M17x DPC Latency

I must be one of them.

 

Don't believe the weasel this issue is huge .

 

yes because not everybody wants to deal with Dell or pay for the calls or didnt even notice the issues or even they are satisfied with the range of issues they see like me as they dont have audio stuttering or fps drops. In my case and excluding eject button i wouldnt notice the latency if i never knew the dpc latency checker program (this is for the ATIs only)

Thus this thread here is directly from customers and is the truth and not what said by Dell. pure truth otherwise why the need for this thread?

what i cant understand is how some of the motherboards are so faulty to produce huge spikes under idle even with ATIs. some of them are more screwed than others but none is perfect.

 

Definitely true for me. I refuse to call in about this issue and spend hours on the phone because I just don't have the time to make that kind of a commitment. College does allow for me to do so. Plus I have other hardware problems with my laptop right now that I'm attempting to have fixed, and trying to add DPC latency on top that during service calls would drive me insane.

 

talking about other hardware issues my almost 400 dollars ssd is dead after a sudden blue screen. who tells me this is not due to the motherboard and its power issues? thus even the bios stucked until i removed the ssd. and i had it only 5 months.

 

I am really looking forward to the results of this test.

 

Intel didn't supply Dell with a BIOS though right?

Yes you can't compare two different BIOS especially when the one comes from a desktop and the other comes from a laptop.
You should be more careful though when you read what I write because I was wondering if the BIOS made the difference with the eject button or a particular driver in the case of R2.
I believe my English are quite clear on that point. Next time use references in order to avoid misunderstandings.

 

Me too, though I'm afraid we won't see much. What info do they have to compare their results to? They already got some numbers, but the analysis is the problematic part... Those guys are material engineers, so they can obviously tell if the "bumps" are good or bad, but I'm more interested in the CC/TDP and other power-related tests. Will see how it goes, but I'm intrigued by this venture and am making arrangements with my ex-colleagues in the same field to do something similar.
One of my closest friends is @ Electronic Materials Research and more into circuits and chips, so we could shed some real light there. The only problem is that I'll have to travel a few k miles to get to his lab so it won't be until late spring.

 

this may mean that just the hardware was right this time because they make the bios the same way otherwise they would be able to fix the R1 too if it was the bios only. They made their effort already anyway.

 

i ve understand what you mean. what i mean is that both are notebook bioses but eject button doesnt cause red spikes on R2. i dont think they just made better job on R2 bios.... i think you understand what i meant before. i didnt critisize what you said i was based on what you said.

 

yes and that makes me also wonder what did actually made the difference? the BIOS or the drivers....

 

I agree with the main point here: Dell shouldn't be given a pat on the back for barely getting something right. That is trivial, and should be expected as basic standard. It's like patronising a child, and Dell is not a child.

Then again, given their poor-testing history and issues with the last two machines (M1730; M17x), I'd say that they deserve a 'special pat' for not screwing up the R2 as badly as some of their prior machines.

 

making a bios is a toy for them as they are the most experts for making those bioses for each machine. So if there was something that could be done they would have done it already especially after the well distributed known issues (to save their fame) and as they did for the cpu reading related red spikes.

The rest issues just cant be fixed. The time was more than enough for those -experts- to fix them if they could.

to extend what i mean again : drivers may control the power circulation throughout the machine but the materials and the motherboard-gpu connection controls the way this power is distributed. As an example what if there is a good racing driver but the car is screwed up? final result is that the driver is useless.

 

I get the point. We're all kind of wondering whether this is hardware vs. software issue. Some believe it to be pure hardware, and others believe it to be software with a mix of hardware.

I am still waiting for a real last word on this matter.

 

not sure if any1 mentioned this b4. when i disable the OSD program, the DPC spike produced when pressing eject button is reduced to 4k (no audio crack). fn+12 (turn touchpad on/off) doesnt produce any spike

 

Thanks for sharing that, and you're right, it does go down to 4k. But, don't we need OSD to run the touch panel properly? I was never able to access stealth mode without OSD.

 

I believe that the DPC issues are software/driver related while the 3D stuttering I have seen is power related, I still hold that they are seperate unrelated issues....

 

Two different problems with two different solutions.

What do you think can be done about the power-factor, Scook? If some of us are experiencing 3d-stuttering, then what's our solution?

 

It has to do with how power is allocated in the BIOS, zFactor was able to remedy the stuttering that the M17 had by manipulating these tables. It was the exact same kind of stuttering that the M17x R1 sees except in the M17 it was always when a quad was installed, just the way power was being shuffled around on that machine.

 

I totally agree with this, thats y i still haf it enabled, my point is that software might b playing some roles in producing latency

EDIT: this might b useful for ppl who dont care about stealth mode and osd display.

 

In either way guys these issues can be addressed through software(BIOS or a driver).

 

OSD doesn't need to be installed for functionality. You just won't be able to tell if say the volume is being changed unless you're looking at the slider or you can hear the difference.

 

it is needed to trigger stealth mode, at least for my case

 

Same issue as Heah. I'd like to access stealth mode whenever required. I can't do it by accessing the stealthmode panel - doesn't give me the option. Maybe 'FN+F7'?

 

is fn+f7 working for u? its no longer working for me since A03, the same goes for alienware CP on the touch panel

 

Yeah. I did switch to A03 recently in order to get rid of those constant ACPI calls. I am still not too happy about the fans kicking in a bit later, but overall, it is no big deal, so whatever.

 

"yeah" means both of them r working? sry i dont quite get u here

 

'Yeah' meant in agreement with your experience of no stealth mode or fn+f7 access. Sorry that I didn't clarify.

I can't access stealth mode via touchpanel, or use 'fn+f7' to switch between integrated and discrete GPUs. All this is with OSD deactivated and bios A03.

 

Well A03 is a big help to 4870 users....the crossfire works much better in A03 than A02

 

Well, switching between integrated and discrete GPUs is a small factor. I can easily change power plans with one click and switch to integrated GPU without a hitch, so it isn't a real issue. In fact, it's a good sign, since it implies that the eject-button peak in DPC was due to the OSD software. This shows some potential for resolution via software.

 

Interesting. Maybe noob question, but where do I set the option to use integrated 9400 or hybrid SLI in the power plan? I liked the fn F7 but since it's not working anymore here too...

 

Dude, easy.

You see the battery/power icon on the bottom right-hand-side of the taskbar, yes? Right-click on that and select 'Power Saver'. Power Saver mode tends to rely only on the motherboard GPU, so your system will revert to the 9400m.

 

Ah, I see. I thought there was an option so I could create my own power plans with either the 9400 only or the 2x0M graphics. Thanks for the info.

 

You could, but since Power Saver is already configured to run on 9400m alone, it's simpler than creating another plan that essentially does the same.

 

how do you disable this exactly?

this is a really good observation if it works as it leads to software related issue despite the remaining 4k spikes. But again Dell didnt check this out right?

the big question here. if new drivers and new Bios can fix the issues why they dont do it?

 

Well, you could do it by running 'msconfig' from your run command line and disable it from your services list (it is listed as Alienware On-Screen Display). Also, you could open task manager and end the process of OSD.

As for what Dell did and didn't do, that is all up in the air for debate. I have respect for those that are trying, but I can't help but feel cynical and drawn to the idea that on the whole, generally speaking, a good few on Dell's side of the fence are just too focussed on their new hot toys (M11x, R2, whatever).

 

That reminds me, I have not had the power icon in the corner for like a month now, who knows why....

Any ideas on that?it is greyed out so I can not enable it either

 

well if you want to eject the optical drive without any red spike do it by right click on the optical drive inside computer and then press eject. or use the eject gadget for windows sidebar. those two ways produce yellow spikes the most. just in case you hear music and you want to eject the optical drive.

 

Did you disable anything from the device manager? like Battery ACPI or something related to ACPI or power management?

 

That was going to be my suggestion. I had the ACPI disabled, no power icon and my battery meter didn't work. Enabled ACPI and went into taskbar properties and enabled the icon.

 

Is that in the bios at all or just the os?

 

OS, check under the device manager and see if there is anything disabled or with a warning.

 

Only my CPUs. everything else is normal in the device manager

 

Did you change anything on the Command Center? I don't have it installed at all, otherwise I would look to see if something could affect it

 

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=7408

Please drop Adrian Kingsley-Hughes a note regarding this fix.Look for the drop me a note button just below post.

 

I also sent an email to: [email protected]

I included links to this forum, John's Dell blog and the Engadget article.

I would encourage everyone with this issue to write to the [email protected] as this is a monthly column where they use their weight to get manufacturers to do something about problems like this.

 

Thanks for the link, I just replied there

 

I do not think that is anything new...people tried that with no success in fixing the problem

 

I dont know what to do, my case is stuck with a resolution specialist that hasn't called me! XD When I call dell about it, they tell me that they emailed him (heck, I even emailed him)...nothing..this is crap.

 

Then escalate it until you get the result you want. Do not let people who make less than you waste your time

(not meaning to sound stuck up or anything offensive, but these are not decision making people, get to the ones who are)