M17x Diagnostics Thread. Got a problem? Look here

First off, I will provide tools in which you should run the day you get your M17x, so you don't hit surprise problems later on.

LCD Dead Pixels

It's rare, but it happens. There are times that LCD's have dead pixels infected upon them. An easy way to check? [Click Me]


GPU Overheating

There have been some cases (Namely Moo's) where the GPU fan wasn't operating correctly, or at all for that matter. A way to check for this is to run FurMark, and check your GPU temperature; Latest version is 1.6.5 I believe. It's a free open-source tool available for download.

[Furmak Graphics Card Stability & Stress Test]

The temperature should NOT go above: 85


Troubleshooting
M17x [Click Me]


Solution Center

Known problems

Hindering gameplay performance after initial start-up
by Mandrake

Many users have reported disgustingly bad performance by the M17x when testing out a few games. Theres many possibilities as for why you are experiencing performance problems, but by far the most common is because of stealth mode.

Solution: The Alienware M17x goes into a low power state if you boot it up on battery,this is by default. You need to switch it back even if you plug it in. To switch it off of its discrete settings, hit the rightmost touch-key on your unit; It should ask you to reboot if you do this.


Artifacts on your screen/flickering

A member of our community, Neoclasiccl, had blue halo artifacts flickering on his screen. If you have similar artifacts, read below.

Possible problems: GPU inoperable, SLI cable.

Solution: Replacement of the GPU and/or the SLI cable. I recommend attempting the SLI cable first. Neoclasiccl Quote: "After 3 video card swaps and a new SLI cable the problem is fixed. Through trial and error it was the SLI cable that was causing all the problem." He replaced the SLI cable, and all was well. But remember, the GPU could also be the culprit.




Thread is still being updated...feel free to post your problems/suggestions/solutions, this is a community thread.

 

Look at the first page of the M17x "All Powerful" General Information Thread and under the reference section it has troubleshooting links in there.

 

Hi Scytus,
This is a very good thread. You might want to include the resource CD diagnostic (bootable) and the F12 diagnostic menu as good tools as well. The resource cd allows you to do custom tests, as well as scenario, if you have component specific issues. If you choose to hit F12 during boot, you can select diagnostic and perform a bios related diagnostic. If you were wondering where the memory diagnostic moved too, this is where you'll find it. The F12 diagnostic is a good overall general diagnostic.

Update: Restoring your machine and deleting the restore partition will not kill your F12 diagnostic. It will simply require that you use the resource cd if you want custom testing (The F12 diagnostic usually enters the resource cd diagnostic after it finishes).

Thanks,
Gabe

Thanks,
Gabe

 

Thanks for those GabeZ, been added to the first post

 

I also ran the Stability test for about 25 mins, the temps where 93 max

Should I be worried here? :confused2:

 

Also on the Street Fighter 4 Benchmark tool, it never goes above 60FPS, I'm wondering is there a way to know if I'm using SLI for sure? I updated the video drivers to BETA one on the Dell website, it did improve by much. Is there a better driver I should update to??

 

yes. At about 81 degrees the fans kick in at full blast to keep it under that temp. I ran OCCT for 20 minutes and never went above 81 but I never tried your tool.

 

the dox drivers in my sig work the best so far for benchmarking. make sure vsync is off when testing. that will stop your fps at 60.

 

yup, was just about to suggest that

 

Where can I get the dox drivers? pardon my ignorance

 

Here you go...

LINK

 

thanks you guys are the best +rep

 

I ran OCCT (By the way the hairy donut looks nicer then FunMark)... I gotta say I'm very concerned about my GPU temps... I ran the test for 21 mins and reached 100..

What should I do from here?? Call Dell and tell them my GPU's temps are high?

 

OCCT = the faster way to create magma.

The temps archived with OCCT don't reflect what u r going to get in real life. Play some games and check temp after 2hours before worrying about anything

 

Yeah but he's getting higher temps than others.

Are you OC'ing the GPUs? Do you hear the fluctuations in the fans when the temps get higher?

 

OCCT shut mine down in 10sec

 

I do hear the fans fluctuations, and no I haven't overclocked anything at this point. I'll play some games for a couple of hours and see what happens

 

When I first heard the quack it scared the living crap out of me.

 

lol

i thought it was funny

 

Many threads popping up with technical issues, so thought I might bump this thread so we can keep it updated with problems we can help solve.

 

Added the stealth mode problem many have been having, dealing with shameful gameplay performance.

 

I've got a somewhat annoying problem. I've just finished taking my M17x out of RAID. I set the SATA mode in the BIOS to AHCI, and it's in Legacy Mode. Every other time I restart the laptop, when it should be giving the AlienRespawn message, it just blinks a cursor. The other times, it works just fine. If I choose the Boot Menu (F12 at the Alien head screen) and select Hard Drive, it works every time.

While it's sitting on the blinking cursor, pressing the power button instantly turns it off, you don't have to hold it down like you would if Windows was starting. Also, control alt delete will restart it.

Anyone have any idea what could be causing this? Thanks for any help.

 

That's a strange problem..

I don't have the answer but i hope someone does. How often does it happen? about equal to the amount it doesn't?

 

It's literally every other time I restart the computer. One time it will boot, one time it won't.

It looks to me like the times that I just get the blinking cursor, the boot sequence isn't executing. I was messing around with the boot order to test some things out. I put the disc drive first, hard drive second. Whenever it would work correctly and boot, I would see Boot from AHCI CD-ROM, and then it would boot up Vista. On the times that it won't work, it skips this part and goes straight to the blinking cursor.

EDIT: It won't boot anything on every other restart. Not CD's or the hard drive. If I open up the Boot Menu and manually select Hard Drive, then it will work no matter what. This is frustrating!

 

I have also taken my system out of Raid 0 and messed around with plenty of bios settings, I got this too I remember, Alienrespawn will not be present though as dropping raid reformats the drives erasing everything. It could help fix your issue with the new Bios A01 now available at dell.com

 

That doesn't sound right.
I reset my BIOS to default dropping it out of Raid (as did a couple of others) and when I changed the settings back everything was still on my harddrive.

And if he had reformated his HDD he wouldn't be able to boot to windows every second time.

 

i have had that as well but when i reflashed my BIOS i never had the issue anymore

 

The Dell LED diagnostics page seems to be broken as none of the images are displaying making it quite useless.

Is this shown anywhere else?

 

I would do this for people with newer gen. laptops Do test from Day and night to check when the errors happen.

I tend to get 102c to 105c Night time. Day time I have a risk of shutting down.

 

i was wondering if anyone have a bios updating guide? im interested in it.

 

Down load it then click on it

 

i got a really weird issue, well not so much an issue cause its an easy fix, but if i have my ipod plugged in before its on and than try and boot with it plugged in, it freezes on the boot screen and i cant get into bios, but thats only when its plugged in lolz, its weird

 

ahh thats it moo? ok ill try that

 

Ive had a few problems with my laptop ever since I bought it.
1. The mouse pad light wont turn on.
2. The touch keys sometimes wont work.
3. The sound on the machine will suddenly turn off.
4. The computer will get stuck in hibernation.

 

I also have the hibernation/sleep problem. Also my m17x crashes when I run games like crysis but perhaps that's the drivers (186.12)

 

Try the 186.82 or 186.91 driver to correct the blackscreen on wake from sleep issue.

 

Giomar: I have dual 280's as well and AFTER overclocking them both, I was still only getting temps of 75-76 in furmark after 30 minutes. I do have a cryo-lx cooler going as well, so it would work out to 80-81 degrees without the cooler on. I would definately check the fans out and make sure they are functioning correctly.

 

Mine's been running well for a couple of months now, but I've finally got a problem, started a few days ago...

First, everytime I tried to boot it up it wouldn't get past the windows loading screen, the one with the little green progress bar. The only way I could get it to work was in safe mode. The next day it seemed to get worse, as about half the time I would try to start it up, it wouldn't even get that far. It would get stuck at a black screen, with a flashing underscore line in the top left corner.

I didn't have much on here, so I went ahead and just used alienrespawn to do a full restore to factory settings. Everything seemed to be going fine as of last night, but it's getting hung up on that black screen again today. I can get into windows eventually, but I have to restart it 3 or 4 times.

What gives, any ideas?

 

Are you by chance trying to use an eSATA drive?

 

Nope.
10char!

 

i've also got the same issue, but it did it with vista and now windows 7. i did fresh reinstalls about 5 times to see if i could locate if i did anything wrong, but i came up with nothing.

it also becomes unresponsive radomly when installing software - anything from drivers to games. all have been from the hd and i have a brand new hd as i thought that might have been the problem originally. the old hd passed every test i threw at it but got it replaced anyways.

the first time this happened is when i tried to do a clean install from the alien disks. after installing a lot of driver it eventually began hanging on installs or reboots. i did the refresh and it seemed to fix the problem (since i didin't have to install anything). then after trying to update video drivers the problem came back.

a fresh image and i tried again install the video driver - same issue. then i tried windows 7, same issue. new hard drive and no improvement yet.

i've disabled the integrated video just to see what would happen. so far no issues but i only did that last night. i'm positive it's a hardware issue, but not sure what part yet.

 

Hey guys,
I've been getting a weird high pitched beep - during windows operation. I'm running Windows 7. The problem seems to stop after a reboot. The computer is running fine otherwise.
Any suggestions - it's a short random beep... and annoying!

 

Beeps from the system often indicate a hardware issue but it normally happens during POST and not while in Windows. When it does happen in Windows it can be something as simple as a stuck key. Run the Dell diagnostics to see if you have any hardware related issues.

 

I had this same issue upon recieving my M17x, but only when I installed Windows 7 on my SSD. It would freeze for about 10-15 seconds within windows and not do anything, then come back. Very very strange.

I ended up upgrading the firmware on my SSD, which offers TRIM support and better AHCI compatibility. The issue never appeared again.

Try enabling Native - AHCI in the BIOS and reinstalling windows, make sure you do delete your partition. I'm sure you dont want to do this again but it might help.

It is a very strange issue indeed.. I thought it was directly related to my SSD but I see you had that problem also.

 

Ran a complete diagnostic over the weekend - did not reveal any problems
Any other hints?

 

Hi guys.my command center does not work.every time that i open it,it crashes and says"commandcenter has stopped working".i ran CCleaner in safe mode and then reinstalled it but there was no change.after that i ran respawn and everything was ok until now that it happend again.please help