Horrible 3DMark score & lagarific bootup time ... what's wrong?

I just bought an m14x 2 weeks ago, and I notice some performance issues with it already.

specs:
i7-2670QM 2.2 ghz (not overclocked)
8 gb ram
3 gb GT 555M

My bootup time to windows login screen is ~2:00 minutes and the bootup time from win login to where I can open up Google Chrome after windows loads to desktop is ~3:30

I just ran a 3dMark 06 test and here's my results:

NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor,Alienware M14xR1 score: 5820 3DMarks




What's wrong? I saw people getting scores of 12,000 - 15,000 with similar setups, and everyone on here is telling me their max bootup time is 1-2 minutes not 4-6 minutes!

Helps, is there something wrong with my computer? If so, what could it be?

Brad

 

Double check and make sure it's actually using the 555m. On my XPS17 with 2720QM and 555m I score just over 14,000. I also boot in under 1 minute on my WD Scorpio Black 750GB, about 30 seconds on my M4. Either way it sounds like there is some other problem if boot times are that long.

 

I have made some research for you mate. Here is what I found. As I suspected it may very well because of a faulty driver that was installed. Please check this article, I hope it will solve your problem.

Edit: And while making some additional research I found a great program called Soluto . Eventhough I have made various optimization form long guides on the internet, this program decreased my boot time from 40 seconds to 24 seconds. I highly advise to use it, its a great simple tool which eliminates needs to use long optimization guides.

 

darbsllim - did your M14x perform like this from first power up right out of the box, or did problems start shortly thereafter? Did you install any new software between the time it was unboxed and you first noticed diminished performance?

If you start Task Manager, what does your CPU and memory utilization look like on the Performance tab? At an idle, CPU utilization should be at or near zero and memory utilization very low, without any huge spikes in the graph. You can click the button for the Resource Monitor and see any anything appears to be consuming system resources. Rouge drivers, a software memory leak, misbehaving antivirus programs, malfunctioning hardware or malware can cause symptoms similar to what you are experiencing. In particular with respect to hardware, I have experienced poor overall system performance with a malfunctioning hard drive. You can run a benchmark test on your hard drive and check for S.M.A.R.T. errors as well.

If you look at the benchmark, it seems clear that the 555M is in use.

The link to the article is no good... must be broken.

From what I can see and read about Soluto, it's something that no power user would want or need on their system. It seems counter-intuitive to install something that runs in the background at startup to help a user fix problems that are often the result of startup programs running in the background. This might be useful for people that do not know how to optimize their own systems.

 

You are right. I forgot to say that I used it and after that uninstalled it. That way you avoid background running. Because you dont need it all the time anyway.

I will be refreshing the links asap thank you for warning me.

 

^yeah that's what I was thinking ... if I call alienware tech support I don't know what I could tell them ...

Thanks for the article. Using this I was able to acutally see the real boot times:

View 01qam0.jpg on ScreenSnapr

4:42 to boot to windows
3:30 to finish windows boot sequence

insane! 8 minutes to boot to windows to the point where the bootup process has finished.

Can you take a look at this for me ...

I ordered this thing on March 8th 2012, so why is there a bootup log for February 10th 2011??

View pTaMP7.jpg on ScreenSnapr

Is this an old refurb or something?

View N6qKs2.jpg on ScreenSnapr

That's a picture of my system while idling, I have some background programs open, and 10 chrome tabs ... but I'm not in the middle of doing anything other than reading these articles.

re: boot time, I am going through that article that was posted above (thanks) and I notice that there were boot time errors and warnings from the factory (before I got it) and then after I got it.

When they had it, there were bootups that took 1:30 - 2:00 (still slow with nothing loaded on the computer)

Then from the time that I got it until now there are bootup warnings from 4 - 8 minutes.


----------


I just went through all the startup errors and warnings in the event manager and it tells me the events which degraded my bootup time:

Windows stuff
03/10/12 chklogo6.exe +24 seconds (at the factory)
03/16/12 Prefetching +40 seconds (only happened once)
03/17/12 explorer.exe +9 seconds
03/18/12 explorer.exe +7 seconds
03/18/12 explorer.exe +8 seconds
03/18/12 services.exe +3 seconds
03/19/12 explorer.exe +6 seconds
03/19/12 explorer.exe +11 seconds
03/19/12 svchost.exe +8 seconds
04/05/12 SYMTDI (network dispatch driver) +4 seconds
04/05/12 svchost.exe +1 second
04/15/12 explorer.exe +6 seconds




Symantec
03/17/12 ccSvcHst.exe +6 seconds
03/18/12 ccSvcHst.exe +6 seconds
03/19/12 ccSvcHst.exe +9 seconds
04/04/12 ccSvcHst.exe +10 seconds
04/04/12 SRTSP (Symantec AutoProtect) +13 seconds
04/05/12 SRTSP (Symantec AutoProtect) +3 seconds



Apps/Programs
03/18/12 Dropbox +2 seconds
04/05/12 Dropbox +16 seconds
04/05/12 Chrome +11 seconds

Alienware Stuff
03/17/12 Toaster.exe (alienrespawn) took 5 seconds longer than normal
03/18/12 Toaster.exe (alienrespawn) took 2 seconds longer than normal
03/19/12 Toaster.exe (alienrespawn) took 6 seconds longer than normal
03/20/12 AlienFusionService.exe took 5 seconds longer than normal

 

Hi mate,

there defenetly is something wrong with your operating system
(virus, false drivers, corrupt software)
Have you ever tryd to reinstall the machine?

if this also takes horrible long it could be a broken HDD.
Try to make a Hardware test by hitting F12 after you pressed the power button,this will bring you to the boot device menu and then select diagnostics.

when the test fails you know whats wrong with it, hope this helps.

 

I really do NOT want to reinstall windows ... I finally have all of my programs and stuff ... I went over my bandwidth cap this month because I had to download like 50 GB worth of software and games ... if I do that again I'm gonna be paying like $50 or $100 for extra bandwidth...

Is there any way to save the configuration that I have right now with all of my software and settings, and then reinstall windows and apply the backup of my whole setup now?

I will try the HDD hardware test now thanks for the tip!

Brad

 

You should have a facility installed called Alien Respawn that allows you to copy an exact image of your system so that you can reinstall it. Takes a while when you do this and I opted from just backing up my software and using the disc to reinstall from scratch.

I had similiar symptoms to you when I got angry one day with I think it was Dead Space on hardcore mode haha and punched my old laptop right over the HDD. It gradually ground to a halt and took yonks to do anything so run a health check on HDDTune and it will confirm if that is your problem it does sounds like it you will notice that it is reallocating sectors and that will just keep increasing if there is damage.

SSD all the way, punch proof

 

I think it is a corrupt Windows installation or a defective hard drive. Reinstalling Windows and all your apps from scratch is not fun, but you owe it to yourself to give that a shot. You have nothing to lose but time, and everything to gain if a clean OS installation cures the problems.

Toaster.exe is part of AlienRespawn. It is notorious for causing issues. If you choose to avoid a clean OS installation, disable the Toaster.exe service and that may help. There is no compelling reason for having AlienRespawn start with Windows.

 

Thanks for the tips guys ... but what about my horrible 3DMark scores? Would that have to do with the hard drive?

 

So I ran this test, and and everything ended with a checkmark beside it except the harddrive, which had a blue circle as if it was still working.

It said that everything was ok and asked if I wanted to run a long test on the hard drive which could take 30 minutes.

I said yes, and I sat there for 90 minutes and it only finished 10% of the test so I aborted.

I don't really see where I can run a test with HDTune, I just see that it monitors stuff ... there was no option that I found to run a health check.

I took a screenshot of the health tab though:



This is greek to me, does anything here look odd to you?

 

so there you go looks like your hdd is going to die soon, the test should run in 30 mins with no problems if you got on 90 minutes only 10% then there is something wrong.

i would recommend you to backup your important files to an external drive and after that call dell and get a hdd replacement, they will ask you if you already have made a hardware diagnostic then you can tell them that it gets stuck on 10% and the replacement should be ok.

hope this helps

 

Can you run an Error scan a full one not a quick. You have no reallocated sectors so if there is a problem the error scan should show up red sections if there is damage.

 

Yes, a malfunctioning hard drive is going to hurt your benchmark scores.

 

Here's the full scan:



looks ok to me?

 

Yup quite strange.

Unless you have a disgusting case of the bloatware disease it is tricky to diagnose it without being able to see it. You said your temps are fine yes across the board? CPU temps most importantly and it is set to high performance with the turbo active?

I would go with a reinstall if I were you and rule out the HDD. Something is not right but 4 minutes to boot is back in floppy disc days.

 

Well I called them and what a fun time I had, after about 20 minutes the Alienware rep pulled the most ridiculous call center trick in the book on me.

He started to pretend that his microphone was breaking up, like he was saying half of every word. The best part was I could hear people in the background clear as day the entire time, so I could obviously tell he just wanted to go take a dump and was pretending that his mic was cutting out.

What a bonehead...anyway I called back and they are sending me a new harddrive and a tech to replace it ... really sucks that I have to redownload EVERYTHING ... I'm going to go over my monthly bandwidth cap now and end up paying $50 or so just to redownload all my games and software.

I asked if they could give a key for AlienRespawn so i could do the full system backup and they won't... its not my fault they gave me faulty hardware, the way I see it is they should give me the key for the stupid software since it's their fault, I don't want to pay anything for something that is their problem.

Arg.

 

I am glad that at the end they are sending a tech. Though after he replaces the HDD dont let him run away asap, just be sure everything is working as the way they should.

 

Can't you upgrade your internet plan for 1 month to save on the over-usage costs? I know in my area with Cogeco, 59.95$/mo gets you 30mb + 160GB/mo.

Even Bell (which I'm with unfortunately) has bigger monthly plans, but they're limited to certain areas of Ontario.

Always worth a look

 

Alienrespawn should have been already installed on your laptop.

 

I've just rerun the test and mine is scoring not great scores (with slight overclock too)...

NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2760QM Processor,Alienware M14xR1 score: P1686 3DMarks

Bad times.

 

This is the best I can manage atfer a day of tweeks.. P8869 3dmark advantage
I wish I knew how so guys have been hitting so high??

Score: 14355 3DMarks06
Score: 1987 3DMarks11

 

^Guys what do you get with 3DMark 06?

 

Im getting this, but im not good at this at all just try it today to help you out.

I couldn't change to default resolution as I did not pay for 3dmarks06 so there is nothing i can change sorry

Alienware M14x

http://3dmark.com/3dm06/16591018

3DMARK06 11759
Resolution 1280x800
Non default settings were used in benchmark. Score

Running on intel 160 gb SSD booting time 8 seconds max


3DMark Score 11759 3DMarks
5M2.O Score 4897
HDRISM3.O Score 4900
CPU Score 3837
GTI - Return To Proxycon 42.81 FPS
GT2 - Firefly Forest 38.82 EPS
CPUI - Red Valley 1.3 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley 1.81 FPS
HDRI - Canyon Flight 47.04 FPS
HDR2 - Deep Freeze 50.97 EPS

 

I'm having problems with 3DMARK also. It is saying my score of 6000 odd is low compared to similar systems, yet I can play BF3 and other games a'okay...

I think their software is glitchy tbh.

 

on 3dmark 11 i get 1691. this is with a 700/1000 overclock and 296.10 driver

 

Well I got a new hard drive put in it today, and windows is loading faster than before ... now it only takes 1.5 - 3 minutes to load to desktop.

Still, when itt akes 3 minutes, this is longer than what I would expect from this machine.

Also, my 3dmark scores are still bad. =\

I'm thinking of getting a refund and just uisng my broken dell xps 13 again lol...this is not what I expected from my 'dream computer'.

 

Hey guys, I posted a thread about my horrible 3dmark 06 scores, and then a few people also came in and posted about the same issue.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-score-lagarific-bootup-time-whats-wrong.html


Does anyone know what might be causing us all to get those terrible CPU scores?

I noticed when I run 3dMark 06, my performance does great for all of the tests except when the CPU tests run, then I get 1-2 FPS.

Also in that one where the water monster jumps over that flying teddy ruxpin ship, the moment where it's flying over and they shoot the cannons, I slow down to like 10 FPS.

There's gotta be a reason why this CPU performance is affecting only some of us ... different drivers or software perhaps?

Lets try to figure this out!

 

So I wonder why dont you just continue that thread and try figure what wrong on that thread? Why do you create this one?

Btw, seem like you got the newer GT555M, while I have the older version, I might want to try out the test as well once my monthly internet cap has been renew, however what I'm not sure is if the free version would give me same result as what you have there, so may I ask what version did you use?

 

version 1.1 of 3dMark Vantage
version 1.2 (pro) of 3dmark 06

 

THink i may do a test once my motherboard has been replaced -

Using the i7 2.2ghz processor with the GT555 3GIG - never had any issues with the performance in games except the ones that have not used the GT555.

Hope to get the scores up on Saturday for you.

 

Just download the free version and run it, this is the result: NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M video card 3DMark06 benchmark test score - 13476 3DMarks, I'm not a benchmark geek so what I do is just whitelist the 3dmark06.exe to the NVCP as usual, then run the program and run the test. The spec can be found on my sig. For some reason the CPU test sure seem to be very low, I guess it is using the Intel iGPU since it is an integrated graphic into the CPU by default, but still my score is somehow very high compare to you (OP), but can any benchmark geek care to tell me why? Thanks.

 

I was going to run this test but my replacement motherboard died on Saturday , if i can get it going again this week i will give it a try and post results

 

What drivers are you using? When I used the 301 beta drivers, my frame rates took a nose dive.

 

I use the 295.73, never had any problem with the driver, the 296.10 also good but it is just does not like my OC setting, while the 301.24 just crash every time I try run Skyrim and BF3 which it never happen even once on the 295.73.

 

It's been like a year and a half since I last posted in this thread - thats how long its been since I even cared about this computer.

I just had a tech come and replace my hard drive (again) but this time they replaced heatsink and fans.

re-ran the 3dmark 06 test and I got a 13000, reran 3dmark vantage and got a 7600

not bad I guess, we'll see how games perform on it finally.