M17x DPC Latency

Not to mention that in OSX (if you choose to use it) Apple has control over the entire system. No crazy drivers to ruin your day.

No worries. I think if people are going to waste time on the phone with Dell they should just push for an R2. Skip the 4870 cards.

 

100%. Look at the post #1816 in the thread.
Bill from Dell will hopefully transfer this info to those who make decisions.

 

Mine m17x came installed with a single ATI card. Even now with the famous Bios A03 I still get red spikes up to 30000 us when using the ATI card. Mostly when surfing or reading pdf files. And when playing games some lagging is also seen. So what kind of fix with the ATI cards? Perhaps the ATI card just reduced this issue as some people in here stated. But if the stuttering was ever present with the NIVIDIA card I can understand that one could easily believe the issue was solved for some time untill the ATI cards true dark nature revealed it self...

 

Just did a quick test while playing a dvd. I just played one earlier on my laptop and it was very hard to watch...

Win 7 R1 SLI 260s

First pic is just showing what it normally looks like during videos, Second pic shows as far as the gap ever gets between spikes...

 

i havent ran that tool in a very long time. i know i will get mad if i do.

 

I just want my R1 exchanged for an R2

 

Me too.

10char

 

That is where you should focus your efforts IMO. At this stage everything else if just BS. Keep calling and escalating until you get it.

 

I'm curious as to just how many people here have gotten R2 replacements. Honestly, if they don't fix this within the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be spending a lot of free time in between classes with tech/customer support trying to get a replacement.

Oh, and if you did get a replacement, did you go through tech or customer support?

 

try $7000 thats what I paid for this crap

 

Tech support -> escalate -> escalate ->....

 

i agree on this. we should be given a choice whether we want to wait OR WE WANT A REFUND OR REPLACEMENT. there is no reason for us to wait after so long. its been over 8 months since the model has been launched and over 8 months since the issue has been identified. dell cant provide a fix yet so we all should not be expected to wait forever for a fix.

 

Here is from my m17x-R2 to help you guys out. Highest spike under 500

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niIqHVD56tg

Two streaming videos
Two streaming music
One 8GB video file playback via windows media player
One window for surfing the internet
DPC tester
Camtasia recording screen of audio and video

 

thanks rengsey.

that dpc is a dream for us r1 users but not something we shouldnt be asking for since a netbook can achieve that as well at least on idle. ours cant even stay green for 5 minutes without hitting a red on idle



can a mod maybe add a poll to this thread on the waiting time frame we are willing to give dell before we should be given r2s or we take legal action?

time frames of maybe 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks and above or until a new model comes out whichever reaches first etc etc


i vote 2 weeks or till the new models/5870s come out whichever comes out first.

 

I think a recall is in order during which the people involved are issued an equal or better R2

The first week I owned this laptop, I wanted to watch blu-ray movies while on the plane and could not even do that.....it was skipping and pausing for a full second every few minutes

 

i want a full refund if possible. buy myself a nice desktop with that 7000 and still have about 2k spare to get an m11x

 

No. This has been discussed and NBR will not be permitting any threads/polls to be created for this purpose.

Sorry.

 

alright batboy..

 

Let me clarify -

A post which states you are contacting an entity to discuss your legal standing is fine.

Please remember we have forum rules which cover this:

Also, I just went and cleaned up a bunch of posts which violated the forum rules. Another moderator was in the thread earlier today doing the same thing. A short time after Bill-B posted, I left a post requesting everyone keep the forum rules in mind when posting.

I understand just like all of you how frustrating and ridiculous this issue has become since late last year. Being frustrated does not provide a free pass to break forum rules. I have had to clean up language filter bypasses which are actually infractions although none of the mods, including myself, issued any. There were also several posts which were argumentative and flaming/trolling in nature. So, I am asking again that everyone keeps the forum rules in mind when posting. Thanks folks.

 

Add me to your count.

Followed the instructions.

I still have spikes in excess of 65000 microseconds and stuttering.

Very disappointed. I've held off contacting tech support on account of the assurances of a fix. Think its time to start complaining.

 

The latest on Engadget . Dell issues Alienware M17x stuttering audio fix, will it stick?


http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/21/dell-issues-alienware-m17x-stuttering-audio-fix-will-it-stick/

 

Looks like your post is now famous Don...

 

If you can keep with the same two tech. Who dealing with your problems. It will help in solving the problems faster. I know I been dealing with Alienware and dell issues for 3 years. Be friendly and it will help. You will get a few tech go that temp is fine and so on Last guy seid 97c was fine. I was like Hell no that temp is to high. That why I try to work with 2 techs.

Do not use the forums to make the issue worse. Use it to see if other people had the same issue and learn from it. It might help techs find out the real issue.

My frist two laptops had issues that where unrelated to other people Laptops I tried linking the issues but they where unrelated to my the issue.

I just had 2 laptop that where faulty and I could not go everyone laptop had this issue. But later on it help me point out issues of other people who had problems and I was able to help.

I hope this helps

 

Guys, NEVER EVER buy Dell again. These issues are typical of their hardware.
I'm a business customer and had to fight Dell to get what is clearly a manufacturing defect on their Optiplex GX520 SFF PSUs fixed. I wasted days on the phone and emails back and forth and the only way I got them to approve exchanging 200 faulty PSUs was to threat to start buying HP instead.
They have not admitted to there being an issue but after the threat I got a positive response. This company is apalling, and despite them finally resolving my issue I will never buy Dell again. They just don't care about their customers. Clear and simple.

 

i see. everyone now knows who i am.

i'll do autographs but one at a time. i will also type my name in pm's so people have something they can keep in a new folder for famous people. (me)

still mad at dell. lol.

 

Just a note regarding any sort of lawsuits - that discussion is not to take place on NBR. You should do that via e-mail, phone, or another medium, but not this site.

Thank you.

 

You'll have to add me to this list as well. I'm calling Dell tech support as we speak. I got my system for a replacement of my m1730 xps system because the 8800GTX's would artifact quite often in games without overclocking and so on. In windows the system was great. Now I get this Alienware piece of crap.....

Wish I had my broken m1730 again....

 

You are wrong sorry, I worked for HP Support, and I can tell you first hand, Dell support > HP Support. While working for HP support, we had guys from India looking over our shoulder whisper "sale sale sale" in our ears, and after a few minutes, they would be telling us to get off the phone, and to take another call.
Now the floor below me was Dell support (from the same company mind you), and they had NO Indians telling them to make a sale every 5 seconds, and yelling at them because they are taking too long on the phone. In fact they are not allowed to get off the phone until they fixed the issue. One friend of mine spent 4+ hours on the phone while his customer reformatted his computer twice.

So really, ANY company is going to balk at replacing 200+ of anything, when there is no confirmed issue. And really, for that many computers, you should be on a corporate account, and if you are good for you for doing it right.

 

Just curious, those who have been assured a replacement, how do you know your specs already? Doesn't it take like 7 business days before they even generate a ticket?

 

@Aluminium

Even if they'd balk at replacing 200 of something with no confirmed issue, they still haven't responded well to the issues with the R1 M17x, and that is a definately confirmed issue to the point we have reps and management posting about it.

From the feedback from several people including myself who've experienced Dell/Alienware service in the EU recently, and feedback in this thread; the current lack of attention to detail or a proper resolvement of the issue within a reasonable time frame seems fairly symbolic of thier support.

 

I don't think they'll ever acknowledge that problem. They didn't do this with the last generation of XPS laptops that had GPU issues, so yeah.

Fairly symbolic of their support indeed. I'd rather see more people, objectively point out some of these flaws in support-strategy. This has little to do with individuals like John and Bill, as they're trying what they can, and even sticking their necks out for the company. That right there is my problem, the company.

Problem is that some people just stand up in the defense of this company and its often double-triple-quadruple standards. One guy gets it good, and suddenly starts to preach the gospel of 'Dell can't do no wrong!' I find this approach in itself, very wrong, but that's a matter of personal perception, and one that I am not ashamed touting at every turn and corner. If I get good treatment, but others get shafted, I am not going to become a bloody shill and behave like some apologist for the general trend at hand. At the moment, a few lucky M17x owners have scored R2 replacements, others haven't gotten squat. Meaning that there's still tacky levels of damage-control in place, and only a select few people are getting the correct results while others still continue to dwindle in this. . . mess?

Dell is a corporation. A multinational goliath/conglomerate. They've got lawyers, along with plenty of cash and P.R. crew to polish their shoes and lick their you know whats clean. I'd rather look out for the interests of others that have blown cash on these machines, even if my experience is signficantly better, and perhaps have Dell admit/acknowledge certain facts. It would help all parties, Dell included.

And Mr. AluminumHaste,
This is exactly why I will take your post with an entire shaker of salt. Your single experience cannot be used to determine the general trend. Just by sheer number of feedbacks and complaints in this thread, the volume and trend of those reports overwhelmingly '>' your observation of how HP support falls behind Dell support. Fine, you say HP's for Indians yelling at reps to get a sale, while Dell reps are on the phone for hours solving a problem. Now I'll say that Dell reps from India have actually stonewalled me many times and not bothered returning my calls for weeks, let alone giving me a good few hours. Now what? What's the truth? I won't accuse you of lying. I am quite certain what you witnessed is probably true, but no way in hell will I take your 'you guys are wrong' rhetoric of absolution over the PLETHORA of contradicting reports in this thread. It doesn't work that way. Just because it worked out for you, or just because your observation of one scenario in one call-centre locality played out a certain way, doesn't mean that this will be the case for everything Dell-related. No way in hell.

 

I got my replacement back in November of 2009. I called in December and had Dell replace my main hard drive due to the "Device in RAID port 0 was reset" error message that kept popping up.

Just got off the phone with Dell tech support. After being on hold for 15 minutes the tech said that since the fix released on Friday that I was the only person to call back in and say it's not working? I highly doubt that but that's the story I was given. They took my name and number and told me they would follow up on Monday/Tuesday of this week.

If I don't hear anything I'll be calling back. I just purchased two 3008wfp 30" monitors to add to the one I already had. Thinking about sending them back now. I'm not too thrilled with Dell at the moment.

 

Kade. i understand what you mean with the xps BUT the m1730 was there only top model at that time. and when the m17x came out, they replaced them all.

with the m17x r1 there is r2 that they are not replaceing everyone's machine with.

 

Regardless of what the problem really is, with the amt negative press Dell are getting (for tech Engadget is not far off the WSJ in terms of influence these days) they should just send out refunds or R2s to all the unhappy people.

This drama has gone on too long. Its insane. Any good leader can see that.

 

That's what I was saying, Don. Read on and you'll get the idea. What I was saying in response to Alexrose, and with reference to the XPS was this: They don't admit a problem, and end of cycle officially. With machines that had obvious issues in the past, they did not make this move. They simply replaced. The same will probably happen this time around. F.Y.I. It should be much easier to replace an R1 with an R2, because with the XPS, many escalation managers used the, "Dell and Alienware are different departments," argument. So I am in support of this. . . they should start replacing the machines for those that are having problems. Enough of this drama.

And I am with you on that, Lewdvig, but how this goes about (ie. Short and sweet? Lengthy and ludicrous?) is another story.

 

If it were my company and our best people could not solve the issue I would issue full refunds and encourage the recipients to buy something from another company.

Some of these folks are suffering since the XPS M1730. A break would be good for both parties.

 

copy of my post on the dell forum, i started the process with tech support:

I opened a case with the tech support team. I can honestly say at this point I am really really dissapointed at the way dell has handled the situation. I believe Dell should have made me aware of the issue before purchasing in december(6 months into it being a known issue) when it was well documented. I would not have purchased an M17X had I known. I still would have purchased Dell, just not this particular model. I did not return the laptop because we've been promised, "A fix is on the way! just hang on!" and we have patiently, but now I am outside my return window, and I am stuck going through tech support.They are asking me to replace my mother board, reinstall the OS, graphics card, etc in order to "try and see if it Might fix the problem". Even though almost every tech admits, it usually doesn't and those of us here on the forums already know, it lessens but doesn't solve the issue. Normally I would totally be patient and understanding of Tech supports protocols but in this case, I use my laptop as my work machine. As an animator, its next to impossible to work on this laptop when a an animation test stutters. Now I am losing even more work time as I rip apart my laptop and have to spend time reinstalling my needed programs, etc. Unacceptable DELL. Between my better half and I weve spent well over 20K with dell purchasing systems, never again, not with this service.

 

And this is the main issue. When we the customer decides to buy a laptop for work or study(in my case for designing 3D software) then we expect the product to be usable a soon as the we turn on the power and not after 100 + hours of reinstalling and downloading as well as troubleshooting over the phone or mail. The product have to be usable for gaming (running graphic applications) without lagging or stuttering or any high pitching sounds. In case the product is defect on delivery (which we can assume is the case for many of us in this thread) then a fix within a week perhaps could be acceptable and if not attainable then a replacement should be offered. AND NO it is not acceptable to ask customers waiting for more than a month

 

Regarding
http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/21/dell-issues-alienware-m17x-stuttering-audio-fix-will-it-stick/
And the quote on the page .Update: Seems this is an improvement for many.Please take a minute or 2 and hit the tip us on top right of page & let them know your status after you done fix.

 

Well according to tech support I was the second one to call in to say that the script didn't work, and that the dpc latency was the same or worse.

I have to call back tomorrow as he said there wasn't any supervisors available on Sunday but he gave me a case number and put notes in for my service tag which he said already had alot of notes in there.

 

I could not get the script to run (windows 7 x64 Ultimate)

My stutter is fine if I am just sitting back watching a movie, but if working on a word document and trying to listen to music, I get 4 or 5 60000+ spikes in a row, repeated every 20 seconds or so.

As an aside, I am using my XPS1730 laptop on a daily basis instead of the "replacement" m17x. Not quite how I had envisioned this purchase to have gone.

Thankfully I have not had a single issue with the 1730 in the past 2 years. Which is how I want the m17x to be

 

What fix? Did I miss something?

 

http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/...dpc-latency-for-alienware-m17x-customers.aspx

 

The script will also not run on my machine. I have updated to A03 and already had the latest wireless drivers installed on the machine.

 

Have done as Dell suggested and yep still red spikes and all I am doing here is to surf the net youtube music ans my favorite website http://forum.notebookreview.com... moving from Bios A02 to Bios A03 was an improvement but not a fix.

 

Don't know if i missed something, but do the two new updates on the driver page do anything to lessen DPC spikes? Saw that Command Center and Alienware OS customization have release date of 2/19/10...

EDIT: OS customization removes nvidia storage driver? guessing this is to help DPC?

 

No. They don't. Command Center is extremely buggy, and definitely not worth it. The OS customization is the official fix they released on friday that does nothing.

 

Ah that's what I missed, well i guess its time to call up dell and push for a replacement.

 

More information (description of issue and how to resolve after install) and discussion on this can be found here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=461136

Thanks.

 

Hi all. Been a while since I posted; last time I posted I stated DPC latency was no longer an issue for me.... all I had were severe spikes when clocking up/down going into games (which I ignored easily, as within a second everything was normal and games ran fine). Obviously this is not intended behavior, but I can overlook little things as I didn't actually buy this rig (was a prize in a contest).

However, now I'm finding I can no longer reliably encode multi-channel MP3s without stuttering (very hit or miss). This is a big issue for me as my main show is using 7 stereo channels (14 altogether). It was fine with Power Miser overridden (still some small spikes, but they weren't reflected in the finished sample), but I really don't feel like burning out my nVidia cards just to encode MP3s for work.

Calling Dell on Monday. Luckily, I've already tried every step John B. has posted (including the nVidia Mass Storage Driver fix, which didn't apply to me as I'm on Vista still and never installed the damn thing due to past problems on other rigs with it). I am getting a little perturbed because I want to move to Win 7 but can't as just about every m17x user who is on Win7 reports this issue is worse no matter what.