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Alienware M15X Video Issue
Hi all,
First post here on the forums. I have a very strange issue with my new Alienware M15X. I got it back in March and - due to extenuating circumstances - only used it for very general things for the first couple of months. But recently more time has been freed and I decided to start using it for some gaming, namely 'Brink'. However, when I ran it, I was getting - at best - around 5 frames per second, even with the graphics settings turned way down low. I thought it might be just that game, so I put on a couple of other games, namely Alien vs Predator (the latest one) and Half Life 2, both of which reacted in the same way (HL2 ran at only about 2 fps).
So I started having a play around to see why "the most powerful gaming laptop" was running games like a snail, and I found out that it was only doing it on games that utilize DirectX. OpenGL games such as Quake 3 and Serious Sam worked fine with excellent framerates (around 90 to 120 fps).
I assumed that it must be something to do with corrupt DirectX files of some sort, so since I hadn't really installed anything I couldn't replace on there, I decided to do a factory reset on the laptop using the provided disks... No dice. It's all back up and running and the laptop still processes DirectX graphics EXTREMELY slowly.
Is it perhaps a faulty video card in the device? I really would like this fixed. I payed $4000 for a laptop that can't even run Half Life 2...
Here are the specs of my laptop:
Genuine Windows(R) 7 Ultimate 64bit
Intel Core2 i7-940XM Processor (2.13GHz, 4Core/8Threads, turbo boost up to 3
15.6 " Full HD (1080p) WLED (1920 x 1080) Display with TrueLife(TM )
1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460M
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM(2x4GB)
CumQuaT
3 Posts
1
May 26th, 2011 19:00
I don't want to speak too soon, but I think I may have found a solution.
1) Overheating is definitely an issue, but it's fairly easy to overcome. Just make sure the rear of the laptop has good airflow and you should be fine.
2) Start the laptop up on battery first, then, once it has FULLY started up and logged in to windows, apply power. I have been doing this for two weeks now and I haven't had a problem since. I think the problem is that the AC adapter doesn't give the laptop as much power as it needs. The battery, however, does. If you start the laptop on the battery, the laptop keeps using the battery for power. Plugging it in afterwards just makes the laptop charge the battery and not actually power the laptop, if that makes sense... Took me two months to figure this out, and it is just shitty design/build quality on Dell's part. Whatever happened to the amazing Alienware laptops of old?
Anyway, I really hope this solves your problem. If I find any more out I'll post it here.
dgkpcon
3.6K Posts
0
May 20th, 2011 08:00
Are you running this driver http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook-win7-winvista-64bit-270.61-whql-driver.html ?
CumQuaT
3 Posts
0
May 20th, 2011 08:00
Hi, yes, I've tried both the reccommended special Alienware NVIDIA driver as well as the one you suggested. I get identical results, making me think that it's potentially a hardware fault. Especially since sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, even after a factory reset.
IroncladMerc
1 Message
0
May 26th, 2011 19:00
I'm having the same problem. When I first got this machine in late 2009 I was able to run games like Crysis at full resolution and max settings and it was smooth as silk. Now when I run Crysis it is choppy even at 1024x768 with everything turned off. MW2 is just playable at lowest settings, and the Witcher is actually pretty smooth once I turned everything down. But it's nowhere near the performance I was getting up until a few months ago. A few months ago I was playing World of Warcraft and all of a sudden the laptop shut itself down, and could not be restarted for a few minutes. I suspect it may have overheated and damaged the video card. I suspect it's actually using only the CPU to render games now.
I did run the full set of hardware tests on it, and it said everything was fine.
So is this problem fixable, can Dell repair it? Or am I out of luck and I need to buy a new laptop already? It's out of warranty.