M17x R2 Video Upgrade Single ATI 5870 to Crossfire

Hello guys, i have a M17x R2 with only one ATI 5870 graphic card and after a little research i decided to buy the secondary GPU to enable crossfire so i contacted dell and i bought it. Time passed and a tech guy from dell came to my house and installed the new video card without making any kind of changes in BIOS settings or Drivers, windows recongnized the video card right away.

BUT problemas began when i tried to enter BF3 and it did not worked, so i figured it should be drivers issue, because of the new crossfire configuration bla bla. So i upgraded to the latest AMD drivers for ati mobility 5xxx series (11-10_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl), i rebooted and i got a BSOD telling me stuff xD!, so i entered in safe mode and uninstalled both graphic cards thinking that it would solve the problem, whell at least i could boot up from windows again. After booting and allowing windows to start, i allowed windows update to find the missing drivers because of the uninstalling in safe mode, so after rebooting and getting a few BSOD and system freezing my system stabilized and catalyst started to work and seeing the crossfire Video cards but still bf3 not working, although other games did worked.

So finally after trying different combinations of the same thing i decided to go back to old drivers(11-4_vista64_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl) to see if the problem was solved. But again the same problems, BSODs and freezing so i started thinking... maybe its because i have the 150W AC power adapter and not the 240W that is needed to crossfire to work, and i think again... But its a notebook so i should work anyways with battery only. So i did everything i mentioned before with battery only getting the same results.

At this time all i wanted to do was to play bf3 again in my computer, so i decided to take the little troublemaker aut and leave it as it was in the first place. And then a miracle happened, it worked perfectly, bf3 running but with only my old single gpu xD!!

Ok, so today making a little more research, and confirmming with dell the arrival of my new 240W AC adapter for tomorrow, i'm seeing that a thing called VBIOS might have something to do with this...

My m17x is running a10 Bios, my GPU's... no idea

where can i see what VBIOS version i have for both video cards??

do i need to upgrade this thing called VBIOS?? How do i do it?

Do i need to enable any special features on my bios??(i tried reseting BIOS to default a couple of times too)

is there any danger in using the 150w adapter as i wait for the new one to arrive?

are there any special drivers for crossfire configuration??

are the drivers in amd website the apropriates??

i would really thank any kind of help guys, i'm just turning crazy, all i want to do is get both GPUs working and play with my 3 monitors bf3 eyefinity! xD!!!

great forum by the way!

 

Welcome!

Download GPU-Z and post a screenshot. It should say what vbios your using.

You do need the 240w, as the 150w won't be enough for dual GPUs. Not sure if the 150W adaptor will trip underload, but I don't see it causing any damage. It just may shut down the adaptor which you will have to unplug from the wall to reset if power draw gets to high for the PSU.

11.10 drivers from AMD are fine. Make sure you download and install CAP4 which has crossfire support for BF3.

+rep for being new

 

I second everything DR said, but here is what the VBIOS should be updated if your number doesn't match the one circled in red you need to update the VBIOS. If it does need to be updated post back here first before you update.




Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

Wow, thank you guys for the ultra fast help! xD!

ok i downloaded GPU-Z as dr said and here are the SS





im guessing the second SS is my original GPU because of the bios version.

I re-installed the secondary gpu and i tried to install the older drivers but i got BSOD while loading windows and i checked in programs if CCC was installed, but as you can see in both SS, drivers running are from windows or at least installed by it.

so... should i try to re install the latest drivers from AMD or should i first try to update VBIOS of both GPU's??

thanks again guys, now im feeling much closer to BF3!!!

 

Download and flash the latest vbios to the first card or second card. Which ever the second SS is. You can download it from Dell. Or you can pull the vbios from the first screen and flash it to the second card with the older vbios. I'm 99% sure thats the source of your issues, having two differant vbios versions.

EDIT: You have the latest drivers installed. 11.10, otherwise it wouldn't say 11.10 if they didn't install, the BSOD I think is because it is using two differant vbios'.

New Dell Vbios Link - Direct download.
Installation:


1.Double-click the new icon on the desktop labeled R281544.exe.
2.The Self-Extracting window appears and prompts you to extract or
unzip to C:\DELL\DRIVERS\R281544. Write down this path so the executable (I.e.
Setup.exe) file can be found later.
3.The Self-Extractor window appears.
4.Click OK.
5.After completing the file extraction, if the Self-Extractor
window is still open, close it.
6.Click the Start button and then click Run.
7.Type C:\DELL\DRIVERS\R281544 in the Open textbox and then click OK.
8.Follow the on-screen installation instructions.




Here are the steps I use in overclocking, and links to the tools. With this method you can copy the corect vbios and flash it to the second card. These are overclocking steps, but if you read and understand them, pretty easy to figure out how to pull the vbios and flash it to another card. Easy to do since both cards use the same exact vbios.

 

***EDIT*** I'll try flashing the bios using the second method

Ok, i tried to update VBIOS doing exactly as instructions, with both GPUs and then only with the primary(old) video card, and this is what i got xD!



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while the secondary GPU was taking a nap outside, i ran GPU-Z to confirm VBIOS version on the primary, and this is the one with the latest version(1st SS in the upper post)


any clue?

should i try booting up using only the new GPU?? to check if i have BSOD?
Considering that it has an older VBIOS version, maybe it's an old refurbished piece with some kind of defect, or it was maybe damaged during the shipping process or something... dont know.

 

Try flashing it using ATIFlash. Copy the bios to the drive in DOS and then flash to the second card.

Make the bootable USB drive, than put ati flash on it. Then go into the bios and set it to boot off the USB drive. Exit and reboot with the USB drive in the system. When you get to DOS type this. (assuming the card with the new vbios is in the primary slot).

Step 1
Type atiflash -s 0 bios0.rom hit enter and let it do it's thing.

Step 2
The type atiflash -p 1 bios0.rom hit enter and let it do it's thing. Then ctl-alt-delete to reboot, and remove the thumb drive as it reboots.


That will get a copy of the primary cards vbios (step 1) and step 2 will flash it to the secondary card. That should overcome that windows flashing shenanigans

All the tools needed are linked to my post above. Just be sure when you format the usb drive to click "quick format" otherwise it takes quite a while to format the USB drive.

 

OMG its wORKING!!!! xDD!!! both GPUs are enabled, windows recongizes and now it shows 2048mb as dedicated video memory.

GPU-Z shows the exact same thing on both, i can see the difference in the sensors tab, although it says crossfire is not enabled.



Thank you so much!!!

i even tested bf3 and it works!!!

you said something about CAP4 and crossfire, i didnt catch up quite on that, why do i need it for?

i didnt noticed much difference in performance, but i asume its because of the AC adapter, i'll wait untill tomorrow for the 240W to test in full power! xD!!

you are the men!!!

 

Here is an explanation I gave before about CAPS and Crossfire. I am glad to hear that you got everything sorted.

CAP Profiles or Catalyst Application Profiles are game profiles that implement or improve crossfire support/performance for games that support crossfire.

The version of the cap does not need to match the driver version. I am running 11.10 beta and running 11.9 CAP 3.

CAP 1, 2, or 3 are just revisions adding new games or improving on existing games crossfire profiles.

If you install any CAP it will also have all previous CAPS included. It is always good to update CAPS and DRIVERS if you need them. For example, BF3 will run poorly or mediocre until you update to 11.9 CAP4 and the 11.10 drivers.

 

Awesome, glad you got it working. At least for the most part so far. Over the biggest hurdle at least

Should be able to go into CCC (Catalyst Control Center right click on desktop and click on CCC) and search under gaming, and click enable Crossfire.

Here is CAP 4, the profiles. You may not need them though. I noticed on the AMD site it's not under the 11.10 drivers, but is under the 11.9 drivers, so they may be built into the 11.10 drivers. Worth a shot at installing though. If you see no difference go to start menu, type uninstall, click "Uninstall a program" and uninstall them.

CAP 4 direct download link.

AMD Notes:
This release of ATI Catalyst™ delivers support for the latest ATI CrossFireX™ profiles in a separate executable file ensuring users have access to the absolute latest set of profiles installed on their PC.

New profiles added to this release:
- Battlefield 3 – Provides great CrossFire scaling and resolves stuttering issues when running in CrossFire mode
- Deus Ex Missing Link: Improves CrossFire performance
- F1 2011: Improves CrossFire performance
- Dead Island: Improves CrossFire performance
- Batman Arkham City (DX9 version): Improves CrossFire performance
- NBA 2012: Disables CrossFire

 

Ok, Yesterday i installed CAP4 and today after getting the 240W Adapter(OMG its huge) i had some problems running bf3 so i uninstalled them to get it to work properly.

Also GPU-Z shows crossfire enabled and working!!!

Now im running BF3 @ ULTRA settings!!!! xD!!

Thankyou guys, you've been really helpfull, any advice now on how to raise FPS Rate on BF3? xD!!!

 

now bf3 crashes very often, sometimes does not even start, it freezes in the frostbite intro =S, game? crossfire issues maybe? =S

 

Try to disable crossfire and see what happens. That will determine if its a crossfire fault or not!

- Scott.

 

Its definitely a crossfire problem, almost every time i start bf3 after rebooting or i start it for the first time, bf3 process fails to lunch and freezes, the second time works fine but the game only activates one GPU, pressing ALT+TAB to minimize and maximize will solve this, but sometimes i get a BSOD while i do it. Is there any way to fix this?

Also i tried to enable/disable crossfire throgh CCC before starting BF3, not sure the reults, i'll experiment further more to see if still crashes, but my guess is that is a bf3-crossfire problem.


Should i try in other games? recomendations similar to bf3? or maybe benchmarks??

 

ok, after using the laptop testerday y could notice that every once in a while i had bf3 crashing as i said in the upper post, and also sometimes when y reboot i get BSOD or windows freezing while im logging in or when basic programs are loading.

Should i try making a clean install of the drivers provided by DELL maybe?
Or trying to flash Both VBIOS with a clean VBIOS file or maybe a custom one?
Also noticed that this problem of automatic maximizing and minimizing BF3 at random times while i was playing, its not only happening to bf3, but with other programs like notepad, if y keep writing, every time in a while, writing freezes and i have to click on the notepad window to get it back working, or just wait for the program to come back, usually 2 or 3 seconds. Virus maybe, crossfire? Eset SS4 showed nothing...

I'm seriously thinking about calling dell and ask them to change both my GPU's

Re install windows maybe? xD!!!!

run some tests in ubuntu? xD!!!