M15x Problem/Technical Question thread

Hi i ve been playing starcraft 2 on M15x with i7 Q820 and 5850 and very occasionally i get a ver bad lag for about 10 sec and it returns to normal again. could this be the 5850 throttling??

 

it might be...?? hmm here's what you do to be sure...

Run GPU-Z in the background while playing .... and check the box that says to "log" all the readings/info.

Then when you're experiencing lag, keep playing untill you regain smoothness ... and when everything running smooth, minimize and look at gpu-z. Right from the tab that shows the clock speed of the gpu... if you see a dip in clock speeds right when you lagged...then yes im afraid this can be throttling...

test it out and come report back what you find. would be interesting if the 5850m throttles as well..

 

if it is so, what should i do to prevent this?? would disabling power play help?? i will keep truck of the log to see and report back

 

Do not disable PowerPlay. With PP disabled, your clocks will drop to 300/400, and it will feel like permanent lag. PowerPlay is your friend.

 

yea keep powerplay... powerplay is awesome (just ask clevo 5870m users ) and shouldn't cause throttling...

I'm afraid throttling is a bios issue... and if it indeed throttles...we might have to start implementing the throttlestop+rivatuner fix again.. but let's wait till we jump to conclusions.. lol

Might just be bugs in the game/driver/online lag.... were you playing online? Also there are alot of reported problems with SC2 and ATI cards... never had any with mine however... and SC2 does tend to run better with Nvidia cards since theres alot of physics calcs to do (sc2 has alot of physics implemented in its game engine)

 

Hey guys. This isn't really a problem, I don't really like the 9 cell battery. It seems to creak a lot (the plastic parts that extend out to provide stability mostly). Anyone else slightly annoyed by this?

 

I don't know but if you don't like it and don't use the battery much I'll trade ya my 6 cell for your 9 cell

 

i don't have the creaking with my battery. also i find the 6 cell is hard to take off. i have both but the 6 cell is just sitting there doing nothing.

 

Oh yeah. Quick question. I just realized a defect in my case. it's on the lid assembly. Okay so at the top right corner of the screen, where the metal touches the screen/glass, there is a slight bulge. I believe this is pushing my screen outwards slightly, and this creates a creaking noise when I try to push the screen in. I have some pics too.
http://i1037.photobucket.com/albums/a458/miahsoul/2010-10-13192029.jpg left side w/o bulge
http://i1037.photobucket.com/albums/a458/miahsoul/2010-10-13192108.jpg right side w/ bulge

 

I would call Dell lol

 

hey guys, i own a M15x and I was running it for like an hour, it just shut off out of a sudden. I tried turning it back on, it just won't start up, not even blinking lights or anything. And another thing is, my adaptor ring (blue) light is not lit, and even i tried running it on battery, it still won't start up. would it be motherboard issue or just a short circuit?

 

Power surge? I think your adapter light would still be on unless it got fried too, so I'm thinking a surge fried your mobo... That's gotta suck...

 

ahh i bought my machine from Malaysia, and im currently in US now, so I have no idea how is that gonna work... how much possibly to replace the mobo?

 

I dunno. Maybe 400 bucks? I've never seen a mobo on an m15x get fried before. Try calling dell first and see what they think of it. I've had this happen to me with an old hp computer, and the cost of replacing the mobo was quite high, so my family didn't replace it. But then again, it was a 800 dollar computer.

If the tech comes over and fudges it up really bad...
I'm gonna try to go for a refund and get a Area-51 desktop.

 

Does Alienware M15x have 5.1 sound? Where is center surround? And where is 2 sounds from left and 2 sounds from right?

Because I feel sound from my old laptop Inspiron 9300 better than my Alienware m15x.

 

It has 5.1 support through the output jacks, but I don't think it has internal true 5.1 sound if that makes sense.

 

I think so.

So sad

 

For true 5.1 sound I believe you'd have to have more speakers than the m15x has built into it, the only laptop I've owned that MAY have had enough speakers in it was the g73jh and I don't even know if that did. It is sad, but with all you gain in the m15x compared to other laptops I can live without it

 

I'm not DJ, but I know sound from Alienware M15x is very basic. I got a bad news. Because I use my laptop for anything. I don't use TV, MP3 or Cellphone.

 

So why'd you trade the G73jh for an M15x? (I have a G73jw arriving tomorrow, so I'm not sure I made the right decision, and then this one guy's acting like Asus is using bad cooling goop on the chips, that wears out after a few months...)

My N80nv has been great, but then it was only a mid-range notebook.

 

the M15x's sound card supports 5.1 surround sound... but you won't be able to get true surround sound by the audio output jacks... because like already mentioned... there's no 3rd jack for the sub... so your stuck using one jack and selecting stereo x 2 (which is how audio through your car stereo speakers) output....or if you have a set of speakers that supports prologic or something similar (which simulates surround and splits the signal to each speaker/sub) to get sound playing on everything.... but to get TRUE 5.1, unfortunately the only way is to connect to a sound system through the DP/hdmi output which is an digital out (like through the surround sound system hooked up to your tv... so you'd have to go through that)


but if you don't care for true 5.1 (like hearing directional sound fx while gaming like footsteps behind you) ... the sound output quality is very good for a laptop... alot of M15x's just have some issue with outputting to headphones... and dell doesn't even know why (hence them giving me a replacement M17x)...

I just don't know why they didn't include the 3rd jack like the M17x...


EDIT: Wolfpup Don't worry a buddy of mine just got the JW a couple of weeks ago...and i have to say its the first time i saw one in person... after messing around with it.. Its a solid system... USB 3.0, gtx 460m... i7 8gb ram 1080p res. 1tb hdd.... good cooling (the 460m runs cool).... You'll love it.

Only thing for me personally is i'm not into the whole "shape" n "look" of it... and i find the alienwares much much more stylish n visually pleasing. But i mean, at around half the price, and some brand new tech included, its hard not to like the JW... but basically what the JW does in a 17.3 inch... the M15x does in a 15.6 inch... i feel at 17.3", a gaming laptop should have sli/cf support...But overall, a good buy i'd say You'll love it

 

I didn't trade the G73jh for the m15x, I've been through a whole slew of other laptops since then lol. I got rid of my G73jh because of BSOD and freezing issues and got sick of it after 5 asus's in a month(3-g51jx, 2-g73jh) I also got AW because of the warranty support, but Asus is a good computer for a lot of people especially as Jstar mentioned because of the price difference most people pay.

 

a little off topic but...Dane i saw that post about you trying to beat my score this weekend !! ahaha! I haven't benched in months (no1 has come close... untill you now)

And i'm up for the challenge If you beat my score it'll push me to start benching again, as i know my gpu has alot more juice left, but i figured it would be pointless to keep pushing it (especially with everyone's Clevo 5870's dropping like flies at the time) and didn't want to risk frying it lol.

That being said.... i got a replacement system in production and soon to be on its way so i won't be scared to push this beast to its limits... so get ready for a show-down

lol i'm just playing around don't worry... but there's nothing wrong with some friendly competition... i've been bored lately wouldn't mind benching again


(so with that score u got, its obvious that Dell 5850's and 5870's are pretty much the same card, so i think its fair game )

 

You're good man, glad to see you may start again. I know inap went dormant for a while on running bench's as no one challenged him for a while. The way I look at it is if I beat your score, sweet!!!! If I didn't I gave you a run, and got you a bit worried while using a lesser card!! I don't think the 5850's and 5870's are the same card I just got a sweet card that's capable of a lot more than most of the others, can't tell you what the difference between the two are but there is a definite difference. The one thing that points that there is a pretty substantial difference is the fact that inap and me are the only ones that have been able to run with the 5870's even though a lot of people have tried. There would be more people breaking 10k gpu if they were the same IMO.

 

Well I read (and believe because of my own experiences) that Dells 5850s and 5870s are the same card... Only the 5850 is flashed with a lower stock core clock speed.

What I'm pretty sure they do is stress test the cards after production. The ones that perform very well get flashed with the 5870m vbios... And the ones that do a little worse on the stress tests get flashed with the 5850m vbios... because when you look at the cards physical chaavteristics, they're exactly the same card (all specs are the same except clockspeed which is determined in the bios and not physically)...

However, since more 5850s are sold than 5870s (this comes down to logic as M15xs are cheaper than M17xs, so more people can afford them) some cards that wer marked good enough to be 5870s actually would get flashed with 5850 bios' to cater to the demand. Therefore, every now n then, its possible that a 5850 can perform just as good as a 5870m, because essentially, it was intended to be one after testing. This would explain how the two cards are so close to eachother performance wise, as you and inap probably have cards that wer intended as 5870s, or even just barely missed the cutoff...

This also explains why the Ati cards are so cheap, when compared to it's NVIDIA counterparts... Because by doing this they save on production costs, and pass the savings on to the consumer (hence the 5850 is cheaper than the gtx260, yet performs 20-30% better)

Also, my own personal experience with Dell supports this even further. When Dell had to replace my gtx 260 with a 5850m, I ended up receiving a 5870m. Some may call this a Dell screwup, but I think, they just don't care, and gave me wtv was available at the time in their inventory, because both cards are essentially the same for them, and cost them the same amount.



That's why I'm convinced, they are indeed the same cards physically, just that the ones that get branded 5870s are the ones that performed better when factory tested... Explaining why sometimes a 5850 can perform just as well as a 5870.

You probably got one of those "golden keys" i like to call them... And your card was actually intended to be a 5870, but because of the demand for 5850s, it got flashed to a 5850m vbios... A 5870m in disguise if you will

 

I hear you, you make a good point as well. I definitely don't think mine was ever intended to be a 5870 as my card is a refurbished card, they may have just done the refurbing a little too well! Go check out the last page of the bench thread if you haven't already!

 

Lol well refurb just means it was a stripped from return...doesn't mean there was a problem with it

and of course there's no solid proof for my claims but, it's definately possible.

And I'm on my way to the benchmark thread as we speak

 

Ugh, yeah the jh has that gray screen of death and whatnot. The G51 wasn't stable. My N80nv has been bullet proof, but then it was only mid range hardware when new.

I don't know, all that has me worried about the jw (as well as a guy claiming Asus uses bad cooling goop on the the chips that wears out after a few months). I haven't heard of any jw issues yet though :-/ And I hate how Dell never took the M15x issues seriously (although at least performing terrible is better than not working at all!)

I guess the M17x has no issues, but it's another 6lbs, and worse, it's almost double the price of the G73jw and M15x (well, it's hundreds more if you only go with a similar config, but at that point it's hard not to just go all the way for me at least).

 

Dell pretty much patched up all the issues on the M15x. took them a year, but better late than never.

 

But the GTX 260 still causes throttling, right?

(And where the hey is the 460! :-D )

 

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But from my understanding it's only with the 920/940xm in some cases. The 460 doesn't really look much better than the 5850 to me so I'm not too worried. Now if they want to throw a 470 or 480 our way then I'll consider it.

 

Yeah, I wonder if there's throttling with a 1.86GHz (or even 1.73GHz) i7 with the newest BIOS + a GTX 260...

 

It's hit and miss, you never know til you get it.

 

Damn. Maybe if I bought a crappy phone and saved my 200 bucks, I could've gotten the 460M....... Right now I only got 250ish and I'm planning on using it for a new hard drive and some games...

I'm sure you could buy a 460M and put it in the M15x, but then again, there isn't bios support for the 4xxs in the all powerful series yet.

 

For the time being...The 460m is behind the 5870m game performance wise people... And is on par with 5850... So i dont know why everyone wants a 460m...it does have physx.. Is that why?

Ok so nvidia said they will release an all mighty driver soon that will show the 460m's true power n potential... Launching it past the 5870m...

Well that sounds all fine and dandy... But I'll believe it when I see it....as ati does make improvements to their drivers as well... And while their support is crappy... The main focus is always on the 5xxx series so... I'm pretty confident the 5870m will always outperform the 460m... And as Dell 5850s are essentially 5870s... Why everyone going crazy for 'em?

Are there that many ppl that rely on physx for professional apps? I doubt it...

Now The 470m + 480m is something to be excited about... But I'm pretty darn sure those will never make it into a M15x...

Anyways just my take

 

My thoughts exactly Jstar, I'd take my 5850 or a quality 5870 any day over an overpriced 460m. As you said the 470m I think would be the sweetspot for the m15x as the 480m is a bit overkill for a 15" and way overpriced.

 

if combined with a cpu like the 920xm and if you run an application which stresses both cpu and gpu, you will go above 150w causing throttling...

real world example would be World of Warcraft with addons. high cpu/gpu usage is common in the realm of MMO's. i think gta4 is another example (not too sure about that one however)

the 460 would be an awesome option for those that either prefer nvidia, or need cuda support. if i were dell, i'd be trying to get the alienware line updated with this card asap.
@Jstar, nvidia generally have much better opengl/linux support. plus it's nice to have a good nvidia option which isn't so old now (and still with issues). the 5870 may still beat it, but don't forget the 5870 is not officially offered... oh it also runs quite cool as well. the asus boys with the overheating problems (5870m) seem fixed with the newer 460m version model.

 

Hai!

So, finally my baby arrived. M15x (red of course), 940XM, 5850, 1080p...all the good stuff basically.

During the waiting for it to arrive I've been lurking on these forums, preparing for everything I may encounter with my laptop. All the little stuff (think: mousepad) I have sorted out, but something feel a bit iffy.

I was unable to find hard facts about how some games run on this system. ''Good'' is all I could find, no numbers. I apologise in advance if I may have skimmed over a thread with these, but can anyone provide me with what kind of FPS they get in World of Warcraft and Just Cause 2? When I run mine (latest drivers, no stealth mode, the lot...) I only manage about 30 FPS in a city. With Just Cause 2 (demo) I would avarage only 20. I kinda expected some more, so I am unsure!

So please, could anyone enlighten me about how well this system should perform in said games.

Many thanks in advance,

//Solly

EDIT:
BIOS verson: A08
Settings in WoW: All ultra, 1900x1080, 2x AA
Settings in Just Cause 2: All maxed out, 1900x1080, 4x AA

 

Any idea if the 1.86GHz quad i7 causes throttling with the GTX 260? For what's offered now, that would be the preferred config for me, and I can't figure out if that still throttles-I'm not going to be using the 2GHz quad, 'cause I can't afford it :-D Heck, I'd drop down to 1.73GHz if that + the 260 won't throttle when the 1.86GHz one would.

I'm so confused :-/ I'm even looking at HP's Envy 17 now, trying to figure out if it has any known issues when pushed hard (it only includes a 120watt PSU, despite having an AMD 5850 + quad i7s).

Bought a G73jw, but with all the warnings about bad thermal paste and what not I've noticed since placing the order, I'm scared to open it and looking more seriously at Dell and even HP :-/

 

you should be fine with any cpu lower then the 920/940 combo. only seen a few cases throttling in wow, but only with extreme cpu's.

dell gave you the 21 days to try it out, so if you do find a problem you can just return it.

 

A08 fixed all throttling issues UNLESS you overclock it.

 

Try running 3Dmark vantage and tell us your scores. Almost make sure you're using a AC power, high performance power settings, turn powerplay on, stealth mode isn't on, and that you're running at PCI-16x not 1x. If your running at 1x double tap stealth mode.

 

What about with a GTX 260 though (with a 1.73 or 1.86GHz quad)?

 

Dude... just cause 2 maxes out at 30fps... there's a weird limitation set on that game... its not your card...or your system... just the way the game was made to be played... when i first ran the game i was scratching my head as why the low fps... it is a demanding game ... but its also the way it was made or something... i remember reading forums on the issue and guys saying their desktop 5870s couldn't push past 30fps... there may or may not be a fix for this... i stopped playing it so i haven't looked into it (you can't see any difference over 23fps anyways i think it is)

And WoW? That game is weak and your system can MORE than handle it. It also doesn't like Quad cores though... but theres a fix for that (try googling WoW Quad-core tweak... or something like that). Also remember with online games... often poor performance is due to poor ping, overloaded servers, low bandwidth etc... but i've also read (i dont play WoW) that they've up'd the visuals on more than one ocasions with the updates, so it does demand more than it did when it just came out. Only times you should see a slowdown in performance is when you're raiding... Otheriwse i remember getting 60+ fps (with the 10 day trial) everything maxed.

Don't worry your system will rip through all the recent games.

It's actually funny because both those games u mentioned are games that are iffy, and that people have alot of problems with. Play a game that was properly developed and you'll see the true power of the 5850m. For example... just fired up Mdeal of Honor LE 2010 that just came out... and my lowest dip is like 32fps... with an avrg of 40-55 everything maxed running on 1080p.

But do as the others suggested... just to test for throttling... it can be possible.. as that cpu of yours is a power hog... and can be stealing some of the power from your gpu... causing you the crappy performance... But that's usually only when your overclocking....

 

Thanks for the replies guys, really appriciate it. You comfirm what I thought about Just Cause 2, I took my time and decided to overclock my 5850 a little and ended up gaining getting 29,95 FPS on avarage on Just Cause's benchmark. All the places where it would drop to 20 now ran at 30. I've also been monitoring with GPU-Z and found no throttling in either games.

About WoW, you are right. On stress points such as Dalaran it would now run around 30 FPS, but any raid I go, even with 25 man, it avarages a nice 60 FPS.

Bottom line is: I was too quick with making a post about this, my apologies and again thanks for replying. I've flashed to 800/1000 @1.10v now and everything works like a charm (havn't exceeded 80c yet on temps). And yeah, Miahsoul, I double checked. Everything is like it should be.

//Solly

 

I run at 850/1100 one n a while and temps stay under 68*c and it never missed a beat. it's as if its running at stock for how stable it is. you can try going higher if you want. People have gone to 1000+ on the core clock for benching, without any problems... Not that I'd raise the clocks that high for hours of gaming... But just to say this card has alot of headroom. I wouldn't go past 850/1100 for gaming though... Seems like a nice sweetspot with a considerable boost in performance without rlly stressing the card.

Anyways I'm glad we helped

Edit: if you want to improve your temps, Try some aftermarket thermal paste on the gpu. It can lower temps by like 5*c or more sometimes...I'd recommend OCZ Freeze since its cheap n works amazing. But where you live? Somewhere hot I'm guessing? I live in Canada n my ambient temps are always like 21-23*C which I guess helps the gpu temps..

 

Nah I live in Holland, neither hot or cold here. I think I'll go a step further with thermal compound and such when I really need to.
So far the main games I play run as I want them to so overclocking further isn't nessesary yet.

Apperantly my ambient temps in this room are ~18,6c. Not sure it's entirely accurate, though.

 

Hi all! Sorry that my first post here is a problem. That's just the way it goes right? I just got my M15x on October 22nd and it's awesome!

The problem is, the quick touch bar flickers from red to white and back every 1 minute and 35 seconds. The interval is always the same. Doesn't matter whether the laptop is in stealth mode or not, and the color of the keyboard doesn't affect it either. The only thing that seems to fix it is when Alien FX is off (keyboard not lit, quick touch bar is lit.) I have tried the power drain trick three times but it has not helped so far. Any other suggestions?

 

go into alien FX. create a new theme. Set the colors you want. Save. Sometimes things get buggy... and creating a brand new theme (instead of modifying an old one) fixes this. Turning on/off alienfx, and the power drain trick... sometimes also fix this. But since you tried those, try makign a new theme

 

Thank you kind sir, I believe you've fixed it! I made one new theme and it didn't seem to fix it (it actually got worse, started blinking more rapidly haha.) So then I just tried making another theme and it seems to be working! Been about 10 minutes without a single blink.

Thanks for the warm welcome. I really appreciate the friendliness of this community and its wealth of information. Keep up the good work!