M11x - Issues with gaming lockups and crashes - Discussion thread

There have been several posts lately in an old thread (it was originally created back in October of last year), concerning issues with gaming and lockups/freezes/crashes.

The majority of recent posts have been from new members. Now, this is not a bad thing but I have noticed a trend where the posts are along the lines of "I lockup and I cant escape out", "I cant play any games and its a known issue", "This issue impacts everyone", etc. Now, before any of you mis-read that last line, let me make sure I am very clear here:

I am not saying that you have no clue... What I am saying is that without any real detail nobody can help work on this. Pretty simple. We need details. The biggest question mark here is that one person reports a horrible experience yet another will report they have no problem at all with the same title. Pretty easy to see the confusion here...

In the previous thread, I posted asking for folks with issues to be as specific as possible -

1. Driver you are having issues with

2. Title you are having issues with

3. Describe the issue in detail - try to be as specific as possible (when does it lockup, certain scenes, certain behaviors, etc.).

4. Include in-game graphic settings you are using for the problem title (please be specific, line by line please)

5. Are you overclocking or using throttlestop and if so, what are your current OC settings

6. Confirm you did whitelist your game's .exe - see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U874jC2blJQ

7. Is this behavior happening when outputting to an external display or on the 11x display? If external, is the 11x display disabled (meaning HDMI only - not dual view)?

Reason for the above questions is simply to provide more detail - lack of detail makes it next to impossible for the community to help out.

I realize a couple of you have already posted details in the previous thread and this does help - so thank you. If you can, please re-post here so we have everything in one place.

I've reached out to some of the senior members here in the 11x sub-forum and have asked them to pop-in from time to time and see if they can provide feedback on what works for them. I think armed with this info (tips from owners who are not having issues) many of you will be able to turn a horrible gaming experience into something much more enjoyable.

I will try to provide as much feedback and assistance as possible but since I do not own an R2, my feedback will be more from a 'general knowledge/experience' point of view.

This post will also be updated with links to posts within this thread which are determined to help with performance. What I mean by this is, if someone posts a specific configuration for SC2 or WoW which improves gameplay, I will link to it.

So, without further delay (yes, I know you want to resolve your issues), lets get started with some details.

REMINDER: When posting an issue, please be sure to post using the above format (in bold).

-BB

 

1. Currently running 260.99. A04 BIOS. I updated to these straight after a factory reset (or "Respawn").

2. Dead Space (Steam version, if it matters)

3. It doesn't lock up at specific intervals or scenes, just randomly, and requires a hard reset to completely kill the process. It happens at random times, last night didn't crash after over an hour, then when I played it later on that night and it crashed in around an hour. Tried playing it on windowed mode, made it crash even faster (around 15 min). Heat doesn't seem to be an issue. This morning, when it crashed after 15 min, it was about 10 minutes after I booted when I started playing.

4. 1366x768 (native) resolution, V-Sync OFF, preset HIGH (haven't changed any advanced settings)

5. Running a completely stock R2, i7, 4GB RAM model.

6. Yep, it's definitely white listed.

 

running dead space 2. game crashes for me from 5 to 30mins. made a video. game runs very smooth. too bad it just crashes randomly. I'm running completely stock. Using Nvidia's latest drivers.

YouTube - M11x Dead Space 2 Maxed settings

 

Mazda, what about backing settings down a bit (you say all are maxed)? Any improvement?

For DeadSpace 1 and 2, try reaching out to these folks - they seem to not be having any issues as of a few days ago ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/550620-dead-space-2-fubar-m11x-r2-2.html) with the exception of the OP who started that thread. I'm going to PM all of them shortly and ask for some input on driver they are using and settings.

 

BatBoy, thanks a lot for all of your input and effort into helping us solve this problem, much appreciated

 

doesn't matter what settings, it will still randomly crash. I've tried 260.66 nvidia driver and OEM dell drivers. I've tried transferring a saved file from my m17x and same random crash problem, I believe it is the game itself. I think we'll have to wait for a patch.

 

The only time I've ever experienced this was with The Witcher. Game would lock and could not be killed by any means. I hard reset was the only thing that could kill it. That was waaay back in July of last year. I tried every documented fix or work around that one could find for the game - and there were lots of them given how old the game is. Nothing worked and I just gave up and chalked it up to a flaky driver (honestly can't recall which ones were out back then) not liking the dated Aurora engine. Others here have since stated that they were able to play the game without a problem. Since every other game I've played has not exhibited this behavior I'll re-install it and start with that as a means of focusing on what's going on.

EDIT (I'll fill this data in once I get to testing):

1. Driver you are having issues with

2. Title you are having issues with

3. Describe the issue in detail - try to be as specific as possible (when does it lockup, certain scenes, certain behaviors, etc.).

4. Include in-game graphic settings you are using

5. Are you overclocking or using throttlestop and if so, what are your current OC settings

6. Confirm you did whitelist your game's .exe

EDIT2: 02/02/2011 Today's the first day I've been able to get around to testing The Witcher: Enhanced Edition (Steam). I've been playing it for 3 hours and it has yet to crash on me. When I was trying to play this game last July it would lockup within 2-20 minutes without fail requiring a forced shutdown in order to kill the process and restore the 335 to functioning.

I'm using 266.58 at the moment. I'll test more later today and this weekend.

 

Hello,

With Nvidia 266.58, Dead space 2 does not crash on my M11x R2 I7. I have everything on very high and vsync on. You could try this version of the GPU drivers and see if it helps.

 

No offense here BatBoy, but you act like this issue is some kind of "user error" and that "the community" isn't getting enough information to help solve the problem.

This isn't a problem the community can solve, this is called broken drivers. There is a problem with the way the Nvidia Optimus system utilizes shaders with certain games, and that's just about all a user can discern from this.

the freeze can happen anywhere, to any game, no matter what driver you're using. I've gotten freezes on the stock Dell driver, the 260.99 drivers, the beta 258.33 drivers, and even the newest 266.58 drivers.

You downplaying this issue because "if it were hardware related we'd see more posts" about it really doesn't make sense. This isn't a hardware issue at all... it's a driver issue. People getting their laptop motherboards serviced by Dell are just wasting their time. I've done almost a month of testing on this issue, and I am convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that this is a driver issue.

You make it sound like this issue isn't really relevant because people aren't providing details... when you look on this forum and you see the SAME problem described over and over and over. The fact that you would even imply that somehow the people reporting these problems are "unrealiable" really just tells me you don't understand this freezing problem and have never encountered it.

Like I said, I can reproduce this freeze over and over, with any version of nvidia drivers. It freezes whether you're overclocked or not, and it freezes no matter how your nvidia settings are set. You can whitelist all the .exe's you want but it will do you no good. The problem is with optimus, and I'm going to keep sending emails and posts to nvidia until they stop and take a look at this.

 

If it's broken drivers and there's nothing to be done by the community then nvidia is the only solution.

On the other hand I'm not sure how that jives with people who can play some of these games with no problems at all. For example, someone here has reported that S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl is one of the games that has this problem. I played it all the way through on my R2 and didn't have lockups. The occasional crash to desktop in 41 hours was it.

 

I've been having the same problems as everyone else, and figured I should contribute to the thread.

Driver: 266.44

Titles: League of Legends, Civ V

Issue: While playing games, the system will just lock up, I can alt-tab and close the game .exe, however I cannot restart it, and the system itself runs slow afterwards anyway.

Game Settings: Med-High in LoL, Low-Med in Civ, with AA and shadows turned off for both.

Overclocking: Overclocked the CPU through the BIOS (1.50ghz), and I have the GPU OC'ed to 525/1260/840.

The .exes for the games are whitelisted at this time.

Hopefully this can help people out somewhat.

 

That may have been me. It crashed the same way, but I could close the program through task manager. The process however, couldn't be killed, requiring the infamous hard reset. I'm running STALKER Complete 2009 with the realistic damage mod, don't know if that could be causing it.

Who cares, that's Dell's loss

 

None taken...

I feel a response is needed since I do not want to 'confuse' anyone else...

First, I am not downlplaying any of this. If that were the case, I would not have created a new thread, stickied it or PM'd multiple R2 owners asking them to take a moment and contribute their experiences with some of the titles being reported as having issues. If I didn't think it was an issue I would have just sat on the sideline watching the show.

Second, my asking for more information/details concerning a specific behavior does not scream that its not a 'relevant' issue nor did I imply that you or anyone else was 'unreliable'... the trouble with the internet - its very easy to misinterpret what people are trying to convey.

What I have been saying however is that without more information than simply "it doesnt work and crashes" - nobody can help. It is quite common for people to post they have an issue and that is all. Follow-up posts typically will have to ask for additional details - you'd be amazed at how many posts I come across during the day talking about an issue yet the OP has forgotten to mention any reference to system specs, drivers, etc.

As for me not understanding a frustrating system problem... well, lets just say that I am familiar with dealing with issues... especially NVIDIA driver issues. Oh, and for what its worth, yes - I have also dealt with freezing/crashing issues before on the 11xR1. Specifically when Valve released an update for Left 4 Dead 2 which caused an issue with the shader setting. The only solution was to kick the shader down to medium - after doing so, *poof* - no issue. BTW, that was a non-driver issue also. It was a result of Valve's update (which i believe they ended up corrrecting) after the fact...

As slickie mentioned, the biggest issue here with these recent reports of trouble is that some say they cant play a given title at all without a crash or a lock up and someone else will report they have no problem at all with that same title. I'm sure you can see the confusion in that regard.

Regardless, please do keep emailing NV, nobody is trying to stop you. Let us know what they respond with.

 

I know the problem we're trying to solve here is with the R2, but could setting Dead Space's shader setting lower than HIGH (my current setting) be a possible solution (for this one game anyway)? Might try it out later tonight.

 

Driver you are having issues with
260.99 + A03
266.58 + A04

Title you are having issues with
Modern Warfare 2
Swat 4
Streaming video (via hbogo.com)

Describe the issue in detail
Screen freezes at random times. Sometimes minutes within gameplay, sometimes an hour later. Audio loops. Sometimes ctrl+alt+delete works, other times a hard system reset is required.

Include in-game graphic settings you are using
Default/high settings

Are you overclocking or using throttlestop
No overclocking.

Confirm you did whitelist your game's .exe
Confirmed.

 

@manskinboots:

It very well could be - one of the points I was trying to get across is 'in-game graphic settings'. This is very important as it can turn a rather smooth game play session into a horrible one simply based on over extending the system (including desktops - not just notebooks). Ideally what I would like to see is someone who does not have an issue with a given title post the driver they are running with, the title's in-game graphic settings. Hopefully, someone who is having this issue can try to reproduce the crash/lockup/freeze/etc. using the known 'good' settings. If that is the case, then we can start looking at other factors.

Also a note to all posting issues - please be patient with responses to your posts. I will try to take time to look at every report and then check around the forum and other sites. I'm sure you've done this as well - it doesnt hurt to have a second set of eyes on a given problem. My hope is that we will also see some feedback from others who are not having issues. There will be titles out there that just have trouble across the board. Some will be coding issues and others will fall into that other category. Driver, etc.

 

Currently running:

265.0 driver, i5 overclocked to 160, and TS. Play Starcarft 2 occasionally. Everything was running perfectly fine until I installed the Intel Rapid Storage Tech from Intel (latest) and then I started getting the random lockups. I installed the IRST drivers after a fresh install but at a way later date. Could this be a problem? I'm thinking about doing another reinstallation.

 

What happens when you revert to stock clocks?

1. Does the game still crash?
2. Do you still see the same 'slow' behavior with the system after exiting the game?

Dragon, please take a moment (yeah, I know its a pain but it will help) and get into SC2 and go to your graphic settings screen. Jot down your current settings line by line and then list them here. Would really appreciate this info. Thanks!

As for the Intel driver, go back to the one on the Dell site and see if the problem with the random lockups persists. I'm guessing the lockups happen outside of game also?

If after reverting back to the Dell intel storage driver you still encounter to lockup, disable your TS and OC settings. See if the lock up still persists...

 

No dice, set my shaders down to medium, suffered the same lockup in under 5 minutes :/

 

One more question to all (I'll add it to post#1) as it just hit me to ask...

Q: Is this behavior happening when outputting to an external display or on the 11x display? If external, is the 11x display disabled (meaning HDMI only - not dual view)?

 

I am currently running 260.99 as well. A02 BIOS.
1366x768 resolution with vsync off and everything highest.
I didn't bother to white list it as it ran without any problems.
It is running REALLY smoothly, I never saw it lag.
I have no idea what is wrong for yours...

 

Hmm, sounds like its definetely using the 335m... The only difference I can pick is the BIOS version. Mine came factory A03, and I've upgraded to A04, while yours is only A02.

EDIT:

I get a couple of error messages in my event viewer log after each crash, notably this one (which is my nVidia driver I believe?:
Faulting application name: NvXDSync.exe, version: 7.17.12.6099, time stamp: 0x4cb9d6d6
Faulting module name: nvapi64.dll, version: 8.17.12.6099, time stamp: 0x4cb9dad6
Exception code: 0xc00000fd
Fault offset: 0x0000000000184347
Faulting process id: 0x500
Faulting application start time: 0x01cbc33a1219d0c3
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Display\NvXDSync.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\nvapi64.dll
Report Id: 72fd16f5-2f3f-11e0-ad41-5c260a1eb408

 

I suggest you do a clean unintall of Nvidia driver and install it fresh.

1. Uninstall Nvidia driver from the Control Panel.
2. Restart your laptop and boot in safe mode.
3. Run "Driver Sweeper" and choose "NVIDIA - display" and "NVIDIA PhysX".
4. Press Clean.
5. Reboot normally and install 260.99.

 

I have already provided all info and more in the other thread. This is unfixable, and this thread is not helping.

Issues are now getting mixed up more - the freezing and non-terminatable issue should have it's own thread, preferably sticky. This thread is messy already after 3 pages.

Sorry, I'm out of here. I don't agree with the moderation. I will keep working on getting the issue in the press, and the case against Dell with my attorney is open already.

Edit: Oh, one thing. I can only warn anyone to buy a m11x R2 and to give it back if you still can. For me, this issue seems like manufacturing defect in the 335m, nothing anyone will easily admit. Even if you haven't experienced any issues yet, you might be hit at any time. In short: at your own risk.

 

Would you be able to open a new thread when your case has been resolved to let us know how it went?
Good luck.

Followed these instructions exactly, and performed the clean install of the video driver. Tests later tonight.

 

Yes, I'll hold to my promise.

..if at all.

I agree to that post so much. A more useful thread would be, as I stated, to just document who has the specific freezing issue, and in which game, driver version maybe. Nothing we can do.

Also I still do not agree with BatBoy; I think it's a widespread issue. Only difficult to notice, and in many games not at all.

 

No luck with that either, crashed in about 30 mins. I somehow don't think a new motherboard is gonna fix this either.

Slightly off topic, but do the 400M series (425m in particular) cards exhibit this kind of behavior, crashing etc? I was looking at the XPS 14 for the same price, and it looks much better.

 

I can confirm that this issue is the same with or without an external HDMI monitor.
I have tested with HDMI only and laptop only (without even having a HDMI cable connected). Issue is the same without changes.

 

1. 260.99. A04 BIOS.

2. Everquest 2

3. Here is a video link to describe it perfectly - YouTube - VID00025


4. 1366x768 (native) resolution, V-Sync OFF, All presets - I used to think running it at low would help, its does not.

5. Stock R2, i5, 4GB RAM model.

6. whitelisted everquest 2

7. Happens on laptop display and external monitor (single view)

Bought New from Dell in November 2010.Replacement motherboard expected today.

 

1. Dell site drivers.
2. Lineage 2, Starcraft 2, Lord of the Rings Online
3. Complete random lockups. Ive been able to change the frequency of them by adjusting ingame settings to Low but i cannot get them to go away completely. When the lockup happens i can close the "Application" but not the "Process". The Nvidia card is completely out and nothing can be started using that GPU after the lockup. The Intel GPU works perfectly after the lockup and games can be started using it. Only way to "reset" the process and the Nvidia card is a hard-shutdown using the power button.
4. Tried every possible setting.
5. No tweaking done.
6. Whitelist is on.
7. Both with external HDMI monitor and on the onboard laptop monitor.

 

I've already posted on the previous thread all my information about medieval 2. But anyways, one thing i would also like to input is that i have toyed with any amount of in game settings. low, medium, high, shadows on, shadows off. None of that really makes any difference. Also, in terms of gameplay, the game plays flawlessly on any settings. no lag, no low framerates, as expected the m11x blows through the game. So it is very hard to understand why suddenly with no reason (not heat issue) the whole thing just randomly locks up. luckily, for me so far, it has only been medieval 2 that i have had this issue.

 

Isn't that what this thread is for??

Driver version maybe? Well, if you want a valid list of information on what people are seeing, driver version is a critical piece of the puzzle. In any event, thats fine you do not agree with this. We learn to disagree. Bottom line here - if you want to involve yourself in this, great. If not, no problem.

Odd how you are slamming me for trying to help you guys... No worries. We are all entitled to our own opinion.

If you want to discuss further, PM me. We dont need this clogging up the thread.

Thanks for the info.

 

1. 260.99 and the latest one both on a03 and a04

2. Starcraft 2, warcraft 3, any steam game

3.
-playing random game
-freezes in "x" amount of time
-alt tab or control delete out of the game
-game does not close
-m11x is still functional in other purposes but again, the game is still frozen
-cannot shut down or reboot
-must press power button to power off to reboot again
-seemly does not have an effect based on whether oc'd or not. even if all oc'd settings are off, it still happens
-occurs in a lot of games (NOT JUST GAMES BY BLIZZARD)
-if your m11x is prone to freezing, pretty much all games will freeze

4. 1366x786

5. OC'd or not still freezes
when oc'd, 166 @ bios, using nvidia to overclock gpu @ 500/800/1300, ts @ 30/30. like i said, either way it still freezes

6. yes games are whitelisted

7. freezes in any condition whether it be dualscreened with game on m11x or external monitor.

 

Specifically which Steam games.

 

cs:s, l4d, cs

heres my progress so far though:
-so i removed accelerometer (control panel>programs)
-went to device manager>network adapters. all things listed there under power management, i unchecked "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"
-also under power options, go to your setting and go under change advanced power settings. go to hard disk and make the options never

 

So I just called alienware support and described the problems I've been having with them.

Carlos (who was very friendly by the way) said that alienware it had to be a driver problem, and told me it was very important to reinstall the drivers in a specific order... He said uninstalling the nvidia drivers FIRST and then uninstall the intel drivers.

Then he had me reinstall the drivers in the opposite order, the intel drivers first and the dell display driver last.

Did not fix the freeze in guild wars... and I can safely assume that it did not fix the freezing issue in any of the games that have problems with this. He's going to call and follow up with me on this, and I don't know what is going to be done next.

 

i wish i could return this and just get something else. this is more of a headache than anything

 

I worked with Carlos and Anrrina also. They are both very nice, but I don't think this can be fixed either. My new board was delayed so I hope by tomorrow we'll see.

 

one of the tech guys "Manuel" over at the nvidia forums says that he was "unable to reproduce the Guild Wars error I described" and is claiming I have damaged hardware.

If this is true, how come ALL my games aren't affected? How can so many people describe the identical problem I'm having? We can't all have hardware failure... I know that laptop equipment has a failure rate but that's just unheard of.

Nvidia seems to be in denial... I've never been so frustrated in my life. I just can't believe this nonsense.

 

I am inclined to believe that the guy over at the Nvidia forums isnt entirely wrong. It can't just be the card specifically. otherwise there would be insane amount of posts over all laptops. I know what i'm saying is obvious but, i still feel like pointing it out will somehow help. There is definately something up with the compatibility of the card with the laptop. Thats why the identical problems come up over all games, but never a specific title.

 

Well I can't return my laptop anyway (Dell only gives 20 days after the purchase) and so I'd have to basically beg them to take it back.

I may invoke my warranty and see if Dell will replace the laptop. I mean, at this point, what else can I do? I guess it's just a waiting game. Thankfully Left 4 Dead, Oblivion, and Starcraft II seem to work very well on this laptop so it's not entirely crippled.

 

Domino, perhaps you have some advice you can share with these two guys since you arent having issues with SC2?

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

For you folks running into issues with DeadSpace 2, please see this info that Talon posted in the DS2 thread... might be useful to compare his settings to what you are using. Although he has an R1, checking with his settings is a good place to start (to see if you can run stable on your R2).

 

Couldn't reproduce it on an M11xR2 or something else?

 

Hi again guys. New motherboard put in today. I'll test in an hour or so, and give you results. Haven't got my hopes up.

 

If I could offer another suggestion. Rather than providing data on various games. Why dont we standardize the program by using Heaven Benchmark v2.1. I know this will cause the crash issue as well, and its a tool alienware support uses. Then we can just give the amount of time till crash and then take an average. Additionally we can bring people into the mix that might not be running apps that strain the machine.

 

hmm, sounds like a decent idea. where do i get this software?

 

Dont know if quoting me and the other guy with IRS-issues had a point but i havent touched such drivers since shipment. Is there a way to disable Intel Rapid Storage so we can test if it matters?

Further, saw on Dell forums that someone solved this by disabling the Intel card alltogheter in BIOS by using "graphic mode Discrete". Seems like a R1 feat since my BIOS got nothing on graphics. Can we disable the Intel card in some way to test the possibilty of the Optimus-switching causing these freezes?

 

You can uninstall IRS.

The IGP passes video to the display both for itself and for the 335. Disabling it is not an option on an R2.

 

I agree to this type of testing. you say this test has always given you a crash and therefore its a good place to start. Let me know where i can download this test.

My prediction is that most of us will be able to run this benchmark just fine. I believe this because of how unpredictable this issue is. Same reason why some ppl can run SC2 and some people cant, or DS2 or even Mass effect 2. But thats just a guess so let's run some tests and find out!

 

Hmm. Had my motherboard replaced today as I mentioned in an earlier post. I just managed to play Dead Space 1, which previously crashed in between 5-60 minutes, for over 4 and a half hours without any sort of lag, hitch, or crash. I would have kept playing but now its 5am, and I clocked it

I don't have my full hopes up yet, but I'll continue testing over the weekend and posting here.

P.S. Not that I think it would make a difference, but my keyboard and "grill" alienware FX lights were turned off completely, leaving lights on only the power button and panel that shows wireless, caps lock, etc.