M17x FREEZING IN GAMES

So i'm getting pissed, for the thrid time my computer has frozen in the middle of Dawn of War II. I have to manually turn off from the power button! My temps are at the highest 79 C. I don't understand it! i have my SLI enabled on a flat surface, a fan next to me... I'm just not gettin it! Help anyone???

 

here are my specs:
Alienware M17x - Intel® Core™2 Quad 2.0GHz - WUXGA+ widescreen ( 1920 x 1200 ) - 4GB DD3 1066MHz - 500 GB Serial ATA (7200 rpm) - Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M graphics cards - Bluray

 

Anything showing up in Event Viewer?
Is it only DoW its happening in? Or is that the only game you are running at the moment?

 

Do you know how to overclock? My config is in my sig. Before I overclocked I did have some minor lag in big firefights in crysis after overclocking I don't have any problems. Also make sure that your 260s are actually turned on. If you don't have the settings configured the right way on you lappy then everytime that you unplug it while it is on it will switch to discrete graphics running off your 9400 instead of your 260s, and this won't change back until you physically get out of stealth mode.

 

I have run 2 different games DOW and Empire: total war and it has happend on empire as well, i know that they are on, cause i have to turn them on everytime the lap comes unplugged, i have no idea how to overclock though!

 

...and whats an event viewer?

 

Do you have you background tasks disabled as well. I know with most games it helps to have the only thing that the computer is doing is running the game.

 

how do i do that?

 

Ok what you want to do is to hold "control, shift, esc". A window will pop up with several tabs. Click the processes tab this will display all the processed your computer is actually running. Click the user name column heading this will sort all the processes based on user name. Only end the ones that are have your username listed, the others with blank in the username you should leave alone. So end all under your username except explorer.exe and taskmgr.exe items. You may recieve a warning message to end process just click yes. Repeat this until explorer.exe and taskmgr.exe items are all that is left. Then start your game.

 

k ill give it a try
thanks

 

What Nvidia graphic driver do you use?

http://m17x.blogspot.com/2009/09/18691-now-available.html

 

Also if you decide you might want to overclock let me know and I will help you out step by step.

 

He's got the dual 260's posted in the second message

 

Yes but that doesn't tell us what driver version he is using...

 

I would say factory but I'm running factory without any problems course I guess that I could be lucky sorry about last post I should have paid better attention.

 

No sweat.

I use 186.82

 

Yeah we'll see what we can do for him powerfull machine like his shouldn't have any problems. Course all powerfull machines need tweaking and tuning to get them running at peak.

 

thats a no go on all the processes turned off
I have no idea what is up with this! I can't do anything these days, without my computer crashing. I have my CPU overclocked to 2.43 now... it went through the stress test, my gpu i though i had right i went up by 10 for each and retested it, thats what started my comp freezing without even playing games, before that i was playing games on ultra like DOW II and i got maybe 30 min into it before it froze, it was like and average of 50-60 fps.... i don't know if thats bad or not!!!!

 

Alright and the problem continues today!! i am running the 186.82 driver version now, nothing still works, i am running my games at what is recommended and everytime a video comes up or i am around 45-60 min into a game it freezes, i am running it on a flat surface with almost nothing else running at the same time, my temps don't get above 70 degrees celsius. i don't have anything overclocked anymore i set it all back... nothing seems to work! I feel like i'm crashing my system and i've only had it a month!

 

so no one knows what could be wrong?dp mp pmr lmped ejsy vpi;f nr etpmh///

 

Put all settings to stock and use the stock drivers because I believe you'll have to call Dell support...

 

mine is freezing in games too. Going to try dell support again. Dragon Age/COD MW2/L4D2 all hard freeze or green screen/hard freeze.

Dell did recommend doing a fresh W7 install for mine since I did an upgrade from vista. Helped a bit I guess, but still the same end result.

Another interesting thing is my laptop will always turn it self off when it reaches the login screen after flipping to hybrid/discrete mode. When I power it back on a second time it boots up just fine. Windows says it thinks there is a hardware error with the video.

Same setup as original poster.
m17x w/ 260's bluray 186.64's(from dell). All updated bios/drivers from dell.com. Trying to make it as cut and dry as possible for dell support.

Does anyone know if they will generally just start replacing parts?

 

Can you show me your temperature for the CPU, GPU and the Northbridge ?

Use this program : HWMonitor

 

attached idle. would have gotten load if I didn't bluescreen . Time to call dell.

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x00000116 (0xfffffa8008baf4e0, 0xfffff880048134e0, 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000002). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 120109-19780-01.


Source
Windows

Summary
Video hardware error

Date
‎12/‎1/‎2009 5:37 PM

Status
Not reported

Description
A problem with your video hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: LiveKernelEvent
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033

Files that help describe the problem
WD-20091201-1735.dmp
sysdata.xml
WERInternalMetadata.xml

Extra information about the problem
BCCode: 117
BCP1: FFFFFA80084754E0
BCP2: FFFFF880048134E0
BCP3: 0000000000000000
BCP4: 0000000000000000
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 768_1

 

Hi

I was having a lot of performance problems when using Win 7 as well, particulaly in Dawn of War 2. I'd play for a while and it would be ok, but then it would start locking up and eventually crash.

I am certain the problem is the video driver. I am using 187.66 from laptopvideo2go. Install that driver using the inf provided and you will have great performance. I was seriously considering throwing my laptop at the wall until I found a decent driver. If your using Vista 64, use the WHQL driver from the Nvidia site.

187.66 does not have sli profiles for some newer games, but if you set alternate frame rendering to 2 in the control panel you can enable sli.

I have uploaded a version of the driver that allows for blu ray playback below I hope it helps.

http://rapidshare.com/files/305938945/187.66.rar

 

Will try those drivers before making them replace parts. Wasted an hour trying to get support.

 

I had the same problems with my laptop freezing during gaming...and sometimes just using it regularly.

After replacing a GPU, Dell replaced my whole motherboard and now I haven't had a frozen screen since.

::Crosses fingers::

 

Did it take much for them to do that or they just started swapping parts? I'll call again tomorrow regardless I think.

 

Well it took about two hours on the phone with Alienware tech support for him to send an order for a replacement GPU.

Then it took less than thirty minutes for another person to send an order for a new motherboard after the above didn't help.

 

I have different specs, but I am having the same problems and i am worried about overclocking...what should I do?

 

Ronen, if you have the NVIDIA 260 SLI or 280 SLI, try my instructions here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5699970#post5699970

This should resolve the issue you are having and you wont need to OC (that wont correct the issues reported in this thread).

 

my bad Here are my specs:

M17x
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T9600 (2.80 GHz)
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz 2 x 2048MB
1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M
Windows 7 Home Premium (upgrade to ultimate soon)
250GB 7,200RPM (xMB Cache)
Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW

so no i dont have dual SLi thats why i am worried about the settings... thanks for responding though

 

79C is higher than your GPU's should be running. Mine rarely exceed 65C. I'd call Alienware support. Since you get a year free of support, why not use it?

 

Bump really need some help please

 

Ronen, did you try 186.82? I realize you dont have SLI and that's fine. I would still suggest trying this driver.

 

I am currently using http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_winvista_win7_x64_195.62_whql.html that driver the previous one had the same problems as well.

 

i had the same problems with my m17x but im glad to say i found the solution! i installed tuneup utilities(turn boost on when u start laptop) and disabled integrated graphics from bios ! this worked for me. didnt had any freezes so far! hope this helps