M17x stutter but now with some xperf.exe

Good evening all,

I have looked through many of the stutter issues that have been posted but havent seen one with xperf data. so...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ormance-high-cpu-usage-interrupts-solved.html
[edit] I did a search and found a couple that have the xperf data... drat. well I still hope someone can find this usefull and maybe enlighten me as to what I am seeing[/edit]

I have an m17x that I got as an exchange for an M1730 whos warranty expired on Dec 17th(ish). I got the m17 on Dec 28 and on the 30th I contacted Dell saying it isnt right. after 3 months and many many many calls and emails, I finally got it escalated to someone who would help. after 2 motherboards, ram, battery, wifi module, speaker light, they finally had me send it to them. But not to the depot, but to the escalating agent in charge of my case. He had it for 2 weeks. he also replaced the HDD holders, keyboard, gpu fan, a cable for the touchpad, the touchpad, hinge, and reinstalled and tested the system. he said it tested well and would send it back.

I get it and from day one it was still stuttering when I did anything. if I used skype it would stutter and make a buzz noise for a second or 2. if I was using outlook and tried to open IE8 it would freeze for a few seconds to a few minutes. Everything I tried didnt help. I installed the video driver again and put in 197.16 hopeing that would help, and it did some.

so out of frustration I downloaded the SDK from Microsoft to test the performance and stuff in the background.

I ran it for a few minutes and in that time it actually froze up for a few and would let me do a thing. NPR kept streaming to WMP and didnt buzz, but I couldnt click on anything or do anything. my alien eyes were lite up like the HDD was thinking hard. I have shaved the processes down from 79 to 50-55 with outlook and msn messenger running.

Here are the screenshots of my results with the freeze.
Perf1 shows my CPU, looks like its topped out to me
Perf2 shows my HDD is 100% engaged but no read write
PerfHardFaults is shows the hard faults for that range that it was lagging/stuttering/frozen.

whats your opinion on this data? does this help the matter or not so much?

think I should get another hdd and try that?
hate to reinstall an 8th time on this dang laptop.
after reading the interupts post link at the top I have attached the interupts pict too.

thank you all in advance for your time and energy on this. sure hope it isnt and id-10-T error, that would make my last 4 months really wasted, hehe

 

Do you use the nvidia storage drivers?
Changing an HDD won't help you

 

no i dont think i use the nvidea storage drivers.
under disk drives i have a seagate and a Western Digital, both show as being scsi disk devices though.

 

This doesn't sound normal, try to remove the drivers and install them again, it's probably a driver issue

 

Well I have done 7 clean installs since January. Of these.2 were alien restores. Plus one restore from factory rep when I sent it in. He even put the page file onto my second hdd.

 

So you did 5 clean windows installations with the latest drivers from the dell website, right?
On those installations, when you installed the chipset drivers I suppose you unselected the ethernet and the storage drivers. You also installed the latest wifi drivers (not from Dell) and the result is that on the screenshots?

 

Actually I. Did all. The dell drivers but didn't uncheck the Ethernet or storage. And I. Have used the dell WiFi driver but used the latest video from NVIDIA. And the screen shots are from the last install that dell did 2 weeks ago.

 

Dell recommends not to use the storage driver, they even have a script to remove them. That's what causing you the problem. Remove the storage driver and run the script. MS has it's own drivers that work just fine

 

Ok thank you so much Stamatisx, I did as you suggested. I made sure I was on A03 then ran the script. windows installed the driver for my ATA drive. I then used the new wifi driver listed as well.

I am now streaming radio and typing with no freezes. I will update in a day or so when I know for sure that this is working.

thank you for your help, really appreciate it. you helped solve something they couldnt and even after it came back from the depot.

 

No problem. It's really interesting though the fact that an escalating agent was not aware of that...
Anyways glad I could help

 

Yeah he just sent me an email saying:

I don't know if it is the case, but Firefox has been known to cause some problems with conflicts and hanging. Looks like your on the right track. The system was working within factory specifications when it left here and was shipped back to you so it is most likely that your dealing with a software issue. This is especially true considering the spikes in Disk utilization and IO process. Unfortunately, there is little I can do to help troubleshoot third party software not included at the factory. That assistance is beyond the scope of support as provided by your current service agreement. The service agreement purchased with your Dell system provides for hardware support and basic installation support. If you would like software troubleshooting assistance please contact our fee based service Dell On Call at 1-888-236-3355.You may also find additional support on the internet.

so, that being said, I am glad you were johnny on the spot and was able to help me along.

probably cant give you any prop points can I...

 

If he had said Internet Explorer I would almost believe him LOL

 

true that my new friend true that.

on a side note, any chance you know what would cause popup windows for programs, not internet stuff, that dont enclose the content inside the box?

where the information is more then the box will hold? like if you could grab the corner and make it bigger it would fit.

 

Can you take a screenshot of that?
Right now nothing like that comes to my mind

EDIT
Actually java applets come to my mind but I don't know how similar it is with the case you describe

 

I will try and capture one. I have one custom work program that use to work on this laptop but now doesnt. but I cant remember what box program from a store was giving me grief.

Ill let you know when I find one, sorry, should have thought to grab it when I had the chance.