M17x and DPC Latency

I feel your pain! Thats kinda how I felt when I worked out a work around for my stutters.

However...perhaps unsurprisingly for Dell, your chipset drivers are pretty out of date, infact it's not even a Windows 7 pack, which might explain your issues with the storage driver!

According to the readme includes, here's the contents of your chipset package:

Here are the two main released Clevo ones:

As you can see both are a fair bit newer!

If any of you want this pack, it's available for easy download at Sagernotebook.com's driver support package, under M980NU, as the whole lot is a fair bit newer it seems a little pointless me providing one section unless anyone really wants anything

 

Hey what program is that, that is running in the bottom right section of your desktop? Forgive if you might have already answered it. I haven't finished catching up on the forum yet but wanted to ask before I forget!

 

"Does stealth mode support dual monitors?" lcaamano

As far as I know it does not.

 

so... nobody tried the 15.50 drivers?

i downloaded them but i'm waiting for feedback first lol i guess i do not feel safe instaling unofficial chipset drivers

 

These are official from Nvidia, just not supplied by Dell, hence all the WHQL and Nvidia written stuff inside the pack.

I have the 15.49s backed up as well, which are the latest officially up on the Nvidia site.
That Dell hasn't bothered even uploading official WHQL Win7 drivers is a little *****

Out of interest (I'm being nosy) does CPU-Z confirm your mobo is actually an Nvidia 730i as well haha? I know thats what MCP79 is based off, just out of interest really

On a subnote, wonder whether desktop 730I drivers are any different, and if they are, providing they'd install, if they'd offer better performance due to different resource handling etc? Sorry going off on a tangent there

 

sooooooo

i just installed nvidia chipset driver 15.50 without issue, i installed the new version of dox's 195.62 drivers (no need for have disk method).

Latency is still here BUT pressing eject button gives me below 4000 spikes and no stutter at all

considering i almost have no stutter on vista, this is a major improvement

and:



and btw: i was on nvidia 15.49 before

 

hello,

I wonder can I install Nvidia nForce Driver 15.49 from nvidia website, over-write current version on M17x?

Is it safe to do that? or do I have to uninstall current nForce first?

Thank you!

 

well why install 15.49 when 15.50 is awaiting

myself i did a complete uninstal of nvidia drivers, cleaned with driver sweeper and ccleaner in safe mode then installed 15.50 and graphic drivers.

 

Because I can only find 15.49 on Nvidia website, it's weird why don't they put 15.50, maybe it's not official?

Can I just install 15.49 without upgrading to newest 195.xx driver?

Also, you said you got no shutter/dpc at all after that?

thanks

 

we don't have the same OS so we can't compare. I just said that the "pressing eject stuttering" has disappeared. I barely have any stutter on vista, even though latency is still there

read the posts above, i was also scared of installing 15.50. So far, so good.

 

The drivers on the Nvidia site are for the desktop chipsets, not the laptops. The 15.50 set is pretty new (released via Sager late december)

Glad you're seeing some improvements! Let me know if these new drivers in comparison to my stuttering guide fix you up

 

Just a very silly question: How do you uninstall current Nvidia nForce? as I cannot find it under Add/Remove in Control Panel.

Is is safe to just install 15.49 over the old one?

Thanks

 

You should have Nvidia Drivers listed under Add/Remove?

It's better to clean install where possible, I'd also recommend going straight to 15.50, I've not found any issues with them beyond what was there with 15.49,and a few of the driver components are updated nicely.

 

you don't have this?

 

Oh, I thought there would be a separated one for nForce, so uninstall it should uninstall my current Nvidia 186.xx driver too, I believe.

Thanks Alexrose1uk & Psychotic deformity. Rep+ to both of you!

I will give it a try!

 

Haha no need for +rep til you see if things work for you

 

So... just to be clear... the 15.50 for the Sager NP9850 is the one to get right? ...and there are no issues with this? Hybrid-SLI working and everything? Anything else to watch out for?

 

Yep, the M9850 is based on the Clevo M980NU, which uses the same MCP79 chipset, although obviously other bits and pieces outside the chipset itself vary
http://74.212.252.103/pages/notebooks/download.cfm?ProductType=9850

I personally prefer to uninstall older chipset drivers, and then install new ones, rather than update over the top, to help avoid any little conflicts, personal thing though, like every system builder probably installs drivers in his own personal order

 

Sager's site shows that 15.50 is for Windows 7. So no Vista love? Or does it work with Vista, too?

 

i'm on vista, so i would say it works

 

hmmm its very strange
i used alienrespawn to revert my laptopback to factory specs.
the DPC latency is heaps better (using bios A03)

i still get spikes when pressing eject though.
havent tested any games.
but if everything is closed its all green bars.
might try a game when i get home...but i've resigned to the fact i want to return it, as im not 100% satisfied with it.

 

I think the higher temps are because of the drivers. I'm using Dox's. Also, with the downclocking GPUs, they get a chance to run cooler, which doesn't or shouldn't happen with the 195.62 drivers. Will wait for someone else to confirm, or the next time I muck up my system, I'll install the good old 186.82's to check. Maybe in a few days...

no, it doesn't.

I don't use Hybrid mode, so I have to restart to try it. And I just clicked 'Yes' to the pop-up just to make sure I do need a restart. aargh!

 

I only seem to get sound stutter on youtube when I have other applications open, if its just youtube and thats it, then theres a slight stutter once in awhile...

 

I just spoke on the phone with another Dell agent. I spoke again with another one this morning. After many tests and drivers installations, what I ended up doing to show them the root of the problem was to format the disk while I was on hold (30 minutes hold btw) and have only windows 7 installed. They remotely logged into my computer and I demonstrated them the latency before any drivers and after. By the time the display drivers were installed, the stuttering occurred. So there was a live demonstration of the problem. I also demonstrated the 11 degrees of difference between the two GPU cards. This way we excluded the fact that the order of installing the drivers was the problem. They wrote down my info so according to the agent they gonna call me in one or two weeks from today to provide feedback to the development department. Let's see what's going to happen. They are aware of the issue and I was asked to be patient for a couple of weeks as they are working on it.

 

I'm sorry if i misread your message, but what is "it" ?
if you mean some kind of update, I'm not convinced since you had to do ALL THAT for them to actually realize there was a problem.

 

They refer to the audio stuttering as "it". Well that's why I spoke with two agents in one day. With the first one I spoke for 2 hours and I waited for 40 minutes before someone picked up the phone. There were many drivers that we tested and we were checking the latency after every change. The ethernet drivers from Dell are confirmed to cause, at least to my laptop, problems with the wifi so he lost the connection a couple of times till I completely disabled the ethernet. The second time is when I formated the disk and after a clean install they were convinced of the problem.

*EDIT*

I don't see how they find it normal to have on idle 48 C on the main GPU and 36 on the secondary when before I had idle temps between 33-35 on both GPUs

 

OMFG i am so happy right now i have ALL green bars NO red. Thanks to the new BIOS and some mods i did. I will post screen shot asap but right now DCP is 64-75

Everyone check their Network adapter (Wireless) I was still getting red spikes and i turned it off (Was using windows Software) and edited some Nvidia settings and now bam! Been running for 10 minutes not one red bar or audio stutter anymore! Need to check Video/game but i am sure it will pass will update asap.

 

hey brian, so I take it you didn't call ? ;D

 

They were supposed to call today lol. Never did big supprise. Lets see if the call tommarow, they still need to fix my pannel touch buttons that the tech broke when he was trying to fix it. Its loose and crooked OMFG

 

i wonder where they get their so called "techs", i dont think ive read 1 positive story about a tech coming in to "fix" something lol

 

True that i should of stopped him though when he said
One: Wow Face reconizion are you sure you don't work for the goverment? lol
Two: Oh why did they send me two GPUS? Must me a mistake
Three: Never mind you get the point.. lol

I have got my red bars down to Networking, No internet no red bars. i am going to try to install Dells software and disable windows somehow.

 

People on the alienware bored > dell tech

Just my 42 cents.

 

LOL

My tech guy used a screwdriver to try and prise the pannel off, didn't know you had to remove the 2 long screws.

Had to show him a forum guide to enable him to remove the palm rest and when he left i discovered that he had also broken the ribbon cable conector off the back of the power switch on the touch pannel.

other than that he was a nice guy!

Alienware are now replacing my system as its "The Most Powerful Doorstop in the Universe " at the moment.

 

ya same here lol my tech was a really nice cool guy acually their was 2 of them both really cool but stick with dells not alienwares.


UPDATE: Almost got the random red bars down so random now i am out of ideas. Its not Nvidia already did that, imho its the damn Nvidia Raid Driver that is causing the red bars. Nvidia cards are not downclocking anymore checked them, wired thing is internet red bars no internet/disable then no red bars ??!!

 

guys,

maybe we should give Engadget another visit? lol

Dell released an update that did not fix anything, just makes the DPC checked looks better.....

 

Reading the posts on this forum and others this may be the best option

 

haha I wish people would post the url.

 

Go to www.engadget.com and click on "tip us" link on the logo.
can do the same for http://gizmodo.com/ "got a tip for us"

 

Guys - if you post to say you are, or you are not having this issue. PLEASE - post your basic hardware config.

1) Graphics Card Model
2) Graphics Driver
3) BIOS Revision
4) Processor

These seem to be the main contributing factors. Knowing who has what should help trying to narror it down.

 

I have to agree with moogleassassin Mybe do what alot of people do is put computer config in your Signature. So everyone knows who has what.

1 notebookreview.com
2 Private Messages
3 Conrol Panel
4 Edit Signature.
5 Add your spec.

 

its been days since i last said that everyone should post his specs.


anyway. i tried 15.50 nvidia chipset driver from clevo drivers. driver feels good but dont expect to reduce dcp latency. it has a good feeling in general terms , speed etc.

as for the gpu temps i would suggest to use 195.xx drivers . they are the only ones downclocking the gpus as normal. my gpu temps are the same as with previous bios for me. none gpu driver causes less red spikes. at least for me, they can be reproduced doing certain things except pressing eject button, no matter gpu driver version.

i also wonder if the gpu problems have to do with the flash player (installed in browsers) and/or the dx11 of win7 as well as we all know gt280s dont support dx11.

 

Updated my BIOS last night and GoodBye stutters and cracks. Red Spikes be gone....well at least for the most part! Worked like a charm for me as well. I still get spikes occassionaly but they arent associated with stutters and cracks. If the DPCLAT isn't open, I wouldn't even know there was a spike. Below is my before and after DPClat at idle and then a full screenshot of youtube, music, Bluray all going at the same time. This use to destroy my pc...now it was smooth sailing.

 

yes this is how it should be for all of us to talk about fix. at least if the red spikes were until 4000,s the most. i see you have ATI

 

42659 the big spike..... so there's stutter and cracks

 

No even though there was a 43K spike, it was accompanied by no stutter or spike during that test for the hour and a half after while I finished watching the rest of BlackHawkDown which for some reason SnagIt only took a black screen of in the screenshot. Now before it seemed like every third for fourth red spike always came with a stutter or glitch. Now the red marks aren't even coming uniformly. Now its seems based off of what the machine is doing. I still have lots more things to test out..but from the preliminary tests so far...its been a VAST improvement for me. I can watch DVD's now when I couldn't 24hrs ago.

 

Yes I have the ATI Crossfire. From what I am reading thus far, its definitely seems like this fix is leaning towards being more favorable for those who have the ATI cards over those who do not. With the major difference being, the ATI folks only have to install the A03 BIOS update (I didn't even update my Wireless driver yet) and the effects are immediate. It seems like the Nvidia folks have to do the Update along with several secondary tweaks to see progress. I know they mentions that this was just the first stab at it. I sure hope for everyone else, the time frame between updates drastically is reduced! If anyone would like me to do specific test using my ATI system, just let me know.

 

i dont know if the 195.xx drivers for nvidia are released for M17X . as i said they are the only ones which can downclock both gpus with A03 bios. but even on performance mode i get red spikes.

i am not very hopeful on drivers level. i ll try to remove one of my gpus and try with each one and see the red spikes. i believe one or both of them have discharging problems.

finally it would be better if we all had 4000μs spikes every one sec than having all green and huge red spikes occasionally. in other words fixing the gpu issues than the cpu reading ones.

 

Edit: first post, didnt realise - long time lurker lol. Hai!

I am now in a similar situation to lestat1124. I have the occasional red spike, but its far far far better than it ever has been. I was just able to listen to a 10 minute song in windows media player without any pops, crackles or stutters.

My specs - 2x 280s @ stock
T9600 @ 2.80gz stock
Corsair X64 SSD primary disk
Vista X64

Here's what i did -
Bios update to 1.03
Turned off Hybrid and intergrated graphics and enabled summary screen in bios.

Booted Vista X64 retail with sp2 disk
Formatted SSD
Installed Vista and installed Wireless broadcom driver from Alienware driver CD (Vista wont detect it during install).
Downloaded all Vista drivers from Batboy's current Vista driver posting here:- http://m17x.blogspot.com/2009/08/current-vista-64-drivers.html APART FROM i went with the latest whql driver from the laptopvideo 2 go site because Star Trek Online needs it - (195.81's and modded inf).

Fully windows updated twice and reboots.
Installed all the drivers in the order shown on Batboy's list.

Then followed Batboy's recommendations as per his configuration post here:
http://m17x.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-m17x-configuration_4886.html I

Finnaly booted back in to Vista, ran the performance test to enable glass, enabled sli, rebooted and tested.

Im not saying latency is fully fixed, but when playing an mp3 now in windows media player im not really getting stutters unless i try to get one, by pressing eject button or opening up stuff left right and center. I was able to play a 10 minute track no stutters at all, where as before i was getting massive red spikes every few seconds.

Not saying the above will fix for you, but its improved things for me. FYI i did exactly the same as above last night for windows 7, but it was worse than it ever has been so i removed it again. Windows 7 is not good at all for me latency wise thus far.

 

Im getting a new replacement,

I have had many issues, including service guy damaging sytem.

Have been offered brand new replacement, currently have 260sli and they are offering 4870 crossfire as a replacement.

trying to wangle an i7 unit but not showing on uk site as yet tomorrow is the rummor.

however i need two answers

how much better is 4870 crossfire to 260sli performance increase
does the ati really have much less problems

and 3rd question how much better is i7 over qx9300?

 

Ati 4870 is faster (10-20%) than the 280 Sli setup so yeah it will be much faster than the 260 cards.

The ATI cards seem to has less issues, and better drivers