m15x Extremly high latency. Which driver is to blame?

I assume this might be the alternative solution for the extreme CPU's. I haven't tried it myself so I don't know if it works, but it's supposed to "fix" the audio popping issue on the X34 BIOS.

This email was a little bit before I told her the audio popping issue went away with the X32 BIOS.

I guess it's worth a shot to try it out? I'm quite sure this might not get rid of the latency, but eh, worth a shot to see if it fixes the audio popping issue with the X34 BIOS.

 

same problems here on vista with 34x bios

tried the xperf tool, works well, but the problem is:
the module causing most of the delay is named "Unknown" and there especially the procedure "0xc3320a18"
now i know as much as before: some unknown procedure causes big delay lol

 

i´m a m15x owner now for a few days (fortunately this is a company computer) and have experienced the described issues - soundlag and 10k lags with freemans tool.

i downgraded to x32, that solved the lag problem.

additionaly, i had with x34 AND x32 the following issues:

- random crashes/hard resets/non-recovery when pc is suspended and power button is pressed to reactivate the system
- stealth mode cannot be deactivated by pressing the stealth.-button again
- other things...

hopefully we will see a new bios soon

 

after downgrading to 32, the latency went down to about 1000
and after some further testing i figured out that deactivating all network adapters especially the wifi-card brings it down to about 100

 

I downloaded it fine, but it won't let me install this file. Maybe it's the wrong one?

 

You have to make sure you uninstall the "Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio" located in the Device Manager. This should be under "System Devices."

I'm not too sure what it is on Vista, but that's what I had to do to get the audio drivers installed on the XP. After you install it, don't be alarmed if an error message comes up after you restart (It should say something along the lines of "..cannot access volume control"). Just give Windows some time to finish installing the audio drivers.

Just remember though, I would not recommend using this if you already reverted back to the X32 BIOS. If you have the extreme processor and you must have the X34 BIOS, then try it out. I can't guarantee that it'll work, since I've never tried this version of the drivers before.

 

I went back to my driver that was in my HIVE.

 

I'm ecstatic with the news I got from Alienware! Just received the news of their scheduled session last Friday and they're grateful for the information that was provided by this thread. Here we go!

I had to screenshot the email because I wasn't able to copy some of the charts she provided since they were in tables. It looked kind of messy when I tried to copy and paste the message.

Disregard the part about the "touchpad issue." I threw Roswell a question asking if she knew anything about the touchpad issue both another person and I have been having specifically with Windows XP. There's a fix for this problem for the Vista, but as for Windows XP, you can turn off the touchpad lights with FN + F12, but you aren't able to disable the touchpad itself.



..and finally: http://audicracy.com/alien/2.jpg

Just a word of thanks to Fr33m4n for bringing this up. Without him, I don't think any of us here would have caught the latency issue.

 

Whoa, nice. I'll keep Rebeca in mind.

 

GOOD JOB! This is awesome. Let's see a new BIOS

 

Yeah, to be honest with you, she's the only Roswell person I come to for questions. She's been helping me from the start. I know there are plenty of other Roswell agents out there that may be helpful, but hell, I can't help picking my favorite.

 

Nice one guys! Mucho respect all round.. The results were really interesting.
Good job once again and thanks.

 

Thanks Oceanus for sending that email. Been too busy lately to do it myself. Hope to see an updated BIOS from AW now that they are aware of the issue.

 

Haha, nothing big. Just had them take a look at this thread.

 

You should ask them to put in a fan control option in the next BIOS update as well Oceanus. It'd be awesome, and probably save a lot of overheating too.

 

Yeah! To allow us to manually control the fan speed would be awesome. I'll forward the suggestion!

 

I hope they do add it. I've been hoping for this for a long time. Sager notebooks have this as an option, that's why their temps are lower.

 

that option would be great, but i bet a new bios would come out first

 

Hmm. Turns out reverting back to the X32 BIOS did not solve the audio spiking issue at all (I recently had it come up again several times during this week). The audio kind of "spikes" when you're watching streamed videos (off youtube, CNN, or elsewhere) for half a second (meaning the sound gets a little distorted for a bit) and while this happens, the DPC Latency Checker registers spikes of up to 100,000+ us'.

Please remember that this is different than the audio popping issue. Don't get these two issues mixed up.

Can anyone else check to see whether this is happening to them as well? To test, please have the DPC Latency Checker opened (and monitoring) before watching streamed videos. The longer the streamed videos, the more accurate the test will be (a 10-15 minute video should be good enough). Anyone with an m15x is free to test if they'd like (It doesn't matter what version of the BIOS you currently use); the more input, the better.

If possible, please provide the following information after the test:
#1) How long was the video you were watching (streamed)?
#2) Did the audio spike for you?
#3) If the audio spiked for you, what us' did the DPC Latency Checker register as your "Absolute Maximum"?
#4) If the audio spiked for you, how frequent was it? Approximately how many times did the audio spike? (And if you can't remember approximately how much, did it happen a lot, once in awhile, or not at all?)

Optional questions:
#5) What BIOS version are you currently using?
#6) What audio driver version are you using?
#7) What OS are you running?

It would be immensely helpful for the product group that they are also aware of this issue (that is, if I'm not the only one experiencing this issue.) That way, if it was a BIOS related issue, they could take this issue into account while they are developing the new BIOS.

Edit: I'll be using Xperf and RATTv3 (both programs that Fr33m4n has recommended earlier) alongside the DPC checker to see whether I can figure out where it's coming from and how it's happening. I'll throw in some further findings soon.

 

Hi all,

I just received my M15x and it has the X34 bios. My issue is that audio/video crackling noise every 10-20 seconds depending.

DPC latency is over 12000. Tried all drivers, newer,older,disabling.... None help.

This is a brand new m15x.

 

Consider going to the X32 BIOS for now?

 

Yeah, I suggest reverting to the X32 BIOS. The X32 BIOS can be found here:
http://www.gigasize.com/get.php?d=2r4zwwo4tvb

Please follow the directions listed here:
http://4help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/alienware.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=5787&p_created=1206464999&p_sid=4Sx*w7ej&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9NzUsNzUmcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPTAmcF9wdj0mcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9mbmwmcF9zY2ZfNj0yMDUmcF9wYWdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD1mbGFzaCBCSU9T&p_li=&p_topview=1

On another note, I managed to figure out what's causing my audio to hiccup. I've been reading around about people who have similar issues and they were able to conclude that PowerMizer was the issue. Having PowerMizer enabled, for some reason, caused (or amplified) latency spikes which in turned caused the audio to spike. After disabling it, my computer still has latency spikes, but not to the extreme degree of 100,000+ us'. It spikes only up to around 8000, which is really a lot lower than what I used to get when I had it on. For this reason, the latency spikes, I guess you can say, isn't high enough to cause the audio to spike anymore.

So no more audio spikes! :> Yay.

 

The other side effect with reverting back to x32 is unresponsive touch controls when the computer wakes up from sleep.

I'm running Vista and sometimes Command Center lights up on its own as well upon startup after reverting back to x32 BIOS

 

Well, I suppose we'll have to deal with that until they release the new BIOS. The new BIOS should address all of the issues addressed in X34 and then some.

 

Over at Clevo's, some people are also reporting high latency issues. I think someone managed to get around it, by removing batteries. Apparently, some battery monitoring hardware is causing these high latency spikes.

Worth a try...

 

Eh, didn't seem to solve the spikes for me. I had my batteries removed and I still get spikes once in awhile. After disabling PowerMizer, the intensity of the spikes seemed to have gone down immensely, so the spikes I'm getting right now are no longer bad enough to affect the audio anymore.

 

tried it to, did not solve the spikes. oceanus, how did you turn of powermizer? i searched my registry for "PerfLevelSrc", that was set to "2222" (that seems to be ok) and for "PowerMizerEnable", but that entry was not found.

 

is there any connection of spikes and the turbo memory module?

i really have no idea which piece of hardware/software causes my DCP Latency to average 1000 compared to average 30 on other vista PCs

suxx

 

HeMeZ, that's the value you should expect on your m15x's Vista. So far, most of the m15x's with Vista on it seem to hover around ~1000 us'.

..and well, I'm not too sure about the turbo memory module. I don't have an m15x with one so I can't really confirm that it has any correlation with it.

 

Cuero, go to your Control Panel and double click on "NVIDIA Control Panel." On the left side of the window, there should be a category that says "Mobile." Click on "Change PowerMizer settings" under that.

Now there should be something that says:
When I'm running on battery power, I would like PowerMizer to..

Click on " Not manage my power consumption (Disable PowerMizer)." Click on apply and then you're set.

 

any news on the new BIOS yet?

 

No man.. I think by the end of this week or next week. Those are my odds.

 

It'll be awhile before they release the new one.

 

awwwww. ow well.

 

I'd rather have them release a fully working BIOS than one that has even more flaws. ):

 

as long as it doesn't take until next year. I'm fine with that.

 

I'm sure it won't take that long.

 

Works great, just reverted to X32.

Now the keyboard lag spikes are a **** pain !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Worth not having audio popping issues though, IMO.

 

Uninstall your Synaptics Touchpad Drivers. See if that helps.

 

Hi all, I have been have audio issues with my m15x machine (go figure) and I found this forum, it has been very helpful as my machine shows these symptoms. However, the main problem I have been having is with the audio from my X-fi (popping and clicking). The on board audio is not so bad but I'm still seeing ridiculously high latency with DCP. I also have an M-audio fast track pro for recording and midi data, this is used as an external sound card when hooked up, and I was surprised to find it has the exact same issue as the X-fi. Will the new bios (coming soon hoefully) fix these issues??

Thanks

m15x
x9000
8800m gtx
xp pro
4 gig memory

 

To answer your question, it should. The new BIOS should address the said issues.

 

Ok... That worked wonders.
However now i cannot disable the stupid touchpad and when typing you accidentally touch it and start messing with things u don't know ;p

 

What you could try, though I don't know if it will work, is to go into device manager and disable the touchpad there. Let me know if it works.

 

You cannot do that, no option to disable??? Why the hell u cant do this i dont know, maybe vista again....

Too bad fn+f12 doesnt work...

 

Will downgrading the bios bring back any heat issues?? Did I read somewhere that this is not an option for an extreme processor??

 

Try this disable the Synatics pointer.

 

You shouldn't be downgrading the BIOS if you have the extreme processor. I'm uncertain on how downgrading the BIOS will affect systems with an extreme processor, so downgrading the BIOS may bring back heat issues that were associated with the specific processor and possibly bring back some downclocking issues that were specific to that processor.

If you have issues with your sound, however, here's an alternative solution. I copied and pasted this from a few pages back:

It worked for erratic2984, shown here.

 

You may encounter heat issues if you have the extreme processor on X32. I've only heard about this, I'm not positive myself.

 

I removed synaptics completely to fix the keyboard lag issue which it did indeed fix. Now in device manager there is only a PS/2 Compatible device and u cannot disable that!