M11xR1 Troubleshooting Thread

I think you misunderstood me. I'm never turning off the WiFi intentionally. Only reason I try cycling the WiFi on and off with the Fn key is to get it to see networks again. Rebooting it is the only thing that fixes it. I don't want to have to reboot to get WiFi working again.

 

ok thanks for the link, but just 1 thing, it says compability is for M17X, r u sure it's fine to apply it to M11X as well?

and is this MBR was there in the 1st place in our M11X? because i can see it's an October 2009 Update, which means, it's before M11X is out, so if this MBR was there in the 1st place, shouldn't my M11X already have it?

or is it by any chance, would a Windows Update have anything to do with it?

oh and this

so by upgrading this, it will be F10 and not F8 anymore?

 

Whenever I switch to the nvidia dedicated GPU I for some strange reason lose the ability to connect external displays to the m11x. This is a problem if I want to connect my drawing tablet and use Photoshop and other fairly intensive applications that eat the poor integrated intel chip for breakfast.

I've been switching drivers around at an attempt to fix this issue to no avail.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

 

Twe Foju,

Sorry....wrong system. I would give technical support a chat. Maybe they can send you over to a quick fix.

 

technical support chat only available on US only unfortunately

i even tried to call the AW from here, but never gets through

oh, isnt there a MBR for M11X yet?

 

Got my M11x yesterday, everything working great and overclock gave me approx 1.7GHz. or so dxdiag tells me.
I have her connected to my Toshiba 37 inch HD TV with no problems when I'm at home. I changed to only having the TV display active, but as I went to shut the M11x's lid she became unresponsive. All LEDs stayed lit, but my screen had no signal and she would not respond to any command. I ended up having to force a shutdown.
She then only booted in safe mode (with internet access for some reason)
I could find no way of booting back to other modes and ended up doing a system restore which worked perfectly.

Does anyone know why this happened and how to fix the issue?

 

actually there is nothing wrong

because eventhough you set to only TV display, when you close the lit, it will go to sleep

so you need to have your lit open all the time even if you set it to tv outuput

 

Go to power settings and change what happens when I close the lid to do nothing and it will work fine when you close the lid

 

Hi guys....after buying my m11x for 1 month...only until recently...my set frequently has BSOD. My set is OC'ed and have the latest graphic drivers from dell.com.
The following is what i copy and paste:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 18441

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: d1
BCP1: 00000000FFFFF780
BCP2: 0000000000000002
BCP3: 0000000000000000
BCP4: FFFFF880017884D2
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 768_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\050710-18330-01.dmp
C:\Users\ianrikkoh\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-37221-0.sysdata.xml

So the problem is it with my OC CPU or other reasons that cause BSOD? Thx for all the help..

 

Does the problem go away when you switch off the OC?

If so, yes it's the OC. Join the club. Alienware have assured me that a forthcoming BIOS will allow everyone to OC with no issues.

They don't have a clue when it is coming though.

 

i will go check it out...thx!!

 

Sounds strange but the only BSOD's i got was when I utilized IE8. Un-install it and try firefox. NO BSOD's since...
Thanks,

StevenX

 

so IE8 might be problem? okiez..i will try uninstalling it too...thx!

 

so magically all my issues have gone away since I switched OC off. /sigh , where is that bios update?

 

it maybe because your processor is not capable of working on 1700mhz with low voltage. Thinks its better to ask for replacement.

 

my OC m11x usually BSOD after 8 to 10 hrs of usage...it seems soo weird...could i call Dell and ask for a replacement??

 

Again, when you get the BSOD, exactly WHAT ARE YOU DOING? are you surfing? Can you boot into the OS? are you playing games? Of course you should contact Dell/Alienware but I would also take a concise look at what you are doing at the time of failure.
Best Wishes,
StevenX

 

To steven: When i get BSOD...is normally when i am surfing the net or chatting on MSN...not gaming...is juz very normal usage...then out of a sudden...it will stall and i need to do a hard reset on my m11x. So i am quite puzzled...as i dont game when i get BSOD...

 

Nightkiller - PLEASE UNINSTALL INTERNET EXPLORER 8. Install firefox instead. See if you still get the BSOD.

Thanks,

StevenX

 

Yeah..i have already done so. But right now i am back to 1.3ghz...after 13hrs of usage..still no BSOD...i suppose my CPU isnt that great though it still can last 8 to 9 hrs being OC...lol

 

My first m11x, the first time I overclocked it, got a BSOD IMMEDIATELY, before I could even log into Windows! So it sounds like your CPU is a little better than mine was, but you should still get a replacement. I had just bought mine from Bestbuy, so I went and exchanged it and have run the replacement OC continuously since then and have not had a single BSOD.

 

Nightkiller, sorry to hear it. I hope you get it sorted out. BW, StevenX

 

I have a odd problem, not sure if its a problem really as I have nothing to compair it to.

I have the tactx headphones, I can plug them into my desktop (lenovo thinkcentre) and they are loud. But when I plug them into my m11x I turn the volume up to max on the computer and the headphones and they are still pretty quiet. I have reinstalled sound drivers and updated them all. Still the headphones are quiet.

 

thx guys for the advice...greatly appreciate it...i am gonna call Dell and for a replacement set if possible..

 

Hi folks, quick question regarding the OC/BSOD issue. Is the general current consensus to ask Dell for a replacement or await the possible bios fix? I ask because I'm having this problem on my M11x which arrived today but I'm otherwise very happy with it and don't want to possibly receive a replacement with a different problem that would likely bother me more. I also doubt I'm going to use it for anything with which OCing would make a difference, I was just hoping to take advantage of a function that all the reviews I've read highlight.

For reference, I managed about 30 minutes before the BSOD and I was merely browsing the forums here via Chrome. The laptop was on battery power (Balanced mode) and using the integrated Intel graphics.

 

I'd get it replaced. Anything not working out of the box is not only bad but also makes it a hard sell if you ever tried to sell it. I would treat any talk of future bios fixes as a pipe dream. It doesn't exist until it's actually here.

 

I've owned my m11x for a month and have had no problem up till now, it's also been OCed through bios since about the day I got it. But the past week twice (Sunday and today) while I was playing Call Of Duty: World at War, the whole computer froze (wasn't responsive at all, sound was buzzing from the speakers), I had to shut down the computer manually. Any suggestion of what this could be? Other than that, the computer has worked flawlessly.

 

If it has happened a few times then you should worry. Happening one time out of a month of use shouldn't be a concern.

 

Hockey - does it lock up during any other games? What you may want to do is utilize the performance tool to see what temps are before lockup or if anything starts running or is activated to cause the lockup. Other items that cause issues are sound, blue tooth, usb ports, etc... I would disable everything in bios as well. Play for a while, see if you get the error. Activate one hardware item at a time and see if this helps. Also disable ANY external device like mouse or keyboard. The trick is to remove all variables, then start adding them in one at a time. Once you find the culprit, tackle that item. You could also reload the OS and Game to see if that makes a difference. Really it depends on how much time you wish to dedicate to the issue. I would maybe try something easy like un-install and reload the game first. Then start eliminating hardware. If necessary reload OS if nothing stands out. Best Wishes, StevenX

 

Other than Counter Strike: Source which ran fine, I haven't, but I'll play some COD4 (I've had it for weeks, but WaW has consumed me), see if the same problem occurs. Now that I think about it, COD: WaW glitched up in single player, didn't freeze the computer, but the game froze and I had to exit out and restart, so it might actually just be the game. I'll have to un-install and re-install, see if it happens again. Thanks for jogging my memory and for the advice!

 

If a specific game is having problems while you are on OC, it could be a driver issue or possibly a heat issue. Try playing WaW without the OC and see if the problem persists. If it does, try the Dell beta driver for the M11x (or try the Dell default for the M11x if you are already on the beta driver).

 

Just had a long chat with the AW tech support guy (Rado was his name).

Told him about the BSOD as soon as the OC is enabled. He put me on hold for about 10 minutes and then came back and said that the OC is not supported.

I told him that I disagree and that the feature is mentioned in the product documentation and that I want the machine repaired.

After some umming and ahhing he told me that before they send out an engineer, that he would like to see the minidump files from the BSODs. I emailed these to him. He has now promised to call tomorrow at the latest to let me know what they are doing.

He briefly mentioned a BIOS update and that they are 'working on a fix' blah blah, but didn't know when this will be appearing.

I will give him till Friday.... after that I need to start asserting my authority. It sounds like they are told to say 'this feature is not supported'. Apart from the fact that it is mentioned in the manual, what else can I counter this with? Anyway rant over. Love the machine, but I bought the machine on it OC'ed perfomance results. I will keep this thread informed....

 

i've had my m11x for around a month now, overclocked from day one. nothing wierd coming from the laptop.. no BSOD whatsover. my complain is just the built quality (theres some small gap on the screen edge & the side of m11x) could been better..

 

Update on my BSOD problem. Spoke to the same guy again (Rado).

He gave me the same spiel about Alienware not supporting the OC option, and I said the same as yesterday. IT SAYS YOU CAN DO IT IN THE MANUAL. He said that the manual also says 'Do not mess with the BIOS unless you are an expert'!!! /o\

I then pushed for a replacement or repair, at which point he mentioned that he could not authorize it (no managers in the centre) and that they probably wouldn't agree to it anyway. I asked why not... he said that it is not their policy to replace or repair for this specific problem in the Uk...

He then told me that someone would call me tomorrow afternoon (a manager?) who will let me know what they are to do. We'll see....

I'm torn because apart from the BSOD on the OC the machine is perfect. I love it, but also feel a little short changed when I read about the performance at the higher clock speed.

Has anyone else from the UK been through this process? Am I being unreasonable? Can anyone here offer their advice?

Cheers.

 

I will be posting about this problem in the owners lounge from now on.

 

I don't want to get anyone's hopes up as this may be a fluke, but I'd like to share what may lead to a possible workaround to the OC problem. After a fairly pointless discussion with Dell this afternoon, I decided to give the OC another try and while I was in the BIOS, I disabled the following things which I don't use:

Bluetooth Receiver
IEEE 1394
USB Power Share

I was amazed to find that after 90 minutes, there was not a BSOD in sight. On my previous 2 attempts, I'd managed almost exactly 25 minutes before the dreaded crash.

I then went back in and re-enabled the bluetooth. Out of the three things I disabled, if one of them was in some way responsible I expected it to be this. However, it's now an hour later and still no BSOD.

It's getting late here and I'm too tired to re-enable each option individually and test for an hour each time tonight, but I wanted to share my positive experience. I may do some more testing tomorrow, but if anyone else would like to play with these options and see if it has similar results, then please do so.

I should point out that I'm connected via mains power (as opposed to battery the last two times), but I understand this has made no difference for other users. I've also got a wireless USB mouse and an external DVD-Rom drive hooked up this time. For the first 90 minutes I was using the nVidia chip, but for the last hour I've switched to the Intel one.

Obviously, if disabling one (or all) of these things does resolve the problem, it's not an acceptable solution and I still expect Dell to come up with a fix. But it may be a workable alternative in the meantime to not being able to OC.

Best of luck to anyone who decides to give it a try, I hope the results are good for you too.

UPDATE: This sadly hasn't worked for one other user, but I hope it may still be of help to someone.

 

anyone know how to extract the recovery partition from the M11x and the fix of Recovery Factory through a disabled F8 yet?

still hoping for a answer here

 

Alright guys,

I recently reinstalled Windows 7 again, however I've kept the recovery partition.

I used Acronis True Image Home 2010 to create a backup before I reinstalled windows however when I attempted to restore this image I found that I was having issues trying to load the boot cd from Acronis.

Has anyone else had any troubles with Acronis? Also I was reading up on Dell Datasafe Local, I uninstalled the software without realising that I might need it to restore!

Does anyone have an ISO of the boot disk that it creates?

 

I also created backup of "official" partitions. I can open them, look at files, but if i'm trying to restore it acronis crashes. Even if it loaded from flash. Think something went wrong when he was creating it...

 

you may have had this issue fixed, but i was having a similar problem when waking from hibernate, except it was a blinking underscore.

i think i may have figured out when it happens. if i hibernate while plugged in and then try to wake it up while on battery, it will go to the blinking underscore. if i then plug it back in, it wakes up fine. note, this is with the GPU turned off (i leave mine off the majority of the time). my totally uneducated guess is that it is related to some driver issue with the two cards; ie the default for the system when it's waking up may be for the GPU to be turned on, but the correct driver is not loaded since the integrated one was active at hibernation.

i haven't read this entire thread yet, so if this has been solved, sorry for the post.

 

Hey everyone,

I have a question regarding the m11x webcam. So far I only used it twice, once for skype and once to make a picture. But when I tried skype yesterday it said there was no device detected. I checked the device folder and noticed the "facap, FastAccess Video Capture" device was turned off. When I turned it on again I only got a testscreen with vertical colored bars. I tried to search the internet and this forum for a solution but couldnt find it. Could someone here help me please?

 

If it worked before, it could just be something messing with the drivers. Where do you see white bars? In skype in the camera window?

Here's the screenshot of my drivers:

 

apparantly my device manager folder looks a bit different. First of all, my windows is dutch. But also the ímaging devices folder only has this driver: "facap, FastAccess Video Capture" and no integrated webcam like yours. It also appears to be from "sensible vision" instead of microsoft

 

Hmmm... OK. It may be that your driver is from the AlienSense module or whatever the thing that does face recognition at the start-up is called. I made a fresh Windows install (I wanted to repartition the hard drive) and then installed all the drivers on my own. I only installed basic Alienware software for changing the lighting and On-Screen-Display. So maybe that's why I got stuck with MS drivers for the webcam.

 

I just started having this same problem myself. The only new device I've added so far is a USB MIDI cable going to my old Roland MT-32 synth. (Yes, I'm that nerdy. I grew up playing Sierra AGI games.) But I don't see how this would interfere with the webcam which is not sound-related...it's just plug n play

edit- update! I guess it is the USB midi cord. Apparently webcam and Mr. Roland don't play nice. lol oh well

 

Greets gang, just noticed I'm logging the following error (non-crit) when the CPU is oc'd. Anyone else see this in your event viewer -> Windows Logs -> System? (This is a x2 error as it occurs for both cpu cores AND running latest A03 bios update)

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Processor-Power
Date: 5/30/2010 2:30:21 PM
Event ID: 35
Task Category: (2)
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: AWZulu
Description:
Performance power management features on processor 1 in group 0 are disabled due to a firmware problem. Check with the computer manufacturer for updated firmware.


any thoughts appreciated! Thanks!

 

Maybe its about intel speed step? cause its not working while in OC

 

That could definitely be the case, but I was curious if any others saw this logged on their rigs.

Further, this is only logged on boot (while proc is oc'd) and does NOT occur when the proc is not overclocked and speedstep is disabled.

Just odd because I don't remember ever seeing this before in my M11x logs until after the last BIOS update.

Regards

 

and does NOT occur when the proc is not overclocked and speedstep is disabled.

and when proc is oc and speedstep is disabled?

 

Did this last night before going to bed, good call

If oc'd' and speedstep is disabled, the error is *not* logged/not present. So apparently Win7 (x64 ult in my case) just doesn't like the fact that speedstep is apparently disabled while the proc is oc'd. Too bad Win7...deal!

FWIW, Speedfan shows very normal and even cool CPU-cores and GPU/HD0 temps (not ssd).