M17X Shut down problems - resolved

So I bought ffxiv to go along with my new m17x laptop and soon found out my dell driver wouldn't run the game. I downloaded the amd ati catalyst driver and ffxiv works just fine now. The problem is when I go to shut down my laptop it gets to the point where my screen will turn off but the keyboard and rest of the hardware stays on. My computer also freezes when "Sleep" or "Hibernate" is turned on. I normally try to figure these things out on my own but it's driven me to wits end. If you need more info or anything to help me with this issue please just let me know.

-Alienware M17X R2 (I'm guessing it's an R2 it was ordered about a month and a half ago)
-8GB Dual Channel Memory (2x 4GB DDR3)
-Intel Core i7 740QM Quad Core Processor, 1.73GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6M Cache)
-CrossfireX 1GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon Mobility HD 5870
-1TB Raid 0 (2x 500GB 7,200RPM HDDs)

This is what CCC tells me.
Driver Packaging Version 8.791-101026a-107890C-ATI
Catalyst™ Version 10.11
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.1094
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/CLASS/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0001
Direct3D Version 8.14.10.0791
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.10317
Catalyst™ Control Center Version 2010.1026.2246.39002

When I check the properties of my card it says:
Driver Version 8.791.0.0

Sorry if I didn't give enough information or too much. From reading the threads it might be my bios, I don't remember doing anything with those. Any and all help is appreciated thanks for taking the time to review my post.

 

Do you have the latest BIOS version? You might also need to get the latest vBios for the cards.

 

How can I go about checking my bios/vbios and where can I find the versions I need. From reading some other posts it looks like you can mess up your pc pretty bad if you do it wrong >.<

BIOS Version/Date Alienware A08, 24/08/2010
SMBIOS Version 2.6

Where do I go from here. Sorry about getting you guys to hold my hand on this one, I don't want to mess up the bios >.<

Update: Downloaded A09, no change. It actually had the same shut down problem as the laptop tried to auto shutdown after installation....

 

Vbios

Follow the steps and this will fix your issue. Just pay attention to what it says on the screen/tabs and you will be fine.

 

I'm at work right now, when I get off I'll give it a try and update you. Thanks again for taking the time to help me out.

 

"This VBIOS update is intended only for the following video card:ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 The update cannot be performed on this system"

I know that my card is a 5870, is there any reason why it would recognize it as something different?

 

It's because you need to load the Dell driver for the VBIOS upgrade to work. Unless someone else knows of a work around (inf editing or similar).

The ATI drivers make our cards show up as 5800 series, which is fine for everything except for the VBIOS upgrade program. The Dell ones show up as actual 5870.

 

So update to the most recent dell driver, do the vbios and then can I go back to the ATI amd driver to play ffxiv? Sorry for all the questions.

 

Yes. Everyone seems to have a different opinion about how to do the driver change though. Some say do a full driver sweep, some say boot into safe mode and delete from device manager, others may just run the install and try it or maybe even manually install the drivers.

Since it's my post here I'll tell you how I did it. I first changed windows to not update drivers automatically (see attached picture, this is found by doing a start>search>"driver install"), used the uninstall from the control panel for the application profiles and ATI catalyst then rebooted. Booted normally into windows and ran the Dell drivers, did the VBIOS upgrade. If it asks to reboot go ahead, I can't remember exactly if/when it needed to reboot. To switch back it's basically the opposite.

Remember to change the windows driver setting back or you will have problems every time to plug in a new USB device and it can't download the drivers. If I didn't change that setting windows would always reinstall a driver before I could get the one I wanted installed. Funny that no one ever mentions this issue but it's just how windows works.

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/4292/79134719.jpg

 

Went back to the dell driver, updated the vbios. I didn't have to go back to the ati amd driver, ffxiv worked right after boot. Tested shut down and sleep, both seem to be working fine. Thanks for taking the time to help me with my computer!

 

Glad to hear its resolved - if needed, lets continue here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...5870-gpus-5870-vbios-discussion-non-beta.html

Thanks.