M17/Ocz Whitebook Quad Problems

nothing for sure yet. i can say as i have already though the system runs way better with a ssd for whatever reason. i have not had a chance to run any games or anything yet. i had to start from scratch and ive had a lot to do tonight..

you may not be able to totally disable the driver. i know with a fresh install of vista it does not find it. but with win 7 it may not be a option

 

Well, don't SSDs by definition make a system run better anyway?

There has been some awesome progress on this thread though.

Anyway, just checked some prices for 160GB to 250GB SSDs... are you serious? Those prices are ridiculous. I guess if I decide to upgrade to Quad I'll be taking a mean kick in the balls.

 

yeah they are expensive....well hopefully zfactors testing shows us the true answer...im not gonna jump on the ssd just yet...ill be up for a long time tonight trying things out also...thanks zfactor for testing the ssd's

edit: omg ssd's are a killer on the wallet.....120gb vertex 400 bucks.......plz god dont let this be the issue

 

i disabled it the right way now.
http://i41.tinypic.com/14lk491.jpg

Lol. i really don't want it to be also. but we do need an answer.

 

LOLZ...

Bro, +1

 

try running 3dmark06 without anything in any of the usb ports...no mouse or anything, just the power cord,,,as i started stuttering i removed my gaming mouse and the stuttering suddenly stopped and ran smooth...this leads me to believe a power issue could be at fault

 

i have my g5 with the software installed. and all my test even my good ones has been with it in.

 

yeah i have a g5 also....when i took it out it helped

 

i will do the same. i am going to re-running 3dmark06 now
but i don't think the mouse is to blame. i also have my 1tb on plugged in into the e-sata port into the back. (i know not very good for testing proposes but my music is on it. )

 

lol cant live with out it .....

 

of course not. music is cool

ok stuttering for me has gone down alot after doing the steps in the previous post. plus i notice when i am not running aero i fly the speeds are so much greater. has anyone else notice it or is it just me. (look at sig don't say it is maybe using to much of your gpu or cpu power. Lol.)

 

yeah i knew it worked better without the mouse and extra usb devices

 

ok then if thats the case unplug the touch panel speakers sub Alienhead finger print reader then run

the ram could of helped due to each stick using the certain volate it reduced it to half soooo......

 

we don't want to unplug everything to render the computer useless. maybe a chipset update will do it.

what chipset driver are you using. i am using the one on the 1st page. it is older then the os but i like it better then the new one that is out.

 

lmaooo actually....im pretty sure that will fix the stutter moo


edit: im using the chipset driver that came with my alienware disc

 

i amgoing to install farcry2 and see what happens. that game i stutter so much times.

 

its weird for me I NEVER stutter in games...just windows and 3dmark

games with no stutter ive played
GTA4
farcry2
cod5
gears of war
burnout paradise
GRID
fear 2

 

i was just saying .... sometimes your gotta really try it ... maybe just unplug speakers and fans that should do it ..... or just speakers those pull voltage ......


try ATI tool to force ur gpu's to max load n seee

 

has anyone stuttered with the alienware bios all at stock?

its a power issue for sure....some people i know with an m17 say that the swapping between dual and quad starts the stuttering...these quads take too much juice....im 100% going with power issues

 

i stutter in everything. can you benchmark farcry2 for me. max out everything except aa/af

i want to change out my speakers but havent found anyones that will fix.

 

i stuttered at the 6x 1.6ghz ocz bios.

i need to update the 1st post so much has been said.

 

ok for SSD i reccomend the vertex

i got the 30 gig ... how long does it take you to open 3 d mark 06

 

idk i never really counted. after i finish witth fc2 i will tell you

 

19secs. my hdd light was still brite after my install was done. going to install the patch and then run. i was going to overclock the gpu's and see how high i can get on 3dmark06 but then it would be a benchmarking thread.

 

....well just to give some info my SSD takes 8 sec

and your HD's are raided

 

yeah but it is at 5400rpm.

 

i was just finding something that every one could compare to ...

i can run any program

 

i don't anything installed. lol. i formated my computer a couple hours ago. i remember seeing it in the m17 lounge.

 

i have 7200.4 500gb hard drives in raid 0 it took me 8.7 seconds exactly using a timer....second time it took me 7.4 seconds

 

where do you start? counting?

whats ur HD tune reading?

 

i just double click the icon on the desktop.....my hdtune last time i did it had an average of 142 mb/s...probably lower now since i have them 60% full

 

same her im like 60% to and SSD slow down over time not much though


i just LOL'd useing my phone im hitting 6 Sec ... i was timeing by mouth

 

yeah i want a vertex especially if it stops the stuttering....dont u have to change windows settings for an ssd and never use the defrag feature....i might get one if zfactor prooves ssd helps

 

I need 7,2 seconds to open 3dmark06. I really think youre going to be dissapointed when you spend 400$ on a brand new ssd.. You may still be in the phase when you dont stutter in a fresh install zFactor..
But i can tell you first hand i stuttered alot on my ssds.. i had the first ones in for around two months.. so i know what i am saying.. installed them right away after i got my m17..
I also stuttered on vertex (got 60gb).. i didnt stutter on intel but i didnt do so much on that.. only fragmented it so i saw the slowdown..
ALL ssds have a serious issue.. their algorithms cause fragmentation over time (depends on how much you write to it and use it - happened in less than 3 weeks in real world usage to me) and that causes drastic slowdown first in write speeds (which can get UNDER those of a conventional HD) and later also affects read. There is no real fix yet. Some are experimenting on the trimm command (ocz vertex for now but you have to do an annoying firmware flash and there are problems on x64 os systems) which is still not a final fix but rather a slowdown of the process.. it trimms away the sectors that are invalid so the ssd doesnt have to write over them but instead writes to fresh blocks.. but the fragmentation of the valid data is still there..

So really consider if its worth buying it. Ill leave you to it if youre betting on this.. but i did warn you
Im not doing an anti commercial.. im just telling the facts and my expirience..

My bet is still on the voltage or the NB overheating. I just got results from yutzbrian.. he put a little ramsink on it and max temps are half of what we are getting (46C max with cpustabtest and wprime95 - my max is 81C which is horrible). Ill let you know my results soon (when i get the heatsink).

 

alright ill def hold off on the ssd then, waiting for ur results first

 

Can someone do me a favour and measure exactly how large the NB chip is (im not home and i intend to go pick up some more ramsinks..)?
10x10mm or 14x14mm or other dimensions?

 

i said this in the another post , dont know if it can help =)

 

stuttering is back now, sucks. so a ssd is not the answer im putting the wd's back in now. im with hellcry and still say this is northbridge releated. either heat or voltage..

 

Anyone measure the NorthBridge yet? I need it soon.. ill be off work soon and im stoppin by a computer parts shop for the ramsinks.. I forgot to do it before..

 

Here is just a totally random thought.

When I had the sleep issue (I suppose you guys are familiar with it), there was a way that I could exactly see when it was experiencing, and even more, also measure the severity of it.

The way I could see, and measure the issue was simple, and maybe it will work with you guys. I used to have the Vista Sidebar running with the following gadget (available from the main gadgets website)

http://www.buildagadget.com/Support-Product.php?Code=SM

OK, whenever my computer came back from sleep, and started lagging sound, shuttering, etc, the usage of the CPU on that gadget would turn negative. I had the setting to show % usage of each core, and it during Sleep issue it would show, say, -5%. Which is obviously impossible to have. If I didn't restart and allowed it to get even worse, I could see it because the gadget would drop sometimes to -300%. Only a reboot as you guys know would fix it. I am not sure if the negative reading was only on 1 core.

So, after such a long story, perhaps you guys can use this gadget and see if it shows negative usage. Then maybe you can perhaps see how it is reading the CPU, etc. I don't know, try to work backwards. Now remember, you must make it show independent cores, otherwise the aggregate readings will always be positive. (-5% + 15% usage = 10% so you won't notice the issue)

Anyway, I think it's worth a shot because of its simplicity.




EDIT: Sorry dude, at work. Don't have my monster with me.

 

what are the chances that intel drivers for the cpu are not good. i have never seen a update. sorry i am out of ideas. if i think hard enough i maybe able to come up with some. hellcry since you are not stuttering i need a favor. can you use this program called driver magican and set it to back up all your drivers. everything even microsoft drivers and non drivers and set them in a folder. then use 7zip and use ultra compression. and upload it to megaupload and send it to us. if that doesn't work then the heat or the bios. or something with our hardware.

 

this is a update for me so i don't forget.

removed gpu and cpu clean and polish them and apply thermal paste to them.

try a different heat pad on the northbridge.

use a usb cord for the fan to see if the fan is affecting the way the cpu operates.

use hell cry's drivers to elimate the driver issue as a problem.

buy thermal paste.

remove back off and buy a cooler to see if is a heat issue.

try old 120gb hdd for power issues.

copper mod everything.

air condition room for 4 hours then try it.

try to make the fan not spin by using these methods to what happens. gather infomation.

hellcry big question. if your gpu flashable. this will allow me to see if ati added the security chip on and made it unflashable if it made the system unstable. one way to find out without flashing your cards is to use rbe and atiflash and read them. this will allow you to see if you cards will read right. if it doesn't and says unknown spI then we know you have same gpu as us if not then you have the older gpu and we can go on from there. please take screenshots and post. thanks.

 

sorry for the triple post but i am at work on my treo 800w and i am posting as i think and go along.

run 3dmark06
vantage
farcry2
crysis (for some reason.)
dmc4
xterain (spelt wrong but i know what it is.)
prime95
everest
sandra
and others.

 

do not polish the die of the gpus it will void any warranty you have left if the ati markings are removed.

 

sorry i mean the heatsinks. not the die. is thar fine

 

the heatsinks are fine to polish imo it will make almost no difference unless they are roughed up already though

 

hey are you ina cold envorment right now?
can you test that part.

 

Donda I will do it tomorrow since theres a storm coming atm and im not running the laptop at times like this. And if heat is the issue i will eliminate that soon since im getting the new heatsink, putting the ramsink on the nb and modding the new heatsink with copper.

 

im in a cool environment 68F....i stutter even when my notebook is extremely cool and no stress has been applied....it even happened this morning right when i started up the computer....i have a feeling there is some kind of voltage issue that we wont be able to fix..like something wrong with the architecture of the motherboard and how it cant handle quads.....im surprised AW, ocz or flex havent made a big deal out of this...i think this will be more of a "we cant fix it move on to the next notebook" deal.

Im going under the hood and re-applying thermal paste to the cpu and gpu..where can i buy the heatpads that go on the gpu memory banks, NB, and SB?

 

I don't think it's so much "we can't fix it". I think it's more "is it in our interest to figure out how to fix this and what will this cost in terms of depot repairs".

Not the first time this has happened, even on the M17 in another "minor but annoying" issue that would be quite costly to fix, but I should shut up because I know Dell management is watching this forum like a hawk.

However, the longer their feet are dragging on pricing out my system, the angrier I become and the chattier I get...