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

that i do...and that they do.

im a tech and not all of them are that bad...but then since they service allot of machines...you only hear the horror stories of course. the one that came and serviced my amd machine did a fine job.

haha...look at that recommend options...too funny. just last month it was all amd.
and i thought they weren't going to even do that.

 

This is so true, John. Thank you for sharing this. We all enjoy hearing the horror stories because that's just human nature.

The tech in my area works for Qualex and the dude is totally awesome. He is welcome to work on my stuff any time, even though I do not require his expertise and I can do it all myself. We need to hear about the good ones as well, so there is balance and no reason for false hysteria.

Before I figured out the guy in my area is really good at his profession, I politely watched what he did, engaged in small talk, and let him have a chance prove his technical skills. It's unfair to cast all of them as being stupid and incompetent, as well as untrue.

 

Well the Tech has been & gone. Mobo replaced and fans replaced.

Tested from cold numereous times, every time now all fans kick in. So, hardware replacement fixed my problem - not a software problem.

Will revert back if anyting changes but as far as I'm concerned Dell Bill's post about hardware not being the solution is the wrong advise.

 

yes. because not every one in here is picture perfect in taking anything apart...

i've made my share of mistakes and will admit to them. no shame here. but come one now...i hear so many stories about how "someone else" messed up, but never the actual person. that is just not a realistic scenario all the time

 

Glad yours is fixed. Since we don't know exactly what is different with the parts they installed, Bill's comments could still be accurate. (Firmware and micro-code are still software.) At any rate, all that really matters is that you're good to go now. That's awesome. Congratulations, Yeti.

 

I recently was reassembling my system and I got a wire to the right speaker LEDs caught under a screw It split the wire in two and luckily missed the other four in the same shielding. That was all me baby No tech to blame here.

I had a pretty competent female tech when I lived in Columbus. Had her over a few times for GPUs. My only beef with her was she didn't get my M11x palmrest on quite right. Something small like that. Other than that she was pretty cool. I'd setup the table with a cloth to put things on it, but other than that I'd go back to fixing the brakes on my car. She was a decent tech. No real complaints.

 

that would fall under what joker was talking about..even though all the mother boards are exactly the same. maybe somewhere along the line..the lowly tech got mad about pay and put something on a few boards.(1000+) and some of his (going postal) work is showing up.

speculation of course.

side note:
i burned up the alienware head by grounding it out on the cpu heat sink.
broke the hd clip and the light clip for the keyboard. all on my 2 mb.

 

***UPDATE*** - ***UPDATE*** - ***UPDATE***
Louis found time to respond while out for the holiday instead of making us wait. This is another example that "Dell Cares" about its customers, and additional confirmation that Louis cares about the current AMD issue. We are very fortunate to have Bill, Louis, Chris and other Dell/Alienware representatives of their caliber interacting with our Community. I'm adding this to my list of things to be thankful for this holiday season.

I will add the conference call notes to the first post, in the space currently occupied by the obsolete call-in information. Give me 20 or 30 minutes and it will be there for everyone.

 

.

+1​

 

Are you in the UK? If so which number did you ring. I might try and get them to do mine.

 

Thank you. The format and quality was/is nicely done.

 

Thanks for the compliment.

 

Superb job Mr. Fox....also thanks to DR650SE for assisting - between the two of you, those notes are perfect. I 100% agree with Sky that the notes are clear and concise & we couldn't have asked for more. +rep to you both (Fox - I will have to owe ya 'till I can rep you again!)

 

Thank you Mr. Fox - it's holding up well but I will post back if/when anything changes.

A surprise during the mobo change was that Dell does not provide replacement thermal paste in the mobo box. So, it got put back together again with the existing paste (CPU and dual GPUs). A surprise as previous mobo replacements I've had have always resulted in a repaste. It is a new system with "fresh" paste yet really not sure what to make of that. I'll keep an eye on temperatures & for my own curiosity any comments would be appreciated !

 

Spoke with support today about my 10 day old m18x they finally know about the issue and tonight I'll have them run diag on the machine to confirm no other issue. They offered:
- Sending out a tech
- Replacing the system with 'like for like'
- A refund

I asked if like for like means they will send a new laptop with Nvidia cards and they said probably not. Doesn't make sense because 2 weeks ago on the AU site the basic spec M18x was approx $3400 and came with 9660's, the Nvidia was a $800 upgrade. Now on the AU site the 9660's option is removed and the only card selection is Nvidia... and for how much? $3400.....! Sounds like for like to me.... but anyway..

I'll take the refund thanks.... Only to go shopping on the dell site again once the refund lands.

Alienware is the only system I want to own, its joy. Just need one that works..

 

Yeti, reusing the existing thermal material is not advisable. Reusing the thermal pads on the GPU heat sinks where they mate with memory, capacitors and other components is perfectly fine, but not the material that mates with the CPU and GPU die surfaces. My assumption is that you did not separate the GPU modules from their heat sinks, so you should be OK with the GPUs if my assumption is accurate. Your CPU would be the only concern if the GPU/heatsink assemblies were not separated.

I would go to a local computer store, Radio Shack or BestBuy and buy a tube of thermal grease (not thermal adhesive) and re-paste just to be safe. Until you do so, I would recommend monitoring your temps very closely. In fact, if it were me I would not even continue using the computer under those conditions. Any brand would be a better option than re-using what you had. This must have been an accidental oversight because they generally include a tube of thermal paste (have for me anyway) whenever a mobo or GPU parts are dispatched.

When they send new heat sinks those generally come with the solid gray colored thermal interface material (TIM) already applied and you would not need to use any paste. The solid TIM Dell uses on their heat sinks is excellent stuff and lasts longer than thermal paste. But, it is a single-use material and not reusable.

 

Well done Fox.

 

Rip off UK as usual, you can get the M18x for 3400 Aus $ which is £2130. T
In the UK to buy the M18x base model (i7 2679, 4gb ram, 320gb HDD) with 580 sli option at £1020 extra (yes an unbelievable £1k) would be a total of £2719.

The basic spec in UK is a single 560m, even an upgrade tp 560m sli is £180 so make sure you have read it correctly.

 

Thanks guys, I learned a lot and can't wait to more calls with Dell. Definately educational!

 

Thank you very much for your response and sorry for going OT. You're probably right about the GPUs not being separated from the heatsinks so that is one less worry. The CPU however not being repasted has me worried (justifiedly as I interpret your reply). Though I've picked other laptops apart before I think I'll call Dell up. Like you, there's always been paste included. I took this up with the Tech as I realised it'd not be repasted. He said this was now Dells policy, and not to worry. Well, an i7 with 'breached' paste has me worried.

Anyway, I waffle. Cheers again

 

I've also seen motherboards sent without paste from Dell.

 

100% the AU base model M18x comes in at $3,399AUD with Dual 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 580M NVIDIA® SLI® Enabled [Included in Price]

I'm actually shocked the UK is more expensive, its usually cheaper for peeps in Australia to buy stuff online from the US/UK and have it shipped over.

 

Hello all,

Thought I would just chime in here. First off, thank you much everyone for this post. Its existance helped me find out the source of my problem, and saved me much time & aggregvation on trying to figure out why my laptop no worky.

I just got an Alienware M18x 2x6990M from the USA. 2 days in, I find problems.. (Well, day 1 in I found problem as the reference ATI drivers caused my system to blue screen and I needed to do a fresh OS install).

Day 2 I started to try and play some games (this is why I bought it!). And then discovered it would just shutdown (quietly, peacefuly) without any notice. NO blue screen and no problems when comming back up. Very odd.

I got MSI Afterburner installed (if anyone can recommend any other tools I would appreciate it), and it showed me my GPU2 was running HOT HOT HOT!

Whilst playing FFXIV or running 3DMark I would notice GPU#2 hitting 104-105 very quickly, whilst GPU#1 was usually around 60c. A 40 degree gap is rather unexpected :-s

Tracings showed that roughly when the GPU#2 hit 106 the system shut itself down.

I seem to have fine system stability if I do not use GPU #2 (but this 'workaround' defeats the point of having a crossfire system).

I tried to find any solution, fix, better workaround, but have not found any information posted (and the search functionality here does not seem to get me any hits). Therefore I ask:

Does anyone know of a fix I can do myself? (is it simply a matter of loose fan connection?)
Does anyone know of a workaround I can do myself? (Is there a way to force the fan on?)

Slightly related: Does anyone know why MSI AfterBurner occassionally does not recognize GPU #2's temperature gauge and instead shows me the tachometer? Only once in a while does it seem to allow me to view GPU #2 temperature (need to reboot and try loading GPU-Z, etc, to get it to work).

Thank you.

 

Hi TuxedoKamen... welcome to our forum. We're glad you joined us.

Dell/Alienware is actively working on a solution to this issue affecting AMD HD 6990M CrossFire powered M18x systems. We should see resolution to the problem very soon. I will not be surprised in the least if we see a permanent fix released by Dell/Alienware before Christmas. (I don't have any insider information, but I know it's very important to the people involved with the fix and they are working hard to get it done.)

The temporary workaround for many M18x owners is to reboot the system right after loading Windows from a cold boot. For many, this allows their systems to function in a manner that is otherwise normal.

If the reboot method does not work well for you, the alternative method to having a fully usable M18x is to manually run the fans at speeds high enough to cool the system under load. You can do this using SpeedFan or HWiNFO64. SpeedFan is preferred by many because it causes few to no glitches in operation. HWiNFO works well, but it requires a bit more fiddling and has glitches. You can download SpeedFan here and find more information about how to use SpeedFan with your M18x on this thread.

Again, welcome to NBR! We are looking forward to your continued participation and contributions in the Alienware forums.

For you and any others that are new to our Community, below are some links (some of which you may have already discovered) to jump start your membership with NBR. Taking a few minutes to read these short threads should prove to be very beneficial.

Forum Rules
(important for maintaining a community where everyone feels welcome)

Alienware General Information & HOW TO: Search the forum - *READ BEFORE POSTING*
(includes excellent tips, including how to effectively search the forum for the right thread to post and avoid creating the clutter of redundant threads)

Reputation Points/Power and User Titles
(what the colors of user titles mean, what the little boxes for rep points are, how they are calculated, etc.)

Forum Guide and "How-To"
(a comprehensive resource covering a variety of topics)

How To Properly Insert A Huge Image Into A Post
(self-explanatory)

 

Agreed. I was having issues same as everyone here and Dell had already replaced the heat sink and graphics cards on two separate tech visits, it didn't solve the problem and they ultimately agreed to send a replacement with the same configuration (unlikely to work, I feared). I tried to get them to swap out 580s (with my paying the difference) in the exchange system before it shipped since I'm deploying soon and got the complete run-around from the lower level techs.

But once I sent a tweet to @Dellcares and @Alienware I had two responses within an hour and within 36 hours Dell had upgraded me to the dual 580s as well as my processor to the i7 2670QM processor at no charge (a surprise since I was willing to pay out of pocket)

Now, I'll admit there was lots of frustration with the lower level techs and customer care reps but Dell ultimately really impressed me with their responsiveness.

So stay hopeful and remember "for every policy, there is an exception."

 

***Happy Thanksgiving***

Congrats and welcome to team green.

 

TuxedoKamen: You have a 21 day return policy. Why not just return it & get the 580's? May as well while the 21 day return policy applies...

That's what I'm doing.. Get a new laptop with 580's and a new 21 day return period. Otherwise risk having a tech install a new motherboard+fans (that may or may not fix the issue) & have your 21 days expire.

 

Hello all,

Mr. Fox: Thank you much for the warm welcome, it is much appreciated! I had tried the 'cold boot/reboot' method but it did not seem to work. However, once I got SpeedFan working everything was great!

SpeedFan set my fans to 70% (so they are always on and noisy!), but my GPU Temperatures were always nice and cool (less than 70c when playing, which is much better than the 105 I used to get). I was then able to get on happily for hours without a problem, so this does suggest that the root cause is getting those fans online.

The 'good' news is that since I can manually turn on the fans via software, there is a decent chance the whole thing can be solved by a software/bios update from Dell or AMD.

The 'down' side is that it seems Dell & AMD are not getting along very well lately? Reference AMD drivers do not work, and AMD option has been pulled from the M18x (in USA and UK) (even tho it still suggests AMD Crossfire as an option in their descriptive blurbs).

Anyways, this 'workaround' works fine for me, and in some ways is preferrable. The GPUs will never get hot, nor do I get that annoying 'fan off/fan on' transitions when I least suspect it.

SicPuppy: I thought about returning it, but that would be a bit of a hastle (and mean time without the new laptop). Especially if it could not be 'fixed' properly right now. Also, I did not want to pay to upgrade to 580s (not worth the extra cost in my opinion). And finally, I wanted to 'try out' AMD (ATI). I have been using Nvidia for ages, but thought it would be a good time to try out AMD and see what the experence was like.

So far, not that impressed But I'm going to hang in there!

Anyways, thanks to this thread I have a decent enough solution to keep me happy.


Thanks again all.

 

TuxedoKamen: Thanks for the positive feedback and good attitude. +1 Rep, bro.

 

TuxedoKamen: what is happening with AMD is weird!

 

I spoke with my "has always been right" AW/Dell contact and he told me that the 6990M's are just out of stock.

 

ooh, ok that sound better. lol

 

Hi guys!, I have 2 small questions, just to know if my system is working properly:

1. When CF is disabled is the second 6990m (the right side card) temperature supposed to be at 0 C?

2. Do the temps only move from 0 C when the card is drawing?

Thanks in advance!

 

Good question. I have never monitored temps of the secondary whilst disabled......not even sure if it is possible to do so as it is "disabled".....

 

I ask because if I want to use emulation and I need to change my OC to level 3 that also means NO optimal Bios and that means if I dont load Optimal settings I want to make sure my second GPU does not fry while only using the 1st one with CF disabled. Good thing is, i only need one GPU for emulation, but I need to know if I wont cook my second card while not loading optimal settings, the fan obviously works on the 1st GPU like everyone here, also keep in mind I dont use HW64 for fan control.

 

you can set what ever you want in the bios. and you can use speedfan to turn on your fans.

 

I just disabled crossfire and gpu-z was still showing a temp reading for the secondary.....does your system show readings for the secondary when crossfire is enabled?

 

@rpg1201 - The lack of readings on the AMD cards is a known issue. They seem to come and go randomly. I had that issue frequently with the 6990M cards, but not that I can ever remember on the 6970M cards. It could be a driver bug, but whatever the cause it is not totally unusual. (See paragraph 6 from the conference call minutes. Louis touched on this briefly during our call.)

 

Mr. Fox would it be possible for you to tell me how to use Hwinfo64 in a quick manner, i've been ignored in their forum and in some threads here, I know you shared your settings somewhere... but I have stayed away that option because it got a little too complex for me and I dont want to cook my cards... but now that I want to OC i NEED to use it. Is it true sometimes it shuts down to 0 rpm? thats really scary for me.

 

Sure, I'll be back with some info on that in a bit. It's actually on topic for this thread due to the overheating issues. I am sure there are other people wanting to know as well.

 

did you read the help section of the program?

 

Wow Mr. Fox!, it seems i have found a miraculous fix once again... thank God. I'll share. If your using the 6990m CF and don't want to risk your fans shutting off/bug using any programs and also want to OC your CPU at the same time (because you freakin paid for it) all you have to do is load F2 settings, load optimal settings F9, then go to performance cpu, modify to your OC needs, in this place is where I found the problem... If I wanted to change my CPU, after saving and exiting the PC would shutoff and restart, so the secondary fan would turn off again and you would have to load optimal settings reseting the CPU OC @_@ but i found a way for it to not shut off, just go to the last tab, and press save without exiting and then hit Ctrl + Alt + Del, and it will continue to boot with all those settings , not reseting your BIOS fan fix and your CPU OC!!! i guess Jesus took care of this one too.

 

and what happens if you turn it off for 2 minutes and turn it back on...do the fans still work?

 

You know they won't.

 

yeah, it's a kind of hard test to run.
i did run it before i gave mine back though.

 

Well, I give rpg1201 props for trying something new and sharing it with us. We need more adventurous discoveries and it's great seeing suggestions.

 

(This information has been added to the opening post on this thread as Update #3 to make it easy for others to locate.)

M18x: Quick Guide for Manual Fan Control

Download the latest HWiNFO64 (Latest Beta ZIP version is v3.90-1445) here: LINK

Unzip to a folder where you want it to be placed.

For a quick and easy way to manually control fan speeds, follow the pictorial steps in the spoiler below...

Spoiler

You may experience hangs during shutdown running HWiNFO64.
If you do, disable HWiNFO64 before shutdown using these steps...


If you decide you do not wish to use HWiNFO64 any longer, uninstall the
driver using these easy steps...

Using HWiNFO64, it is possible to set up custom fan profiles that operate based on temperature thresholds. I have always used manual controls. At this point there appears to be an issue with some of the sensors on systems affected with the overheating issue and using manual controls may be a safer alternative. I would not recommend that anyone with an affected system rely on a user-generated fan profile. (See paragraph #1 from meeting minutes.)

There is additional useful information about using the program on the HWiNFO/32/64 Forum - General Discussion

As you may have discovered, there is additional information on this thread as well: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/622102-need-help-hwinfo64-gpu-cpu-setup.html

In addition to HWiNFO64, Almico SpeedFan is a great tool. Some prefer it over HWiNFO64. Shaden has a thread on using SpeedFan. You will find it here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/625606-new-fan-control-tool.html. See post #12 by Aikimox.

Edit 02/25/2012: SpeedFan appears to cause DPC latency issues. LINK

 

yeah, but he never had a chance to reply yet? if this will help others, you know im all for that...just dont want to see a potential fix "not" be one...you know.

side note
between me and joker...i think we have at least a 100 fixes or work around's in place...over our time here at nbr.

 

I'm skeptical as well, but glad to see when anyone is trying... whether it works or not. We'll have to see, since I have no way of testing it. In the meanwhile, the guide for implementing manual fan control is there now for anyone that needs it.

 

it's starting to look like we need a links page...