Alienware M17x suffering from GPU-related power issues
The folks at Engadget report Alienware M17x laptop users are facing power issues. A previous DPC latency issue has just been fixed but now users are suffering from GPUs that draw more power than the laptop can provide.
As it turns out, the symptoms are similar to the stuttering caused by the DPC latency issue (hence the confusion), but the new problems are being blamed on power issues -- namely, that the GPU is drawing more power than the laptop can provide. Worse still is that it seems like those with the highest-end configuration are the most likely to experience the problem, as they're effectively maxing out an already maxed-out system. For its part, Dell has apparently fixed the issue in the most recent revision of the laptop, but users on the Notebook Review forums are reporting that the company hasn't exactly been eager to dish out replacements for everyone affected (which seems to be the only surefire "fix" available).
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