M17xR2 | S3 Resume = Loss of Brightness Control via FN keys and/or BSOD issues

Well, another update on my testing to try and find the cause of this.

I disabled Aliensense completely - closed lid to sleep - no probs - opened lid to resume - still brightness keys do not repsond as they should.

Obviously this particular scenario doesnt cure anything.

I will report back when I have uninstalled the Synaptics Touchpad Driver to see if that does anything.......

 

Ok, so I uninstalled Synaptics and restarted....tried sleep via lid closing and thats a no go too.....doesnt cure the brightness issue.

I really wish Dell would drop by and give us all an update on this!

 

Darn it, anyhow! Steviejones, +1 rep for your ongoing efforts, champ. Thanks for trying both of these things.

 

I posted this as a seperate thread as I'm not sure it's the same issue but it was instalocked by a mod.

Does anyone have a problem where they can't adjust the brightness period?

My original post:

Had an M17X back when they first launched. Loved it but they were soooo expensive and took forever to build I ended up selling mine for a profit and building a desktop.

Saw one on the outlet the other day for 1200 after the coupon and couldn't resist getting another. Got the machine last night but have 2 issues. Highlighted my actual question in red for simplicity.

The first is my power brick which I think is resolved. Getting the "power adapter not recognized" at startup and windows will only run in battery mode. Spent an hour on the phone last night with aliencare whatever. After trying pretty much everything this forum suggested he determined my brick was bad. The computer does work with the battery pulled and the power brick plugged in but won't charge the battery and the system thinks it's on battery only with both plugged in. BIOS also does not recognize the power adapter at all it seems as it does not display the wattage. They are replacing the power brick. A new one shipped today and I should have it tommorow. The guy was also decent enough to replace my 210w adapter with a 240w with minimal fuss "for the inconvenience."

My second problem is more annoying. I simply can't get my brightness control to work AT ALL. I'm aware of the sleep lid issue but even after a restart neither my function keys nor the windows brightness control do squat. It's stuck on high which gives me a headache pretty quickly as I tend to keep my office pretty dark. I have the RGB screen. I'm hoping this is related to my power brick weirdness and the machine being "stuck" between a recognized AC source and the battery which is missing. While I'm waiting can anyone suggest anything? I've tried both the 11.2 reference drivers and the version Dell has on their website right now.

Other than that I'm pretty happy with this machine for the price so far. It's not as beefy as the desktop but it's more than plenty for most everything I do. Only game I play is WoW so the single 5870 is plenty. Machine has the i5 in it which I'm still not totally sure of but after installing the SSD it feels identical to my desktop in normal usage. Will probably get the 920 as I do encode video pretty often.

 

Big, I responded to your post and explained the reason for the thread being closed - feel free to PM me if you want to discuss the reason. Needless to say, here is my reply (again) - see bold text below. Yes, others are seeing the brightness key failure. This is one of the items stevie has been talking about in this thread.

 

I can sympathise with the "not recognised" issue.....I had this too on several laptops which were replace (5 times in all) before a more simple sollution of sending me a new psu was found. Since I got a Delta 240w psu, on this system, I havent had the errors regarding charging and I havent updated to A10 - still using A09 bios....hopefully your new brick will sort this out.

As far as brightness functionality lost "all the time" and not being able to dim down or up is a new one on me....obvioulsy the lid close thing disables dimming down via function keys but if your having problems with it full stop, im not sure!

Have you tried a complere re-install of the OS? - may help out....just a thought.

And, yeah, bar these niggles, i am happy with mine too....its just that I expect FULL functionality when paying thousands and for something so simple not to work - it REALLY bugs me!

EDIT: We havent had an update from DellChrisM as yet regarding this particular thread. I am sure he will pop by at some point and let us all know what is being done to remedy this - hopefully!

 

Yeah first thing I did was mobo BIOS, GPU BIOS and a clean install of Win7 on an Intel G2 SSD.

Oh well. Will keep an eye on your efforts and thanks.

 

No worries. I am always willing to try and help out. I am still doing my best to try and find out whats causing this issue. If I get any more ideas or info, rest assured, I will post back on my thread here...afterall, I think we all would like to see a fix for this sooner rather than later.

 

bigddybn, BatBoy mentioned reinstalling OSD. Have you tried that? Some of the function keys will not work with the fn switch without OSD.

If you are using the OSD provided on your resource disc, skip that and install the latest version from Dell Support. Often the drivers and apps on the disc provided are outdated and newer versions posted online will resolve issues.

 

Hi all,
I have read all the replies everybody posted here. I have bought Alienware 17x R2, cross fire x 1GB Radeon 5870, 6 Gb Ram, i7 740 along with 500 Gb HD one month ago.
Since I got this treasure first day, I figured out this laptop is not worth than a piece of trash. I think I spent thousand of hours by talking on the phone with Alienware technician. They updated, flashed, and did whatever they did to fix this issue. Finally, their solution is reinstalling the windown and update the latest version for everythin'.
So far, my VC driver is 8.763 I believe so. BIOS is A10. CC ATI is 11....xx. I don't know, but I believe everythin' is up to date. However, the most frustrated problem is still thereeeeeeeeeeeeee....Ironically, spending more than thousand bucks just made you annoyed. Closing clid then freeze. Leave it there then freeze. Specially, I could not even turn it off by press the skull button. I have to take out the battery to restart it. I do not know that any body has this problem same as me.
My question is IS THERE ANY affective solution for this problem so far ???????????????? or we have to wait for the new driver, new bios driver, or something new to fix it up??????
Thanks for asking...........

 

Firstly, I dont think there is a fix for any of this as yet. We are still waiting for an update from a Dell Official on this thread (DellChrisM).

Obviously, your not alone here with this issue - I feel for you and everyone else (including myself) that is experiencing these problems.

You mention Video card Drivers - 8.763 are the latest official Video Drivers from Dell whereas ATi CCC 11.xxx (currently, the latest is 11.2 fyi) are reference drivers provided by AMD. You cant have the two installed so which one are you using? - this can be found by going to CCC, clicking information then software and you should see a driver packaging version. What does yours say? - if you are using AMD drivers it should look like this: Driver Packaging Version 8.812-110104a-111990C-ATI - That is for AMD 11.1 drivers btw.


Did AW tech guide you through flashing your video card bios (vBios) when they asked you to update everything? - I assume they must have but who knows! - the vbios was released to cure problems regarding sleep and was released "hand in hand" with Dells latest 8.763 drivers. (your system MAY have shipped with it already installed/flashed to the latest vbios as its quite new)

If you go to CCC (catalyst control centre) and click on information then hardware, you will see a bios version number. Would be good if you post what version you have so we can tell if you have the latest one.

If you are still running the old vbios, then your issues are probably related to that, specifically.

The new vbios number should be: BIOS Version 012.020.000.027

If different from that in CCC, then sounds like you would need to flash your gpu bios and this may account for your particular issues (as it sounds quite similar from my experience)

Check that first and report back!

 

Hi there,
Thanks FYI. I have checked those information. My VBIOS is exactly same as your number 012.020.000.027.
First day, when I bought this one, the issue happened to me. Then, I called them they told me that your BIOS version n the rest of them were not updated yet. They did all the stuff, but the problem was still there.
Finally, they said that they would flash my GC. They did. It seems the problem was greatly solved. Unfortunately, my screen was really dark that made me hardly see anything on the screen.
Again, calling AW support was only one choice. They request I should reinstall OS and set up everything with latest updates.
So I did. And now this issue happened but in different way. What can I do?
I intend to call them again tonight and see how they solve it.
BTW, the version of my graphic card is 8.763 even though CC version is 2011.0104 2155 39304.
Any thought?

 

Yeah also did a "repair" on top of it. Using the current Dell website version.

Got the replacement power adapter today. No more warning, no more battery weirdness and the brightness control actually works now...... until I close the lid so at least I am the typical "normal" now.

I can live with the lid thing just as long as I have some control over brightness. Will keep watching this though. Thanks.

 

Hi Stevie

Your going through a lot of effort, Thanks.

I've never gotten a BSOD, but wht I've seen is that the screen some thimes goes to full brightness and then I must bring it down again, but my controls work, but this has not happened in a really long time.

The main thing that bugs me now is that when I resume from sleep or screen saver, my windows bar dissapears and only the start button remains and the only way I've found to get it back is to restart.

Just thought I'd mention it.

+1 Rep.

 

Thanks for the rep. Seems like thats another new anomoly as I havent had that one personally. I take it everything works fine until you resume from sleep and then its as you say with the taskbar missing etc....

Are you using Dell drivers or AMD drivers out of interest. Alot of people suggest that this issue is specifically related to video drivers. I havent (but i suppose i should) tested this whilst using 8.763 drivers....basically, havent done it yet as I like to do a complete wipe/reinstall and test from that basis...just havent had the time to do another OS install to test for that. I guess if I do that at some point, it may or may not rule out some more possible culprits.

 

Yes every thing work fine until the screen saver goes on for awhile, and then I try and use my machine again. Every thing seems to still work after I resume exept that the task bar is missing.

I've seen this on a display machine in a PC store once, the machine was an acer and running a 5650 mobility graphix card. So I'm presuming it has some thing to do with the graphix drivers.

I'm currently using the AMD drivers, version 10.11 I thinkm I don't remember having this problem when I was using the Dell drivers.

Will be trying the New AMD version 11 drivers tonight, and see if any thing has changed.

 

The sleep issue has not been fixed in this Catalyst release. Alexnvidia has tested and it is stilll prevalent. I havent tested yet but will do so.

If you missing task bar is to do with gpu drivers, you may wanna uninstall, driver sweep and Ccleaner thoroughly before installing the new driver set from AMD.

Have a look here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...st-11-2-mobility-released-get-yours-here.html

 

Steviejones133 is spot on with his advice.

Definitely run Driver Sweeper to remove all traces of prior files and the CCleaner to remove all traces in the registry prior to reinstalling newer drivers. The ATI/AMD Catalyst Install Manager does a very poor job of cleaning up after itself. If you don't run Driver Sweeper and CCleaner after uninstalling, your new installation will almost always have errors and your version of CCC probably will not be updated to the latest.

 

Ladies and Gents , is CCleaner 3.03.1366 the current version?
How about Driver Sweeper 2.6.0? Thanks I am trying to solve a similar issue on my rig

 

The version of CCleaner you have quoted is their latest version, however, the Driver Sweeper latest version is 2.8.5

You shoul dbe able to download it from Phyxion here : Phyxion.net - Downloads

 

thanks for the link Steviejones YATM
Can anyone do me a huge favor? please review this procedure and tell where I am wrong:
To update Vbios so one can use latest ATI Video drivers: (5870 M)
1. Load modded VBios to FAT32 formated USB drive that is DOS bootable.
2. Boot from (1) and update with modded Vbios
3. Boot win 7 to safe mode, remove ATI Catalyst and Video drivers
4. Boot win7 to safe mode run latest drive sweeper
5. """ ::: ::: :::: ::: ::: CC cleaner
6. Boot to win 7 with admin rights, install latest AMD/ATI package
11-2_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl.exe for example.
Which S/B previously D/L'ed.
6.1 Update power saving software from manufacturer (Dell , ASUS , etc)
7. Update keyboard light drivers (optional)
8. Play Metro 2033 with max settings (optional)

Thanks for any and all replies

 

I take it that you have read through this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...5870-gpus-5870-vbios-discussion-non-beta.html to start with. I suggest a read of the first few pages basically. Then have a read below:

To get the latest official Dell vbios, follow Grim's guide at the start of this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...70-september-2010-incl-vbios-flash-guide.html

Once you have done that, you can remove Dell Drivers by following the procedure at the start of this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...st-11-2-mobility-released-get-yours-here.html

Continue to follow that guide to install the latest AMD drivers ensuring not to forget the latest CAP profiles that Alexnvidia has linked to (hats off to Alex for great work on that thread)

Once you have done all that (and its not a huge process, believe me) you should be free to enjoy any game you like including Metro at great settings.

The only thing that you WONT be able to do is PUT YOUR LAPPY TO SLEEP VIA CLOSING THE LID as we STILL do not have an update on any fix or cure for this from either Dell or AMD.

Hope that helps you out!

 

Ok guys. Mini update on the sleep saga. Nothing major. Nothing to report right now.

I have just installed Service Pack 1 (no errors, no issues in installing it) but not had time to test anything out yet regards to sleep.....im doubting it will do any good but i am ever hopeful. Its late here in the UK now (12.30am) so I will try and test out tomorrow and post back.

Who knows?????

 

OK. I have now checked sleep via lid AFTER installing Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and it has made no difference at all. Still get the same lack of functionality regarding Brightness/Function keys. Obvioulsy nothing containing a fix from the Microsoft side of things. (Not that I was expecting this anyway).

It is still left to be examined by Dell and AMD because, as far as I can see, it has to be video driver related. I pretty much have tried everything that I can regarding ensuring my system is bang up to date, minimum apps installed that COULD potentially conflict (as I have run majority of tests on a system with only OS installed and a few other programs like Eset a/v)

I cant really have anything installed that is causing this other than what comes from Dell or what comes from AMD. Gotta be one or the other or a combination of the two.

I really wish that ANY official from EITHER organistaion would stop by this thread and give us an update on a fix for this issue.

I reiterate AGAIN that its a joke that I cant put my £4000 computer to sleep properly WITHOUT having to lose functionality OR risk BSOD because of it.

Please please please, someone....give us an update.

Regards
Steve.

 

Thanks God of Sake, I finally returned this laptop and received full refund for that. For any one just got this laptop, I think this is the last solution for releasing ur stress with this issue.
After returning it, I felt so relieved......I highly recommend anybody who are possessing this trashy lappy that try this update haha..It absolutely helps you a lot.....

 

Hi Steve,
It seems that you are in the same boat with me few week ago. As every night I went to bed, I always wonder my laptop whether or not it would go to sleep properly. Ironically, I did care about the sleep of my lappy instead of my sleeping. So annoyed huh?
I believe they would never fix this issue since it lasted almost a year. Everybody s still expecting for the latest update. Unfortunately, we just get a new disturbed thing. I think we need somebody who has their voices to speak out loudly this problem to let everybody know that Alienware M17x is not even better than a bit of sh...t......
Stop spending thousands bucks to feed the technician support from Dell.

 

I agree. To an extent. Apart from the sleep issue, i AM happy with my system. It does annoy me extremely though, that it does NOT sleep the way any normal laptop should.

I too dont expect to pay thousands for a system that I have to "babysit" and cant put to sleep without fear of it BSOD'ing or losing ANY degree of functionality.

The way things are at the moment with this issue are totally unacceptable. If it carries on for too much longer without an update, I WILL be contacting Dell Executive Customer Resolutions Team and forthrightly telling them what I think of their system that cant even sleep properly.

Trust me, I am probably THE foremost person on this NBR forum who is fed up with this entire debacle....maybe aprt from Alexnvidia who recognised this issue early on also.

The lack of acknowledgement to this issue is tant amount to disregarding it. I know a Dell rep has stopped by this thread a while ago and we have constantly posted for updates on the situation to no avail.

You get to a point where you think....hang on, are they really doing anything about it or is it a case of stone-walling to avoid the issue at hand.

I know, if it carries on much longer without any OFFICIAL acknowledgements to this thread then I will be looking to return my system because it is not doing what it should - or what it SHOULD do without issue.

If anyone from Dell or AMD reads this, please, get your act together and keep us informed.

Afterall, without us customers, you would ALL not have a job. We pay your salaries with our purchases and as such, we expect that you take heed of our problems aftermarket, not just at point of sale.

Suffice to say, im fed up with this.

 

Alfreaso, that sort of like throwing out the baby with the bath water. If it was bothering you that much, why not just turn it off at night?

This is the best laptop computer I have ever owned, bar none, and I've owned quite a few. I have also used dozens of models and brands at work, too. Sleep issues have plagued every desktop and laptop I have ever owned or used to one extent or another. Some serious and some mild issues, and this would qualify as a more serious issue for sure.

I don't use sleep or hibernation, but I do agree this is a problem to the extent that the price of this bad boy warrants a near perfect experience and a more aggressive effort by the OEM to fix it. If I were to change my mind and decide to use that feature, I would want it to work. Those that do want it to work deserve for it to. If it was a cheap laptop like most of them, then I would not expect the OEM too care much.

Hat's off to you stevie. Another +1 rep for your dogged persistence, pal. I just sent a PM to DELLChrisM and asked him to drop by this thread to take a look and see if he can let us know if this issue is being worked on.

 

Nice one Foxy, lets see what happens!

 

All,

I have emailed this thread and details to engineering. I can tell you now, they will insist that you go back to testing our video card driver and then post the issues. Of course, you are all on the latest Bios, Command Center, etc?

 

Hiya Chris,

I can only speak for myself and my system setup but EVERYTHING is stock and bang up to date with Dell Drivers for my system. The only difference is that yes, I am running AMD Video Drivers - but that shouldnt cause an issue, should it? - and also, I did not update from A09 bios to A10 as currently, I am not experiencing any battery/charging anomolies. After reading the A10 thread, I felt it was not required as that was the only fix in the release notes as far as I am aware.

I am more than prepared to reinstall Windows (lost count of how many times I have done that now in relation to this particular issue) and try out Dell 8.763 on a completely bare and bang up to date installation if it helps engineering out.

Let me know or let us all know how things are going regarding testing for this issue and if I or we can be of assistance, speaking for us all, I think no-one would argue about helping test out.

INFACT - Chris, I am quite happy to test out for you and report back to this thread - if you want me to perform a clean install, with all the latest Dell drivers and only Dell 8.763 drivers, I can do that for you no problems. The only thing that I really dont want to do is to flash my bios to A10 (unless you can assure me that by doing so, If i come unstuck or take on more problems, my system will be covered - its only a few months old and I dont mind testing, but im not risking bricking my system without any comeback, simply to do engineerings job FOR them - if you get me? - maybe we should start getting salaried by Dell to test what the engineers should be doing! - although you can always arrange for some kind of "perks" to be sent my way for being an engineering guinea pig eh?)

Thanks for posting and for the information.

Shoot me a PM regards testing and what you would like done...(and how my system would be covered if it went wrong)
Regards
Steve.

 

DELLChrisM, thank you for getting involved. We appreciate you very much.

I am on the latest of everything available for driver downloads from Dell Support. The only thing not stock is my AMD 11.2 video drivers. If it helps steviejones and others with the sleep problem, I am willing to go back to the old drivers on the Dell Support site for a period of testing.

Stevie, the A10 BIOS did not brick anyone's system that I know about. With your machine being under warranty I would not worry about coverage. You could pretend to be a computer newbie and call Alienware Support to have walk you through the process, ask if your warranty would cover a failed flash, etc. I would recommend using the A10, as my system works better with it. Unless you are on the latest BIOS, all of your troubleshooting is incomplete.

 

All,

I am running AMD Video Drivers - but that shouldnt cause an issue, should it?
* They will not test with the retail drivers. The issue must be replicated using our drivers for them to pursue it. There is no need to format/reinstall. Just run a driver cleaner and load our video card driver.

 

Chris, I am more than willing to do that to help the cause. How do we get the testing process started. Do we wait to hear back from you?

Have the engineers mentioned whether they suspect the sleep problem is GPU vBIOS or system BIOS related, or something altogether different?

 

ChrisM, if you are indeed running amd official drivers, ie catalyst 11.2, then you would have noticed you are suffering from sleep issues. easiest way to test it is to close your lid, wait for few minutes, then open it. first symptom, you will loose any ability to control lcd brightness and the brightness is locked at max. 2nd symptom, which is more random but almost always happens, is BSOD/reboot after a while. sleep issues are very well documented in this thread or previous 11.1, and current 11.2 threads. steviejones has done an elaborate testing for dell's engineering team so please take some time to look into it.

ChrisM, i believe dell is making a huge mistake if this is the direction you are heading. unless dell is prepared to release monthly driver updates to support new features and latest games, then the least dell could do is make sure amd's official drivers are 100% compatible with M17xR2. we dont see any point running a 6 month old official dell driver just because dell thinks it's "dell's official" when we cant run the latest games or get the latest features meant for our system. can you please let the engineering team know how strongly we fell about their ignorance regarding this issue? thanks

 

Such strong statements are not a good way to get Dell Engineers excited about helping fix a problem. I know this issue has been extremely frustrating for some people, but it's not DELLChrisM's fault. He is a Dell Liaison and he is not responsible for the sleep issue that is causing anyone frustration. I reached out to DELLChrisM seeking his help, so please try to work with him as he is connecting us with people that can help.

I think that DELLChrisM is quoting what steviejones said, and not stating that he (DELLChrisM) himself is running 11.2 drivers.

How is Dell asking people to use their drivers temporarily for test purposes making a big mistake? Whenever any kind of diagnostic testing is done, it has to be in an environment with a common set of controls in place. That's a fundamental premise to any type of science. It's necessary to avoid mistakes and wasting time chasing multiple issues at once. Once the actual cause is determined and a fix is developed, at that point in time is when it would be a green light for people to use whatever drivers they see fit. Once it's fixed, if another driver version causes new problems then you know it's not OK to use that driver version unless you want to live with the problems.

If this problem is going to get fixed with help from members of NBR, it's going to take cooperation.

 

Hi guys.

Have read through the last few posts since Chris initial "post back"....

Foxy - regarding A10 bios, I know the bios itself isnt destructive, its the process that can be. I say "can" as I know only too well after reading several posts/threads here on NBR about people who have attemtped a bios flash under all the correct criteria only to have it go bad on them. I have been flashing bios with regularity since i got my system/s back in July 2010 - I am quite ok doing so but I would like that "comfort blanket" effect.....afterall, its me doing the testing here on my own $4k laptop...not quite like engineering pulling one out the stock room that isnt their own , if you get me!

If I can replicate the sleep problems without flashing to A10, using ALL Dell drivers and nothing AMD related, I hardly think that flashing to A10 will make a blind bit of difference - BUT, I am prepared to work WITH engineering and Chris to resolve this issue. Fixes and enhancements for the A10 bios according to Dell are:

1. Modify EC code to get PSID delay 1 second.
2. Modify the bad battery stop charge reason ID code for debug.

Regarding AMD drivers and Dell support of them - I do recall that Brian - the last AW Liason aka "Erawneila" , said that at the time of the development of the beta vbios that it was "purely luck" that it allowed us to use reference drivers and that it had not been developed with such in mind. From that perspective, I can see what Chris is saying regarding testing with Dell drivers as opposed to AMD drivers - AW did not intend the vbios release to allow reference drivers useage, it was merley to fix issues with previous Dell drivers (basically, it was a spin-off that we were then able to install AMD reference drivers WITHOUT the need for workaround=true and other mods to get them to work).

I will uninstall and load 8.763 to test out and report back. I will do this on the basis of my current install as I know that all my other drivers are up to date with the exception of the A10 bios. If I still experience the sleep issues whilst running A09, I will then look to flash to A10 (although, I see this as irrelevant as A10 holds no fixes for anything to do with this - it was released to fix or atempt to fix "battery not charging/recognised" issues alone - therefore, that is why I dont think its required.

Not to say I WONT try it IF things prove to still be the same, obviously I want a cure for this.

The underlying thing here, like Alex said is, basically, if Dell CANNOT keep up with video driver releases at a reasonable rate, then we as owners are FORCED to turn to reference drivers to get the best out of what is by nature, a GAMING laptop.

As such, Dell should ensure that its GAMING pedigree is kept up to date with regular driver updates, not sporadic 6 monthly ones.

So, from that point, I agree totally with Alex. If Dell CANT or WONT keep up, at least "turn the ball over" to AMD who can keep up regularly....to do this, Dell NEED to make sure that AMD drivers are 100% compatable and the only way to do this is for Dell engineering to test AW with AMD drivers and liase with AMD to fix if they are not 100% compatable....simple. Its not rocket science!

This approach would give us the gaming performance that we have paid thousands for, would free Dell up from having to release driver updates at the rate that many of us would like to see (monthly) and everyone would be happy. All Dell need to do is to make sure that they test AMD drivers for 100% compatability - then we are all happy campers!

BTW, Chris - thanks for the update and for forwarding this information to engineering. Very much appreciated. Thanks for being a continued prescence in the NBR forums.

 

Hi stevie. I hope your day is going well.

Does this sleep problem only exist with AMD drivers? By that, I mean do the now very old Dell drivers that don't give good gaming performance completely resolve the sleep/resume problems?

I thought I would ask for clarification. After going back and reading early posts (page 1) from you and Alex, I was not sure if this is the case. It might be implied by some of the things I read, but I do not want to assume anything.

Alex, good day to you, too. I would be interested in knowing your answer to this also.

I have one more question, stevie. In all of your testing, I am curious if you tried running your system with the battery removed for a few days, and if so, did the same issues occur? I am just curious if somehow, in some way, the "plugged in, not charging" problem is entangled with the sleep/resume problem. It would be interesting to find out if the proprietary charging system is the "devil" behind both problems. What makes me think to ask is that some people never have that problem, while others do.

 

@Mr Fox, Good day to you too. ChrisDell is perfectly understood as a liason for dell. that's why our frustrations are not directed to him, it's to the engineering team at dell. they need to know that if they are not prepared to release monthly or quaterly driver updates and that task falls into amd's hand, they have to make sure we are equipped with a vBIOS that is 100% compatible with reference drivers.

fyi, sleep issues has been persistant since amd reference driver 10.11. since then, we have 10.12, 11.1, and now 11.2. that's about 6 months from the time dell released their modified driver. since then, much has changed in the gaming industry and dell's 10.8 driver is no longer suitable for newer current games. if you take notice in dell's vbios release note, one of the fixes for the latest vbios is actually sleep/resume issue. no surprises there, but that only worked till 10.10.

to answer your question, yes and no are the answer. í'll start with no. amd's reference 10.9, 10.10 are both ok with M17xR2 in regards to sleep functionality. and yes, it's only in reference 10.11 onwards we start to see this problem popping up.

the reason i said dell is making a big mistake is because IF we were to use only dell's driver, there wont be any problems with sleep/resume. so what is left for the engineering team to test? there's nothing to verify since dell's own driver worked fine with M17xR2. if there's no problem, then there's no case, nothing to investigate. but we cant be contented with dell's outdated driver, can we?

from ChrisDell's reply, it looks like dell's engineering is no longer looking into this issue unless we can prove something wrong with dell's own driver. it is already perfectly proven by steviejones and verified by many others that amd's reference drivers have sleep issues, it's just that dell is not willing to do anything to help because they felt that their drivers are the only drivers we can/should use. is that fair for our extreme investment? i'll let you all be the judge.

@ChrisDell, we do appreciate your role as liason and directing our complains to dell's engineering. if you could please push them to consider supporting amd's reference drivers based on our arguments here, that would be even better. and please dont feel that we are directing our frustrations towards you. if dell engineering is doing their job properly, then we wouldnt be having this sort of discussion.

 

glad to here that.

Mysterious doubts, i am running Dell Drivers, i too have this issue after few sleeps or even few Monitor turn offs.

When i Increase the RAM Volt or VCore, laptop doesn't even want to wake up.

Running same spec as SteveJones is, except the Memory is 4GB

Thanks...

 

Nope. The battery is always in. It is randomly disabled/enabled to allow it to run down to minimum levels. I do this to condition the battery so it remains optimal and doesnt become redundant/unused.

I very much doubt that the two are linked....I dont get any warnings about power or running on a/c whn its plugged in and im on A09 as mentioned earlier. Several systems I had before this one suffered with that problem but seems ok with this one hence my reluctancy to change the bios to one that only fixes something I dont have to fix!

Thanks for posting. Its interesting that you have these issues AND are using Dells latest offering in terms of video drivers (8.763) which supposedly cured all sleep issues. Obvioulsy not!

I havent got around to it yet folks, but....I will try Dells drivers out again - hopefully test out a bit later tonight if I get the chance.

This is all good stuff folks - in a way. The more people post about this, the more we will have to go on and back up our issues.

 

Alex, thank you. Now I understand more clearly what the issue is. And, I agree it would not be right for Dell to expect everyone to use the same driver version indefinitely to enjoy having a laptop with properly functioning sleep features at the expense of all other practical use of the system.

I am also still curious if somehow the "plugged in, not charging" problem is intertwined with the sleep problem. I don't know that anyone has considered that, but I find myself wondering if the proprietary charging system is causing some sort of glitch by not playing nice with the video subsystem. Since that problem only seems to affect some people, and this sleep/resume problem does not seem to affect everyone, it makes me wonder even more. My Dell XPS M1730 that my M17x R2 replaced had both problems, only to a much more severe extent.

 

Stevie, I would not doubt they are related simply because, if you stop and think about it, the video cards need to have adequate power to work correctly. And we have TWO very powerful video cards, so that having consistent power would seem to be crucial. The A10 BIOS was implemented to correct charging problems. Because you do not see a charging problem, that does not mean that all things are functioning properly in ways you cannot see. I rarely have the "plugged in, not charging" problem. I only have it when I run my battery down. Like you, I stay tethered to an AC outlet most of the time.

The reason I asked about your testing is the sleep and resume behavior may be different on AC than it is on DC and it would be good to know that for troubleshooting. If you remove the battery and run only on AC power and the problems continue, but running only on DC power with no AC adapter connected the problems are gone--or vice versa--knowing that would be potentially helpful in isolating the underlying cause.

One of the reasons many computers suffer from sleep problems is due to changes in power states. Internal components start to behave improperly when they do not receive the correct power. If Dell's notebooks have issues with their proprietary charging system (as we all know they do) and that causes fluctuations in power to internal components, I think that could manifest itself in a sleep/wake problem. It's only a theory, but one that I think Dell engineers should at least rule out as a possible cause.

I have noticed strange things like LAN and wifi cards, and BlueTooth modules not working after being awakened from sleep state on a variety of computers. For example, on the Dell XPS M1730 that I had, the wifi and BlueTooth would completely disappear from Device Manager after being awakened from sleep. It did not happen all the time, but often enough that I disabled all sleep functionality on that system. I have an HP desktop that throws NVIDIA driver error messages and the LAN card does not work when awakened from sleep state. I use an HP laptop for work. If I allow it to go to sleep, the LAN, wifi and the Sprint AirCard in the PCMCIA slot all cease to function after being awakened. On the Dell and both of the HPs, the only way those components would start working properly again is by restarting. HP also uses proprietary charging systems on some of their notebooks. The HP I use for work does.

I know we are only concerned about the M17x R2 problem on this thread, but I am providing examples to illustrate why I believe this theory should be explored by Dell engineers. I think they could potentially be related issues.

 

good point there, but the wierd thing is, if the gpu didnt receive enough juice to resume from sleep, it simply wont start at all, will it? wat we are experiencing right now is, when the system resumes from sleep, we lost total brightness control, and the system will eventually, randomly bluescreen and restart. not sure if they are tied

 

Foxy, I understand your logic. Are you suggesting testing without a/c power, running on battery to see if sleep is still an issue? - if so, I can happily test for that.
I would say though that whilst plugged in, CCC powerplay manages things when set to max performance whilst plugged in. Obviously, testing on battery, I would have to change to the same setting.

I think the "not charging" issue is more to do with the a/c not "shaking hands" correctly with the bios, hence numerous test bios to try and cure this issue and also, hence the release of A10 which people are still suffering fromthe same issue even with that bios, suggesting to me that it doesnt fix a thing.

My personal "take" on that issue is that Dell should scrap the idea of proprietory psu's...i mean, how many other manufacturers use that technology? - none that I am aware of. Also, what is the benefit of it? - really?....it does more harm than good.

Because I leave my system plugged in all the time and have no problems with battery not charging/recognised, that suggests to me that this issue is seperate to that one. If i were experiencing those kinda problems, I would have flashed A10. Seems that my "juice recognition system" is working ok - god knows why it does for some and not for others - thats another debate!

Will quite happily test out though on battery/powerplan set to max performance on battery - see what gives - i dont think it will "stop" the sleep/lid issue.

 

Alex and Stevie, I edited my post while you were replying so we are not 100% synchronized in our comments. Please refresh your browser and see if I added any comments you find interesting.

Very small fractions or fluctuations in power can wreak havoc on computers. They need a persistent power supply to work correctly. This applies to all computers.

Stevie, I think it could be very valuable to find out if the problem and behavior changes running on AC versus DC power. If it does not appear to change, then nothing is lost. If it does change, then knowing that could be invaluable.

To get a 100% clear understanding of the behavior on AC power, I would suggest removing the battery completely. The testing of behavior on DC power would obviously involve using only the battery and not having the AC adapter connected.

There's nothing to lose... just a suggestion.

 

I will test out but surely, when I run my system plugged in, I ALWAYS disable the battery via Fn&F2 (i dont want it even trying to accept a charge when its full) it shouldnt have anything to do with battery in or out , should it.

The only time that my system runs on battery atm is when I am "conditioning" the battery itself by running it down (whilst plugged in but a.c not turned on at the wall).

I do this regularly to prolong battery life. However, I will try removing it completely and running "pure a/c" and I will also test out for issues on battery alone with CCC powerplay settings set as max performance whilst on battery.

Hows that sound?

 

It will be interesting to see if anything changes, or if all the sleep/resume problems are exactly the same both ways.

 

Im testing as we speak. Before i uninstall AMD video drivers I plan to cycle through the suggested with regards to battery in/out/on ac on dc etc.

So far, I am on battery with powerplan set to max performance...plugged in but not on at the wall. Done a few sleep via lid & resume's and not lost brightness functionality....yet - Maybe you were onto something Foxy but lets wait and see.....good ieas btw. +rep for your continued support and assistance! - oops, dished out too much luurve already today!

EDIT: On the 3rd attempt to resume from sleep via closing the lid on the above settings - bam - brightness stuck again so that ones a no-go.

I will now (for my next trick, pull a rabbit out my preverbial lol) try plugged in without the battery inserted.

 

Ok. Rather than editing my previous post, I thought I would just post with the next set of findings.

I have tested out this time on "plugged in juice" only with no battery inserted.

Sadly, I have to report that the very first time I tried to resume from sleep after closing the lid, bingo - brightness gone again.

I live in hope that there will be a fix to this soon. Dont know how much more testing I can endure lol (im not that experienced with anything programming wise - all I can do is fiddle with different options/settings)

Well, for my next trick (probably tomorrow now as its late and I want a glass of wine) I will uninstall AMD video drivers and install Dell 8.763 and give them a whirl.

I do not hold out much hope for it being any different but I am more than willing to try it.

Catch you in the morning guys!

SLEEP WELL (sorry - bad pun!)