New Poll (Manually by me) M15x Owners Post if your downclocking/heat issues has been fixed or NOT fixed

K, did more tests today on my system. With AtiTool running the stress thing for 30 mins the gpu stays between 84-86 going up and down between these values. No downclock whatsoever. 3Dmark'06 while monitoring temps the gpu gets to max 70-72°. Played Crysis demo (hate shooters but since everyone is asking...). I didn't monitor the fps, told the game to find the good settigs and it put everything on high at 1440x900. Game worked flawlessly and the temps while playing stayed at 72°. Only issue I had was in the last movie when the demo finishes, this one was very "lagged" going at slow frame rate. I guess is a problem with the demo since the game was perfect and the temps were at 72 with no downclock. Went to my normal game, Lineage 2, all settings on high (no AA no shadows) for 4 hours in a row of fighting. I think Lineage is based on Unreal engine though so more on processor than on GPU. In anycase throughout the 4 hours the temp was 65-68° on the GPU with no downclock. Ok that's my test of the day, I don't trust AtiTool for a real life situation (no game i tried managed to bring the gpu over 80 and i tried crysis demo, penumbra black plague, lineage 2, LOTRO and CoD4 still a demo). Hope this helps, if there's any specific things you want me to do don't hesitate to ask. Also, I did not touch anything on the system, it came with Vista home premium and the drivers from the factory etc.

 

Just got x30 yesterday and i feel that it is working adequetly
I ordered my m15x the day after it came out

although before i got x30 bios my idle gpu temp was around 60-63c ish
but now its around 69-74c

But COD4 is running much better and my temp sticks around 77-83 (sometimes even lower), in game instead of 87-92 ish

I have no under clocking problems at the moment

 

Hi there firstn20... Again, thanks for the post! Hope people realize the effort you are doing. I think it is very important for us all to get a nice and objective feedback from everyone.
On a side note... I do honestly think that now is not the right time to order it. Thinks are stirring and people in Europe started receiving the laptop. I guess 2 more weeks would be needed to see how everything is going (And to wait for reactions from AW). Besides that case from the UK, Choey also received it from Europe recently, and he has the downclock.
I am really eager to order it to get back to play (It's 1 am, my neighbours are throwing a huge loud party and I'm writing on my 4 years old Acer Aspire 2026WLMi that is only barely enough to play GuildWars), but I feel we can only win by waiting a bit longer.
We will get it... let's not spoil the "thing" of receiving our Alienware, just to get disappointed with the downclocking.
Cheers to you first and all participating owners.

 

Could it be a BIOS issue then? I don't think it is because of overheating. I had the same troubles with my m5550 for the 10 months that I owned it. Whatever drivers I tried, I still got stuttering. GPU swaps didn't do anything either...It must be the BIOS.

@kitir - I feel the same way, I think I may run into the same problems with my m15x once I get it. But, hopefully AW will get this all sorted out.

 

first: my m15x was still downclocking at 90deg at the time i shipped it back, so it hadn't been fixed

alienware-steve: well what the !@#!, why did i have to argue with a cancellation agent and get nowhere, told that i would be charged the restock fee, and have to dispute with my credit card company which could take months to get through, if you're going to swoop in here dispensing full refunds. are you full of it or what? do the right thing and make this right for everyone who wants to return their cleary defective m15x, past 30 days or not.

 

Hello,

I just ordered my M15x yesterday. So I should have the latest and greatest. Mine will have the 8800GTX. I havn't gamed in a couple years and am a little behind on the hardware stuff. but, point me in the direction of how to check for this problem and ill report back here once i have my system.

Seth

 

@ Dagixxerkid2 - Welcome to the forum !!
Here ya go - All hail Chaz

Oh and when he mentions NVIDIA nTune monitor you may have to

 

what notebook are you testing? Its not a M15x is it?

 

Well people, how do we know Alienware-Steve is a real alienware agent? I mean has notebookreview verified is identity? Just curious.. I mean I could go and make a forum account named Alienware-ParisHilton... just curious

 

First off ioaniro does have an m15x.. Here's the config - Link

And as far as I know: Alienware-Frank and Roswell-Kevin are actual AW staff (the latter just migrated from NotebookForums today)

 

Ok I didn't add ioaniro to the list yet, because he didn't say he had a working unit thats why I didn't add him. Will add him now!

Searsypoo what test did you run on your system?

And ioaniro, very impressive temperatures, sounds like you got the best system that I have read so far. You ahve the lowest temperature EVER with a M15x. 60c and 70c's on crysis? thats really awesome. When did you get your system ioaniro?

 

and one more thing ioaniro, how did you score 10155? and why did it jump from 9500 - 10155? did you do anything different? Chaz's system score like a 9200 but he had the higher resolution. And are you using 3dmark06 free version? Let me know please

What was everyone scoring with 3dmark06 with the 1440 resolution?

 

Yeah i dun know why its 553mhz, it used to be 540mhz. I notice this after changing between x29b n x30 more than 4 -5 times. Now its back to 540mhz stock drivers. Did not OC or anything like that.

 

jl1989 also has de DC problem and only received it yesterday! I know I shouldn't be posting for him... But at this point, I'm just really pissed off because I want a laptop and I want this laptop!!! What's AW doing?

 

Didn't do anything, just windows did some updates, maybe did something good .
About the crysis temps, I'm not a shooter kind of gamer so I only have the demo (for tests) so maybe the map of the demo goes easier on the system? I got the system last Monday and was built in Ireland.

PS Overnight in Lineage2 still at 65°, did a temp log. Not a highly demanding game on the GPU but still when you're in the main city you have 500+ players moving and shouting around. Biggest temp peak was 71 during the gaming.

Edit: The most "bothering" thing with the system is the quality of thebuilt in speakers. Had better speakers on my HP 8 years ago, these look like really bad ones but hey, who actually uses those right? Anyhow I would have expected some better sound quality (my Dell XPS gen 2 kicks m15x ass in terms of sound)

 

Steve is with Alienware. I've communicated with him via e-mail outside of these forums at his Alienware e-mail address, and he also hooked me up with a member of their CIT.

 

Mostly fixed running x30. I'm pretty sure I had less trouble when I was on x29b, but the only game that seems to downclock is WoW when the card gets to 83 degrees, all other games go up to 87 and then the fans kick in all the way.

 

what did AW doing about the downclocking Less? Are they planning on fixing it for you?

 

I think you must add people who get the notebook and ever had the problem.

it seems that that this m15x is a disaster!

 

It's only a disaster with the 8800M GTX, mind you.

 

seeing the polls of how many persons with m15x still not fixed makes me think twice of getting the thing.

 

well, considering that many people buy this notebook for the most powerful GPU in the world...

btw, I said that, because I think that meny new purchases don't arrive with the downclocking problem

 

I really hope so.. I'm worried about my new m15x right now.

 

hey everyone, you can add mine to the "Not fixed" pile....downclocks in COD4 after 30 minutes:/

 

For all the sceptical that want lots of evidence... Do you think it's finally time to assume that M15x that DO NOT downclock are problematic? Obviously the standard is... Downclocking.
Sad, but true... As I suspected, they wouldn't be solving it by spinning some fans faster.
I think it's important people get the message and STOP buying the M15X until they finally fix the problem. I'm sure that's the only way that will push them to come up with a real and final solution.

 

i have a question that might sounds silly. I know sager released a bios for np5972/3 to fix the down clocking issues on 8800m. so why can't m15x use the same bios since they are the same card?

 

Agree 100%...

The only way to get thier attention now is $$$$$$. When sales slow down they might actually do something about the issues. It's having.

I am still fighting for my money back..Soon going to have my VISA refund the price and have AW fight them for the cash.

 

I am posting something i wrote in the owners lounge but didn't get a response, so maybe here some people can chime in with some input...

"hey guys. I am supposed to call AW to go over "troubleshooting ideas" for the downclocking. What can I expect from this? Has anyone done this? Obviously the bios fix is the only thing that is out right now so I am feeling like this is going to be a WASTE of a LONG phone call. I am passed my 30 days but this thing is NOT performing like advertised and I am thinking I will have to call my CC company for a charge back if AW does not make this right? Ugh..frustrating...."

 

I'm a little relieved to hear that Sager had the same downclocking issue with their 8800M GTX and they fixed their problem with a BIOS update. It sounds like the issue isn't as bad. I trust that AW will do the same with their future updates on m15x (along with all other issues hopefully!).

 

hopefully we'll find out on the 29th

 

Well it only happens in WoW, and I don't play WoW for more than an hour on my m15x anyway, so I'm personally not going to do anything about it. If Alienware magically figures out WTF to do (like a hardware fix, because that's the problem), then that's when I will do something about it.

Personally I've been doing a little thinking about something I can do to the fans. The way it currently works is the fan sucks in air, which cools the heatpipe attached to the card. Due to the distance from the fan to the card, it doesn't cool it as well as it should, HOWEVER, if air were to also pass over the heatsink on the card, I believe that it would help cooling. This can easily be achieved by cutting a hole in the fan's casing, which will allow air to escape from the fan into the compyer instead of routing itself out the back. It's farfetched, but it could work. Of course, I really don't want to try it because I always break things when I try to do stuff (like when i tried to make my HD 360 cable into a VGA cable; I followed the guide but it just didn't work).

 

@choey I have to say that Sager problem was different from the M15x. Driver related, not like the M15x (which is, most probably, stress/temperature related).

@Lessaj That's exactly why AW can just get on with what it's doing. Because people just choose to accept it and do not want to go the extra mile. I totally understand that you don't want to go over the trouble of doing anything (I'm not blamming you or pointing my finger, or whatever) , but the money you paid for it should give you exactly what you paid for.

Bottom line... I think it would be on the benefit of all if we would really make sure this information is passed on to the "outside" world. It was nice to have that recent article in Engadget, but that simply is not enough. It was far too soft... We need an article saying that the majority or users still have the downclock problem and that the Bios didn't fix the problem to almost anyone.
I know people will say that this is not representative, that lots of users don't even come here. Well, I'm sure the majority of users (if not all) that do not come here, will not even bother or notice the downclock. They live happy in "ignorance" (or if you want a more adequate term... lack of knowledge). So yes, I think it's our "moral duty" to expose it and prevent people to be fooled into buying a laptop that is not fully functional.
If we are able to extend our "knowledge" on this issue to more people, we are only doing what's right, helping people not to throw away their money and, helping ourselves as this will oblige AW to fix the problem.

 

I'm officially one of the people STILL having a DC problem. After playing BioShock for about half an hour, I had two downclocks.

 

Hey mil, can you post the link to the article in Engadget, I wanted to read it.

 

This is the article on Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/10/some-alienware-m15x-users-still-reporting-problems-after-bios-up/

 

I think we're going OT for this post. WHen I mentioned that we should have a moderated post to mark down whos system wasnt working and who was getting help from AW, I didn't mean for 9+ pages of people posting what was going wrong with their system. The other posts on this site already has that. I was hoping I could go here, to see what was working, what wasn't and who was getting help from AW. What do you guys think?

 

Hey guys, it's been a while since I posted but I think I've been able to pin down the action of the downclocking (at least for me). If any of you guys can recreate this, then the AW BIOS isn't fixed.

Alright, so start up your laptop and then start a game (in my example I'll use Crysis). Make sure this game is full-screen, and also don't turn on any GPU monitoring software. So what happens to me is I'll start playing Crysis and then eventually the GPU fan will kick into max (the new effect of the X30 BIOS). While the fan is max, the GPU won't downclock. I can quit the game normally, the fan will slow down, then restart the game, fan will come on, etc. That cycle will prevent any downclocking. However, sometimes the fan will turn off while I'm still playing (e.g. I alt-tab or I just go into the pause menu -- I do something which lessens the stress on the GPU). Once that has happened, the fan won't turn on to max again and downclocking will start occuring. Only restarting the computer will let you play Crysis again and have the fan turn on to max. The strangest thing, though, is that I could start up COD4 and the fan will turn on to max for it, even though it won't anymore for Crysis (until I restart the computer).

So, I think the point is, these "thermal profiles" which drive the GPU fan are needlessly complicated and aren't based on some logical temperature switch (e.g. if the temp is 85 degrees, turn on the fan). If anyone can recreate the effect I described (if you can understand) then, as I say, we have something to tell AW.

 

@Starstreak... I completely disagree. This post is doing exactly it's purpose. A list of users that Firstn20 is compilling (in the beggining of the post, thread number 1) that has and doesn't have the downclocking problem. Sadly, for most of the owners and potential buyers, the list is rather on the negative side.
@Jayonhavok... Sorry to hear that mate. The sooner everyone gets mobilized to put pressure on AW, the better. I think it's soo obvious the problem is not solved... it's just screaming in our ears. Everyone has this problem... even if they won't see it immediately.

 

Try playing in stealth mode and see if the dc'ing still happens...

I have a hunch that there is something wrong with the Stealth Mode button.

 

Finally got a chance to play Crysis for an hour or two. Although my m15x got up to a crazy hot 104 degrees in Furmark, it has not gone above 90 degrees in Crysis. I genuinely believe FurMark really beats on the GPU and is not representative of gaming. No downclocking at all for me. As far as I'm concerned, mine unit is 100% OK.

N

PS - Would still like some freaking newer drivers!!! Come on nvidia / AW - lets get this thing fixed.

 

FWIW, I tried this several times while playing Crysis - I did not experience any downclocking.

N

 

hmm, aite

so then I don't have as conclusive a lead as I thought.

just to check: did the fan slow down from the max state at any point as you played (or tried alt-tabbing/pause menu)?

 

Hey Ny, I lsited you under the not fixed downclocking/or high temp section. Dunno if we should leave it to that or put it to the fixed section. My personal opinion, 100c+ is too hot and not normal, what do you guys think?

 

I'd say 100 degrees is too much. GPUs can handle it, but my guess is that the lifetime of the GPU is reduced greatly if running on that temps for a long period of time... I"d advice caution...

Paendrag

 

I'll do some more testing this week, but it never got about 90-91 in Crysis. I only hit 100 or higher using FurMark which really seems to stress the GPU.

I'll check the fan speeds next time I play.

One other thing, the ThermoFan tool that came with the system consistently reports video temps a couple of degrees cooler than RivaTuner, so I'm not sure which is accurate. I'm going to keep both running and try Crysis again when I get a chance.

N

 

100c ++ is dangerous. I am not talking about GPU fried, I am talking about the components near the GPU may fry.

I had a tosh with 100C++ b4. GPU still working but motherboard got burned. This happen after 1 year ++. Well but I am an extreme gamer. Used to game almost 8 hrs a day.

 

Nyceis your one of the lucky ones, Although 90c seems hot to me.

A friend of mine has the Sager/Clevo with the 8800m and his GPU will only reach 85 after long hours of continous gaming. Another friend say the Temps are about the smae on his M1730, and my M15x would heat heat up in the 90's aswell. To me there is something serioulsy flawed with the M15x cooling system.

 

So... Does anyone knows if AW is doing something regarding this problem? Is anyone emailing them or having any feedback from them?

 

Fusioncon,

I don't have the authority to dispense full refunds, or refunds at all actually. Mysterio was unsure whether his CIT agent was going to refund him and I was simply clarifying the agent's statement based on his notes.

I have been told we are working on new possible solutions for the downclocking issue, and it has become a priority for the departments involved. I will update if I receive any pertinent information.

 

Dear Alienware-Steve,

Is Alienware recognizing the downclock problem (that still exists after the new bios update) as a generalized problem (or a problem that the majority of M15x owners have)?
Would you be kind enough to share with us which approaches are being followed to solve the problem? Is it Software fix, Hardware fix? Did you isolated the problem?

It would be nice if AW could assure present owners that a fix is going to exist (I'm sure some amongst us, start to believe that is impossible). Obviously this would be in AW's interest, as I'm sure lots of people are holding back on buying it, while the problem does not get a real solution.

As I already mentioned, AW should simply stop production and concentrate 200% on coming up with a permanent and final fix (looking at it in AW's perspective, this would really lead to a boom in M15x bought). Owner's unrest is growing (and future owner's alike) and the more you take to find a solution, the harder and firmer are going to be people's actions against a fraudulent publicity on a product AW is selling. As you are aware, Engadget (just an example) has been publishing articles about the still-existing Downclock problem. Till now, it hasn't been too harsh at all.
AW has the time and the chance to make things right. I hope you will...