M11x Optimization Thread

Doh! My fan hadn't been a problem so I totally overlooked it!

 

They did not provide any appreciable improvement when I used them. Either in games or benchmarks (maybe sub 100 points, but heck they vary by that much even without driver changes).

 

Sorry if this has also been covered, but after applying fan-fix and then launching Alienware Command Center Manually, the errant WmiPrvSE.exe process comes back, and at even higher CPU utilization, staying on after Commend Center closes and after you manually close the Tray applet. The only fix is to restart after each use of Command Center. Normal?! This is a terribly implemented program.

 

For what it's worth the Dox Drivers lowered my Windows Experience Index score by .2 points, but otherwise there doesn't seem to be any appreciable difference. I reinstalled the older drivers after a few days to get battery life back.

 

Sorry for the stupid question, but is there a way to switch graphics mode without using Function/F6?

 

No there isn't. Well not unless you use the modded drivers, but I don't recommend it.

 

I had to go back to using the Dox drivers since they're newer (195.62). I needed CUDA support for encoding video since the CPU is so slow and 100% usage lol and on top of that, for Metro 2033, performance is much better! But yeah battery life is only around ~4hrs since fan likes to come on and stay on. We need official hybrid gfx drivers!

 

Noob question coming up - don't the stock drivers give CUDA support then?

 

I've heard that some people have lost battery life even though the bluetooth was set to off. Is this true? Can some people with bluetooth but have it set to off still get the 8 hour battery life?

 

Apparently you need newer drivers to get cuda support - at least in the two programs I use. mediacoder and badaboom both require I think like 19x.xx. When I tried using the stock 188.85 drivers for GPU encoding in mediacoder it said my drivers were too old

 

I switched BT off the very first day I got it and with minimal settings (AlienFX off, brightness to minimum) and idling, the most I could get was around 7ish hrs (wifi on).

 

That's odd, I've used the trial version of Badaboom a couple of times (on the PS3 setting) to see if it was worth buying, and I haven't encountered any errors. I've been getting ~25-35 fps encoding, which I thought was OK. Could it be the CPU that is giving that kind of speed, or is CUDA working OK for me?

 

Disabled page file and indexing, but still after 2 minutes (my setting) hard drive don't turn off. Why? There are no other software in background.

 

Hmm some reason I thought I read either on the installer or something that 19x.xx was needed, I guess I could be wrong. But I know for sure mediacoder wouldn't let me use cuda when I had the 188.85 installed since they said it was too old.

 

I've always read that you never want the HDDs to turn off on standard mechanical HDDs. Much higher risk of error and corruption that way from turning on and off more often than usual.

If it's an SSD, the power savings of it being off and idle are tiny.

I noticed in Windows 7 it doesn't give you the option of "never" like it used to in previous versions, I just set it a 9999 minutes. You can put 0 however, maybe that's the same thing.

 

Well, I understand this, but i just want to see how long will he work with hdd turned off.

 

I can't proove my Input here because my M11x is in "Production" ..... should be delivered on 14.4.2010

The AlienFX-Tool does take a lot of resources as far as I read. So while surfing, I found a site where "Wattos" wrote an "AlienFX Lite"-Tool in Java - to in his case use the Lights under Linux.

The Idea is to use his program under WIndows as well and hopefully it uses less resources.

Link to his Software: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1403399
Youtube-Video where he shows how it works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SPJAFx5Meo

So keep in mine: I can't check it out if it works - maybe you want to try it and send a feedback

Andy

 

I use the AlienFX Lite tool. He has a thread about it on these forums.

Its awesome. He's added support for the M11x to it so you can do everything you could do with the stock software and have the added benefit of less CPU usage and right-clicking on the icon allowing a change of profile.

 

Thx a lot for your reply!
Nice to see it workling on the M11x

Maybe it helps SO. else too
Andy

 

Just out of interest what is the highest stable GPU overclock some of you guys have managed to achieve?

 

as far as i understood (mine will arrive till 14.4) the limiting thing in the m11x is the cpu. So overclocking the gpu will bring you very low benefit
I would say that only benchmark would show any overclocking on the m11x-gpu. In games you will not see any benefit. AA will take a lot of horsepower, shadows take also. With a little OC you will not get that amount to activate any feature. Andy

 

as far as i understood (mine will arrive till 14.4) the limiting thing in the m11x is the cpu. So overclocking the gpu will bring you very low benefit
I would say that only benchmark would show any overclocking on the m11x-gpu. In games you will not see any benefit. AA will take a lot of horsepower, shadows take also. With a little OC you will not get that amount to activate any feature. You have a small heatsink - not like on a standardPC - so thermal issues will be seen much quicker... Be careful to use it in 2 years ;-)
Andy

 

It depends on the game of course! Crysis, you'll not likely be able to run on max. Other games, like Fallout 3, works pretty nice most of the time with max settings and 4xAA.

Thermal issues aren't present if you don't overclock the GPU. And I don't see any need to. In case something runs sub-optimal....well games have lower detail settings for a reason.

If you expect a computer that will score >10k-15k 3DMark06 you're looking completely at the wrong one.

 

Does anyone know how to get the 'turn touchpad off when usb mouse is detected' setting in the latest synaptics drivers? I uninstalled the dell ones and put in the latest synaptics drivers and its gone.

 

I uninstalled the dell ones and put in the latest synaptics drivers and its gone.

Can you give one good reason for this? I can see why people update GPU driver, but tuchpad...

 

The newer synaptics drivers support multitouch

 

It's still limited though.
GoogleTwoFingerScroll works much better than the synaptics drivers.

Pages wouldn't scroll smoothly before, and there was no three finger tap option, the above little program fixed all that.

 

hmm the synaptics one is as smooth as eggs for me when two finger scrolling. I'll see what the google one has to offer though

*edit* just tried the google software. I like it! There's no scroll bar when using two fingers, so it feels even more macbook like, not to mention the two finger right click option (couldn't figure it out on synaptics) so I'll stick with it! thanks +1

 

two finger scrolling for me i only use for right click with two fingers. :T since i have scrybe installed i don't use the 3 finger middle mouse button. i like the new synaptics driver

 

Looked 2 Pages back - no "google software link" - can you please put a link in here?
Thx
ANdy

 

http://code.google.com/p/two-finger-scroll/downloads/list

There you are, you can have it start with Windows as well.

Personally, I use:
Two finger scroll of course.
Two finger tap for "middle mouse button" (so can two finger tap links to open it in a new tab quickly.
Three finger tap for right clicking.

 

on nvidia site they have new 197 drivers it says compatible with 335m i was wondering if anyone tried them yet dell still shows original 188s i wanna try the new 197s but i dont think theyre switchable but they say they work with the 335m

 

@joe = you can use em to run on discrete graphics mode (set in the BIOS)

 

thanks for info do I have to run discrete all the time and do I have to delete original dell driver?Thanks again

 

These drivers are NOT switchable.
So you can set in BIOS for the Intelgrafic.... will work with no problem.
second if you switch to HybridGrafic you will have the problem with these not optimized drivers, that both graficcards will be powered (time on Bat. will be shorter) and they are not switchable.
So if you can live witch that issue - there is nothing that should hold you back to install them.

To mention it: There is another around that is confirmed to work as they should (Hybrid) - to find here: http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/26002-forceware-19562/
Its the Forceware 195.62_Win7x64

Hope that helps.
Andy

 

Thanks man.I was holding back until I got more info im always near an outlet so no big deal there I was playing lfd2 & batman I noticed graphics a little choppy & it said drivers are old Thanks again I'm gonna give em a shot should i uninstall originals 1st?

 

I would personally uninstall - only because of the fact, that the old Drivers (Dell ones) are for HybridGrafic - and the latest nVidias are single 335m...
Can't check it outr or proove it... mine should be delivered tomorrow (hopefully). UPS shows: UPS HAS REQUESTED A DELIVERY INTERCEPT FOR THIS PACKAGE
So I'll have to wait :-( Dell means it so good to me *grml*

 

Ive had mine for a few weeks been running oc 24/7 from day 1 I learned from the optimization thread alot of tweaks ie. disable alien fx I did as everyone instructed I have zero problems I was just curious about the 197s they offer alot of fixes etc Anyway thanks for the help & best of luck with yours Im sure you'll love it Thanks again man.

 

is there a consolidated post of optimization stuff, like services to stop/disable? I just got in my replacement M11x and have some things I need to shut off but forget all of which.

 

@azn = holler to batboy and think he would love to get one done.

 

+1
I had had certain pages bookmarked, but with posts deleted and what not they are no longer valid and I'm too busy to even care now.

 

@question about services:

This is what I have. [attached]

Rename the attached file to .xls, and open it with Excel or something that formats nicely tab-delim files. The last column is description, feel free to remove it for better visibility.

 

Gamebooster helps a lot...

 

I just went through task scheduler thing and deleted like almost every task lol. My new M11x I got in keeps turning on in the middle of the night after I put it to sleep. Two nights in a row now. My old M11x never did this. Very odd. Gonna have to do some more troubleshooting and testing.

 

what is freefallprotection? is this thing neccesary? or should i disable it via ccleaner?

 

it's if you had a platter drive it will lock the drive if it senses you dropped your laptop. So the HDD isn't like writing or doing something as it hits the ground. Added protection. I didn't bother installing it though since I have SSD. So I have an unknown device in my device manager hehe

 

thank you

 

@namevergeben

Had the exact same thing - suppose you ordered some extra stuff with the m11x like a mouse or bag. UPS waits till they have both packages at your nearest UPS hub. Register at the UPS page to get a more detailed tracking information (you can see both packages there). Usually takes 1 more day to bring them together so i estimate your getting yours the day after tomorrow.


If you really want to increase speed fast and easy stop all these shadow services from microsoft. They alone eat about 300 points in 3dmark 06

 

Thx for reply!
Got that today for my own - cause the next steps are written in the UPS-Log.
I'm very angry by the delivery Dell does.
So they wrote me a Mail on 2.4.2010 that new estimated delivery will be 7.4.2010 (today). But yesterday they send it away from Praque(CZ) to Frankfurt(D). The Mouse i had to(! - cheaper with mouse*grrr*) ordered ships from EINDHOVEN(NL) and is now in Frankfurt(D) too. And now has to be shipped to Airport Linz(AT) - cause I live in Linz(AT).... why don't they collect both parts in Linz? I could get it right off the Hangar ;-) well Service-Station would be better. Its a worse long way my laptop has to go....

Andy

Laptop 43, Mouse 44

 

Pardon me for asking, but I know on my friend's multitouch Macbook Pro a press with a single finger is essentially a left button click while a press with two fingers together is essentially a right button click. Does the multitouch drivers for the m11x support right button clicks from the touchpad as well?