M17x R3 - Intermittent split-second freezes + sound skipping/delay

Hi Guys,

Posted here way back before I got my M17x R3 and got some very helpful responses, so I thought I'd give the forum a try for my problem before calling tech support.

Essentially I am getting split-second (up to 2 seconds) "freezes" that happen on an intermittent basis. I am also experiencing sound delay regarding sound effects. For example, I would swing a sword in Skyrim and would only hear the "woosh" of the sword a few seconds after. Finally there is some sound skipping involved; I can be standing still in-game doing nothing and the background music will still skip every now and then. It very much feels like a car that is stalling as it drives along!

I only encountered these problems whilst playing Dota 2 yesterday night, but I put it down to the fact that I had just reinstalled it (assumed something went wrong in the installation process). However today it has happened to other games I played/tested so I know that it is not a specific game causing this problem per say. The only thing of note in the past few days was that I installed Total War: Rome II via Steam yesterday. Thinking this may have been the issue, I decided to system restore (to 2 days ago when everything was fine) and things went back to normal briefly before reverting back to its current state.

Outside of games, everything seems normal for the most part. There is no sound delay/skipping from audio via iTunes or Youtube etc. However the split-second "freezes" seem to occur even as I type this out now or when I am watching videos on Youtube etc. I am not sure if this particular issue goes beyond my games/browser.


I have run the Alienware diagnostics from the boot menu along with the Dell online diagnostics tool and both tell me that everything is in order. I'm afraid this may be a hardware problem as the system restore did not resolve the issue.

Intel Core i7 Processor 2670QM (2.20Ghz, 6MB, 4C)
8192MB (2x4096) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
500GB Momentus XT Solid State Hybrid Drive
2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M
European Dell Wireless 375 Bluetooth Card
Europe Killer Wireless-N 1103
English Genuine Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64 BIT)

The above are the pertinent specs of my laptop; if anything is missing/required please do not hesitate to ask. Any help or direction regarding these issues would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

Hey dude, what drive bay do you have the moments XT installed in?

 

Hey Amroth, I'm not so good on tech specifics but it should be the hard drive bay. It states the location of the momentus to be 0. Does this answer your question? If not, please elaborate further and I will get on it.

Thanks very much for your reply!

 

Search out an app called LatencyMon: Resplendence Software - LatencyMon: suitability checker for real-time audio and other tasks

The Hard Page Faults will come from the virus checker and can be ignored, or you turn off real-time monitoring.

The nvidia driver is the usual cause of these delays (DPC). Which one are you using?

 

Hey Micky,

I did use DPC Latency Checker earlier on today and did not get very good results (upwards of 1000) but eventually it seemed to settle down after the system restore. I still had spikes every now and then.

I also ran LatencyMon as you suggested with current numbers around 200-300 with the highest being 7000 (although the first test I ran had a spike of 12,000 upwards).
Highest reported ISR routine execution time: ~192 (dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation)
Highest reported DPC routine execution time: ~797 (nvlddmkm.sys - NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 306.97, NVIDIA Corporation)


NVIDIA driver would be version 306.97. Is this the information you are looking for?

On a side-note, I noticed the mention of DirectX above, which was part of the installation for Total War: Rome II. Is it possible that this may have something to do with the issues?


Thanks.

 

Hey Natiz, I had hard drive problems with my Momentus XT's when they were in location 0. I would advise you move it to bay 1 (direct centre of laptop) and that will avoid problems with the port switching between SATA II and SATA III speeds. I lost two Momentus drives because of this.

Moving hard drive is easy and should take 5 mins. If you aren't sure how to let me know and I'll find a video for you

 

'Fraid I'm no expert in this stuff but hoped that it would show up something. The max number I see is ~800 (same as you) and I was told that was a high number, but I only saw a brief sound glitch during game loads.

I'd give a newer driver a test out, 314.22 is the last good one from nvidia - all since then have caused a lot of problems - including what you are seeing.

The Dx module is also the same one I see but the DX install may have had an impact if an older version was there before

 

This sounds like a good candidate for the problem, had the same sataII/sataIII issues myself with my R3. Doesn't the latest BIOS from Dell also fix this by downgrading to sataII?

 

First there's no issue with A12 unlocked BIOS, change the main drive to port 1 I use the HGST 1TB SATA III drive port 0 with RST installed AHCI mode v12.8, doesn't need to match the RAID OROM and it keeps constant SATA II (port1 SATA III) speeds with no errors, unfortunately alienware uses cheap controllers that's why I only use AHCI mode, I tried for six months RAID mode and it quickly stared to degrade my SSD I was able to do a factory restore (parted magic/secure erase) and now everything is fine also RST v11.6.0.1030 for AW 17R4/18R2 filled with bugs.
I recommend updating IDT drivers, follow these instructions M17XR3 Windows 8 / 7 IDT Driver v.6.10.0.6421 Maxx Audio 3 + Quality
Post hard pagefaults results.

 

j95 is right, you can have a stable port 0 as he explained. The only reason I suggested the OP move his drive is because he is only using one, so might as well use the best slot!

btw j95, I bought myself the same HGST drive for my port 0 slot based on your signature I see that its 7,200rpm AND 1TB, and I thought "j95 knows his sh*t, so it must be good"

So I bought one and it's great

 

Hi Guys,

Apologies for the late response, I was out the past few hours. I updated the IDT drivers following j95's instructions and tested out the system afterwards. Initially the issues looked to have disappeared but they eventually came back. When I was testing it out playing Dota 2, it came to the point where the game would lock up/freeze (1-3 seconds) perhaps every 30-45 seconds. It would freeze more often during more resource-intensive moments (i.e. many things on the screen). The sound delay was present initially but stopped as far as I remember. Regardless, I feel somehow that both issues are connected and resolving the freezing would also resolve the sound issues.

Here are the hard pagefault results from one of the segments I ran earlier on (I hope this is what you wanted @j95?):

Process with highest pagefault count: steam.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults: 7156
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 2088
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs): 1263331.167427
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%): 0.403987
Number of processes hit: 26

@Micky - I also updated my drivers but unfortunately that did not resolve the issues.

In regards to the moving my drive, would this be a viable solution in regards to the issue/is that part of what is causing the problem (has it been in a sub-optimal location this whole time and it has finally caught up to me?)

I admit I am a bit out of my depth here so any help regarding moving the drive (if it is needed) etc. would be much appreciated! @Amroth you mentioned a video which would be great.


Once again thank you all for your help. Quite frustrating for this issue to occur out of the blue with no real warning signs. If you require any more details don't hesitate to ask!

Thanks.

 

@Amroth SSD(main) port1 and HGST port0 only with IRST +12.5 installed AHCI: Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Driver for Intel Desktop Boards (.NET Framework 4.5 required) IRST will auto set SATA II for port0 without any issue and it will stick until reboot.
IRST RAID version will install fine under AHCI mode (Intel(R) Mobile Express Chipset SATA AHCI Controller v12.8.0.1016), latest version SetupRST.exe Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) RAID Driver

As Amroth said move the drive to port1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfVb8xYuCMA F2 enter the BIOS and change the Drive Boot order>F10