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

Latest Driver 8.763.0 and latest apllication profile working so far with these games?

The VBIOS is only for windows stability issues to cure, it SHOULD not affect performance in games.

If you have the latest drivers, you WANT the new vbios, it's a no-brainer, they go hand in hand. Call it the A01 HD5870 Combo.

Tip: Create a signature with your specs, so we always know which setup you have when posting in such technical discussion and problem solving threads (just copy mine and adjust it to your like if you want), cheers

 

I know how to remove the old driver. So, we install the new video driver, reboot into windows and then run the vbios utility to create the boot cd/usb? I thought the new video drivers were not compatible with the current vbios. Am I going to be able to log in to Win 7 normally with the new drivers to create the vbios boot disk?

 

Installing beep boop! That was my Robot noise...JK

 

The old A00 driver 8.692 and all ATI reference drivers below 10.8 are not compatible with the new VBIOS, keep that in mind.

You should... And it is advised to make sure, upon reboot, that the drivers are installed atleast, because when you are not sure, and you sit on your old driver and you flash the VBIOS, you will get endless BSOD, and then you will have to do some cleaning for sure and it can get messy to install the new drivers, without having to install a fresh windows installation, which i also recommend, you are free to do what you want as your system allows it. Normally the easiest way, and that is to install them both in the correct order, uninstall old driver via programs ->install new driver-> follow my flash guide on page 15.

 

Achilleus,

The new ATI 8.763 drivers are compatible with the old or the new vbios. But if you update to the new vbios then you must use the new ATI 8.763 drivers-the old drivers will no longer work. Yes, you will be able to make the bootable cd with the new vbios update after updating to the new ATI 8.763 drivers.(late post Grimfan-sorry)

 

Thanks guys.

 

It's all good, if 2 people tell him almost the same, he somehow has to believe it, or he's doing something wrong if it doesn't work correctly.

And yes, the latest driver is "compatible" with the old and new vbios, but on the old vbios, you can't use it on battery at all.

 

Guys i am not getting that screen when starting the vbios setup.....something flashes on the screen real quick and is not running......i'm beginning to lose all hope in being able to flash the vbios.....is it a program or a setting in my system that is resulting in this? i have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers.....with the same effect as far as flashing the vbios....

 

You have to give it a little bit of time, did the same for me. I just installed my drivers/vbios (from CD) without a hitch. I have been lazy all week and made time for it finally since I'll be benching on friday.

 

You gonna be benching the official vbios/drivers?? - would be great to hear some concrete info on these !

 

Yup, give me till friday. Thats the only day off I get so I'll be benching then. Any particular CPU you want them benched with? I'll probably focus on my 920XM since thats the best OCer of my CPUs, but I also have the 520M and 94XM ES (which doesn't bench as well as my 920) and 720M which is currently installed. I'll do some stock runs (A09 bios) and some overclocked. I'll post any particular benches if somone wants them. or requests them. Might be best to PM me with particulars (so iI can keep track) if somone wants me benching them. Let me know what settings and data and hardware your looking for. I have old bios', GPU vbios, and old drivers as well as new vbios/drivers (installed 10 min ago)

 

Yes I've used the latest profiles with each driver release.

 

Uninstalled and cleaned after each driver you said you have tried since 10.5a?? - maybe driver conflicts with leftovers??? - have you tried a clean install of windows and loading the latest drivers/profiles? - obviously vbios isnt an issue for you running 4870 cards as it isnt for those cards, so I dont know what to suggest. Maybe Grim can shed some light on it for you.

 

@ttnuagmada, have you used CCleaner to wipe the registry of old entries resulting from the old drivers?

 

I go through device manager uninstall+delete, then through programs uninstall through catalyst, and then driver sweeper, restart safe mode then Ccleaner just my two cents but I don't run into problems.

 

Also run driver sweeper from safe mode to get rid of nasties....ooops missed that was already sugested!

 

well A01 driver|vbios is a go. Now I will have to test it tonight. Anyone know of a program for ATI similar to Nhancer?

 

Yeah, SP does play fine. The thing is though, the only difference between MP running smoothly and MP running poorly is ATI's drivers. It maybe that something in the BFBC2 code is conflicting with the ATI drivers but i still blame ATI for not trying to figure it out.

This is the difference between ATI and Nvidia. Nvidia works with game devs to make sure their games run great on their cards, ATI doesn't . If you complain on their forums they will ignore you, or blame the problem on someone else. They NEVER take responsibility in cases like this, and so problems like these linger for months.

It surely can't be a big deal, the game worked FINE in patch 10.5a. It ran smoothly and the maps loaded quickly, now the game does neither, and the ONLY thing that has changed is ATI's drivers.

My next computer will have Nvidia cards.

 

yes.

trust me, I've installed/uninstalled video card drivers thousands of times. It's not me. Look at some of my posts, I'm one of the few people that knows how to install the 10.5a hotfix. I've been complaining about this issue for months, and the only responses I get are the same "did you run driver sweeper?" etc etc.

Besides, this has taken place across 3 different fresh Win 7 installs and 10.5a always works fine whenever i go back to it.

edit: sorry if it seems like i'm being an a$$ , this problem has just been driving me crazy for months.

 

Are you trying to install the A01 vbios on HD4870's? I believe this may be the issue. Or are you just installing the A01 Driver?

 

Im talking about every single ATI driver released since 10.5a.

Are you insinuating that I managed to install 5870 vbios' in my 4870's and that this could be causing my problem?

LOL

 

I don't get your logic here. The same works just fine in SP - no lag, etc. This means that the game engine must be working quite happily with the graphics drivers. You then start playing MP, which uses the same game engine and the same graphics drivers. Yet you blame those drivers for poor performance?

The biggest difference between SP and MP is that the SP game is driven locally (i.e. it's your computer that decides what's going on in the game), but the MP game is driven by some server somewhere. The only thing that should cause any issues here is if you have network problems. There is nothing here that should cause any conflicts with the graphics drivers.

The only thing that may possibly be causing graphics driver issues is if your MP battles have a lot more happening on screen than your SP battles. If this is the case, you should be able to fix the problem by lowering your graphics settings a bit.

 

Come on man, are you ignoring half of what I'm saying? The game plays ing FINE with 10.5a and below, only after i install 10.6 or greater does this problem happen. This is a problem i have observed with EVERY driver post 10.5a, every single one. When i reinstall 10.5a, the problem goes away. This something ive been observing and posting about over a several month period and across 3 or so fresh win 7 installs.

It is ATI's problem. I am not the only one experiencing it either.

Please do not respond telling me to boot into safe-mode and run Driver Sweeper etc, or my head will probably explode.

People picking random posts out of an ongoing conversation, and responding to them out of context is starting to drive me insane. I realize people want to help, and i really do appreciate that, but make sure you know what you're responding to.

 

Sorry - this is such a long thread that I must have missed that part.

I can't think of anything that ATI could be doing that would have any effect on only the multiplayer part of the game. It makes no sense - I'd expect it to be all or nothing.

I'm too lazy to go back and look, but have you tried installing the ATI Crossfire profiles? If you haven't then give them a go. If not then try uninstalling them, as Dell's engineers supposedly found they reduced performance in some areas.

You can also try using RadeonPro to create a custom profile for the game. There are a large number of settings you can try, and hopefully you can find the one that's causing your problem.

 

I did it. Followed the directions in this thread. Worked like a charm.
* Black screen after sleep problem fixed.
* OSD / brightness control not working fixed (after uninstalling/rebooting/reinstalling OSD application).
* Star Craft 2 disappearing units under Crossfire problem fixed.

 

I've tried everything there is to try. It's ATI's fault. Like I said, im not the only one experiencing this problem.

 

The 720 would be great and some oc on the cards.. Then i know if its worth flashing... My system works as it should with the new v-bios. So for every one with problems with sleep, bsod and so on.. Use the new v-bios.. And my vantage gpu score with:
10.8= 13589p
10.8 + new v-bios= 13990p
10.8 + new v-bios + A09= 14004p
So it became better, and thats good.

 

So, if you blame ati for it, why are you not just playing on 10.5 where it worked then. And if you insist on something and can't provide some facts, i'm sorry but then it does not make sense at all, why SP and MP are so different. A game in MP tends to be laggy depending on your network infrastructure you might have a problem with, this is even harder to find out, but go ahead just give out blames towards ati without a solid reason, nor straight facts. To me this is trolling big time, and you probably want to move your biase somewhere else.

If you want to continue deliever prove that 10.5 is still working good for you and the 10.8 don't, comparison pictures, specifications, settings, without such info, we can't help you, and it's unnecessary just to repeat your problem and frustration every second post...

No offfense, but thanks for understanding...

 

the fact that lots of other people have been experiencing this same problem since the same driver version is the proof.

It is absolutely ATI's fault.

All settings are the default settings after the driver is installed, with all versions. I already posted a video showing the "lag" (it happens before the game is even loaded, but after you've gone to the server browser) here, again, is the video that I've already posted and explained.

YouTube - Video0001

Notice the inconsistency in the framerate, and the jerkiness of the scrolling text. This is how the game itself behaves, and this is an example of it happening before the game is even loaded.

It is ATI's fault. It ONLY happens on drivers post 10.5a. It is all over the internet. It happens regardless of if an app profile is installed and regardless of which app profile is installed.

AMD Game Forums - BFBC2 4870x2 GPU utialization problem
AMD Game Forums - 10.6 & 10.7 + 4870x2 + Bc2 = broke


The reason I am so eager to use later versions of the ATI driver is due to problems fixed or improvements made with other games that I play.

here is a screenshot of my AMD clock tool thermal page from every single driver version post 10.5a



I have no idea what it means, but only 1 VDDC shows up. it's the one thing I have consistently noticed with all drivers post 10.5a. Not that it matters, but I am unable to change clock speeds on the 2nd core, even though the clocks raise correctly on their own with a 3d app is open.


It is ATI's fault.

 

Welp, I just got done playing BC2 for 30 minutes and it played awesome! No lag or anything but when the round was over the game crashed to the desktop. Getting a little better I guess?


Grim, have you tried playing BC2 online yet? I know you have the game but have you actualy tried playing to see how your machine runs?

 

AMD GPU Clock Tool is outdated, use RivaTuner to O/C and GPU-Z to monitor in games, leave anything at stock to have a fair comparison to others, provide the log files please for the specific game you have from GPU-Z, playing atleast 15 minutes, and i try to study and interprete things on them and if something might be wrong.

If you don't stop insisting blaming ATI, please sell your laptop and find something you are happy with. It's not constructive in anyway to repeat your frustration, seriously.

If it's indeed a driver problem, then just have patience like everyone else with their 4870's that are experiencing this issue, i know that 10.8 might not be very accurate in scaling on these cards. We HD5870 users had to wait aswell, but we found atleast workarounds to somehow keep our laptop running stable...

And about the scrolling text, strange but i don't even have that when i play offline without internet connection active.

Seriously you mentioned ATI's fault 3 times in your previous post, something is not right there

Uhm no, i only bought it to compare some numbers/fps on it, since everyone seems to have it, i'm not a FPS-Player anyway and would not play online at all, i only played the first mission so far and that was smooth sailing. I like single player campaigns or co-op if it exists. But i have yet to try the latter

 

"I am gamer", now that is interesting regarding the battery pull out, that may well reset the cores. sort of related, my old Q6600 when oc'ing would down clock and it took the power cable being removed before it would return to normal?!?

 

Could be your power performance settings, have you looked in to them?



For those with issues, you might consider using a remote control program like "Team Viewer" to allow somone you trust on the forum to help you through your issue. The program would allow them to see your screen or you to see theres. Then you can have somone run the steps for you. Only takes a few min. Just have shortcuts to all the neccessary applications (drive sweeper, CCleaner, ect) on the desktop.

Team Viewer Download 2.93MB

 

Guys does the battery need to be enabled by pressing FN key and F2 together. It is now currently disabled and the power adapter is plugged in. What is the need for this?

 

Friends, there is a very unusual problem i am getting when i go to uninstall the ATI catalyst Install manager from the control panel. It is essential that i first uninstall all the ATI drivers as recommended by everyone before i proceed with installing the new drivers and flash vbios, but just don't know how to deal with this issue of uninstalling. I have not installed any beta drivers or beta vbios before.
The version of Catalyst manager is 3.0.782.0

I get two options when i right click on the Install manager. It is CHANGE and REPAIR. I have provided screens in sequence (1st,2nd,3rd,4th,5th occur under CHANGE) (repair screen1, 2 and 3 occur under REPAIR) to help you all understand the cause of this. Please help me out here



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Ah nice issue Unusual indeed ^^

Ok, what you normally like to do to uninstall is using change and select Express Uninstall all ATI Software. If that does not work try a repair first, then try the Uninstalling again. If that does not work, install the latest driver on top of it. See what you get, and verify the installation of the drivers after reboot with Catalyst Command Center (right click on desktop - upper left corner select Information) and GPU-Z. Should say 8.763, if that worked install VBIOS as described on Page 15.

If you still have issues after that, try Uninstalling again with Express uninstall. If that does not work delete the drivers with Driver Sweeper and CCleaner Registry Clean, not the main cleaning, in about 3 restarts each time, so nothing or atleast not that much should be left, and you should be able to install the latest drivers...

If nothing helps, reinstall a clean Windows with all the latest drivers, that's the most comfortable way in my oppinion.

 

Yeah i think i will do a fresh reinstall of Windows without using the Dell data Safe software, as i don't want to restore it to factory settings with all the drivers preloaded. Because when ever i use it to get my laptop to its factory state i cant get rid of the Catalyst manager.

And i would really appreciate if you can please tell me what should be the correct order sequence of installation of all the various drivers and firmware for the M17xR2 after i reinstall Windows. For example...chipset, display, dvd rom, Alienware's Alien FX, Network, Audio, etc etc.

One more question. When i am inside Windows does the battery need to be enabled by pressing FN key and F2 together. It is now currently disabled and the power adapter is plugged in. A small message flashes every time i press FN key with F2 key saying battery disabled/battery enabled. What is this feature for?

 

Install chipset at first if you can (you can't install display drivers for example if chipset is not installed before), then all the other hardware drivers, then display driver as the last hardware releated driver, after that the software drivers, like alienware command center. Once setup, and you are on the latest display driver, create vbios flash device CD or MS, flash vbios upon reboot as described on page 15.

Flash new A09 Bios at last, or on your current windows installation before reinstallling clean.

I have actually no clue for what FN+F2 does, let me try what happens if it's disabled and i unplug, might disable as implied battery and unplug it software vise, like you can safe remove a memory stick for example, let's see. (Anyway it's normally Enabled and i never changed it to Disable)

Edit: It shows me Enabled when i hit FN+F2, hit again before the OSD dissapears, gets Disabled. Unplug it, nothing happens, continues to run. Pluged in again and hit FN+F2 again, Enabled again. Ok, so that is standard anyway. But what changed i didn't see for now without looking at some monitoring software, not of interest in my oppinion then, as it works nonetheless.

And PS: You will most likely lose your factory restore image if you delete the partition or format it on new windows install. But i recommend even that, as your factory image is not usable at all anymore if you update your vbios, as the A00 (8.692) display drivers are integrated there

 

After doing the same thing myself (clean install) AW tech told me to install drivers in the following order:

Chipset / Video drivers / Newtwork drivers / Lan drivers / Audio drivers and then the rest as you wish in any order - the important one is chipset first followed by video - ALWAYS! (what i was told anyhow!)

Regarding toggling the battery on/off using Fn+F2, its just a handy lil gadget that if you want to use, you can. I use mine when plugged in to disable the battery from charging as and when.

The icons you see when you toggle are as follows:

Battery disabled = battery with line through it = wont charge when plugged in
Batter Enabled = battery with blue icons = battery to charge when plugged in
Battery Enable = battery with green/blue = shows battery status at any time

Scroll thru and select whichever one you want at that time. Simples.

 

WOOO HOOO... Hi everyone , it was just awesome playing bfbc2 online with Dell 8.763 driver , no lag at all with xfire on ,normally i have to turn xfire off .
and best of all my baby could wake up from sleep.......sh...t yeah .

CHEERS,

 

The first thing I do is install all of the windows updates first and then proceed with the normal driver order. That may go without saying though.

 

As we all know that flashing vbios should happen only after the display drivers are installed. So according to what you have mentioned in the order of installation, in my case the VBIOS flash will come after i install the Chipset and Video drivers correct? and then network, lan, audio and so on?
Windows updates should come before all the basic drivers?
I will make two partitions C and D. C for Windows and D for games,movies and music. Should i install all the drivers and softwares like M17xR2 drivers and applications, Adobe, VLC, Word, winamp in C:Windows partition or that should go in D? I was thinking about it so that windows loads faster if i dont install much stuff in its partition.
Just being sure that's it.

 

Well, if it were me, I would get windows fully up and running with the latest drivers first (including video drivers obviously) but I would wait till everything else is installed correctly, ie command centre, OSD, everything that needs to be there and thats when I would think about flashing the vbios.

You probably can flash after you have done the chipset/video drivers but im not sure wether or not you SHOULD or SHOULDNT do the vbios before you have fully reinstated all the OS and drivers.

Maybe someone can chirp in on that one?

 

Just how dya do that without doing the Network lan / wireless drivers as surely you need access to the internet prior to d/l windows updates???

 

I think it's safe to install the network drivers first, lol. I have all my drivers on a flash drive.

 

Windows Update SHOULD not influence the behaviour of all the installed drivers on stock windows, of course you WANT to update after all the installing and then connect to internet, update all windows updates. Do what you want, and what works, if something does not work installing, skip it and do it when you have installed other things^^ Cheers.

Well Stevie, you probably know those guys at the call center much closer know aswell and how they operate, but regarding the order, chipset is definetly the first, but why display drivers after that is a miracle to me. Because when you have everything installed, you uninstall the drivers again and you want to update to a later Catalyst Driver, the video driver will become the last driver somehow and is mostly the only driver you will update, uninstall, reinstall, see that?^^

 

When you flash the VBios with a jump drive, the OS is not even loaded. I flashed my Vbios before I did a fresh install, so I really think loading the Video drivers before or after would have no effect. Think about it, if any of you does a fresh install of your OS now that you flashed your Vbois, you would be in the same situation.

I installed all my drivers before any Windows updates, I installed my network last on purpose. I did not want MS to load any of thier drivers that I did not want. My system is working great.

 

Yup Grim, seems stupid i know but i wasnt gonna argue LOL - must just be another AW tech thing.....it tells ya on the resource disk in what order but the resource disk is as bout as much use as a chocolate fireguard.....

 

Sure that (flashing vbios) works aswell if you have a blank System without OS

 

I actually thought about this last night... what if I have to do a clean install and have NO choice to load the driver first as the Bvios has already been flashed???

Sandy