m18x and windows aero

Stevie! Good luck on the SSD upgrade. Cannot wait to hear/see the results. Wish I had one.

Agree... makes no sense at all and that was not a good comment for a Dell employee to make whether true or untrue. Maybe the cost of shipping had something to do with it, but if that's the case it should have been presented in that way. At the least, it would not come across in an offensive manner. I haven't heard a peep out of anyone... not a thanks for the help or anything. I think pmassey's M18x is the only capture that we know about. Maybe they only wanted one system for testing. They may not have any sitting on a shelf.

@pmassey - are they building you a new one or sending a refurb. If new, that would confirm there are none on the shelf for them to use for testing.

 

On the subject of troubleshooting my Aero bug... I may have discovered why 11.8 preview was so unstable on my system... seems it may have been Norton Antivirus being too aggressive with the scanning process. Too early to make the call yet, but it seems to be the case as 11.8 is stable with Vipre antivirus. I'll know more by the end of the Vipre 15-day free trial. So far, rock solid except for no brightness controls and I am running with CCC installed and enabled at system startup.

 

Well, SSD is in, drivers installed, Windows updated, Service pack done blah blah blah....decided to do a run of CDM to see how my SSD fairs and this is the initial result (Sorry for slightly OT) - here it is - I think thats pretty good for an older generation Sata III Drive....max read write on the box stated 355/215...not sure if the 4k read/writes are a bit low....

 

Ok, heres an odd one. I was reading the forum and all of a sudden i noticed my aero was off. I wasnt doing anything but reading. Anyway, went into event viewer and I got ONE error that just happened:

- System

- Provider

[ Name] TOASTER.EXE

- EventID 0

[ Qualifiers] 0

Level 2

Task 0

Keywords 0x80000000000000

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2011-08-07T18:35:56.000000000Z

EventRecordID 2504

Channel Application

Computer Nigel18-PC

Security


- EventData

An Unhandled Exception occured. The process cannot access the file 'C:\Users\Nigel 18\AppData\local\softthinks\scheduler.xml' because it is being used by another process. at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath) at System.IO.FileStream.Init(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, Int32 rights, Boolean useRights, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES secAttrs, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy) at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize) at System.Xml.XmlDownloadManager.GetStream(Uri uri, ICredentials credentials) at System.Xml.XmlUrlResolver.GetEntity(Uri absoluteUri, String role, Type ofObjectToReturn) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.OpenUrlDelegate(Object xmlResolver) at System.Threading.CompressedStack.runTryCode(Object userData) at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers.ExecuteCodeWithGuaranteedCleanup(TryCode code, CleanupCode backoutCode, Object userData) at System.Threading.CompressedStack.Run(CompressedStack compressedStack, ContextCallback callback, Object state) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.OpenUrl() at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read() at System.Xml.XmlLoader.Load(XmlDocument doc, XmlReader reader, Boolean preserveWhitespace) at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader) at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(String filename) at Toaster.SchedulerReader.read() at Toaster.Notifications.FullSystemBackup.FsbHelper.IsFsbScheduledNow() at Toaster.Notifications.FullSystemBackup.FsbHelper.CheckReminder() at Toaster.Helper.CheckReminders(ObservableCollection`1 notificationHelpers) at Toaster.MainWindowViewModel.NotificationsTimerTick(Object sender, EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherTimer.FireTick(Object unused) at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter) at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter, Delegate catchHandler)


Funny thing is, I looked up the error "TOASTER.EXE" and it says it belongs to AOL. I guess other programs can have the toaster file too though.

Any ideas why this would shut off aero?

 

Maybe Norton threw a spanner in there....good to hear your running WITH CCC installed and no issue so far.

Im stock Dell - apart from 11.8p (the only thing I have done from the "recipe" was to disable CCC startup via msconfig and that really was only because I dont like the warning message upon GFX switching!

Aero solid so far - brightness is still a problem as its not adjustable, only a few hours in....lets hope it stays that way.

 

Just a note that this is not the same Toaster as the AOL thing. This is the AlienRespawn software, which is best disabled at startup. It is also the software that causes the dead space problem at the top of the screen. The solution, which can take a bit to find, is to open Services and disable SoftThinks Agent Service.

 

Correct. Fortunately, I no longer have AWR on my clean install.....

 

Nigel... I posted on this previously on this thread and on the Dell Community thread. SoftThinks Agent service is definitely a nasty one that needs to be turned off. Apparenty, Dell has not tested this recently or they would not be shipping it installed on new systems. I'll bet their tech support department has pulled their hair out with frustration and there's no telling how many systems have been replaced because of this AlienRespawn/Dell DataSafe local software problem.

@SeanOfOz - I'm not sure why the search function on this forum works so poorly... below was my post back on July 25. I had to find it manually as the search function returns no results even using advanced search.

I shared this information with my awesome support rep from Costa Rica and I hope that it save thems and fellow Dell customers lots of heartache and frustration.
Alienware Club: M18x Windows 7 Aero Issues and "Dead Space" at top of Windows Desktop

 

WOW!!! Weekend has been crazy. TBH, I have no idea what they are building. You all know as much as I do. They called and said they were replacing it. Been checking my Dell acct daily and nothing yet in the way of specs other than M18x R3, blah, blah. As soon as I know, you'll all know.

My Aero has been OK, but it has flaked a few times.
It quit when I:
1.Come out of sleep on the Intel GPU (Everytime).
2.When using VLC media player.
3.When turning Xfire off.
4.Plant vs. Zombies made it do it once.

That's the ones I can remember in the past few days. I ran 3D11 and Vantage with no issues. All of this is done with no OC'ing.

 

I wondered where you were. Hope it was a good kind of crazy.

I'll have to try #1 and #2 on your list to see if that also happens on my M18x. I've never tried either. I hardly every run on the IGP... only once to see how long the battery would last and in/out of IGP quickly for testing Aero. I've only used VLC on Linux.

 

Your sig says you have a Crucial SSD. Are you giving them that as apart of the capture?

 

Good observation. I did not think that the M18x was available from Dell with a Crucial SSD. If that's an aftermarket drive, that's sort of defeating the purpose of the capture that DELLChrisM described as the qualifying criteria. I held off doing a clean install and waited a week to hear from Dell about the capture because of that. It's a shame that the folks at Dell are not paying closer attention to what's going on.

I brought three things to this forum (and shared all of them with Dell) that either fix problems or reduce the frequency of problems. (1) Disabling Dell's SoftThinks Agent service which totally cures the "dead space" in the display; (2) Installing Intel's updated HD 3000 drivers to reduce the Aero bug; and, (3) Installing AMD 11.6 drivers without CCC that further reduces the occurrence of the Aero bug to a rarity. Why they would not want to capture a system that was all but cured of symptoms without a new driver release from AMD is still a mystery. And, based on what one person posted earlier, AW Tech Support is only telling callers to disable WinSAT. Doing that alone does not actually cure anything, it simply eliminates one of the triggers of the Aero bug. That's like telling customers to uninstall Futuremark software or games that turn Aero off as a way to fix the problem. Aero turning off really isn't the problem... it's the fact that it does not turn back on without a log-off or reboot that is the problem.

 

................................................

 

Ya, I didn't think it was AOL since I don't have AOL lol.

Yes, I HAVE the dead space on top of the screen!!! I'll look into services NOW!!! Thx for the tip

EDIT: WOOHOO!!! Went into services, turned softthinks from automatic to disabled and stopped service. Now my screen is full, yay.

 

Works like a charm! I can clearly remember the joy of that discovery, so I know exactly what you're feeling like right now. Hopefully, Dell will stop shipping computers with that crapware installed on them. That's part of what I was referring to in a prior post when I said something to the effect that I was not sure capturing my pre-boot factory installation was a good idea. The rest of the factory OS installation has other problems. You'll be better off with a clean install of Windows. I'd do that now to save time, before all of your stuff is downloaded and/or installed.

 

So after my clean SSD install as described previously, Ive ran a few WEI checks....all was fine with Aero until just now.....ran WEI and it flaked out with my current setup with 11.8preview....just didnt revert to Aero but thought it would be good to stay "stuck" on Basic for a laugh to annoy me...

 

Well, at least it wasn't 100% of the time. Hopefully, the mobility release of 11.8 will be more stable than the preview and have brightness controls. (I'm hoping this is just sloppy non-mobility release.)

What does WEI say the score is for your SSD?

 

True. Ive just had to do a reg hack to stop my Crucial SSD from locking/freezing so we shall see how that goes but as far as the WEI, here you go - I dont rely on this tool being completely accurate but im happy with that WEI score for my rig.

 

Nice, Steve! Your Momentus drives were 5.9, correct? (That's what mine are.) It must feel like your flying now. Wonder what your 3DMark11 and Vantage scores will look like with the SSD and clean install?

With a driver-only installation, both of my graphics scores in WEI have been as high as 7.8 (on 11.6 and no CCC). Sometimes CCC kind of boogers things up... presently 7.7 on graphics with CCC 11.8 installed.

What is the reg hack you implemented to make your SSD behave properly? Got a link to the fix for future reference?

 

Stevie - Did you remember to turn off Windows System Restore? I remember reading multiple places that having System Restore enabled causes degraded performance over time on SSD drives. (Sorry for being off-topic for a bit.) System Restore and Your SSD

 

I was pointed in the direction of the Crucial M4 thread and read that adding a few reg entries would Disable LPM (Phil's post at the foot of the page worked for me to add the required registry entires) would stop freezing/stuttering on most SSD's (not just Crucial, as I read through that OCZ owners had used it too with success). I have had the additional reg entries in place for only a few hours but its looking good so far.

And yes, thanks. I heard that turning off system restore would be a good idea. I read about a few various "tweaks" to increase SSD performance. Its on my list "to do".....I have only just this minute reassembled again after reinstalling my 750gb in the secondary bay.....I am in two minds wether to keep the recovery partition on it or not and just format the whole drive for storage......

(Apologies for OT - just a quickie lol)

 

Hello everybody, I'm facing the same problem with aero...
And I just saw that there is A03 bios update for M18x on Dell ftp server "M18xR1A03.EXE", here: ftp.dell.com - /bios/
Maybe it can help?

 

Not planning on it. I mentioned it to Chris in my PM and to the tech on the phone. Which is kinda weird that they would would only capture one system as we already discussed. If they want the SSD, they will have to give me one like it (Not the Samsung they offer) or I'll send it back. Not gonna lose an SSD to be a guinea pig. You know???
All I told them was that I would do a fresh install and send it to them.

 

Don't see it. But doubt it would help anyway...........

 

http://ftp.dell.com/bios/M18xR1A03.EXE

 

^^^Got it. What kind of release notes???


Laptop Forums and Notebook Computer Discussion - Announcements in Forum : HP Pavilion Notebooks So we're not the only people having switchable GPU issues. I know it isn't directly related, but it seems the iGPU and dGPU setups need some tweaking somewhere.

 

Thanks! I have bookmarked that folder. Using the find function in my browser took me right to it.

+1 Rep - I'm glad that I am not the only person recognizing this. It's definitely not a "Dell/Alienware Problem" per se. It's more like a graphics switching problem. It's going to take cooperation between all the companies involved/affected to produce a good fix.

 

It's up now, curious at to what it actually fixes. Might attempt to put in tonight to see what the difference is.

 

I extracted all of the files using WinRAR and there are no release notes inside of the SFX archive. Also no information I can decipher in the platform.ini file. I just looked on support.dell.com and it's not posted there yet. The date of the file on the ftp server is today's date, so this is brand-spanking new.

I would advise anyone thinking of flashing this to be very cautious. There may be a great reason why it's not posted in plain view for public download.

 

Release notes should show up later on today, takes a bit for them to get everything up.

 

That's strange that they would agree to have you remove your SSD with the Aero Bug and perform a fresh install.
It took the Aero Bug 4 days to show up for me on a fresh install. You'd think they would ask for a system capture(s) in it's current state with the Aero Bug.

Out of all the customers here, who are willing to provide a system capture, your system with a fresh install seems counter productive. Please don't take this personal. I appreciate what you are doing for the rest of us

I'm starting to think that all of this is just smoke and mirrors.

Nice find. +1 rep!!!!

I'd like to add that I have owned a Toshiba Qosmio X775-3DV78 3D for 2 weeks with IGPU and it has not displayed the Aero Bug.

 

Well, I think it has been proven that with the AW, fresh, any install, the Aero problem WILL comeback. I think (as someone posted) they could pull ANY unit off of the shelf and eventually recreate the issue. I just volunteered 1st i think and that is why I have been chosen. Not gonna turn it down though. Worth a try you know?!

In other news......I did the AO3 BIOS about 3 hours ago. No issues yet but.........Aero just crapped out on me again. Soooooooo, the update didn't fix that.

 

I recall saying that...lol. I'm glad that we have you representing ALL of us. It just seems fishy to me that they are not asking for other system captures, especially Non-AMD configurations & at least more than just one.

I'm not saying this because I currently have a SLI configuration. It took me almost a month to get the perfect system. There's no way I'm going to do a "eye for an eye" exchange.
My hat is off to you. Thank you.

 

I got a message from DELLChrisM that I was the first to volunteer, but I had set some stipulations on being willing to swap. I wanted the M18x they sent to include a minor improvement in configuration with a 256GB SSD and 750GB secondary HDD (versus dual 500GB hybrids). Apparently, they were not willing to agree to that.

The important thing is that you volunteered to help and we all appreciate that... I want a fix for all of us. I hope you end up with 6990 CFX in the system they send to you.

 

I too think its kind of weird for ChrisM to want a system back that has a clean install to test....against his own words of "do not format the HDD".....

I tend to agree with Gunner here and am starting to think its "all mouth and no trousers" on Dell's behalf......surely to god anyone wanting to test for an issue would want just more than one system to test....I mean, its kinda like testing one guy's DNA and saying "nope, cant be you who did the crime" - point being, maybe he didnt do the crime BUT the crime still has been committed - just not by him. Dell might be trying to cover up the crime just by offering to test ONE system here.....(sorry for my comparisons - I get carried away lol)...heck, Im not a science graduate but even I know that you cant come to any conclusions based on testing ONE system....

 

Stevie - Chris passed our info over to engineering and someone else made all of the decisions. I don't think we can fault Chris just for being the messenger of information. I agree that testing one system does not make any sense... unless it's something they believe (or already aware) is a defect with every M18x system in production. In that case it might make no difference whether they capture more than one. Logically, you would think at least 1 AMD and 1 NVIDIA, at minimum, would be needed.

 

Yes. I totally agree Mr Fox. Its NOT ChrisM's fault - probably the opposite really.....as a Dell Liason, Chris is absolutely INVALUABLE to us AW owners and his prescene on the forums is a definite advantage as problems and issues ARE recognised and ARE adressed....something that we ALL are grateful for because otherwise, they may well go without due attention.

I dont think I have ever owned a computer whereby the manufacturers actually INTERACT with the end user - something I wholeheartedly appreciate....I may sound at times, ungrateful but its not that - that is frustration.

Lets hope Dell's Engineering Team cook up something to resolve this....basically this is the very LAST hurdle to these systems being absoultely FANTASTIC......

Dell - cure this and Im the happiest owner in the world !

 

Never said Chris said that. Guess I shoulda been more specific. I TOLD the tech I would not send the SSD that I would clone it over. He suggested a resapawn-blah, blah, blah.......

Exactly what I was thinking. When I look at the service call status on mine the error says "Missing Colors". Pffft! Whatever that means.

Happiest already. Getting this fixed would make me ecstatic!!!!!!

 

so quick question, is the windows aero thing really that big a deal, i mean i rarely use it.

please don't flame me....

 

Yes I can understand your point on this now. I was under the impression of why Do a clean install when aw does not have bloatware on them. I guess the respawn and stuff is all kind of pointless when it IS the bloatware

I just wonder though if I do a format of my crucial m4 is it going to turn my aligned 8MB OEM partition back into the unaligned 16MB OEM partition?

Man oh man. There's sooooo much stuff to do on a clean install. I was hoping to avoid it.

 

Personal preference regarding using Aero. I've yet to experience this, but I would be annoyed if it kept bugging out on me and went to the ugly blue bars. So for some yes, for others no?

 

Haha - not gonna flame you but if you bought something that should work correctly, would you not be the least bit upset if it didnt?....maybe if you bought a lightbulb and it flickered all the time...would that annoy you? - if so, same kinda thing going on here.....If i turn it on, or use it, I expect it to stay turned on and not "flicker" on and off......if I wanted flickering, I would have bought a candle if you get my drift.....

 

Thanks for the answer, how many people with 580's are affected???

 

Yes, the ugly baby-blue Windows Basic theme is extremely annoying. It would be a huge deal on any system, but especially one as expensive as the M18x. It would only not be a problem for someone that likes the look of Windows Basic or has not grow to appreciate Aero. I have not met that someone yet. Personally, I think even the old Windows Classic is more visually appealing than Basic.

It's very difficult to tell because we don't know how many 580 CFX people there are out there, and don't know how many have found this thread to comment. So far, the numbers are massively tilted toward AMD, but we know for sure that both are affected and the numbers seem to be reflective of market share.

 

I have a 580M SLI system, and just wanted to report my experience. First, I have no problems with Aero in general, EXCEPT once in a great while right after exiting a game. Windows prompts me with a message to the effect that my system is performing slowly, and would I like to turn off, specifically, Windows Aero. There are various options given (related to switching off Windows Aero), including not to show the message again.

Might it be that Windows is switching Aero off for some users as a way of improving system performance during periods of high load, such as benchmarking (which I do not do)?

 

BIOS Update A03 is now officially posted at support.dell.com

 

Good analogy.

Supports new CPUs? What new cpu's? Are they talking about the 2960XM, 2860QM & 2760QM...or current cpus?

 

Probably those you just named. Nothing in the release notes from Dell is specific. In fact "Fixes and Enhancements: Support new CPUs" is the only thing they tell us.

I flashed it while running on IGP. Nothing noticeably changed except for Aero crashing after rebooting from flash. I'm back on discreet graphics again, so I'll see if anything noticeable had changed. Also, nothing in the BIOS menu options looks any different other than it says A03 for the BIOS version now.

 

LOL, I just got my Alienware, I thought it was just part of the Alien FX.

 

I have a M17x R3 arrived last Wednesday put on all the software I use for work along with the data. Then I discovered the Fn brightness crap then whilst just reading these posts the aero thing appears.

Spoke to AW Tech who reinstalled drivers andf CCC for amd HD 6870M (yes I know its not the best card) Did not fix the issue but you all know that already. He then suggested that it might be an issue with the image that dell use so suggested that I reinstall windows 7. So i have been back in touch with my dell rep who I use for all my clients and have spent thousands of pounds with. He got an AW techy to call me. whilst discussing the M17 I asked the question is the advice to reinstall the OS as soon as you take it out the box in order to repair the issues? He hung up on me! but he did offer to take the system back and repair it for me but it would take 2 weeks. Feckers. Quick enough to take the cash though.

How can they continue to sell the product if its not working properly and the issue seems to affect the complete range of systems?

I am totally disscusted with Dell and my rep for the shoddy treatment that I have received. I am even having trouble returning the system.

Getting to the stage where I feel like calling Mrs Robinson from Rouge Traders but that might just be my age.

I know its a rant feel free to create a rant section in the forum and move it their. Had to get it off my chest.

Rob