I play Final Fantasy 11 on my Sentia and it runs fine, its a game that requires a lot of proc speed is its a ported game from PS2 and not really recoded to use the vid card much.

As for drivers, I'm using the standard drivers that game with the Support CD. I havent updated any because its not needed if the computer runs fine as it is. "If its not broken, dont *fix* it."

If your system came with a CD with drivers on it, I would say install those ones, as they are the ones tested and shipped with the system. Not saying they are the best, but they are the original "working" drivers.

I've found if the games minimum requirements require a 128MB+ video card the game will crash on the Sentia because the laptop doesn't meet that requirement.

F.E.A.R.'s minimum requirements list a 64MB video card, so it runs great. I tried to play Oblivion just to see if it would work and it crashed everytime I tried to play. That's the only game that has crashed on me so far and it's the only game I've tried that required a 128MB card. I've played through F.E.A.R. Doom 3, Doom 3: Ressurection of Evil so far.

C&C requires a 32MB card or higher, so we can conclude that isn't the issue. My next guess would be C&C was coded by game developers who thought multi-processors on personal computers was a thing of dreams and it can't handle the Core 2 Duo.

The way to fix this is with a Windows hotfix KB 896256. You can read about it and download it AMDzone, type in Hotfix into their search for their site and it's the first link.

Here's what you do:
1) Install the hotfix.
2) Go to Start | Run | Type regedit
3) Right click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEMCurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager, go to New, and select Key.
4) Type Throttle for the new key name.
5) Right click Throttle and select New, and then select DWORD.
6) Type PerfEnablePackageIdle for the value name.
7) Right click PerfEnablePackageIsle and select Modify.
8) In the Edit DWORD box type 1 for the value. Make sure Hexadecimal is selected and click OK.
9) Exit registry editor and reboot.

If you're still having these problems:

1) Right click My Computer | Properties | Advanced Tab
2) Click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
3) Click Edit in the window that appears.
4) Append the last line with /usepmtimer.
5) Click Save and reboot.

**These 2 possible fixes involve editing your Boot.ini file and your registry, follow the instructions to the letter! You can damage your computer if you mess with something else in the registry, mistype the key you're making or make a typo in the Boot.ini.**

Let me know if that helps. There are some other ways to fix. You can change the Affinity of the program and/or hide the second core from Windows. Doing that kind of sucks, but you can change it back when not playing.

thx for the infos... guerilla, I'll try what you said.
but what about the power settings? can one of you edit the power settings in the drivers properties. when i click on it all the entries are deactivated. maybe this is due to the fact, that the sentia has no sensors to mesure the ambient lightning? i don't know? any ideas?

hi guys, I have contacted alienware again, and they told me they were on to programm version 3 of the bios to resolve the problem, as I wasn't the only one who experienced those problems.
I'm now waiting for them to give the new bios free for use.
I also talked about my problem with C&C and BF2. the tech support guy told me he would personaly try it out on a sentia and find the issue. maybe so I'll have the posibilitiy to play those games.

by the way guerilla, which settings do you have in FEAR (resolution, graphics quality, fps?) and which one did you have in Doom 3? the technician could'nt even believe that you could play FEAR. so I'd like to know how much FPS you had and how the game worked... on which settings.

Haha, the tech didn't believe I could run F.E.A.R.? It's all in how you configure things. The Core 2 Duo makes up for a lot. I have F.E.A.R. set to Medium on Computer Performance and the Video setting is Low (Custom). F.E.A.R. will automatically sets settings to what it believes are the optimal configuration for your computer. I tampered with the video settings a little and stopped when I saw some lag during the Test Settings cinematic. It runs absolutely great and smoothly on Medium Computer Performance and Low Video.

So the graphics were a little less sharp and rounded, but with a few tweaks in the in game settings you can make it look just fine.

After I finish defragging I'll check the exact settings.

landsmann,

have you made any progress as far as finding out whether or not it is the fault of the bios? i'm curious to see if alienware actually followed through and called you back because they haven't called me back yet. i'm going to have to call them again i guess. either way, i have tried everything that i can and the fan is still very loud. i'm sure there has to be some way to remedy this situation otherwise i'm going to have to ask for my money back or credit for a different laptop.

I doubt you'd get a refund. There's nothing wrong with the laptop, you're having an issue with noise. There is a 30-day return policy (I believe), but you pay restocking fees, 15% of the laptop price. I can't even say if your loud fan is abnormally loud or the same as mine and FTLOSM's. This could all be a personal issue we don't share.

Just wait for SpeedFan to finish with v4.32 with Core 2 Duo and i945GM support. Or for v1.00.03AL of the BIOs to be released with possible fan control. Myself ad others are working on adding support to SpeedFan, just be patient.

haha no i am being patient. actually i'm just being lazy. i havent called alienware in awhile. for the most part i just leave my laptop in my room and take notes the old fashioned way. just gets crazy sometimes when i wish i could take my laptop to class. i just want some way to know that there is something in the works in the near future that could fix this later on and that i don't have to deal with this for the life of the laptop. but it seems there are things in the works so at least that is some reassurance.

hi,
yes I had contact to alienware. they are programming the verson 3 of the bios, many people contacted them due to the noise created by the fan. but the programation takes some time. I'm just waiting for them to contact me.

When I run sandra and do a cpu burn in at 100% utilization and full speed when plugged in, my temps go to about 60C sometimes hitting 61C for a second but rarely over. Again thats with 100% utilization and both cores going full bore. My fan runs most of the time, but its not that loud to worry about. Idle temps are 38C to 40C. My fan kicks off at 38C and stay off until I reach about 48C then kick on until the temp goes back to 38C. I had to send in my laptop on delivery due to lack of sound needing a new motherboard. I wonder if the tech did not reapply the thermal paste correctly. 60C at max isn't bad, but its 15C more than Guerillla's max...I suppose I should apply some arctic silver to the cpu? Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated. Btw, speedfan will not show my fans either, and I've tried the beta as well.

Whoa.. go away for a little bit to find my topic stickied and the whole site redone

Site looks great

Anyway, I've been running my Sentia pretty much non-stop since I got it, I do, however, now have a small annoying bug on the machine which prevents Explorer from fully loading during the system bootup. Easily corrected by killing the process, and reopening it, but still very annoying. None of the virus scanners out right now are able to find any reason for this to be happening.

And Im not taking the time to reinstall or repair install.

Anyway, still running good as ever since I got it

I bugged Yang and got him to sticky all our reviews

Same here, too, Sentia running just as well as when I first got it.

Speaking of the stickies though, I've run a ton of benchmarks and updated my review quite a bit. I'd be interested in seeing some comparison benchmarks run on your machines. Specifically the 100GB 7,200RPM vs. 80GB 5,400RPM.

Well my 3450 is now dead. I had to rma it the day I got it due to a bad mobo, now 4 days after I got it back (after 3 weeks waiting) the laptop is dead. Completely and utterly dead. Wont power on at all. No lights except when plugged in the AC light comes on and the battery charging light as well, nothing other than that. I tried turning it on battery only, with AC, no battery with AC and tried pulling the battery + AC and holding the power button down for awhile to discharge it. I just got the damn thing back... It died right after I installed OS X86 and installed the intel updates. Shutdown after updating instead of rebooted..why I don't know. The software should not interfere with the powering on though so I am sure its a coincidence, but I have to get OS X off the HD before I can rma it without voiding my warrenty . Anyways, I'm glad your 3450's work well, because mine's been nothing but a headache

I'll wager some guesses:

From my understanding, unless you have a "hacked" version of Mac OS X the OS won't operate on just any Intel based system due to the lack of a security chip. Yes, "Mac OS X86" is the hacked OS' nickname, but the origonal hacked OS X86 was made to run on Pentiums, not the Core 2 Duos.

Apple only recently announced OS X was ready to run on Core Duo and Core 2 Duo processors, so I would have to assume the OS was changed in some way(s) to allow for this. That could be your problem. Intel's dual cores are also 64 bit and I remember reading an article stating one of the primary reasons Macs weren't switching over to Duo Cores immidiately was the OS had problems with 64 bit procs. Again, changes to the OS were most likely made to correct this.

Could installing OS X86 stop a notebook from powering on? It's very possible it did harm to the system. The fact that the battery charging and AC adapter lights turn on says the motherboard is probably fine. The current is traveling through the board to power the LEDs. You may have damaged the processor which would cause a system to not power on or at least fail to POST and just hang.

That's my guess.