M17x and DPC Latency

this is maybe one of the worst dpc latencies after A03 bios. guys also try the 195.62 driver of Dox. i think its more difficult to cause red spikes ( of course they can be caused under certain circumstances)

and i am sure with this thermal table change they may cause nvidia gpus to fail easier and they didnt fix the red spikes too on nvidia. no worries as soon as it is in quarantee

 

BatBoy, why are your temperatures so low? I've read somewhere that the original thermal paste is rubbish and that it makes a difference to change it...

My m17x was never opened, everything that I changed was software based, is it worthy having a look inside?

(maybe your vista is running classic mode with very little programs open?)

Txs

 

My AlienHead eyes light up every 2 seconds or so and the icon flashes to the wait icon ALL THE TIME. What process is hitting my HD or taxing the system every 2 seconds?

 

Well, yes, I am going to assume that his system is clean. I mean, c'mon. . . BatBoy doesn't do drugs. He's a poster-child for all the good dudes and dudettes across the forum!

I also believe that he uses Arctic MX-3 thermal paste, although ShinEtsu X23 will be good enough for the job.

What you need to consider is that your temperatures during gaming are not that different from BatBoy's. His are in the mid 60s, while yours are in the upper 60s. You're breaking the 70 point with one of the GPUs though, so maybe you should clean out your vents.

But the real question: BatBoy's low readings. Well, that's because he is using PowerMizer, properly. Mine aren't that different, and majority of other folks using PowerMizer will declare that they get similar temperatures. This is why I wouldn't trade off PowerMizer for a workaround.

 

I did some testing and you should only use the offical nvidia drivers from dell site. With the 190+ drivers the latency spikes started again.

 

Heck, after all your scary reports I should consider reverting back to my 7 years old IBM ThinkPad. Had ZERO issues with it throughout its lifespan (and I was a terrible owner, often leaving the machine ON for months in +30-35c room temps).
Makes you think....

 

are you sure about that ?

 

This was not my experience...

 

Can anyone verify if ATI gpus are having this problem?

 

worked for me. With the 186 drivers I had no spikes what so ever with the 195 I was getting a huge spike consistently. I should have taken screen shots. I tried each driver a few times to make sure. I also used driver sweeper between each test.

 

Support guys said it would be the same either way.

 

when i talked to them they said it was specific to nvidia....

 

General experience suggests that some ATI users suffer DPC latency, however it seems to be less severe compared to those using the nvidia setup.

 

OMG you should both work for Nvidia as crash testers Did you leave the laptops in front of the fireplace? just kidding, but all jokes aside, you should consider a turn to ATI for a change...

 

I would actually believe what they say only if they send me the ATI cards for testing and be able to reproduce the same stuttering.

 

Oh, of course! I forgot about Powermizer =/

But in that case its not too bad, about 10 C higher.

About my gpus, they are like that from the beginning so I don't believe cleaning it would solve the problem.
I thought it was normal for some reason... should they have the same temps?

 

So it seems my 'low' idle thermal temps are under scrutiny

As Kade mentioned in his earlier post, I have replaced the stock thermal compound (CPU and NV Chipset). MX-3 was used. I am not using a cooler pad. I am still using my Logitech Alto Cordless stand with the M17x. Initially the stand was used with my XPS M1730. I haven't gotten around to going with something else. The only impact I see the stand having is that it angles the laptop at a decent angle which basically exposes the fan intakes to roughly 8+" of open/unrestricted air flow.

Ambient temp is about 64-70 degrees f. I am running Vista with Aero enabled - some time back I posted my entire system configuration settings. Perhaps someone can link to the post. The information can be found easily enough, the reference appears directly below. Needless to say, no - I am not running in 'Classic' Mode

Seriously all, I would love to be able to provide everyone with a 100% workaround. The process I used to eliminate the audio stuttering issue as well as the intermittent FPS drop off issue back in September does not seem to work for everyone. Sorry.

 

Oh, you forgot about it. . . right.

Well, you could clean it out, still. It is no big deal at this point. Just keep an eye on those readings and consider cleaning once they exceed the 75 mark.

 

I have a m15x and I paid 4.2K for my laptop.. here's the result I'm getting..

 

Just flashed to A03.

Playing MP3 songs in idle is now possible without stutter (not possible in A02). All nice green bars in DBCLat. But trying the same thing when running a slideshow let's say in Media Center at the same time typically results in major (60-70k) spikes in DPC latency. Since the spikes occur at the same time a temperature rise/fall on the GPUs in registered in HWMonitor, I think I come to the same conclusion being the 'powermizer' GPU changes causing the hick ups.

I did a short gaming test and the 60k spikes definitely cause a temporary freeze during gameplay.

I don't seem to have the temperature issue with the second GPU not cooling down again (using dell site nVidia drivers).

Hope dell finds a solution for this, as this is really a shame on what is otherwise such a nice system.

 

So...
I had zero DPC related issues before upgrading to A03. However I still had high DPC Latency and felt that my game performance was lacking and followed several of the guides as seen on this page. And they were working...until I installed A03.

After installing A03 I started having stuttering issues...the audio "skips", the mouse "jumps" and the image freezes, just for half a second, but it's annoying as hell.

Problem is, the only thing that fixes it is...disabling ALL ethernet devices (LAN and WLAN). I tried reverting to A02, nothing, reinstalling graphic drivers (used driver sweeper and restarted every time it asked), still the same. The only thing that is different is the chipset driver, I don't remember which version I had before but both 15.49 and 15.50 do not work.

Is the chipset driver the cause of the stuttering? Or is it some registry key that was left behind? Why does disabling the network devices solve my problem? Is it some BIOS setting that got reset after the flashing?

I'm gonna test for these later on when I get home, I'm just hoping that somebody else has some input to help me on these.

 

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/8334/latency.png

This is a screenshot of the start up programs, the programs installed, the stuttering that occurs every 15 sec and the devices that I have disabled. Nothing helps. When the powermizer downclocks the GPUs the spikes go up in the sky.

 

might as well contact support and see if their registry fix helps.

I'll watch what the tech does and report back.

 

Ok, nothing works after an hour with support, should I go ahead and request a replacement of my laptop (hate this because I just had them replace my monitor for a single dead pixel 2 weeks ago).
I just can't play any games or do any media/music, it stutters, it sounds annoying as hell.
Should I ask Alienware to replace my laptop with ATi CrossFireX which will have a different chipset?

 

those 15 sec spikes occur in idle? after closing games? connected to net?

 

Yeah, sure. Well, we'll likely have to wait for Nvidia to come up with a proper solution. I wouldn't hold my breath, though. It's quite a sign that dell doesn't offer Nvidia cards in their refresh anymore. I really wish the ATi cards had been available back when I ordered my system. Or even the refresh. Haha.

 

If I am not mistaken the chipset will still be Nvidia with ATI cards.

 

For me it happens 24/7.
-Idle
-Gaming
-Listening to Music on YouTube
-Listening to Music on iTunes.
Basically from the time my computer is on until I shut it off.

I reinstalled windows with all the latest drives.
As soon as I install the new nvidia drivers and run SLI the thing starts occuring.
When I run non SLI is fine.
I paid for 2 cards, not 1.

I am running out of options other than calling it and get ATi instead of Nvidia.

 

yes i know. actually for me is as soon as i connect to the net and anything that may cause overclock or downclock of the gpus (powermizer). if i am listening to music without doing anything else is the only way not to have any red spikes

 

I did not OC anything.
It could be the network, either way its funnyt his only happens with Nvidia cards and not ATi.
So somewhere between the network card/graphics card there is a huge conflict.

 

Here what I got when I email the tech. When I talk to him few days ago he was like well they are working on the A04 fix and this is todays post.

Dear Mr. ______

After checking with our engineering team the issue does get resolved with the A03 Bios.

The issue in the forums is that people are not applying the steps properly, therefore they experience issues after.

We have tested and validated this Bios with a test system that we have and its being working fine.

At this point, with this Bios revision, you should not experience any issues.



I still dont beleave it and do not trust it haha.

 

Wow. Flash BIOS and reinstall operating system - that's the solution.

I have a feeling geek squad would say the same thing. I.e. it is nonsense designed to make you go away for a while.

 

exactly.

10car

 

They are swapping my mobo. But I don't think the tech even understood what I was saying. He asked me to reinstall the OS too (but I did that two days ago).

 

hmmm u sure you want their techs to touch ur m17x ? lol

 

over the last few days ive spent about 14 hours on the phone with dell going in circles about this problem. they told me that this problem is specific to Nvidia cards and so i requested them to replace it to the ati card to see if thatll work. They are replacing it monday at no cost to me as long as it works. if the computer has latency issues they are putting back in the nvidia card. Ill keep everyone updated on what happens....

 

keep us posted !!

 

Dell tech doesn't seem very trustworthy when it comes to replacing parts as we've heard many times on this board.

Good luck you all I guess.

 

you guys should tell the tech : gimme the part, ill do it.

 

They would probably tell you a "highly trained specialist" must do the job.

 

Too bad that didn't work, told the guy that, and he still did it (alienware agent) and I lol'ed when i started windows and showed him the monitor...the issue is still there..

 

Reinstall the OS? .... bah

 

hahaha

 

Reinstalling Alienware with Stutterware.

 

Eh. Hang on, if they're already working on A04 will we have to rip everything out of our systems and reinstall the OS yet again for this update?

Is there anything particularly wrong with just flashing the bios and making sure you have the exact drivers Dell suggest using on their page with it, without clean installing the OS?

 

They occure no matter what, even after a reboot with both ethernet and wifi disabled.

 

I dont think so, the reason why theyre saying that is probably because some people keep messing around with some settings and reinstalling/unninstalling drivers. A format never hurts ;d

 

Ah ok, ty for that. It's just me personally getting too comfortable with this laptop since november and not wanting to bother setting all my program installations, game save file etc etc and having to go through another format. Only reason I'm willing to go through with it to get A03 sorted is because I got windows 7 ultimate to put on.

Plus my laptop's been BSOD'ing, which is most likely a faulty driver somewhere. Easier to start fresh this time around.

 

my advice is, if you want to format now, and not when a04 comes out. I suggest you format, but dont do any tweaks(for stuttering) until it actually comes out.

 

In a prior post of mine I described that I did a live format of my disk while I was on the phone with the agent and the drivers were installed according to their suggested order. They saw the stuttering occur live so what they say here is .... I have tried every possible driver in every possible order with every possible workaround, unless I deactivate the powermizer I get stuttering no matter what.