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

I've put this off until I had time to do the Dell driver/BIOS upgrade for my 5870 CF setup. Now that I'm sitting here in front of my unit, I'm at a loss as how to properly procede. I actually have no questions about the BIOS flash, that part is straightforward. My question is about the driver installation prior to the BIOS flash:

The ATI uninstall utility from the control panel, should I use the Express Uninstall (everything ATI) or the Uninstall Manager?

If the Uninstall Manager, should I remove all that are listed (CCC, ATI Display Driver, HDMI Audio Driver) or just the ATI Display Driver? I'm not sure what all is included in the Dell driver package.

After that, is it necessary to do an uninstall of the cards themselves from the Device Manager? I've even had past issues where I had to stop all ATI related processes using the Task Manager to get a driver upgrade to finally work correctly.

Once I get all that done, I plan to do the Driver Sweeper cleanout in safe mode, followed by a quick CCleaner flush, then reboot and install, reboot and flash.

Sorry if these questions appear n00by and rediculous, I just don't want to ruin this fantastic machine, when I could have asked a question before breaking it. Thanks in advance

Mmcxii

 

Hi bud,

I had the same kinda fear....are you using dell factory drivers or ati drivers? - i was on dell factory drivers and tried to run driversweeper from safe mode but obviously as it doesnt have options to clear dell drivers, i found that i had to uninstall the drivers manually from device manager.

Prior to that, i uninstalled ati ccc via express uninstall - i did this by going to programs / change and the followed on screen instructions to remove ccc.

Once this was done, i uninstalled the drivers still showing in device manager via manual uninstall.

Now at this point , your screen will look horrendously large but if you check device manager, you should be running standard vga drivers...one card may show as not working but that will be because standard vga drivers wont do crossfire.

At this point, i ran the .exe for the 8.763 dell drivers, everything came back fine....

Then flashed the vbios via cdrom

All went well, no hitches....i hope this helps, any questions , PM me or im sure Grim is floating about somewhere to help/advise - he really knows this process inside out...

 

Done & Done. So far no issues. Thanks for the reply

Mmcxii

 

I have several questions prior to updating the cards~

Is it really necessary to uninstall older drivers manually? Like going into safe mode, running CCleaner etc. I'm a newb at this, so if anyone can clarify this I'll appreciate it, dell support site didn't mention anything about this though.

Also, I'm currently on the A06 BIOS, do I have to update to A09 or is the VBIOS and driver update compatible on all versions?

Thanks in advance! Looking forward to remove the annoying BSODs I'm having occasionally.

 

Howdies chiefs,

Yeh it is highly recommended to uninstall the old drivers before you update to a newer version. This keeps things clean and makes sure you won't be affected by the old driver bugs and files.

I would recommend that you update to system BIOS A09. Then uninstall old drivers, install new drivers and then do the new vbios update.

Good Luck Chiefs!!!

Cheers.

 

Your welcome, hope they work well for ya!

Exactly what I did - no problems at all....managed to do a tiny bit of game testing - metro 2033.

Only played for 5-10 mins but noticeable improvements, at least i thought so.
They game seems to run now quite fluently in dx11 mode, no nasty wavy lines.

Played using :

DX11 with Depth of field (DOF) disabled (tried with eabled too)
Very High
Full native res
MSAA 4x
AF 16x

Was quite amazed that it ran quite well so im quite happy so far with the new vbios/driver combo - well done Dell and thanks Brian! - at last, looks like it does what I bought it for. LOL

 

@reborn: Thanks! =)

Another request, can someone link me to the thread with the step-by-step guide as to how one should uninstall one's drivers manually? The search bar is broken at my end, I keep getting error 404s. >.<

 

Hey theres chiefs. My search is down as well. Doing the same thing as yours.
I don't think there is a step by step guide as how to do this.

No worries though as it is really simple.

You basically want to go and Uninstall CCC. Choose express uninstall and select everything. KO ATi lol. Then once done restart into safe mode and then run driver sweeper and CC cleaner. Clean out the rest of any ATi stuff.

Then restart back into normal OS mode and install the new dell drivers. Once its all done restart. Then you can double check using GPU-z and checking CCC that your on the new driver.

Then you are ready to install the updated Vbios.

Cheers.

 

Thanks again.

But I'm in a tight spot now. Just updated BIOS A09 and rebooted my system. After several tries I still get the 'Missing Operation System...' error. Help! :X

UPDATE: I googled my problem and read a post about enabling RAID. I did that but now I get red 'INCOMPATIBLE's during startup and redirects me to a page with mass storage thingies and a ton of options (Ctrl+I). What am I supposed to do? @.@

How does one enable RAID? Isn't it just switching it from one mode to another and pressing save and exit in the BIOS setup? Ah~ halp~ D:

UPDATE #2: Enabled the RAID 0 option. Didn't know there's one. Whoops. Fixed now. What a relief~

 

Ah yup. Cool chiefs.

Yeh normally after updating the system BIOS sometimes you will have to renable RAID 0 or 1 settings depending on which one you are currently using. Very common thing. No worries chiefs good thing to learn for next time. Glad to hear you fixed it.

Cheers.

 

Yeah. Practice makes perfect I guess.

Oh one more thing, since I uninstalled CCC prior to installing the new drivers, I'll have to reinstall CCC once it's all done?

 

CCC will be packaged with the Dell drivers so just run the .exe that you downloaded from Dell - that should give you all you need for Drivers and CCC. to check, just type ccc in start menu and if you have it, you have it lol

 

Yep ahuhs. Can do if you like chiefs. Some like to use it others use radeon pro. It should be within the driver package. Just select everything.

Cheers.

 

Cool. Thanks for all the help guys. I really appreciate it.

 

Hows the rest of the testing going Stevie?

Tried any other games? I haven't had a chance to try out many games yet since the new vbios and driver. I've mainly been playing FIFA 11. Still waiting for a driver update though to improve fps. It currently lacks support in the current ATi driver.

Nice that your getting in some nice testing time before the system goes back and you wait for your new one to arrive. Can do some testing with the drivers and games.
Perhaps you can tell them you will send if back once your new one finally arrives then you won't be stuck without a system.

Now you'll be ready to do it all over again once the new system arrives. However I suspect the newer system might already have the new drivers and vbios preinstalled.

Cheers.

 

Reborn, Was trying to get in as much testing of my limited games library as poss...dont know how much i will be able to do as the two systems i have here atm go back on thursday...refund processed and have already ordered the new one so that should ship eta 19th.

I too am hoping that all the vbios / driver stuff will be pre-installed to make life easier - it should be given that its now the only driver on support for the 5870's so i would imagine they would put the vbios on also.

Wanted to test metro as its a nice dx11 game which is really demanding like crysis....if my system runs that pretty good, im sure it will handle oher games too ... will try and test arkham asylum, crysis, left for dead 2 and a few others if i get time to install them! (took 7 hrs to d/l metro from my steam acc last night! - had to go to bed and leave it run!!!)

Hey, one thing, i did BIOS A09 before all this and i knew it KO'd the raid config, so went into bios, sure, its enabled, checked tho and it shows as raid 0 and raid 1 enabled - d'ya reckon i should disbale raid 1 as my systme runs striping...??

 

Oh both were enabled huhs. odd.
Usually you either enable raid 0 or 1 but not both. Hmmmsssss. Its still running okay ey. I guess it just picks it up then. Yeh you should be running in RAID 0 and just select that. Hmmssss interesting.

Cheers for pointing that out. I'll make a note of that for next time.
Ah yup dling from steam. Yeh its a big game ey that metro 2011. I thing we also have portal preinstalled on our systems. It came free or something.
Cmon I'm waiting for some new games to come out now. Need something new to play and try out.

Oles congrats on reaching 1000 posts ole!!!

Cheers.

 

Have tried Portal, that runs much better also....still took ages to d/l mind....i will have to check if i have to force vsync on that one for it to run perfectly...

EDIT: Just checked and can play portal without vsync whereas before, i could play but had the awful wavy line issue which was my biggest complaint at the time....seems that ones cured now - looking forward to some gaming on the new and improved system now when she lands later in the month!

 

Done! Finished updating the VBIOS, BIOS and drivers.
Can't wait to test them out. Hopefully, no more BSODs. ^_^

 

Have fun!! - glad your set!

 

Great, I've been waiting months for this!

I never did do anything with the beta's because I was too scared... Even now I'm afraid I'll goof something up. v.v

Guess I'll just have to overcome my fear

 

1000 posts!! woop woop!!!!

 

Just thought I would post a FYI.

After doing the 8.763/vbios (official ones), I have just ran 3dmark 06 and was amazed!!!

Didnt think my system would get these scores:

http://service.futuremark.com/home.action;jsessionid=A93297B1F75200F52C735DEE93765AA7

Not bad me thinks....what dya reckon for a stock system? new dell drivers and vbios and A09.

 

Heyas chiefs,

Oh very nice stock score indeed. My very best stock score out of the box on the old vbios and drivers was 15001. I never could replicate that score ever since though. Always ranging from 12k to 14k. I did manage a 16.5k but I had OC the CPU the other day.

How do you get on in Vantage (overall score and GPU/CPU score)?

Hows the testing going?

Cheers.

 

Hiyas,

15001 is top notch for a 740qm right!!! - 16.5k is amazing...i havent done any oc'ing at all and mines 820qm. Didnt know what to expect...my old system (720qm) was getting around 13800 tops @ stock, so 2000 pts for 820 is pretty good i think! (no expert mind)

Vantage, alas, i havent bought it so ive used my trial run....might try registering another email addy when i get my new system to see if that works.....

Havent done any more gaming tonight, i have to box these two babies up and its late....wanted to run 3dmark 06 to give me a comparison between this and the new 840qm system....

Im gonna be offline for about 2 weeks after tomorrow as i will be computerless

If i get the chance, will try to do some testing tomorrow....

 

Oh cool cool no worries chiefs.

Yeh 15001 was the very 1st score I got running 3d mark literally out of the box a few mins after unboxing it LOL.
I hadn't touched any settings and anything, I just wanted to see what score it could post as my previous system the R1 was pretty woeful with 3d mark LOL. Around 12 was its max. That was with OC as well lol.

Yeh I'll be curious to see what scores you get with the new system as well chiefs. I want to see how this 840QM stacks up. For a near $500 wing wang upgrade from the 740QM.

Oh no 2 weeks ey buggers. Have a nice holiday from the PC world then ehehhee we'll see ya back here in just over 2 weeks then, who knows hopefully sooner.

Good Luck!

Cheers.

 

Yeah mate, for the money for the 820/840 i wanna (or would expect) to see some biggies in the numbers etc...

I know...PC-less for 2 weeks - im addidcted to NBR now lol - might have to go and find some other drug for 2 weeks - beer is usually good

 

it's written in the first page that :
(Note: For 5870 GPU owners, install the driver FIRST and the VBIOS update after installing the display driver)

what will happen if the vbios was flashed first?

 

When you restart the notebook it will BSOD on you.
You need to be using a driver that is 10.8 or above otherwise it will BSOD when you restart your notebook.

Cheers.

 

I would like to update to v8.763 video driver and VBIOS v13B96101.104 for my HD5870m video cards. I followed page one of this forum http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/519439-17xr1-r2-dell-8-763-driver-4870-5870-gpus-5870-vbios-discussion-non-beta.html but after I install the video driver v8.763 first I will get a black screen after boot up. Had to go safe mode and roll back drive to fix. Does anyone have any ideal what is wrong.





M17x-R2 Black :: i7 820QM|Win7 64b|1920x1200 RGB|ATI Mobility Radeon HD5870 CrossFireX|BluRay Drive|500GB 7200RPM|6GB DDR3 1333MHz|BIOS A09

 

You need the vbios update...im thinking you have just done the vidoe drivers and thats why you are getting BSOD.

Have you done the vbios? - until you do the vbios, you will get BSOD - you need this and im pretty sure once you have it, you will be fine.

 

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This forum page http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/519439-17xr1-r2-dell-8-763-driver-4870-5870-gpus-5870-vbios-discussion-non-beta.html tells you to do video driver first than vbios or you will brick the video card and you will have to seen it back to Dell, so which is first the video driver or vbios. This forum site M17x-R2 Wikia Forum &bull; View topic - New 5870m Xfire vbios beta shows you that you can do a dos and windows method to install but if I do video driver first I have a black screen and no control of laptop, so what did you do, video driver first than dos method install for the vbios

 

The VBIOS provided in this thread is DOS method, and you create a bootable USB-Stick or burned CD to use the flash process. So create such media, install drivers, flash vbios, load into windows. And this method has a very very low chance of bricking your cards therefor its DOS based. A brick only occurs if the flash proccess gets interupted by some reason. So use this method i just explained and you should be fine. On page 15 is a step-by-step guide on how to create media and flash vbios. Good luck!

 

I'm not sure why this is an issue. As I clearly indicated in post 1 of this thread based on Brian's (Alienware Rep) instructions -

If by some odd chance your system is bricked (highly doubt it) by running the straight update PROVIDED by Dell, Dell WILL resolve it and get you up and running again.

 

Page one of this thread states under AMD Mobility Radeon HD5870 Driver (Note: For 5870 GPU owners, install the driver FIRST and the VBIOS update after installing the display driver) and under AMD Mobility Radeon HD5870 VBIOS Update
Install video driver first prior to flashing the VBIOS . So my question is which come first, the chicken or the egg. Maybe I should say video driver or vbios. Thanks for all the help

 

It's video driver first vbios second

 

I tend to repeat instructions for some who rather charge in with guns blazing as opposed to surveying the territory they are entering.

Install the DRIVER before flashing the VBIOS update.

 

Thanks for the help. With this update will it fix any crossfire problems. My problem is video card 1 is not utilize at all in any crossfire capable games

Thank you for the help.

 

I'm not sure- you may have a hardware issue. Bottom line, before Dell is going to go over the troubleshooting aspect, they will have you update those two items. Suggest you do it and then check back here if you are still having an issue. Create a new thread and be detailed with all problems and symptoms if the issue remains unresolved.

Thanks.

 

Is there any way to update the VBIOS without using flash drive? I don't have one handy here. And trying to burn a CD results in failure.

 

Then stop doing it by hand and use Nero

 

Hi Aikimox.. You mean Nero in DMC4?

 

i think he meant the burning software

 

Nero that comes (still?) as a bonus software with the AW systems.

 

Hey rubyboy yeah i was just kidding..

 

Hi Sillyhoney what's the failure/error message when you use a CD?

 

It's just kinda generic dialog box. Something like: Burning to disc failed or something. I wasted 2 CDs on that. But Aikimox is right. I can just create an image then use 3rd party software to burn it. I must be smoking something weird recently to be that dumb

 

Hi Brian,

Just another message before you leave us.

I just wanted to know whether or not Dell/Alienware will continue to provide us with updated AMD/ATi drivers once your gone? Thanks.

Once again thanks so much for the New driver and vbios Combo. Awesome stuffs. Not to mention the quick fix on the bios A08 to A09 issue.

Cheers.

 

Hey Aikimox, +rep for you. I have just updated the V-BIOS. Now my computer can sleep well, and so can I...

 

I have 2 5870's but the vBios won't see them, I have reinstalled the drivers several times but no luck. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
-Mike