*Official Alienware M18x AMD CrossFire Discussion Thread (re: Dell/AW Conference Call)*

They could stop spininng and not report to system they've stopped. 3900 is max that doesn't cause that problem, So im told.

 

So interesting issue. I am using RadeonPro to monitor the use of Crossfire and when running Heaven benchmark the lower bar moves and the upper bar doesnt showing that even with crossfire enabled, it is not working. Then I ran Metro 2033 benchmark and the upper bar is moving and the lower bar isn't... I don't understand. Dell is coming on Friday to replace the cards but I don't know what the problem is.

Nevermind... I found the issue. I just had to reboot for some reason and crossfire is working.

 

Except now it is causing the FPS to drop significantly... Something is seriously wrong. oh well

 

Greetings
I discussed the issue with tech support again. They have offered to swap AMD graphics cards with NVIDIA. I will have to pay the difference and they consider video cards to be a user replaceable item. I looked at the service manual, and it appears that one has to disassemble a great deal of the machine to replace the cards. I think I'm getting hosed. Or is the graphic card easier to replace than it appears? I'm still within my 21 day return window, but this is the second machine. I don't wany to abuse Dell by requsting a third machine. Perhaps they are making the potential swap less than appealing so that I will wait for the AMD fix.

Any advice on this would be very much appreciated. I realize this may be off-topic. If so, please let me know where you have moved the post. Thanks again for the help.

 

I'd return and re-order if you can with 580M SLI.

 

Return and replace. Let Dell sort out the mess on their side.

 

Send it back and reorder

Totally unprofessional on dell's end.

So what happens if you break something in the process?

Send it back.

 

Thanks for the replies skygunner27, lqm and achilles. Waiting on the AMD fix is also an option. I will pass on the DYI, pay difference, swap option.

By the way, level 1 support now can officially acknowledge the existence of this heat issue and that it is in the hands of engineering. I had mentioned it earlier, but then support said it was a downgraded card. This is FYI

 

No problem...To be honest, I think Dell is doing the right thing by requesting that the owner, if they so choose to swap gpu's from AMD to Nvidia perform the task.
With the exception of the extra SLI cable this is what the 580M SLI kit is composed of. Disassembling the M18x is no easy task. Also add having to properly seat the heatsinks w/pads to the GPU's, reassembling the M18x, flashing A03 or A04 BIOS and installing the right drivers. I would not recommend putting this task in the hands of a 3rd party tech.

 

Are the 6990M and 580M heatsinks + backplates the same or different? If they're different I'm gonna have to request those.

 

There is a VERY slight difference where the surface of the 580M's don't sit as flush with the AMD heatsinks. I would request the NV100 heatsinks. I never checked to see if the base plates were different. They should send you the backplates along with the heatsinks. After the conversation with Louis, I'd rather have the thermal solid paste pre-applied than to use your old AMD heatsinks and have to clean & repaste.

JW8P7
Assembly,Heatsink,Video Graphics Adapter,GTX2,M18X,Left

Y3WC7
Assembly,Heatsink,Video Graphics Adapter,GTX2,M18X,Right

On a side note: Saints Row The Third is sick!!! It runs perfect with SLI enabled @max settings.

 

Thanks dude, would rep you but gotta spread it around first.

 

As of today, we are still awaiting updates from engineering. We are no longer offering the GPU swap due to parts backlog. Please keep checking our Alienware thread for updates: M18x Thermal Shutdown with AMD Radeon HD 6990m AMD GPUs in CrossFire configuration - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community

I been waiting reply from dell rep for 2weeks , now they tell me this..as , my warranty still running, faulty machine everyday.
Paid that much , I guess this is my last machine with dell.

This junk can't even play bf3 more then 20min.

 

I have teleconference notes out to Bill and Louis for review. I want to confirm everything I captured from the call is technically accurate prior to posting. If I get a response back today, I will post the notes this evening.

I agree with skygunner about swapping out the cards yourself instead of having an independent contractor do the work. I have dismantled the M18x at least a dozen times and nothing has ever been broken or damaged using caution. The first 2 or 3 times I referred to the service guide for sequence. I now have the process memorized and can do a teardown to the mobo in just a few minutes. Nobody will be as gentle with the machine as the owner. Unless you're accident prone and frequently break things, do it yourself. The trickiest task is getting the keyboard surround panel off the first time. It's not difficult, but you have to hold your mouth just right and tilt your head slightly to left, LOL. Once you've done that, the rest is easy.

I ran some GTX 580M SLi benchmarks and will post to the *OFFICIAL M18x Benchmark* Thread in a few minutes.

 

No problem. If it wasn't for your posts in the Asus threads I probably would have given up on DTR gaming.

I really hope they find the problem soon. I haven't seen you on Origin or Steam since you got your M18x.
PM Bill. He has some helpful contact info that he posted here in the threads that might help you. Hang in there

Don't forget to mention the pre-applied thermal compound. Louis said it was really high quality stuff. I'm sure a lot of new buyers would appreciate knowing that before performing a repaste.

I'm about to check out your benches. Keep in mind that on stock Dell vBIOS the 580M SLI throttles, affecting benchmark score.

 

I took a few notes as well, and that was one of the notes. I submitted my notes to Mr. Fox and that was definately one of them. I still perfer a repaste over the lognevity, and probably cure time, involved with dells TIM set. That said, I've only repasted my 17x R2. Never repasted my M11x, as I never needed to, and my wifes Inspiron isn't worth repaste, nor does it have heat issues. My family owns a ton of Dells, and none have been repasted. Quality stuff from Dell? Defiantely, but on my R2, I just perfer the immidaite dop in temps, as I don't mind repasting every so often. I also game on my R2 more than anything else, so it's a little comforting to me to have that temp drop from the start.

 

I have two M18x machines with 6990s and I have been sitting on the fence waiting for updates on fixes. I see several posters to this tread that have contacted Dell and received replacement/swap/580m to address the issues. While I have not pushed the issue, my machine has on a couple occasions experienced shutdown while game playing. The question I have is should I push the issue with Dell to replace parts or wait longer for the outcome? Mr. Fox - I was not on the call and the notes may help me understand the status or issues being investigated. If a fix is pending, I may just wait.....but if the investigation is on-going, not sure if I should wait?

 

Niiccceeee.
I look foward to the conference notes.

 

That point was in all three of our notes, LOL! DR650SE took as many notes as I did and they were VERY helpful. (Thanks for sending them to me, bro.) Between the three of us, we've got it covered. Thanks for your help.

 

Thanks Mr. Fox, and thanks for all the effort your putting in on your spare time. +1 I was going to take notes for those that were not on the call, but glad to see that I wasn't the only one with the idea, and even better that your able to get them reviewed.

Man oh man. I couldn't type or spell a word in that last post to save my life. They need to crank the heat up around here, hands are frozen But I'm definately looking forward to reading the notes too, just to recap. Nice that we can get them scrubbed by the pros for accuracy before pushing it out to the public and providing misleading or false information.

If Louis is ever in my area, I think it'd be a great time to buy him a beer and pick his brain. Bill, pass the word

 

So are you saying that if you immediately reboot after a cold boot, then play BF3 for 20 minutes, your system will shut down?

 

Not sure about him, but overheating issue is totally random on my case

Whenever I reboot my system I don't know what I'm going to get until I actually run games .

It usually works as it should after a reboot from overheating state, so I try my best not to reboot, but bsod usually forces the system to reboot and repeat the cycle.

Very frustrating.

 

That's both interesting and unfortunate at the same time. I was operating under the assumption that just rebooting after a cold boot got the fans to spin up as designed. I guess the only 100% reliable work around is hwinfo, which I have to say is not officially supported by Dell. But if it works in the interim of waiting for a fix....

Thanks for the info.

 

Yes , my system will shutdown & reboot , but most of the time are frozen and must force restart , i've tested with low/mid/high/ultra setting still same happen. Bascually I only able to play bf3 below 20min before it goes wrong.

 

You can also use speedfan and enable monitoring for Dell notebooks in the configuration section. Then restart the program and you will be able to control the fans. With HWinfo there's some stuttering present, with Speedfan - no issues.

 

Aiki, got a reliable download for speedfan ? I will give it a shot on some benches tonight

 

Here you go, grab the latest version.

 

Glad to see the conference call went well. Wish I could have been on it however I was out blasting across the Baja desert in the race car. Race starts tomorrow at 11:30 so I will not be able to check back in until Sunday or Monday.

Looking forward to the update from Mr.Fox and my new system being on my table when I get home.

 

Okay so I've been avoiding this issue for the last week or so to keep my frustration level down, I was on the verge of curb stomping my machine last week.


I contacted @Dellcares and inquired about getting 580s to replace my 6990s since there's no way that I can use my $3500 computer as it's expected to work right now. Basically was told to deal with it. Reboot. I could see if maybe I paid $500 for this system, but at this price point I find that pretty pathetic. I support computers in tech support, and I know that if it was me on the other end, I'd do whatever I had to do to put a working system into my valuable customer's hands. Either way, now my system is 29 days old, I've got video cards that have baked at 110c several times before diagnosing the issue, there's no fix available, Dell won't replace my cards with ones that work...

All I want to be able to do is turn on my computer to show someone a game and not have it light on fire and crash after 5 minutes because I forgot to jump through hoops. Was $3500 not enough?

Sigh, sorry for the rant. I just don't know what to do. This was a replacement system so it's not like I can just return it and re-order.

 

Don' take no for an answer, and try different reps.

 

You can get them to authorize a return for the amount of your original configuration, but then you have to wait a while to see the process through.

I soooo agree with this statement.

 

What do you get when they return it? A check? Dell credit?

 

Are you the original owner who actually made the purchase? That's all Dell would care I think.

I didn't have that choice since I purchased my original system from my office IT contractor.

If calls don't work, just try the dell unresolved issues email. It takes a while, but they haven't failed me in the past.

 

I'm not the original purchaser, I used some credit that a co-worker had. He got cash, I got $100 more of a computer than I'd have gotten with cash

 

Refund is out of option then.

There are alot of people suffering from this issue. Some wait, and some try to contact and see what the resolutions are.

Try the unresolved issues, and wait. See what happens.

 

They will fix it. They have to confirm the exact cause and the right course of action to correct the problem.

I heard back from Bill and it will be tomorrow at the soonest before he and Louis can review the teleconference notes. I'll post as soon as they do.

 

Well I got my new M18x today and so far, without gaming at all, I got two shutdowns (gpu werent even hot)...really hoping this will get fix per Bill's post earlier.

 

I've seen cases where they will offer to refund the original purchaser the full amount they paid. But at this point maybe it is a little too early to suggest this. Try and give Dell the time to make things right.

 

Thanks to skygunner27 and fox for the information. I have built desktops, but I haven't ventured inside a notebook. It seems that the M18x is more exploration friendly than many other brands, but it is still rather intricate. Fox, when you tore your machine down to the main board the first time, was it your first notebook teardown? The prospect of getting the NVIDIA's is intruiging, but I don't want to create more issues than I solve. Please understand that if, when you reply, I am not a computer tech. I agree that I would treat the machine like a baby, but this ain't changing diapers Thanks for everyone's consideration.

 

Have you read through the service manual? http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/M18x/en/SM/index.htm Almost everything you need to know is in there. If you ever decide to tear the unit down make sure to have Dell send you a center control cover. They call it the keyboard assembly. It has little clips that break easily while removing this peice.


J6NT3
Assembly,Frame,Keyboard,M18X

 

Thanks skygunner27. I will bear that in mind. In the meantime, I think I'll sit. I want to be satisfied at the end of this. At the same time, I want to be fair to Dell. Being up in Northern Alberta makes it rather difficult to find a tech who understands Alienware. I'd even be prepared to ship it to an authorized Dell partner if I new of one in the area. Doubt that's gonna happen.

 

I, too, have an M18x with dual 6990Ms, but I've never had any thermal problems whatsoever. I've been playing Skyrim, BF3, MW3, DX:HR, basically all the biggest games that have come out this year. I've even been keeping up with the drivers, though 11.11 turned everything a lovely shade of blue when I installed them...

Under what circumstances is everyone here having problems?

 

For those affected, the circumstances are: only when the M18x is turned on. That sounds factious or sarcastic, and worded like that it sort of is, but I am actually serious.

For most of the affected, rebooting resolves the issue and allows them to use their system normally. Louis has to confirm his suspicions from system captures, but two potential causes for this are suspected. Once confirmed, a fix will be released.

 

Wow... that's... wow. Well, it's good to see that there are reasonable people here willing to work with Dell to get problems solved instead of frothing at the mouth screaming about refunds and class action lawsuits! In the meantime I'm just going to be happy that the only problems I seem to have is related to Crossfire and new games.

But... are all M18x's created equal? I mean, if you order an M18x from the US, is it built in the same place using the same electronics that one built for a customer in Germany is? I live in Germany and ordered through Alienware.de, so I'm wondering if that has something to do with it...

 

locust76 - thanks for your level-headed comments and rational view. I agree with you 100%. +1 rep

Yes, all are created equal. This was mentioned in the call by Louis. All are made in China at the same location regardless of their destination. Of those they had in stock and available for testing, 1 in 45 (2.2%) demonstrated this malfunction. They were able to quickly verify the problem existed by virtue of the fact that one of the systems in their inventory was affected. They captured additional systems for analysis because they only found one and needed more systems at their disposal to develop a cure.

Dell-Bill_B, please correct me if I am stating any of this incorrectly. I want to be sure this is accurate.

Once Bill and Louis have time to review the teleconference notes, they will be posted on this thread for the benefit of everyone that could not attend.

 

Just wanted to say Hi, and also show my appreciation for everyone's efforts here in trying to get this problem resolved.

I recieved my system a couple of weeks ago now, and though't I'd be safe from this issue (was under the impression this would only be effecting earlier revisions), but alas thats not the case.

From cold boot, the fans just wont kick in, system overheats and switches off, if I re-boot after the cold boot everything works fine.

I did speak with Dell Technical support about the issue, and was informed a resolution is being work on as its a known issue (Thanks to everyone here, no doubt).

 

Hi back to you, Shiandy.

I am happy to hear that the reboot workaround is keeping you going while we are waiting for a permanent fix.

Have a great day, my friend.

 

Mr. Fox, I am not tearing up I promise, but you sir are one of the most professional moderators out in the forum wilderness. Thanks for your efforts.

 

Well, I just might tear up, LOL. It's very nice of you to express that and I appreciate it very much. I'm glad to help... it's all about teamwork.

 

You are correct in all assertions above, good sir.

Truer words were never spoken. Truth be told, every mod I have ever encountered here has been total pro.