M17x BIOS A03 Discussion Thread

I am using Win 7 here

 

Why do I have the impression that people with quads have better results than those with C2D?

 

here was mine with A02

 

win 7 here ult 64bit

 

I think that too and if that's the case, then it's even more disappointing...

 

It seems to be pointing to that doesn't it.

 

Because that's exactly what happened

 

wow....all i can say is thanks dell

 

I will wait for more results and testing with different drivers. If the results continue to be as bad as they are then I will definitely ask for a replacement

 

Much better for me Happy

 

I don't buy into the C2D vs Quad arguments. My machine is fine with a T9600 OC'ed...

 

I tried opening 2 1080p movies and 2 DivX movies and surf web at the same time, the DPC Latency still got some red pikes but it's a lot better than it used to be.

With 1 HD movie playback, there is no red or yellow bar

 

I can't find it on the support.dell.com website where the new drivers are.
I entered my service tag number, looking for the new update but I don't see it anywhere...

 

download here

ftp://ftp.dell.com/bios/R254103.exe

 

A03 is now up for download on UK Dell site

 

Flashing now.....

 

Batboy, I cannot share the details because I don't know them well enough People smarter than me are behind this update.

I will say DPC latency is an industry issue and can be very hard to track down. There can be more than one cause and what works for one system may not work for another. New drivers and new operating systems can introduce problems that were not there before. The engineering team is still working this issue and has a good lead on the next area of focus. We are very interested in the feedback, both good and bad. For users that are still experiencing stutter, it would be useful to know their system config and driver versions.

So far, the feedback I'm seeing is spot on with what engineering told me to expect. It's only the first day of release. We'll take the next few days to absorb customer feedback and then move forward.

 

I still have the same driver that came with my m17x. should I get the 195.2 or whatever it was?

 

Here is my experience with it. Played a couple of videos on YouTube in HD, then uploaded the picture and no red spikes. I did see a red one (8k) though as I was opening up this forum and closing YouTube. However, no stuttering on that single red spike.



(Also posted this in the DPC thread for reference)

 

Understood Thanks again for the update on the BIOS release.

 

Looks like A03 Solved my DPC problems. Not 100% but oh well. I didn't expect it too anyways..Ran an HD youtube video so far.

It only spikes every 15 seconds. Thats a LOT better then what I had before.

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/biodude/nou/dpc2.png

Here it is before:



Thanks dell! It better stay this way.

 

ok we become more. who cares about the no sound stutter causing red lines anyway? AGAIN this is NO FIX! if i am not wrong DCP latency was first descovered due to the sound stuttering which is what should be fixed

HERE IS mine



so what?

 

The spikes are not totally gone for me but are cut way down. I'll have to do some gaming tomorrow and see how well it does. People with bad spikes still try disabling the network cards just to see if you still have problems. Also try turning off the onboard video card and hybrid option.

 

I still have stuttering - it is worse than before. Now it is irregular whereas before it was every 15 seconds.

 

I am trying to update my bios and cannot get it update? It saves the old bios and says program has stopped working and does not flash the new bios? Any suggestions?

 

I get stuttering with or without WiFi enabled.

I'm also using the new wifi drivers as specified.

 

I had the same problem.

Remedy is disable all the background programs (steam, fraps, antivirus included) and then run the program it should work fine.

 

For those experiencing no improvement after the update:
Turn the system off for a few sec.
Turn it on.
The occasional high spikes will still be present, but the rest should stay green.

 

A03 appears to be good BIOS, DPC Latency is nice and green now, no more sound, video, HDD stutters, WLAN performance is alot better, PC feels alot more responsive and crisp.

 

latency stays the same during games. Played dirt 2 for 10 minutes and noticed much better sound quality. No popping or anything.

Sometimes the spikes happen every 30 seconds, then 15 seconds. Thats good enough for me I guess Taking a disc out causes 2 red spikes with a green in the middle. Putting one in however, doesn't.

Here it is while playing a music CD. I get the most spikes while playing the CD and loading websites/other tasks. So listening to music while browsing/games could be a problem. Having it idle has no spikes at all which is ok...but I listen to music a LOT on my computer when I browse so this could be annoying to a lot of people...which pisses me off. But hey, atleast its a LOT better then what it was before.

 

again who cares about the lines that didnt cause sound stuttering even with previous bios? the big deal is the huge red spikes. so what are we going to do now? live with a 4000 dollars machine with sound stuttering?

 

Are you crazy?

 

Red spikes do cause sound suttering still...but atleast its not as frequent as before :s

 

Hybrid off, IGP off, LAN diabled in BIOS.

Stills stutters.

It makes me mad when the solution to a problem is to disable features you paid for.

 

Red spikes are exactly in sync with my stutters. Sometimes the red spikes do not correspond to stutters.

But every single stutter is accompanies by a red spike.

 

yes because gpus stay overclocked! we want to listen to music though.

i thought the same initially but now i can say that it may be also more frequent! thus it seems to be periodical if you know what i mean. i know when to expect this huge spike.

 

LOL pressing eject = a 2,000-4,000 spike every time.

Is this a USB issue?

 

yeah i dont know for the dvd but aftering pressing eject button dcp latency responds immediately. crap!

 

A group of monkeys would design a better notebook than this.

It's been decades since I had these sorts of problems with a PC.

 

its not its design . its its cost and the expectations. no one would complain with a cheap netbook even if the dell -alienware monkeys designed it.

 

something serious has to be wrong with ur system

 

I'm surprised Dell hasn't already retired this version of the M17x. This DPC latency problem will never go away and the longer they have it for sale, the more people are going to buy it and run into this headache.

 

I am not litigatous by nature - I hate lawyers - but maybe its time we get organized here. This is a serious problem that is going on 4 months since initial diagnosis. If they can take our cash, Dell sure as heck can fix the problem.

That or give us back our money.

An All Powerful laptop should play MP3 files without stutters. Period. The problem is 100% reproducable.

What do you guys think?

 

I was just typing the same thing. I can live with a crappy $250 netbook. If it works it's a pleasant surprise.

For this kind of cash, my M17x should work (keeping in mind my cost of entry was $2200 - the uMBP I traded for this M17x).

 

I had a trade offer for an i7 G51 and C2Q desktop with 4890 and a couple of LCDs. I should have taken it, but I don't want to burden a buddy with this issue.

 

Makes me realize ill have this problem for a long long long time. Im planning on keeping my M17x for a good 3 or so years. But like i said before atleast the problem isn't as bad as before.

 

the most of it is that my motherboard burn once and they changed it. i am not sure yet but i think the previous motherboard was much better as i dont remember any sound stuttering. however i was on vista and i have to install again to be sure. i am thinking that someone may have sent it back to dell and they sent it to me. they were really fast.

vista is the only solution left, if it will work of course. it must be the behaviour of the gpus by its own.

 

A lot of people say having vista its near perfect, but I just don't see my self going back to that OS

 

I'm on linux and as happy as I've ever been
Seriously, I suggest writing a petition to Dell regarding the issue. By the time it grows big and gets noticed the refresh comes up and ,maybe, stutter-free. So, if not the refund, at least a decent upgrade can be hoped for.

What say thee, fella forum-can?!

 

there are alot of systems out there that have not had this issue at all