Get your Catalyst 10.7 (non-WHQL) here

I thirdth that!

 

Is there a common consensus yet as to why the Catalyst Mobility are failing with 5870?

Has anyone tried to remove any of the Alienware features in order to see if the Catalyst Mobility drivers will install properly after that? I keep wondering if this Stealth mode has anything to do with the problem. Other than tick customers off it serves no purpose.

Is it possible that Dell has put a code onto the GPU that searches for Dell drivers and if the GPU can't find the code than it runs in a reduced state?

I think the answer for you guys is to ask the right questions to Alienware. The Alienware guys cleary are not allowed to give you straight answers on the CF issue but if you ask the right questions you may get a back door solutions so to speak.

 

I think you are coming in late into the game... The custom powerplay from Dell is the problem as confirmed by Joker and many members from here.

 

Thanks for the update. I am confused, I thought Powerplay was part of Catalyst Mobility. If you delete Dells Powerplay why is there a conflict? Thanks for your explanation. Does knowing that Powerplay is the problem help you to modify the drivers?

 

Powerplay is in the vbios. There is no way to delete it unless you flash the GPU bios.

I believe someone here flashed the vbios with the clevo one and it bricked the card.

 

Thanks for your answers. Do you think we all have the same Vbios?

 

Yeah what we NEED is the original VBIOS that came on the cards when dell first ordered them from whoever built them (AMD or otherwise) before they messed with powerplay.

And really - those powerplay tables are a MESS!

Dell must have quite a bit of software workarounds in place in their drivers to make sense of them.

Anyway, the solution is, we need that OEM VBIOS. If we get it, I and others can change the powerplay min/max values with RBE to fix any heat/temp problems WITHOUT doing what dell did (rewrite the powerplay tables into a dogs breakfest).

You really only need to change a few values in RBE. Dont know why dell didnt.

-Ash

 

Just got off the phone with Alienware and the tech rep. "talked" with those who know. he told me that they were unaware with any issues related to SC2. They also have no upcoming driver updates in the works.

I know you should never believe a rep. but, I am really disappointed in the purchase of this computer. Between this and the flickering, I am so discouraged.

I will never buy Alienware again... First the m15x ripley, and now this.

Guys if you have not called Alienware, this is partly our fault. We must let them know what the hell is going on our end.

1 800 ALIENWARE

Please call and voice your problems. Don't put it all on the shoulders of Joker, erawneila, etc.

 

Erawneila is an Alienware Quality liaison that has direct contact with the engineers. If anyone can relay what's going on and get it done fast, it's him.

 

techPowerUp! :: Guide to Video BIOS flashing

 

Yeah but it's been my understanding that he has been relaying the information for quite a while now and nothing is being done.

Alienware is failing us.

 

Yeah, we are happy to flash the vbios so long as we can GET a vbios to use.

Joker confirmed the clevo bios bricked his card, so we need to try another.

Joker, did you blind flash to get the card back? Or did you get a return?

I have blind flashed before when I was messing with 7900gs->7900gt modding so Im not afraid to do it. Perhaps we could try one of the modified Asus G73 vbioses? Im aware Asus make their own 5870m's, but perhaps it would be more compatible than the junk bios we have now.

-Ash

 

What about a Dell 5770 desktop vbios?

Ashtefere, did you do the flash in windows or dos?

 

They've known about the driver/vbios issues since the system was released. They really don't need our reports because this is a deliberate design decision, not something that just happened by accident. That's why I doubt they will do anything. At most we can expect a driver update and then Dell will shift it's attention to it's newer systems once they release. They have failed their customers miserably. Just look at the M15x as an example of how royally Alienware can screw it's customers. Those guys are stuck with the A06 bios + severely throttling GTX 260M's and instead of doing the right thing and giving them all 5850 upgrades, they've been stonewalling them for a year now.

Yeah the problem is once you brick a card in the M17x-R2, it won't boot if one of the crossfire cards is dead. You can't blind flash it at all. I could have recovered the card if I had access to an M17x-R1 since it has an integrated GPU. I sent the bricked card back to Dell and got an exchange.

 

Hmm.. thats a worry then.

Anyway, I have sent an email to AMD support explaining our issue and requesting the original VBIOS, as follows:

They (AMD) have always responded promptly to me before with highly technical requests so we will see how it goes.

-Ash

 

I really doubt AMD will do anything but here's hoping they do. They advertise the M17x right on their underground.amd.com website so it's not like they aren't aware of it's limitations.

 

Just had an idea - the MSI GX740 uses the same card - perhaps someone can dump a bios and we can have a look at it?

-Ash

 

Did you ask them in the MSI forum?

Edit: Here's their newest vibios: http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=firmware&maincat_no=135&prod_no=1999 I looked at it and it seems MSI copied Alienware's settings for their newer vbios lol.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi...bios-powerplay-overdrive-etc-all-working.html

Also had a look there.

I have both bioses open side by side - they look identical except for version strings and vendor id's.

Also, it seems overdrive is turned on in the msi bios (!)

Hmm.

If I flash this and it bricks, my girlfriend will kill me or leave me or both (she was pissed that I bought it in the first place - also, its my birthday present to myself).

I guess... we need someone who has an R1 AND and R2 to try flash it - OR someone who is just brave enough and willing to send it back if it bricks.

If it does work - all our problems are solved. All we need is someone with courage and no GF.

Any takers?

-Ash

 

They already flashed the MSI bios in the M15x forum on their 5870s and it worked. But those are Clevo 5870s so I'm not sure if it'd work with the Dell. The tables are exactly the same except the clock for UVD. I think MSI took a page out of Dell's book and copied them.

 

Clock info 02 is different. Also, the tables in bios are only half of the issue - the drivers then need to tell the card what table to use.

Herein lies the problem - dell has changed the powerplay tables in the bios AND changed which ones are accessed in which circumstances.
You will notice there are many different states with the same function - some are accessed when others should be.

Im also pretty sure there have been other changes made that we cant edit/see with RBE, etc.


The key here, I believe, is the ATI drivers are asking our dell bios cards to perform stock powerplay commands/codes that dell have changed.

Its the interaction of the two that is the problem.

Dell Bios w/ AMD Driver = broken powerplay and external display gaming
OEM Bios w/ AMD Driver = fine (in terms of other notebooks)
OEM Bios w/ Dell Driver = ?
Dell Bios w/ Dell Driver = fine (but out of date)

So unless the M17xr2 cards are custom built by dell, our best hope for a fix to all our issues is an OEM bios, which for the moment our best hope is the MSI bios (a derivative of the ati bios).

The bios version strings are:

Dell: ATOMBIOSBK-ATI VER012.0 19.000.006.036284
MSI: ATOMBIOSBK-ATI VER012.0 20.000.032.035757

Looks like they are both modified from the ATI OEM Bios, with the MSI one having a later version.

-Ash

 

See the problem is the tables do work fine with the ATi drivers. When everything is plugged in, the video card cycles through each of the powerplay clocks as it should. The root of the problem seems to be that the driver times out when it's unplugged/plugged in or put to sleep. Take a look at my memory dumps or experiment by unplugging/plugging it in and the BSOD will mention it. Powerplay drives the timing of clock adjustments so I don't think it's as simple as the clocks/tables being out of order. It will be something that needs to be addressed at the vbios or maybe even system bios level--Dell has made tweaks to the system bios for the 5870 several times. Since Crossfire is unique to Dell, I'm not sure any other bios will work. If someone is willing to give it a shot though, the MSI bios is there to test. The Clevo X8100 now has Crossfire from some vendors but I haven't seen anyone with a system yet.

 

The unplug/plug/sleep thing is indicative of the driver waiting on a response from the card of some kind after issuing a command (for example, clock DOWN!, clock UP! Wake UP!)
These are probably a specific set of commands that, in all likelihood, have had their string names or whatever changed.

Im guessing that the fact that this only occurs when the cards are in crossfire may be an issue where the PRIMARY card does the clock up/clock down/wake up properly, but the secondary card does not.

Driver waits and waits and waits for the secondary card to say "OK!" and it never gets that response. BSOD.

With crossfire disabled, the second card doesnt need to be sent commands (its essentially asleep all the time anyway) so the driver doesnt bother waiting for a response.

Im guessing the dell bios has workarounds that tell BOTH cards to clock up and down - perhaps dell have two commands (different one for each card) instead of a universal command (same one for both cards) which is changed in the dell vbios.

When not running a game, the dell powerplay has the secondary card at 150/100 right? what does the default driver show as?

Im pretty sure dell is trying to conserve heat/noise/power by trying to keep the second card down low for as much time as possible using their own set of commands/functions that the AMD drivers/bios doesnt have, and its causing the mixup.

This leads me to believe the OEM bios will have higher temps and higher power consumption, but wont have the lockup issue when the cards need to change states.


Myself, my biggest issue is using an external display in extended desktop mode and trying to run a game on it - I cant.
Im pretty certain an OEM bios will fix that, as again it only happens in crossfire.

-Ash

 

Next time someone is getting an upgrade, replacement, or return they could try this MSI vbios for us.

 

I've worked out a solution for those of you that feel it's too much work to start furmark + rivatuner manually each time on boot so that you can use your system in battery mode. It involves putting a furmark batch file (I'm using version 1.80) in the startup folder so that it automatically executes and terminates after a few seconds. While it does that, Rivatuner starts silently and sets the system clocks to 705/1000 mhz. This disables all powerplay settings so your cards will be running at full speed at all times unless you manually go in and change the clocks but it's automated and fairly painless.

Furmark batch file (you may have to adjust the directory path + timing depending on what version you have installed and where):

Code:

@echo off
cd C:\Program Files (x86)\oZone3D\Benchmarks\FurMark_v1.8.0\
call Furmark.exe /width=640 /height=480 /msaa=0 /max_time=400 /nogui /nomenubar /noscore /run_mode=1 /contest_mode=0 /disable_catalyst_warning

For RivaTuner, this is what your settings should look like:




Remember, before you set the clocks the FIRST time in RivaTuner, you have to do the rivatuner + furmark trick to set them otherwise your system will lock up. Once you've set the clocks the first time around and saved them to start on boot, this will no longer be necessary since you will have the Furmark batch file in place to run on startup along with Rivatuner. Also, this method is built on the assumption that when you start the M17x it's on AC power and not battery. It may work on battery power at boot as well but the clocks would probably have to be adjusted.

This should be fairly straightforward but I'd still say you need to be a moderate to advanced user to get it working right. Once you do however, it makes life with these 10.7's much easier.

 

Welp, with the new drivers I've noticed an increase in fps in BFBC2. There were a pain to install at first but worth it

 

Ive gone back to 10.5s as putting my laptop to sleep has become a natural habit and it important to me, Joker does your rivatuner/furmark method solve any of the sleep problems, have you figured out anything relating to that?

 

what program can I use for the O.clock?

 

well crap, I may have to suck it up with Dell drivers, though I did get the 10.7 installed, and having the same issues as most guys here are.

Can't risk bricking my system while I'm in Iraq, since it would be a monumental hassle to return. Even doing a normal BIOS update makes me sweat...

 

Might be out of my league on knowledge, but after quite a search in google on this subject, i noticed this post about older drivers.
a registry fix, that is supposed to be in next versions (10.5 and later)
it talks about not totally loading into windows...

but...

might just give us some more info... might be better than the 'workaround = true' setting?

it's this link i am talking about.

unfortunately i cant check if those settings are already in my registry, since i cant access CCC...

can anyone check if the named registry values already exist? (and if not, dare try it? )

 

I just moved back to stock drivers and was able to get in to the CCC again.
checked the link and noticed the named reg settings arent in my registry.
When i get home i will try and see what happens when i change them.

fingers crossed...

 

Ok I have one question to all this:
Are these problems you encounter based on the fact that you all do tweak your performance to the max.
If I just take the AW M17x with CF5870s as it is delivered by Dell and the only thing I would want to do is from time to time upgrade to the newest ATI Mobility drivers would I also get these problems??? I mean I am not interested in flashing any Bioses (if not recommended by Dell) and I do not want to overclock the cards or use any third party tuning tools and so on??

Greets

 

I shallhave a look at my CCC..............

 

I havent OC'd anything in my system (below) but i have had / still have wavy lines etc but then again, im using dell stock drivers.
Not gonna be "tinkering" with my system till i am more knowledgeable on how to do it.

 

Well, i went into my CCC, copied the 2nd driver file path and this is what it looks like:

2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/CLASS/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0001

Now, as i am a noob, i aint tryin' nuffin LOL, i will leave that to you guys.

Hope the info helps out.

 

So at the moment I have the option with the AW M17x R2 either to use Dell drivers that are outdated and have the issues with CF microstutter and wavy lines or use the new ATI drivers that might support CF and SC2 but screw up the rest of the system.
Is this the correct conclusion of this thread???

 

All i can tell you is a lot of x/fire users report issues with all the drivers, ati or dell...until they get sorted, there are workarounds available if you look...i think Joker has posted some things that get the stock drivers performing kinda ok...look back for his posts.

Other owners report no issues so its a bit of a tuffie to answer...all i know is that i dont think ANY driver really works 100% with these cards.....

 

10.6 and 10.7 drivers work just fine with SCII.

 

But don't the 10.6 and 10.7 native ATI drivers cause a lot of problems??

 

Yup alot of people are having shut down / sleep issues as well as using the computer unplugged. Its either a much better performance in SC2 vs having those issues above. Tough choice eh? Haha.

 

Bottom line........Dell and AMD both suck big time (gosh, im gettin more stateside by the minute LOL).
They both need to get their act together to sell high end gaming laptops.

END OF STORY!

 

I found a bug

Nothing major, but when your laptop goes to sleep due to low battery and you plug it in and let it reload, the welcome screen is black again.

 

I've been benchmarking with these drivers all morning. A dozen reboots with no issues. Had to reinstall OSD, and that's it.

 

Everyone should check this out:

ATI Releases StarCraft II Anti-Aliasing Hotfix

Lets us use AA in SC2, and could have a few other fixes.

Trying it now.

-Ash

 

Nice find.

 

I cant upgrade my driver when i use the WHQL 10.7 driver and change workaround to true it still dosent give me the option to install the ATI driver in CCC what could cause this problem?

When i use the non-WHQL 10.7 driver and change workaround to true i can install the driver but my computer dosent recognize the driver it says that its upgraded in DXdiag but instead of saying "ATI Radeon HD 5870" it says "ATI Radeon HD 5800 series" i dont know if this has anything to do with the problem just wanted you to know.

Would really appreciate some help
Gramse

 

Has anyone's computer shut down correctly yet? I had a window update that I just installed and it shut downed correctly for the first time after installing 10.7!

 

Mine shuts down perfectly.
I only had issues with ccc

 

Sometimes when I'm turning off my computer the lights won't shut off so then I do power drain thing and it works fine afterward

 

Hm I had the shutting down issue which seems to be gone but never had CCC issues. Funny how everyone has different problem with the same driver installed