question about replacement for M17x stutter

Ok, so here's my situation. I owned a studio 1737 for about a year and a half. I got an M17x R1 as a replacement under Complete Care after a Dell tech damaged my 1737 while repairing it. Even though the 1737 wasn't primarily for gaming, i did play plenty of WoW on it along with a few other games. After installing a 2nd HD in my M17x (one that i purchased from Dell btw) I started experiencing the dreaded stutter problem, even without any overclocking.

Since this was not my original machine, what will Dell do about the issue? What should i say to these guys to up my chances of getting a replacement? I already have the 240w PSU and 4870's, so i don't really see what they could even do to remedy the problem, it seems like my 2nd HD sent it over the edge.

Do i stand a chance of getting an R2 considering my situation? I will call dell, but I'm looking for some pointers first. I know how they can be as i've dealt with them before. I had to argue with them for a while before they would honor my Complete Care warranty this last time. I still have about 150 days left on the warranty, and they did transfer it to this machine.

If anyone has been in my situation, I sure could use some pointers to help this go smoothly. I feel bad trying to get this one replaced, but this stutter issue is driving me mad, it seems to happen in just about every game now.

 

ThrottleStop is the tool you need to log what your CPU is up to while gaming.

Modern games are trying to get more performance out of the CPU and GPU and are being limited by a lack of power in the M17x. The result is clock modulation throttling which slows the CPU down internally to about 10% of its rated performance. This will happen instantly when gaming and frame rates will instantly go in the crapper.

ThrottleStop
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/3/1794507/ThrottleStop.zip

When you first download and run ThrottleStop it will be in monitoring mode only. Check the Log File option and then go play a game until you notice a slow down and stuttering. Stop the game, stop ThrottleStop and go have a look at the log file. You will likely see at some point the clock modulation column change from 100.0% to 12.5%. That is what is killing performance.

It's now a proven defect in the R1 when the power supply can not deliver the goods. What your power supply is rated at on the label is a lot more than the bios allows it to put out before the throttling begins. Here's the other thread about this.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/410440-m17x-stutter-88.html

The truth is slowly getting out as new games are released. A gaming laptop that you can no longer play games on. Nice one Dell. Maybe just tell them that all you want is a laptop that works as advertised. One that performs better than a Pentium II when pushed hard.

 

This is going to become a nightmare for Dell as more users start installing new games. There have been people who had M1730s that got R1s as replacements and then upgraded to the R2 when the DPC problems came forward. I'm in the middle of starting the war with Dell to get an R2 replacement. I'll know tonight or tomorrow what their next course of action is with me. I really hope they don't try to throw 4870s at me first, as you and others have already proven that it won't solve this problem.

 

My wife is currently gaming on our R1, while I game on the R2. I know she has experienced some intermittent lockups, but I have not had a chance to test for stuttering yet. I think the most graphics intensive games she plays are Dragon Age: Origins, Age Of Conan or Dungeons & Dragons Online... so nothing major.

Is this stuttering issue only happening on the Core 2 Quads or is it happening on the Core 2 Duos too?

 

Someone just came forward with a C2D that stated he was seeing the problem. It would seem that anyone with an R1 with dual-GPUs can potentially have the problem, though it's more likely with the quad-cores.

 

Ahh.... that's the kicker for her then. She's not running an SLI configuration.

I guess I'll actually have to take the time to troubleshoot her intermittent lockups, instead of blaming it on hardware & letting Dell deal with it.

Thanks.

 

We still welcome you to check out ThrottleStop to make sure you're not seeing modulation. I've just never heard of the problem on a single card, no matter the processor.

 

For questions on contacting support or escalating a unresolved support case, see this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...placement-systems-warranty-repair-issues.html

For stutter discussion including questions, observations, suggestions, comments, etc., see this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/410440-m17x-stutter.html

Thanks.