The most "Unusual" M15X issue EVER !!!

Have you checked your Power Profile? There are settings for Mix and Max CPU speed on battery. Or, you can try "High Performance" (should be 100%-100%).

There should be Intel Speed-Step settings in the BIOS that you can turn off (well, maybe ... as you know, I have no AW laptop ... just trying to help )

I know you said CPU and not GPU ... but some nVidia drivers have a "Power-Mizer" setting in the own control panel. It's for battery usage throttling.

At least it works good on AC Power Adapter. Even if it could work 100% on battery ... how long do you think it would last? ... maybe 15 minutes, right?

Have you checked your Power Profile? There are settings for Mix and Max CPU speed on battery. Or, you can try "High Performance" (should be 100%-100%).

There should be Intel Speed-Step settings in the BIOS that you can turn off (well, maybe ... as you know, I have no AW laptop ... just trying to help )

I know you said CPU and not GPU ... but some nVidia drivers have a "Power-Mizer" setting in the own control panel. It's for battery usage throttling.

At least it works good on AC Power Adapter. Even if it could work 100% on battery ... how long do you think it would last? ... maybe 15 minutes, right?

I think your problem may be related to the M15x's power/throttling issue. I too had that issue when my M15x had the GTX 260m in it. I got it replaced with an ATI HD 5850, which uses almost half the power of the GTX 260, and it was much better than before. It still downclocks a bit because its on battery power, but not to that low of a speed. It will usually just cut it down to stock speed without turbo mode when unplugged. You may also have to change some settings in the power management for battery use. It usually comes default to cut performance and save power. You can check it in either the control panel or Command Center's AlienFusion.

There is a giant issue with the M15x for the throttling, which is most common with the i7 7xx or higher CPU's and GTX 260M combo, and you can read the giant post here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/439546-aw-m15x-throttling-issue-investigation-stock-clocks-overclocked.html

Basically, whats happening is that the M15x has a 150W total power rating. The GT240/GTX 260m use 65W of power. The i7 quads use another 45-55W of power. which leaves approximately 30-40W left for the rest of the entire system, including the motherboard, dvd drive, hard drive, LCD, etc. Not really enough power, so it will downclock most components to consume less power to accomodate for the remaining system components.

When i got the HD 5850, it also improved my battery life drastically. The HD 5850 only uses a MAX of 39W, and can outperform the GTX 260m for less $$. Now with an HD 5850, you get an extra 26W of power for the system. See where im going with this? So you have 56-66W extra for the system left to use for all other components, which is much better, not to mention better on battery life.

You are not alone with this though. I also got an SSD for the system to help improve battery life/consume less power..

Also, upgrade your BIOS to the new A08 version, just released a couple days ago. It fixes some problems, especially the mouse polling rate and smooths it out. I dont know if it will help with that issue though.

hi guys,

thanks for your valuable posts...I really appreciate it !!!

@tesla: I've tweaked everything in the Win7 power profile and CC power profile as well for maximum performance... including max-min cpu speed to 100%-100%... nothing has helped yet !!! I tried disabling speed-step from the BIOS but to no avail.. my still performs like a P-III on battery mode !!! I have even checked the nVidia control panel and set the performance option from "balanced" to "prefer maximum performance"...but I am sure its not a GPU but a CPU issue !!!

@ methodical : thanks for your reply dude, I appreciate it !!! I am very aware of the M15X throttling issue and I've read all the posts from the notebookreview.com forum and I agree with you, HD 5850 is a better card than 260M and is cheaper as well.. but my problem is the HD 5850 is not available for customizing an M15X from the Indian dell site...it only has the 240GT or the 260M GTX.................

I believe my problem has nothing to do with the GPU throttling issue...its something else.... how can a i7 with 4-cores down-clock itself to 550 Mhz while on battery mode ??? I have fixed the "throttling" issue of the GPU and I have tested all the s/ws out there for it and found positive results....furmark, OCCT, gpuz, prime95..all shows the core speed of mu GPU to be constant while on AC power mode and I'm able to play all the games out there with maxed out settings with steady frame rates !!!

But this cpu down-clocking while on battery mode is killing me....it runs @ 550 Mhz !!! I mean cmon...........I am currently running BIOS A07....i'll try and see what happens with A08.....as far as the track pad smoothing is concerned, I believe the basic driver is far better than the synaptics driver ever was/will be !!!

thanks for your input guys !!!

hey guys,

Compare the above two pics and you'll see what I mean.....I'm trying to find a fix for this issue and as the Dell/AW techs tells me "i am the only one who seem to be experiencing this issue..."there is no one else who could help me out but myself !!!

I'll try upgrading the BIOS to A08 and see what happens...but whatever the case , I'll get to the root of this issue and fix it !!!  I'll let you guys know what happens.... and if you guys got any suggestions/advice, let me know...I'm all ears !!!

CHEERS !!!

My system froze up like crazy with the 5870 (laptop), when on battery mode. The power settings would reset itself all the time. So I never had a bright screen. Then my battery would be plugged in, but it was saying 'plugged in not charging'........ugh! I thought it was just draining it and then refueling it from the bottom up, for some reason. But, it got to the point where it just stayed at the bottom (3%), and I couldnt even unplug the adapter. So, with all those issues (YES, I WAS THE ONLY ONE EXPERIENCING THIS PROBLEM! NO ONE COULD FIGURE OUT WHY MY LAPTOP WAS MESSING UP!) Im so sorry, I know that just burns to hear someone keep saying that when you know there's someone out there with the same issues, but that being said, I digress......

I had to have them replace the whole dang thing! This was after they replaced several innerds (including the motherboard, and it was brand new out of the box, when the problems started. I now have Crossfire 5870 with quad core i5.

Hi Shailesh12,

Have you checked the advanced  power settings in control panel, I initially had the same issue with battery performance. What i found was that the CPU min and max setting differed between what CC was set to and what windows had set. Specifically the CPU min setting, 30% in windows but 100% in CC. I made the same changes to the windows profile and can now play bad company 2 off battery power. I do have the larger 9cell battery option on my M15x and the i7-720 CPU, this combination might be enough for the battery to handle.

Did you update the BIOS to A08? if so any improvement?

Cobbie.

Shailash12,

I just downloaded CPU-Z and repeated your check with the same results, Core speed 2790 using the AC but it dropped to 665 with the battery.

I just spent 10min on bad company 2 using battery power and running CPU-z in the background. The game was playable but the core speed never changed from the 665Mhz in CPU-z. Using CPU-z i also established that my MOBO BIOS is A6 not A7 as expected and i don't think i have the latest NVIDIA driver either. Both of these I need to update.

I'm not sure where this leaves you, i get the same results when using CPU-z but but my in game performance seems to be better, i will admit that desktop performance and game loading speed is definatly reduced off battery.

Cobbie.

Well after much research about this, I think I figured out why the CPU downclocks so much on battery.

Apparently, the i7's need a LOT of power to be able to run full speed, and the battery just does not discharge enough power to keep it running at full speed. The battery can only discharge at a certain amount (85Whr for 9 Cell), or heat would be a major issue for the battery, cutting its lifespan greatly. The M15x needs 150W to run everything full speed, and the battery just doesnt deliver enough. Even if the battery could supply enough power to run the machine full speed gaming, it would last.......maybe 30 mins at the most if you are lucky.

The latest BIOS, which is A08, allows the M15x a max CPU speed of 950MHz (or close to it) on battery power. The only way to get the full speed out of the i7 is on the AC adapter.

I think the laptop was really designed to be used with the AC Adapter when gaming. Maybe they wil fix this in an R2 version of the notebook.

Well after much research about this, I think I figured out why the CPU downclocks so much on battery.   Apparently, the i7's need a LOT of power to be able to run full speed, and the battery just does not discharge enough power to keep it running at full speed. The battery can only discharge at a certain amount (85Whr for 9 Cell), or heat would be a major issue for the battery, cutting its lifespan greatly. The M15x needs 150W to run everything full speed, and the battery just doesnt deliver enough. Even if the battery could supply enough power to run the machine full speed gaming, it would last.......maybe 30 mins at the most if you are lucky.   The latest BIOS, which is A08, allows the M15x a max CPU speed of 950MHz (or close to it) on battery power. The only way to get the full speed out of the i7 is on the AC adapter.   I think the laptop was really designed to be used with the AC Adapter when gaming. Maybe they wil fix this in an R2 version of the notebook.

Wow lay down give Dell your $3000 and just say okay, maybe they will fix it when they come out with a new one. Toyota tried to get away with that. Hold them accountable and make them fix it. I had a quad core extreme m6500 covet before this computer and it ran like a scalded dog when it was unplugged. I know have the same problem plus more with my new M15x. I will private message you... I would post more but the moderator deletes my post, he is paid well...

It's not just you acmccreary. Everyone has to follow the same rules...

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replace the charger that IS the problem