M17xR1 - GPU fans slowing down.

Hey everyone!

I've been trying to figure out why exactly my video cards have been overheating so frequently. I've been using my M17x on the go for a while so I've been using the onboard video to conserve battery.

When I got home I fired up the 2x 260ms and loaded up league of legends. Athough I immediately noticed that my 260ms were running more quiet than usual, the sound they typically make 20 or more minutes after exiting a game, the idle fan speed I'm assuming. Typically they are both very loud, not in a troubling way, just loud like a jet. I recently installed new drivers, could this possibly be the issue?

 

Only one way to find out. Reinstall old drivers and see if the slow fan issue persists.

 

Well I've formatted my computer and fresh installed before the troubles started, I wanted to do this anyway.

Do you have a set of drivers I could try out?

 

I'm not sure which drivers I had prior to formatting. Could you recommend something?

 

BIOS should be the controlling factor for fan speed...not drivers. Have you upgraded bios version recently? First try rebooting then try resetting to factory defualts and if that doesn't do it try resetting to previous version....or if not using A07 try that! I have had that prob and it's usually a BIOS issue. Good luck!

 

Hmmm, I appear to be using A02 Bios, maybe this is the issue?

 

Flashed BIOS to A07, went into BIOS and it says it's A03. Normal?

 

perhaps try a power drain, then reflash the system

 

Not sure what you mean superman, sorry.

 

shut the system down completely ( not in hibernate ), unplug the system and remove the battery then hold the power button for about 2 mins, then start the system back up with plug and battery back in and try to do the flash again.

 

Gonna give it a go.

 

Right so I reflashed again, after trying your power sink method. Same result, still tells me that I'm running A03 in the BIOS. After flashing, it resets my BIOS and puts Hybrid and Integrated graphics to enabled, I turn it off, reboot and I'm in 800x600 without display drivers? Windows finds them for me. Any input is helpful!

I'd also like to point out that when I flash my BIOS, my GPU fans start sounding like they usually did, lots of airflow. Not really sure whats going on.

 

I'm using drivers from Nvidia.com, should I be using the nearly 1yr old drivers from Alienware? Is this even an issue?

 

strange how your bios wont flash, I would now resort to unplugging the coin battery from the board (bios battery) and doing the power drain and flash again.

as for divers I would imagine you should be using latest from nvidia, not to sure as my R2 has AMD cards.

 

I would also like to point out that when watching youtube videos, the computer will freeze, audio will freeze like "dadadadadadada", I've experienced this problem before.

@superman I'm using Winflash, does this matter?

 

Try this:
Power drain your system:
Shut down your laptop
Remove power cord and system battery
Remove the backplate (held in place by the two screws)
Unplug the CMOS coincell battery next to the system fan
Press the power button for ~30 seconds
Put everything back

Attempt to flash your BIOS again following the steps provided by Dell

Now in order to properly install your video drivers follow these steps:
Navigate to Control panel and uninstall the nVIDIA display drivers
Restart when prompted
Boot into Safe Mode (with Networking to download CCleaner if you don't have it) pressing the F8 key while booting.
Run CCleaner in Safe Mode and clean your registry ( to remove any remaining display driver fragments)
Reboot and download the latest version, I personally don't have any issue with them on both M17x, choose clean install and reboot when prompted.

That should be it.
Oh and if you still have shutter issues repeat steps above and install a previous driver version, see which one works best for you.


Cheers

 

@katalin_2003

A bit drunk but I hear you. Ill check back with you in the morning. Thanks for all the support. I mean it!

 

No problem, fella, just take care of yourself

 

So I clean installed some old drivers and am no longer having issues while watching videos etc.

Although, the fans (both of them) on my 260s are still not going full strength. And it's causing my computer to overheat (during games) and shut off. Some of you have suggested that I flash into a newer BIOS (I'm using A03 currently) because it could fix the issue.

I've downloaded the A07 BIOS from Dell/Alienware and used the WinPlash64 program to update the BIOS. It went through the procedure without any issues and reboots. I go into the BIOS and it says I'm still running A03.

I've tried powersinking a few times, still the same thing. What could be happening?

UPDATE:

Just flashed again. Now says I'm running A07. The only thing I changed was the GPU drivers....odd.

Gonna try running a few games and seeing what happens.

 

Ok, try flashing in DOS using a bootable USB key
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...sh-drive-flash-aw-bios-updates-under-dos.html
Get your BIOS settings to default, save and exit.

After creating your bootable USB key, copy the BIOS file on the key and choose(in BIOS) USB device as the first to boot then restart and flash in DOS.

 

Hey katalin

The BIOS is updated now to A07. However, after playing about 20 min of league of legends, I've noticed the the fan speeds are the same as before. The back panels behind the GPUs were incredibly hot and I just quit the game before my computer crashed.

I noticed that during the flashing of the BIOS, both GPUs went full force like they're suppose to. Loud like a jet. Could the issue possibly have something to do with the Command Center? I can't possibly understand why this happening.

 

Glad it finally worked.
Take a look at your temps after you game a while with something like HwInfo running in the background while you game and see how high they get. If above something like 85 Celsius then it's not normal for a game like that.

Maybe all you need now is a good repaste of your GPUs and cleaning the dust off of your heatsinks.

Fans running at full speed while flashing is normal, nothing to worry about.

 

Right well, I do need to clean out my system a bit, I've had the system for, I dunno, maybe 2 years?

But it doesn't explain why the GPU fans go at full speed while flashing but not while gaming. I don't understand!

I'll get some temps for you a little later. It could also be possible that it's just league of legends? But I doubt that. I haven't really been playing any other games lately so I'll have to monkey around with that.

 

Same deal with other games like Counter Strike, Street Fighter 4. The fans won't go full speed. They do when I flash BIOS but that's it.

Anyone have any ideas why this is the case?

Could it be Chipset drivers? Command Center? Any guesses?

 

If I were you, I would do a clean install, start fresh again. Here's some threads that will make it easier for you:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...er-install-order-guide-alienware-systems.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ook-feel-after-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

Just remember: Don't use the recovery DVD that shipped with the system in order to install your drivers, instead download the latest ones from the Dell support page.

LE: I almost forgot, try this first and test again:
Access BIOS menu > Advanced > Graphic options and here disable everything hybrid SLi, integrated graphics and PCIeGen 2, see if your gaming experience changed.
Also can you post a screenshot of the sensors window of HwInfo after gaming a little?

 

Real quickly before I grab a bite to eat.

Katalin,

I just did a fresh Windows 7 install about 2 days ago (literally). I also followed the guide you provided when installing drivers. I did this in hopes of somehow fixing the fan speed problem. It wasn't the recovery dvd either.

Gonna check the BIOS right now but I know that Hybrid SLI and Intergrated Graphics are both turned off.

 

Disabled PCIE, nothing changed.

HWMonitor for some reason isn't picking up my temps, it was before when I was using different drivers, but the current drivers I'm using fixed random freeze ups I would get watching videos. CPU temps were around 63 C. It does show the voltages of the GPUs though (0.85V). Not sure if that information means anything.

Ugh! I wish I could get this fixed! My cousin works for Blizzard and promised me a Diablo 3 Beta invite and I really wanted to get this fixed before it's released so I can play the game on my GPUs on not onboard video....

 

Try HwInfo here and click the Sensors tab.
I have a guess that your chipset gets pretty hot, i had the same "problem" its being cooled down by the system/CPU heatsink and the contact is made by a piece of 10mm x 10mm and 2mm thick thermal pad which i replaced.

You're not getting the stutter anymore for videos due to properly installing the display drivers

 

Just a stab in the dark here but you've had the system 2 years - Have you flushed out all the dust & etc? It could be that the sensors aren't picking up the temperatures or just bad airflow in general.

Also you may consider doing a re-paste with high quality thermal paste such as ICD7 or AS5.

EDIT:

Also a simple test first would be to try the drivers from Alienware's site even if they are outdated.

 

Yeah my temps are hitting 95 C max during Counter Strike and League of Legends. Probably way too high.

I still don't believe that the reason is dust. I'm sure there is dust in there but why wouldn't my GPU fans want to pick it up a little? They did when I flashed BIOS, why?

Because the sensors can't pick up the temperature? HWinfo did.

I have a feeling it's BIOS/driver/chipset/command center related of some sort. About 2 weeks ago I was playing with both GPUs going full force. Went on the battery. Came back, not the same. What happened? It's like my GPUs are running on battery power or something.

 

hmm im very interested to see if you find a problem and/or what it is..i also have had nothing but problems due to the video drivers...and i have noticed that the fans dont kick on nearly as much as they did with A02...but my fans do kick on...ive completely tore down my system and re pasted all my chips with new arctic sliver 5.. after i did my first update of graphics drivers i had BSoD and crashing... then went to just the driver crashing and recovering and now with the last driver released all i get is random freeze that stick for a sec or two and continues on with no prob...mainly during video playback ...just down to a minor inconvenience ....

 

See my LE at post #25, without the screenshot part, if you properly clean installed your display drivers, stuttering will disappear

 

ok sweet!! nice guide..ive loaded my system a couple of times and pretty much follow everything you have on that guide..about the only thing i did differently is step 6 i waited till last ....would that really make that much of a difference?
and i use almost all your additional apps too..so im pretty much up to speed..but i did like your whocrashed..i haven't seen that one!!cool

 

I mostly meant this:
Access BIOS menu > Advanced > Graphic options and here disable everything hybrid SLi, integrated graphics and PCIeGen 2