i explained the situation to you before a while. its NOT A FIX really. what i understood is that the the no sound stutter causing red lines were due to the cpus reading (as referred on bios release notes) but the huge red lines which are still there are due to the gpus and still cause the same or more problems. the major green lines mean nothing.
if you want to feel more happy uninstall the nvidia driver and do whatever you want without red lines at all. of course dedicated gpus wont work but it will be better. lool
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Aristotelhs2060 Notebook Virtuoso
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This is just a game machine for me. The OS means nothing. I dislike all MS OSes equally. -
Hybrid power saving? -
Ok so I installed A03 and did a clean install aswell without OSD, CC is turned off and Wireless has the default windows drivers and is DISABLED, Bluetooth is completely disabled in the bios, Hybrid SLI is also disabled. I'm running windows in performance mode (classic theme) as I had a feeling it helped with A02. I get green bars but still get some stuttering sometimes(which is confirmed by 60k bars). Using a P8700.
So I guess 50% is fixed (dpc) but the most annoying issue is still there (stuttering)
Surely, if stuttering isnt present in linux and XP(i think) it should be quite easy to fix ? -
in Hybrid power save mode I only get 15,000 spikes with no stutter. Hmm.
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Me, Stamatisx and a few others did a lot of testing in Ubuntu 9.10. I'm able to run games (those that can be tweaked into linux through WINE and Steam) with max settings with not a single glitch in sound/video. Not a single issue with multiple audio/video playbacks, and I do have those in W7.
Vista was better, but still.
The point is - it's a hardware problem for Vista/W7, since the system is not exactly compatible/optimized with/for Windows
It's not a hardware problem in Linux and... I bet,.. in MAC O.S.
Still I suggest annoying Dell and making a huge petition and maybe we can get a free upgrade to the new line soon. -
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I am 15-20 min now with no stutters using Hybrid Power Save mode BTW. -
Aristotelhs2060 Notebook Virtuoso
free upgrade to new line? i think you are still dreaming. -
SillyHoney Headphone Enthusiast
For me this BIOS is A LOT BETTER than the A02. Let put it this way:
- In DPC Latency test, the red bar is still there but at much more lower frequency.
- In real world with music playing and surfing web at the same time: sometimes there are sound popping but very rare and much harder to notice than it used to be. On A02 with my SLI Performance enabled, listen to music while surfing web is totally crap with audio stuttering, skipping, popping all the time. Now it's ok. Well not ok but much much much better.
- In Save Power mode or Hybrid SLI and discrete cards disable I have never ever experienced audio issues with whatever BIOS version so I couldn't care less to test it in those modes. -
They will just tell you to switch to Hybrid power mode. LOL
Well this problem is solved as far as I am concerned. I have no reason to use three video cards while surfing.
I'll go back to being happy and if a firmware update comes for the 280m cards I'll try it. That is what it will take - that or turn off the feature in the driver which polls the firmware. -
Anyway, if you need help installing Ubuntu, there is thread "Karmic Power" and the first post (updated today) gives you all you need for a basic install (video/audio/wireless)
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I am calling Dell tommarow and getting my money back I have had it. Good luck to all of you guys exit stage left!
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Aristotelhs2060 Notebook Virtuoso
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Tried the new forceware drivers, and the beta Nvidia GPU driver, and calmed it down a bit, but still way too much for this type/quality (And I use "quality" loosely, considering the pile of crap this laptop has turned out to be)
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Guys, I flashed the bios, and when it restarted the screen was black with a blinking cursor..
It won't go away and my computer won't boot. What is wrong? -
Sounds like it's bricked. -
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Just updated Bios to A03...Awesome!! Latency & stuttering are no more. With the latency checker running, nothing but green now.
Min 109/Max 900's
Note: I have not done any of the tweaks that were mentioned before to reduce the latency on these machines. Running on integrated only for now. Tested it with the 260's...same thing.
EDIT REASON: Adding screenshot.
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I am using the Stealth mode to reduce stutters. It works and I can live with one button press to turn on perfromance mode.
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Well then you probably need to reinstall your OS. -
benthedogtrainer Notebook Evangelist
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TurbodTalon Notebook Virtuoso
Right. Whenever you flash the BIOS or pull the CMOS battery you'll have to turn your settings back to RAID in the BIOS. After that you'll boot just fine.
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benthedogtrainer Notebook Evangelist
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Definitely an improvement for me. Went from 4k red spikes every other bar to a spike about every 15 seconds (all other bars are well under 500). The thing is that the big 15-second spike will vary from a slight increase (but still green) to a 65k whopper. Not sure what causes the variation.
So... While it's better, I don't know if I'd call it a perfect fix yet. -
This is so true. The more experienced you get more stupid you feel when noobed by a simple issue
Join da club! -
Just updated to A03 better but still stutters
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SillyHoney Headphone Enthusiast
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I still also get the some huge red spikes (up to 67k!) but oh well, it works for now...
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So let me get this straight. DPC reading is better but sound stuttering which was the main issue is still there?
When you play a game or listen to music, does it stutter for everyone? -
benthedogtrainer Notebook Evangelist
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well you have the ATI cards, i think this issue was much worse on the nvidia cards with Windows 7.
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benthedogtrainer Notebook Evangelist
maybe i would agree with you ...but i had 3 of the nvidia systems....also...one was the 260 sli and the others the 280 set up....and never had or have ever seen it..maybe your sytem is lucky ..... -
i still get the audio stutter. this is ridiculous. this will be the last time that i spend 3k on a laptop... all this time waiting for a fix that did not fix anything... wack!!!! i will tell all to stay away from alienware. too bad, used to be a good company...
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benthedogtrainer Notebook Evangelist
do you have your processor overclocked
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not sure who you were asking about oc, but i have tried it both ways to no avail. oc and not oc that is...
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i am going to try and get a refund, but good luck if you are out of the 21 day grace period. they know that these things are duds. as i am typing this, i have a youtube video playing and it stopped for like a second and a half. it has never done that before. once again dell has just lost a lot of business from me. the worst part about it is they really could care less.
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SillyHoney Headphone Enthusiast
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Ok so did anyone have the audio problem fix after applying the bios update?
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i can answer this for all... no
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also, just noticed that my gpu temps on idle are running about 5 degrees warmer...may want to check your as well
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here its my results, not what i expected from dellware
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Well, this is a bit disturbing. NVIDIA 186.82 installed, Hybrid Graphics and Integrated Graphics disabled in the BIOS. GPU#1 temp is whacked - see attached.
Also, OSD 2.21 needs to be updated for this release.Attached Files:
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is that idle or are you running a game?
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wow that is weird. mine are both idleing higher, but only by a few degrees. bat and I are both using 186.82...
M17x BIOS A03 Discussion Thread
Discussion in 'Alienware' started by DenverESullivan, Jan 7, 2010.