M17x-R2 Help Please =] (Drivers + Mods)

Hey all!

Finally after 2 months and 2 weeks my laptop arrived, all shiny and nice.

Works a treat except for some issues.

Firstly was the fans... do anybody else's fans spool up and put a Jet engine to shame? Cause mine do =[ Not sure if its a driver issue or something, but its louder than the speakers can handle!!

That brings me to the next issue... Why do the speakers crackle at less than half volume in a game?? Are they just THAT bad? I've been reading in the m15x thread, but... its an m15x. Not too much of a help, obviously it ould be a driver issue, but tbh I'm not too sure.

Other than that no problems =]

So any tips/adivce would be greatly appreciated!!! =]

Cheers!

 

Well, the fans are loud, but they are not as loud as the speakers if you turn them up abit. As for crackling I have no problems with my M17x-R2 with the speakers at any volume. Maybe try a reinstall of drivers and see if that helps. Also if you have a spare set of speakers around plug those in to the laptop and see if you get the same crackling, it might not be directly related to the laptop speakers. It could maybe be something on the inside and if you're comfortable inside your computer you can try reseating the speaker cable. If that doesn't work... Maybe call dell?

(Also doubt it but if its that big of a problem you might want to check your DPC latency)

 

Yeah, the right speaker has a static noise in it, and the left one seems to be fine.

When I'm on Crysis or DOW II (The only games I've tried) I cant hear the games over the fans. Its ridiculously loud. its got the best possible ventilation available - near a open window with at least 2ft each side and 1 ft at the rear.

What drivers should be installed on the Sound card + GPUs? I'm thinking I'll try updating them, cause I'm also getting lag on half the screen when playing both crysis and DOWII.

Top half is usually good, but the second half of the screen flickers and lags to keep up with the top - sends you up the wall. Ive read parts of the M17x 4870 flickering thread and hope to god I'm not in for a new GPU.

What drivers work well on the 4870's?

 

I would definitely try reseating the speaker cables if you are comfortable inside your laptop. As for drivers, I'm just using the pre-installed ones and everything is working great. So probably just use the ones off of dells website. Personally I would reseat most of the cables before doing anything will dell just because they are such a pain to deal with .

 

Haha, ok. I'm comfortable taking it apart.

How far do i have to go before I get access to the cables? Or is the rear just one big panel? Seeing as I've had this for less than 24hrs... dismantling it wasnt a hight priority, haha.

Also, whats the average 3D mark scores for the m17x? I only got 10500.. that normal??

 

Yeah, know what you mean about taking it apart right away, had to put in one of my gfx cards the day I got mine. It's really easy, here is the service manual if you need to see where the cable is.
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/M17x/en/SM/sm_en.pdf

As for 3d marks scores, not sure I haven't run that yet.

 

I gotta say, thanks heaps for you help ndudsz =]

My rig is the exact same as yours in the sig, so when you do get around to running your tests let me know how it goes =] Would be a good comparison comparing two identical systems =]

Btw, is there much of a difference in performance from increasing the CPU & RAM voltage??

 

I just started the download for 3dmark now, I'm on hotel internet and its far from fast. I'll run the test as soon as its done.

As for the voltage as I understand it doesn't give a huge boost to performance. It is mainly used if you increase the frequency. When you overclock the CPU it draws more power so to make sure it gets enough you can increase the voltage.
(This is as I understand it, I may be completely wrong or right, so if anyone else could clarify this...)

EDIT: Also, which 3dmark did you use? Vantage or 06? Though just judging from other scores I've seen in sigs that does sound a bit low...

 

I'm using Future Mark 3DMark Vantage. =] I thought it sounded low too, lol. I was expecting 12K+ at least =S

The makes sense with the voltage, I didn't increase it cause the affects would be relatively minimal IMO anyway.

Is there anyway we can manually push the 720 to stay at peak clock in turbo mode? Or do we have to let it choose whats suitable? Lol

 

Well, I had to move to a different hotel and this one's internet is even slower.

So that means I won't be able to download 3dmark until I get home on Monday.

As for pushing the 720, not really sure. Haven't done much with that to be able to tell ya.

 

Ah thats all good. Not really a big issue with the CPU anyway, the system works good for what I need right now =]

Enjoy your trip and hope to hear from you after Monday =]

 

Did you fix the problem with the speakers?

I tired downloading 3dmark anyway, only 7 more weeks until its finished!

 

Okay, ran 3dmark.

3dmark score: 12084
CPU score:15425
GPU score:11270

 

Hey!!!

So any idea where mine is going wrong?

I'll give you that your processor is better than mine, I'm using 720, but my ram is clocked at 1333 and we have the same GPU's =S

My GPU Score was :10503
My CPU Score was: 10505

I benched it twice with the EXACT same results.

Surely something must be up, couldn't be the processor causing me to drop 700 marks on the GPUs =S

Didn't have to fix the speakers =D I blasted them and the static.. blew away? haha, it fixed itself =D The BEST kind of fixing is the fix you dont have to do XD haha