M15x Problem/Technical Question thread

Okay, so in response to an earlier post of mine on page 64, I did update my BIOS to A08, I installed GPU-Z, and updated my Nvidia graphics card, and I'm still having the same problem.

I attached a sensor log in the problem. Can anyone with more experience please tell me if this is the throttling issue? If it is, and A08 didn't fix it, I might cry a little on the inside.

 

Nah that's not the highest fps :|. u may want to check:
1: your power mode is on high performance
2: your alienfusion profile. Sometimes alienfusion automatically change your gpu setting to high battery life, not high performance

 

Well that's a common problem. U will have to tweak it a little bit to fix. Seach the forum for the guide since i dont know where to find it

 

ok i call dell they come to change mainboard and sound card ( extrange noise )

 

Howdy everyone from Dallas, Texas. Wishing everyone a blessed and Happy New Year. I have had my M15x since June and have had continuous problems with it shutting down and then rebooting to the log in screen. I have run every test that I can find and cannot seem to isolate the problem. The event log is not that helpful either. Does anyone have any thoughts on what could possibly be causing this issue? Thank you!

 

I'm a noob at this, but if I had to say anything Dallas, I'd say it would probably be a motherboard problem, in which case you should have dell come out and look at it. (also do the hardware diagnostics from the boot menu)(Tap F8... I think, while booting).

 

As you seem to have searched for a solution and couldn't find one... I think it's time to call Dell. Don't forget: Your premium system comes with premium support

Btw: Have you already tried a fresh install of windows? I don't actually think that's the cause... but anyway...

 

video card driver crashes at completely random times, it looks like this

YouTube - What happen with Alienware's screen?

YouTube - Alienware M15x Problem...Help?

I am on the latest driver from the dell site, I have already tried uninstalling in safe mode, cleaning up and reinstalling. i can be doing any number of things when this happens (meaning it doesnt seem to be just one program thats causing the problem). any thoughts?

 

Try another driver version, for example the latest nvidia driver or an older one from Dell.
Or cleanly uninstall your driver and use driversweeper, ccleaner and then reinstall it again.

 

Could you yet us know of your specs Dallas?

 

Thanks everyone. It is not doing what the youtube videos indicated. It will all of a sudden power down and then reboot. Here are some specs:

Windows 7 Home Premium (x64) (build 7600)
1.60 gigahertz Intel Core i7 Q 720
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache
6144 kilobyte tertiary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (4 total)
Hyper-threaded (8 total)
3484.93 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
1892.44 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GA31N [Optical drive]

Seagate FreeAgent USB Device [Hard drive] (2000.40 GB) -- drive 2, s/n 2HC015KJ
ST9500420AS [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 5VJ5HMW7, SMART Status: Healthy
WD My Book USB Device [Hard drive] (1000.20 GB) -- drive 1

Board: Alienware A08
Serial Number: .6Q3DSM1. .
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Alienware A08 08/24/2010

8182 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'M1' has 4096 MB (serial number 23811321)
Slot 'M2' has 4096 MB (serial number 23A11382)

c: (NTFS on drive 0) 484.34 GB 303.01 GB free
e: (NTFS on drive 2) 2000.40 GB 1300.25 GB free
f: (NTFS on drive 1) 1000.20 GB 289.19 GB free

Intel(R) PCHM SATA AHCI Controller 6 Port
Ricoh Memory Stick Controller
Ricoh SD/MMC Host Controller
Ricoh xD-Picture Card Controller

Intel(R) 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 3B34
Intel(R) 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 3B3C

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 [Display adapter]
Samsung SyncMaster [Monitor] (24.0"vis, s/n HVDQA00730, October 2008)


Happy New Year everyone!

 

Even though it's not a BSOD according to your description there might be an entry of the error in the System log... can you check this and post it in case there's something?

 

I ran the attached event log for all Warnings, Errors, and Critical events that were logged over the past seven days. I have been unable to determine which event, if any noted, is causing my machine to power off and then reboot. Thank you!

 

Well, according to the log, the system got shutdown 3 times all of a sudden. There's always the same warning immediately before the warning, but I don't know it... "stcvsm" There's no description available for this in the log file.

I have no idea at the moment, sorry.

 

svI7. WOW! You may have just solved my problem. After researching "stcvsm" I learned that this is a snapshot driver added by ShadowProtect software which I use to complete my backups. The knowledge base for ShadowProtect addresses this issue and how to disable this driver for troubleshooting. I will immediately disable it to ascertain whether or not this is the reason for my shutdowns. This is by far closer than I have been in resolving this annoying issue. I will report in after a few days. Again, thank you so much. Happy New!!
Dallas Phil

PS Should I be concerned about all the controller errors?

 

So, I just booted up my M15X after a BSOD today. I had to disconnect the BIOS battery to get it to boot up because it would get stuck on the Disk Check part.
I ran the full diagnostic test and everything came up fine.
Now, though, I seem to only have 2 processing cores running and my clock speed is fluctuating between 1192Mhz and 1844Mhz.
Anyone have any idea what's going on?

 

@TheHighlightGuy, it is alway recommended to state the M15x specs so that members of forum can identify the problem more efficiently. Thats a huge difference in fluctuation, im not sure, try reading the throttling thread somewhere, not sure where xD. Happy New Year All !!

 

Im not sure, lol, first time im seeing like this. Based on the thumbnail, i can say it is showing only 2 windows representing 2 core because the computer is only using 1 physical core from the whole 4 core, and 1 core has 2 threading, therefore shows 2 windows. 4 core = 8 windows. Maybe someone who has better understanding can help you.

More info on your processor : Intel Core i7 840QM Notebook Processor - Notebookcheck.net Tech

EDIT: Try CPU-Z to see how much core it shows

 

i have cleanly uninstalled the driver before as indicated in my post. i think i will revert back to the old driver, the current driver doesnt let me output sound to my TV over HDMI either.

NEW PROBLEM: not on my alienware, on a friends windows 7 desktop, but its annoying me to no end. using IE8, you MUST enter http:// to go to a website, if you type Google for instance, it will throw an error saying that the site cannot be found. does anyone know how to solve this? i have been searching for an answer for the last 2 hours and the only answers i have found only apply to IE6. installing firefox or something is not a solution, its not my computer and this user does not want, nor would they understand that firefox is better. TIA guys.

 

Wow, great to hear you found a possible solution! Hope it's going to work!

I just checked my system log and I got a bunch of those controller errors to... and everything is working fine so far... my guess is that these errors are caused by external drives like USB sticks, SD cards or HDDs. Maybe it happens when you unplug them improperly... but that's just a guess.

I really don't think it's something to worry about since everything seems to work fine and anyway, I always keep backups of the important stuff.

You could of course check your harddrive with the test programs from alienware... I have never done this but I think everything's described in the user manual.

 

@Indiran My bad, coulda sworn my signature had it saved already. Whoops.

After a couple of reboots it went back to normal and all 8 threads were running.

 

When I play videos fullscreen a screen tear appears on the upper half of the screen (the same happens when stealth mode is turned on). After a long search, I found it's caused somehow by the "use visual styles on windows and buttons" option (I have windows 7 64bit). When I turn it off, there is no tear, but windows looks very old...
I'm using K-lite mega codec pack 6.6.6, with the K-lite 64bit codecs installed.

I've tried setting VSYNC on in the Nvidia control panel => didn't work.
I've tried setting the refresh rate in the Rivatuner=> didn't work.
I've tried setting VSYNC on in the D3DOverride program of Rivatuner=> didn't work.
I've tried with other videos players (VLC with it's own codecs) => didn't work.

It's driving me nuts, when I don't use "use visual styles on windows and buttons", windows 7 looks like crap.
I've tried making a screen print, but they don't have the tear???
Has anybody had the same problem? Or just the solution to the problem?

Thanks in advance,
STM9

My m15x:
740qm
4GB RAM
GTX 460m
500GB HDD
Windows Premium 64bit
1600x900

 

@TheHighLightGuy Glad its back to normal, but keep an eye for it in future. Let us know if it happens again.

 

@Indiran Thanks! I will

 

Hi everyone,

I've been having the throttling problem on my computer, and it seems to have gotten worse since I installed A08. Does anyone know of another fix to the problem?

 

svl7 A sincere thank you! Nixed the backup software I was using and purchased a different one. Seems to have solved my issue. Cannot thank you enough!

 

You're welcome! Great to hear that it worked!

 

I have an Alienware M15x R1. When I'm using my external graphics card (M15X ATI RADEON M88 XT 512MB HD3870 MASTER) my screen doesn't work at all. The odd occasion, it flashes white, then remains black. I know the rest of the system is working, because all the lights work, and the computer fully boots (have my sound on, so i know i'm logging in).


Also, when I use my internal GFX card (Intel 965 Express chipset) the screen works fine. If anyone can assist me with this that would be great!

 

Hi guys,

My system recently blue screened twice in 2 days. I was at a loss for words really, until Windows suggested that my video card drivers might be out of date.

True, I haven't updated in some time now. So i went right to Nvidias website and downloaded the latest 260.99 driver for my GTX 260 card (Windows 7 64bit)

But when I run the .exe and starts scanning for my hardware, i get this error:

"Install Cannot Continue: The graphics driver could not find compatible hardware"

I've restarted, and disabled my virus protection but no luck.

Any thoughts as to why this happens? The 260.99 wasn't released until October of last year so if this had been a widespread problem I would have thought it could have been solved in the last 2 months.

It looks like I'm not the only one but all the solutions I Google lean towards some tricky BIOS work or physically opening my machine, neither of which I'm fully comfortable doing at this point. Too many projects due this month to be messing with my baby's innards.

 

Do you have the A08 bios?

 

Nope. A03

 

Check out this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/543708-how-install-nvidia-260-99-drivers.html#post7006907 There are some drivers which should work.

 

Do you have the newest drivers and BIOS installed? Maybe it's a problem with this program you're running?

 

Bummer. The link widezu69 posted for the 265.90 only supports one Ge Force model and it's NOT my GTX 260. Sad day.

Well i suppose I can live with this for now, but I'm gonna have huge issues if my system Blue Screens on me again during this painting.

::EDIT::

Wow, I'm sorry svl7. I spoke too soon. I checked the wrong link he posted. The earlier one seems to have updated properly this time. Thanks for your help. Just for future reference did you just do a quick search of the NR forums to find that thread? Keep you guys updated if anything crashes on me :/ Always skeptical about modded software

 

I just knew that thread was around because I've read it, didn't have to search Glad it worked!

 

Hi guys,

I've been having a problem with my m15x for the last couple of months, but I've been able to live with in until I moved house. The problem I'm having is that it sounds like there's a small grinding/ticking noise in the front right corner of the laptop.

I haven't read all 69 pages of this thread (on mobile broadband and have limited usage at the moment!), so I'm not sure if anyone else is having this problem?

Thanks in advance

 

Check out this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/495553-audio-crackling-15x-discussion-thread.html

 

Thanks for the quick reply svl7

It's not actually coming out of the speakers, but out of the casing itself, which is what's given me cause to worry! The performance doesn't seem to be affected, but the noise is rather off-putting!

 

Oh, sorry, I didn't get this. In this case I don't really have an idea, the HDD always makes a bit noise of course but that's probably not what you mean

Do you have a disc in the system at the moment?

 

No, nothing. It's also not the normal fan noise (have compared it to an m17x).

Also, just wondering if a 3DMark score is 9676 is decent enough for the following specs:

i7 720 (1.6GHz)
4 GB RAM
GeForce GTX 260M

I've updated the BIOS and the NVidia drivers today (09JAN11).

Thanks (again) for any advice

 

Strange... I have no idea, it's really difficult to find the cause without hearing the noise. Maybe you should call Dell (do you still have warranty for your system?)

I'm not really into benching so it's hard to tell, especially when I don't know which 3DMark test you run Maybe you find some scores of a similar system in the M15x benchmark thread, but keep in mind that most of these scores are achieved with overclocking and pushing the system.

 

My M15x just installed this:

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/8208/11742600.jpg

Completely out of the blue. I suppose its nothing to be worried about, but still, would like to know what it is.

 

I'm just now having the same issue. Initially i thought it was blue screening (which is did twice in 2 consecutive days) and windows told me to update my video card. I did (with svl's help) and everything was fine for a few days but just 15 minutes ago as i was in photoshop and running winamp the screen shot to red, the music stopped and my external speakers started buzzing. Only way to get out of the issue was to hold down the power button and re-start.

This is really starting to worry me because this just started happening out of nowhere. I haven't downloadad anything out of the ordinary and i haven't been overly stressing the hardware.

I was also made aware that im running BIOS version AO3. I'm unclear if this is the most recent version, but COULD that be the issue if I'm not up to date?

 

Someone help me out. Please see my video
YouTube - What happen with Alienware's screen?

Only one way I can do is press a power button to restart. Sometime I got this error.


I had BIOS A08, latest driver from Dell (doesn't work, I had tested it for 3 months) and latest driver from Nvidia ( I have tested it for 2 months, but it doesn't work too).

Please help me. Thank you

 

The latest Bios is A08 which improved quite a lot of things and fixed a couple of issues. I don't think it's caused by the Bios as I had the same issue already with this Bios, nevertheless I recommend updating (you can still go back)

GPU driver issues, as S3C7R4... try installing a different driver for example this one, make a clean install with using ccleaner and driversweeper or similar and restart the system after uninstalling the old one.

 

Double post, sry, plz delete.

 

Well I installed the newset A08 BIOS no problem, but 20 minutes later my system blue screened again. This is happening more and more frequently now. What the hell?

So it looks like uninstalling all the old video card components using this driversweeper/ccleaner software and doing a completely FRSH install of the latest drivers is my next option. Beyond that, I don't have any answers. This really a shame. I never thought I'd have to say this, but man am i glad i shelled out for a 3yr warranty.

Here's what I'm seeing on my end after the crash:

 

So I called about dust under the screen...
They asked me to send it to the depot for testing b/c the screen's been replaced once already.

 

you have the right to refuse it if you have at home service warranty. tell them you need it for school.

 

my m15x is 17 840qm, in the further can i upgrade it to i7 2nd generation like i7 2820qm? thanks..