How to install 10.5 on your 5870 M17x -R2

this is being posted here just to share the info...I posted within one large thread but i've seen this discussed in a number of threads....feel free to delete if considered overposting....

ok guys, lots of blood, sweat and tears here but i just did it....

here it goes:

1) extract the drivers from dell
2) extract the 10.5 drivers to a separate location.

3) copy the GPU identifier from the dell inf C7_95371 and paste into the 10.5 ATI inf file C7100002. I also did the same from the second Dell inf file and pasted into the ATI second inf file. Not sure if that was necessary. I have included it below to save you some time.

4)I pasted this into the top of the [ATI.Mfg.NTamd64.6.1] section by going to the beginning of the first entry and hitting enter. then pasted this below.

"ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870" = ati2mtag_Manhattan, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A0&SUBSYS_043A1028

5)Then i went to the config file "C:\ATi\support\10-5\config\InstallManager.cfg" and changed the installworkaround=false to =true.

6)I returned to the ATI folder and ran the installer located at c:\ATI\support\10-5...

I didnt even uninstall the dell driver and it worked like a charm....(good idea?Bad idea? what do you think?)

Driver Packaging Version 8.732-100504a-100002C-ATI
Catalyst™ Version 10.5
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.1030
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/CLASS/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0000
Direct3D Version 8.14.10.0753
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.9836
Catalyst™ Control Center Version 2010.0504.2152.37420

im going to paste this info into one other post where this was being discussed just to get the info out.

 

How are they running? Any BSODing or crashing?

 

i'm sorry to say, yes, bsod over and over....hopefully better results for someone else.

I had to roll back to dell's driver....bummer.

I kept getting an error on the BSOD about not getting response from second processor...im assuming thats the 2nd gpu....

 

Pretty much. Seems like Dell had to change something to get these to work in crossfire. Obviously that meant slowing them down to a degree.

 

@aranthira : why don't you download the mobility 10.5 ?

ATI Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

 

Hi all, each time i install a new or old version of the ATI driver for my 4870xfire cards the screen will go blank and not on, If i disable crossfire and install this does not happen, i cannot see anything wrong with the second card and the xfire bridge and fans are connected correctly. Anyone else experienced this problem or any idea's?

Thanks

 

Thanks for the suggestion, my instructions are with the 10.5 mobility drivers.

 

if it's the mobility you haven't to change the inf.

 

Does the Catalyst Control Center 10.5 make any improvements? And where do I download it, through dell.com or through AMD?

 

i thought u werent ment to download 10.5 CCC as its not been fixed by dell?

 

i wish that was the case. unfortunately you do because the 5870's are not identified by part number in the driver's list of compatible cards.

You have to grab the device id's from the dell drivers and copy over as i stated in my instructions.

the 4870's dont have this issue.

 

Guise,

Was I a tard for having dell downgrade my dual 4870's to a single 5870? I was outside of the return policy and figured it would make upgrading to dual 5870's cheaper (since now I only need to buy 1 card instead of both).

 

you can try to see with mxm update if it's not cheaper.

 

My 4870s do, for some reason.

And by the way, those that like to use OpenGL applications or OpenGL games should use 10.4 or wait for 10.6, as 10.5 includes a buggy OpenGL driver.

 

Can you install modded drivers also?

 

did the 10.5 give better performance?

 

Did Alienware or Dell give any insight on the video driver updates. Will they allow ATI drivers in the future or just dell drivers? I remember reading somewhere on this forum that the dell drivers are only a temporary thing.

 

According to Joker they will allow ATI drivers on the 5870 XF as it was a mistake in the first place that they did not work.

Let's see what happens but the fix is really taking a long time. It's probably 100 lines of codes to change it should take a day or so at most...

 

Hello i follow this tutorial but when i try to run a game i get BSOD, can you tell me how i could succed on this.

Is awful, i play a game for 5 or 10 minutes and then the performance reduces to the half,

i got a M17x R2 intel 920 and 5870 CF

Please help HEEEEEELP

 

Again and as mentioned a million times throughout this thread even by the OP. The 10.5 currently DO NOT work with the AW 5870CF.

Dell is currently working on the issue with ATI but you have no choice but to use the Dell drivers for now...

 

These comments are a little dated but I don't think much has changed. Some on this Forum have wishfully suggested that the next Catalyst will support the M17x. Everyone I have talked to at Alienware says just the opposite. It is unfortunate for those who have spent thousands of dollars and want to keep their laptop up to date.


"ATI have for many years had their hands tied with laptop manufacturers (OEMS) who request that ATI do not offer support for their device in the Catalyst Driver. This may seem strange, however makers such as Dell may have implemented their own support system and they do not want their customers downloading "reference" drivers from ATI's home page."

Terry Makedon: AMD Manager for Software Product Management Graphics Product Group issued Driver Heaven with the following statement in April of 2007:

"AMD (formerly ATI) introduced the concept of Catalyst Mobility which is a generic driver that works decently for most laptops. The only way we are able to do this is through permission by a laptop manufacturer (OEM) to include their device in the Catalyst Mobility. We were the first company to provide graphics drivers for laptops to the general public, and we believe there is great value in this. At this point we only have permission from a few vendors and I personally wish more of them would let us. My suggestion is you contact your manufacturer and ask them to have your laptop included in Catalyst Mobility. As for Vista specifically we do not have permissions yet, but as soon as we do we look forward to releasing Vista drivers for laptops."

 

The M17X R1 and R2 for 280M SLI and 4870 single and Crossfire all accept the graphic card drivers...

The 5870 I believe was just a mistake and will be corrected. We do not spend thousands of dollars to have a PC with an outdated ATI driver...

 

Joe you are very knowledgeable and I think you and many others have found a back door way to hack the drivers. That is really great, Kudos to you but that is not the official song and dance. For the rest there were back door Mod sites that would modify the driver for you. That is not the same thing as saying Dell supports Catalyst for laptops. Dell never has and never will for laptops for four reasons, specific customization, tech support cost, warranty repair cost, and new system sales.

 

Yes you are right. I just never really thought about it this way.

 

10.1 - 10.5 require no back door or hacks to install the drivers. They support the 4870's from dell without any modifications. I'm not sure what you're talking about to be honest with you.

 

Mobility Catalyst are not officialy supported by Dell as ATI does not have Dells permission. If Dell was supporting mobility catalyst than there would be a huge press conference and that has never happened to my knowledge.

Using a cleaner to remove dells drivers in order to force catalyst to work is a MOD. Over the years some combinations of Dell laptops, catalyst, and Ati GPU's work and others don't. Some people have had a smooth install while others have lost control of the process and have had to reinstall their operating system. There is nothing wrong with reinstalling your operating system but I just think people should know ahead of time the risk and the possible consequences.

I have talked to both ATI and Alienware technical departments numerous times and have spent many days researching the topic. Personally I would like to use the mobility catalyst but not at the expense of other problems. Both ATI and Alienware advise against it.

Generally, drivers are no longer researched and developed for legacy and EOL components and this may explain why the recent versions of catalyst worked better with 4870.

Over the years there have been several petitions to Dell about the issue. Nothing appears to have changed. Here is a little history on the topic.

ATI MobilityModder

 

so your recommending to the R2 crowd to use the dox driver?

 

What FalconMachV is saying was the old way that ATI released their drivers. With this I mean that if a brand (Dell/Acer/etc) wanted their graphics cards to work with the ATI generic drivers they had to allow ATI to include the identifiers. Opt-In as it was called

The new plan for ATI mobility drivers is that if a brand doesn't want to be included in the generic drivers then they have to tell ATI. If they don't then the drivers will support their machines. Opt-Out.

The following comes from the Windows 7 mobility drivers download page. As you can see the only brands that have so far opted out of the scheme are Toshiba, Sony and Panasonic. The rest should work with the generic drivers assuming that ATI gets hold of the hardware identifiers.

p.s. I remember reading about this back when the first mobility drivers for Windows 7 appeared. Don't ask me where though. Probably AMD home page.
p.s.2 Found it LINK

 

so dell is pocket vetoing the opt out of for the generic drivers hmmm....still not clear answer of yes or no but ill deal with that.

 

CyPsychotic, your post suggests the 5870 crossfire on the M17x would be supported...
but it doesnt...

and that's a shame.

even worse... alienwarearena.com is having an Battlefield Bad Company 2 tournament... and the 10.5 drivers fix the bad load times... (yeah, i know, alienware arena isnt official alienware, but still...)

 

Were the 10.5 released before or after the 5870 xfires? If before, then Dell probably chose to release them using their own drivers for the first release and let ATI add them to 10.6.

From what I can see 10.5 were released on the 26/05/10. Anyone remembers when 5870 Xfire appeared on the website?

p.s. I agree that it's a shame that most brands don't keep their drivers up to date but I'm also happy to see that ATI/Nvidia/Intel keep releasing their own up to date generic drivers.
On my laptop I don't have any of the original drivers installed. All are up to date generic and despite what the brands might say I haven't seen any loss of functionality.

 

Fly in the ointment.

According to Dell there is a sequential order which drivers must be installed on Dell systems. Some devices may not function properly if the drivers are installed out of order. There are 10 categories of drivers. The video driver is #3. When you are using the Catalyst mobile drivers you are in essence placing the video driver at the end of the list. Is this why some people have problems and others don't, I don't know but I suspect yes.

I read the article posted by CyPsychotic and it really doesn't say much other than some companies will support Catalyst. Who are those companies? They are as usual ultra vague as to Whom the companies are that support mobility catalyst. The subject of Dell/AMD/Catalyst is almost taboo and hard to find really meaningful answers. AMD want you to buy their video cards and Dell wants you to buy their laptops but don't expect too many good answers when you want updated drivers.

Dells share price right now is around $13 per share. They make roughly 15 cents/share per quarter or 60 cents/share per year. That means that on a $4000 lap top they make roughly $180. A bad driver installation may require 8 hours of tech support. Obviously with such low profit margin they simply can't afford that. That is probably why they distance themselves from Catalyst.

The first 5870 came out I think around May 5 long before the release of the Catalyst 10.5. The Cf came out about 10 days later depending on country.

How many people bought a mother board for a desktop thinking they would have 7.1 sound and than couldn't find any analog computer speakers in North America that are 7.1? It seems like several major players in the laptop market have opted out of mobility Catalyst which makes it more of a marketing tool than a functional tool.

If Dell supports Catalyst than AMD should unequivocally state that on their website instead of beating around the bush. Have also noticed that the issue just isn't discussed in detail by professinal reviewers. Perhaps they don't want to lose adversting dollars. Unfortunately when people keep endorsing Catalyst mobility as the be all to end all there is ZERO incentive for Dell to update their own drivers.

Some people claim like CyPsychotic to have a flawless update experience. Yesterday on another forum I read someone with an M17x R2 4870 CF had to reinstall their operating system 4 times and finally went back to dell drivers. Everyones experience is widely different...Why?

Next time the Catalyst 10.6 comes out it would be nice if someone would take clear & concise screen shots of the installation. I hope I am wrong and it works.

 

Some of my software that I use, doesnt work properly with dox drivers.I.E, Powerdvd10, dirt 2, and other games noticeably just less performance. also if you take the driver out of the sequential order that it is suppose to be in how are you supposed to reorder the drivers. maybe we should move these post to the owners lounge. sorry one last thing how do profiles being applied to dells driver behave or can you not use them with dox drivers at all.

 

But when was the Xfire version released? According to ATI the single 5870 is supported (single as in no Xfire connection on it i.e. the Clevo 5870s)

 

A major problem with any GPU is keeping the temperature under control. Temperature has been suggested as one of the reasons that so many xboxes have failed. I think that with the M17x R2 5870 CF the cooling is critical. The GPU driver controls the fan under various loads including extreme ambient temperatures of the room and this is why it is critical that the driver maintain the right fan speed. The CF in theory should generate 2x the heat of a single GPU. Obviously Dell doesn't want the same problems as Microsoft xbox. Microsoft has put in an internal account, more than $1 billion, dedicated to addressing this problem.

If people want to measure the performance of their GPU they should also measure the exhaust temperature relative to room temperature. Playing Crysis in enthusiast settings with M17x R2 in Cf in a 70F room is not the same as playing in an unairconditioned room which is say 85F. The higher the ambient room temperature the harder the GPU fan and heat sink must work to cool. Higher ambient temperatures increase core and gpu temperatures.

Here is an interesting article by a thermal expert and his opinions on xbox failure. I thought it relevant to post here as so many are interested in temperature related issues of their R2. Generic drivers may not cycle fan the same way and this is one of the pitfalls.

Why Xbox 360s Heat Up and Crap Out

Xbox 360 technical problems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I believe they came out on May17

 

the 10.6 Drivers work great with the 5870s in xf. Finally... got my cards installed and the latest drivers. Thank you computer God

 

is that a fact?
i hadnt succeeded yet... where did you download the working drivers?

 

I can't find mobility 10.5 driver on Ati Website, anyone has a good link to download it ?