M17x BIOS A03 Discussion Thread

Just curious if anyone else has a TV tuner - I have an AverMedia Hybrid Volar Max. Installed the latest drivers from AverMedia's website. I'm getting pops/snaps/crackles every so often. DPC latency uploaded. No major spikes correlating with the issue. If anyone else has such a device, could you give it a try and let me know the results? This happens when using composite input rather than the TV input. DPC latency is better on TV alone, so I'm guessing the software is working harder on composite...

 

i have an avermedia tv tuner HC81R on express card. what exactly are you doing?

 

i have a haupaugge (sp) 950 hybrid tv tuner... i don't have any issues. whay are you using the composite for?

 

I use composite for playing my 360 whenever I want the projector to rest. Of course, other uses would be recording from a camcorder, etc...

 

http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2009/12/30/19591948.aspx

 

Could somebody give me a link to the A02 BIOS and a guide to downgrade from A03 (as long as this won't fry my computer)? I'm having graphical latency and stuttering issues since upgrading to A03 that I never had with A02. It's really making some games downright unplayable.

Thanks,

Nick

Dell really needs to get on fixing these issues and kick nvidia in the butt, or give me a core i7 or my money back.

 

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/previousversions.aspx?c=us&cs=2684&l=en&s=pub&SystemID=Alw_lp_M17x&releaseid=R254103&formatid=-1&deviceid=19197&formatcnt=1&dateid=-1&releasetype=BIOS&servicetag=&typeid=-1&catid=-1&libid=1&impid=-1&osl=en&vercnt=4&os=WV64

download and run the file

 

thanks BatBoy. I can't believe I've never posted here before. I've been reading threads here for months.

 

Hey, I had the same problems. Fallout 3 was unplayable (graphics stutter) after A03 installed.

 

Well, I have gone from servicable to completely hosed in the span of an hour. I tried using the drivers from the Saghar (however it is spelled) that is for this same chipset. It "worked" in that I could do things on the computer. The downside is that my latency issues became worse and my computer is now confused between being on A/C power vs. battery. I used Driver Sweeper to clean out the drivers and installed the most recent Dell/AW drivers. There must be a registry entry that is missed because I still have the same issues with power. I tried the DOX 195.61 drivers, no help, made latency even worse. DS'ed that one and installed the ones from the nVidia site.

Things are closer to where they were before, but I still have the issues with latency. I am not sure where to go now, I am very frustrated. I keep closing my eyes and imagining turning this 15+ pound brick into a Frisbee and seeing how it does. We all buy these machines for different reasons, but we do all have the right to get what we paid for. I have been dinking around with Dell and their substandard laptops long enough. I bet we would have a good case to go to the Better Business Bureau or maybe even class action lawsuit stuff. Had I known about the Sagar line of machines, I would have purchased one of those.

 

Is any one having problems with running mw2 in sli on the 195.81 beta driver that says it includes sli profile for mw2 ?? im pretty sure it was working when i had it on vista but now it seems to not work, any ideas

 

Appologies if it has already been mentioned, just wanted to contribute, I noticed I lost FN+F7 key and Brightness OSD (FN+F4+F5) while in hybrid SLI since upgrading to A03, when I downgrade to A02, FN+F7 key functionality and Brightness OSD return, then when I upgrade to A03, FN+F7 function and OSD brightness work for the first boot until I shutdown, then they disappear on subsequent boots, have managed to repeat this process 5+ times, in an effort to resolve my DPC latency and SLI Stutter issues - really hope Dell can fix this.

 

i had the same issue on win7. just istall nhancer and open it. it should detect sli profile for cod mw2. then uninstall nhancer. you will see cod mw2 will work in sli. no such issues on vista.


enable sli indicator in nvidia control panel to be sure if it works in sli or not.

 

change the SLI mode in nvidia control panel. I use AFR2, works good with MWF2.

 

Thanks soo much man that worked you saved me from possibly reinstalling win 7

 

So, the question for me is, what’s the source? It seems like different people are experiencing this problem at different stages of the game (Vista/W7, A02/A03, earlier nvidia drivers/recent, etc.). What is the root problem: drivers, BIOS, OS (obviously, it’s combined interaction)? As I indicated before, mine was A02/W7 out of the box, with no latency issues; ran smoothly across the board. Latency began only after update to A03. Others have reported latency well prior to A03, with Vista or otherwise. Consensus here seems to promote the powermizer/nvidia drivers as primary source, and the cryptic hints from Alien-tech may support this (“Dell engineers aware and working with NVIDIA for a fix”).

Also, how best are we to be made aware of a fix when it becomes available? Strikingly, there’s no indication of this issue anywhere on Dell or Alienware Support sites (one mini-reference at Dell to the latency FIX that A03 and latest wireless driver provides [again, A03 seems to have CAUSED my issue]). Will it be announced on support pages, or simply updated on driver downloads, or should we periodically spend the 30+ mins waiting on tech support and hope for a tech that’s sharp and aware of the issue? What would you guys recommend? Currently, this forum seems the best location for timely and insightful info; hopefully someone will post the official (and effective) fix here .

 

Sprinter,

AlienFusion and the OSD manager may be conflicting at startup. In your services control panel change AlienFusionService to start Automatically (delayed startup). That should allow OSD to load correctly until Alienware releases a patch for this issue.

- Denver

 

Tried it Denver, and no-go: latency still terrible. Thnx, though.

 

Hey thanks for the tip!

 

hey lewdvig how did u turn of your powermizer ? did it stop stuttering

 

Has anyone had to disable their SLI to stop stuttering?

I had the 195 Dox drivers, Powermizer off, correct drivers from Dell and my games would STILL cause red spikes. Since turning of Physx and SLI my games run a lot smoother :/ but it causes my fans to sound like a plane taking off.

I also get spikes when installing programs for some reason.


Really hope the new Nvidia/Dell A04 bios fix comes out soon...

 

or you could complain and try to get the ATI cards in xfire....

 

powermizer dont work with any 186.xx drivers very well. They only turn off powermizer for one card while leaving the other free to downclock.
you need one of the 195.xx drivers with built in performance controller. Using powermizer switch will work perfectly with those (exp 195.62)

 

You have the latest broadcom wireless driver? Old one caused major latency.

 

just a quick question, is it true that all 4870 m17x owners do not suffer dpc latency and stutters even if they have a qx9300?

 

Ruby you can't ask the question in every single thread please. I dont think that's cool.

 

haha my bad.. i need answers quick and i noticed that there are people who only visit certain threads so posting the same qn on multiple threads i might get some difference answers..

ive started contacting dell support regarding the stutters so i want to make sure if i ask for the 4870s i would not get the stutter problems or it would be a waste of time chasing them

 

You can also try the search feature on the forum

 

There are no guarantes but I'm pretty sure you'll have no stutter if they put you into ATI's

 

ive done some searches but they dint really give solid answers hence i asked to confirm..

@nick, you say you have high dpc latency still? does that mean the dpc spikes randomly into the red zones? or only into yellow

 

Denver,

I dont even have Command Centre installed, definately cant get OSD working in A03 for fn+f4,f5 and f7 keys - they just stop working for me after the a03 update(except for first boot and if i hibernate instead of shutting down) and work fine after i downgrade a02.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

sorry if this is a silly question, does anyone have fn+f4, fn+f5 keys triggering brightness OSD and fn+f7 key swaping modes with hybrid SLI with bios a03?

Guess it could be just my machine which is screwed up :/

 

I never use integrated, but my brightness and mute work fine.

 

Brightness and mute work fine for me but I had to do a complete power cycle to get them back after a03.

 

I had the same problem but when i went back to the A02 BIOS it worked so i pretty sure it the A03 BIOS that is messing with the OSD

 

Guys,

For OSD to work correctly with A03, you have to have version 2.21 installed. Prior versions aren't compatible.

- Denver

 

Yeah, I already had it installed. Probably why mine never stopped working.

 

Never had any issues with the keys while running the A03 update, and after reverting back to A02. Of course, I also had version 2.21 installed.

 

OSD works fine for me.

 

Same here no issues with OSD, or any of the command buttons.

 

OSD does not work fine under A03...i have to leave it out.

 

Yes tried the latest OSD, even prior versions of OSD - not a big deal that its not working, its the stutter that is ruining the "fun" of using this laptop.

I have had a bit of success using RMclock and undervolting the cpu - seems to help with stuttering. What I dont get is why there is a 1.35v setting and 1.25v at 11 multiplier (on a T9800), i lock it to 1.25v and it seems to allow full cpu power and reduced stutter.

 

I have OSD working just fine on my system.....just reinstalled it (the latest version) after I flashed the BIOS.

 

Just updated to A03 on my friends M17x. It bricked it..., and now it just displays a black screen with a blinking cursor in the top left corner.

EXACTLY the same problem as reported for the M15x.

Incredible that DELL can do this twice....!!

 

Do you have a RAID Array setup? If so:

http://4help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/alienware.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=6067

If not, contact Dell Support.

 

Yep, mine did the same. You need to set your RAID again in the main BIOS (NOT the RAID BIOS). I was sweating for a couple minutes before I realized what had happened haha.

 

Sounds like the OS just isn't being found...bricked would be no post

 

That is what happened to mine when I did the fateful A03 "update"... Complete reinstall of everything, the little AW Respawn did nada for me. Had to do it the long way.

 

If an OS can boot from the system with that bios whether fresh installed or not, then the system works....

The system will not act inconsistently...computers are just that, computers. They behave consistently

Only thing that would make sense is that the phlash program for the BIOS somehow wiped out your OS install somehow or killed the boot manager

At least that is my take on it

 

That is what I think happened. The MBR either was wiped out or somehow became corrupted.