M17 possible sleep issue fix

please test i know this was posted but i made its own thread for people the test out and so every one could see it

 

I heard about this on thursday morning but never had a chance to really test it out with someone. It's good news to hear that it's worked for at least one person so far.

The credit goes to Giancarlo from Level 2 in Costa Rica, who if I remember correctly, came up with this

 

i'll try it tomorrow too tired now

 

uninstalled and reinstalled everything...now we'll see

 

Worked for me. Apparently the sound drivers need to be installed prior to the video drivers, which is contrary to what Alienware's "preferred" driver installation method says, and the way the image for our laptops was created. Here is the process I used for Windows Vista 64:

1. In Control Panel/Programs and Files: Right click ATI Install Manager, select Change, then Select Uninstall Drivers and Catalyst Control Center.

1.5 Reboot

2. In Control Panel/Programs and Files: Click "Realtek High Definition Audio Drivers" and select "Uninstall"

2.5 Reboot

3. Install Alienware's M17 Audio Device Drivers from "My Hive"

3.5 Reboot

4. Install Alienware's M17 Video Device Drivers v 8.52 (Because the 8.52 in MyHive contains the Catalyst Control Center, the 8.57 does not).

4.5 Reboot

5. Install Alienware's M17 Video Device Drivers v 8.57 (Installs updated drivers only, not an updated Catalyst Control Center.

5.5 Reboot.

Music plays without scratchyness, and games play without lag/sound issues. Outstanding job to the Alienware Reps who finally figured this out for us!

It got a bit scary after step 4 and 5, when my second video card was "deactivated due to driver conflict" but upon reboot it was working fine, and GPU-Z showed CrossfireX enabled, so the driver install just needed a reboot.

Entire process start to finish took me 1 hour 20 minutes because of all the rebooting, as the Shut Down process took a while to finish each time (the HDD light was flickering like mad, which is why I knew it was not locked up and was still doing stuff).

 

But are you guys bringing it out of sleep and then seeing if there are lags or so? My best way to experience the sleep issue would be to put it to sleep, then bring it back and go watch something in youtube. Or put it to sleep, bring it back, go play a game for 10 mins, shut it down (meaning shut down the game), and go to youtube.

 

Yes. I just played WoW for about an hour. Played some songs in iTunes, which would ALWAYS have scratchyness, then i put the computer to sleep, brought it back up, played some songs in iTunes with no scratchyness, and I've been playing WoW for about 20 minutes with no laggyness/sound crackling issues.

 

Anyone else?

 

it worked for me..........no lagging or sound issue

 

it's working for me, but it has always done it randomly, so finger crossed

 

This are all good news. I am still waiting to see if more people report success, but more importantly, if someone reports that it didn't work.

Hopefully this is the fix, then my M17 will be 100% flawless.

 

put it to sleep 5 times in the last 20 mins to check and everytime tried looking videos on youtube or using WMP. no stuttering in fact i just changed video drivers (9.4) and for the audio put the new realtek ones. that's all. and for now it works!

 

I have the stuttering issue very briefly, then it clears itself up.

A problem that I have daily with Windows 7 is the desktop freezing up when I let my M17 sit. I have to do a cold reboot.

Anyone else had this issue?

 

I did it a few days ago i havent had shuttering but when certain sounds play ingame it will freeze a good sec then come back but shuttering is gone but we will see

 

sounds like the quad core issue then not the sleep issue

 

sleep issue is back

 

Thanks for the update dude. I guess the wait goes on.

 

You know, its so intermittent, and random, it almost happens every other day or so, but when it hits its damn frustrating. If I didn't know any better, I would say that my Alienware is "calling back to the mothership" every couple days bogging itself down HAHA.

 

just for letting everybody know, i've spent a cupole of hours testing the various sound and video drivers and i can tell for sure that (video ones) AW, E's 9.1, 9.3 and 9.4 does NOT resolve the stuttering problem, matched with the newest version of realtek drivers and the AW ones.
let's hope they will fix it, but I don't think it will ever happen

 

Well I had this issue for the first few weeks until I reinstalled Vista and everythings working fine now...Im really pleased with it.
In myhive the sound driver is at the top so naturally I installed this first...is this intentional from Alienware? if so then that good!!

 

Actually probably not, if you read their "recommended" driver installation order it has you do the video drivers before the sound drivers.

http://4help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/...Gluc3RhbGxhdGlvbiBvcmRlcg**&p_li=&p_topview=1

 

That's an old standard recommendation that doesn't account for the stuttering though.

 

oh I see, cheers guys!

 

Just some background, I own an M17 with Duo T9400 @2.53GHz and 4GB of ram running Vista Ultimate 64-bit. I have been plagued by this problem for awhile now and have been puzzled because I have my power settings such that I never enter "sleep mode". I tried uninstalling the video and audio drivers then installing the audio driver first with no positive results. I also reformatted my HD and reinstalled Vista 64 while installing the audio driver before the video driver, again stuttering would return.

I recently dug through the power settings and noticed that my hard drive was set to turn off after 20 mins of inactivity. I changed my settings for my hard drive to never shut off and the stuttering problem has not occurred since. I'll keep checking it and keep you posted.

 

I am using windows 7 and have been using vista 64 for long time.

I was the first one got this m17 and was the first to point out to AW and the forum about this sleep stuttering issue. I gave up long time ago, because I have tried everything.

After I read this thread long time ago, I decided to reinstall windows7 x64 with sound driver installed first. The stutter still happens but it's gone after 15 minutes or so after woke up. I can actually play games perfectly after a few stuttering. It felt like windows7 reloaded the sound driver after the driver is crashed.

 

I changed my power settings to allow the monitor to turn off after 45 mins and when I started using the computer again, the stuttering began. So it appears that in order to prevent the stuttering I have to:

1. Not allow the computer to enter sleep mode
2. Not allow the hard disk to turn off
3. Not allow the monitor to turn off

 

Never had stuttering issues and ive got the hdds to shutdown every 20mins and the screen at 45.