The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    m17xr1 having a bad week??

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by xy44, Dec 28, 2010.

  1. xy44

    xy44 Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    ...ok so Hi to alllong time reader, new poster here. it feels good to finally be a part of this great community.

    Alienware, with NV chipset and its 280GTX card(just 1).. had it over a year now. and I am happy with it as far as "laptops" go.

    When I first got it, I ran all the games I had at the time, crysis, UT3, warcraft, etc etc..and the machine just handled everything great!.

    Away from the games, as I mostly then used this for work, still do, but games took a side step, untill now the xmas break where I actually have a few weeks of free time, so like you do I wanted to invest in some play time, with a old game called City of Heroes...only to find now the game runs like a dog! I mean I cant even run it on minimum settings very well. Shocking!.
    So this wasted 3 days of trying to find faults that perhaps dont exist.
    But here is what Ive fixed..

    BIOS upgrade to R5
    tried DELL's NV drivers, and the currently installed 260 (from NV)
    I downloaded GPU-Z as laptop was getting hot a bit.. and low and behold! it was.... GPU was reporting at 107degrees! YIKES!

    So.. Cleaned all the system out, and its back to a stable 60/65 now. (phew)
    But unfortuntaly that still didnt fix the issues.

    My game is running with StealthMode off, and the NV card active.
    Now im all out of ideas.
    I cant believe this laptop CANT run a 8 year old game on minimum settings!, I used to run it on here all on max just pefect. so somthing is not right! but im all out of ideas.

    So here is hoping you guys can offer me some advice
    Many thanks in advance, and sorry for such a long story.

    Andy
     
    xy44, Dec 28, 2010
    #1
  2. dave-p

    dave-p Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    730
    Messages:
    1,715
    Likes Received:
    10
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Maybe time to backup your files and try a fresh OS install with the latest drivers.

    how much space is left on your hard drive?
     
    dave-p, Dec 28, 2010
    #2
  3. debaucher

    debaucher Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    630
    Messages:
    717
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    First off you want to get rid of the 260 version (verde) drivers from nvidia.
    They do NOT work correctly on the M17x line (you will get lockups, hard reboots, bluescreens etc...)

    Next install these
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/535696-modified-nv-197-52-driver-m17xr1-only.html

    Next, go into your nvidia settings (control panel) and make sure all settings are set to "let application decide"

    See if that helps.

    If not, maybe try an uninstall/reinstall of your game.

    Let us know how it goes.

    D.
     
    debaucher, Dec 28, 2010
    #3
  4. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    14,963
    Messages:
    5,671
    Likes Received:
    1,521
    Trophy Points:
    331
    It does more than you think you know(except fries :D) it just needs a little maintenance(CPU/GPU repaste,thermal pads replacement if needed dust removal from heatsinks etc.)
    m17x it's a solid machine so you might wanna take a look at some threads around here before saying it can't do this and that.
    Cheers
     
    katalin_2003, Dec 28, 2010
    #4