M17X R2 HDMI and XFire issues.

First post after much lurking so hello to you all

Firstly: I purchased an M17X R2 i7 720, 6gb ram, 5870@CF etc etc.

i have had two issues so far

1. I have not been able to output via HDMI. When i do try it, the display on my TV is black and my laptop spasms until it finally BSOD, and ironically the BSOD appears on the TV.

Now firstly, being new i undated the drivers and vBios following the tutorials on this site so I'm sure everything is up to date, I'm running 10.11 drivers.

and secondly i have reason to believe that my second HD 5870 isn't even working.


Here is both cards in Hw32


Same again.



well there you go, i'm not experienced with any of this buisness, but non the less, it seems as though its plugged in to some extend just not being used?


thank you all

 

Try disabling one card then using hdmi. On my system though, the hdmi is a sound device. Go to Dell and get the latest audio driver.

 

What version of HWInfo are you using? Both cards show up the same for me except the clocks are sometimes different. One of yours shows "unknown" memory plus the "performance" info is not filled out - unless you chopped it off making the screen caps.

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/5609/28013388.jpg

 

so turn off crossfire for hdmi? ill try it.

it says i can use crossfire, yet the other card doesnt do a thing.

i didnt chop out anything. im using the latest version of HWinfo

EDIT: for now my HDMI issue is fixed, i had been trying it on my 50" LCD, and im guessing the resolution is to great.
i tried the HDMI on a smaller lcd that i have and it worked fine. still doesnt solve the issue of my second card not functioning

 

I had problems till I went and downloaded a right driver and I got the hdmi cable to put sound to my lcd

 

1) I plug my m17x on a 1080p HDTV, using HDMI, and have no issues at all, even with crossfire enabled. Have you tried a clean uninstall of drivers? (uninstall, reboot in safe mood, clean ATI display with Driversweeper, clean registry with CCleaner, reboot, install drivers agains). Maybe the resolution on your HDTV is not supported. Try changing resolution on your monitor 2, if you can. Try 720p if 1080p doesn´t work.

2) I also have HW32 but always get a BSOD if I try scanning my second GPU. Make sure crossfire is enabled in CCC. Use GPU-Z and check if there is any activity from the second GPU running a Furmark benchmark.

 

I Disabled my primary card in device manager, and suprisingly the second card (in CPUz) went from idle @ 30 degrees to 50-55 degrees.

when i enabled the first card again, the second card went idle again....

im so confused

 

On idle, clocks on 2nd GPU are about 150 MHZ and 1st GPU about 300 MHZ. Try monitoring activity on both GPUs using GPU-Z:

GPU-Z Video card GPU Information Utility

Run a benchmark using Furmark:

FurMark: VGA Stress Test, Graphics Card and GPU Stability Test, Burn-in Test, OpenGL Benchmark and GPU Temperature | oZone3D.Net

Probably both GPUs will kick to 700 MHz/1000 MHz during the benchmark. You can check that using GPU-Z sensors. If that is not happening, and crossfire is enabled, you have a defective product.

 

okay i ran the benchmark, the heat of the second card increased, so i guess it must be working somehow. but the "GPU CORE CLOCK" stayed at 400MHz for my primary card, and 150 MHz for my secondary card....

im way over my head with all this buisness

 

I ran the benchmark, and the temperature of either card has improved which is good i suppose. but the MHz isn't changing at all. my primary card is at 400MHz and my secondary card is at 150MHz. none of those figures changed whilst doing the benchmark.

 

Hmmmm... check in your alienware Control Center, Fusion section, on the left hand panel, if it says you are running on Stealth mode (drastic impact on performance). If your stealth is activated, deactivate it.

Secondly, make sure power settings are on high performance.

Finally, make sure to run the benchmark with your laptop plugged in (running on battery slows performance to a crawl).

Then run the benchmark again (make sure to run furmark with multi-gpu support).

If all else fails, get in touch with Dell´s tech support and tell them of the issue (you may get new GPUs).

 

Oh for checking if you are on stealth I strongly recommend this program from Watoos: View attachment StealthModeIndicatorBin.zip

Good luck

 

okay, well i did it again, and my second card jumped to 700MHz, the first still sitting at 400MHz though..i guess its an improvement though

 

Normal values for both cards during this test should be:

GPU Core Clock: 700 MHZ
Memory clock: 1000 MHZ

Anything less than that means your system is not taking full advantage of the 5870s

If I were you, I'd call Dell immediately.