M17x - ati 5870 and microsoft

Hi,

This week I got a hold of my alienware m17x R2. Here are my specs.

I7 820qM
8gb RAM
Dual crossfire ati 5870
320gb hard disk.
windows 7 64 bit

From the first day itself its been causing a hectic problem. Everytime I started playing any dvds or bluray movies, the loading screen of the player would show up and then few seconds later it just freezes. there is no black or blue screen it just crashes as it is and then I have to force reboot. I found that this was also true whenever I streamed videos online. For example, youtube or even any videos online for that matter. However I am able to watch the sample video that came with the machine and even videos that are on my external hard drive.

I contacted technical supported. They told me that its an issue with microsoft since windows 7 has a few issues with the driver for the 5870 and also with the catalyst. He tried changing my registry settings by including the tdrlevel parameters and such but still nothing has happened.

Its kinda supirising that dell would advertise that their laptop can support the dual 5870 cards and still know the fact that it has problems with windows 7.

Do you guys recommend any suggestions as to how to eradicate this problem? Coz atm im actaully planning on returning the machine for a full refund.

 

Have you tried installing newer drivers?

 

hey,

yes i downloaded all the latest drivers from the dell website thats specific to my machine. I reinstalled windows and the drivers and still the problem perists. Does anyone have my similar specs have a similar problem?

 

I'd suggest trying AMD's mobility 10.7s, see if those make a difference, or alternately the 10.7 OGL betas, they will be several months newer than Dell's repackaged version of the drivers.

 

Hey,

thanks for your reply. I will definitely try that. If its not much trouble can you please give me the links to those drivers? Im kind of a noob when it comes to this

 

ATI Mobility Display Driver

Those are the WHQL 10.7's for Win7 x64, alternatively you could try the newer 10.7a beta driver which has some SC2 bugfixes/features in.

10.7a Beta Driver

There's also the OGL betas around I mentioned.

 

Hi Jitto

You are being told a load of rubbish by the Alienware tech. Personally if it were myself I would pack the system up, send it back to Dell for a full refund. Than I would turn around and call Michael Dells Office and ask for a free upgrade with your next order. My system plays online video perfectly and the DVD is no problem. I can't speak for the Blu-Ray as I don't have that option but haven't read anyone else complain so far. You could try removing both the Catalyst,firmware for the slotload player, and the driver, and reinstalling these again using stock drivers. Either the software was never installed properly in the first place, or a 3'rd party utility like security software has corrupted something.

P.S. You didn't say whether you were using dell stock drivers or whether you had tried to download Catalyst 10.7. Not sure why the tech would tell you there are issues with 5870Cf drivers unless he was refering to the generic ones.

 

Alexrose1uk - thasnk for the links

FalconMachV - thanks for the support. I will try the new drivers and see if it still works. if not im going to do as you said. the first time i ran the system i had the before mentioend problem. Thats when I reinstalled windows and installed drivers that were mentioned on the dell page and still the problem persists. I will now try the new driver and catalyst software and see how it goes and will post any updates.

 

oh and what exactly do u mean by stock drivers?

 

the drivers that already come with your system...

 

heres a hillarious note...the stock driver that came in the alienware recovery dvd has the driver for ati 4870 and NOT 5870....Im sure this wont work right?

 

could it be the case that the 5870 i is in crossfire mode and this might cause a problem when watching videos?

 

That shouldn't cause an issue, no. I had the 4850m crossfire and it was flawless (whilst the machine worked).
Reason you'll have 4870 drivers is that the 5870m is fairly new, so they've obviously not replaced all the CDs yet.

 

Yeah just go to the Dell website and download the 5870 drivers or look at the other thread for the 10.7's

 

Hi Jitto

Your not the first person to have some drivers not working straight out of the box. It makes me wonder how they are building these systems.

In case you are new to Dell your system has a call tag on the back of the laptop. This allows you to find custom drivers specifically for your machine on Dells services and support webpage. The trick is reinstalling them in the correct order. There is an attached printable list on that page for driver installation order.

When your system was factory installed they did leave a factory image of your original operating system on the hardrive in a hidden partition. It is found by opening Dell Datasafe Local Backup software, try this first. If that is unavailable and the quick fixes don't work you always try doing a fresh install.

If that is not available you can always reinstall the operating system. Keep your eye on the clock as you have a very limited number of days to ship you system back no questions asked.

If you have to do a clean install do one driver at a time and reboot. Turn off windows updates otherwise you may have driver conflicts. Take a screen shot of your current drivers for reference. Check off each driver as you install them. Be aware that some drivers may be hidden and others are not needed, ie 4870 or 5870 but not both. I have not recently done a clean install but sometimes the driver page contains patches and not the full version of drivers and this is what cause huge headaches for clean installations. My last system I did 4-5 times and inevitbly I would end up on the phone for hours and they find some obscure driver that was missing from the list.

Any feedback from anyone doing a clean install lately, are the drivers pages up to date and in order with out any missing drivers?

 

I am currently re-installing OS and am going to install the latest Ati driver that Alex metioned and see how it goes. Out of curiosity Im installing the the drivers in the following order that was mentioned in the dell website. Please let me know if I should change the order or not

1) BIOS - Alienware
2) Chipset - INtel
3) Audio driver
4) Video Driver
5) Network
6)Inpu devices
7) Slotoad dirver - is this necessary?
8) SATA

 

My experience with CF is set it and forget it. Have never had to turn it off.

 

for the video driver im going to try the new 10.7a beta driver

 

its just me, but I always prefer to install the video driver after the MB/Chipset driver, but otherwise I agree with that list.

 

thansk for the input lordgarlyn. are u also using the 10.7 ati driver?

 

Hi Jitto

Check out the 5870 CF threads. The 5870 vbios powerplay tables have been modified and when you use the generic catalyst mobility drivers you will get unusual side effects as the generic tables are different. Well advised to read through all the 5870 CF threads before using 10.7.

 

LOL...so my OS tells me, and I'm having the lockups when the screen blanks and can't recover from sleep mode (which wasn't happening with Dell drivers), so I guess I am...

 

thanks for the heads up FalconMachV. Are you also using the 10.7 driver?

 

I will install the necessary files and will update soon

 

I have 10.7 on my desktop and stock on my M17x. Hopefully future catalyst will work for us on M17x

 

Out of curiosity, when you got your m17x was your stock driver for 5870 or for an older card? and did u download the stock driver from the website?

 

Thanks everyone for your support. Unfortunately, My m17x just doesnt want to work and i have exhausted every possible solution. Therefore, I'm 'calling it'. I will be contacting dell for a full refund. thanks again guys for the help

 

What if you removed one of the 5870's (thus getting rid of the CF configuration)? It's not that hard, and would basically tell you if you have a hardware issue or just the all-so-familiar dual 5870 CF problems that seem to plague everyone here.

I don't think I've read of any widespread issues with single 5870's or even with dual 4870's.

 

Everything worked out the box. System arrived early june with 5870 CF and dell drivers.

 

I am pretty sure that's something wrong with your video card as I was having the almost similar issue as you until Dell sent a video card to exchange and everything worked flawlessly after that.

 

Alienwebie...thanks for your input. was your problem exactly similar to mine?