M15x Problem/Technical Question thread

Depends what you're trying to play. Remember that music will never play over Dolby Digital, and is always just stereo. Make sure you are playing Dolby Digital Content like DVD Movies.... Avi's and alot of downloaded content isn't...

This is a common problem. What happens is, when in windowed mode it sometimes doesn't trigger the 3d clocks on the 5850m for some games ( like WoW in your case) untill you make it fullscreen. Windowed mode makes it run at the slow desktop clock speeds. One way to get around this if you absolutely want to play in windowed mode is to force the clocks on the gpu through AMD Gpu Clock Tool. Works every time Just seit it to 625/1000 for the default gaming clocks ( i'd put it to 700/1000 as it can handle stock 5870m clocks with ease )

 

Alright will try it out. Thanks.
My clocks will still downclock when not used right?
Also guessing if i want this to be permanent i need to flash my GPU? (gotta figure out how to do that)

 

well, if its just for WoW, then you can simply create a batch file which first changes the clock then runs Wow. Alternatively, you can use the batch file provided here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/474717-m15x-ati-5870-mod-194.html with my stealth mode indicator program (see sig)

 

It's enabled. It is the classic Code 10 "This device cannot start." for the Intel 82577LM Gigabit controller. I'm starting to think the controller chip maybe faulty. I'll need to roll back to A06 as I think I've tried every other step. I located the A06 BIOS so I'll be rolling back to see if that changes anything. I don't want to roll back to an earlier version since the system was shipped with A06 in a 940xm config from Dell.

A06 Dell Link: Drivers and Downloads

 

since i installed the latest nvidia driver i get two black areas in the side of the scree when i play games. this never use to happen before. does anyone know how to fix this??

 

Its seems like a resolution problem. Try playing with in game settings. You may be trying 16:10 or standart resolutions instead of 16:9.

 

Yeah, I'm declaring the 82577LM Gigabit chip DoA (Ethernet).

Drivers install fine, but the device won't start/work

Doesn't show in ipconfig at all or network devices (Darn Code 10)

I was going to disassemble it and take a look, but the service manual
appears to show the gigabit integrated on the SMB vs. a module so a whole SMB swap is probably in my future.

A06 - Can't start (Note: System shipped with A06)
A07 - Can't start
Power Drain (main and cmos) - Can't start
Upper/Lower checked - Can't start
Bios enabled/disabled/enabled - Can't start
Bios defaults set - Can't start
Dell Driver - Can't start
Intel Pro driver - Can't start
Windows Update (No driver found) - Can't start
Device Driver enable/disable/enable - Can't start
Physical connection verified (Xmit/Connect status lights work) - Can't start
Re-installed Dell OEM supplied 7 Ultimate - Can't start
Installed Retail 7 Ultimate - Can't start
Installed Dell OEM Win 7 Premium - Can't start
Dell Diagnostics passed - Can't start
Dell Intel provided chipset drivers - Can't start
Intel newest chipset drivers = Can't start
Threw it against the wall - Can't start (j/k)

Can't run Intel's diagnostic software since the device won't start.

A few OS installs were just base installs, no WU and just chipset and network drivers to isolate any other conflict(s) during resource assignments.

If anyone has any suggestions before I camp out on the phone with AW to set up a MB swap (Wish they would just send it to me and let me do it myself), I'm all eyes....

...Screen is immaculate and system is in physically perfect shape and runs great (MX-3 ftw) outside of the gigabit issue. You just KNOW they're going to wonk something up fixing it. Hopefully the tech will sit back and enjoy a brewski and watch while I break it down and do it myself. That would be ideal.

 

I have one issue with my Alienware M15x with the HD5850, Running the latest drivers from ATI.

When I play SC2 and I alt tab out of the game, when I try to go back into SC2 it takes around 40 sec to 1 min to get back into the game. Anyone know what the issue is? sometime it takes forever and SC2 become unresponsive.

 

Looks like its really broken . You could still disconnect the CMOS battery and see if that helps, but I really doubt that. Maybe you had a power surge on the LAN network and thats how the lan chip got fried :/

 

when im on youtube on IE 8 some video lags a lot. what is the reason for this?

 

Try using a good browser (e.g. firefox or chrome) and see if that still appears.

Most likely you are in stealth mode

 

Make sure your not Ninjaing. Also,

LOL people use IE still? What a world we live in. use firefox or Google Chrome... Heck even Opera.


.... Hmm shoulda read Wattos above post first >_<

 

I have been having an issue with my Alienware M15x for weeks now.

Intel Core i7 1.6ghz
Nvidia Geforce GTX 260m
6gb of ram at 1333mhz
640gb harddrive
blue ray optical
windows 7 home premium
BIOS A07

My processor is permanently underclocked. It is running at 550mhz according to cpu id. Stealth mode whether disabled or enabled seems to do nothing to decrease or increase the speed. If I unplug the power cord, wait 30 seconds then plug it back in, I can see my speed jump up to 1.6ghz for maybe 2 seconds then goes back to 550mhz. Here are the solutions I have tried.

20 hours with tech support on the phone going over the following(which I had already checked =/ )

Power settings
Bios Settings/ Bios Flash
uninstall/reinstall of OSD
was sent a replacement GPU, and installed(was only after this I noticed it was the processor and not the GPU causing the low frame rates
Updating the all drivers
Re-imaged the system twice
Disabled speedstep in bios, which actually decreased the cpu speed to 250mhz.....

Im at my wits end because alienware seems unwilling/unable to diagnose this problem. I work in IT and I am thoroughly stumped. AND YES I am 100% absolutely positive stealth mode is not activated lol Someone, anyone any help or suggestions?

 

Hi i ve been having a blue screen problem quiet often these days on my M15x.
this usually happens during sleep mode. help please!!

 

use hwinfo32 to see current clock speeds, it will show you for each core.

make sure speedstep and turbo is enabled in the bios first of all.
make sure you select high performance mode in windows power options. ( i know, basic but AW's stealth mode and windows profiles are seperate)

when you say re-imaged, do you mean re-install? the reason i say this is because image files with ghost/acronis tend to be iffy since the error may not be apparent upon making the image and it's not until later that it rear's its ugly head.

it may only be a bandaid solution to the problem, but you can force max clocks with throttlestop by unclewebb. there's some really nice options in there you may want to try.

 

sorry, I wiped and re-installed windows twice. Kinda used to saying re-imaged from work =/

1. All power settings are go

2. speedstep and turbo are enabled in bios

3. winfo32 shows each core running at between 500-800mhz


Not really sure what to do at this point. I took it into work with me, and even with myself and the rest of our IT department brainstorming the only thing we could come up with is that, there is some defect in this laptop.

 

Hi all,
I am having a weird issu on my new m15x.
Whenver I type on the keyboard, the "e" most of the time fails to respond. any ideas?

 

try running throttle stop: ThrottleStop.zip - [email protected]

just tick the 3 upper left boxes.

could be a faulty keyboard, call dell get it replaced.

 

yup might as well, and get them to look at the cpu issue while they're there.

 

soo my webcam is messing up i keep getting the rainbow stripes....its lammme

 

Hi Guys,

I really need your help with this one... I have the Intel Core i7 920XM and when I'm playing heavy games such as Mass Effect 2 and Dirt 2 at 1080p resolution, I receive a BSOD saying:

'A Clock interrupt was not received on a secondary processor within the allocated time interval'

I also get frame rates which fluctuates from 60 to 12. Now, here's the interesting part - When I switch off the Turbo Mode from the BIOS menu, I can play ME2 and Dirt 2 at a decent 40-45 FPS.

Can anyone tell me what's wrong??? And also, if you've got the same config as mine, please tell me at what FPS can you run ME2 and Dirt 2. Can anyone play GTA4 at 1080p???

Please guys, I REALLY need help!!!

 

@ gracemillian can you tell us what graphics card you have?

 

My Config:

RAM - 6GB DDR3 1333MHz
Graphics - nVidia GTX 260M

Any help would be appreciated :|

 

wow you got a throttling beast, use gpu-z to check for throttling, but i'm sure its there.

you can either try the throttling fix mention in here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...e-investigation-stock-clocks-overclocked.html

or revert to a older bios, which makes it throttle less, or contact dell to try to get the card replace with a 5850.

 

Thanks bro, I'll look at that link and will let you know if anything good comes of it!!!

Erm... what's a throttling beast?

 

its your setup the 920/260m combo causes more severe throttling then any other setup. i know i had the same setup.

 

Is the 5850 better than the 260, equal or worse?

 

better
10char

 

I tried Throttlestop, but it did not make my CPU remain steady at 3.2 GHz, the values kept on fluctuating...

 

tick "clock modulation"
tick "Chipset Clock Mod"
tick "Set Multiplier" ---> 16
tick "EIST"

turn on

i noticed sometimes it doesn't quite update, switching profiles back and forth can make it "unstuck", that hasn't happened to me in a long time however. (actually come to think of it, it hasn't happened to me since i replaced the 260m with the 5870m)

 

well, 3.2 Ghz is turbomode only. This is not as straightforward as run on 3.2Ghz always. This usually applies to 1 core running at that speed.

HOWEVER, the 920XM is able to run all 4 cores at 3.2 when the turbo power limit is increased.

 

What software should I use to overclock my 5850? I can't edit my voltage with the MSI Afterburner.

 

I've been going through some links that you guys have posted, and I really don't understand why Dell is not doing anything about the throttling issue. That's wrong.

Any comments? Can we all sign a petition or something?

 

yea i know Dell has been neglecting the issue for over 1 year, and has now finally began addressing the issue and is working on a fix... now that the gtx 260m has grown old and grey :s....

Best bet is to Call Dell and be very very patient and persistent....and you'll eventually get a 5850m replacement... might wanna brush up on your convincing and reverse psychology skills first . Gotta get them in a position where they cannot say no

 

Whoa Jstarnino, thanks man, I feel a whole lot better now!

 

At the moment, this is the most effective: techPowerUp! :: Download AMD GPU Clock Tool v0.9.26.0 For HD 5870 The only way to modify voltage is to amend the vbios and reflash the card using Atiflash or WinFlash.

 

Thanks, but it can't find my 5850? I think I'm having some driver issues, the ATI Tool has that exclamation mark over it in the Computer Management, and I'm running driver version 8.761.0.0 (downloaded from inaps link) on my 5850.

The AMD tool can only find a "VendorID: 0x1002 DeviceID: 0x68A1 SSID: 0x02A2 (02:00.0) (BROADWAY-B96102)"

 

uh that is your device. just set your new clocks, try 750/1050 out then select, set clocks.

 

They're currently at 99.99 and 150.00, is that not a massive jump? Will this permanently keep it at the selected clocks?



Rofl the Captcha to upload this to Tinypic was "beatrice spunk-hole,"

+rep btw.

 

really? what version did you download? 9.26 should work for all 5850 users.

 

The version posted by Rev. Could someone clarify what suitable stocks I should use? And will I need to do this every time I boot?

These are probably really common questions, sorry guys.

 

try the 750/1050 i'm been using that for awhile, and temps have been very good for me but i guess you can go higher depending on what temps you get. and yes you will need to do this everytime you reboot. i suggest only doing it before gaming and closing it when not. the only way to make it permanent is to flash your card, but i don't recommend it, because if something goes wrong then your card will be dead.

 

I'll just do it before I start gaming, thanks a lot for the help guys.

I haven't changed my thermal paste so I'll stick to those clocks.

edit: Changed clocks to 750/1050, the 750 went down to 749.98 for some reason. Then when I clicked OK Windows 7 popped up with the "This program may not have been installed correctly..." box, then when I try to open AMD tools I get the "No devices found" error.

Argh.

 

try uninstalling it, then run ccleaners. then reinstall it again.

and the clock going down abit is normal.

 

Do you run all of the CCleaner options? Including registry, etc?

Inap this is like the third time you've helped me .

edit: OK, I uninstalled the AMD tool (there were 2 of them for some reason), however the clocks I set earlier were there?

 

used it to uninstall amd clock tools, then run the registry cleaner untill no errors show up, then reboot if you wish then reinstall it.

3rd time already huh, next time i have to charge ya!!!heheheh

 

That's fixed it, thanks so much.

 

I very recently bought an Alienware M15x and I have to say I am currently very disappointed with performance comparent to my old laptop (4year old XPS). I think something must be going wrong, but can't find anything obvious (er drivers, etc).

Alienware:
i7 Q740 @1.73GHz (8CPUs)
Geforce GTX 260M 1Gb (1920x1080)
6Gig RAM
Windows Premium Home 64 Bit


XPS:
Inte Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz
GeForce 7900 GTX 512Mb (1920x1200)
2gig RAM
Windows XP


Comparison

Game 1: World Of Warcraft
All settings to max, except shadows quality@4/5

Dalaran underground
Alienware: 8fps
XPS: 25fps

25 Man ICC Raid
Alienware: 2fps
XPS: 15 fps


Starcraft 2
All settings to "medium", max resolution

4 player (3 Computers) Skirmish
Alienware: 15fps
XPS: 25fps


The clincher:
3dMark06
"Basic" (ie free) version, standard benchmark test
Alienware: 1748 points
XPS: 5472 points

Any ideas?

 

yes.

1) make sure your stealth mode is off.

If that is not the case continue to step 2)

2) make sure you run on high performance power plan

If that is not the case go to step 3)

Do a power drain

If that still doesnt help, feel free to panic.

Most likely you were had by Dell and the practical joke: "lets deliver people the M15x with stealth mode on by default".

 

Thanks! I had already turned power plan up to high performance, but was unaware of "Stealth Mode". It did appear to be active though I haven't the foggiest how. Now it is off fps seems to gone up dramatically, and 3DMark06 now gives 10,000+

I've done some research and it appears stealth mode is incredibly... stealthy. It is really quite tricky to find out whether or not one is in stealth mode through the OS tools (from a position of not knowing where to look), but the light on the laptop dashboard does change illumination *slightly* to indicate stealth mode presence. I'll just have to keep an eye on it.

Problem solved! Thanks again