M17x R1/R2 - Dell 8.763 Driver (4870/5870 GPUs) + 5870 VBIOS Discussion (non-beta)

i uninstalled the previous version of the ati gfx card drivers and installed the new version using express.
It asked for a reboot, windows gets to the win7 start screen then goes black and thats it.

Bios version in GPU-Z is Ver012.019.000.006.03284, interestinly the second card in GPU-Z has some borked figures.
ROPs = unkown
Fill rate = unknown
memory 4096 mb

Should i flash the video card bios's with the lastest version first?

 

You need to have a clean install of the new Dell drivers on your system 1st before attempting to flash to the new vbios.

So you need to uninstall the ATi CCC drivers. Then boot into safe mode and run driver sweeper and CC cleaner. Then reboot back into normal OS mode and dl the latest Dell 10.8 drivers if you haven't already done so. Install them restart. Then you are now able to install the new vbios.

Cheers.

 

if 10.8 is the one that came out today, it wont boot. i have an idea, i will disable the second vid card and try booting in win7

 

Don't overdo it

Just select Last Known Configuration while triggering F8 to select it before loading Windows. Then update your VBIOS if you are on 8.763.0. Windows should work properly after that, but double check the display driver first in GPU-Z, then create a Memory Stick or CD and boot it with F12 upon a Restart. Good Luck.

 

It should be able to boot chiefs. However you need to make sure to uninstall everything of ATi first in safe mode. Then install the new drivers that dell just released on the 20th of this month. Make sure your plugged in as well. Don't pull out the ac adapter until you have completed the driver install and then the vbios update flash.

If you do indeed have the drivers already installed you can also use Grimfan's method above. You will need to have the new vbios flashed installed to fix your problems.

Good Luck.

Cheers.

 

Yeah and after that when everything is working again, we'll do some excessive group hugging. reborn in the middle

Edit: And yeah my tip should work around the battery bug, startup bug when you have unplugged it once, and you are already on 8.763, indeed

 

looks the second card is foobar.. i wonder if i can flash just the second card

 

You're not on the latest VBIOS if GPU-Z DOESN'T show 012.020.000.027.037640.

Also if your second gpu shows something weird and different than your primary card, you don't have the drivers installed right or are in VGA mode or safe mode.

What does GPU-Z say as driver version (screenshot is always welcome for issues)?

So here's the easy part, look at my GPU-Z screenie:



If you have installed the latest Driver from Dell, you get driver version 8.763, if you have atleast that, and you are experiencing issues, update vbios.

If you have neither of them showing, install display driver first, reboot, update vbios.

If you get to my picture finally, your system should behave "normally" again

 

Run the flash again - we saw some rare instances where the Windows based flash didn't flash both cards on the first run. No idea why this happened. Regardless, it won't cause any problems to run it again to get the second card flashed.

If something goes wrong, call support to get the card replaced.

 

ehahah nice one GrimFan!!! lol

Yeh make sure you have the latest dell drivers installed properly.

Post up some pics for us to have a gander at.

Cheers.

 

ATI Display DriverFinal Status: Fail
Version of Item: 8.763.0.0000
Size: 90 Mbytes

Whenever i go to install the new driver I get this error, I have done driver sweeper and cc cleaner in safe mode and uninstalled all ATI components. It just wont let me set up the catalyst and i cant understand why.

m17x crossfire 5870

 

Hey, i got some warnings aswell during the end of the install, though the drivers HAVE been installed and i'm using them since, please reboot your laptop and check with GPU-Z, if the driver shows 8.763, if it does, go ahead and flash vbios.

 

I downloaded GPZ is not even shoing my ati radeon 5870 just integrated graphics ?

 

Hmmsss odd. Go into device manager and see if the 5870s are disabled or not. Enable them if they are.

Cheers.

 

Thx erawneila, thx dell - thats the message I was waiting for the last days. Will do a complete fresh install of the system with new drivers and also new bios and SSD trim bios (if recommended)
Finally I can buy SC2

 

In the device manager they are both Standard VGA Graphics Adapter and one is has the ! on it, The first one

 

Hmm, are you sure you downloaded the correct package anyway, you know there are HD4870 and HD5870 Driver packages individually... Just a thought

What package did you download and run? If you are on VGA, it has to be possible to install them correctly, what's up?

Also please note, the installer CANNOT run in safe mode....

 

The file Im running on my desktop to install the driver is R281215

 

i cant post screen shots with GPU-Z because as soon as i install the lastest video card drivers i cant get to windows...
have uninstalled, safe mode, ccleaner registery, driver sweeper, reboot to w7
installed new drivers, reboot to w7
black screen

 

I am not sure if this is the right forum for this but...

For the purpose of future proofing will the new final version of the VBIOS work with ATI reference drivers that you download off the ATI website in the future?

And I am not talking about 2 months from now...I mean 6 months to a year when ATI is up 10.9 and 11 and whatever.

Or does dell keep making their own version of the latest ATI drivers for the next couple of years?

 

So, the drivers get installed then if you have that issue...

Yeah GPU-Z would be nice, it SHOULD show the ATI driver when it IS installed, even in safe mode, when you see it as 8.763, you should update vbios then i guess...

 

well i simply made the flash boot disk before i restarted after installing the new drivers. i then booted to windows... black screen
restarted, flashed, restarted and
can now boot to windows

Round 2...
Uniengine now scores 13.3 fps. was 31fps.
going to track down the hot key software from dell and turn on and off stealth mode just to check its definetely not on

GPU-Z 0.4.6 sensors..
GPU 1
GPU core 300
GPU mem 400
GPU temp 59
GPU Load 98%
fan is not fully engaging like it used to...
GPU 2
GPU core 300
GPU mem 400
GPU temp 58
GPU Load 93%

EDIT: cross fire is enabled, and ccc is in advanced mode

AMD GPU Clock Tool
i can oc the first card to 700/1000
but i cant move the clock speed on the 2nd GPU, not even 1mhz.. its stuck at 300/400

 

Double check crossfire is enabled properly and set Catalyst AI to advanced.

Cheers.

 

Is it necessary to install the Alienware Bios A09 and then flash and update video drivers? People are having issues with new official drivers also?? Should i stick to the factory ones or install the latest ones?

 

Got any games you can try. Give them a go.
Yeh you won't be able to use amd clock tool to OC anymores. It won't work with the new vbios. You will have to use other methods like rivatuner or flashing your vbios. So probs not recommended unless your really comfortable. It should be fine for gaming on stock clocks though.
The clocks won't hit top speed unless your running in game or something GPU intensive.

You can use HWiNFO32 and click the sensors tab to monitor your GPU and CPUs as well.


Cheers.

 

System BIOS is your call however I suggest it if you want the touchpad polling fix.

As for the remainder:

 

Its not necessary. However you might as well ey. lol

Install the system bios A09. Install new ATi dell drivers then vbios.

Cheers.

 

No, it's not, it's recommended

Proper order, BIOS, Driver, VBIOS.

Edit1: Wow, reborn you got me, and i wrote even less, cheers.

Edit2: And BatBoy

 

loaded up HWiNFO32 , selected second video card and got
"A clock interrupt was not received on a secondary processor within..."
rebooted, the 2nd card was now showing the correct speeds and the first card was underclocked a lot...
as i can change the clock speeds on the first card i could clock it back to normal and pow. its all back normal... for now

 

Please, don't use AMD GPU Tool, it's a known issue and the tool is outdated. Also the bug for HWInfo on the second card when you try to monitor that. Use GPU-Z to monitor.

And yes the Clocks do throttle up and down in idle mode (100/150 700/1000), depending on what you do.

If you wanna overclock, you have to research a little bit and you should find RivaTuner and how to work with that. Let's focus in here on non-overclocked issues not produced by 3rd party tools and temp/clock readers that might be outdated or not compatible with the latest drivers.

If you are running everything on stock, both Cards should be idle the same, and in windows normal usage only the first card will throttle up.

 

Any issues with these drivers as far as playing new games? Any noticeable improvements in quality, stability and framerates?

 

Yeah how about BFBC2 is the lag still there from the beta version? if so I will wait. With the beta vbios and 10.8 I had worse performance so I am just checking to see if the BC2 issues are fixed? Leme know.
Thanks,

 

Is the "lag" you all are referring to in BFBC2 in the single player game or while playing online multi-player?

Same for the game crashes you all are talking about, in the single player game or online multi-player?

Reason I ask is because I am getting solid 55 frames per second in the single player game (except when there is alot of smoke from explosions...then I get middle 20's for a few seconds) and I have only crashed to desktop once.

 

At the beginning of a MP match I get a solid 10 seconds of lag on the beta vbios and beta driver. I also had 1 CTD with the beta I only play MP in BFBC2

 

friends...

I just install the new dell driver...
and just want to vbios the 5870 (non beta)...

i just format the removeable disk (thumb drive) and i load the Vbios 5870 file which is the "setup" onto the thumb drive...
then shut down the computer...
and turn on it again...
press F12 when the alien logo appears...
then i select boot from USB....
and then press 'B'
But it wont flash the 5870...

is there something wrong with the step by step that i mention above...?
should i format the thumb drive with HP USB Key Utility and the Win98 files ?
and if i use the win98, then it will prompted command C:
so, what should i type in command c:

Thanks...

 

atiflash -p 0 (romname0.rom)
atiflash -p 1 (romname1.rom)

 

With the single player mine is fine but online I still get the lag and the crashes.

 

Thanks for the info! I guess I will be waiting this one out unless some other changes or fixes occur. I get only partial utilization on the second card with the beta on most games I am not sure why any ideas ATI AI set to max?

 

Was anyone else with 4870's having an issue with BFBC2 that made the framerate jerky? having fraps on showed the framerate to be fine, but there are hiccups that make the game annoying to play in any driver post 10.5a.

Im sure this driver wont fix the problem, but at least i can call AW and make it their problem now.

 

I am having the FPS drop also its very annoying and makes the game hard to play I know the system is capable of playing the game, because previous ATI drivers played the game fine without hiccups but it could be an oversight just like SF4 not being able to play past round 3 because it drops to 30 FPS, but oh well.

 

Hi guys!

I have a problem with sleep option after flashed the ATI 5870 card with new VBIOS A01 and installed the final Dell 8.763 driver. The M17xR2's LCD is off when return from a sleeping state, and only the keyboard is partially active. At this point only an hard reset is possible!

Now, the problem of the shutdown and enter on sleep mode would be corrected with new VBIOS and driver, but the return from sleeping is not solved yet or this bug is present only on my system? For test this thesis I have reformat all and installed only Windows 7 Ult with last drivers and BIOS A09, but the system's behaviour is not changed.

If anybody have a solution or knows an workaround, please help me!

Thanks a lot!

_____________________________________
Space Black M17xR2
Intel Core i7 920XM | ATI HD5870 1GB DDR5 | 8 GB 1333MHz DDR3 | 17" WideUXGA 1920x1200 RGB LED | DW1520 Wireless-N
| 2 x 500 GB HDD RAID0 | HL-DT-ST_DVD+-RW_GA31N | Dell 370 Bluetooth | 9 Cell Battery | 3 years Complete Cover

 

Just out of curiosity, seeing how sensitive this machine is, is there any harm in installing the latest 5870 gpu driver posted in this thread on top of the currently installed driver? or should we uninstall what we currently have first?

According to CCC, Im currently running on:

Driver Packaging Version 8.763-100810a-103700E-Dell

 

sorry to be a noob guys i cant download any of the new items, when ever i try i get prompted to use the dell download manager but when i use it there are no files to download, and no matter what i try i cant get around the DDM to directly download, any suggestions would be great.

 

You don't have to use the Dell Download Manager...try another browser, maybe that will help?

 

just to be clear, I was not using the o/c tool before the drivers nor was i using them to overclock the gpu's, only to get the cards back to normal speeds.

When running furmark multi gpu the cards were not clocking up to the correct speed of 700/1000. this means they were at 100% load and were not at the correct speeds. the clocks displayed when under load were 300/400, when idle, 150/200.

I am assuming that this is why the new drivers or any drivers would install but not boot to windows, only the first dell drivers would work.

When using the AMD GPU Clock Tool, i was able to clock up the 1st GPU card to its correct speed under load of 700/1000, the second wouldnt budge.
after using HWiNFO32 to view the 2nd card i received a BSOD, upon returing to windows the 2nd card was now clocked correctly, but the first wasnt.
I ran furmark, same crappy fps, same skipping that was happening in any game. i clocked up the first card to its correct speed under load of 700/1000.
once that was done, the whole system started working, the fans would kick in to full speed under load, furmark doubled in fps and uniengine is back to 31 fps.

the bottom line is that the cards speeds can get out of whack and i couldn't change them back, this was causing grief in many areas.

i will run through the riva tuner wiki once i get some time and see if the 2nd can be set there. its just fyi, in case someone else runs into these issues.

 

I have been trying for the last 6 hours to flash the vbios for my 5870 xfire......i have followed instructions as far as driver sweeper and cc cleaner....however after installing the new drivers and running the vbios utility, i see a little progress meter go all the way across and then disappears. I am not getting the dialog that other people are stating that they are recieving.....PLEASE Help..!

 

I am not getting the alienware splash screen, i see a bar go across on my screen flash, and then nothing.....i pull up GPU-z and the bios has not been updated....what am i doing wrong? i'm a newb with vbios......everything else installed just fine.

 

Hi theres chiefs.

The Alienware splash screen was just the initial setup up screen when you double click the vbios exe in windows. That is where and when you will get 2 options to choose whether you want to create a bootable usb flash drive or a cd to use to flash your vbios.

If you aren't able to get the above working then you might have a driver issue. So you need to uninstall the drivers and install the dell new ati 10.8 driver that was released the same day as the new vbios. You will need to use that particular driver in order for the vbios program to recognise your gpu cards and system properly.
So yeh make sure to uninstall the CCC and any ATi files and reg. Restart into Safemode and run driver sweeper and cc cleaner. Then restart back into normal OS mode and install the new dell drivers. Restart then try the vbios update again.

Once you have created either the usb or cd then you need to restart the machine. You will need to keep hitting F12 button when the machine is restarting and starting up (just after you see the initial Alien head appear when you 1st power on you machine) to load up the boot menu where you can then select to either boot from your usb drive or the cd/dvd rom drive. Then it will run the gpu vbios flash update. Hit B and it will flash both your gpu cards. Then once done restart when it tells you too and your done good to go.

Cheers.

 

Guys i am very confused and nervous to update these new drivers after reading what people are experiencing. The update sounds easy to do but then i am scared if anything would go wrong. What u all think? Frame rate drops, black screens, clock speeds going haywire, even after updating new drivers is not a good sign i think. It becomes really frustrating to back track issues and hours go in only trying to figure out the problem. Please tell me what to do.
How do i check my clock speeds by the way? And please provide a step by step process to get rid of the old drivers and installing new vbios and update (what softwares to use? to remove ATI files).
How do i make sure if everything is fine as its supposed to be after i update the new drivers?

 

friend,
what should i type...??

the romname 0, whats the rom name..?? where i can find the name...???
i did type "atiflash -p 1 dellb1.rom
but nothing happens...
and should i install the atiflash 3.79 ?
i do download the atiflash 3.79, but it wont install in my alienware...
what should i do...??