The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Increased voltage to 1.7 in BIOS - Unusual Behavior Followed

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by jarvmeister, May 24, 2011.

  1. jarvmeister

    jarvmeister Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    89
    Messages:
    214
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Looking at my WEI (I know it's not a great benchmarking tool, but it's there and everyone understands it) and trying to increase some of the scores, I decided to increase my RAM voltage from 1.5 to 1.7 in the BIOS.

    Ran the test and the score rose from 7.3 to 7.5 which was good.

    However, all afternoon, either when I leave the laptop alone, or I put it to sleep by pressing the power button, when I turn it back on again I just get the lights and fan. I have to power drain to get it back up and running again.

    I've switched the setting back to 1.5 for now - not really fussed.

    But why does this happen and does anyone else experience the same thing or know how to overcome it?

    Cheers

    Ross
     
  2. svl7

    svl7 T|I

    Reputations:
    4,719
    Messages:
    3,758
    Likes Received:
    134
    Trophy Points:
    131
    Hmm, at least you got it working.

    When I set the RAM to 1.6 and saved the BIOS configuration I got in an infinite boot-loop. I had to remove the CMOS and reset the BIOS to get it working again.
    What RAM do you use? Stock?

    About WEI... that the RAM went up from 7.3 to 7.5 is not necesarrily because of th increased voltage... if you run it again you might end up at 7.4 or something similar, that's WEI, at least how I experienced it.
     
  3. inap

    inap .........................

    Reputations:
    4,417
    Messages:
    7,827
    Likes Received:
    19
    Trophy Points:
    206
    yup you have to reset the bios like svl said. the M15x doesn't like any kind of voltages changes to the ram.
     
  4. jarvmeister

    jarvmeister Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    89
    Messages:
    214
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Stock RAM yes.

    If it doesn't like the increase, why do Dell put it in the BIOS? Weird!

    Anyway, at least I had was able to recover from it without too much of a headache.

    Cheers guys.
     
  5. JohnnyFlash

    JohnnyFlash Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    372
    Messages:
    2,489
    Likes Received:
    11
    Trophy Points:
    56
    WEI is terrible for gauging performance.