M17 Stuttering Revisited/FN-F10 solution

M17 owners seem to have a variety of problems and solutions for the M17 stutter. I have a quad core model that also exhibits this. It has been freshly imaged, has all the latest driver updates, latest device BIOSes, and still stutters. Download DPC latency checker to verify what I'm talking about if you have an M17. I have my drivers working with normal latency, then latency goes well in excess of 8000 microseconds. The stutter happens independent of applications running on top of the OS, and is also OPERATING SYSTEM INDEPENDENT. I have the stutter in Vista, Win7, and Linux; all x86_64 versions. The defective driver(s) starts a kernel stutter that manifests as audio popping and 3-D video app framerate loss. I have been solving this by pressing FN-F10. This immediately reorders the way the faulting hardware/driver is presented to the OS; and latencies sink below 500 microseconds. This points me toward the keyboard/keyboard driver as the fault. Beyond that you have the southbridge, then the mobo as possible faults. If anyone feels like a little mod to the M17, could you try removing the onboard keyboard, and using an external, and seeing if you still get stutter? You can press FN-F10 to get your computer back however.

 

Hi,

Some people have seen improvements flashing to the Z-factor OCZ BIOS as found in this thread;

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/426562-official-alienware-m17-drivers-page.html

others have fitted copper shims to the heatsinks and have reported success.

follow this thread especially further down the page under "quad problems" and especially "project freeze" which was the best attempt at fixing quad-stuttering on the M17;

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ds/357640-m17-general-information-thread.html

or just get a fast dual-core and give up!

no seriously......good luck with it.

 

i was just wondering.....probably been tried before but can you try and run the M17 with the bottom cover removed and see if this alleviates the stuttering?

I run my M17 on a notebook cooler with bottom cover removed just so my 4850s dont fry.....runs like a dream now. The M17 has notoriously bad cooling but is great notebook in my opinion and many other peoples opinion also.

 

It's been months before I last had the case of the stuttering. This is what makes it so strange; it seems to be unique in every case. I get virtually no stuttering in B14 where some others get loads. But when I try zfactor's 0.29 BIOS which for most alleviated the stuttering, mine got 50 times worse.

It's very strange, it has to be said.

The cooling is far from 'notoriously bad'. If it was notoriously bad, it'd overheat all the time, Area-51 m15x style. As it happens the cooling is sufficient to keep all the hardware well within safe boundaries.

With 4850s though, that's a different matter. But the system was never designed to take 4850s, it was designed solely for the 3870s which run considerably cooler.

 

I solved my stuttering another way.

1. Remove Q9000 Processor.
2. Install x9100 Processor.

Done!

 

I'm traveling and don't have my jeweller's screwdriver set. So no serious work right now. The lappy has fine temps at idle (3870 CF idles @ 51, max @ 89; CPU idles 55 maxes @ 80). I did disable a lot of devices attached to the southbridge that aren't used that frequently, and the stuttering still happens. Just not as often and it recovers more quickly. Will let you know if taking off the bottom cover helps the DPC latencies. Also; should anyone have a pair of 4850's for this model, I'm looking for a pair.