Stuttering with M17x

Hey all,

I made a thread about this issue about a year ago, and didn't really receive a definitive answer. My issue is still persisting, and it's getting very annoying.

Basically, every so often, my laptop will make a rough, short (not too loud, maybe one full second in length) whirring noise (it originates from the left side of the computer, it seems like), which sounds kind of like a series of clicks in quick succession to create the illusion of a "whirring" noise. About half of the times this whir occurs, my computer stalls. Video output will stop updating, and the sound that was just playing will loop. In addition, I can't provide any input during this time.

About 2-3 seconds after the whir, the computer makes a loud click (the sound comes from the same spot). At this point, everything catches up and continues as normal.

For whatever reason, this problem is most frequent in Source-engine games, particularly Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 1/2. But, this really occurs in pretty much every game I play, and it even happens in conditions outside of gaming (desktop, Youtube videos, songs will have audio stutters due to the same issue).

On paper, this doesn't sound too bad, but it's immensely frustrating when it happens. Knights of the Old Republic was also notorious with this issue, stuttering every 10-20 seconds.

I'm running 64-Bit Windows Vista, and I have the original M17x; not R1 or R2. I'm planning on updating to Windows 7 just to see if it fixes the problem, but before I do, can anyone shed some light on what the issue might be? Thanks a lot for your help!

Here's a link to the old thread (my initial title was wrong; this still does happen outside of SLI): http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/423450-m17x-stuttering-only-sli.html

 

Are you talking about this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6qg0BvmDb4&feature=related

If so, you can fix this with some driver updates

 

Bump

Any updates? I would love to know how this turns out... it is like watching a TV show with a two part ending, and you have to wait a week for the conclusion.

 

Thanks for posting that video!

I actually have a computer-based project due for college in a couple of days, but after that, I'll try what that guy says to do. Our problems don't appear to be identical, but they're similar enough that his method definitely warrants a try.

I'll post again when I've tried that.

 

So this is with the legacy m17 and not the M17xR1 in your signature?

 

The one in my signature is a legacy M17x. I don't own an R1 or an R2.

 

Actually, the one in your signature is an R1.

If it was made by Dell/Alienware and has a core 2 with either a 260M/280M or 4870 GPU(s), then its an R1. See this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/410440-m17x-stutter.html

The consensus here is the intermittent FPS fall-off is caused by the CPU. You might be able to prevent it using Throttlestop.

See the following two posts:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/410440-m17x-stutter-86.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/410440-m17x-stutter-101.html#post6439816

Please post followup q's in the above thread. Thanks.