Disappointed, what should I do?

So, for about three weeks ago I recived my M11XR2, since then I have experienced game freezes and crashes on almost every game I got installed. For a day ago Fallout New Vegas starts freezing randomly, today Mafia II freezed and don't get me on GTA San Andreas, not playable.

I have tried downloading drivers from Dell, but it says I got all of the latest drivers installed. I have also tried downloading and installing the nVidia drivers from their base but it didn't fix it. I have also tried to do two system recovery with AlienRespawn, still the same crap. I even bought a cooling pad...

So, now I'm back on my old driver from nVidia which is 257.30. Should I use the new drivers from nVidia and try again...? I'm speechless.

Thanks for your help.

 

call alienware...again alienware not dell.

 

install this driver -
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/558775-nvidia-267-24-beta-driver.html

*When running the setup, be sure to select the option to perform a clean install.

also,

make sure you are whitelisting your game executables as well.
YouTube - Nvidia Optimus Feature on the Alienware M11x- R2

 

I'll go ahead and do that, but what's the difference between this beta driver and the one i got? And by the way, do I have to uninstall my current dirver or can I just go ahead and install this driver and it will tell me what to do?

 

So all your grames are freezing at one point or another? This sounds like you might have some faulty drive or component. I don't know if drivers are going to fix that.

Have you wiped the drive and re-install the OS?

 

Only restored back to factory settings but I will try this beta driver and see what's up.

 

Just download the driver and run the installer. Be sure to select the clean install option. Once done, whitelist your game executables and test.

Not sure which driver you grabbed - the one I linked to is the current beta driver from NV and was released 2 days ago. Initial reports show promise. See the thread for it.

 

Try the driver I am having great success with the BETA version...

If that doesn't work...

Send it back (Get R1 so theres no hassle with optimus). Don't be an idiot like me and wait until you can't return it. Apparently Dell has this policy that you can return it no matter what before 30-days...as many times as you want really.

 

It might actually only be 21 days so don't cut it too close.

 

1. Reload Win7 or Alienware Respawn.
2. Make sure drivers are installed clean. All Dell/Alienware drivers at first and then progress to Nvidia or 3rd Party.
3. Re-seat Ram and if needed run with only 1 stick at a time to see if ram may be an issue.
4. Make sure nothing is overclocked.
5. Make sure to look at logs in the event of lockups.

If you like the machine the lockups can be fixed. It just a matter of finding root cause and eliminating it.

 

Don't call alienware, it's a waste of time. Don't reinstall your drivers anymore, that's also a waste of time. This freezing problem has shown itself over and over from multiple users on these forums. This isn't damaged hardware, and you can factory restore the laptop all you want... it's not going to make a difference.

These freezes are being caused by your nvidia card's shader clock being set too high.

You need to download a program called EVGA Precision and underclock your shaders. Instructions are outlined in this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ing-lockups-crashes-discussion-thread-26.html

It's not hard... It's not even technical. A trained monkey could do this fix, it's really that easy.

 

Sorry to hijack thread but....
@darkdomino
SERIOUSLY!?
I've been having issues with game freezes for a while. I will have to download it.

 

Dark, while I and many others appreciate your opinion, there is no reason why the OP cannot try the current NV driver release. Many others are reporting good results with this driver and it only takes a moment to install the driver.

Thanks.

 

Okey, time for an update. I have been using the driver I was recommended to use and I have re-added my games to m white list, I have NOT experienced a freeze or crash yet, I will make another update soon.

 

@All - Why would shader speeds set at stock levels cause lockups? Seriously?
Most of us with R1 were able to take the clocks up by almost 20 percent, including shader.

Maybe I missed something. I know the drivers have changed by many revisions.

Fredden - Glad to hear you are getting some stress relief. Keep us posted and Good Luck!

StevenX

 

After playing some GTA San Andreas I went into the control panel just to check if the whitelisted games are still there, but now I can't view that part... for some reason it's gone... I can only view PhysX Config, nothing else.

http://i51.tinypic.com/fvz2v8.png

What's up now?

 

A reboot will bring it back the menu, however, I did try the beta drivers but experiencing game crashes so have gone back to 260.99.

 

Another update on the drivers. Since I installed the beta driver I don't experience more crashes, that includes GTA San Andreas, it runns perfect. I guess this fixed my problem...

 

Thats good news Fredden. Glad to hear the crashes are resolved.

Yeah, the missing control panel items are a NV Control Panel bug. From what I have been reading on NV's site, there is an issue with the CP going missing from the context menu and this.

They should have it resolved in the next release (at least, we all hope they do). As Jay mentioned, a reboot will bring it back.

 

Actually, it came back by itself after an hour or so. Anyway, thanks for the support.

 

Excuse my ignorance, but how do you white list a game?

Thanks in advance!

 

Here you go stixvegas:

YouTube - Nvidia Optimus Feature on the Alienware M11x- R2

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

As another update to everyone in this thread, I just had another random freeze, I geuss this didn't fix my issue anyway. When this freeze(s) is going on, only the display is stuck but the sound keeps on going like it should. I also noticed when using ctel+alt+del, I can't acces nVidia control panel, looks like it's crashing. Can that be causing the freeze?

 

this most recent freeze - what title was it?

 

I'll give you some more information. Since I installed the beta driver my games worked just fine all day, GTA San Andreas, Mafia II was running perfect, no crashes at all. But when I launched Mafia II and played for about an hour, it just freezed in the middle of a mission, annoying. So yeah, the recent freeze title was Mafia II.

I checked twice if mafia2.exe was added in my whitelist and it was...

 

I'm not saying this is causing the freeze but Mafia II is quite GPU intensive in my opinion. I had to scale back quite a bit on settings with my 17xR1 to have decent framerate. Something to consider. I suggest two possible tests for Mafia II:

1. Scale back your in-game graphic settings - see if that improves stability. The 335M is just not going to be able to come anywhere close to max settings on this one... (not saying those were your expectations, just wanted to put that out there)

2. Use EVGA to lower shader clocks - see if that improves stability

Do not do these in tandem - try them as individual tests.

 

I'm having great framerates, I got Physics turned off and Ambient Occlusion off, Anti-Aliasing off. The rest of the settings are medium/high.

How much should I bring the shader clocks down to?

 

Try Dark's settings here -
http://forum.notebookreview.com/7218498-post261.html

 

Okey, I got Dark's settings applied, should I do anything else, like apply at windows startup or anything else? If not, I'll go ahead and play for some time and see what's going down.

 

Just see how it goes with MafiaII. Give it some time - watch for any issues over the next couple of days.

 

its so strange. my student and myself both got R2m11x just a few weeks apart. since Ive got mine I have had no problems installing and running literally anything... including happily to say bulletstorm (i love that game).. he on the other hand has had crashes freezing, BSOD you name it... we looked through the systems to compare and we can see anything. so hes gonna make a ghost image or something and reinstall his system with a copy of mine.. i hope it works out.. but really isnt it a little strange some people have problems yet others dont...

 

Indeed it is, after lowering the shader clock I have not experienced any crash yet, I'll wait and see tomorrow. Could you please update me about your student, if his problems stops after reinstalling his system? If it is, then the guys over at Dell must be crazy sending out failed Windows installations.

 

They most likely use images for the known configurations.... meaning if one flawed all flawed. Translation is that the windows install isnt the issue.

Could it have been a driver update or windows update or some other OS "change" - maybe. Doubt it though.

 

Another disappointing update. Now I have been using EVGA Precision for a full day and it didn't fix the issue. I also tried to lower my settings but, my games are still freezing. Nothing works, I'm sitting here with a machine which don't work, wasted my savings on this thing. I'm going to send it back to Dell and tell them to keep it if I don't find a solution to this real soon. I guess I'm going to destroy it sooner or later with this hard reboots when the games are freezing.

 

If the other games are no longer crashing try putting evga back to default and test again. Might be you have a stubborn game with issues unrelated to GPU clock. Testing is usually easier if you stick to one application at a time though.

If it were me I would be monitoring temps and cycles (again?). Hell, maybe disabling all nongame services/apps etc. Something smells like temp problem to me.

 

I made a post about my temps... and they're looking good, I made this test straight after playing Mafia II for some hours.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/559745-good-temperature-m11x.html

By the way, I forgot to tell, the only game that has never crashed is Half-Life 2 and all other hl2.exe games, that's odd though.