New M17x R3 slow?

Hi there, just received my M17x last night and wow its a nice machine!! So far I'm pleased with it except with its general performance as a laptop. Win 7 takes a while to boot and some applications take a really long time to start up...

Alienware Command center takes a 10-20 sec to start, I'm strating to wonder if the HD isnt faulty, I installed SeaTools and it says theres an error but then it just crashes so I dont consider it reliable enough. Probably a win 7 x64 compatibiliy issue.

Basically, Win 7 and opening apps isnt any faster than my old Acer 7530g that uses an old standard 5,400 rpm hdd.

Just wondering if you guys have similar performance or if you think theres something wrong with my M17x??? All games run really well though!!

Specs: 2670qm
320gb 7200rpm
6990m

Thanks for your help!!!

 

Buy a SSD. Day and night difference.

 

Congrats and welcome.

With the 320gb HD it takes 20+ seconds to boot to the desktop. Half the time or better with an SSD. There is a thread here some weeks ago regarding boot times if you search fyi.

You could mess around with selective booting programs and not loading the gui but just get an SSD, crucial M4 is the current wisdom purchase...

Put your full spec's in your sig.

 

+1 on the m4, though i didnt have a prblem booting into windows when i got my laptop with a 7200rpm 750gig drive, it took 13 seconds but with an ssd, the difference really is night and day, boots in 5 seconds with my m4. its full too.

 

Thanks for your replies guys!

I'm defo NOT getting these kinds of speeds.. My M17x is much slower than that... well that sort of sucks really...

Do you think a clean Win 7 could solve this?

I mean like I said my old Acer 7530g boots up faster and loads apps faster too... I dont have much starting up either

Also, for some reason Alienware Autopsy installed itself while i was playing!!?? So anyway I did a check disk with it and everything looks fine except the S.M.A.R.T check didnt work but I think its disabled in the BIOS.

I dont know if I should re-install win7 or just get an M4 SSD and start from there... its just the $$$ at the moment is tight...

 

To be honest the stock HDD isn't great. I have a 7200 rpm single hard drive and it's dissapointing. Every other aspect of laptop is great. Boot time is quite slow (no better than vista). Takes only 25 secs to reach login screen from powering on but then another 20-25 seconds after logging in to reach the desktop and become usable (most of that time spent on the 'welcome' screen with spinning blue circle). I have researched until I am blue in the face & it can't be improved upon. My boot (using the SDK kit) has been analysed by one of the best in the business (Cluberti over on the sevenforums). Basically Alienware's bloat doesn't help ie. command center and respawn which are sluggish bits of software. Also if you have McAfee (which unfortunately I do because I paid a 36 mth subscription when I ordered the laptop) this can add 10 - 20 secs to boot time - it's rubbish. So basically a combination of a poor stock HDD, McAfee and Alienware bloat makes for a sluggish starter. As most others will say on here go for an SSD. I would if I could afford it, I wish I was more clued up when I ordered my laptop. Plus even if I bought one now I don't think I can stomach re-installing and starting from scratch again (so much software painstakingly installed, so many patches to old, old games which took alot of work doing etc). Oh well, what's done is done!

Cheers,
Wayne

 

Hi Wayne, does your Command Center take loong to start up? Mine takes like 10secs before I can start using it...

And even if the stock HDD isnt great its still a 7200rpm which should be a lot faster than my old Acer one..

I dont know...I'll see how if it feels in the next few days and I might just get a little M4 SSD 64gb just to stick Win7 on it!

 

Not a fair comparison to another computer (acer) because of different loading software.

 

Command Center is quite slow to start. Prob about the same as yours. Whilst not fair to compare systems because of different s/ware there is no doubting the fact the dire stock HDD does nothing to help things. Even under clean boot it's not the quickest booter in the world. I'd be interested to know which security software you have running as McCrapee is quite a resource hog (especially at start up). Techincally a 7200 should be faster than 5400 but, correct me if I am wrong, that only comes into it's own with sustained file transfer rates. The access time is maybe what creates the slow immediate start up of apps, booting etc

It's a shame, there is so much good on the laptop other than the HDD.

 

I have an SSD and Command center is slow for me to start aswell (by an SSD's standards). Its just the program

 

I'm using Microsoft Security essentials which is quite light on ressources, installed it on loads of computers and runs nicely without slowing down anything...

I think a little 64gb SSD is going to be bought soon...leave the HDD to install the games

 

Hi Guys

I hope this thread isn't dead and someone replies. I too have the same problem. My M17X-R3 got delayed in shipping and I finally got it yesterday and I couldn't help but notice that it is running really slow. It's actually just fast enough as my 4 year old sony vaio cr35m. I got this config:

core i7 2760qm 2.4GHz (3.5 with Turbo Boost)
16 GB 1600 RAM
750 GB 7200 rpm.

My sony has a 320 GB 5400 rpm and is just as fast as the m17x as of now.

I timed the bootup time of the m17x and it takes 0:56 - 1:00 to get to the desktop. This includes the 1-2 seconds it takes me to enter the password (yes, it's a small password). Not much difference without password.

One big delay that occurs is that after I enter the password to log on to the system, it kinda stays stuck at "Welcome" with that rotating cursor for 8-10 seconds.

So is there a problem with my expectations or with the laptop?

Thanks for reading this long post and I look forward to your suggestions.

Mak.

 

Platter drives are old tech, they are really not that fast. Buy an SSD for the OS and use the 750GB for data, most do it that way here.

 

So there's nothing wrong with the laptop? It's just the hard drive that's dragging its speed down?

'cause I've noticed that other programs run slow too and sometimes, just sometimes, it hangs for a couple of seconds. btw, McAfee takes up nearly 2GB of RAM!!! Gotta get rid of it and get Kaspersky. Any free alternatives that are just as secure and fast?

 

You could do a clean install to get all the junk off. MSE is free and light. Take a look at the startup, most can be disabled. Use CCleaner from time to time to cleanup and fix reg. errors.

 

It's already been said but an SSD is really the solution here. Get one, clean install, don't use mcafee (Microsoft Security Essentials like Brabo suggested)
If it helps any I was in absolute disbelief when I used an SSD for the first time. You can't go back once you've enjoyed one and this laptop really deserves one.

 

Until your SSD runs out of life in 3-4 years

 

I've been using 2 Intel Postville 80GB and a Vertex 2 for years now without any issues,even with a lot of formats. You can never guess how long it's going to last.

But I agree with the ssd part. My R3 came with a dead slow 250GB,even after a reformat. I put in a Samsung 830 and for now use the other one for games until I get a 750GB or 1TB

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