m18x and windows aero

I see... sorry to hear that. Have you tried a clean install of Windows (not a restore)? You might try following my instructions (use the small download) and apply the same concept to installing NVIDIA drivers. Have you tried disabling the NVIDIA Control Panel with MSCONFIG?

At any rate, you should still disable the service I mentioned if you are running an Alienware version of Windows. If nothing else it will silence the Respawn nagware.

Please create a signature in your user control panel so we can know what you have for specs.

 

Ran through the fix and aero seems to be working so far. I'll test it out for a few days and let you know. BTW I installed the 11.8 preview drivers instead of the 11.6 included in the package. I installed them without CCC.

 

Thanks- EDD 8/4. Can't wait to try the fix. rep +1

 

Thank you for helping test for us. I appreciate it.

I tried drivers from the 11.7 and 11.8 Catalyst package and both were less stable than the drivers from the 11.6 package. If Aero crashes out on you, you'll want to run Driver Sweeper to get rid of the old driver files and try the 11.6. All bets are off on the fix otherwise.

I also found drivers in the Catalyst 11.8 cause a BSOD on my system under heavy loads that are rock solid with the 11.6 drivers.

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@rawhide - congratulations on your purchase. This is going to be a LONG week for you if you have to wait until Thursday for delivery. I look forward to hearing of your test results.

 

Got up this morning. Cold booted my system. BAM - Aero "flake out" immediately. Also noticed that whilst it was in the process of flaking out, (it was Aero for a split second or two) my task bar and tray icons were a complete mess....all mixed up, partially shown, garbled and then POW, full on Basic Theme took hold......

NB. I havent implemented your "download fix" yet Mr Fox, I was weighing up how my system was gonna perform on a partial tweak. Obviously, it needs more tweaking from my side to have any chance of working correctly.

I am in the process of waiting to hear back from ChrisM regards to a possible "system capture".......

 

stevie - do you have Trixx applying modified clocks at startup, or stock until you load them manually only when needed? If the former is true, unchecking the "...and restore clocks" box may stop that from happening. With no AMD software resident on my system except for the drivers my system has never performed better. I think you'll like the full tweak and RadeonPro better than Catalyst.

 

Hi Fox - nope mate, I only run Trixx when I want it so my gpu's start up at default 680/900 clocks. I probably will try out your "full recipe" soon enough....will post findings after a period of testing.

 

Reporting in: No Aero issues since applying Mr. Fox's "fix". Still running on 11.8 drivers and haven't had any issues with them (yet). I'll give it a couple days and report back if I encounter anything.

FYI: not running Trixx.

 

Ok, so I just changed over to integrated graphics for the first time, my resolution wouldn't even let me boot to 1920x1080 and then I it asked me to reboot, rebooted again, went into 1920x1080 right away?? odd, anyway, aero was not on, did the aero problem utility, it told me my windows manager was disabled.... rebooted and aero came back on right away again. So far not so good, I havent even run any marks yet

 

My system did that on the IGP also. I don't think the Intel video drivers were actually installed until that point in time. I think what you and I experienced was the drivers installing themselves for the first time. You'll probably want to update to the latest Intel HD 3000 drivers anyway. The driver release used by Dell/Alienware was very buggy for me and some other folks. That was with AMD GPUs, so your mileage may vary with the 580s.

 

Has anyone who "volunteered" for ChrisM's "swap" had any news/info on this? - I PM'd and emailed Chris but have yet to hear back....I hate waiting......

 

Yea he got in touch with me I'll keep you guys updated on the process

 

I've heard from him three times, with the last response being this morning. He does not know who will be contacted. So, we will have to wait to hear from someone else.

 

Ok. Got a PM from Chris - some lame excuse about not being able to "Capture" a PC from outside of America. Guess my baby is staying put. Personally, I just dont think he/Dell wanted to agree to my terms of exchange.

Given the amount of people that WOULD be willing to go ahead with an exchange (which doesnt appear to be many by looking through this thread), it seems a very poor effort on Dell's behalf to rule anyone out just because they dont live in the states....heck, these systems are sold all over the world by Dell and NOT just in America for god sake....

Looks like I will have to sit it out and wait for one of you guys to surrender your system for Alien dissection in the hope of a cure.....I can tell you, I am NOT AT ALL HAPPY!!!!

 

Personally, I'm just glad to see they are willing to investigate the matter. I can certainly understand why you're not happy. Seems at least a quick email from engineering expressing thanks for being willing to help would be the least they should do. Let's hope we all get that courtesy so we're not waiting without a yeah or nay response indefinitely. They are not communicating their intentions to Chris, but I do appreciate his initial coordination efforts.

Ultimately, I think this is going to land on the shoulders of Intel and AMD to resolve with better drivers that actually work correctly and play nice together on switchable graphics. There may not be anything Alienware can do except pressure the hardware vendors to do a better job on their end. Since NVIDIA owners seem to be affected to a somewhat lesser extent, the common denominator on this issue looks to be Intel's Sandy Bridge and IGP.

I am so used to coming up with my own fixes over the past 25 years of computing geekness that I'm not going to get too worked up about it. We've always had to wait on hardware vendors to get their act together on drivers and it's just the same song, different verse.

 

The only benefit I can see from all of this is that someone is gonna get 6990's for 6970's. I can't believe they can't reproduce this problem with their available resources.

If they choose to go this route, they should get 3 AMD systems and 3 Nvidia systems. Not just one AMD system representing all the different types of M18x configurations available. I think both of you should have a good opportunity to swap units for this cause.

 

I also offered to surrender my system to Chris and got the same answer as you did, i guess he didn't agree to my terms either lol

 

What were your terms?

I have been told by a level 3 that this is caused by incompatible hardware. That level 3 had thorough knowledge of the M18x and it's inner workings.
He assured me that engineering is well aware of this problem and expects to have it fixed in the next revision or in the current model if AMD/Nvidia decide to address it in a driver update made specifically for the M18x.

 

My terms weren't very demanding, just a "possibility" of an upgrade on the graphics cards if the ones from the replacement computer came damaged...and by possibility i mean free

 

At this point it would have been safe to say that since the 6970M's are no longer available you would have gotten 6990M's standard. Ohhh I see, you have 460M's.

Their reasons must be PAL related.... In the pursuit of fixing this problem.....upgrading you to 580M's isn't even peanuts, more like crumbs for Dell.
After all the time that has already gone by, I expecting Chris M to post, we've isolated the cause and a fix is on the way.


Recently I was asked to send my unit into Dell for capturing, to troubleshoot hangin at post....when using certain USB devices(Lycosa, G13) with onboard memory. I refused because w/o an upgrade, it is me taking all the risk.

 

Well I too asked for a gpu upgrade to be taken into consideration - I didnt demand it. Chris told me via PM that the "exchange" would be - and in his own words:

The replacements would have been refurbished like for like

Now, that in itself, is a big insult....who in their right mind is gonna send back a new system to get a refurb with exactly the same spec? - c'mon Chris......do you want me to do your job for you too while I am at it for god sake.....

Anyway, for why Chris couldnt capture my PC simply because I am in the UK is beyond me.....they sent it here in the first place....I have already sent numerous systems back to Dell so its not like its impossible.

What a load of crap.

 

Refurbished. That doesn't surprise me. That is how most companies handle this type of scenario. I've seen Asus do the same thing.

Can we please get an update on the status of solving this problem? My M18x has had Aero flake out 2x's today.

 

I didn't demand the upgrade, i just said that it would be nice if they could provide the upgrade, but if it is for a refurbished system, hell, sod that, i would rather sell my system and get one from a rival company.

Btw, prices for selling an M18X on a second hand shop are not good...CEX offered me £850 and Recycle (one that works near i live) offered me £1000.

 

Wow. 1000 pounds is 1629.5000USD. So you'd be getting a refurbished system worth 1629.5000USD...lol.

 

No, i would get £1000 pounds cash, no refurbs given or anything lol

 

I was saying that you would get a refurbished system from Dell worth that amount if you were offered the exchange to help resolve this issue. Where I live there were people selling their low spec'd R2's for more than 1000 pounds on craigslist..lol

 

Man,, dont even bother going to CEX to sell 'em your rig....they will rip you off! (and then sell it for like £3k+ ...... they wont even know what or how powerful your system is for a start - if you DO wanna sell it, best chances would be Ebay or Craigslist.....heck...id give you £1200 for it, strip it, sell the cpu , gpu , ram etc just like a car breaker does....you have close to a thousand pounds worth of cpu under that hood - let alone the other components.

 

I just have to post this to get it off my chest.....

Thinking more and more about this exchange business....why the HELL do Dell think that we, as paying customers, would want to send back our BRAND NEW systems only to have them REPLACED by REFURBS to the same spec simply to help THEM diagnose a problem that THEY should have diagnosed themselves months before launching a new system......

Its not as if they are not able to grab an M18x off the shelf or have a few built for testing themselves....why do they want ours back and not want to offer anything to us in return for helping them to solve a problem that really shouldnt exist if they had their act together in the first place.....

I am SICK of Dell and their crappy mentality to this...its just like the sleep/brightness issue that was and still is apparent on the M17x R2....

I personally am not holding out ANY hope of Dell fixing this....and, infact, if they DONT fix it, I will be on to Michael Dell YET AGAIN to get some resolution to my own issues regarding this problem.

Mini-rant over....sorry guys..

 

I couldn't agree more with you . I'm already prepairing my case for the time when the R2 is released w/o this problem and this still isn't resolved. Yesterday I was told by a level 3 that it's up to AMD/Nvidia to provide a fix, if they so choose too.

Ridiculous.....................................

While they are at it maybe they can provide an up to date driver.

 

steviejones, you are totally right, these guys are really playing around with us, they think that, just because they are a multidollar/pound/euro/whatever corporation that they have the right to mock us, the people that pay good money for their products! This Alienware will be my only system ever that i bought from Dell, not again!

And about those £1200...would you rather do an exchange for an exchange?

 

I am going to call Dell Support and have them open a case. I recommend anyone with this issue do the same.

 

Hahaha.....yeah, maybe if we swap our systems between ourselves as owners, we might come up with something Dell missed - I would not be surprised after this proposed "exchange" fiasco that Dell actually ask us to do that...swap with each other....play about a bit and see if we can fix it ourselves!

One thing that is really grieving me BADLY here is that just because I am in the UK (like you), do we deserve any the less treatment than those in other countries that Dell sells to?? .... is my pound less valuable than the next mans yen or dollar? - have I not paid the same for my system (well, actually, in the UK one heck of alot more for the same ) only to be shafted by the very same company?? - no thanks....I will take my future business elswhere....

Way to go Dell to show those customers, like all of us here, just how much you value us......I think one sentence sums it up for me.....

"Here you go Mr Jones.....here is your refurb system that still may have the same issue as we cant be bothered to fix it in a timely manner - please rest assured that you can now feel completely shafted by Dell - thank you for your money, now get lost and stop bothering us - have a nice day, thank you for shopping Dell!"

 

I tried that already, they don't seem to care with that...even when they called trying to sell me a new laptop with the 580M's, i mentioned about the aero bug and the only thing i hear is a little laugh and them saying "We are trying our best to solve that issue"...yeah right, it shows...

 

M18x-R2 FTW!!!!!!! The R1 will be know as "The system with the Aero Bug"

 

Exactly, i totally agree with you...you know what, it's just a shame that companies like Eurocom don't have any "shops" here, i would've bought a laptop from them for sure!

 

You have to be firm (not mean) and tell them you want to have a case opened and escalated. They will try to blow you off.... it's common with Dell Support to try and get you off the phone.

 

There is always Kobalt Computers in the UK......might head on over there myself for the next rig....

 

I heard from Chris and he said he was submitting my info to AW. Haven't heard anything else.

I have been good since my fresh install about a week ago, then, today, my second GPU just quit showing in HWInfo. So I disabled XFire and the Aero bug hit me. About to re-enable and see if Aero comes back as well as my other card.

 

I could complain, but the warranty from dellienware is a force to be reckoned with. My first lappy from them was the M17x R1. I've been through that, an R2, and now the M18xR1. I can't really complain seeing as I've had years of good gaming and I keep getting free upgrades due to 'annoying' issues.

First system purchased October '09
QX9300/GTX280m SLI/4gb DDR3-1333

Take a look at what I'm rocking now

 

I agree.....

 

Yep - you are rocking a good system and Dell warranty is great.....I just wish we didnt have to rely on it to get things sorted. I would prefer a system that works 100% right now and avoid the hassle of using that warranty.....(good job I got 3yrs complete cover )

 

Couldn't agree more!!! I have been without a computer 1 time for about a day. Now I've had issues that were aggravating, but they have ALWAYS made it right. I started with an M17x R1. Had GPU issues. Went to a maxxed R1. Had GPU issues. Went to a Maxxed R2 with 4870's. BIOS problems and engineers said replace it. Got an R3-maxxed out.

Sold it to a friend for cash and an XPS M1730. Immediately got the available warranty extension. It ended up dying (mobo, sata cable, HDD) and they sent me my sig unit. I'll take that warranty anyday. About to Pay $1000 more to extend it for 4 more years!!!!!!!!

 

OK. If I didn't have an SSD, I would prolly be waaaaaaaaaaaay more aggravated with this issue. Just did it again after some Plants vs. Zombies.

 

Ditto! I completely agree with both of you, and for very similar reasons. When it comes to desktops, the only way to go is building your own system. With laptops, that isn't so. Dell has taken better care of me than any other large company has, with any type of product (not just laptops). They are not perfect, but none of them are. It doesn't take more than one warranty issue with an outfit like HP or Acer, or dealing with imbeciles working down at the "Genius Bar" to make me extremely glad to be a Dell customer. I abandoned HP in 2009 after multiple turd systems and a total lack of concern from HP. Eventually, I took a leap of faith on Dell laptops and spent $4K on an XPS M1730 in August '09. It was replaced under warranty with another XPS M1730, then the M17xR2, now the M18x. That never would have happened with another vendor... buying from a vendor other than Dell is definitely caveat emptor. Sure, all the dispatches and talking with people from foreign call centers has been frustrating at times, but in the end it was made right. I was not left holding the bag like I have been with the others. Been there, done that... ain't going there no more. I even tried a "gaming laptop" from ibuypower (right before the M1730) - can you say suckeee service?

Did you try my fix yet? With no installation of CCC, my system is still rock solid. In a week, Aero has only borked out on me one and that was after a benchmark. Has never happened to me at all during normal use with drivers from the 11.6 Catalyst package. Aero does not behave as well drivers from the 11.7 and 11.8 package.

 

I have not. May do that today. It was just running so good without it. But for some reason or another, when I disable XFire, it showed up. Second reboot 'fixed' it.

Also, since it seems as though it is CCC that is the issue, I think it will be very difficult to get Dell/AW to take ownership. From what we all can tell, it is a SOFTWARE issue that ATI has to fix. Not a hardware issue that Dell/AW must fix.

What's going on on the Nvidia side of things? Any news there?

Of course if Nvidia is also having the Aero issue, I guess acase could be made for hardware. Crap!!! I don't know what to think........

 

When I first got my system with the earlier release of the Sandy Bridge chipset and HD 3000 drivers the Aero issue was a whole lot worse. Updating to the latest Intel drivers made the biggest improvement in the Aero bug of anything I tried up to that point.

I tested the drivers from the 11.8 Catalyst package again yesterday and they totally suck.

I think it is an issue with how the Windows registry is handling the combination of the Intel IGP with the discreet GPU. That may be why not having CCC installed reduces the opportunities for Aero to flake out. There are fewer AMD registry entries to clash with Intel HD 3000 registry entries. Using my fix, the only AMD registry keys that exist are those created when manually loading the driver through Device Manager.

This is theory on my part, but I think it is logical. I expect it will be worked out over time as video drivers from each vendor mature. I don't anticipate we will see any computer OEM take ownership of this issue. It really should fall on the hardware vendor, but historically only Intel is the only hardware vendor with a track record of stepping up to the plate to take ownership. AMD, and especially NVIDIA, have a track record of doing nothing and denying a problem exists.

What I have not tried to do yet is apply the same theory from my fix to the Intel drivers. I may extract them like I did with the AMD driver, uninstall and clean up, then manually install them in Device Manager. I plan to test that when I do a clean install. I am going to wait a couple more days to hear from Dell/AW on their decision to capture my system. It would be nice if those of us who have volunteered would at least get a courtesy email thanking us for our efforts and letting us know they intentions. There may not be any refurbished M18x systems available at the moment, so that could be why nobody has heard anything.

 

Speaking of AMD/Aero bugs...
Turn Aero back on while using AMD Fusion??? - Overclockers Forums
Can't get Aero to work on Win7 - TechSpot OpenBoards
...seems that might be included in AMD software at no extra charge.

 

Though I'd post a minor update:

New 6990's have yet to get stuck in basic. 580m setup still hasn't got stuck in basic either. 'Old' 6970 model did it just before I shut it down to wipe the HDD before return which broke a smooth record of operation. Both new m18x have A02 vs the A00 of the 6970 model.

Friends gtx460 sli m18x has apparently not done it after I pointed him to the latest 280 betas but was doing it before.

Those who are saying it's an amd cat problem. It can't be if the nvidia model suffers from it too.

 

Your point is very well taken based on the fact that NVIDIA systems also have some degree of Aero issues, but the fact that when my system has no CCC software resident on the hard drive very rarely has issues with Aero is inescapable. I would estimate that I have spent approximately 80 to 100 hours testing a variety of driver scenarios on my AMD-based system.

For the record, I am not saying this is a "cat problem" but it absolutely, and without question, is a problem that is directly and adversely affected by the presence of CCC on my M18x. The fact that some NVIDIA owners experience similar problems actually supports my theory of the root cause, which I have not stated to be AMD Catalyst Control Center. My recommendation is that removing CCC is the best temporary fix for AMD-based system. AMD does a very sloppy job on its drivers and control center utility and that may explain the higher frequency of Aero issues on AMD systems. NVIDIA seems to consistently do a better job on its software side of things than AMD does. CCC is an unnecessary software utility that can be replaced with a more effective utility such as RadeonPro.

I can name at least one NBR forum member that has this exact same issue with the 6990 CFX... skygunner27 and possibly others with the 6990 CFX have already posted that they do.

My M18x has BIOS A02 and HD6970 CFX. It shipped from the factory with A02 and A02 does not have any effect on the Aero bug, good or bad. It is only a coincidence based on when the system is built and in no way related to what GPU has been installed. It is not by design that some M18x systems with HD6970s have BIOS A00, just a matter of timing.

What I said earlier this morning is in the context of being an AMD owner, but the same principle could apply to NVIDIA Control Panel. I don't have the hardware available to do the testing like I have with my AMD system, but I would not be surprised to learn that the manual installation of drivers through Device Manager (to avoid installing NCP) reaps the same benefits in mitigating Aero crashes that it does with AMD systems.

So, to recant what I stated this morning and in prior posts, my impression is that this is a conglomerated issue that is rooted in how (in)effectively Windows' registry can process instructions for two distinctly different graphics systems, one of which is always physically disconnected and not found by Windows at boot. (Perhaps having CCC removed simplifies things for Windows... one less thing for the registry to have to deal with.) This issue did not exist with the same level of magnitude before Intel HD 3000 switchable graphics was released, and this problem affects multiple brands of computers. As much as I don't like this bug, I am actually very pleased that NVIDIA-based systems with Intel switchable graphics are having this problem. It puts the primary burden for fixing the problem on Intel and supports my observations from tests completed on my system.

 

When I had a pair 6990M's, I experienced the Aero Bug. Currently I have a pair of 580M's that I received as a replacement. The 580M's setup also experienced the Aero Bug. After alot of complainning/troubleshooting a replacement with 580M's was sent. Out of the box during first time setup of the OS, Aero flaked out. It flaked out 2x yesterday. This problem effects all M18x configurations with multi GPU's.

The reason I haven't mentioned it or changed my sig is because I was upgraded as a courtesy and was asked not to.