[M17xR2] DVD / Bluray issues - Important Information

Guys,

Been having major issues with DVD and Bluray playback on my new R2. Playback would glitch ever few minutes and the drive would make a horrible seeking sound for about 5 seconds, disrupting playback. I even had a few game installations fail because of this. Was totally convinced the drive was defective.

Before going after a drive replacement - since it was the weekend - I did a ton of researching and found a very unusual cause that I'd like to share with others who may be panicing as I was.

On some Dell notebook models, there is an issue where Dell DataSafe Local Backup can cause disruption of this type. Apparently it constantly polls the drive causing it to go nuts during playback.

Having nothing to loose I decided to boot into Safe Mode and nuke DataSafe completely. After restarting, I tried playing back the DVD that was causing me the most issues.

After removing Dell DataSafe I had absolutely smooth playback... no glitches whatsoever... no 'grinding' sound from the drive, etc. Drive now is virtually silent.

Based on my experience, I'm wondering how many DVD and Bluray drives have been needlessly replaced when there is actually no problem with the hardware.

I encourage everyone to share this information with other Alienware owners you find experiencing DVD or Bluray playback issues.

UPDATE: I can personally confirm that both the M17xR2 and M11x display this issue. I do not know if the M15x also does it.