m18x and windows aero

^^^This makkes pretty good sense you know?

 

Don't want to derail the thread but real quick-if you ever owned an R3, you know that the build quality is really good. On a scale of 1-10, I'd say 8. Not as good when compared to the sturdiness of the R1, R2, or M18-but still, nice. A lot better than what I expected. I had the same fears-plastic, rubber, flimsy-all myths. It is very sturdy, yet light and waaaaay more portable than the M18. I had one, sold it. Bought a second bc I liked the first so much. Alignment was never an issue for me. Seems they fixed that after about a month of releases. All in all, a real nice single GPU lappy. Sorry for the OT post.

 

No, don't be sorry. That's good information to know. Thanks for sharing it. Yours is the first post I have seen that pointed out those problem were fixed. I'm glad they were fixed because I have been avoiding the R3 based on all the negative reports.

 

The WinSAT is a good idea, and I want to say I encountered something about it when I had my R3. Don't remember what exactly, was like 2 weeks ago haha.

Hopefully that is what it is, sounds good too.

 

How do you disable WinSat?

 

Hey, nice suggestion. I am going to try this also. I don't think WinSAT is supposed to run at idle time. I think it is supposed to run on a schedule. Maybe this is an Alienware tweak? Scrawl, are you running a factory Alienware Windows installation or a clean one? If WinSAT is always trying to run at system idle to update the WEI score, this might explain why aero wigs out sometimes. And, with the older and more buggy Intel Sandy Bridge driver it may not be as successful recovering as it seems to be with the more recent driver. I think disabling this is a great suggestion. I think changing your visual performance settings from "Let Windows decide..." to "Best Appearance" is probably appropriate with this tweak as well.

Here's a link with screen shots: LINK

 

Open Start Menu, type in Task Scheduler. Right click, run as administrator. Navigate to Microsoft/Windows/Maintenance. Right click on WinSAT, click disable. Close Task Scheduler.

That SHOULD do the trick.

 

I've not had an Aero's crash in a few days. First thing I did was change the CCC power settings and that seemed to do the trick. I turned the power settings back on now to see what might happen.

 

Maybe it is the power settings in conjunction with the WinSAT and IGP. The power settings put the GPU's on low power, and WinSAT makes the computer thing it has a lower graphics card and needs to update the score after restarting. Kind of a dumbed down version of what is possibly happening, but could be the case...

 

When I disabled WinSAT, my benchmark scores in Vantage and 3DMark11 dropped dramatically. I'm not sure why.

I think I discovered an Alienware driver mod in the process of troubleshooting. Take a peek at my CCC screen shots on this post.

I was thinking something similar myself. This thought came to me before I discovered the Alienware driver tweak that shows up in CCC and disappears with the AMD 11.6 driver installed. After seeing the difference in drivers, I am a little more convinced this may be the case. Alienware gave us a way to disable PowerPlay in CCC using their driver. Unfortunately, the 11.6 driver outperforms their version.

 

When you say 11.6, do you mean the display driver or CCC 11.6?

 

I mean 8.861.0.0 to be precise. That's the driver version packaged with Catalyst 11.6. It's just easier to not have to answer questions from people that do not recognize 8.861.0.0 by referring to the "AMD 11.6 driver" in my posts.

 

Ahh lol, guess I'm old school. All this talk about 11.6 and my drivers were only 8.861.0.0 and I was wondering how the eff that happened. =P

 

Ughhhhhh!!! Gimp! Gimp! Gimp! Can I vote more than once??? Still having the stupid problems. Nothing seems to replicate. Gonna place a call to AW tomorrow and see where it goes.

 

Just checked my desktop PC - WinSAT is also scheduled with identical settings. Doesn't appear to be Alienware-specific.

I'm running a Windows installation from the supplied Alienware DVD. Non-Dell drivers for the chipset, IGP and Radeons. Dell drivers for everything else.

Now for a few more interesting observations:

I just checked my WEI score and noticed it was last updated at exactly the same time Aero failed to load.

When re-running the WEI assessment, Aero gets disabled. After the test completes, it comes back.

After assessment completed, I received a different score for graphics and gaming graphics. Both jumped from 7.2 to 7.6.

I suspect changing to "Best appearance" may not neccessarily have the same effect as this won't stop the WinSAT scheduled task from re-assessing the system and therefore sending a request to disable Aero.

 

Thanks for checking your desktop settings. The other observations are also interesting.

Are you still running without any sign of aero problems since WinSAT was disabled? I am on a business trip without my M18x until next Saturday. I will try this again when I get home. I am still having much improved results with the update from Intel installed, but aero quit working on me once this morning. It came back without having to reboot.

 

Aero works most of the time. But once in a while, transparency and live thumbnails go berserk. Stopping and restarting the service (net stop uxsms) doesn't work. Sometimes disabling and enabling the GPU works but other times it doesn't. Only 100% working solution is rebooting. Not a deal breaker but it's kinda annoying.

 

Mr.Fox,

How are you finding things atm, with your Intel Driver and Aero? - care to report on your findings so far? - Have you been testing out with 3dMark06 as it seems to be a very good way to bring about the "Aero Scenario"

Looking forward to any news mate.

 

About 48 hours now since I disabled WinSAT and no sign of the aero bug. The laptop saw plenty of resets and graphics switching during that time while I've been slowly migrating everything across from my desktop PC.

I noticed 3dMark10 disables aero during the benchmarking - always came back without issue.

Will keep an eye on it over the next few days.

 

I have disabled WinSAT, set windows to 'best appearance', installed 11.6 drivers-still had the issue once yesterday. Just on a random reboot. Then I rebooted again. STill there. Third time it was gone. Killing me........

 

Stevie - I have posted several times on this already, but you must have not seen the posts. In short, the Intel update is definitely worthy of installation. I cannot believe you haven't already installed it. I recommend you do so. You should be running on the Intel IGP during installation. It brings about a dramatic improvement (meaning significantly decreased frequency) for me. I am going to disable WinSAT in Windows Tasks again, as that is being reported as helpful also. With the Intel update applied, aero continues working (does not switch to Basic) while running 3DMark06. I posted screen shots demonstrating that also, because I found it hard to believe it even seeing that with my own eyes.

Here is a link with a chronological list of all of my posts to save you some time searching for them. LINK

 

Thanks Fox.....I have been somewhat otherwise engaged and haven paid due attention to all posts here I will have a recap and bring myself up to speed.

I have an Orion M18x Backpack on order....must be short stocked or something because EDD is mid August - good job I really dont need it....I feel for ya, being away from access to the beast is like going into pc rehab LOL.....im sure you will enjoy your next "fix" when you get the opportunity

 

Will the 6 people that voted "i have issues with aero and have a nvidia gpu" please post and elaborate on your experience to clarifying we are not dealing with a different perception of what the aero issues are. It seems that the frequency of aero problems is greater with AMD GPUs, but it may be just as frequent for NVIDIA owners because we do not know the distribution of AMD versus NVIDIA as needed to interpret the poll results accurately.

 

I would expect more AMD owners than nVidia to begin with. Only reason I went nVidia was the chance to use 3DTV Play and 3D Vision. As I mentioned in an earlier post, transparency and thumbnail previews don't appear from time to time and in random moments. A reboot solves it all the time and sometimes a GPU enable/disable. WEI score is 5.9 (which I estimate will be in the 7.5 minimum range once I get my SSD set up). I have noticed similar though less frequent occurrences on my E6410.

 

Mr. Fox I downloaded the Intel update from the link you provided, and tried installing it while running on the IPG, but I got a message saying that setup didn't recognise any compatible hardware, any idea why that might be?

 

No idea why that would be, Ryan. It worked like a charm for me and apparently others that installed it. You may find something on this thread.

 

Dell Liason ChrisM just posted in the Dell forum on this.....asking us all if we had ran the Microsoft "fix" for this.......hmmmmmmm - says Vista and not windows 7.....


Microsoft Fix

 

Bout to break out the Beast and try it.

 

Hmmmmmm! "No problems detected so no fix will be applied". Nope, didn't work.

 

It's because you have an M17x R3, and the drivers they provide install the IGP drivers too (or so I am told). I had this same issue.

 

delete please (mispost)

 

Yes the intel fix houses the IGP driver too, that's one of the main points, but there shouldn't be any problem as both the R3 and the M18X share the same IGP, so what exactly is the problem I have no idea

 

I'm onto my fourth day now since disabling the WinSAT scheduled task. Aero has yet to drop out on me with either the IGP or 6970M.

Still too early to call it a success, but it's a definite improvement over what I was experiencing prior.

To recap, the steps I took:

1. Boot into 6970M mode.
2. Open Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Task Scheduler
3. In Task Scheduler, browse to Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows > Maintenance
4. Right-click WinSAT and choose 'disable'
5. Quit TaskScheduler.
6. Back in the Start menu, search for "Check the Windows Experience Index" and run it
7. Click "re-run the assessment" in the bottom right.

If you visit The Windows Experience screen in the future, you'll be warned that the hardware has changed and you should re-run the assessment. Ignore it.

I installed the Intel Graphics Drivers 15.22.1.64.2361 and AMD 11.6 drivers.

 

Gonna follow this 'Guide' real quick and start a count like Scrawl.

 

Sad to report Aero just failed on me during a switch from the IGP to 6970.

Nothing suspicious in the event log this time, just "The Desktop Window Manager has encountered a fatal error (0x88980406)".

You can actually see it fail too - Aero loads for a millisecond then disappears when dwm fails.

I'm starting to get the feeling it's hardware/driver related.

My next step is to disable PowerPlay and see how that goes.

 

I had a solid week of no crash and it crashed yesterday. I rebooted and it was good to go again.

 

Scrawl, I agree with you. I'm not a betting man, but I am pretty much convinced this is a driver issue based on simple observations. I believe there are some conflicting instructions in the drivers and/or registry database (which is communicating instructions between the Windows 7 OS and the drivers) that is causing Aero to crash. There could be some improper BIOS firmware coding having an effect, but most likely limited to drivers.

Installing the updated Intel driver, along with installing the latest AMD drivers and disabling WinSAT, has demonstrated dramatic improvements to this situation. It's obviously not fixed completely, but much better than when we started out with a brand new M18x. (I am speaking for myself, but the posts I have read suggest others have seen similar improvements as well.)

The immature marriage of the Intel HD 3000 and dual-GPU discreet graphics on the same platform is bound to carry some issues that need to be worked out. If this were actually a hardware, vBIOS or system BIOS problem, I doubt we would have seen such remarkable improvements from updating drivers and system tweaks.

Despite the improvements, we still need this issue to be completely cured. Since Dell is responsible for selling this cutting edge hardware combination, we need them to take an active role in assisting with the resolution. If you have not already done so, please visit the Dell Community Forum and contribute to the discussion there as well.

Re: M18x Aero issues - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

Re: M18x Windows 7 Aero Issues and "Dead Space" at top of Windows Desktop - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community

 

I hear crickets chirping... has the Aero issue vanished, or just occurring so rarely now that it is merely an occasional annoyance?

 

Its here. We've just lost our voices from crying about it so much. Dear Dell,
I hate you.

 

For me, it happens not often. If so, I just close my session and reopen it to get it works.

 

Joce21 - what exactly does this mean? Does this mean you log-off/log-on or reboot? Or, manually kill and restart explorer.exe?

 

No issues here even after reinstalling video drivers and fixing performance in games. I have yet to see the bug, been doing plenty of 3DMark runs, cold and warm boots, battery-AC switching, etc.

Will move everything to a new SSD in a couple of days, crossing my fingers.

 

I ran Vantage, 3DMark11 and 3DMark06 this evening and had no issues with Aero. I'm not sure why it is behaving so well. What is interesting is that running 3DMark06 (as I previously posted) does not cause Windows to switch into Basic mode. Aero continues functioning at all times.

 

Aero worked fine for me, up until I tabbed out of a full-screen game (Think it was Mass Effect 2). After tabbing out, the desktop changed to the ugly old desktop experience, and no where I can revert back to Aero.

Tried to do do the Windows Experience Index again, nothing happened. Tried adding some register keys, no results. I'm now trying the Dell original drivers.. sigh.

 

Don't waste your time. There is no known fix for this issue. Unless of course you wouldn't mind running on windows 7 basic all of the time

 

I still havent updated to Intel's latest HD 3000 driver - neither have I disabled WinSAT, mainly because my system has generally been behaving pretty well regarding Aero. Maybe I havent noticed it so much as I havent been running Mark'06 of late.....I havent had a "flake out" in some time due to cold boot/restart etc etc....

I have just launched '06 (didnt run the bench) and exited after it changed to Basic Theme and it did NOT revert to the Aero theme that was running before so I guess its still there.....just that I havent experienced it a great deal.

Simply knowing that it IS there will force me into trying some of these suggested fixes. I just wanted to see how things went before doing so......

 

Steviejones, I think you will get better results with the update Intel IGP driver and WinSAT disabled. It may even boost your benchmark scores. It seems that somehow, behind the scenes... maybe new or modified keys in the Windows Registry... something about the Intel IGP update is having a positive effect on the discreet graphics system.

There's really no downside and Aero does not balk frequently with both of those changes in place. I am also running Catalyst 11.6. The problem is only frequent for me when running everything stock as it came from Alienware.

What seems amazing to me is that 3DMark06 runs in Aero mode with the above updates and tweaks. This is the first system I have ever used that will do that. I know some of you have used 3DMark06 to see if the bug is still there because it invokes Windows Basic, but it does not in my case and I am getting excellent 3DMark06 scores. Has anyone else found 3DMark06 to run in Aero mode after updating to the latest Intel and AMD reference drivers and disabling WinSAT? Just curious, since I am the only one commenting about it.

 

Not happened once on my 580m's.

That said, I did get as many drivers from Station-Drivers: le site de drivers, bios, firmwares avec un forum d'aide as possible.

Running these intel drivers - intel drivers pour chipsets Graphiques
I've not had any problems what so ever on on the nvidia machine and on the amd machine (still the old 6970 model) I've yet to encounter the problem.

I'm far more likely to encounter the problem on the nvidia m18x as I switch to discrete when I'm at home and integrated while on travel/business. So quite often but for the few times I've done it on the amd setup I've still kept aero, even with aero disabling apps.

Fingers crossed.

 

aero problem as soon as i ran WEI

 

Did you get yours already?!!