*OFFICIAL* "All Powerful" M15x Owners Lounge - Part 4

I guess that's why you called it pricey. There are some services out there that will buy it from the US for you for as small fee. A couple of members here have used it and have saved money.

 

Can you aware me about that services?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/452304-how-order-dell-us-non-us-citizens.html#post5755191

 

I am in switzerland and i understand, here its too costly but as suggest above go with the 5850, and do not make the order by internet but give them a call and ask for a quotation. I got around 10% discount that way... all the best

 

So I unistalled rivatuner since it was suggested OC tools can mess with eachother and downloaded nvidia system tools. Do a reboot and see that nvidia system monitor says my gpu clocks are at 383/300/766 . When I go to use the control panel to set my clocks to even stock 550/950/1350 i hit apply and nothing happens. My clocks stay at 383/300/766. What the $%^&? Why can only rivatuner set my clocks to 550/950/1350?

EDIT: No, I'm not in stealth mode and yes, my battery plan is on high performance.

 

try turning stealth on and off then set it.

 

well its because nvidia down clocks automatically when not doing anything gpu intensive which is why the clocks are not that high when your setting them in NST. just run gpu-z in the background when playing a game and you will see the clocks going to 550/950/1350.

 

I have World of Warcraft open in windowed mode and have the nvidia control panel up set at 650/1100/1600. GPU-Z is also up, under the Graphics Card section the GPU clock reads 650/1100/1600 but under the sensors section it reads 383.3/300.9/766.7. It was like that before I opened WoW and stayed the same even as im in the crowded city. Something's wrong?

A screenshot is at http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/94/gpuclocks.png . If someone could tell me how to make it a thumbnail I'd appreciate it, don't want to blow the forum up with a 1080 shot.

 

you need to disconnect your bios battery when doing the power drain trick. the connection is next to it in the middle of the system. There is the black coin battery connected by wire and the connection is right there next to it. Disconnect that and hold the power button down and see if that clears things up

 

Thanks tuen, will do that now!

 

No dice, disconnected the bios battery and held down the power button for 20 secs. Restarted the laptop, opened up the control panel and set to 650/1100/1600. GPU registers the change in the first tab but the sensors stay at 383.3/300.9/766.7 even when wow is opened up and in windowed mode. Virtually the same as the screen shot above.

What should I try next? Just as an aside the driver I'm using is 186.81 just because it fixed my HD movie playback which was choppy in more recent drivers. Could it be the culprit?

 

reinstall your drivers but when you uninstall the current ones use cc cleaner twice for the registry then reboot and repeat the cc cleaner process then install the new drivers. this should be your answer if not then your gpu needs to be replaced.

 

Okay I'll try that. Where did you guys get the drivers for 197.45? I tried using v197.45 Windows XP 64bit | NVIDIA Desktop - LaptopVideo2Go Forums but the modded INF didnt support the 260M.

 

i think if you search the forum jstar posted it a couple of times

 

My first question... Is stealth mode on?

assuming its not...what you're experiencing is simple. i used to get this often with the 260m after playing around with overclocking too much with NST (it's buggy) . Basically things go screwey after a while. The clocks are getting set fine, its just that your gpu isn't detecting when to kick in the 3D clocks! Gets VERY annoying. I feel your pain. Forcing clocks with Rivatuner will sometimes work, but then again you can't OC too high with it...because its gets unstable wayy too early while upping the clocks. It seems there just is no winning with the 260m is there? Lol well anyways here's hwo to fix it.

Do what tuenkamen said.

1. Uninstall rivatuner ( if its installed)
2. Uninstalled NST.
3. Uninstall your Nvidia drivers.
4. Run CC Cleaner.
5. Restart.
6. Re-install Nvidia drivers.
7. Re-install NST.
8. Restart.

It should be back to normal now. Just try not to set diffrent clocks too too often as with time, it'll happen again ( NST is to blame i think). Also, Try running games fullscreen first, and then switching to windowed mode, as sometimes running games in windowed mode doesn't trigger the 3D clocks for some reason. Now about those drivers... let me find that post i posted Long, Long ago...

EDIT: Here it is

 

Okay thank you guys for the posts... I've run into another problem now though lol. Whenever I log in after restarting my laptop after uninstalling the drivers my computer automatically installs 260M drivers without even asking me. If I look at it in device manager i can see a list of device drivers that are stored on my computer (they are very old, one from sept, two from nov, and one from dec of last year). As soon as it updates it says I have to reboot so I can't even install the drivers I want to lol.

How do I delete those old drivers (I have no idea where theyre stored) or stop my computer from automatically installing them?

 

Ok im here gimme a sec

 

first off, are you talking about windows drivers? or nvidia drivers?

 

Nvidia drivers. I unistall my current drivers via device manager, and the screen goes to the lower resolution as usual. I then run CCleaner twice cleaning up any left over files. Then I reboot.

As soon as I log back in (due to password) I get a notification that a VGA driver is installing. 30 seconds later it says 260M driver has been successfully installed and asks me to reboot. IF I say no I try to install my own drivers it says I cant because the device isnt recognized. Basically I think as soon as I log on a old 260M driver is being installed and I don;t know how to prevent it.

 

i've never had this happen to me, but which drivers are getting installed? Ones from Dell? or nvidia?

By Default Dell drivers get extracted to c\dell\drivers

 

Here's the list I see. One of them is getting applied as soon as I reboot. ARGH! lol

http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/7924/old260mdrivers.png

Ill go try to find that path you just said.

 

Nah no dice. Windows has saved those old drivers somehow and is automatically applying them. Should I just call Alienware? Or maybe try applying that VGA driver then try the process? Geez I don;t know. Meant to edit sorry for the double post.

 

You can't click "have disk" option either?

I'd say it all comes down to where you extracted all those drivers....and i wouldn't really be able to help you with that. Try n avoid just extracting anywhere. I keep ALL my drivers in a folder called Drivers, so i can easily find them later. But you might want to look in program files for a folder NVIDIA. Check in there. Check every folder that says NVIDIA. you're bound to find them. I don't have the 260m anymore so i can't check those folders for you to see whats in them. I remember deleting them though


Also, You can use the SEARCH filed when you press on the start button. Type in exactly what shows up on that list, should point you in the right direction

Thats all the advice i can give without knowing more... hope you get this issue solved buddy

 

I can click the have disk option.

The driver being applied is 195.62 (or at least that's what GPU-Z says). I just tried and I can in fact OC it to 650/1100/1600 but I still would like to use 197.45 because 195.62 isn't very good for games (that's why I stayed at 186.xx). Trouble is I don't know where the 195.62 files are being stored by windows cause yeah I usually keep any drivers i download in my drivers folder on my desktop.

Here are some pics of what happens as soon as I log in following an unistall of whatever video drivers I had before.







Followed by a reboot prompt. Sigh I'll just call tech support I guess.

 

ok here's what to do.

I think I found a solution.

Use the Device Manager to navigate to the VGA card and select the option to "update driver from a list of drivers already on my system" . Choose the Standard Windows one and reboot. After reboot it shouldn't try to re-install the nvidia one.

If this doesn't work, then sorry im out of ideas

 

I had tried that but when trying to install drivers it couldn't recognize the drivers. Just got off the line with a Alienware tech. I asked him to show me how'd he do it and he did the same process I did except he clicked scan for hardware changes right after installing the current driver. This seemed to make windows think it was just a generic video adapter and so it didn't automatically update the 260M when we rebooted.

So the question is now: How bad are these Dell Beta 257.30 Drivers? lol. Thanks for your help J and tuen! I'm just gonna raid with these tonight, but they don't seem any better than 186.41.

 

Honestly i don't know why this is happening to you lol. i hit uninstall driver, reboot, and install the one i want lol. plain n simple.

and i wouldn't know about those drivers, i've never used them.

 

you can also uninstall it using ccleaners.

oops never mind saw you got it fixed, lol.

 

Yeah, I'm gonna raid on WoW for a few hours then I'll try installing the 197.45 drivers. Must've started my computer 30 times today trying to figure this out lol.

 

well glad you got everything working.

 

Yeah, now if only I could get my sister to stop downloading 14 songs at once all night while Im trying to game online . CAn;t wait til I move out again for school

 

So what's this update on notebookreview saying there is a new power management for the alienware laptops? Does this apply to the M15x at all? And if it does, does it actually improve battery life?

 

Edit: Nevermind, wasn't paying attention and my suggestion was already suggested

 

What games are you playing these days? I bought a crapload during that steam sale but I haven't gotten around to playing many of them because WoW keeps dragging me back in.

Force Unleashed is fun but it's a very crappy console port. Better than the second trilogy tho .

 

@Avengement -- When you uninstall the current driver in Device Manager, a popup box appears. Check the box that says remove driver software and hit OK/<enter>. This will prevent the same driver from being reinstalled after restarting. If any driver other than the VGA driver loads, repeat the uninstall/remove software routine until it boots to the VGA driver. Then install your preferred drivers.

Checking remove software doesn't actually remove the drivers from your disk, just from the active driver folder. So you can always go back to a prior driver version.

 

Hmm. I'm pretty sure I did that but I will make sure to do so next time I change drivers, thanks rev! Now that you mention it I'm going to uopdate to 197.45 now, not doing anything else lol.

 

May not be an issue then. Lots of people are reluctant to select the remove software option because they're afraid it may permanently erase the drivers.

 

Updated to 197.45 with no problems... I sure was having trouble yesterday though.

And I just pulled the trigger on an Intel G2 160GB SSD! Woot, hope the guy isn't a pirate and rips me off.

 

LoL, sad thing is I made 9 purchaces during that sale and I haven't played any of them apart from having a quick look. I'm still on Borderlands and waiting for Fallout New Vegas.

 

Hi guys, good to be back. Lots of work and very little time lately, but that's behind me for now.

First of all, Inap, bro, great paint job. Your lappy looks fantastic! (And the paint job took all the "flashiness" off so you can take it to important meetings, ha ha ha!). No, seriously bro, looks incredible!

J man! Good to see you're back in full force! And see how many people you've already helped again.

Thierry, my man! Love your new mouse, thinking of picking one up as well. The one I have right now absolutely blows.

Avengement, stay away from the Dell Beta drivers. They keep almost everything the same as before but some things get sucky, slow or stop working all together.

Drama89, with all due respect, I don't think you're ready for such machinery. Why don't you get a cheap laptop to start with, like an Acer or something. Don't waste so much money if you don't need to. Most people here fork over this much money because they want or need the best. All computers are overpriced, even the cheap ones that can't do anything decently.

By the way, I have had so much work lately that I actually got a blister from typing a couple of days ago! Never had that happen before.
Also, since my four year old discovered Youtube, I have to fight to get on my own computer, because he doesn't like his eeepc! Guess I'll have to get him a bigger lappy! Ha ha ha!

 

Harrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!! i Love you broooo
So glad you passed by Its been too long..

Wow its almost like old times, we just need everyone on all at once to get things going real crazy

Anyways yea i've returned once again , and i've been on daily (almost all day at work LOL). Quite the opposite of you, since things have been real slow at work, and i've had alot of time on my hands.

Hope to see you back here more often.. i want the crew back together

 

Hey, from now on I'm back baby!
It was just crazy the last couple of weeks. My wife's laptop died, so she had to use mine as well. My son's summer holiday started, lots of "normal" work, and had to play interpreter at a trial as well.
But I'm up-tu-date now, bro.

BTW - I make more typing mistakes than you, bro! In my case I should look at the screen more often to see what appears there!

 

LOL wow man, you really did get up-to-date! You haven't missed a thing! lol

Did you catch up on that icomplained to dell and got them to replace my gtx 260m with a 5850m....and they gave my a 5870m by accident! plus a free 9 cell battery and a fan replacement (but thats nothing exciting lol). Still can't believe they screwed up... but i'm lovin it

 

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet! I must have read over that one, or maybe it was a while ago. I only read like the last 4 pages. Congrats, bro! I saw Inap had a new 5870 as well. Hope he won't fry this one! ha ha ha.

 

Maw probably bake this one,lol.
Nice to see you back in action harry. So when are we gonna play again. Lately been playing with the wiz and archnemesis .
Geez harry you just summed up a whole weeks worth of posts in only 2 post,Hahaha

 

Ha ha ha! What's up, bro?
Yeah, did some reading before I posted, though.
How's your new card working?

Love your yellow machine, man. Looks awesome!

BTW - we'll hook up soon for a bit of shooting!

 

OH DAMN good to see your back bro thought we lost a good forum member to their work. good to see your back harry

 

Thanks, bro. Don't worry about losing me to my work. It's merely a necessary good (although I love my job), but it will never take over my life.

How is your life been going Tuenkamen?

I'll read your answer in the morning, bro. It's midnight and my wife is calling me!

 

Thanks harry. Yeah the card is good, haven't had the time to push it yet.Hahaha

Can't wait for the next time we get a chance to play.

 

Well moved into my apt and enjoying the luxuries of not having to do half the time for once. also tried out for a job today as a burrito roller lol well see if i get the job tomorrow hopefully. And i start at my new school in mid September (I know its kinda late for school to start).