After the GPU Downclocking... Do we have a CPU one? A call to M15x owners.

JWest... It's a tough call on taking or not the "big" step. I did it last week. I'm aware of the risk this is, but hey... we will deal with the problems as they come. In fact, right now, there isn't an equivalent match for the M15x and, if it was working 100% from day 1, then the M15x would have been a step ahead in mobile technology. Unfortunately, it proved over and over that is just a big design, planning and construction flaw.

More... if you do buy an M15x and it is not working properly, I'm sure you will be able to manage not to pay the re-stocking fee. I've heard quite a few people that returned it in the US and didn't end up paying it. It requires a bit of patience, that's all. You might also consider buying it with a credit card and then use the credit card company to get your money back.

Regarding my choice... well, the LCDs are out of stock till the end of June. I ordered my laptop on the 6th of May and now I'm expecting it on the 28th of June. That's almost two months to get my laptop... That gives me plenty of time to wait for the new clevo and reviews about it and cancel my M15x if I decide to go for it.

 

The new clevo 15,4" with 8800GTX is not yet out because they have to wait for the montevina release! And that will be somewhere around june...


To the argument, that stressing the CPU with full load for long time is not realistc, I can only say I often have to render stuff that can take from minutes to hours at 100% load!

It's how newfiejudd said, just because an error is not occuring that often doesn't make it disappear!

 

@Jwest - You do realize that you have to pay a 15% restocking fee if you do not like the laptop unless you live in the UK.

 

Seriously? Ok, there's way to much confusion on they're policy here. Sorry, I don't mean to throw the thread off topic or anything, I just want to know what their policy is. I'll have to search around on their website some more (or call them).

 

getting back on topic I convert a lot of movies and do a lot of video work. Very easy for me to push it to 100%

 

@JWest - I sent you a PM on the issue.

 

Anyone else out there that might have tried this? It would be good if we could have a larger sample of non Extreme CPU's owners.

 

yeah really if i remember correctly we had 2 other people try with t9300 one downclocked and the other didn't.

 

Well I emaild AW today so hopefully I will get a response.

 

Made another test. Unfortunately I had to finish it after 37 minutes, but this is what I got. It's really not on stealth mode, ac on, high performance mode, 8800 gtx on.

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/223/66926521ix4.jpg

strange, thing, thermofan shows different temperature from RMClock. I think thermofan shows the right one. Anyway after 37 minutes some minimal downclocking appeared, but nothing serious. And this time I ran only CPU test (not ram)

 

no looks like your ok what you need to be afraid of is this.

 

wow it's downclocking at 74 degrees... And your fan is running faster than mine. I feel sorry for all of you, and I even wanted to buy the X9000. I can't understand where is the problem comming to you all.

 

no it didn't downclock at 74. What happened is that it downclocked at 93c and what you just didn't see yet in rmclock. So now I know It will downclock at 93c and then it will take it to about 74 then it will go back up. I have done a little work on it so its not downclocking as bad.

 

I'm so afraid of getting my near-$4,000 laptop in 2 weeks to find it downclocking worse than my old Dell Inspiron 8500 did. Speedstep is by far the worst invention known to man. At least give your customers the ability to fry their CPU's if they REALLY want to.

 

well you might be ok. We haven't had a lot of people test but we did have 1 t9300 that did then again so far its 3:1 for the t9300.

 

It seems it also depends on when you got the laptop. From what I'm reading, people who just recently received their laptop are reporting they have better CPU fans than people who received them months ago.

 

yeah thats what it looks like someone e-mailed AW we're waiting on a response.

 

that's the first time I ever read about a new revision of fans... they have patched up several problems but as far as I know they didn't change hardware parts so far

 

well they have changed the heatsink fins but as in the fan I don't think so.

Edit: Also guys AW has read this thread so hopefully they find a fix. I'm currently testing some different things out now see if we can't get this fixed.

 

As I told Mr. "M15x problems are no more" Helio, there is quite some problems with the M15x still, but I was happy to order one because as I thought the main problem which was the GPU downclocking was fixed. My order is canceled now and I give props to whoever brought this new issue up even further.

I called alienware today, called the Roswell team and as I expected she didn't know what I was talking about. Kept repeating that all problems are fixed and its prolly only a problem with a few out of thousands of systems they sold. This is the same exact response I got when I called in many times about the GPU downclocking. I told her that those other thousands of people are prolly unaware of the problem since they are probably are not as computer savy as the people from here, but she ignored everything and repeated her "there isn't an issue with the system and its a very powerful system," robotic comment you normally get.

Now I asked to be transfered to tech support, but she refused, said I needed an account in order for me to be transfered to tech support. What we are going to have to do is e-mail frank about it, whoever has frank's e-mail, can you PM it to me or e-mail him yourself. I wouldn't count on Alienware-Steve as he might never mail you back as I am still waiting for a reply on the OLD gpu downclocking issue, sent him five e-mails total and no reply.

But we need more people to test the problem but I suspect this might be more of a general problem rather than a rarity, I may be wrong. But with all the problems of this system from the beginning I wouldn't doubt it. Believe me, AW will not be aware of this problem unless we e-mail frank about it or if he sees this post himself or if he is informed by someone else outside of nbr. We need to keep this thread active!

 

I'm sorry if I wasn't clearer. I actually did mean the FINS, not the FANS. They made the fins match the outbound airflow width of the fan, allowing more air to flow out in a larger space.

There's a picture of both revisions of fins somewhere in another thread

 

Roswell team is aware of the issue. Just got them to place an order for a new heatsink not sure if it will help but its a start. I don't think its time to start jumping up and down just yet I'm giving them a chance to work out the problems and if they use my system to test its no problem to me. I'll keep you guys updated on the status. Also thanks for your help Kevin we'll see if this fixes it.

 

I too own an x9000 and am also experiencing the same downclocks.

 

Taco what did they say when you told them the problems? Seems you got a different response than I did? Did they already tell you that they are aware of the problem or is that one csr you talked too aware of the problem now since you just told him?

 

hey pervay congrats on your first post. Thank you for taking the time to test. If you have time and are not afraid to remove your service cover let us know what rev your heatsink is or take a picture of the whole thing (including Fins) This would be a great help.

@milcs you should update the first post so we can keep track of those that have the problem and also those that don't. Also thanks to everyone that is willing to help out.

@first he was aware because he read this thread so we talked for a good while on what are some options that we can do. Now what we decided was that we would change the heatsink (and i would assume the thermal paste) to see if there is any other change. That should be done this week. I'll let you guys know. Until then I'll keep testing.

 

And also I wouldn't count on the customer service so much to rally the message as I called them as soon as the gpu downclocking problem was evident and basically had the same response that there is no problem and that if I ordered the system I would also not have a problem. Maybe Mal can e-mail frank, I know he has franks e-mail.

 

well I know the Roswell Crew pretty well as do they me. They have always helped me till I was satisfied so far even with this they are giving me A+ TS well IMO. I'm pretty confident we'll come up with something.

 

Are you getting downclocks while playing WoW?

You know what's wierd? The power supply in most laptops plays a pretty big part in heating laptops when batteries are in the computer getting charged. My Inspiron 8500 CONSTANTLY CPU downclocked all the time. The one easy way I fixed it was to take any batteries out of the system while the system was on AC power. This made the power supply ONLY power the laptop, and not continuously charge the battery.

My temperatures were through the roof when I had my batteries in.

And as a side note, laptop batteries don't last a long time. They're only meant to have a little over one-thousand charge/recharge cycles (probably to get you to buy another >$100 battery). Funny how batteries in cars, cell phones and ipods last 3-5 years. My Inspiron's battery says it's at a full charge, but when I take it off AC, it dies in 5 minutes.

Having your laptop battery in the laptop while you're on AC ruins the battery life. Obviously if it's in there charging, that's different, but if it's full, take that battery out!

 

Ok well I hope so, but it doesn't hurt to e-mail frank also and contact him direct, but I don't know who has his e-mail, lots pf people who had the gpu downclocking might have his e-mail. I know the Roswell team a lot and talked to Andrea a lot but she is no longer with Roswell, they are much nicer than the regular csr, but I still find them not that knowledgable with computer hardware and software questions.. But they are really good at selling their systems as thats their main job is to sell systems.

Btw Taco since you have a customer number, can you also call Roswell tech support and let the guys know about it. I tried earlier and you I stated in my last post, they couldn't transfer me since I don't have a customer ID number.

 

Thanks it's good to be here. Too bad my first post was about this. No, I have experienced ZERO slow down in WoW. But that's not gonna stress the PC to 100%. As requested pics of HS/Fan... Looks like Rev 3

 

Welcome Pervay, It seems you have the same Heatsink as the rest of us. And again thanks for posting in this thred and helping us out a little.

So this makes 5 extreme processors.
And 1 t9300.

 

I wonder how they are going to fix this one...

 

fixed it for you.

 

With a stick of C4. Time to let the mother ship know the grunts aren't happy. LOL. :0

 

Explosives! w00t!

 

Unfortunately I have to go to work now, otherwise I would call Roswell myself right now, but I need to wait until tomorrow. If there is no update until then, then I will call as soon as I get the chance tomorrow.

 

Thanks for the feedback people. This is really useful information. I'll update the 1st post when I get back home and I have time to go through the thread.
But... it doesn't look great. This is, for me, the last drop on a pool full of sh**. It's absolutely ridiculous, unaceptable and criminal what AW has done. This is nothing short than stealing, false publicity... this is nothing short of a crime. I'm really infuriated with this and right now I just hope AW is brought to the ground and pushed to bankrupcy.
I know this is not constructive, but his is really how I feel. All this is simply SURREAL and if I didn't read it, I would never have believed something like this was possible.
Shame on AW, hope you guys won't make your business for much longer.

 

The real issue here is not the fact that CPU's are downclocking. The problem is inadequate cooling on AW's part. You're absolutely right that AW should be ashamed of themselves. It's almost futile to send in your laptop, because unless they install a much LARGER heat sink and a much LARGER fan next to it, they won't get rid of the heating problems. And that unfortunately is to blame with MANY laptop manufacturers who put in the best of the best parts.

Heat will always be an issue. I had Speedstep on my Dell Inspiron 8500, I'll have it on my Alienware m15x. The only way to keep it cool is to keep it in a cool environment. If you're in a hot and stuffy room, expect that laptop to overheat and downclock.

Personally, I think the m15x CPU heatsink isn't big enough, and the fan design is inadequate, but that's just me.

 

I ran the test for 15 minutes with the highest temperature 76 degrees. At about 10 minutes (about 76 degrees) the CPU fan went into overdrive (6000 RPM over 5000) and fluctuated from 73-76 degrees during that period. Never once went higher than 76.

If someone wants me to I can go longer but I stopped at 15 when it was just not moving for approximately 5 minutes.

 

I don't think the heatsink is big enough. Especially for the Extreme procesors. And your absolutly right Crystalized the Fan is way to small, and along with it being to far into the system to efectivly push that heat away fro the unit.

 

Well, the fan is still larger than the Inspiron 8500's. That fan is like 1.5in x 1.5in. It was sad. If the room was hot, or the day was hot (I live in SoCal), then I'll play games and have it downclock. In Everquest (a game I played alot back when I used my Inspiron), I'd be running, then BAM, I'm running at half speed. On my main computer, I can see myself running, then I get teleported backwards, I run forward again a little further, and I get teleported back again.

Games nowadays don't really support Speedstep, and probably never will. If the game is already initialized, it freezes the GHz you're working at. If it drops below that, say 50% below it, then the game runs 50% slower. If you're running, you walk 50% slower, things happen 50% slower and the whole game run like it's in slow-mo.

For an enthusiast laptop, this should never happen unless the CPU is about to melt. And that should be WAY ABOVE 93 Celsius.

Overall, AW should have better cooling to prevent this from happening.

 

GRB please test again for some more time, mine worked fine for the first 20-30 min but then the downclocking started!

Oh and btw the downclocking we talk about has absolutely NOTHING to do with SpeedStep functionality! Thats the thermal protection doing this, speedstep downclocks the CPU ONLY when it is not needed to save power...

 

Sure, no problem

However I'm curious what test you guys are running, cause that first program gives you three options (one is more CPU based, the other is to use max power/heat, etc)

 

49 minutes into testing
downcloacking has started to occur

i left it going past 30 minutes and assumed i was safe, then i took a glance and was a bit suprised

 

I wouldn't say that's Downclocking... at least as serious as the others are seeing. Your temps do not even go very high.
And note the frequency and voltage do not change... Nah, that's not the Dcing we are talking about here.

 

k, just kidding then, still am running the test though, besides i dont think i will ever stress out the cpu for this long in normal usage.

back to review for ap chem exam then...

 

thanks for the help demon I would be happy if thats all I got for 30 min. Also thanks to GRB for testing.

 

Demon those temps are quite good actually. Congrats on a beautifully working system. And thank you for testing.

So what the score I lost track again lol..

 

Well I knew something was wrong with my m15x, but I didn't want to admitted. I just realize that my cpu downcloacks. It goes down to 1196mhx and the miltiplier to 6.

 

Something else I just notice is that when I enable stealth mode the core speed goes up from 1196 to 1595, shouldnt it be the other way around since Im downcloacking the cpu on pourpose?