fixed. which ever comes first

 

Originally it seemed as though the GPU was the issue. Everything pointed to that. But replacing it didn't do a damned thing, so the next likely culprit is the LCD screen. I'm just too busy to call right now though. College is kind of sucking my life right now.

I do know that red spikes do cause delays that are noticeable if you have enough spikes over a short period of time. In the end though, that's all going to be negligible in the recording process...with a live group recording parts there's no way you can possibly expect everything to be lined up like it's electronically created. Just try to beat-map a non hip-hop or rap song produced these days. It can't be done. Those minor delays aren't noticeable. Even if you're working with MIDI inputs, unless the program you're using is complete crap you can edit timing as much as you want. I'm not really sure what you could be recording that requires that much precision.

And yes, i get red spikes, but they are extremely rare. And again, I don't notice stuttering. Even while I'm recording music.

 

Bummer. Dell support sucks, but look on the bright side you live in one of the cleanest prettiest countries in the world!

 

and also one where technology is so backward and slow to implement. do you know that we dont even have any working fibre connections for consumers usage? our max net speed is also only about 15mbps dedicated and it costs insanely high at around 100+ a month

 

i just ran re5 benchmark and at the end when it was at stage 4 my machine just shut off completely. i'm going to try it again.

 

if you can Don, use a power meter to see how much the laptop is pulling

that is also where people have reported lower performance I believe so you may be maxing out the power supply and it is cutting off to protect the laptop and supply

I remember my computer doing that around 290 watts - but you can only get the power usage that high if overclocing and (extreme) stressing both the gpus and the cpu all at the same time

 

i did re 5 bench with these atis and the score is quite good. avg 77fps grade A

1920x1200 4xaa all maxed out. stutters caused some drop to 19-20 fps zones during the bench but overall not bad

 

was it with dx9 or dx10? vsync off i imagine

 

vsync off. dx10. i never run any game at dx9 if i can help it

 

ok i got an average of 76.6 fps, dx10 everything full and vsync off. your gpus must be ok. the motherboard sucks

 

yea.. i guess they are not faulty but the mobo issue is making them ty.

now that dell is considering a r2 replacement for me and are holding back prolly becos i said they also had issues and i would accept it only after the issue is solved, i hope the issue gets fixed soon or the model with 5870s come out soon to fix the problems so that i can get a working laptop for once

 

Well thats a month now since A03 was released & no info from John B on fix.nVidia started that thread http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=157614&st=60 and there are not replying to nobody.Well i have been holding of from calling tech support as i was under the illusion a fix was near.Think i will call today see what bull i am fed.1 month = 720 hours

 

I'm fed too! Three weeks of waiting here, hours of calls but no solution in sight. They called me today and asked if i had any BSODS..?! The tech said he would get back to me later today, but he didn't (typical for Dell i might add)

 

Dell's QA program has definitely sucked lately

 

I think we are screwed folks.

As a group, we are small and easily ignored. It is easy for Dell to say that we are high maintenance and that only a small fraction of systems are affected. How many of these things would Dell sell, 10,000? 50,000? That's a drop in the bucket for them. And if we are high maintenance then they can make a case that we are not worth keeping as clients.

They know that eventually the noise will die down.

So, I would get used to stutters and other issues. We are stuck with them.

In my case they tell me what I want to hear and then nothing. No promises tech calls. No promised parts delivered. Nothing. And when I call them back they apologize and repeat the cycle. What can I do? My time is woth more than a lawsuit would get me.

 

if it came to a legal option, IMO a Class Action effort would be in order

 

This was caused by the driver Ruby. 186.82 corrected this issue.

This is a driver install issue as many with the ATI GPUs are finding out. Please discuss this in the R2 owner's lounge or HERE.

Any further "How do I enable XFire or ATI driver related issues needs to be posted in the correct thread. Thanks.

 

Indeed, you are correct. We are by no means "stuck with it".

 

http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/...8/19591948.aspx?permaPostId=19653555#19653555

Still no progress according to John B over on the Dell forums

----------------

 

A little update:
Few minutes ago a rep from the AW called and asked my feedback on the replacement to ATIs . I said that though it did reduce the latency a lot, occasional spikes as well as intermittent lock-ups still remain.
He said they are aware that the issue is related to chipset+GPUs combo and that they are still working on a driver fix , and I'd be the first one to know when it's ready ( ROFL, so pathetic).

 

Only problem w/a class action suit is that we'd likely see $500 after legal fees and other crap. Almost better to just sell or get a refund if you can.

 

I'll support any Mass Effect movement on this forum to help resolving this issue in the best possible way (refund/R2/R3/etc.)

 

when they say chipset-gpu combo they mean only nvidia because they sent you ATIs. loool


thus they know their motherboards are faulty and not the gpus as both ATIs and nvidia cause red spikes with the first ones causing less?

the time passed and the no progress shows its above their hands and even they hope it will be fixed. they have nothing for sure. how can they be sure it will be fixed if there is no progress since the last 1.5 month?

 

Obviously our suit would include Dell paying our legal fees as well on top of what they would need to pay to refund our money. After the inpiron debacle class action they just lost, they'd be wise to just refund us asap as it will cost them much much more in a class action that I see no hope of them winning against us.

 

Was it the last part of that post that was bad? I though it was funny.

Anyway. My point was that we have not mobilized enough people to post in the Dell and Nvidia forums. A class action is highly unlikely.

 

man, my case keeps on getting pushed back by the "resolution dept" saying that they need more time. This is getting ridiculous. I am just going to push for a refund since the R2 seems to have trouble also when pushing it to the max. It is going to suck waiting for the new Clevos to come out as Feb is midterm season @_@

 

And any talk of lawsuits might make the relationship with Dell even less open and transparent. Their lawyers would tell them to be quiet on the issue, admit no problem and refer everything to lawyers due to pending action.

Bad idea IMO. I regret bringing it up in previous posts as the net result maybe to get less service.

 

I also got a followup call, was in the middle of a movie so just said it is all working well now.

lol

 

AND my M17x is still 99% usable for what I bought it for.

AND I still get heart flutters when I gaze upon it and take in its sheer awesomeness

AND it is still faster than any desktop I have owned (although my last build wasin 2005)

so it isn't all bad

 

Wisely said.
Yet some action is definitely required. What if we form a petition on this forum and then link it to John_B' thread asking for escalation + refunds?
Or maybe call them (choose a rep from the members of this forum) to represent all of us at once...
Dunno, but something needs to be done.
Any suggestions?

 

The good thing about a class action suit is that even those not a party in the suit can still benefit from it. Thus I say go for it, but I won't be spending my time pursuing legal action for this, especially since it would probably require going to Texas or Florida.

 

I agree with the demand collective
I'm in Spain

 

Class action would be the best on this but I don't think the number of people experiencing issues on this forum would be enough. We might need more than 100 people to start a class action if they sold thousands.

 

As they are not giving us a timescale on a fix this could go on for ages yet.To get things moving i think this issue should be given as much publicity as possible i.e Tip Engadget who have already reported this problem on 17th Nov.I really do think we should let them know whats been going on regarding this & hopefully they can shake them up to get a resolution for us all.The power of bad publicity is something they will not ignore.Getting tipping all.