M17/Ocz Whitebook Quad Problems

please let us know the results of the sound card.

and when you get your laptop you can help ys out to.

i think it is a bios and hardware issue also. because no matter what you do it fixes it for a short time but it comes back. i will do more research.

 

Well tonight I ran the whole computer all night with the battery out, and played my game with no problems whatsoever (Ok WoW froze once after 6 hours of play, but the issues described above did not appear beforehand, it just randomly froze as i was mounting up after entering dalaraan on my swift flyer so I chock that up as a fluke). The only possible other thing different, is that it may be colder in my room then usual. I'll try running with the battery out again tomorrow, because there are days when I've run fine all night before with the battery in as well (hence the reason i thought my previous posts had fixed the issue).

 

i will like to gather some information from you. i will also post mine up when i got home.
what chipset driver are you using. is it from intel or alienware. last night i was running intel's driver and i was jittering instead of stuttering. but i didn't do enough test.

what video driver are you using. i am using 9.4 i will be testing others but we can kill two birds with one stone.

what are your tempertures. and what other games do you have.


i am going to set mines to 6x and see what happens. can you also post your voltage you can use rmclock to see what your max and your min is.

also can you run wow or a benchmarking game with only one stick of ram.

 

Everything on my machine is stock from Alienware drivers, chipsets, everything (read my lengthy post above)

My temps never run over the low 60's C.

I have Crysis but its still in the box hehe.

And I haven't run any benchmarks, because quite frankly, I'm quite content just knowing that the lappy runs my game the way I want, and in the configuration I purchased it.

 

Crysis wars runs so good with 1.5 patch

 

Ran with battery out again today with same issues. Opened up Alienware Command Center, and changed power profile to High Performance. Issue gone. Did this while on Skype with static, when on High Performance, static gone, back to Balanced, static reappeared, back to High performance, static gone. Ran the rest of the night playing WoW with it on High performance, no issues. Its looking like a power related issue. Hell if thats all it took, I can live with it for now like that.

So although its related to power profiles and "sleep mode" is part of the power profile, as I stated before, I get this when i start my computer fresh, not after a sleep operation. Theres something else going on in the Balanced Power Profile, thats causing the issue I think.

 

i have an idea. but i am not home to test this out myself.

set your computer to balanced and then go to the advanced setting and set the pci link management to off then try moderate power settings, then maxime power settings. and let my know the results.

 

ok i just of an idea. i am going to use setfsb and shoot more power to the pci slots and see what happens. hehehehehehehe. i really hope this the solution. because i thinl the the power isn't getting to all the slots as halogod pointed out. i will post results.

 

on a lot of higher end mobos they have a async and sync feature for oc'ing. for instance my wife's dekstop has the fsb at 395 and the pci bus at 110 up from 100 that was the only way to get it stable over 4ghz so that is a good point and may be of some help..

 

Hey guyz im not going to claim to know what i did right or didnt do wrong but i can tell you that i have had no stuttering whatsoever (audio, mouse or fps) since i did a fresh install of windows and got the qx9300 - thats about a week or so (not even after hours of playin crysis warhead or supreme commander).
Ill give you all the specs here and you can replicate my installation if you want to perhaps get rid of the problems. Again i just might have luck but i had to do something right not to have it anymore..

Right here goes:
my hardware specs are in my sig.. if youre asking why only 3ghz oc, its becouse i simply dont need more raw cpu power.. i already ran it at 3,2 normaly but i just didnt want to try more.

Software:
Installed windows 7 beta build 7077 and registered with a beta key i got from microsoft, i install all updates that are available - windows defender definitions updates mostly
Installed E-wreckeds modded 8.12 drivers and ccc since they are the ONLY ones that scale in windows 7 (make sure full screen scaling is enabled in ccc).. i tried em all and they are really the only full working ones..
installed the latest high definition audio drivers from realtek site (2.11 if i remember right)
i didnt install any touchpad or mouse drivers! my mouse works fine without them (agama 2 genius)
installed the latest chipset drivers from intel.. dont ask me for the number, its too long
installed fingerprint drivers from aw and the vitakey hotfix
used the hotkey manager to assign shortcuts for the hotkeys
installed osd from aw
did not install bluetooth.. i dont use it and windows 7 installed the drivers itself anyway..
didnt install wlan either.. windows did it for me too and it works great after setting it up like it should be in device manager (no power saving!)..
installed avast and than all other programs i use.
I use the high performance power plan, no power savings on anything and i set the minimum processor state to 25%.

I hope this helps you.. this is probably the last post ill make regarding the stuttering issues with quads. (unless it starts again )

 

thanks for the info. i will replicate your settings. except i have windows 7 7000 build and see what happens. i might just go back to vista

 

can someone link me to the latest intel chipset drivers? and how would you deinstall the old ones and reinstall the new ones?

 

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/CS-029319.htm

here you go.

this is from mr moo.

 

1st post is updated. anything advice you think i should try or put up post or pm.

 

Ok so I'm not really sure what is happening with mine at all. Its already been sent back to them, I thought everything was fine but obviously the problem is still here.

 

ok today i called ocz. (as a knowlegdable customer but slow) and the first person said to me "oh it is your hdd." i told them that i put 2 different hdd's and in raid and single and he kept on telling me the hdd is the problem. he said to download some software to test my hdd. so i said ok and hung up and called back.

the second one on the other hand asked me alot of questions. (questions i wasn't excepting me to answer from a company) he asked my ram, hdd, cpu(i was excepting that) but then he asked "if i ran memtest"(i said to myself woah can we talk about that ). i said "yes for hours". then he said if i ran prime95(i was like dam i like this dude not because he is helping me out but because he i telling me programs that should really work.) then he asked me the question

"about my hdd" i told he my hdd is fine and i formatted over 8 times(it was really like 10+) but because i don't feel like typing much more, he said that my hdd may cause it so i would like to asked a couple of questions to everyone. even though my hdd is fine and i have tried alot of different modes(single, raid) just to get it out as a possibleity


can you please post your hdd specs. (company, speed catch, do you have it raided if so what. and your experince. ex: are you stuttering and how bad.

mines:
Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD4000BEVT 400GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive i am stuttering like no other,


i know it seems stupid but after all these trys and experment, i really don't know what to do. i know a bios flash will maybe solve it but i really can't wait for them. this problem has been going on since it came out.

i have done other things to help the performance of my system and make it cooler but it hasn't helped the main problem of this thread so it doesnt make sense to post it.

 

Seagate Momentus 7200.4 ST9500420AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive

 

Double WD Scoripo 7200rpm 320gb 16mb cache in raid0. No stuttering still.

 

do you know who you spoke with?

i can pretty much say for sure its not the hdd. id almost bet that is not the issue. there is not one model causing this. ill call them tomm and see who told you that and why

 

Ok so I was on with Alienware UK tech support for 2 and half hours last night, trying things and fixing things. At the end of it, Crysis worked on full spec with DX10 and no problems, as did my DJ software which previously didn't. However sometimes the shuttering happened and sometimes it didn't previously so I will test it this evening and let you all know. If this works I will post the exact steps I went through.

My 3dMark06 test got me around 13700-800. And I'm at stock settings.

 

500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive (Whatever Alienware put in it) I think its a Seagate Momentus though.

 

Id also say that the hd isnt to blame here.. i already had 6 different hard drives and solid state drives not raided and raided in my m17 and all stuttered. I only got a break from stuttering now after getting my new cpu and doing a fresh install of windows 7 as i explained earlier.

 

Update #1:


Ok so good news so far. I have no shuttering problems, my laptop has been on for nearly 2 hours, I have been working on project documentation for my website and listening to music the entire time. So far no shuttering has occured. When I get home from college this evening I will put my laptop on, leave it on for around 30 minutes, run my DJ software, run Crysis on full with DX10 and post results.

But so far so good and this could be the fix.

Update #2:

Ok just ran Cysis Dx10 there quickly before I go to college and it didn't run that great, it lagged a bit, but it didn't seem like it was the previous problem, more the graphics cards trying to run everything. However DX9 worked perfectly, very slight graphical lag and no sound shutter. My resolution was 1600x1200, NO AA and All other graphics set to high. So again this could be the fix. I'll just post my 3dMark06 results again they where around 13700-800. I will give my final update when I get home, hope this helps.

 

i don't remember there names i thought it was a big set of people and it wasn't inportant. at least next time i will write it down. i know the hdd sounds iffy, but i can't think of anything else. so i am gathering info. i may mess with the ram timings and see what happens.

i see your at stock settings. so are you using the alienware bios or the ocz one? even if it didn't work just post any way and i can tell you what i did and didn't do.

 

I might be able to go talk to who fixed your machine in depot and what they did irishhenchin... PM sent.

 

thanks for that. it seems that you tried alot of hdd to prove it so i don't have to get my seagate 120gb and get a 7200rpm drive to test it out. it was just a thought and i believe that it was farfetched but i am still not ruling it out yet i am going to do alittle bit more research to make sure it is 100% not it. i know that eletrosoft has not issues so i am waiting for him to. (thanks you all for responding. i don't want you to say "oh this is stupid i am not going back on this, but we are trying to gather information to see what is the issue.)

i see your at stock settings. but i can almost rule out the cpu clock at i set my multiplier on 6x(1.6ghz and ir ran like garbage.) 3dmark gave me 8500.

do you have any other games, i have crysis and i don't have anything against it but i still til now don't think it uses crossfire effectively.(it uses sli. it's a nvidia game.) i compared my system to the msi which has a single 4850 and i beat it in every single benchmark(it was overclocked and i was stocked on gpus(t9400 @2.53ghz vs [email protected] OC but software)) i beat him in farcry2 by atleast 10fps. and dmc4(i don't remember how much), and someothers except crysis and warhead. i got 12fps (gameplay is different but i am compareing the benchmark) and he got 25fps. my temps on the gpu were both high but come on how is the possible, plus on my single gpu. i got 17fps with a dual core. so it got higher using a single gpu instead of dual? (also the asus w90(dual 4850(yeah it is a 4870 but the only diference between them is the gddr5 vs gddr3 and the asus has ddr3 so it is a 4850.)) got the same as the msi(single 4850))

also the same with the 280m solo. i beat it is those games also except crysis and warhead. i was in a 10fps lead. i would post the links but we are trying to fix this problem not compare how great our systems are to others.



we need some games to test. i know we said this earlier but it died out beucase it wasn't enforced. so i think that these are some games thatwill help us out. with this we can see how our systems are operating to see if we are getting somewhere and also if our systems are performing to others that do not have stuttering.

3dmark06. this is popular and free. also anything that is happening to your system will reflect on your score, music playing, defragmenting, web browsing all affects your scores. not really accurate to real world but it is a good test.

3dmark05 any thoughts on this it's all but it uses your cpu alot more then your gpu.

3dmark vantage. i guess if you have purchased it you can use it. i don't think alot of people will use it beucase the free one is a one time shot. but i can post and compare it to people on orb.

dmc4 has a pretty nice gpu benchmark. because the fps is so high, i can't really say it stutter. and i compared me benchmarks to e-wrecked and ichime and we were all close.

farcry2. i stutter so much in it. but i manage to get 59 average 100 high and 24min. so i think it is very useful. if people have purchased these games.

wic. it is cpu bound so it should help us for our cause
i cant really think of anymore. if any one has any ideas, let us know. also please tell us what driver you are using, it makes a big differnce.

thanks alot, it would be a big help. also i have a question but i need more info. i will pm you when i get it.

 

Hey that would be awesome, PM sent.

Ok I will try Dawn of war 2 and World in Conflict when I get home. My bios stock standard, downloaded off of my hive support. As is everything else, the audio and graphics, and some hotfixes. What other info o you need off me? It was a long process involved, if and hopefully everything works out tonight then this should fix ours as well.

 

It would also be nice if you could details the things you did with the technician over the phone, and especially in what order.

Did the depot repair improve anything? Were the symptoms the same or did you notice a shift in occurances?

 

If everything works out tonight I'll post exactly everything I did. No sadly no difference, I'm not actually sure what they did in repair and sadly the symptoms where the exact same.

 

well i wanted to know if you used any software to edit the power of the system. if you used alienware's(if they have anything, or vista's) di you do anything in the CMD or services.




i also wanted to point out as i remembered e-wrecked also had the qx9300 and broke 16??? oh his system. he hasn't been online in a while but here are some quotes.(if it works i am going to be happy and mad.) but i will install 3dmark06 now and see what happens. i have to get ready for work.

there is alot more info but alot of people arent on anymore. i know that axman had his system running fine.

 

Power plan is just alienwares high performance and not other software was used. Anyways I'm in college at the moment, will post full results when I get home, I really hope everything works out.

 

ok no problem. we will be waiting

 

As mentioned above, no special software are used by technicians to modulate or redirect power from one area to another.

As for E-Wreckeds record bench, the guy is pretty brilliant when it comes to that stuff so we need to bring him back here and pick his brains out a bit.

 

just ran 3dmark. i got 14395. so sad. the most was 15600

 

Thats at 3,2ghz? (12x)
I get 164xx average with 3 runs at that..
Try running 3ghz for comparison.. i did two runs at that right now and my scores are better than yours at your oc
I also found out why my results wont show up on orb (im registered) - just look at the screenie of the orb.. not aproved drivers?!#
Im sure i could hit 17k with 12x + fsb overclock but theres no point in doing it if i cant even post my result on orb right..
Screenies - one of orb and second of 3dmark window.

 

Ok World in Conflict benchmark ran without any problems, min 14, avg 29 and max 55. I watched a movie while it was installing and there where no audio or shuttering issues. I would like to say that this it, the problem is gone, but I have no confidence in my system. So I'll let it run for another few hours, try some games, listen to music, watch a movie, use my DJing software. I would ideally like to give it 1 or 2 more days of testing because on Saturday I had no shuttering issuse at all and suddenly on Sunday I did, then none on Monday morning and then back again in the evening. I didn't do anything different always the same, just playing Crysis or DJing.

 

can you run 3dmark at 3.2ghz.


also. it seems you have your issue fixed. i am going to call tech support again and see what happens. i got confirmation the hard drive being the problem stupid. so lets see what happens.

 

Sure ill do it in the morning. Gonna get some shuteye now.. Ill post the screenies.

 

Ok so heres what I did with the Tech guy told me to do, step by step.


1) I removed 2 gigs of RAM and ran the system, played Crysis on Dx10, 1600x1200 resolution and high settings. Graphically laggy but no sound shutter.

2) Put the 2 gigs back into the machine.

3) Ran the system, uninstalled Realtek HD Audio Driver and Manager. Rebooted.

4) Uninstalled ATI drivers and catalyst control manager.

5) While the ATI driver was uninstall I downloaded the following drivers:

You go to Hive Support and selected Vista OS (32bit). Picked Mobile Systems, Alienware as the manufacturer, and M17 as your model and picked the audio driver: M17 Audio Driver 6.0.1.5631

Then I did the same again but instead of mobile systems, you pick video card - mobile and then ATI, then M17 HD3870. From there you download both:
M17 ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 512MB Driver 8.520.4.0
M17 ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 512MB Driver 8.57

6) After uninstalling the ATI drivers and catalsyt manager I rebooted the system.

7) I then installed the audio driver, rebooted.

8) Installed the graphics drivers 8.520.4.0 first, rebooted.

9) Installed graphics drivers 8.57, rebooted.

10) Finally, while I was doing all of this the Tech guy found hotfixes for people using Vista, Mobile quad core and ATI graphics.(How specific ).

11) Finally installed the following hotfixes:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956563

You download both and install. Rebooted final time for good measure.

That was it, ran Crysis with optimal settings, 1600x1200 res and Dx10 and not a problem.

Again this morning and Dx9, this morning Dx10 didn't run so well, but Dx9 was crystal clear. Ran benchmark got, 13700-800. When I got home from college I installed WIC while watching a movie, no problems. Ran WIC benchmark, no problems. Put laptop to sleep and wake it up, ran my DJ software Traktor Scratch Pro, finally no problems.

This is where I am at now, typing this response with software on auto DJ
PS my system was on for 2 hours this morning working on my websites user manual, and then Crysis, played fine.

 

Oh woops yup that is the link thanks! I have updated my post. You have to select view and request hot fix downloads and then you will see the both to download.

 

That sure looks like a promising link, can't wait to see if it works for more people. Donda?

 

I am just thinking though, Donda is running x64? The hotfix I think is only for x86 bit OS...

 

Well it detected for you that you were running in x86 so that's the only option you were offered I think... any chance you could link the hotfix file you got to a direct download site?

I'm still in x86 too so I can't check for x64 availability, but I'm sure someone will soon.

 

Yup here it is:

Code:

http://hotfixv4.microsoft.com/Windows%20Vista/sp2/Fix257724/6000/free/372487_intl_i386_zip.exe

And:

Code:

http://hotfixv4.microsoft.com/Windows%20Vista/sp2/Fix250431/6000/free/364090_intl_i386_zip.exe

PW for Link 1: soRAlT+
PW for Link 2: EaLgrcd

Now the email was strange because it said Password and the above worked fine, but it also said 'Next Password' so I will post those too.

Next Password for Link 1: avL_vyS]h
Next Password for Link 2: k$hXGLA@

The first passwords expire tomorrow 05/06/09.

 

Heh thats hilarious. I posted this a while back as Alienware's "Solution to the problem"

The part that was "left out" in Alienware Rose's solution above this in the same post was the hotfix. So thats got to be it. I'll try the hotfix and see how it goes. So far my computer has been relatively stable and not stuttering "much" when on High Performance power profile, so I'll run it a few days on "Balanced" again, which is where I was seeing the most issues, and we'll see how it goes.

It also says that if you're not having the specific issue to wait until the next Service Pack, as this is an "untested" hotfix. It seems all it does is disable the ASPM functionality of the ATI cards, so Windows will no longer manage power to the graphics cards based on the power profile settings you set up (either in windows or I assume in the Alienware Command Center)

Isn't Vista SP2 just on the horizon?

 

I suppose its the standard procedure you get. However I hope these hot fixes are the real deal. So far no problems, one or two jumps but nothing noticable or even anything like before.

 

Actually I just realized this fix is something that's been tried and considered in the past:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=367742

But for some reason, it seems to have been forgotten as the topic has sat unbothered for a while... I guess we shall see.

Edit: i see in the thread above that Donda has already tried this fix, but got stuck with the password BS.... Ah, MSFT why can't you make things easier on everyone??

 

Hehe true true, well those passwords are valid till tomorrow and I assume the other password I posted will be the replacement when the current expire.

 

If you use firefox as your browser, it incorrectly determines you're on a 32 bit machine. Use IE to download the update and you get the 64 bit version instead.

Ok, so I installed the v3 file before the v2 file, then it wouldn't let me install the v2 file, because it said it didn't apply to my system.

filename: Windows6.0-KB956563-v3-x64.exe

 

Oh god dammit, scrap everything I've said. I'm watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother and then I opened Firefox and it started and its not stopping now.