M17X freezes with heavy load W7

Hi Guys,

I am having some problems with my M17X it freezes up (for two or 3 min.)
after that.. it continuous normal as it should be.

for example it happens with:
installing programs
run a virus-scan
opening outlook

I am running " on non RAID" Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, I have been running Vista x64 but in RAID0
no problems with vista before, or could it be i did not see it because of the RAID ?..


Known driver issue with Windows 7 ? , anybody some ideas ?

 

My settings in the bios:

SATA setting = AHCI
SATA AHCI mode = [Native AHCI]

Bios version A02

 

I had the same problem from the second i got mine. I decided to try a reinstall of windows and now its working great. So you might want to try that.

 

did you used only the original Windows 7 drivers ?
(if not, in witch order did you install them)

Clean installation from Windows 7, ? or did you do a upgrade from Vista

Thanks.

 

Either W7 or its overheating, so it may be worth checking hwmonitor too!

 

I actually just used the alienrespawn on startup. Mine came with Win 7 so it installed that. I chose not to backup anything, I let it do its thing and now its working great. The only other thing I did with the drivers was change the wireless driver because I was having problems with that. For you you will probably want to use the drivers found here: http://m17x.blogspot.com/2009/10/current-windows-7-64-drivers.html Can't really help you other than that because mine came with Win 7... Maybe try installing some of the drivers on that site and if that doesn't work reinstall windows.

 

I posted this note in another thread. This issue is tied to the DPC latency issue. It is a symptom of the problem and they have no fix with the Nvidia cards. What they will do is replace the cards with the ATI cards which is in fact an upgrade. It is worth calling them. Note to them that you performed all DPC resolution steps and that you want the ATI upgrade. Also mention that you know they are no longer selling the M17x with the Nvidia cards (they pulled them yesterday). This is because it is the video cards causing this problem.

 

I had the same problem with my M17x and the alienware tech saw it first hand when he was remotely working on my laptop. We did a fresh install of Win 7, he installed all the drivers in the correct order, and while installing drivers and then some of the programs it still would hang for a while and then eventually catch up. He saw that the processors were always running and most times at 100%. I had a T9800. It never did get fixed before I returned if for a refund.

 

I had the same cpu and the same problem, my respawn parition was corrupt so I had to delete those partitions and do a fresh install of windows 7.

I still have a lot of problems with the system locking up or freezing this is after the fresh install and with tech support loading all the drivers so I am still working with them to resolve it, I have had the system for approx. 6 weeks so I can't return it for a refund.

 

I used the DPC checker everyone else was referencing but the big thing was getting alienware to admit it. They know due to lab tests with diagnostics that this is happening because of expanded DPC issues.

 

Thanks for the info on the ATI card swap Wartactician. I called Alienware yesterday and had to spend pretty much all day on the phone with tech support but they finally agreed to swap out my gtx 260's with ATI 4870's.

 

I have the gtx's 260 cards as well that I have been having issues with what kind of tests did they run on your system before they agreed to the swap?

 

I reloaded my system to defaults with the alien respawn and then the tech logged in and installed the current drivers from dell. He also made a couple registry changes and then had me reboot.
He then gave me a case number for the open case and had me install a few games and see if the problem was resolved. When I talked to the tech to tell him it wasn't fixed I ran the DPC Latency Checker program for him so he could see it spiking and that was it.
He tried to tell me that Nvidia has an ETA of about a week and a half on an upcoming fix and I asked him "Would you buy a car and let the dealer tell you he'll have the engine working in a week and a half?"

After that he put me on hold and got approval.