M17x DPC Latency

[Aedaric]

So,

I've been reading about these three issues a lot on the forums lately. I've done several tests as well as several formats and installs. So far, I've encountered a very mild stutter with the very basic install of Windows 7 Ultimate 64 installed with stock drivers as well as Batboy's. I've also encountered lock ups, granted these have been far between, I've still had them. Most of them occurred on the normal desktop, loading up Firefox, scrolling down a website on Firefox, starting Steam, etc., one upon starting CoD MW 2 before I even clicked on anything it locked up. Sometimes I have a single program hang, then start working again after a few minutes. Windows will complain to me if I click on the window that it isn't responding, but normally I let it continue what it's doing.

I've taken logs of all my temperatures and some screen shots of the DPC latency spikes (shame I can't log that), and a majority of my issues seem to be occurring on the simple desktop, which IMO makes sense as I see my GTX280M's clock speeds change the most while on the desktop, while in game they tend to stay on full load. The minor stutter I encounter is definitely directly related to this issue as well, because my sound will stutter if I have something running in the background and I'll notice the slight jump of my mouse if I was moving it. I check the logs and the frequency certainly changed when I had the issue.
*ADDED* --The issue does still remain after using PowerMizer, as it only modifies my primary card and my secondary card remains untouched, possibly related again to my FurMark tests mentioned below.

Looking at the posts throughout these forums, nothing I've come across has worked, following links to several other websites and wandering through www.sevenforums.com, nothing. I've modified the "Available Memory" to 3990, installed sound/video drivers, uninstalled sound/video drivers, used Windows default sound drivers, nothing has stopped the DPC latency or the mild stutter.

Other steps I've taken have been to disable my 9400 through the BIOS, after-all, that could be it right? So I disabled integrated graphics and of course Hybrid SLI, first I tried simply turning of Hybrid SLI, no change, then both, again, no change, minus my screen doesn't blink black a few times after boot up.

That said, I pressed on, I did more benchmarks. In 3dMark Vantage I achieve around 8k on 186.64 (stock drivers) and 10k on Batboy's 186.82. Processor wise I'm not going to post those stats because I haven't run a proper test of it. Next I loaded up FurMark 1.7.0 and I noticed something very peculiar, something I had only just a few minutes earlier read about in a post on the Dell Community forums regarding a UK user's unfortunate experience with his M17x. The issue is that while running a Stability Test in FurMark, first with Hybrid SLI enabled, I noticed the temperature of only one card increasing, capping at 64~65 degrees, while the second card I have started at the same temperate of 37 degrees and only decreased as the temperature increased on the first card, down to 33 degrees. What this looks like to me is that the full load of FurMark was being placed on my first card, so how in the world do I fix that!?

I'm at a loss, tomorrow (Monday), I plan on contacting Dell and hopefully speaking to a knowledgeable tech who speaks English well enough to understand that I've done my homework, now I want the answers.

Anyone else here have any ideas? I honestly believe all of these issues are related. Just about everything matches the Video Card handling and the changes that are made to them throughout usage.

Also, I'd like to point out I have run tests with PhysX enabled and disabled, there is no 3d Stereoscopic Vision on my system, and I have tried disabling wifi, bluetooth, sound and zero change in average DPC history.

Aedaric


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Updated note from AW MOD:

The DPC Latency issue on the M17xR1 NV GPUs appears to be resolved. NVIDIA eliminated the issue which apparently was being caused by the NV Display Driver. ManuelG of NVIDIA posted the following over @ their forum,

The fix does not disable Powermizer. The driver was in a DPC state for too long and this was corrected. It should not have an adverse affect on performance. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we will be releasing a new driver which unfortunately does not include this fix as it did not make it in time (the fix was added shortly after this driver was built). The fix will be in drivers following this. Once I get the exact driver versions, I will update this thread.

Dell also released BIOS A03 which needs to be applied with the NV Beta driver to resolve the latency issue.

John-B of Dell, posted an update with the process to follow in order to correct the DPC issue. Please see the linked post for details.

M17x BIOS A03:
http://support.dell.com/support/down...&fileid=372828

M17x BIOS A03 discussion thread is HERE:
M17x BIOS A03 Discussion Thread

M17x NV Beta GPU Driver:
http://support.dell.com/support/down...easeid=R266107

M17x NV Beta GPU Driver discussion thread HERE:
Dell/AW Beta Driver 197.31 (DPC Fix - Driver) - Game Performance Related Discussion


Additional Links:

Link to the original DPC Latency thread is HERE:
M17x and DPC Latency

M17x DPC/ISR Tracing - Microsoft Windows Driver Kit style - Thanks to Stamatisx
M17x-DPC/ISR tracing
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[dondadah88]

nice. I will watch more of your progress as you do more testing. I will try to help as best as I can as well.

[Aedaric]

So here's a small update, I'm a bit OCD when it comes to having a clean area, so I was cleaning the keyboard on my laptop with the DPC reader running, and bam, immediately the latency jumped from the yellow range of 3500 to around 4500~6000, and the usual spikes upwards of 16k from the PowerMizer clock modifying.

[Aedaric]

Forgot to post the screenshot.

Also, could a moderator please change the naming of this post to "M17x DPC Latency, Stuttering, and Lock Ups"?

Thank You,

Aedaric

[Lord_Zath]

M17x and DPC Latency

Apparently you haven't seen this thread yet...

[SillyHoney]

Err... What do you mean by saying "lock up"? Sorry for noob question.

[Aedaric]

Lord Zath -- Not sure if you didn't read my post, or perhaps I didn't specify clearly enough. Yes, I have read that post and inside that post they deal solely with DPC Latency and it's affects upon sound. However, in my post I have stated that I believe that the three seperate posts regrading the things inside my title are all related. Considering it's all hand in hand in regards to the Powermizer and clock adjustments in the graphics cards.

In conclusion, yes, I've read that forum, as well as probably 15 ones you haven't.


SillyHoney -- I have a few issues, a lock up is when the system completely hangs, no mouse response, numlock doesn't turn off or respond, nothing, so the only way to get past it is to hold the power button down for 5 seconds until it shuts down hard. Another issue is exactly related to DPC Latency and the sound issues that follow it -- when the video cards adjust their core clock speeds to either reduce power or increase power, my mouse will freeze for a split second then jump to where it is suppose to be with where the movement of my hand is.


Aedaric

[dondadah88]

try 186.24. I find that to be an ok driver compared 186.82.

[Aedaric]

Posted on the M17x and DPC Latency post as well, but it's an update to mine.

So, I am running my laptop and desktop side by side right now, I had just started the download for the new Windows Defender Definition and I believe it finished downloading and started to install it, right at that moment I believe is when my Internet Explorer (the app I was right then using) froze, gave me the not responding issue, and my latency spiked to 46k. This is solely on the 9400 as I believe my system started in the "I have no wall plug" mode, so it was fine in that respect because it gave me a chance to check out the DPC latency on the integrated card, that said, I am still in my high performance power setting because it is in fact plugged in, just a moment after the BIOS screen passed. After the definition installed IE started working again.

Aedaric

[SagerMeister]

I know you've done a lot of research already, so you may have come across this one, but the stuttering problem seems to be much bigger than just that observed in the M17x. It seems like it spans much of Dell's entire laptop line.

Here's a recent thread that details the same issues in the Studio 1737, but note that there's a Dell rep who is responding directly to user concerns. According to the rep, the emphasis is on a bios fix, but it is taking Dell longer than anticipated to conjure one up. The original estimate was a fix back in August, but here it is November and Dell owners continue to wait.

Interesting tidbit from the Dell rep about their listening to customer feedback:

"UPDATING:

The BIOS is going to X-Rev on Tuesday [Nov 17, 2009!]. That means the development team is confident enough in it to have it deployed to a wider testing group. This is one of the latter stages a BIOS or driver goes through before web posting. That does not mean we have a firm ETA. It could mean with more eyes testing, problems which cause it to fail out of testing, if they exist, are more likely to be caught. That would put us back at square 1 + a few steps. Initial tests indicate marked improvement in DPC latency.

I want to mention one other thing that illustrates how we are trying our best to listen. We are using DPC Latency Checker as an approved testing tool. We never used it before, and are using it now based on your input. In my experience, this is a really big deal. I have never seen our development teams latch on so fluidly to customer issue replication methodology ever before in my 6+ years at Dell. So, thanks to you all for your input."

Good on them!

Unfortunately, whatever fix they come up with will be tested on the 1737 first before any other platform, meaning M17x owners will have to wait that much longer.