Alienware Laptops vs SL 1.7

Alienware Laptop ... $4K US
SL Yearly Subscription ... $72 US
Monthly Tier ... $40 US

Problems since the upgrade ... priceless!

I have a 6-month old Alienware laptop. The specs are:

Dual Processor Pentium 4, 3.60 GHz
2 gigs of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 Video Card
256 meg video memory
Running Windows XP

Before 1.7, it ran fine with SL, though it did tend to run hot, and I'd have to watch it if I were on for more than 4 hours at a time, it would shut down now and then. After yesterday's 1.7.2 update though, it shut down from overheating after about 8 minutes over and over again.

I updated the drivers and knocked all of the video serttings back down to the bare minimum and I can stay on again now, but let's face it - I paid $4k for this so I *could* turn them all the way up. :/

The fans are all running fine, SL is the only program I ever have problems with. During the problems yesterday, I even had an extra little portable fan blowing directly onto the laptop. The laptop is also sitting on an xbox cooling pad, and there was nothing blocking any of the fans or vents, and none of them were clogged.

I'm disabled, and laptops are really my only option for doing anything for very long at a computer, so I'd really like to make the most of this one, especially for what I paid for it. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks much!

-Claire

In my most unprofessional opinion version 1.7 is stressing out high end graphic cards for unknown reasons. My Nvidia 6800 GT PCI Express card handled 1.6 just fine but 1.7 is crashing me a ton and I have the feeling it is the video card that is suffering. I am sending crash reports to LL but don't really expect an answer.

I had the exactly same experience on my vastly inferior laptop when they upgraded from 1.5 to 1.6. But I needed a new computer anyway, so I just upgraded to a desktop.

I've been getting them (crashes) since 1.7 too, on both my -DUAL- 7800's and my other pc's 5950 and I NEVER did before. I used to use the 5950 card/pc mostly since I run fps servers on the dual 7800's but they crash too. I just seem to get a little life out of either before the game crashes or locks up and crashes.

Wow so i am not alone in this area. I have a PCI-E and SLI MB. But with GT 6600....And i am crashing at times myself.

I have the same laptop you do... same specs, perhaps some extras as well, couple dual layer dvd burners, lil camera in the display etc…

It does get hot but even with 1.7 chuggin along I still can't get it to overheat to point of shutdown. It’s never overheated even once since I had it. Was on all day today pretty much to…

I've had it all through 1.6 I believe as well or since February anyway. I run photoshop to np while running sl with maxed out settings... (local lighting of course off for a few up until last update)

Only thing I may be doing differently is that I have it on a desk, and hooked up to large hd screen with the laptop display off and closed. I can’t imagine the laptop’s display causing that much extra heat, but guess that’s possible. I occasionally use the hd screen for a mac and have never noticed a problem using the laptop screen other then it hurts my eyes after a while!

Anyway, even on a liquid cooled mac, you can hear the fans kick in bigtime when you load sl… sl just gives any computer a good workout right now I think. Agreed, 1.7 seems to be (pretty much still kinda ****** up) using a few more resources then what 1.6 did, and probably will even after they are done patching this version to get us back up to 1.6 speed and reliability.

I would definitely double check your video drivers, double check that you can hear the video card fan, it’s clearly audible when sl is running, and I can always feel some serious heat on back and left of the alienware machine… (actually capable of keeping your coffee warm on the left side) and only other thing I can think of, is that it's really just a desktop slammed into a small package. I can’t imagine even trying to sit with this thing on my lap it really needs to be level on solid surface to cool properly with plenty of space around it. I don't know what an x-box cooler pad is, but air space under the machine may be better if that pad takes any away...

Might just be a simple fan not doing its job on the video card or in the machine, possible bad video card? In any case, the machine you have should run the latest version fine; I’m not experiencing any issues that effect my enjoyment of sl that don’t seem to be server, grid or drama related. lol

Also, try removing the pcmcia card if you can and have one in there, and that rubber stop that covers the media stick ports, and take out the removable drive bays just to see what happens? I don’t ever really use it on battery, it’s seems to serve as simply a device to let it sleep for a few while you move it lol. So removing it might help with heat issues as well? Just guessing…

Hope that helps… good luck

If the laptop is overheating, isn't this a hardware issues more than a software issue?

Generally it's expected that hardware should be able to provide it self with sufficiant cooling.

This cooling pad is metal, a few inches thick. The four corners are elevated, to provide space underneath the laptop for air to circulate and the fans to work. It's very stable, and doesn't give at all.

I think you just hit it - during most of the problems right after 1.7.2 was released, if I kept SL minimized, it didn't overheat. So yeah, I think the display really is the problem. (And LOL at the cup of coffee comment - you ain't kidding, and I have the burn marks on my arm to prove it!) And yah, I always say it's not a laptop - it's a desktop I can hold on my lap.

So if we're running the same software on the same machine, and you're bypassing the screen and having no problems, and I'm using the screen and having tons-o-problems, I think we may have a winner. At least this gives me something solid to start from, thanks much everyone!

I'll talk to my computer guy about the pcmia card (I don't feel comfortable doing that myself), but I did just take out the rubber stop for the media sticks (at least I can do that much and I'll yank the battery as soon as I'm done posting this. Cross your fingers for me! Thanks everyone

-Claire

I've been testing on a laptop and a desktop, both run pretty much fine, my 6800gt agp card is very stable i would say moreso than 1.6 which used to crash with a blue screen.

SL tries to grab as much cpu time as it can and this can take its toll on a laptop, if you laptop has power saving mode for cpu throttling i would try those, running my cpu at 80% can reduce temps quite alot

As far as over taxing the pci-express cards i wasnt able to test those having only agp at the moment but frommy tests here, i've noticed that when you reach a certain agent count it doesnt matter what card you have things start getting limited by cpu power, with 30 avies or so i could overclock my graphics card with no effect, so it may be worth checking you cpu to make sure its being cooled ok etc.

i myself am haveing problems with occasional studder step/then freeze,then crash,i was able to solve a good part of my geforce 6600 gt 256mb card by installing 2 dual pci cooling fans,1 on the bottom pci slot,1 on the pci slot right below the card..stills seems to lag every so often,but the overheating crashing problem as been limited..plenty of ventilation is a pcs best friend..

Didn't you get the liquid cooling system? If you did you may need to refill the resevoir with coolant, it tends to need replacement once a year or so. You can order it thru AW, and use a bit of distilled water till it comes in.