M17x BSoD when Updating Drivers... Please help.

Hello all, I am new here to the forums and am looking for some help.

The issue that I am having is that upon installing any new ATi Catalyst drivers that are newer then the current version running on my m17x (version April 2010) will seemingly install correctly and then upon reboot cause my machine to BSoD and force me to utilize a restore point to continue operating. I have search through the forums and found some info scattered and not always the same issue I am having, so I was hopping that I may be able to begin a thread to get some info that I can reference in one location. I have seen some users post containing quotes about "the infamous m17x BSoD" but no info as to what is causing it or the fix for it. So back to the point My system is a:

i7 720QM Processor @ 1.6GHz (2.8GHz Turbo Mode)|17" 1920x1200 RGB LED|4GB DDR3|Dual ATI Radeon 4870m in Xfire|350GB 7200RPM WD|Windows 7 Pro 64bit

When installing the newly released ATi drivers it blue screens after restart, and I have to restore the machine. Any ideas?

:NOTE: I have a pretty heavy IT background so don't hold back any info helps thank you. Also my machine is recently out of warranty as it was a roll over from my XPS m1730 - with my XPS I experienced a lot of hardware issues ( hints the brand new replacement) Do you guys suggest purchasing the re-warranty, 2 years full service for $395.00? Or are these systems pretty solid?

Thank you for any input you can provide I look forward to joining the ranks of the community here.

 

They are pretty solid except in certain circumstances. What I have learned is if you need to phone them then don't hold back. The phone techies are only reading off a sheet as to what to say. They're really stupid. I would probably try a reinstall or maybe you could try the REAL Ati drivers instead of the dell ones.

 

Thank you for your response, I have tried both sets from Both ATi and Dell with the same results. I was thinking of Making an Image of the machine and starting from scratch (but thats always so much work) and then if it doesn't work just restoring from capped image. I thought I would start here to see if any one knows of this issue.

Thank you.

 

Perhaps you could run the installer as Admin? It's long a shot but you never know

 

Thank you for you input today, I was able to sit down for a few when I got home today and go over figure it out getting the newest drivers to install with no BSoD after.