M17x Driver Discussion/Help/Suggestions Thread

Have a question on a driver, install method, etc. Post it here.

For R2 owners, Joker is maintaining a list of drivers in post#1 of the OL thread.

For those drivers which have their own dedicated thread, example: 197.31 DPC latency driver, please post questions in the dedicated thread. Everything else goes here.

Thanks!

 

anyone got his machine with dual 4870s and A05 bios? can you install newer ATI drivers over Dell one? i cant....!

 

I used the have disk method without any problem. Used for both CC 10.6/8.74 and CC 10.5/8.732

 

sorry for being hopeless today guys with posts, but i just testing stuff and everything is great on my R2! i downloaded the newest 5870 drivers from dells website. However do i need to download the latest CCC from ATI or does dell driver include that? I also cant find the Crossfire indicator on ati to check if SLI is working! - having issues on ultra high with split second velocity.
(had faulty sli on my r1 so hence being paranoid
thanks once again!

 

I just use ATI's mobilty 10.5 from ATI's site and no probs.. What kind of problems are people getting with this driver? i7-920 4870's and bios A05..

 

Hi guys i just got my R2 i just need a few things answered! I cant seem to find the SLI indicator on bottom right as nvidia has or doesnt ati have one?
i have the latest 5870 drivers from dells site! but does this include a new CCC in it also? or do i need to download seperate? argg confusion! thanks guys

 

how long did it take you to get your r1 replaced from start to finish?

im currently in the process of getting mine replaced and it has been 2 months since my computer first got messed up. at the moment i have been waiting since may 17th to get my replacement order put into production. i dont even know what specs they are giving me yet. also i wanted to know what specs you had on your r1? i have a q9000,280m sli , 4gb1333 , 2 160gb hd raid 0, and the rest is the standard options.

 

eww thank you batboy this is just the thread i needed.

on 10.5 i had to manually install it i downloaded them then ran the install it said it was succesful but it didnt change my drivers at all . so i manually installed with the help of joker but i still might of messed it up since i think my performance is lower then with 10.4

From what i noticed when i received both my systems i had to install CCC myself and inside CCC activate the lower right taskbar icon.

You know maybe that was my problem with my 10.5 install. So i think you and i have the same problem.

also i downloaded the 1520 wirless drivers and it added some peer to peer network icon on my taskbar no clue how to get rid of that feature

 

Sorry if my problem has already been covered. But, can anyone help me get my drivers updated.

I have 4870's in crossfire with the A04 bios. I can't install the 10.5 drivers. I tried the 10.4 also and get the same thing, nothing. The only ones that work are the ones right from dell.

Here's how it goes for me. First of all, there is no option to install the CCC which is odd.



Go ahead and click next even though there is no CCC option. Installation goes for a second then jumps to this:



And here's what I get if I click for the log:



After that, no CCC, driver numbers stay they same in the device manager.

This is after I completely uninstalled the default drivers and used CCleaner. Though, even if I try to install 10.5 on top of the original dell ones, I get the exact same result of nothing.

Thanks for any help. The long load times in Bad Company 2 are driving me nuts so I'm trying to get these working.

 

I did a clean install after I got my laptop and I believe I got the CCC from the Dell website. It doesn't indicate that they are in crossfire in the CCC; however, I was told that in crossfire each of the graphics cards controls half of the screen by one of the Dell techs and if one of them were not working you might get a dark screen. Not sure how accurate that statement is.

But I used the program GPU-Z and that program will tell whether or not your video cards are in crossfire for sure.

 

Yeah, that's not right. You have to open the CCC, options, preferences, enable system tray icon.

Right click on the tray icon, look for your graphics card, CrossfireX Settings, Show CrossfireX Status Icon. Start up a game, if you don't see the symbol in the top right corner, somethings not right.

 

easyer go to CCC advanced go to configure and if enable crossfire is checked its in crossfire but of course if you activate the system tray icon you can enable it to show you in games aswell.

 

So, Delta. Do you remember how you got 10.5 to install? As I said in my last post, I haven't been able to get it to work. Sucks not being able to play Bad Company 2 without long load times.

 

i did the find disk method was pretty simple but i bet it didnt clean the old drivers off properly sadly i have no idea how to do that.

 

i wish someone would come on to this thread and give us a step by step guide on drivers and give us info on the programs they use. hint...hint

 

I am in the same boat with the 10.5 driver no matter what I do(uninstall old drivers first safe mode ccleaner driver sweeper or install over old drivers)they will not install.This is very frustrating I thought this computer was a upgradable gaming pc?How upgradable is it if you cant even install new drivers?

 

well 10.4 installed fine after i removed both drivers from the cards manually ill try it with 10.5 this afternoon but the have disk method did work for me drivers dated 5-4-10

 

This is what I do:

-First, make sure you downloaded the right file version. By that, I mean make sure it's mobility and not desk top version. My file has this name: 10-5_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe

-Uninstall default Dell suite by going through Control panel.

-Reboot.

-I ran CCleaner just to clean the fragments in the registry. Don't really need to.

-Run 10-5_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe and it will extract the files to c:\ati\support\10.5...\.

-Run the setup.exe of the newly extracted 10.5. It probably won't recognize what the cards.

-Exit the install.

-Go to c:\ati\support\10.5...\config folder and open installmanager.cfg with notepad.

-Change the line: workaroundinstall=false to =true

-Save the file (make sure it still has the same extension: .cfg).

-Try install again.

-That's it for my case.

There are people out there reporting after trying to update the suite to 10.5 from ATI for the 5870 xf, they get BSOD. I don't have the 5870 so I don't know.

 

^this worked thanks.

 

hi.. erm.. is it advisable to install new drivers upon recieving the new m17x laptop? or does it come with the latest drivers available already?

 

You can check the version you have and bounce it off the versions that are out rightnow. Dell ships there systems with a SAFE driver they know it will work and it will run stable. The newer versions are pretty much the same as in safe to use but dell makes there own with the help of ATI and are a tad slower coming out with pristine drivers. But you really cant go wrong going to ATI and downloading there drivers since they are the creaters of the card.

 

does this score seem right i have 10.5 and a05?

 

For stock clocks it is fine but you should have posted this in the benchmark thread.

 

how so im asking about the effect of driver 10.5 but alright lol if i could move it i would.

 

it comes with the last...dell drivers not the last ati drivers.

and with 10.5 i have about 2 to 5 % more in games

 

I have noticed improvment here also with 10.5(Dirt 2 60fps min 55fps), than the dell 55-45fps and then a drop to 20-30fps after 5 to 10 minutes of playing. 10.5 never does this so the dell drivers are obsolete in my opinion.

 

Hopefully 10.6 will add the xfire 5870 support.

 

Hopefully 10.7 beta comes out soon.

 

How do I tell if I need to update my drivers? I'm experiencing some problems in StarCraft 2...

 

I dont know whats going on with my CCC, but i cant tell what version it is. Also i didn't install anything lately, but my comp acted funny tring to boot it up just now. Lights would come on but not boot up then shut of for a sec and repeat this process. the only way i got it to work was taking out batt and hold power button.

 

Need to be specific - what problems? Some owners tend to update to the latest driver(s) as soon as they are released while others prefer to only update if they are having an issue which is confirmed as resolved with a new driver.

For current release drivers, see:

M17xR1:
Drivers & Downloads - Public Sector

M17xR2:
Drivers & Downloads - Public Sector

 

Well stuff wasn't rendering right, but it turns out that the problem lies with SC2 and not with my cards. Apparently Blizzard knows about the problem and is working to fix it. It only affects people playing the game with 2 or more GPUs, and then only those with ATI stuff using CrossfireX cables... Ah well the beta ends today anyways.

But even at that I was just wondering more in general, I just received my R2 a few days ago and was wondering if I needed to update any drivers? I would like to think that since it just came from the factory it should all be up to date, but who knows these days.

 

what's the optimal driver for 5870cf?(the one dell provides or the other ones) does catalyst 10.5 screw up?

 

Hi guys, i just got mine two days ago. i find a problem that when i boot my laptop, somethings it shows
"display driver AMD stopping responding and has been successful removed"
the screen become very bright and i have to reboot, then problem solved. i am using everything DELL stock and 5870CF.
anyone have this problem? cos i haven't seen anyone mention it.

 

Do brand new systems come with the newest drivers/BIOS, or do you have to track them down yourself after arrival? I don't know how Alienware does their assemblies but for them at least it makes sense to install all the latest ones (Since they build them after order and aren't pre-made to be shipped).

 

This varies. For instance, I ordered a M17x and Studio 15 (for my Mother-in-Law) last month. The M17x was pretty much up to date with latest BIOS, etc. except for the video driver but I like to do a wipe/fresh install anyway. The Studio 15 however came with a BIOS 5 revisions old! I think a lot of it depends on the timing of the build, especially with the BIOS. The motherboards probably only get flashed either coming out of the factory or when they go into inventory and who knows how often Dell revises their Windows Images. Best to just start with a fresh install anyway.

 

has anyone noticed with the dox drivers how dirt 2 performs, Im getting serious lag on races and performance is slow the frames drop to 30 to 20, this performance happens just with this game as most of my other games perform very well with this driver, just want some outside opinions on this, thank you.

 

Dox drivers are optimized drivers for nVidia not Ati.

 

Hi Ceshimm

If my system were two days old and behaving that way I would send it back. It might be a simple problem of drivers or a more ominus sign that you have a lemon. Laptops and Desktops can and do get damaged in shipment. I would certainly question Dell why it is not working straight out of the box. If you are in the USA you have 21 days to return your unit no questions asked. They will email you a return label within minutes. My return was processed in about 3 days. Once they have given you a return way bill you can go ahead and order a new system. Explain what happened to your credit card company and they will probably increase your limit to allow you to repurchase if that is an issue. Also if you do reorder your order might be flagged as fraudulent so call Dell customer service after reordering to varify you did make the second purchase, otherwise you may get stuck in the authorization stage the second go round

 

LOL, yeah I just found that out still used to my R1 days with nvidia, but switched back to 10.5 from the "OEM" driver for dirt 2, powerdvd10ultra and some other games where I noticed a slight decrease in FPS.

 

Well 10.6 catalyst and street fighter 4, is a no go. The fight with c.viper on the ship bottoms out at drops to 30 to 20 fps.

 

Is anybody having trouble with Windows 7 and the drivers for the broadcom network card? I recently uninstalled it once it started refusing to connect to wi-fi networks. Upon reinstallation the card's program no longer shows up in the program files nor does it connect to networks. According to device manager the card is working fine. However, when I do a troubleshoot fix the error I get is the card itself is either turned off or not functioning properly.

 

Can someone please tell me what the best driver to download for the R1 280M sli is? is it 197.31 or 186.40?

 

So what games does CF 5870s work with? Because it doesn't seem to work on ANY of the games I've tried. So useless.. sigh.

 

about to wifi... the only thing i can think of (im a noob) is maybe you hit the wifi button on the top pannel? but i dout its that easy.

 

Yeah I thought of that too. I've booted into safemode and the wi-fi works there. When I uninstall the broadcom drivers, occasionally the wi-fi works. I've also tried using restore points from the beginning of time to see if that would do it. It hasn't. I'm now contemplating a full reinstall of windows. Should be unbelieveably exciting.

 

Works with games as old CS Source and the original stalker, so sounds like you might be having problems. Mind you, my cards arrived broken and flicker when crossfire is activated so until the tech replaces them (out of stock atm) I'm not using crossfire anyways.

 

When Windows 7 first came out, a lot of us had issues with the drivers for the motherboard chipset - specifically the NIC drivers. When we installed the chipset w/all drivers, we lost wifi. Figured out that to get wifi to work, we had to uncheck "allow windows to deactivate this device to save power" in the NIC's properties (the LAN port not the wifi). Give that a try!

 

I have this refurbished M17x and the HDD that came with it died a little. Only enough to make Windows Vista unbootable. I got another HDD and installed Windows 7 Ultimate N from scratch. After that, I took some days finding and downloading drivers. Finally, everything is working just right. Except for the microphone.

I tried to installed all drivers that are available here: Drivers & Downloads - Public Sector

Unfortunately, the one that (I hope) would fix my problem (R240776 - Audio:IDT 92HD73C1 Audio Driver) simply won't install. It gives me this error message.

---------------------------
Configuring IDT Audio Driver and Applications
---------------------------
The hardware detected is not supported by this IDT software package. The install will be aborted.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

I'm afraid it's because I have a Windows 7 N, and the driver doesn't recognizes it as supported.

Does anybody have any idea how can I make my mic work?

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Alienware m17x R1
Core 2 Duo T9500 @ 2.60GHz | 4.0GB RAM DDR2 @ 332MHz | Dual 512MB GeForce 8700M GT | 320GB HD + 500GB HD | Windows 7 Ultimate N