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Video problems with mALX.

post #1 of 17
8/28/07 at 9:56pm
Thread Starter 
I purchased my mALX this summer for the explicit purpose of gaming. It is magnificent except for one problem that I have run into. I have only played WoW on it so far for about 1,000 hours this summer (been out of work). It plays the game brilliantly, except for this one lag issue. No not that kind of lag. What happens is that after about two to three hours of game play their is a hiccup in the video. Say you are riding your mount from one place to another. After two strides there is a very brief delay. It does get annoying. However all I need do is restart and voila it is gone, for another two hours and then it is back.

I am running Vista, so could it be the lack of drivers (I have two 500mb video cards sli)?

Or is it due to heat? That does not seem consistent with restaring and the problem being gone.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks.
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post #2 of 17
8/28/07 at 10:27pm
Usually when a machine slows after hours of play, it's due to your resources being used up. In this case, I'd expect memory. It would be my guess that after two or three hours, there is enough memory space allocated for things you've already done that wasn't released properly, that your system is starting to use the pagefile. That means your machine is writing to the hd rather than storing info in memory.

Next time it happens, check to see if your hd light runs when it stutters.

There are sites out there on optimizing your memory so big chunks don't get used up by icons, and background programs. There are also programs out there that will automatically clean up your memory when you get low on free resources, but I don't know how well they work.

A reboot would solve this issue as it would clear the memory and start over...
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post #3 of 17
12/11/07 at 3:49pm
Thread Starter 
I talked with Alienware support about this (e-mail support) and they said that I should "reseat" the two video cards. They asked me to call and said they could walk me through it.

I have looked at the internal pictures and this seems over my head. I am probably going to ask them to send out a tech, since I have 2 year on site warranty.

I was recently experiencing another problem related to the vid card drivers. Upon booting up I would get a balck screen, unitl maybe the third or fourth boot up. Then the other day it got so bad I called Alienware. The tech (Alan) had me uninstall my drivers (we figured out it was a vid driver problem because of a mesage on BSOD) and download and install new drivers from Alienware. That seemed to fix the problem...until I once again got the BSOD yesterday. Just once but I am suspicious. It came back and told me it was the vid card driver!

I restarted the computer many times after that without a problem, so hopefully it was just a one time glitch. If it happens again I am going to call Alan (the tech).

So I have two questions for anyone who knows:
(1) Is reseating the two video cards difficult for a novice?
(2) Are there better (more current) NVidia drivers out there for the M-ALX NVIDIA G71 7950 GTX WITH 512MB than the ones currently on Alienware's download section?

Thanks!
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post #4 of 17
12/11/07 at 9:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by blazertrek50 View Post

So I have two questions for anyone who knows:
(1) Is reseating the two video cards difficult for a novice?

It's intimidating the first time, but once you do it, you'll think it's pretty easy. Just make sure you use new heatpads or new thermal paste when reinstalling the heatsinks on the vid cards when reassembling.

Quote:
(2) Are there better (more current) NVidia drivers out there for the M-ALX NVIDIA G71 7950 GTX WITH 512MB than the ones currently on Alienware's download section?

Thanks!

I'm not sure about the mALX, but I use video drivers from laptopvideo2go.com. With the m9700, you get the driver and unzip it, then put the modified INF file they have next to the driver into the driver folder, then install and they work fine.
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post #5 of 17
2/11/08 at 1:20pm
Thread Starter 
I updated my vid drivers wiht the latest (beta) driver on the AW web site. That has gotten rid of the BSOD but the lag issue remains. I also noticed this issue when I was watching TV on my computer (SlingBox), so it is not just in WoW!

I am thinking about trying out the 169.09 driver on the forceware site. I did unenbale the SLI an dWoW does work better without it!?
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post #6 of 17
2/11/08 at 8:56pm
i have the 169.09 drivers and i havent had any problems with them...
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post #7 of 17
2/11/08 at 9:26pm
You know WoW is not an SLI game, and Sling box even though it allows you to watch TV on your computer may have an adjustable baud rate in it. I dont know because I dont have one but I experience this with regular TV monitors running digital video signal. The decks I use have adjustable baud rates. It may just need to be tweeked.
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post #8 of 17
2/13/08 at 1:13pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by SoloMan View Post
You know WoW is not an SLI game, and Sling box even though it allows you to watch TV on your computer may have an adjustable baud rate in it. I dont know because I dont have one but I experience this with regular TV monitors running digital video signal. The decks I use have adjustable baud rates. It may just need to be tweeked.
Thanks for the comments. This is what an AW support rep e-mailed me after I told them of my problems: Dear Mr. Gould, Thank you for contacting the Alienware ALX Technical Support Team. Since the lag was gone and then returned, we should first discard a software problem. It seems that a program or service might have been removed and got installed again. If the lag happens only in online games, it could also be a server problem. If the server gets overloaded, all the computers connected to it will suffer some lagging. We can easily test if a program or service is the cause. We just need to click on "Start" and type "MSCONFIG" in the search box. The MSCONFIG program will appear at the top. Please right-click on it and select "Run as Administrator." When the System Configuration Utility appears, please click on the "Startup tab" and click on the "Disable All" button. Then, please click on the "Services" tab and put a check in the "Hide all Microsoft Services" checkbox (at the bottom). Once the Microsoft services disappear, please click the "Disable All" button. Then, please click on "Apply" and "OK." When the computer restarts, please test if it is still lagging. If it is not, then one of those programs or services caused the problem. If the system still lags, we have a new version of the display drivers under validation which should be released by the end of the week. We can install it and see if it eliminates the problem. Thank you for choosing Alienware and have a nice day. Best regards, Juan Carlos Gonzalez ALX Support Alienware Corporation I do not believe that they understand that my vid problems are not the same as regular online lag. It is as if the frame rate drops to 0, for a brief millisecond and then resumes. So it is like a very minute (as in fractional) stop and go, when playing WoW or watching the Sling Box. This only occurs after I have been on my computer for an hour or so. Do you think that I should follow their instructions and make the changes to see what happens?
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post #9 of 17
2/13/08 at 1:23pm
If you do, take a screen shot of the settings before you disable them.
This way you can set them back easier.
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post #10 of 17
2/14/08 at 12:14pm
Just a word of warning: Dont bugger around with your chipset or GPU drivers on the mALX unless you are 100% sure you know what your doing. The mALX is a very different animal to the other AW laptops and dosent like laptopvideo2go.com drivers either.

I have tried many many many many many many different driver installs on mine and apart from the stock 8*.** drivers you get off the AW website every other driver (bar 2, one was a standard GeForce Go driver from nvidia which was worse than the AW one and the other is described below) has resulted in massive problems and usually a fresh copy of windows being installed.

I did once get some 162.** drivers going on it for playing the Crysis beta, they ran amazingly well but some older games would not run at all and certain games would not like the GPUs being in SLi, which is kinda pointless in my opinion. To get these drivers to work involved a week of piddling around with different .infs and then in the end merging the original .inf with the new drivers and some manual modifications (good old notepad).

It worked for 3 months then when playing Crysis (at a storming FPS and high settings) it all suddenly went very wrong and nearly killed it completely. Needless to say I am now back on the standard 8*.** drivers from AW as I can't afford to get it repaired if I kill it again

I have never been able to reproduce that driver setup no matter how hard I try. God damn it was awesome, raised the 3DMark05 score from 12k to over 13k with the Turion overclocked and the PCI bridge and bus's tweaked.

Phew!
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post #11 of 17
2/14/08 at 8:35pm
Thread Starter 

Thanks fo the advice Mr. Hanks....

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Hanks View Post
Just a word of warning: Dont bugger around with your chipset or GPU drivers on the mALX unless you are 100% sure you know what your doing. The mALX is a very different animal to the other AW laptops and dosent like laptopvideo2go.com drivers either. I have tried many many many many many many different driver installs on mine and apart from the stock 8*.** drivers you get off the AW website every other driver (bar 2, one was a standard GeForce Go driver from nvidia which was worse than the AW one and the other is described below) has resulted in massive problems and usually a fresh copy of windows being installed. I did once get some 162.** drivers going on it for playing the Crysis beta, they ran amazingly well but some older games would not run at all and certain games would not like the GPUs being in SLi, which is kinda pointless in my opinion. To get these drivers to work involved a week of piddling around with different .infs and then in the end merging the original .inf with the new drivers and some manual modifications (good old notepad). It worked for 3 months then when playing Crysis (at a storming FPS and high settings) it all suddenly went very wrong and nearly killed it completely. Needless to say I am now back on the standard 8*.** drivers from AW as I can't afford to get it repaired if I kill it again I have never been able to reproduce that driver setup no matter how hard I try. God damn it was awesome, raised the 3DMark05 score from 12k to over 13k with the Turion overclocked and the PCI bridge and bus's tweaked. Phew!
I really am not as tech savy as you seem to be. So I will definitely avoid anything like what you went thru. I just checked the latest AW download site for drivers and it looks like they updated the latest drivers, for the vid cards I have GO 7950GTX for the mALX , where they used to only have drivers for the 9750 So ima give thema try. Oh and I love your movies (all except the Davinci Code , you sucked in that, lol)!!
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post #12 of 17
2/18/08 at 12:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by blazertrek50 View Post
I really am not as tech savy as you seem to be. So I will definitely avoid anything like what you went thru. I just checked the latest AW download site for drivers and it looks like they updated the latest drivers, for the vid cards I have GO 7950GTX for the mALX , where they used to only have drivers for the 9750 So ima give thema try. Oh and I love your movies (all except the Davinci Code , you sucked in that, lol)!!
Hah, yeah Davinci Code sucked :P Hang on, you have dual 7950's in your mALX? When did they start doing this??? Or am I reading that completely wrong? Cheers P.s no I am not really Tom Hanks lol
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post #13 of 17
2/18/08 at 2:15pm
Thread Starter 

Yay!! It worked!!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Hanks View Post
Hah, yeah Davinci Code sucked :P Hang on, you have dual 7950's in your mALX? When did they start doing this??? Or am I reading that completely wrong? Cheers P.s no I am not really Tom Hanks lol
I did as AW suggested and it WORKED!! At least so far it has (like 7-8 hours in WoW and no problems). So now when I have the time I will try and figure out by process of elimination which software caused the problem.
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post #14 of 17
2/19/08 at 6:38pm
Tom Hanks-

To answer your question, Alienware offered the mALX notebook with dual 7950 graphics cards most of the laptop's lifetime. It has since been discontinued as newer models emerged.
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post #15 of 17
2/20/08 at 12:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BFisch06 View Post
Tom Hanks- To answer your question, Alienware offered the mALX notebook with dual 7950 graphics cards most of the laptop's lifetime. It has since been discontinued as newer models emerged.
Oh the mother hubbards!!11 They didn't tell me this lol, when I bought mine the dual 7900 GTX 512mb was the top spec Which drivers are you running at the moment then blazer?
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post #16 of 17
2/20/08 at 9:33pm
Just a head up if you didn't know, WoW will default your drivers to non SLI.
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post #17 of 17
3/9/08 at 11:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Hanks View Post
Hah, yeah Davinci Code sucked :P

Hang on, you have dual 7950's in your mALX? When did they start doing this??? Or am I reading that completely wrong?

Cheers

P.s no I am not really Tom Hanks lol

Mine also has the 7900s ... and I ordered it just a couple of months before AW discontinued the mALX.
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