M17x R1 Slow Performance, Crashes, etc

I have an M17x R1 with the following specs:

QX9300
4gb RAM 1333
250gb HDD
2x 280m GTX
1920x1200 Screen
Windows 7 64 Bit

I have the following problems:

Random Freezes with the HDD lights going solid

Audio stuttering after using it for a little while gaming or watching videos

Performance degrades as I use it for longer, although in general the performance is extremely underpar.

Games will stutter and freeze because the computer seems to be disconnecting and reconnecting a device hooked up to the usb ports, but it happens even when there is nothing plugged into the usb ports.

Startup time changes every time I start the computer, and the computer even freezes sometimes at the windows logo screen.

What I have done to try and fix it:

Upgraded video drivers to 197.84

Made sure I am using the latest chipset, wireless, etc drivers

Cleaned my registry many times with CCleaner

Defragmented with Ultradefrag in boot time and in windows.

Did several clean reinstalls of my drivers.

Pretty much, The performance for any task I put this computer through is under par, the computer crashes, etc. I am extremely frustrated and need some advice. I have looked at all the threads regarding this but it seems none of the solutions are working for me, unless I have missed some. Can someone help me figure this one out?

 

M17x - R1 (August 2009)
Vista 64-bit
Q9000, 4 GB RAM, 260M GTX SLI, single 500GB HDD


A05 + 257.38 (Dell's latest)


On some occasion, some boot-up would result in very poor overall performance in all applications. Chrome takes longer to open, there seems to be a "lag" in everything I try to do. However, on certain boot-ups the system performs as it should and even gaming is fine. If I restart the laptop, sometimes it would still perform poorly, but sometimes it would be back to normal again.

Tried various graphics driver including P06, 260.99 and pre 2xx drivers (with CCleaner) to no avail. Reinstalled windows. Reinstalled Alienware command center. Anyone got any suggestions?

 

I was having similar issues and I tracked one of the culprits to my usb and esata port (the usb port right next to the esata port).
I also think my vid cards were borked so I had dell replace all 3 a few days ago (motherboard and both 260m's).

So far so good, but only time will tell as I have not had much time to test it.

I found the ports were bad by using my external hard drive which uses either 2usb ports (for the power draw) or a usb port and esata port.

Found I would get these errors whenever they were plugged into a certain usb port and the esata port (or any combo of those 2).

D.

 

Might as well get this question out - do you have stealth mode enabled, and have you checked that it isn't disabled? Furthermore, does your BIOS say Hybrid graphics are enabled?

 

Dump the verde drivers... Try this one -

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/535696-modified-nv-197-52-driver-m17xr1-only.html

 

Would those work better for me as well Batboy, or are the 197.84 drivers pretty much the same? Ive been trying to cover all my bases here, as I really cant pinpoint the cause of all these problems i am having. I think i should be getting much better performance in WoW and in fact everything I play and do on this laptop, but I keep getting audio problems, performance hits, etc, and its just frustrating. I am certainly glad I refreshed my warranty on this laptop, however I am trying to avoid trading it in if I can (although those newer models are really nice looking).

Is there any other drivers or anything I can change/update that might be causing the problems?

 

Morgotth,

Give me version/source info for the drivers -

1. Chipset - Dell or NV?
2. Wireless - Dell or Intel? Which wireless card are you using?

Also, using any codec packs?

My suggestion,

1. remove any codec packs,
2. use the current chipset driver listed on the support.dell page for the 17xR1 (be sure to UNCHECK the LAN option - use the Microsoft default ethernet/lan driver). Its ok to use the chipset storage driver so leave this checked.
3. Try the 197.52 driver I linked to.

If you need the steps to perform a clean install of the NV driver, let me know and I will post them again. Basically, be sure to have both Integrated Graphics and Hybrid Graphics enabled in the BIOS when changing/installing the display driver. Remove the existing display driver (no need to remove chipset and physx so dont check these) and once complete, instead of a normal restart, restart into Safe Mode (F8 @ BIOS). Once in safe mode, run CCleaner registry, remove any issues found and reboot. Once back and the desktop, run the 197.52 driver installer.

Apologies for the late reply

 

1. Chipset-NVIDIA nForce 730i
2. Says I have a Broadcom 802.11n adapter

I removed the community codec pack I had installed.