AW M15x Throttling Issue Investigation - Stock clocks and overclocked.

Gave them another call tonight, the first tech right away told me he couldn't do anything but replace it with a 260m. Told him I wanted to speak to the supervisor, wasn't even gonna waste my time. Got put on hold for 15mins when he said it would be 4. Tech came back and told me they were gonna escalate it and I'm gonna get a call back around wednesday.

hmm..

 

It's probably not throttling, Dragon Age is known to have issues with Memory Leaking. Some people have managed to fix the issue by changing the processor affinity but this does not work for everyone:

Bioware Forum

 

Hey thanks alot sorry for the late response i was busy with work. What do you suggest i do i send it back or i could just call them and tell them that I have ordered the machine with only the wrong GPU and ask them to send me a tech guy to change it for me because i dont know what the better option is i dont mind either one. Btw i would like to ask you how can i talk them out and get a 5870m because i've notice you happen to own one in your m15x and is the 5850 better than the gtx260m i am not even sure what do you use CUDA for i just thought it is a better card because of the difference in prices.

So if the laptop throttles back on battery is completely normal right? unless i use the tools provided on the first page of this thread?
But if it throttles even if i plug the ac adapter then there is something wrong right ? Btw sorry for the stupid questions i am just making sure and i glanced through the pages but i didnt find anything about that specific question thats why i am asking you. I would also like to ask you if i manage to talk dell to change my GPU with 5850 is it going to fix it for sure because i've read that throttling issue appears to happen in the combo with more powerful CPU and GPUs that include the 5850 and the i7 840QM and the 920/940XM as well.

Oh and one last thing does the i7 840QM | ATI 5850 combo throttle from min to max clocks if on battery or it fixes even that problem without any tools required?

 

Call them and ask them if they can replace the card. If they wont let you, tell them you want to send it back and reorder. If they want to give you a restocking fee, tell them thats the laptop (under that spec) throttles terribly and you just cant accept it. If they still persist, call again and speak with another person.

Just to make sure. The throttling experienced in the M15x is periodic. You get about 30 seconds of normal op + 1/2 seconds of slowdown... The clocked down state on battery is completely normal (according to dell), but you can get around that using the tools on the first page.

Note, discharging you battery on a high rate may damage your battery. I would actually only recommend gaming when connected to the AC

 

I recently got a 5850.. Somethings I would like to mention after I have done some brief testing. The M15x with the 5850 can still throttle.. at least in my first batch testing.. Its much less and only the CPU not the the CPU and GPU together as we are familar with. So this means its more difficult to see as the normal GPUZ graphs are useless. I noticed some hitches here and there and started looking at Throttlestop logs... Again all this has been brief as I have been busy.

I also would like to point out that it is sa 128bit card where as the 260m is a 256bit card. Matters to some, not to others figured I would mention for those trying to decide.

...will be conducting more testing.

 

Lets put the basics.

5850 has a bandwidth of 64GB/s and 260m has a bandwidth of 60.8GB/s. 260m's 256-bit gets evened by GDDR5 of 5850.

 

Perhaps most relevant in this context, the 5850M's have a TDP of 39W; the 260M's TDP is 75W.

 

I wouldn't call it evened. I've owned both cards, and the 5850 blows the 260m outta the water, any day of the week ( except for those niche consumers who need physx support) Hands down. 128bit is more than enough because it isn't bottle-knecked by GDDR3, since it has GDDR5. Although the 260m copes with this bottleneck by making the card 256-bit, it by no means quite matches up to GDDR5.

 

You both are correct.

What I meant by getting even is that the 2x multiplier added into the equation by 256-bit of 260M, gets thrown out of the equation by GDDR5 of 5850

 

amen loll

I just want to make sure no one visiting these forums makes the mistake of getting a 260m over the 5850m, using the higher-price logic. Especially since the 5850m's from dell are pretty much the same as their 5870m's as we pretty much concluded in the benchmark thread, even when OC'ing.

Some are speculating (including myself) that the cards are put through stress tests, and those which perform and handle the tests better, get shipped out with a 5870m vbios, while those which don't quite match up get the 5850m vbios. But as more 5850s are presumably ordered than 5870m's (being the lesser, cheaper card) Dell from time to time might use a card from the 5870 batch as a 5850m, resulting in no diffrence whatsoever besides the vbios its flashed with, which can be altered and manipulated to equal that of a 5870m easily. A good proof of this is forum member Inap's 5850m which OC'd all the way up to 985 on the core, and scored over 10k on the GPU for Vantage, which is just slightly lower than the higher attainable clock on my 5870m. This would also explain why Dell told me they were going to replace my throttling GTX 260m with a 5850m, and to my surprise got a 5870m. The pieces just seem to all fit together like a puzzle

 

Yes, I think you're right. Seems like that's the problem. Thanks for the link! +rep

 

Does anyone have any timedemos for L4D2? Or better yet could someone make me one that has a decent amount time to it, preferred during a time that would cause throttling?



Also something I just noticed that I did not notice before about the 260M card. It seems that Dell referrs to it as a 65w card, and even on their drivers shows "(65w)". However on many sites it states the 260M GTX is indeed a 75w card. Anyone have any professional opinion/comments about that? Seems odd.
Just an observation. I will bring it up to engineering and see what they say.

 

Hey guys i just ran some tests on my m15x
i7 840QM | GTX 260M | 4gb Ram | 500gb HDD | 1900x1080 FWHD screen
Furmark + Prime 95

Settings used:

Furmark: Stability Mode/Post FX/ Xtreme Burning Mode/ 1600x1200/ 16X MSAA

Prime95: Small FFTs

This is what GPU-z recorded:


I guess this proves it that its clearly a throttling issue i got here. I consider myself a part of the throttling crew =) if i could say that.

Note: I have been playing Starcraft II for the last couple of days and I've noticed that the game slows down periodically not all the time tho and i have a this recommendation screen popping up while i play to lower my graphic settings (1280x720) down for better performance. As far as i know this machine shouldnt even have any problems running the game at higher settings. And btw yes i had my AC adapter plugged in the whole time i was playing the game. I tried playing the game at the same settings (1280x720) only with the battery on but forget about it it lags like crazy.

Anyways today i am calling AW and i will tell them that it was a missunderstanding and now when i looked at my bill i realized that the price of the laptop was more than what i thought i ordered originally and i got the wrong settings for my laptop and i thought i orderd the 5850 but insted i got the 260M and i want it replaced because it is the 260m is too much money for me. Hope this works for me. if not i will return it just like Wattos said.

Btw offtopic do you guys have a low buzzing noise coming from the AC adapter when you put your ear close to it I even hear it when i am alone in the room and its too quiet its kind of annoying i can even hear the same noise coming from the plug for the AC adapter in the laptop itself. Sorry for the stupid question just making sure that it is normal and i can live with it =)

 

Try with out prime95..yes it triggers throttling but then all AW laptops would be considered to be throttling as the M17x + M11x also throttle when you fun Fur and Prime.. but that is simply too much for most laptops. Fur by itself often triggers throttling. Check it out

 

In short, this sounds like throttling or stealth mode. Double check stealth mode is off. If its off, then you are most likely facing throttling which I can observe with your GPUZ logs.

In long, there may be physical issue with your adaptor, this may explain the sound and no I don't hear any noise :S The issue with adaptor may cause throttling, call Dell if you are worried about the adaptor. The electrical stuff doesn't make much sound unless an issue is soon. However its most likely that you have stealth mode on OR facing throttling as described in the first post.

Good lucks!

 

Somewhat good news:

I finally talked to dell and they are gonna replace my gfx card with another 260m. Im hoping that if that doesnt work, they will give me an ATI.

I still dont get Dell though. When I asked if he can give an ATI, he said no, even though thats going to cost dell more since the nvidia is more expensive :x

 

Ok this is crazy.. I need help.. I installed my 5850... Cleaned the drivers out & installed the ATI ones from the Dell site (not beta).

I go in to WoW.. and Im getting more then 60% less fps..
example 15 fps in dala 23- 30 fps in crystal song with no people around.
I used to get 45 in dala even with people.. and locked 60 in crystalsong forest both when I had the 260m.
So clearly something is wrong. My clocks look good all the way across the board.

Any ideas? & its not stealth mode.. if I put on stealth mode it goes down to 11 fps in crystalsong forest.

 

check if you didnt disable power play or if the clock is running at full speed.

 

Clocks were at the expected speeds and power play is enabled.

 

Hey I am sure that stealth mode was DISABLED because i was using the tool that Wattos provides in his trhead and the indicator was showing me that SM was disabled.

Oh and btw fo the buzzing issue it is not that loud it is more like a hard drive loading sound but very very low. And it comes from that middle box looking part in the AC adapter located in the middle of the cable. I've put my ear next to my other laptops AC adapter HP HDX 16 and I heard that the box makes the same noise but more quiet than the one of the m15x

 

what you get is certainly throttling. Look at the first page on how to go about fixing that issue. Also, if you live in the US, dont want/need the 260m, you might want to complain to dell about throttling and they might give you a 5850

 

Ok guys i ran the test again but this time as you asked me only FurMark
This is what i got:



same settings as you can see on the upper left corner of the image
but this time it did not throttle ... i dont know what to do imma try again later on to play a game and see what happens and if it does throttle i am calling them i hope it doesnt do that with the 5850.

Oh btw when i started my computer half of the keyboard illumination doesnt work as bright as the other half its almost as if it doesnt work at all ... come on this is such an expensive machine and it has alot of problems i am starting to get dissapointed


Ok guys so i spoke with Dell and i told the tech guy that i made a mistake in ordering the GTX260M so the guy was like ok no problem Would you like to send the laptop back and place a new order and i was like well the laptop is exactly as i wanned it exept the GPU and itold him that i wanned the 5850m and he said ok no problem but you should know that we cannot refund you the money for the price difference betwen the GTX260M and the ATI 5850 and i was like ok then i would like to get the 5870m and the guy was like lemme check if i can get an approval after 2 min he comes back to the phone and he said that approval has been given but the only problem was that he didn't have in stock so i told him that i will wait. So i asked for his name and email he asked me for my phone number so he could reach me when they have in stock and then he would make an appointment so the tech guy could come and install it.
My question to you guys is whether or not it is a good deal i think even the 5870 is cheaper than the GTX260M but then again if this is going to solve the issue... THe only problem i am worried about is that the guy from customer service that transfered me to tech support told me that changing a component would not be new it would be Refurbished basically everybody that gets ant exchange in something get a refurbished product i dont know how true that is and i dont know if the guy even knew what he was saying but he sounded pretty confident.

And last thing is the 5870m better than the 260m as for performancewise i did some research some people say that the 5870m is better others say the opposite i dont know who to believe anymore

 

yes, i have the low buzzing noise coming from the AC adapter too, but my order was M17x, i just received it two weeks ago, but i still don't know this is normal or not

by the way, is your power button will change the color? i meant you plug in your battery after fully charge, is your power button still change color in some time ? after the power button change the color, it will back to normal, do you have this problem ?

thanks

 

5850 is atleast %40 better than 260M in benchmarks and FPS logs.. Now taking into calculation 5870 is superior to 5850, it is WAY better than 260M. However even if you get 5850, you can easily OC it to 5870 clocks, so I wouldn't even worry about this.

 

Cool no hesitation then i am going for it. Next week they will have in stock and imma get the 5870. I just wonder why is it cheaper than the 260M

Btw yes the morphing of the powerbutten illumintion stops after the battery has been completely charged. And i asked the tech guy and he said that the buzzing noise coming from the AC adapter is completely normal you could check it by putting your ear next to the adapter ( the black box located at the middle part of the cable )

 

Its cheaper than 260M because 5850/5870 was made with cheaper new technologies. On the other hand, ATI always had a history of low price policy.

 

6 long calls later (and LOTS of patience)
......

....


..
PART OF THE 5850 CLUB!!!

called alienware today because they didnt call me back which they said they would today, the indian finally informed me after he put me on hold for a total of 40mins that they'r upgrading me to the 5850!!!

 

gratz, i couldn't convince my sales rep and ran out of patience. i then contacted babyhemi to set me up with a 5870.

fast delivery, good advice and great performance.

i'm curious as to how much hotter the 5870 is to 5850, especially at equal clocks and voltages. imo they're the same card.

 

just got a call from the appointment people... they're cummin by tommorow to install the 5850 ... probably gonna end up doing it myself coz the tech that showed up here a few days ago, I wouldn't even let him come within a 100ft of my laptop :S .. his 80's pickup truck with complete plastic bag backwindow didn't really help either..

 

Hi All,

I need your suggestions. I will get my 15X on 24/08/10. I did order with 260 GTX. I contacted Dell rep. and told them that I did some reseach and found the throttling issue with 260 GTX. I am not happy to have 15X with 260 GTX. Then, I asked for changing the GPU to ATI 5850. But, they siad I need to return it back and I have to the pay $175 for shipping back to them. Do I need to pay that ?

From my understand, it is technical problem (throttling). they should fix it for free, right ? What should I do in this case ? Thank you.

Thank you

 

do not pay the restocking fee. Either mention that the GPU throttles badly and you have a right to return the laptop within 21 days of arrival without any restocking fee if there is a fault with the hardware. Also, mention that you want to order a new one with the ATI card. A lot of members have done this, so do not settle for a restocking fee

 

Hi All,

I bought an M15x with the i7-920xm + GTX 260m around 5 weeks ago, and have been having the worst throttling issues known to man since it arrived. Originally i put it down to drivers and have spent weeks trying to figure out what the issue is. I'm furious that i paid £2k for my machine that doesn't even perform properly

Anyway, i just wanted to say a HUUUUUUGE thanks to you all for finding a temporary solution to this issue. My frame rates in games have doubled since i followed the instructions on page 1 last night, and I'm extremely happy with the performance now. I just hope that Dell sort themselves out and release a more practical bios fix.

Just to give you an idea of my performance boost, i am now getting around 2/3x the frame rate on bad company 2, left 4 dead 2 would drop to about 25fps, it now fluctuates between 50-60fps on high settings, mafia 2 demo frame rate has gone from around 22fps to 35/45fps.

I have a small issue though, every time i want to play a game i need to use RivaTuner to alter my clock speeds back to 450/950/1350 as they keep resetting. Am i doing something wrong? If i don't do this, then my GPU throttles back resulting in pretty bad framerates.

Thanks everyone, I'm really happy AND relieved now!

Much love x

 

@Page 193

Wait, since when can we get 5870s in our M15x??

 

You have to buy the 5870 separately, they're pretty easy to install.

 

no 5850 for me yet they let me know on friday they couldn't get a tech out.. so gonna be monday probably....

 

Ye finally the tech guy from dell sent me an e-mail telling me that they are going to come on Tues or Wed to do the swap of my 260M with the 5870m. If you are persistent they will give it to you i called them and i said that they've shipped me the wrong cofig. i told them that i was pretty sure that i ordered the 5850 instead of the 260m but i guess some kind of missunderstanding happened. And i told them that i wanned to change it with the 5850 and get my money back because i saw that i was charged for the 260m on my statement and i didnt have any intentions on spending that amount of money but thee tech guy told me that they wouldnt allow him to refund me the money and then i told him that it is unfair and i would like to get something equielent to the price of the 260m and i suggested him to send me a 5870m i know even then i am going to lose but since they are not going to give me back my money i agreed and besides apparently 5870m is better than the 260m by at least 40-50% performancewise and also cheaper ! But that is a pretty good excuses it worked for me but then my laptop is still within the 21 day return policy period. Thats why they werent able to tell me anything.

 

Does anyone have any updates from Dell on this issue? are they planning on fixing it anytime soon? Or has it just been forgotten about completely? I have seen a few comments on forums over the past few months mentioning that dell are working on a fix, but we still haven't seen it yet....

 

I can't think of a miracle fix outside of updating the BIOS power tables and supplying owners with a 180w or 210w PSU if the 150w PSU isn't doing the trick.

Similar to what they had to do for Studio 1747 and 1645 owners. BIOS update and replacing 90w PSUs with 130w PSUs.

Either that or recall systems and swap 260M's for 5850's or 5870's and, well, I don't see that happening.

 

exactly, couple that with the fact that dell already undervolted the 260m.
using throttlestop and rivatuner when i had the 260m, i managed to trigger the ac adapter's overload circuit.

using a watt-meter, i saw 145 - 148 quite regularly with a 920xm and 260m.

 

Hi, I don't think an extra adapter is necessary.
Under A02, I never suffered the crippling throttling I observed under the later Bios. Sure, with furmark and prime95 running simultaneously, I would expect the system to throttle.
And the system didn't throttle with a 920xm, the GTX 260M and 8gbs of RAM.

 

well, for me it did throttle. Maybe you had less demanding games at that time?

 

Yeah, mine throttled too back then with a 920xm+260M. It was delivered 11/3/2009.

The data and cases of throttling are numerous and persistent.

 

i was good up to A03 then after that it just got worst and worst with each bios.

 

So its somewhat exclusively linked to the i7 920XM processor?

 

its just worst for 920 owners, but it happens to 720 and 820 also.

 

Hey DeeX, any news regarding a Dell's fix for the M15X + 260m throttling? Since you got the 5850, which one do you prefer by now?

 

quick question guys.

What is the default voltage of the 260M in the M15x. I seem to remember it being lower than 1V but the card I received from Dell as a replacement seems to run at 1V (according to Hwinfo and GPU-Z).

Can anyone confirm the stock voltage from factory>

 

i think it was .9v or something but can't remember for sure.

 

thats what I thought Ive seen before. It seems that dell sent me a card with a regular voltage on it. Still doesnt help with throttling but it i have had random freezes once a day :/

 

yeah they normally come at .9v, however when i upgraded my cpu from the 720qm to the 920xm it kept reloading the nvkdlm driver, i had to flash it to 1v to become stable.

also, i've had throttling with the 720qm from a05 onwards, and on the 920xm from a03 onwards... never had a02 since that was before i got my lappy.

now have no throttling with 920xm and 5870 thank goodness.