I need help updating my drivers for AMD 6900m + Intel on Alienware m17xR3

Hey all,

Hopefully someone will be able to point me in the right direction.
I want to attempt updating my "ancient dinosaur" drivers for my Alienware m17xR3 (Win 7 64-bit) which has the ATI Radeon 6900m series gpu + Intel 3000 series (switchable gpu's).
My system is stable at present and I'm still running the stock drivers that Alienware/Dell had shipped when I bought my m17xR3.. So I didn't touch "anything" as far as drivers are concerned.
I've read about horror stories and some success in updating it. I guess because its a combo of a discrete and integrated gpu; makes it more difficult? (ATI/Intel)

Normally I wouldn't bother with updating.. But a lot of newer games I've been installing as of late keep giving me warnings for having outdated drivers and that some games may not perform to standard.

Anyhow, I've included 2 screenshots, one from CCC and my system info for you guys to see so you know what versions I'm running.




So, should I just try the official Dell drivers that it shows me as per my express service code via their website?? Or will that break everything? Do I need to do a complete uninstall of both ATi drivers and Intel?
If so, do I need DriverSweeper or not? Should I go the route of leshcat's unifL packages?? Soo confusing.. >_<

Any advice and links to driver downloads/packages would be much appreciated!

- Chris

 

SO have you tired to install anything? Also Id say if you have everything backed up ... Try a straight update from dell first. Then if you do not get the performance jump you want... try AMD directly.

 

you probably want the latest beta drivers from amd. Not sure if they install fine on windows 7 though.

 

So..

- Should I uninstall ATI drivers and both displays.

- Clean with CCleaner

- Install the Dell Alienware drivers so the Intel HD 3000 integrated gpu will work, and THEN install the AMD beta drivers over top??

 

Integrated drivers are usually included in the AMD drivers. But that sounds correct to me.

 

yup use the dell drivers first so the hybrid switching functions correctly and then install the latest drivers over top.

 

Try doing it this way.

 

I tried doing it your way Alienware-L_Porras. Multiple times.. I get to the point where I have a clean base.. All AMD/ATI drivers/regedit lines removed. Ran CCleaner several times.
Manually removed both ATI HD 6900M and the Intel HD 3000 from the display section of Device Manager. At this point I'm running in VGA.

I then proceed to install Dell's latest AMD driver package which includes both ATI discrete and Intel HD drivers. I am able to install all that just fine and get CCC back along with switchable graphics support.
So then, once I have that step complete.. I tried installing AMD mobility 13.12 Win 7 64 WHQL drivers.

Once that is done installing, I get kicked out of 1080p rez back to VGA. I reboot and then my alienware m17xr3 is unable to load the ATI 13.12 drivers. Also am unable to switch graphics and I cannot open the CCC.

When I check the device manager, it shows an exclamation sign beside the Intel HD 3000 display adapter. Nothing beside the ATI HD 6900M display tho.

As that guide had mentioned, I tried rebooting and hitting F8 to "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement".
That doesn't seem to fix anything once I get back into Windows. Still cannot access CCC and cannot switch GPU's.
Whats interesting to note is that before I installed the 13.12 WHQL drivers, the Dell drivers under Device Manager were completely "digitally signed" for all the files under "Details". Same for Intel except this file "system32\DRIVERS\atikmpag.sys"

Once I installed 13.12 WHQL, all driver files for the ATI HD 6900M display adapter were all "unsigned". Again, I thought rebooting and Disabling the Driver Signature Enforcement would fix this, but it doesn't help.

Is there any way to solve this? Or am I forever doomed to stay on outdated dinosaur Dell drivers?

 

I'm having the same issue. Boots into VGA but it looks like the 6900 has taken the new driver but the intel graphics has the exclamation point.