M17x and DPC Latency

Nvidia GPU driver by any chance?

Damn same issue for you as us M980NU owners then. That's the exact thing I found early in testing, eliminate the Nvidia display drivers and all the troubles are gone.

Nvidia have had feedback about this for well over a month from my Vendor, so hopefully someone will come up with something which will help cure you sooner rather than later! {Although it seems there might be a few causes of stuttering on the M17x)

If you're suffering from that form though, give the guide in my sig a go and see if it helps you

 

Wow, this thing recently is getting more and more annoying.

 

3rd of jan now, and nothing..

its been almost 3 weeks and no update from this john dell guy. I dont know who's to blame here, AW or Dell, maybe both. But the support and communications toward customers is unacceptable. This is my first and probably my last AW product ill ever buy. I just cant stand to be left in the dark like this, specially when i have payed an arm and a leg for this POS laptop.

I just have the feeling that whatever their doing is not going to work, or itll probably going to have bad side effects.

Sorry, just had to vent a little since i cant do ANY sort of HD editing with this thing(i am on Vista, yeah...) because audio and video keep getting out of sync in all of my HD videos.

 

I think that's a different issue. Are you importing long clips of video from DV tape?

 

Maybe I'm lucky, but I experience no dropouts during playback or streaming of audio or video, hd or otherwise. The only time I notice and DPC latency is during Mass Effect on some of the longer dialogues, and all that happens is a quick distortion of voice thats barely noticeable.

DPC latency checker, however, tells me that my machine is slow as hell. It's pretty amazing how tall those lines are.

My question is, is my machine just particularly good, or am I just particularly insensitive to this problem? Do people have problems when, say, just playing HD video in VLC player or audio in iTunes?

 

I had to close my eyes when I played a video on YouTube. Looked on DPC latency what a horrible sight.

Also when I play videos on my iTunes they freeze up.
Oh well...

 

Damn, sounds like I've got it good. I'm still looking forward to dell's BIOS update though, on principal if nothing else.

 

If this doesn't fix it, all hell will break loose.
I mean, If I can't watch videos without freezing up, stuttering anytime I do anything that involves sounds (90%) of my stuff.

 

I watched the entire thrird season of Mad Men in Xvid - no poblem.

Blue Ray and DVD playback is perfect.

Streaming audio at 128 kps, no go. Stutter every 15-20 seconds. I can make it worse by typing or surfing while listening.

Oh well. It plays games great.

 

Its not a different issue. And no, the videos are mp4 files running at 1080p @60 FPS. These are the highest quality videos for cameras. I have no problem what so ever playing streaming videos or blue ray movies.

If you read john dell's post in that link posted on dell's site, one of the symptoms is as follows:
"Audio/Video desync during video playback"

This happens with a high quality video playback. regular blue ray videos runs at 29 FPS i think. But what im dealing with is 1080P @60FPS. an old HP laptop with 9600GT card runs these better than my $4000 280 SLI Alienware. ITs BS....

 

I've had next to no stuttering after:

- Installing Vista 64
- Installing nvidia's 195.81 drivers
- Installing M15x audio drivers
- Suspending acpi.sys thread

I still get stuttering from video card clock changes, but it's not nearly as bad as I used go get on Win7.

 

it's pure BS you have to jump through hoops to get a $3k+ laptop to do basic tasks.

 

sure. but at the same time, I'm happy that hoops are available to jump through!

 

Yep, without the hoops we'd be destined to devolution.
Honestly, I'm seriously thinking of switching to linux entirely.
The only thing that's keeping me from saying "it's perfect" is the SLI support...

 

latest post from John B


"and I've been working on this since this morning. Everyone is back from the holidays, so we should see some immediate progress.

The initial reports I've heard today sound very promising. "

I wonder if hes just trying to shut us up lol

 

Suspending acpi.sys isnt even something recommended to do.
so no thats not a solution.

 

I just want them to fix my $3000 computer already.... PLEASE DELL FIX THIS. Cannot do presentations, hooking up an projector causes the system to have huge lag spikes.

 

Smith, you mention hooking up to a projector and not being able to do a presentation - I too see the same spikes and routinely use my system with a projector for powerpoint presentations (without issue) - what issue (other than seeing spikes in the checker) do you have w presenting??

Just trying to help.

 

Understood, and I've been working on this since this morning. Everyone is back from the holidays, so we should see some immediate progress.

The initial reports I've heard today sound very promising.

from the dell websight

 

Finally solved my desktop problem

using the newest Nvidia drivers of course, i dont have to worry about pushing the gpu too much, i can easily use Rivatuner profiles for a low 3d clock to save power

this feels so nice to finally have crystal clear sound
http://i49.tinypic.com/14izhw0.jpg

i know well that you all have other latecies besides the gpu downclocks, but let me clarify that sound sutters are solely caused by the high red spikes the gpu makes

1. Download newest nvidia drivers, rivatuner, driversweeper

2. Uninstall your display driver then use driversweeper to clean any remaining display files, makes sure to reboot as many times needed inorder to completely clean your registry with sweeper

3. Install the driver, reboot, install rivatuner

4. Nvidia Panel, global settings, Prefer Maximum performance

5. Nvidia Panel, program settings, windows sidebar, Prefer Maximum performance

6. Reboot

7. Start RivaTuner, system clocks, click Detect Now, go to Power User,
under "RivaTuner\Nvidia\Overclocking" Enable "PerfLevelForcing" Value 1

8. Go back to system clocks, "Force constant performance level" Performance 3D

9. Reboot and enjoy

dont worry about saving power, just make profiles for gaming you can easily switch to it, whats the point of having sli if you aren't able to use their potential..

also make sure to set rivatuner to start via registry and on tray when closed so it emulates the driver.


*Edit
Also my bios settings, i've disabled all intel features like speedstep, C1e, Virtualization Technology

 

The sidebar trick is interesting...if you have sidebar running, it keeps the clocks of the video cards at a maximum, thus there are no spikes. Creating a profile for explorer.exe and setting it to Prefer Maximum performance might work as well, as explorer is always running in the background. Or any other program that runs all the time for that matter. I'll do some testing with it.

 

except that the latest drivers for Nvidia kinda suck, the 195.62.
not sure if the beta 195.81 is any better.

 

This is what you did to a Desktop PC to solve the stutter issues?

 

Oh i can see that now. Hes on a desktop with q9400 CPU and 9800GT card.
Im not sure if this will work on a our laptop, but i dont know.

 

Using audio software to display sheet music and play the notes, basically anything to do with hookign up a projector. It has massive lag spikes. Im using the RGB because my projector does not have hdmi. Win 7 pro.

 

yeah, keep in mind my steps though, nvidia maximum performance wouldn't work for me aswell, use rivatuner to emulate from the start up and make sure to restart as many times needed.

and yeah this would work with the m17x

 

Still waiting for Dell to release an update...since last month. Boy they are slow!

 

Well, I didn't need to use RivaTuner for it, as I already have powermizer disabled.
But basically, creating a driver profile for any of the processes that are are always running in the background ind Windows and setting it to Prefer Maximum performance for it will keep the video card clocks high as long as powermizer is disabled, so there is no need anymore to run an application that clocks up the cards separately (like running GPU-z once after startup in Axel Rose's Guide a few replies back).

Of course, simply forcing performance level via RivaTuner could work on the M17x as well, but I haven't tried.

 

you're going to need rivatuner for profiles, so you can save power using low 3d clocks

 

My stuttering issues are gone - DPC related or not.

Clean install of Windows 7 x64.

Windows default drivers for everything except:
1. Forceware 15.49
2. Nvidia Beta driver 195.81

Steaming with WMP and browsing with Opera 10.10.

Me = happy!

Biggest spike in DPC Latency Checker is about 4,000.

Here is a screenshot - the red spikes are where I had the letter J depressed/repeating. Typing causes spikes, but not enough to cause audio problems.

 

So other then that it stays in the yellow/green?

This is mine:

 

Did you install any of the AW stuff?
OSD, FX controller etc?

 

Nope. I set my trim lights to red before clean installing, and they stay that way without the control centre now. I did not install the OSD because stealth mode on this behemoth seems crazy. The media buttons seem to work (eject, volume, wifi) without installing anything.

There were about 5 driver updates in Windows Update when I booted for the first time (wifi, card reader, ITE...) - I installed them all.

forceware:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_vista_win7_64bit_15.49.html

geforce:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_winvista_win7_x64_195.81_beta.html

 

Guys.. Just relax, they're going to come out with an update. I don't recommend everyone fish around on their computer for no reason changing things..

From the blog:

DELL-John B 04 Jan 2010 10:20 AM
Understood, and I've been working on this since this morning. Everyone is back from the holidays, so we should see some immediate progress.

The initial reports I've heard today sound very promising.

 

funny that how to config my system screen.

 

I have similar results, not seeing any large spikes. Here is a screen cap with youtube and itunes running at the same time. Itunes is being streamed from a flashdrive to boot. I have a stock setup based on a clean install, no OC'ing and hybrid is set to boost mode. The only change I made was to disable SRS in the IDT audio panel.

 

My very big problem with DPC latency is when my antivirus is ON. If Avast is turned on I have peak of 63000 every 6seconds (second screenshot) . Disabling it my dpc latency graphics is quite good. (first screenshot)

 

They are saying we should see the bios by monday or earlier, for those who don't check the other thread.

 

there is no harm in optimizing if you choose to spend your spare time doing so

doubtful cleaning up stray processes and tidying up what's installed will cause problems when the new bios is unleashed

 

its monday if i am not wrong. where is the new bios?

 

dell has more problems to worry about i guess we not going to have a bios today

 

Perhaps Dell run on 'Valve Time'?

 

i guess some of them remembered the m15x problems...

 

What he meant by Monday was Monday March 22, 2000andnever

 

Its monday. Hmm...

 

We were all patient ... yes ... but patience has its limit!

 

maybe they got a case of the Mondays...

 

Guys it's been up on the FTP site since
File:R254103.exe 8799 KB 2010-01-11 3:01:00 PM

Get it here: ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/R254103.exe

 

is that A03 BIOS? I still see old A02 BIOS on DELL website

 

ok guys here are the info inside the above bios

Code:

Title      : BIOS:Alienware M17X System BIOS BIOS
Version    : A03
OEM Name   : Alienware
OEM Ver    : A03
Computers  : Alienware Laptop - M17x
Oses       : BIOS ,
Languages  : English
Created    : Mon Jan 11 17:01:18 CST 2010 

in addition to that

Code:

Copyright (C) 2009, All Rights reserved.
www.dell.com
=======================================================================================
 BIOS Release Notes
=======================================================================================
***************************************************************************************
Systems :       QuickSilver
BIOS Version :  A03
Release Date:   01/06/2010
VBIOS version:  62.79.60.00.03
ITE EC Version:  12.57

=======================================================================================
Input filename: A03.rom with A.bat
Word checksum:  0x3F16
Dword checksum: 0x13D4 3F16
=======================================================================================

BIOS change:
1. Fixed the RAID Setup Utility is failed in AMD VGA card platform.

EC change:
1. Update the Thermal Table 2009-08-17.
2. Match with OSD 2.20 fixed AMD card Fn+F6 issue.
3. Modify CPU thermal read method to reduce the system loading. 

i will wait a few more to try. i may be officially available tomorrow. notice the points 1 and 3 in EC changes....