Dell issues Alienware M17x stuttering audio fix, will it stick?
By Tim Stevens 
posted February 21st 2010 12:15AM
posted February 21st 2010 12:15AM
Update: Seems this is an improvement for many, but not a 100% fix. Mark wrote in to point us to the discussion happening over at the NotebookReview.com forums which, combined with your comments below, makes it seem like we're perhaps not done here just yet.
Update 2: Another update from John B. at Dell, indicating that Alienware representatives have started hopping into their UFOs and visiting the homes of affected laptop users, Whitley Strieber-style. No formal update to this (apparently less than comprehensive) fix has been released yet, but information retrieved directly from the users should lead to some final resolution. We hope.
Update 3: GIRs91MJ commented to let us know of a beta fix posted by Dell that supposedly goes a long way toward fixing the problem. You know what they say about beta drivers (unclean!) but if you're desperate for a fix, give it a go.
Embarrassing that a company as large as Dell would have these problems...
Also embarrassing that a company like Apple would have overheating graphics cards and failing hard drives (and OS's that delete user data)...
Where is the QAQC these days?
@ScienceProUSAcom Creed is looking into it.
@ScienceProUSAcom
Apple also just fixed the audio issue with the Mac Pro. Surprisingly enough, HP hasn't shown up on the radar lately.
In the end, no matter how much QAQC you do, you will always have that one that falls through the cracks. Applies to anything man made.
@Ducman69
+1 for Office reference
@PBB BUT APPLE IS PERFECT AND ALMIGHTY AND GETS HIGHER QUALITY PARTS. What a crock! The apple is turning rotten. I still laugh that Steve Jobs said HTML5 will take care of the Ipads lack of flash. HTML5 is not going to be released till 2022. What an idiot.
@Toshiba
youtube has html that works with ie8 (google)
firfox and safari i think
@owned66 Works in safari, chrome and ie8 - not firefox because of some licencing issues
@ScienceProUSAcom
Since when does Apple make overheating graphics cards and failing hard drives? The OS stuff is definitely on them. But it's not like their suppliers have any incentive to be forthcoming about the potential for their parts to fail.
@ScienceProUSAcom
Caused Apple makes hard drives and graphics chipsets....
Quality control is done in hours/ weeks/ months. If you want manufacturers to sit on hardware for a year, you'll never see new hardware.
The graphics chip issue was not Apple specific. It was the entire chipset line for every manufacturer.
@EM1
Because Dell and HP make hard drives too.......
When parts not made by those companies fail, they are still blamed, however when something fails on a $2,500 - $4000 dollar Mac (I am talking about the Mac Pro issues with audio files that was just fixed) it is their supplier's fault. As someone in the manufacturing sector, I can tell you that any problems with supplier parts become your problem when the product is released/sold. Although it is difficult to QC all of the time, and problems slip by, it is still the manufacturers problem (e.g. Apple, Dell, HP...). Even more so, some of these issues should not have gotten by QC, such as the yellowing screen on the 27" iMac.
To put things in perspective: Ford does not make a lot of the parts that go into their car, however when one of them fails, nobody yells at Ford's supplier, they complain about the cheap parts Ford uses.
@ScienceProUSAcom
I've never actually had any problems whatsoever with my m17x. It has, all in all, been one of my best computer purchases to date. When considering the power for $$$ (sli'd 260GTX's ,quad core 500gb hdd and 4gb of ddr3 ram for 2k cant really be beat in a laptop) I am wholly satisfied with my purchase. Ive even called dell customer support to find where i could get my windows 7 upgrade download, and had no trouble whatsoever (and Ive heard that dell's support is TERRIBLE).
Alienware laptops have had flaws ever since Dell took over.
@s2m0
you obviously didn't have the Area-51 m15x...
Ok the jury is out: If you get a premium computer [M17x, MacPro], then your audio is @#$%^&
@yulebellow
I was just thinking that....the audio works just fine on my netbook after a year and a half of use, time to go with cheaper computers!
(This was a joke, but I do find it crazy how two premium computers in the same week had issues with their audio fixed)
Hehe.
1. Buy an already high margin laptop business
2. Increase the margins even further by reducing quality, having the power of dells supply chain etc.
3. Profit!
@excelsium I do believe you messed up your meme, good sir.
@excelsium
Was a serious post, :j.
My sister's Inspiron 1505 does this exact thing. I've been watching this carefully to see what their fix will be.
So far so good for me. I've played mp3s in Winamp, as well as videos on YouTube and umm...various other video sites and haven't had a problem with the stuttering so far.
@flarkle
way to admit that you watch porn.
@bohoy2k
You post on engadget, therefore you are male, ergo you watch porn. QED
@bohoy2k
Man, and I thought my clever code wouldn't be cracked. Damn you.
Actually, for audio recording enthusiasts on Windows platforms, there's a terribly simple fix to resolve inconsistent latency issues. It actually all has to do with NAP - A feature that was introduced into Vista, WinXP SP3 and exists in Win7. This particular feature can cause some performance issues with on-board network adapters.
For PC's with older chipsets, just disable all your network interfaces when you're doing audio recording. This disables WAP, and when WAP stops checking on the status of your network connections, the mysterious pops and clicks (possible drop outs) are generally alleviated. This method is always worth a shot in testing as it's simple to do and rollback, without performing crazy regedits or whatever.
This of course does NOT apply to this particular article. Dell obviously screwed the pooch with their driver stack.
Had the same problem with my E6400 latitude. Solved it by downloading RM clock and keeping the frequency high and then installing a different wireless driver.
just did a clean installation of Windows 7 and follow John's instructions and there is no difference, still the same audio stutter every 10 - 15 seconds.
Also the PowerMizer registry tweak doesn't work with SLI, it only locks one GPU.
@Spawal
This fix has not worked for me either. Still getting spikes 153301 microseconds is the maximum recorded so far since applying the fix.
A similar audio popping issue was present for the original m15x that came out in 2008, and Alienware released two successive Bios updates that mostly fixed the problem.
One would (or maybe you wouldn't!) think that they would've thought about it before hand this time.
On a related note, audio recording can still be difficult on a laptop because of the noise the fan makes. What tips do you have for getting around this?
For my original m15x, I managed to use stealth mode to lower the fan speed (and thus the noise), which was usually good enough.
I only have this to say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8ju4h2GLD0
@Richard Lai Hahaha where did you find this?
@The Geek I learned about this from a book written by Tony Hawks, a British comedian. Heard of his "Round Ireland with a fridge?"
@The Geek Oh, forgot to mention that Tony is in the band, too (far right).
Forget the Alienware laptops, I'd turn my attention towards the Envy 15!
I love the idea of Alienware but for the price you pay, their build quality has always been horrible, I've owned two Alienware Machines - very expensive $3,000 gaming laptops. One of them the HD's completely failed and took 10 years of data with it and the replacement machine isn't good so I never got much use out of it. I now own a Maxed out Dell Inspirion 1525 and it's also the worst computer I've ever Owned. I will never buy another Dell Product.
@malexandria1 The hard drive going isn't Alienware's fault. They didn't make the hard drive, and hard drives from any manufacturer can die at any moment. It's an unfortunate fact about the suckers.
Guys, NEVER EVER buy Dell again. These issues are typical of their hardware.
I'm a business customer and had to fight Dell to get what is clearly a manufacturing defect on their Optiplex GX520 SFF PSUs fixed. I wasted days on the phone and emails back and forth and the only way I got them to approve exchanging 200 faulty PSUs was to threat to start buying HP instead.
They have not admitted to there being an issue but after the threat I got a positive response. This company is apalling, and despite them finally resolving my issue I will never buy Dell again. They just don't give a sh*t about their customers. Clear and simple.
Guys, NEVER EVER buy Dell again. These issues are typical of their hardware.
I'm a business customer and had to fight Dell to get what is clearly a manufacturing defect on their Optiplex GX520 SFF PSUs fixed. I wasted days on the phone and emails back and forth and the only way I got them to approve exchanging 200 faulty PSUs was to threat to start buying HP instead.
They have not admitted to there being an issue but after the threat I got a positive response. This company is apalling, and despite them finally resolving my issue I will never buy Dell again. They just don't give a sh*t about their customers. Clear and simple.
@Squuiid
Really? How big of a business customer are you? I got 250+ faulty GX260 and 620 replaced in under 2 weeks. And had the exact opposite experience when one of our HP server literally burned up in the rack. Said it was a "Configuration error". Tell me, what possible configuration error causes a server to burn to a crisp?
@Squuiid I have to concur with PBB. I work for the IT department of a large business school that's bought mostly Dell for some time now. Any time something goes, they're extremely quick to replace it. It's actually funny how much better they treat their business/education/enterprise customers than their average home consumers.
I have got a dell latitude D830 and had stuttering problems regarding the sound output. I looked around the web everywhere for a fix for the sound chip. After a few days of pulling my hair out I found that when I disabled the A wireless channel on on my laptops Wi-Fi chip the problem was solved... I would say to anyone to try this.
He's the Scatman.
Still getting spikes in the 69k range after applying the so called fix. I wonder when this will end?
Amazing how when Dell takes over alienware it goes to pot like the rest of their computers
Doesn't work on my M17x, DPC spikes as high as 139,000 micro seconds, but typically it has a 65,000 micro second latency spike every 15 seconds... when its just idle.
I know it's not the same audio hardware, but my Dell 9300 with the Sigmatel audio had a similar stuttering problem. Nothing I could do except a fresh format would take care of it...
Least they're actually getting a fix.
If like me, you're one of the hundreds of DELL and alienware users who got suckered into buying their early machines with Samsung SSDs there's no sign of any commitment to us getting TRIM support. Even with companies like Boeing signing the petition they're still doing nothing.
This will definitely be the last DELL my company will ever buy