diggum

I have an HD display and I have none of these problems. Have you tried to output via HDMI using either enduro/7970m alone and see if there is some trouble there?

I know the last part of my answer doesn't help you but may delineate GPUs vs display problems

Can anyone help

ok, i was hoping for someone to help me out, but what i have realized is, that at the moment the drive polls, it seems a 2nd "High Definition Audio Controller" under system devices pops up.....it has a yellow exclamation mark against it, (not started) and then it disappears itself, and no more polling...i have brought down the frequency of the polling by (sheepishly i must add) by disabling the "prefetch" in registry ...that remained enabled on my 840pro......despite going through the ssdreview's advice

tactx...from Dell.... i know fanboi'ish statement....

I'd recommend (in this order)

reflash last bios

Install intel INF

and Management engine drivers

Make sure you check the power profiles for Windows (there is a selctive GPU setting inthere/ and or NVIDIA's own power saving check...i have 7970M so i can't tell you where exactly you might find the option to disable power saving)

hit us back if issue still persisting

no the unlocked bio opens up hidden options, but the issue you are describing is more in-line with doing Fn+F7 and allowing it to reboot. I do hope you have installed all the relevant drivers (Intel INF+storage and Management Engine)

I was wondering if the community had chanced upon a hardware fix to stop the Blu-ray from consistently polling,

drives (pun intended) me nuts.... if there was a way to disable the thing in bios that'd be grand

PS first post after joining

Alienware is all bling, but they do use optimus / enduro and thus benefitting some mobility from their laptops. Case in point my r4 gets 5+ hours easily with WIFI and 2 notches above nil in brightness