Alienware M17x owners complaining of 'skipping, stuttering audio,' with no fix in sight (updated: fix in sight!)
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted November 17th 2009 4:11PM
posted November 17th 2009 4:11PM
Sorry, dudes and dudettes: It seems that a number of you who've purchased Alienware M17x rigs are running into some serious latency issues, particularly skipping and stuttering audio. According to a reader named augur, he has pinged the company, from whom he has received "no positive response or resolution." In addition, we've come across a number of detailed complaints from users all over the Interwebs, including postings on the Notebook Review and Dell Community forums. So what's the deal, Dell? Are you on this, or what? And dear readers, have you been running into problems with your Alienware?
[Thanks, augur]
Update: Dell and Alienware pinged us to say that they are aware of the issue and making strides to issue a fix. Huzzah!
[Thanks, augur]
Update: Dell and Alienware pinged us to say that they are aware of the issue and making strides to issue a fix. Huzzah!
I have yet to have a problem free day with my M17x. I got it just over two weeks ago and the thing didn't even boot up. Had to reinstall windows twice for it to boot. But it still only boots half the time, freezes and requires a reboot most of the time, and has the same stuttering problem most people are complaining about. So far in those 2 weeks, I have gotten 3 hard drives replaced, the motherboard replaced, and a technician who put scratches and dents all over the laptop during the motherboard swap. Plus, after the tech left, I found random chunks of broken plastic and a screw sitting on the carpet where he was working.
Alienware customer service is horrible. They first make you wait on hold for 30 - 40 minutes, ask for your customer info, make you hold another 10 minutes and then actually ask you what your problem is. And if you ever need to talk to a support supervisor, like I have had to do, they put you back on hold for another 30 minutes. I have gotten no resolutions with Alienware yet and I'm starting to run out of minutes on my cell phone.
Don't ever buy Dell/Alienware laptops unless you like stress and like buying things that don't work.
your still in 6 months of ownership. if your in the uk, you can request a replacement by law under the sale of goods act 1979 as ammended. they have to prove that it was you who screwed it over, not them.
do not accept a repair as repair has been proven to not work and the cosmetic damage was caused by their technician. you do not have to prove it was the technician that damaged it, because its within 6 months, and thats what the alw states.
go sale of goods act, go!!
I'm so glad Engadget decided to run this story. We can't seem to get any real acknowledgment from Dell that at least they're aware and they have a fix planned for this.
My M17x is fantastic at gaming with dual 4870s crossfire, but I really am not cool with these latency spikes. To be fair, the gaming is flawless but I'd like to know I can count on this machine to do proper audio as well (Especially for a 2200£ machine)! If this wasn't a replacement machine for my M1730 I'd definitely send it back.
I think this must be dell's way of punishing people who spend entirely too much money on laptops in general, and gaming laptops specifically. Normal human beings do NOT require 4000 dollar laptops. Here's an idea:
Spend 1500 on a really nice laptop
Spend the additional 2500 that you saved for a week in Hawaii in nice style.
That should put things into perspective a bit: you just spent a Hawaiin vacation on a laptop so that you could play Worlds of Warcraft.
Yeah.
Good call.
Dude, some people don't stay in one place to be able to have a huge LCD + Tower + peripherals setup and still want to game. We paid a premium for it, but its worth it for us. Gaming laptops are viable now, this argument is tired, and there are plenty of ways to "waste a hawaii vacation" in this world.
Tell me about it, Alienware in generate is a big joke, even bigger after Dell bought it
I had a maxed out m15x when it first come out 4k+ rig.
It's been a little over a years since the day i received that piece of XXXX, guess what, there were only 3 months out of a year that XXXX is working. Filed with BBB, but guess they Dell don't give a crap, it's always "I am sorry to hear that, but there is nothing we can do about it."
Whoever is thinking about it, never buy from AW please, they make you miserable. o0o off Dell and AW
And FFS engadget please don't advertise for AW anymore.
I've had this problem before on a bunch of laptops. If it has an nVidia graphics chip in it, download PowerMizer Switch and set power savings to off, at least on AC power. That seemed to have gotten rid of audio stuttering for me.
I bought an Area-51 m15x last year and for the amount of money I spent on it, it could have been a better-built laptop. Yes, at the time, it was the only 15-inch laptop you could get with a GeForce 8800M GTX video card, but you give up a lot for that video card. The casing has this flimsy, cheap plastic feel to it. The touchpad was barely usable. They used unreliable touch-sensitive buttons where physical buttons would have worked better. And the freaking DVD drive didn't even have an eject button. The Alienware software looks like a hack job and doesn't even work very well, especially with their Windows 7 drivers. Their tech support is pretty much useless. I am never buying an Alienware computer ever again.
This is what happened with Vista and Windows 7 moving the sound drivers from being accelerated to being a user-mode CPU-dependent driver. This is why Windows Vista & 7 sounds stutter on login. This was a mistake by Microsoft and a step backwards.
umm, what were they accelerated by before? No computer ever had a sound acceleration chip standard. The WaveRT is better then DirectSound in many ways, 90% of audio problems in Vista (and now Windows 7) are caused by shoddy drivers by the OEMs not Microsoft.
One of the reasons why many people are refusing to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. The upgrade may cause more problems than it solves.
M17x here and the same DPC latency issues. For a laptop that cost in excess of $6kUS it's a bit troubling that it has these issues. I'm not suffering as bad as offers (my DPC tops out at around the 2k mark with occasional higher spikes), it's still useless for any audio/video application.
Oh wellk
This is a issue with the hard drive access causing stuttering audio install the latest Intel Matrix storage manager should fix it.
Sadly that's not the case Totallyrandom. The M17x uses the NVidia chipset with the NVidia SATA/Raid controller.
Sounds like the same issue the Dell Optiplex's had, with CSTATE control and energy saving options in the bios. When enabled sound and video would skip. If the no one has checked the BIOS on those devices for things like that I would. Disable them and try again, it was the only way to fix the issue until the BIOS updates were released.
The Dell D820's also have the stuttering problem. It has to do with the processor running at half speed.
I have a Studio XPS 16 and have had no problems with this whatsoever. In fact, I stress the audio latency of my system a lot by using Pro Tools and other DAW audio editing programs. Nothing but smooth sailing. To say that everything made by Dell has this problem is in fact wrong.
Who is saying that every model made by Dell has this problem? I work in IT at a university and we have a "recommended" pre-configured laptop setup that is updated yearly. The D820's that I have worked on had the same problem as the Alienware.
OMG i acoualy have been dealing with alienware the last 60 days. I had 3 Replacement systems along with a number of main board replacements because of a raid 0 error causing the system to crash when watching movies or playing youtube files. and if it was in ATA mode it would just lock up the sencond drive that i would use for backup.
Big reason i went with alineware was becasue of the power it offerd even know it was a heafty price tag. it was cheeper then buying a Boxx. im studying in the feald of 3D modeling and animation and on paper the alienware seemd to be a good choice.
Eventualy they gave me back my money because each system had the same problem. Stay away from the M17x untill the refresh. then after that give it a few months to be debuged.
There needs to be some type of motherboard revision to fix the problem because BIOS updates don't work.
Ive owned my m17x now for quite a while, and i can say ive never had any problems with it whatsoever. I can honestly say that it is one of the best laptop purchases ive made to date.
-_- I pray one day we will move beyond Interrupts and will be allowed to do audio in real time...-_-
sounds like a bios issue with prioritization, they should be able to fix it. I had a problem with the wireless card causing issues, basically the Interrupt request would wait to long on the wireless card and miss the audio interrupt on occasion causing skipping (which everyone knows it should be the other way around) they fixed the issue with a BOIS update that changed interrupt prioritization.
It probably has nothing to do with Vista or Windows 7, why are you guys even bringing the OS into the equation.
I purchased a m9700 a few years back and only had problems with it. Shipped with a piece of paper between the gpu and heatsink, and several more failures/issues out of that. It is now completely useless because the hinge on the screen gave out. I had sent it in while on warranty and they "fixed" it by tightening the screw. A week after warranty was up, the hinge failed and shot shards of plastic all over my desk.
I had heard good things about them before my purchase, but their support forums really show how problematic the machines are. I don't know that Dell is to blame but they surely haven't helped. It doesn't surprise me that people have had a problem and haven't gotten any help.
I don't know about performance, but Dell are sturdy, reliable laptops (AFAIK).
Lets call it what it is. A Dell.
My M17x has been having stuttering problems for the past week and a half or so, I'm glad I'm not alone.I'm not glad, however, that Dell isn't helping out.
Go back to Windows XP and it will solve those stuttering problems.
yepp.. that's PCs for ya
I think this may be related to the same issues us Intel RAID users are having. See the forum here:
http://communities.intel.com/thread/5036?start=0&tstart=0
It's causing the same issues as described and hard drives to drop out of RAID(this due to the time-outs). Seems to be with the SATA/RAID controller drivers. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the Alienware laptops use Intel chipsets? I'm going to say it's an Intel driver issue!
There is hope, however as Intel has a new driver ready to come out any day.....
No, they unfortunately use nVidia chipsets which in themselves are a pain.
This isn't just an M17x issue.
The issue exists on any laptop built on the OCZ Whitebook platform, which the M17x is. I know, I have the exact same laptop minus the Alienware doodads purchased from xoticpc.com. All the specs match.
I have the same issue. I found that in Vista when I change the power options to never run the processor at 100% I don't have the issue. Also, yesterday, I purchased a higher end cooling pad and that seems to do the trick. I'll know more but so far it helping the laptop run with no issues.
From what I've read it is the poor cooling system of the quad cores that causes the stuttering.
Funny how Engadget is right there to help out over Audio, they didn't want to report anything regarding the Hinge and over heating issues of the M15x. Where were you then engadget when Alienware customers really could have used your help.
Here's my beef with Alienware (I owned two and haven't touched them since). Anytime there is a problem that is widespread on the forums, Alienware loves to deny it for awhile. They also love to ship computers that run way too hot and downclock themselves.
Alienware = overpriced Clevo / Sager
I haven't noticed any stuttering on mine yet but I'll start paying attention...
My Alienware m17x has been holding up fine...Win7/Linux drivers weren't great when I updated to that but everything works fine now. Build quality is very very good, not the best but the machine is very solid and well worth the money imo. Screen is really nice...don't get why people are crying about it. I've compared mine with a couple of other laptops including HP's and other Dell laptops - only screen I like more is the RGB LED backlit Studio XPS 16's. This one gets fingerprints on it quite easily since it's glossy but that's the case with all glossy screens.
The keyboard is kind of "meh" and the trackpad could be better. Also quite heavy for a laptop that is supposed to be lugged around to class, but I knew that before I got it...other than that stuff, I have no major complaints. I use an external mouse anyway and while the keys themselves aren't that great, having a full sized keyboard is really handy, especially with the numpad.
I've been having the same issues with mine since day one. I installed the new sound card drivers which helped in games, but I still can't even consider listening to music or watching a youtube video.
My HP HDX16 (with NVIDIA graphics and Intel C2D) does this as well. I also contacted HP about the problem and the only advice they've been able to give me is to reinstall Vista, twice now. I did with no luck. The audio skips, but only when I use Windows Media Player. I've been using iTunes for a while now with no skipping issues, so I just figured it was that WMP sucked, but recently I haven't been able to play video files in VLC without little hiccups, so I really have no idea what's going on. I only paid around $1300 for it, but I'm still concerned. I will follow this story and see what fix Dell comes up with. Hopefully I can learn what's going on with mine too.
You'd think that the OEM vendor they got the $20 HD audio chip from would have good drivers. I bet it's down to an actual hardware issue with some of the systems.
I warned folks, Nvidia chipsets always have problems creep into them. Never, never, even though I eyed a M17x myself, would I ever put a Nvidia chipset in my household.
Feel bad, because folks put some big $$ on these things and I tell you there are always bugs in Nvidia chipsets. The dual video thing was a good idea, but not worth the risk of a Nvidia chipset. Go research the Toshiba Qosmio models that also use Nvidia chipsets and you'll find a wealth of problems, some major, that plague the owners.
Very sorry for these owners.
Turn off the POWERMIZER on the GPU, fixed my audio issues
Just put the payment to your credit card in "dispute" and see how fas a fix comes.
I should have said charge and not payment.
I've got this exact model and I've never had any stuttering except when I hit the eject button. A touch eject button is not a good idea lol... seriously it'll freeze for 10 seconds sometimes & I just have to pray it reads the cd or dvd... if not lol it requires a reboot... in which you'll have about a 20 second window to get the cd or dvd out. If not lol windows doesn't ever see it.
When I was looking for a laptop for producing music, the only ones powerful enough to run VSTs for a decent price were gaming laptops. After using a couple of them, I can say right off the bat that the people who design these things, generally don't really think about audio or usb/firewire performance. They make sure the videocard works and the rest of the features are slapped onto an all-in-one chip. Ended up going to the darkside and got a mbp. In retrospect, I could have gotten a workstation laptop, but they were starting to cost a lot more than the mbp when I priced them out.
Perhaps this audio issue is a measure to prevent Basshunter wannabe's?
My Area 51 Athlon 1.4 GHz that I bought in 2000 is sitting in my closet running ubuntu, and making all my Hulu-on-PS3 dreams come true. No latency issues there.
I've had the worst customer service and buying experiences from Alienware. I've purchased 3 Alienware computers over the years and ALWAYS have had technical issues, manufacturing defects, etc.. which have all led me to the absolute worst customer service experiences from any computer manufacturer. I used to just chalk it up to luck of the draw or coincidence but have since sworn off all AW products. I truly hope Dell can revitalize or reinvent the AW quality control or customer service culture but I've read more horror stories from AW than any other company. That being said, I've had nothing but wonderful experiences from Dell. I'm currently using an Apple unibody mbp and even though I'm anything but an Apple fan boy, I've been pretty happy with the product. I recently got back online to see if Dell had any more flagship XPS gaming laptops on the market and was very sad to see that they seem to be using AW exclusively to fill this niche. Too bad... I'll never buy AW again. It's bad for my health.
Just wanted to add that I received the m17x on Nov. 24th and It also skips audio every 25 sec or so when playing media. I want to toss it out the window! Audio is a HUGE issue when it comes to multimedia experiences.