M17x hardlocking when playing games.

I've been gathering information about the DPC Latency issue with the M17x, and although (as far as I know) it hasn't been confirmed, some report their M17x hard locks when playing games or doing nothing at all, and that this is linked with the latency issue. Is there any truth to this at all?

When my system hardlocks, I notice two things. One is that it hardlocks whenever I am playing games like WoW, CS:S, TF2, stuff like that. Another thing I've recently noticed is that when I play intense games, my 9400M G's GPU Temp is very high, around 72C, compared to my 260M GTX's temp of around 64C. Could this cause the hardlock? If so, is my GPU defective or my fan defective?

 

First off, is the 9400 Disabled in the BIOS? If not then try disableing it in the BIOS, re run your test and it might be lower. If the temp lowers it, then that will also benefit your CPU as they run on the same heatsink. As for me I have mine disabled, so I don't notice the temp much. Basically the only time my M17X has locked or froze has been when I have been doing heavy OCing and benching. It's also been reported on numerous laptops that dell techs forgot to remove the tape on the heatsink before assembly, thus preventing heat from being dissipated efficiently. This might be one thing to check if your concerned about the heat. I don't believe 72 is all that high though. If your going to dissasemble the laptop you will want to by a tube of good thermal paste to reapply as the aftermarket stuff is better then what dell uses.


But as far as the latency issue, I have red bars on the DPC Latency checker, up to 16000 at times, but I don't really notice anything negatively impacted. The other day as I was loading COD MW2, I noticed as Gen Shepard was talking I was getting some poping, but thats the first time I noticed it and I had just switched to the Cat 9.12 GPU drivers. I never got the poping during the actual game play so I'm not complaining. Sorry I can't comment on weather or not the latency issue is a cause for hardlocks.

 

It seems like that was the cause of my hardlocks. I turned off my 9400M G and I no longer receive lockups. I'll go look at the heatsink later tonight to see if the tape was removed.

If the 9400 and the CPU both share the same heatsink, wouldn't my 9400 and CPU have the same temp? Also, if im running in hybrid, shouldn't most of the GPU work go to my 260M's, and my 9400's should be lower than the 260M's temp?

 

It could be the OC on your CPU.

I am one of the folks here that swears by Hybrid SLI Performance mode. I have zero stability issues.

 

YEa it definately sounds like you need to tone down the OC

 

Well I tried that, and it still occurs, so I dont think its the OC.

 

Update:

My computer just hardlocked again while having 9400M disabled and OCed. So I tried many combinations to see what is causing my hardlock, from hybrid + OC to not OC and hybrid, the whole mile, and it seems like everything is causing my computer to hardlock. Any sugesstions?

 

Someone help?

Also, I contacted Alienware today and they said they would be sending someone over to replace my motherboard. Can't believe im going through this with a 2k machine that is supposed to be "the best".

EDIT: Also on top of the hardlocks, im occasionally, more rarely though, getting a BSOD because of nvlddmkm.sys.

 

I got the same error, was due to the new 195 drivers. I went back to the 186.82's and the BSOD stopped, but I also experience the hard locks but only when doing normal task like web browsing.

I however have the extreme dual core so its obviously not a cpu issue im leaning more towards a graphics issue. On your hard locks is everything dead or can you still move the cursor?