Unrepaired for the third time.

Well, it seems as though my m9750 is still not functioning properly.

It was not working properly when it was shipped to me, because apparently people here can play CoD4 and UT3 flawlessly, I cannot.

I shipped it back for repairs once, they said they were able to duplicate and fix the problem, and I received it still unfixed. I was still getting choppy framerates in CoD4 and UT3.

I shipped it back for repairs once again, and they said they were able to duplicate and fix the problem, and once again I received it unfixed. I am not able to play CoD4 and UT3 with the same framerates as everyone else on this board.

I am kind of frustrated with this whole thing, and I am wondering if I should request a refund so I can spend some money on another AW system that works. Do you think they would let me? I have no problem paying the $500 restocking fee as long as I can get another system that works.

 

If you declare to them that you want to return, and they are unable to repair it (they may ask you to send it in one more time), they will waive the restocking fee.

 

Same thing with me but im on my second repair.. i just opted for a refund. Im getting a Sager

 

Hi Agatius
firstly how long have you had your system.
when you return a system for repair and it returns still not fixed then you normally get the 14 day refund option but im not sure how long this stands on older systems.

 

tell them to exchange it to m17x.

 

I have had this system for maybe 6 or 7 months now, maybe less.

 

if they fix it 3 times w/o succeeded you might as well ask them for a full credit.

 

I'd suggest getting a refund and going with a non-SLI system such as the m15x. I had such a foul experience with SLI gaming with my m9700, I swore I'd never make the same mistake again until SLI was more widely supported within games and within the OS. I got so tired of constant tweaking, poor driver support, OS problems, etc.. It wasn't really anything to do with the system, but more to do with SLI. Anyway, I don't know if that relates to any of your problems but if I had sent in a system 3 times, I'd be looking at other notebooks. Call them up and see what your options are.

 

Yeah, I think I will try to go with the m15x if they offer me a refund. I actually really like AW's customer support, but it just seems like their technicians can't repair this thing for some reason.

 

Hello Agatius,

We apologize for this experience. If you'd like, please PM me your account information and I will help in any way possible.

Thank You

 

Well, I talked to tech support once more, and he redirected me to customer service. Then the customer service rep said he would let the specialist team contact me and figure out exactly what is happening with my laptop, then they will determine whether to fix it or give me a refund.

 

I think I'm on the verge of sending my system in for repairs. I'm really not getting the performance that others are getting. When I do get the performance, I am disappointed because of crashing drivers which gets extremely frustrating. Great when it works, but right now it's just starting to give me a headache so I haven't touched my M9750 in a few days

 

Hey guys.. sorry to hear about both your problems =/

I've been testing my laptop for a great deal now because I wasn't convinced that SLI really was working or not... I found that yes it DOES work, but not nearly as well as I hoped. Call of Duty 4 was the only game where my framerates actually IMPROVED when I disabled SLI.

Some Settings:
Call of Duty 4 - SLI Off
Resolution - 1400x900
Shadows - Off
Specular lighting - Off
Frames per second: 50+ with a min of 35fps in heavy areas

These settings gave me the best most consistent framrates.

UT 3
Resolution - 1400x900
World Detail - 3/5
Textrure Detail - 3/5
FPS - Almost SOLID 60 fps with some dips in performance.
Basically the default settings gave the BEST performance out of this laptop with virtually solid 60 fps. SLI off quite litterally cuts the framerate in half.

Bioshock
Resolution - 1400x900
Shadows ( I forget which type it was, will edit later) - off
Everything else - on
Only one setting needed to be turned off to get great performance. This game also seems to be dependent on the seek time of your hard drive and there will be noticable hitching if you're using a 5400 drive. This problem compounds at higher resolutions. There was also a significant increase in performance with SLI on vs off. Also, turning on the shadows produced big Black squares at random areas of the screen.

Assassin's Creed
Resolution 1400x900
Settings detail were all set to default, typically 3/5 with 1/3 mipmapping
Avg FPS: 35-45
This gave the game a much more fluid feel. Not nearly 60 fps, but it did feel better.

Mass Effect
Resolution 1400x900
All details set to MAX
fps: 45-60
The 175.63 drivers combined with the latest version of nHancer REALLY helpede out here (Props to Brainer). There are still graphical anomolies though like black boxes that appear and flashing textures on uniforms, but if you can forgive these problems, the game runs great.

Doom 3 and Quake 4
Resolution: 1920x1200
Ultra Detail
Avg fps: Capped at 60 fps
Very solid gameplay and speed at max details.

Half Life and Portal
Resolution : 1400x900
Max Details used.
Avg fps: 60
Higher resolution gave dips in the performance but were not all that significant.

I can provide screenshots and if there is any games you would like to compare with, please let me know. I think it was unrealistic to think all games thrown at this machine can run at max settings, but it's certainly better than a single card 8600 GT solution.

 

Also, I've spent some time examining the Sager/Clevo forums, and they have quite a few issues with SLI (drivers etc) as well. It would seem the only people actually satisfied with their laptops with SLI is Dell. I see virtually NO posting about issues there.

 

It could be because most hardcore enthusiatic gamers go with Sager, and other brands so they tend to notice it more. No posting doesn't mean that there aren't any troubles.

 

In COD4 with those same settings, except in SLI, I get 18-50 fps. I got some hitches in fps with portal which kind of concerned me, same with HL2 but that may have been because I had Vsync off. In UT3, my framerate is ALLLL over the place, it can be at 60 in some places, and then dip into the 11-22 fps range for a few seconds, then go back to normal, it makes the game unplayable.

 

Perhaps, but I don't think someone shelling out that kind of cash wouldn't test their systems or not know what exactly they purchased. I would consider someone picking up an m1730 to be hardcore enough to test their system in gaming and not just run office applications.

 

What map and game type were you playing? I tested mine in deathmatch, shangri-la map with a standard amount of bots in play (I haven't tried online, nobody ever plays when I get off work ;_; ). I believe I get crapper framerates in other game types.

Pick a map, number of bots, resolution and I'll give it a go.

 

I tested it on Shangri-La, and Deck. At 1440x900 resolution, with no bots.

See if you have the same problem as I do, on any map, keep shooting your feet with the rocket launcher, or stand next to a wall and shoot it point blank with rockets. Keep doing it with either single rockets, or load up 3 rockets (it works faster this way) then see if your FPS eventually plummets down into the 10-20s for about 10-15 seconds. Every time I die by a rocket online, I take personal offense to it because my game is unplayable for 15 seconds. Same goes for the secondary fire on the flak cannon, lol.

 

No, nothing.. I did it for about 30 minutes.. and watched my temps as well.. GPU2 got as high as 90C and GPU1 was at 86C. CPU = 80C. My framerate stayed pretty consistent though it did drop about 10 frames per second while I was dying by rocket or flak to about 50ish.. then back to 60 after the death animation.

I think your issue is caused by heat. Have you checked your temperatures using Notebook Hardware monitor (for CPU) and nTune to check your GPU temps as you play? Just alt-tab out to quicky check them. I found ntune to be more accurate than rivatuner particularly for the second GPU temps.

My Alienware isn't using stock thermal paste,. I went ahead and put arctic silver 5 on the GPUs, bridge chips, and CPU myself..

 

My temps, after they replaced the Heatsinks and GPU's have gone down quite abit from my previous temps of 90s (in the GPUs). My temps on UT3 havn't gone above 80C yet, and my processor is 83C while playing... So.. I am not quite sure what is causing the problem. Hopefully the Specialist Team will though.

 

I am going to try your trick after 6 months keep sending it back till i get money back refund and promise them to buy a new one because i want to keep up with the Mr and Mrs Jones..

Yay we all want the latest Alienware

Just kidding...

Hope you have better luck this time

Alienware Support is really good.

 

Agatius,

Please check your PM! I look forward to assisting you.

Thanks!

 

I got my laptop for 5 weeks now is it too late to exchange for the m17x Sli 512 GTX 8800?

btw i love my laptop it's perfect for multimedia editing.

 

it's pretty alarming so many people have problems with their system.

But i am blessed i got a great laptop although i haven't tried to play games on it yet.

I coudn't even tell if my system is over heating or not but i got this laptop running for a whole week 24/7 and it's still so much cooler (at least 60%) than my Asus F3SV laptop.

I dont have wobble screen but i was shocked the first time i shut the lid it actually slammed itself onto the keyboard yikes that's the only part i didnt like.

 

that is only because of the magnet that keeps the lid closed. you will get used to it soon. i actually like the magnet alot more since i dont have little spikes on top of the screen to keep the screen closed. i dont really like pressing a button and opening the screen at the same time.

 

Hey is it possible to change my speakers? i dont like the sound coming out of it.

 

@Lady - No you cannot upgrade to the m17x after 5 weeks of use, and you can't just swap in new speakers.

 

That would be fraud...

 

Now I see why Tyronne got banned...

 

Wait why did he get banned? I didn't notice.

 

@OP - You are really against trying new drivers but w/e I'm not going to try to tell you again to use some different ones, you just decide what you want to do...

 

I'm not against the new drivers, but if some guy at alienware's tech support says the m9750 they have in the gameroom with a similar configuration can run CoD4 at max settings with no problem, then mine should be able to as well. Even the customer support guy I was thinking with said I had really low framerates for my setup, so there is some issue that has not been resolved yet. My screen is also going black sometimes while using firefox, and I am getting some random BSODs while playing games, which never happened before. I may try reinstalling the drivers since the last BSOD was due to a nv4_disp error or something.

 

Yea I see your point man. Thanks for clearing that up. I forgot what the TS guy said on the phone, my bad.