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

same observation here. make sure u guys let Chris know about this so he can relay this to engineering team

 

Confirmed that this issue is not present on the A10 BIOS. I'll send Chris an email so that he can get the engineering team to look into it.

 

Just grabbed my TactX headset to test this out. Im still on the test Bios. Plugged into both jacks (the one nearest the front of the laptop and then the one next to it) and both work fine.

When I plug in the nearest to me, the headphones are active and the speakers are muted/no sound.

Same with the jack 2nd from the front. Headphones fine. System sounds off.

Maybe you have a dodgy jack port or something? - all I can say is that im fine ..... still on test bios so cant be related afaik.

 

I thought it may have been that too, but the problem only occurred on the test BIOS, and is gone when I go back to the A10 BIOS.

When I first had the problem, I booted up the IDT audio software because it shows you if it thinks something is plugged into a jack. It was definitely showing that I had something plugged into the first jack, but the sound was not routed to the headphones.

When I plugged the headphones into the second jack, everything was fine. The software showed that the headphones were plugged in, and audio was routed correctly.

I might re-flash the test BIOS tonight, and see if I had a funny flash the first time.

Update: That was quick - Chris has already emailed me back and said that he's passed my problem on to engineering. I'll update him (and you guys) if I find anything more.

 

Thanks for the update. Its good that you have had such a rapid reply from Chirs about this issue. I was going to ask others who are using the test bios to test this out. As you know, its not something I have a problem with and as I am on the test bios, I presume if it was related, we would ALL have the same problem.

As yours appears to be an isolated incident, at this point, I could only summise that its some kind of hardware fault on your system with regards to the jack inputs.

The only other thing that I can think of is uninstalling the ITE drivers and reinstalling them. Maybe you had a bad installation - shot in the dark as I dont know how else to explain it other than that.

 

I have sent an email to Chris detailing the issues I have noted whilst using the test bios.

These consist of facial recognition software not functioning properly on resume from S3 sleep - sometimes the system wakes to a blank screen with the facial recognition software window active. Also, I have experienced incidents where the laptop resumes normally from S3, the facial recognition software window opens but fails to "kick in" and recognise. i have had to uncheck and recheck the enable facial recogniton box upon login screen to get it to work.

Also, I detailed the fact that when the system is fully charged, the Alienhead on/off button continues to show a charging status by glowing. This cannot be possible as the battery is 100% charged. Unless, like Alex said, the system has lost a/c power temporarily and has used some battery and thus it begins to charge again.

I have not encountered the problems with regards to the headphone issue that was raised a few posts back - mine seems to work perfectly. Maybe other test bios users could test this out so we can eliminate it as a "side effect" and maybe help diagnose the issue for NZGeek.

I have not had ANY response from Chris from ANY emails I have sent since I agreed to test this bios.

I can say I am deeply disappointed (being the original poster of this thread) that Chris has failed to get back to me whatsoever.

It has been some time now, I do not wish to run my system on a "test bios" forever and we have had NO update from Chris since his post asking us to agree to test this out.

I, for one, am quite happy to test things but when we get NO RESPONSE, that makes me very unhappy indeed.

An offical update from Dell is what is required.

 

Lucky you....shame I cant get a reply.....

 

Anyone get a random freezing problem?

I just experienced it for the second time. It always happened when I clicked on the IE icon. The whole system would lock up and I have to do a hard shutdown.

Do you think this is related to the test bios or may I have a problem with my motherboard?

I dont know.....LOL. I had it once with A10 a while ago. But I had it 2x with this BIOS.

 

I can only say that I havent had to hard shurdown my system since running the test bios. In fact, dont think I had to do it on A09 either....

Im running IE9 atm, no issues with that browser. Didnt have any issues with IE8 either mind....

 

Yea I have IE 9 as well.

Man....I dont want my motherboard replaced. lol.

 

Neither would I going by the botched tech visits to do that kinda job. Seen too many threads when things have gone wrong. Also, its very odd that everytime Dell seem to send a techhie out to do a job, one of the first things to get changed no matter what the issue is, THE MOBO! - seems like they just love to swap 'em at any given opportunity.

One guy recently had a HDD failure - a tech was sent to replace the HDD.....along with the mobo......WHY! lol.

On a side note, had an email from Chris (thanks Chris) and he has forwarded details of the listed issues to engineering. Lets see when we get an update.

 

Well, that is good at least.

Yea I read that thread too...lol. But I have seen that sometimes if the SATA controller on the motherboard goes bad, it will cause HDD's to fail after a while. That may have been the reason, but still, I see the point.

My tech guy here usually just drops off the parts at my place and lets me do it, which is not bad. Then I can work at my own pace and take my time so I don't screw anything up. Most of the techs just want to get the job done fast and go to the next one.

I also forwarded my findings to Chris, so hopefully engineering can fix this stuff in the new release.

 

Lets hope so! + rep for continual testing....nice one mate. Its good that your tech will let you do it yourself, like you say - you can take your time and avoid any "collateral damage" that may occur with some over zealous tech visits!

 

Oh yea....definitely.

I had an M15x laptop replaced because of what the tech did one time. So I just asked him from that point on to let me do any repairs if he doesn't mind.

He was actually happy I asked. LOL.

 

Another update.

Recently, I have noticed that my wireless connection just completly drops on resume. It shows on the task bar as red X through the internet access icon. My router is fine. Connections are available. Cant connect. FUBAR. Have to restart to get it going again. Not good.

Havent changed any drivers etc.

Similar to Foxy's findings.....what dya reckon?

Email sent to Chris.

 

Yes, that sounds exactly like what I went through. Something had to change to make this start happening, but we may never figure that out. Maybe a Windows Update of some sort?

I am currently using the Intel driver version 13.4.0.9 dated 10-18-2010 and no longer having that problem. On the Power Management tab in Device Manager properties for the 6300 AGN, I have a check in the box to "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" as well. When I had all sleep functions disabled originally, that box was unchecked.

 

Foxy, thanks. I may well try those newer drivers. I also turned the system on this morning and found two things.

1. Wifi adaptor not found.
2. Alienhead on/off "glowing" indicating charging - on a battery thats 100% and on a/c

 

It sounds like something strange is taking place with your system that does not relate to this test BIOS. Were these issues after a cold boot or waking up from S3? It's nice to have sleep working correctly, and I am using it daily. But, I find a full system shutdown and cold boot once every day or two is still the best way to maintain optimal results.

 

I am using the Intel Driver as well for the 6300N and I never had that issue.

I however, did try the older version from Dell to see if I had the issue, and I did. So I changed back to the latest Intel Driver.

 

OK, so that makes two of us having that issue with the Dell 6300N driver. (Three if we count Steviejones.) You and I found a cure with the Intel driver, so that is probably going to fix the problem for Steviejones, too.

Community is such as nice thing.

 

Thanks guys - I will give it a go!....repped Meth but Foxy, I will have to "do you later" ...tsk.....

Have either of you guys experience the anomoly of the on/off button continuing to glow whilst battery shows 100%???? - seems apart from the Intel issue above and this battery thing, I only have one other issue. That is, sometimes after resume, the facial recognition software will just not work and I have to enter the p/w to log back on. Occasionally, it resumes to a blank screen with the facial recognition software instead of the windows longon background too......

 

I have not seen the power button lighting issue you described...yet. LOL.

The only thing I noticed on the indicator cover is that my wireless button doesn't seem to light up "bright" showing its active. The wireless is still on, but the button shows "dim" as off. If I touch it, it will turn off the wifi, and the button will glow bright and then back to dim. If I press it again, it will light up bright like normal.

But after I shutdown the machine, it happens again. Also, I noticed that going into command center makes the touch lights go back to normal....

Weird. I had it on A10 as well. Had my indicator cover replaced today with a new one with the same issue. Can anyone else confirm this?

 

TBH, I havent really paid much atention to how bright the touch capacative buttons are....i do recall seing somewhere that some people find that the stealth icon glows brighter depending on status. I have my board all red atm, looking closely, cant make out any discernable difference in brightness between the icons....im not even sure if they are SUPPOSED to change brightness......i thought they were a "static" lumination no matter what!

 

I've seen this issue before. I saw it last night, and that's running A10, not the test BIOS. The computer had been hooked up to AC for over a day, had not been unplugged, and the power button was showing that I was charging.

 

That makes you and I and also Alexnvidia who have seen this...may not be bios related but its an issue in its own right....

 

Has been happening to me as well since A09 bios.
(so, A09, A10 and this beta).

I have mentioned it to dell before (during the last system exchange) and they shrugged it off.

Also, an update on this beta bios.
I have noticed a few things wrong with it.... mainly related to internet connections.
Every week or 2 my system will suddenly not see ANY network devices after resume (LAN/Wireless/Bluetooth)
This is easily fixed by rebooting but still an annoyance.

D.

 

Which wireless card do you have in your notebook? If its the Intel 6300, try uninstalling the Dell driver and use the one from Intel.

On page 27 of this thread, there was an issue with the adapter when using sleep mode. So it might be related.

 

Hey steviejones, it's the thought that counts.

I have not experienced the anomaly with the alienhead cycling between colors or cycling from dark to bright glow after the battery is fully charged. I do remember reading on some thread about one or two other people who experienced that, but it was a while back and I do not remember the thread. Once my battery hits 100% it's just a steady glow. Sometimes when I first start up it takes a couple of minutes for the system to recognize the battery is fully charged and it see that behavior very briefly, but it goes to steady glow after a few minutes.

I don't like the facial recognition software, so I have it completely disabled. I had a system about three years ago with a fingerprint reader and I did not care for that either. I used it for a few months and disabled it. I guess I have a hang-up about biometrics or something. Seems to slow me down, too. I can log in faster with keystrokes.

 

Have just emailed Chris to see if he has any update on the "rolling out" of this fix on an official Dell bios revision....getting kind of fed up running on a test bios now........

 

im with u on this one Steve. as a matter of fact, i've reverted back to A10 yesterday because of AC adapter not plugged in / not supported and battery not charging issues since i've started using X31 test bios. i'm getting that problem few times on a daily basis for the past 2 weeks. getting really sick and tired of it. why is it so hard for dell to intergrate both fixes in one bios and get it released? we've done 90% of their work for them (testing, feedback), i really dont know what else are they doing apart from getting paid and charging us huge amount of money for something that didnt work properly.

 

I agree. This is very true. All we want is a properly working machine. Apparently, that is too much to ask these days.

And you are right, we, the consumers, are the ones who are testing their systems for them and giving them the bug notes. It should not be hard to edit the BIOS values accordingly to fix the problems we address.

But I guess that is just Dell...I guess waiting for the M18x is looking more promising every day than a proper BIOS release. LOL.

 

Add another M17x R2 user to the list of user with non-existent brightness controls after closing the lid and opening to resume from sleep mode.

It doesn't happend everytime but when it does the only way I know how to fix the problem is to reset....very annoying.

I am using the A10 BIOS & AMD 11.3.

 

Let us know if you want to try out Dell's test bios .... if you want a link to download it, drop me an PM....or any of the other guys (methodical, mr fox, alexnvidia etc etc) and we can get you sorted with it.

 

The biggest "problem" I have noticed with the test bios is internet connection issues (both with the ethernet and wireless) when resuming from sleep.

I have updated all my network drivers to the latest from intel's site and still have problems.

Basically, after going to sleep etc.. I will totally loose all internet connections (both wired and wireless).
I have to then restart to fix it.
Sometimes I have also noticed that the ethernet will say "connected" but all data goes through my wireless instead (noticed this while using skype last night).

once again, a reboot fixes this but strange.

This never happened with the official bios... only this test one.

So, for now my options are either to deal with the network issues (fixed by reboot) with the test bios or the brightness issues with the official.

D.

 

Thank You. At this point it is totally random. Sometimes I can go days without seeing this issue. After reading the comment below I'll sit on the side lines for now. An always on connection is at the top of my list for what needs to function. I applaud you and fellow members for working on this issue. When it happends my screen controls dissapear and my screen goes extremely dim until I restart or it just stays at the current brightness.

I'd like to try these test bios but can't risk to have the problem your having.

 

No worries .... if you do want to test at some point, just PM me and I will send you a direct link to download it ....

The Brightness issue IS totally random by nature....it took me A LONG TIME to try and work out what was happening....hence the thread.

I just wish that Dell would release an official bios with the fix for sleep/brightness within.....and maybe let us know about the other issues such as networking....

I am of the same mind as Alex here.......this is getting totally ridiculous.

At the end of the day, we (the few that have agreed to test) are guinea pigs for Dell doing THEIR work FOR them....the very least they should do in return is to keep us up to date.

I can count on one hand the number of posts by ANY DELL rep on this thread....the last one being "asking for volunteers to test out"......there has been NOTHING since...even after at least 5 users have adopted the test bios, which was what was asked for by Chris Mixon from Dell. We have fulfilled our part of the deal - what are Dell doing about this?.....

I have emailed Chris Mixon at Dell for an update on this yesterday but have yet to receive a response. I have subsequently emailed again just now.... I do not mind working with Dell to remedy issues but when we do not get return feedback after all our work, it really really gets me mega-angry. At the end of the day, its US that are helping DELL ... they have an engineering team for this....

At the end of the day, MY $4000 laptop is being used as an experiment by Dell to help them fix their own failings.....I think we have all been pretty damn patient with regards to doing this....cant see many other people agreeing to let their huge investment be "toyed around with"....I mean, its not like Dell dont have a few M17's in the store room to play with....

LETS SEE SOME ENGINEERING INSTEAD OF COFFEE DRINKING AND DONUT EATING......FFS!


TOTALLY UNNACCEPTABLE!

 

I noticed this problem a few days ago and tried to search google for a fix. Nothing.
Then yesterday I saw this thread. Since I'm still relatively new to this issue, I allowed myself to have a little more descretion. But after reading all of the posts I too think a fix is past due.

I remember the days before owning the G51GX, G71GX, & G73JH when I owned a Toshiba A505 series with absolutely NO problems. I know that the R2 is a Awesome Powerhouse in both build quality and specs, but it would be nice to see these manufactures fix these problems before these units are released or soon after.

 

That is very strange. As you probably noticed from one of my previous post, I had exactly the same issue. After I updated the wireless driver it fixed this problem for me. I am using Intel's 6300AGN driver 13.4.0.9 dated 10-18-2010. If that's not the driver you are using, you might want to try the version I am using.

 

Everytime my r3 comes back from sleep, my screen brightness setting will always be on maximum and when I try to dim it down (Fn+F5) nothing happens. The indicator will take some bars off but its still on maximum. Any users who are experiencing this?

 

Arghhh.....seems that now R3's may be "plagued" with the exact same thing that the R2 is for many owners.

I created a thread on the very subject here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-issues-when-using-reference-amd-drivers.html and it has been going on for some time.

We (as R2 owners) have had a Dell test bios released which cures the problem but obvioulsy will not be relevant to the R3.

I suggest jumpin on the above thread - you could even email Chris (Dell Liason whose details are within that thread) and tell him that you are suffering this issue on your R3.

Have a read anyway, even though the bios will not be suitable for your system - at least you know you arent alone with this thing....

 

Seems like this issue has reared its "ugly head" amongst the R3 now....

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ue-when-returning-back-sleep.html#post7382058

 

Hmmm. I wonder what the common denominator is?

Seems like Dell is no longer paying attention to this thread. Did Chris Mixon ever get back to you, steviejones?

 

He did. With a one sentence reply that had absolutley no update whatsoever. I told him that I was fed up with running the test bios and that we (as owners) had fulfilled our part of the deal (which was to get 5 testers to try it out).

We have had more than 5 testers now, apart from some minor issues that have "supposedly" been passed to engineering for them to investigate (that was one of the emails I had from Chris after emailing him with some additional info on various small problems) and we are STILL waiting for an OFFICIAL update on this.

I know that Alex has since gone back to A10 Official, im thinking of going back to A09 as A10 didnt hold any fix for me that wasnt relevant....

I just wish that someone at Dell would update on this thread....I am getting sick of chasing this problem...it has been going on far too long and a fix is EXTREMELY overdue....an OFFICIAL fix and not just leaving us hung out to dry running a test bios.

Anyway, happy easter to all...hope you all have a good one!

 

Wow. I didnt know that this issue happened before with the r2. Hoping dell would find a fix for this.

 

Alex and Steve... I'm just curious... why would you go back to A09 or A10 if the test BIOS cured the sleep problems? Did the test BIOS break something? I had much better results with the test BIOS than with an "official" release, and it seemed that both of you had also. So, I'm not really understanding the reasoning--barring something being broken--for not sticking with the test BIOS until an update is released by Dell.

The test BIOS left me very satisfied with the results, so I don't really care if it is "official"... but, that's just my opinion. I do want an update to be released by Dell so that all R2 owners can benefit, rather than just the few that happened to discover this thread.

 

I frequently want to close the lid but leave the system running, so normally just hit the power button to enter sleep state. Because of this, I've decided to keep running A10 rather than the beta BIOS.

And it turns out that my sound issue is something glitchy with my system, as it occurs on A10 as well. Not initially, but it came back fairly quickly. I'll just have to live with using the second headphone jack for now. If it gets worse, at least I've got about 18 months of warranty up my sleeve!

 

Regarding your sound issue, have you tried changing any of the setting in the IDT Audio Control Panel to see if that helps? Not sure it will solve your problems, but it might be worth exploring. You can find that applet in the Windows Control Panel.

 

Foxy - I will probably stay on test until an official bios is released - I hate waiting around though and hate MORE, not being kept in the loop with updates.....

 

I had a look at this app when I first saw the problem. From the icons on the right of the app, I can see that the app/laptop detects that something is plugged into the socket. It's just that sound isn't redirected.

I'll try changing some settings around that socket, in case something sticks and fixes the problem.

 

Why isn't this sticky'ed? This thread is important and not resolved.