M11x r2 play starcraft 2

I just recently bought a Alienware M11x R2. I installed Starcraft 2 and whenever I play the game on 1v1, 5-8 minutes into the game the screen freezes and the whole laptop crashes and switches off, then switches back on like it just got restarted. All the setting in the game are at the lowest setting they can be.

Does this happen to anyone else?
Can someone please tell me whats wrong with the M11x?
Is their a stronger, more powerful graphics card I can install into this Alienware M11x R2?
What can I do to successfullly run Starcraft 2 on this M11x?

Thanks for helping me.

 

Are you overclocking in the BIOS?

 

there shouldn't be any problem running sc2, I run mine on med-high with 4vs4 and i get 25-29 fps through out the game.

Which drivers are you using and do you have it white-listed?

 

Did you update your Bios, update your graphics drivers, and whitelist SC2 so that it plays with the 335m and not the intel graphics card?

 

To be honest, I am a novice at computers. If you dont mind explaining me everything in detail and how to do everything, I would greatly appreciate it.

I dont know what "Whitelist" and I dont know what is BIOS or how to access it.

Yes I did update my drivers and my Nvidia card from downloading the updates drivers off of Dell.com

I have the Alienware M11x R2. The "R2" does not have the "Binary change" button on "F6." So I dont exactly know how to change from intel graphics card to nvidia graphics card, and vice versa.

SC2 at lowest graphics is not working for me, i dont know why.

I do not know how to "Over-clock" my system, so if someone can please tell me how to do that to, it would be nice to know for M11x R2.

I have the following in my computer:

Intel Core i7CPU U640 @ 1.20 GHz 1.20 GHz
4.00 GB installed RAM
Windows 7 home edition 64-bit operating system
Intel(R) HD Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M
300GB SSD


Thank you everyone for helping me out with this problem.

 

The simplest troubleshooting step would be to create a shortcut to SC2 on your desktop if you've not done so already. Right click on it and higlight the "run with graphics processor" option then select "high performance NVIDIA processor" and see what happens.

 

definitely read up on this thread for white listing:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...dia-optimus-issues-whitelisting-problems.html

and this one for overclocking:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/524257-how-supercharge-m11x-core-i5-i7-um-cpus.html


as for SC2 - read the whitelist thread (and youtube video), follow instructions and see if your problem persists. Other than that, SC2 was huge for threads back in July when it released, most info is found there (And subsequent threads) for the best settings.

Enjoy (btw, nice 300gbSSD)

 

Yes sir I did exactly what you said and about 5-8 minutes into a 1v1 sc2 game at low settings, the screen freezes and the computer crashes and restarts. I had done 3 attempts and all 3 times it crashed.

 

Others here will help you, but just fyi SC2 runs great on the m11xr2, so it's a software issue, not the laptop to worry about. You can get by playing the game with stock cpu speeds by updating your nvidia driver, but if more fps is important to you then you will need to overclock your cpu in the bios, preferably at the highest stable settings.

 

I just used the "Can you run it?" From nvidia.com, and it says that my m11x r2 has only 1.2ghz and sc2 requires 2.6ghz.
How do I increase the GHz in m11x?

 

It ask for a 2.6 GHz Pentium® IV or equivalent AMD Athlon® processor as minimum for work....

Is not the same, my 10 year old PC has a Pentium IV at 1.4ghz, my m11x has a i5 at 1.07ghz, is the Pentium IV faster? No

 

Then do you know how to activate the over-clocking feature on m11x? And would SC2 work with such a low cpu speed? Is there any ways to increase the cpu speed?

 

here is the stacraft 2 system requirements. Can someone please read this and tell me if alienware m11x r2 can handle this game, even at minimum requirements?

Blizzard Support

Thank you

 

The game shouldn't be doing that. It runs fine on my r2. I think you need to call support.

 

I have an i5, so theoretically weaker yet I run the game 4v4 (in the mid 50 fps early and low 20s late) on high settings no problem. It is not that it can't handle it. Also, the can you run it is hit and miss, as it is not detecting the other core/threads.

I may suggest calling dell at this point or playing around with settings. Try some slightly higher ones, and make sure you are on High Performance power setting. Also, reseating the RAM may help.

 

Do not use nvidia drivers from Dell(257.XX), thats such a bad driver. Go to nvidia . com, and download the drivers there. I believe the drivers from nvidia will be 260.99, which will run sc2 easily

 

It's not the same. Your Pentium is based on extremely old technology while the i7 in the M11x has 2 cores and is based on the newest mobile technology. The i7 can also "turbomode" (aka overclock) itself to over 2.4ghz.

That being said it would run circles around a 2.6ghz pentium or Athlon processor, and putting it against your 1.4ghz Pentium IV would be putting a Ferari against a 1970's volkswagen.

 

I typed in "GeForce GT 335M" into the search @ nvidia.com. I could not find the driver update of 260.99. I did let nvidia scan my m11x r2 and a updated Intel and Nvidia driver downloads came up. I downloaded the Nvidia Download and installed it into my computer.

Also thank you everyone for helping me out. I will just contact Dell, or
1-800-ALIENWARE.

I dont want to exactly mess around with the setting as I am not good with computers yet and still learning. If make a mistake somewhere the computer might get messed up and I dont really want that.

Thanks

 

Also what button do I press to switch from Intel graphics card to Nvidia graphics card in the R2? Or does it change automatically.

I always do: Right-click file > Run with graphics processor > High performance Nvidia processor

And then game usually crashes. HUH. I will wait till the customer service at alienware opens up.

 

R2 is Optimus so the Intel kicks in automatically when not gaming for battery.

Make sure you are in High-performance battery mode while gaming. As it seems to iron out speed step and turbo boost issues as well as optimus issues.

Also make sure you are using 257.30 from Dells website or the latest drivers from nVIDIAs website which should be 267.24 beta

 

I use the 257 drivers with excellent performance.

 

I have my laptop at "high performance mode" when i do gaming. I went to nvidia.com website and downloaded the latest drivers for geforce gt 335M driver and installed it.

My question is, my alienware m11x r2 is not recognizing the nvidia graphics card. I press "Start menu" go to "Search" type in "dxdiag" then go to display, and it only shows the Intel driver.
I tried disable the intel driver, and when I went back to dxdiag, it wouldnt recognize the nvidia driver, it would just say "n/a" for everything.

If I go "Device Manager" in the "My Computer," I go to the graphics drivers and it shows that the nvidia card is "Enabled."

I dont get it.

 

That´s my point, the OP claims the m11x is not powerful to run the game because it has 1.2ghz when the requeriments ask for a 2.6ghz....

It was just an example of how ghz can blind someone thinking some CPU is better than other, mostly people who don´t know that much about it...

 

Have you tried reinstalling SC2?

Or another game like WOW? If it only happends with SC2, then it's probably a bad install.

 

Yes sir, i thought the same thing so I re-installed it 3 times to make sure and its still the same.

My main problem is the m11x r2 is not recognizing the nvidia card and its NOT switching at all when i do gaming. It stays on the Intel graphics card which is getting annoying.

 

Then call dell. You probably have an issue with the 335M. They should come out and replace.

 

Maybe they fixed the problems i had with it, but my experience with 257.30 is horrible. I couldnt even play sc2 on low with that drivers (and yes i whitelisted it).

But on to the thread, I would also suggest calling dell. They will probably do a online diagnosis and tell you whats wrong.

 

You need to learn how to use Optimus. There's nothing wrong with your computer, and attempting to 'disable' the Intel driver would be a bad thing (since, given the trouble you are having with optimus in the first place, I doubt you'd have a pain free experience uninstalling an essential driver).

The NVidia chipset kicks into action when its drivers recognize something running that requires its power. You need to, in many instances, tell the drivers what does and what does not require the NVidia chipset. You do this by right clicking on the desktop and selecting NVidia Control Panel from the menu that appears. Then, within the control panel, choose Manage 3d settings from the list of items on the left.

You can now use the dialog that appears to find a program, add it to the 'whitelist' and set it up to automatically use the Nvidia or Intel chipsets.

Alternately, navigate around your hard disk to find the program you want to run, right click it and choose the Run With Nvidia option to start it up that way.

dxdiag will always tell you that you are running the intel display adapter -that's just what it does.

 

Yes sir, that what I Exactly did. And just to make sure, i right-click on the .exe file and select "run with graphics program" and then go to Nvidia processor. Games such as MapleStory at low graphics or starcraft 2 or left for dead 2 at the lowest graphics possible. I start to play and about 5 min. into the game, the fan of m11x starts to get very loud and about 10 seconds after that the system crashed and the whole m11x restarts. When the game is running, i look underneath the m11x and the nvidia graphics card little fan is rotating and its running. My m11x r2 doesnt recognize the nvidia card and no games can work on this m11x.

 

All right I would like to thank everyone for helping me out. I did follow froogle's guide from step 1 and went to nvidia control panel and manually "Added the .exe files and selected nvidia for them. Now everything is working and no crashes which i am very thankful for. So i am enjoying now and thanks a lot.