m18x and windows aero

Me too.

10char

 

Do you have steam? if so add me. skygunner27. I added Mr. Fox today.
I wonder what happend to Maverick??????????

 

I will add you mate - as soon as I get some games installed lol.....problem solving is tedious....I need to get my SSD clean installed and then set my beast up once and for all time lol (touch "soft touch plamrest" instead of wood!)

Havent heard from Mav for some time! - I hope he got his problems sorted......

 

i pm'ed him to see what's up. i hoping he wasn't serious about flying to miami...lol.

 

Urgh, I can now personally confirm this happens on both the nvidia and amd based setups.
A friend actually called in desperation he was so annoyed with his 460m's, he doesn't have the intel driver installed as he doesn't plan on ever using it. Adds to the confusion, eh?

It also finally happened on my to-be-returned-soon amd m18x since the driver update for the first time.
I was about to rip a blu ray when cyberlink opened to try to play it and reset my desktop settings to basic as I hadn't set it up it yet. Blam, stuck in basic.

 

Yeah, I miss Mav, Joker, Erawneila, and so many others too. Perhaps they become tired of all this? Personally I learned a lot from them. As far as I know Joker, (as I did myself) send back is M18x...

In another focus of the same issue that we all seems to have experimented in different moment and different issues (or most of us, according to tis forum and others) regarding the 'apparently' lack of a total quality control ( of parts, assembling, manufacturing, boxing, post-sell service, etc.) of such a high level (costly?) product; maybe my question is too naive, but, anyway: why costumers of AW can't organize to demand from Dellienware "another" treatment?

I remember back in the far past, consumers filed a lawsuit against Toshiba regarding a 'bug; in the supplied FDD that Toshiba refuse to acknowledg ( maybe I was among the few that didn't suffer from it) and they finally won the required attention (and in a lot of cases a significant compensation) as they deserved.

 

I found some information on this Aero bug where owners of certain Lenovo laptops were having this problem. They resolved it by disabling virtualization technology (VT-d) in bios. I've done this and since, cannot reproduce this problem. Aero is even switching back correctly after exiting 3dMark. Hope this helps.

 

You do realize that you are asking for something that cannot be had

Awesome find! +1 rep

 

I sent in a petition, I worded it in a way that there was an aero problem I am aware of.

(I didn't tell them this part that I don't have my M18x yet) ........... stickin up for the team.

Worth a shot?

 

Skygunner, been waiting for you to post on this........... are you enabled or disabled in bios already? I got my fingers crossed for ya.

 

+1 Rep, i'm going to give this a shot tonight and see If I can watch a Blu-ray movie without it happening.

 

Awesome find, Nick. I cannot wait to hear from skygunner and steviejones if this fixed it for them. +1 rep for finding this. Let's hope it is a 100% fix for everyone.

 

I'm going to try it in a few minutes....today I had my plate full.
downlaoded and played Supreme commander 2 for 3.75USD from Steam...thanks to Mr. Fox for the info on the sale. Played some SC2. Played some NFS:HP.I won some and lost some


tryin it now. +1 rep!!

 

I ran 6 3dmark06 test total & 2 resets.....so far so good!!!

 

I'm liking the sound of this! - Q. What is the Virtualization tech there for in the first instance? - disabling it in Bios - knock-on effects???? (Just curious)

 

__________

 

Gonna give it a shot - great info +rep from me.....hope it works all the time!

 

What are the side effects of disabling virtualization technology.

 

VT-d allows for assigning physical hardware directly to virtual devices. Very useful if you are running serious VM's. Unlike VT-x which is dependant on what cpu model you have, VT-d is dependant on the motherboard maker.

As someone who runs a dedicated VM of server 2k8 r2 (till I get my physical server back online) this isn't really an option but it's clear that the problem is related to the motherboard.

 

Well, ive disabled virtualization in bios. I did three runs of 3dmark06 but Aero crapped out again after the fourth run. Wouldnt return to an active aero theme, just stuck on basic. Restart required.

Returning to previous settings.....again, worth a shot but its a no-go for me unfortunately....

 

That's a shame about the result, nice one for trying anyway.

 

Yeah, its a shame.

Ive just been on the phone with AMD. As much use as a chocolate fireguard!

 

Ive also reported this problem to the driver support team at AMD.

Maybe we could ALL do the same......

AMD Driver Support Survey

 

My friend: I'm old enough to acknowledge the value of that old say: "never say never"... Have a fruitful and happy new week!

 

What I meant was not "never". You should realize that NBR polls won't help much, it's like trying to hit the moon with stones - interesting but futile

If you really want to see some changes be prepared to sacrifice a lot, and I'm not talking about money.

 

I know that your words are backed up both in knowledge and experience. But, even so, A year ago, when I write about some issues to Michael Dell, I do get an answer. Not just a "politically correct" one. And he was very aware of this and other forums I mentioned. So, I still want to believe that he will be still listening and open to constructive ideas as far as they are representing a signficant amount of cases. He did not forgot, even for a moment, how he open his company listening to costumer needs from his home garage... I do accept your bright ideas and initiative but I do not agree with your metaphor on stones and the moon. When we started the complain agians Toshiba, even our own lawyers tell us that we are triying to "tickle an elephant with breezes of breaths"... but all the complains toghether become a little tornado and get not just the attention we look for, but even the the solution of the problem and a indminizacion...

So, cost nothing to get costumers toghether to define and write an educated and polite letter signed by the costumers (even a little mass of them) exposing (and complaining, why not?) our case regarding the apparently lack of a transparent Total Quality Control and Assurance of such a costly machine expressed by the so many issues we have been experiencing.

Dell is a giant, but I do believe he is sensible to the costumers. As Michael Dell write to me in the past: {quote}"Hearing directly from customers is important to me, [...] One of the best ways for us to learn what you need (and what you don’t) is to hear it directly from you. [...]"{end quote}

My own daughter in NY has an apparently impossible to solve issues with her Dell machine and particularly with the tech. services... She was ready to forget her machine and buy a new one. At this point, as a last resource, she also write to M.D. and to her surprise she gets a phone call apologizing and offering her all the help she needed to solve the issue (which also involves third party parts). And it was solved to her complete satisfaction. Those are just micro-samples why I'm a costumer of Dell for so many years and why I recommend it with confidence to my colleagues, students and their institutions in many countries (so far, 32).

Did I forgot to say that I'm a believer of costumers power?

 

For the past 15 years in IT I participated in many "call to arms" in attempts to make some changes. Yes, there were numerous lawsuits and mass petitions and yes, some of them were answered. I personally wrote to M.D. twice and both letters were answered promptly. I also worked together with Dell/AW product and quality control managers in the past and it was also partially successful, IMHO. But it didn't change the global trend. The majority of people wish to have more for less $$$ and they get what they ask for but there's always a sacrifice deep in the system to achieve that.

When people say "for the money I pay it better be flawless", I have only one reply - buy an Apple product. But it's not enough for us, we need more features, more compatibility options! We would like to have the most powerful mobile system in the world with supreme cooling, zillion of connectivity options, upgradeability, WirelessHD, graphics switching, battery life, tons of color choices, best screen, best design and adamantite build quality! We wish to be able to game on it and work on it! We need the best warranty and support! And all that for 1999$ And Dell says - "Sure! here you go folks! Enjoy it!"
Do you realize how greatly increases the R&D cost with the number of features and options offered in this case? Corners will have to get cut somewhere. And they do get cut and people receive bricks. And it's not just Dell, - Lenovo, HP and others are right on par, lol. We test dozens of high-end machines daily and trust me, M18x is by far the most stable machine up to date from what I see with the least QC issues out of the box.

 

I do agree with almost all of your words but... My colleagues and I (we talk quite a lot about the issue) are not such a naive to expect to get all what we expect for... 1999$... All of us have laptop machines that have cost (more or less) more than 4500$... (that's the average). Some of us have machine that have cost us more than 6500$ and still, we deserve to get "out-of-the-box" a working machine with all the goodies that were promoted by the producer... Not more, not less. It's a matter of reliability. The costumer must know that there is a total quality control of the product she/he buy and the producer is totally responsible for it to be adequate and 'working' just our of the package/wraper/box. A bread or a computer. If you buy a bread (of a definite type and category) at some supermarket, just for a few bucks, you still deserve to receive a quality bread. One that can be eaten right out of its packet without "issues". One that contain exactly what the envelope says, with no mess, no added hair of a rats or cockroaches legs, etc.. Just the eatible bread that was offered in the advertisements. No more, no less.

Its' not a question of how much you pay. We are ready to pay the requiered price for what was advertized as the "ultimate", the "state of the art" the "flagship", the "best of all without competition", etc. With each one of its parts adequatedly working or functioning just as it was advertized it will. But for THAT price we demand just what was advertized by the brand producer. Not more, not less.

Or maybe they should write in the advertizing and the envelop: "Beware: this product may not work as expected with the Windows Aero" (but, for this, they may have had to control check, prior to advertizing the product...)

 

Well... Like I said, you can buy MBP and it will most likely work as advertised...most likely.

 

Ok, with all that being said...what do we need to do as a whole to get the Aero Bug(M18x), Sleep brightness Resume(M18x, R2, & R3), USB Hanging at Post(M18x) and plugged in not charging(some M18x & R2) fixed?
With all the fun I've had with Dell/AW, I do believe that this is my last AW laptop. I will max this system out as far as my pockets/compatibility will allow. It is imperative to some, that Dell/AW get this system working properly in a timely manner instead of ditching the unit & creating another model to replace it.

 

Never! ( and on that I know why I can say the "never") I'm loyal to Dell products and it's world wide warranty (and I know exactly why ) Ihave had wonderful machines from Dell that do exactly what I buy (and pay).

 

Both of you have excellent points. When an individual gets to the right person at Dell, whether Mr. Dell himself, or a caring and conscientious Tech Support rep, action follows. (As I mentioned yesterday, good help is hard to find.) Dell does better at this in my experience than their competitors. Many people have been relieved by contacting Michael Dell, and he certainly is a stand-up guy that remembers his humble beginnings based on everything I have heard. It seems to mean something to him that his products bear his name.

As much as I dislike like their products, I think that Jobs and Wozniak bring the same ownership dynamic to Apple. When it's YOUR NAME on the line, it changes things. There's no such dynamic in play with HP, Toshiba, .Sony, Gateway, Acer, et al. (Just look at what happened when Raul sold VoodooPC to HP. What a sad ending to VoodooPC. Raul got a good job and some cash out of the deal, but HP literally destroyed his creation.)

Aikimox, some of your comments about the cost of R&D fit with my comments yesterday to SOS. You are right on target here. We want to have our cake and each it too, but we cannot have it without paying for it. If Dell/Alienware built near flawless machines, they would have a price tag much higher than we currently see. And, your comment about the corners being cut in the same way with all computer OEMs is dead-on accurate. As long as price is an issue for customers, the R&D department is going to be on a shoestring budget and machines will be released with bugs. As I mentioned yesterday, if Alienware were to take the time to work out every bug before taking their products to market, they would be last out and the highest prices. Technology would be aged prior to release of their systems and customers would find another source for their technology addiction. Those are not viable options for any company in our current day and age. It's not possible to do a down and dirty test on a couple of sample hardware models and expect there will be no glitches and known issues when a myriad of hardware/software combinations are put into play. This is especially true on machines with hardware as elaborate as the M17x and M18x product lines.

Taking legal action seldom results in a satisfactory outcome. When you add lawyers and judges into the mix, greed overshadows results and it places customers in an adversary role with the company they are expecting satisfaction from. A lawsuit is essentially a declaration of civil war, heavily laden with rules of procedure and as far away from a "civil" remedy as you can get. The gloves come off and the needs of the customer become irrelevant in light of the need to win (protect assets and set a precedent).

The result of the very recent NVIDIA Class Action is a perfect example of what a joke this can turn out to be. I am one of the class members. HP got off scot-free for producing poorly engineered products, (even though their poor engineering significantly magnified the NVIDIA defect,) so they were not a co-defendant as they should have been. However, HP will ultimately suffer due to the customers they have alienated by not standing behind the products they sold (back-stab #1). The settlement agreement was fair in word, but not in application. HP customers were to receive "a replacement computer of like or similar kind and value" in exchange for their defective HP notebook. Nobody received that, so the verbiage of the settlement agreement was totally worthless in the end. Instead, class members ( HP "customers") ended up with inexpensive Asus netbooks to replace expensive HP tablets, and bottom-end, stripped down Compaq sub-$300 notebooks as replacements for machines with many more features and originally costing at least twice as much. (Bear in mind that HP had "advisors" on a panel to help identify what HP product would be "of like or similar kind and value"... back-stab #2 from HP.) And, it took over 2 years to "resolve" it through litigation. It is a losing proposition for everyone, except for the attorneys involved. (Milberg, LLP represented the class and got paid $13M out of the deal, while class members that paid $600 to $2,000 for HP notebooks and tablets all got the same $299 turd Compaq or an Asus netbook.)

 

+1 Rep! I could not agree with you more. I don't say never about many things, but I will go out on a limb and say: (1) I will never purchase another HP computer ever again; and, (2) I will never purchase products from crApple.

 

Man, your'e a real wise Fox... I have had so many laptops of all the brands... even not always mine, but from the institutions I'd work with/for them... And, I must say with total confidence: As far as I can see, I will stick with Dell's machines ( without saving from them my constructive observations and criticism).

 

Unless you have a reason to run a virtual machine, there are no side effects. VT-d does not offer any advantages to people that do not use virtual machines, so having it enabled in the BIOS is irrelevant to those users. VT-d allows VM users to run a 64bit VM and have basic graphics acceleration features available in the virtual environment (including Aero in some cases). This makes the GUI more cosmetically appealing.

 

I did a clean install of Win 7. Installed the drivers using BatBoys tutorial. Upgraded to Ult. online. Have not had an issue yet. I will run 3D 06 when I get home and see if anything happens. Any other ideas that may reproduce the issue I should try???

 

Congratulations! If you don't have it... don't reproduce it! Why should you need / search problems?
If you get ride of the issue, you can experiment but only when there is a known way to get ride of it...

 

I just restarted my M18x and was greeted to the Aero Bug.
Does anyone have a non-Dell/AW version of Windows 7 installed? I know that Microsoft support can fix this. Their India support is amazing. The problem is they will not help Dell/AW customers because our copies were bought at a discount/bulk.

 

^^^Because if I can make it happen again, the issue still lurks somewhere in the system or hardware. If I can't reproduce it, I KNOW the problem is completely gone with a fresh install and subsequnet driver and OS upgrades. That would then let others know or narrow down what the original issue may be. Right???

 

I understand your good intentions... but... if you get ('succeed') to reproduce it... and then you can get ride of it anymore? Are you ready to pay the price?

 

I did a fresh install of W764 & updates a few days after I got my M18x. It took 3 days for the Aero Bug to show up. I installed the Dell/AW copy of W764 because a tech saw that my version of Windows had a retail key not an OEM key.

He said that Dell/AW can void your warranty for using a retail copy of W764. His supervisor said the same thing....so I reverted back to the OEM version.

 

That's another absurdity!

 

You can download the W7x64 ISO on this thread. All the instructions are in the first post. This works fine for me and a number of other folks. (I see no reason to complicate the process using the 3 file method, the ISO worked great.) I used the Product Key from the factory installation--the one in Windows, not the COA--on my Alienware to install it. Using your OEM Product Key probably will not help you get support from Microsoft, however. If anything, it will do the opposite. You can also purchase a retail key online directly from Microsoft and use it with this download.

I agree SOS, that is ludicrous. 'gunner, I have no doubt you were told that, but I do not believe it's true. What they probably meant and did not articulate well is that Alienware will not provide any warranty support for an OS that they did not provide with the system, same as Microsoft will not support an OEM OS. Changing the OS should not affect your hardware warranty, especially if it is the exact same OS. If you already have a retail W764 that Microsoft will support, I would reinstall that and give it a shot.

 

I had the issue from the factory before the clean install . And now, since I can't 'make' it happen, leads me to believe it is a software issue.
What price?? A reformat??? Like 2 hours time. I don't have anything on it that I'll lose and so forth.
As far as getting rid of it-it was always temporary anyway-but I just changed my theme, then back to whatever I wanted and it was gone till the next time. I tend to think it is a software issue somewhere.

Still haven't had it happen yet........

 

When my M18x arrives, I think I will create an image of the factory RAID setup including Respawn partition. I am also going to go into the BIOS to disable VT-d before allowing Windows to load for the first time to see if that has any effect. If I can contain my enthusiasm and demonstrate enough self-discipline, I am also going to create the drive image before allowing Windows to load for the first time. If I have this aero bug, I plan to take the drives out of RAID0 and do a clean install using the OS download mentioned in the post above.

 

Have you ran 3dmark06 since? - its still there if your system doesnt automatically return to a previously running Aero theme....

 

stevie and skygunner - I wonder if running regedit and changing all instances of EnableCrossFireAutoLink to a value of 1 and all instances of Enableulps to a value of 0, then doing a driver-only (sans CCC) install will do anything for this problem? (Use the find feature in regedit to locate all instances... there are quite a few. These keys are generally right next to each other in each registry database folder, so search for one, make all changes, then search for the other to confirm none were overlooked.) I run this tweak on my R2 and it works excellent. The first tweak permanently forces CFX into working at all times, eliminating the need to have CCC installed to enable CFX, and the second tweak allows changing of memory and core clock values. Eliminating CCC also prevents AMD PowerPlay from throttling back the CFX modules to preserve electricity. (I hate throttling anyway. )

Anyone wish to give it a shot? At this point, what's the harm in trying? If it works, then we will have proof that AMD software is the culprit. If the problem is still present it could still be an AMD driver issue, but it might be CCC screwing things up. Wasn't it scook9 that has CCC startup disabled and having no aero bug issue?

 

Before I try your suggestion, I may well try disabling CCC at startup. I forgot about that one.....see how that goes first.....

 

CCC has always been sort of buggy. For years I used ATI Tray Tools instead of CCC and ran modded ATI drivers from Guru3D. I don't know whether that utility works on our current Radeon Mobility CFX systems. I am going to look into that to find out.

 

Just ran 3D 06 and my Aero is back and looking good. My score sucked-17368. Sooooo. What now??? How many of you have installed Trixx? I haven't since my fresh install. Could it be the culprit?


EDIT: Restart and it is back after running 3D 06. Poop!!!