Shut Down Problems

Ever since I updated my drivers, my computer is not shutting down properly. When I select the "Shut Down" or "Hibernate" options from the shut down menu, it will seem to close Windows, but still be in some kind of limbo state where it has not turned off yet. The only way to fix the problem is to hold down the power button, and I know that this is not the best way to shut down a computer. I was wondering what could be causing this problem, and what I might do to fix it. Could it be that I just have to let it try to shut down for longer than I have been? (It has not shut down after several hours, at least.) Could it be that in needs to stay in the BIOS for a while to perform garbage collection on the SSDs? (I let is sit in the BIOS since the update once, but not for very long.) Any help would be appreciated.

 

I don't think it is coincidence that this problem started after updating drivers.
Try and roll back the drivers that you updated one at a time, to see which one is causing the issue. Somebody's signature states "the latest driver is not necessarily the best driver". So true.

 

I see. Thank you very much for the suggestion. I will probably have to try this if I can't resolve the problem by letting it sit for an extended period of time. Also, if I don't do anything on the computer for a while, it still goes into this power-on but seemingly doing nothing with a black screen state. This makes me think that it could be trying to perform garbage collection, but I'm not sure. I was having a problem before updating drivers where my computer would try to do disk checks on startup and often times fail to complete them, but that seemed to have been resolved. I did get a few disk checks on startup after this problem occurred, but that could be do to me having to shut my computer down "the hard way," I guess.

EDIT: I have two SSDs in RAID 0, so TRIM would not be enabled. Does this increase the chance that it could be a garbage collection problem?

 

How long have you had the laptop? And do you have ATI 5870's? If so, I was having this issue until I updated the Bios for the video cards. I would shut down the computer and windows would shut down, and my screen would turn off, but my keyboard and fans would still be on. I read in the forums about the same issue, and as soon as I update the video cards' Bios, as was well with the world. Hope this helps.

 

I've had the laptop less than a year, and I do have ATI 5870. I only started having this problem after I updated my drivers. What exactly did you update? Was it from the Dell website? Is there a difference between a video card drive and a video card BIOS?

EDIT: I have another question, too. I have an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 graphics card, which should support DirectX 11. dxdiag says that I have Directx 11, but Windows Experience Index lists DirectX 10. Does this means that it thinks that DirectX 11 is not supported by the graphics card? Will DirectX 11 work?

 

I think I found the problem, but I could use some help solving it. The BIOS (not the driver) for my graphics card is out of date. The site to download the new version is here. When I download it, it extracts and puts and application in a driver folder and runs the application, but it doesn't do anything other than displaying a bar that fills up and then closes. How do I update the BIOS on a graphics card? I won't lose any data on my computer, will I?

EDIT: Before, I would just download the file. When I try to Download and Create ISO, it says the servers are unavailable and that I should try again later.

 

I find that sometimes happens when I have AlienFX service running

 

Update: I tried creating an ISO from the file, putting on a USB drive, and booting from it, but it did not recognize it.

Thank you very much, but I don't think that AlienFX is the problem. I need to learn now to flash a graphics card BIOS, though.

 

restore point to somewhere where it was working ok - like last week then start again with the drivers one by one

 

How would I roll back an individual driver?

EDIT: Trying to boot from the ISO file didn't work.

EDIT: Here's the problem. I was able to update the driver, but not the BIOS. According to the Dell site, both need to be enabled for the graphics card to work properly:

So now I just need to flash the video card BIOS. Haven't been able to get that to work, yet.

 

restore point rolls back all drivers to the date of restore point - like a fresh start

 

So here's the problem now. I know that I want to update my graphics card's BIOS (which will hopefully fix the problem). I need the download from this site, but whenever I download it and click on the application, it says that it's extracting (and a blue bar appears) but nothing happens. I would like to know how I can make a bootable USB so that I can properly flash my graphics card's BIOS.

 

sounds like the download got corrupted or the file itself is corrupt, I assume you checked in the C:\Dell\Drivers folder for the files

 

Download GPU-Z

techPowerUp! :: Downloads


then run two instances of GPU-Z if you have dual 5870's make sure on one of them you goto the drop down menu and choose the second 5870

compare your bios versions to mine which are confirmed to be the new version. Then we can move on from there, but you gotta know which version you have first.



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this will also show you how to flash you vBIOS if you need to.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...70-september-2010-incl-vbios-flash-guide.html

 

Thank you, I checked that guide out, and it is explaining exactly what I want to do in the VBIOS flash (shown in quote below). Unfortunately, there is still a problem: I try to "open the program and use the common dell extractor and after that a Setup should start," as is stated before step 1, but I click on the extracting program, and no setup starts. That's the problem I'm having.

EDIT: According to Catalyst Control Center, my VBIOS is not the same as yours.

 

Try installing the dell drivers for the 5870 after using Driver sweeper to clear out the other ATI driver install reddownload the 5870 vbios and then post back your results.

 

Sorry, I'm not exactly clear on what you want me to do. The Dell page for the VBIOS says specifically to install the new driver first, then flash the new VBIOS.

EDIT: You want me to use a program to delete all of my video drivers, then download the newest one, then flash the VBIOS? I'm happy to try if this is the best solution, but are you sure that won't leave my card high and dry with no drivers to use at all and prevent my computer from starting up?

 

I could still use some help with this. Anyone know why the Alienware VBIOS Flash Utility won't open after I make the download from the dell site under the BIOS I want to flash and click on the application named "Setup" (the only thing that is downloaded)? If the presence of old drivers is a problem, how do I remove older drivers while still being able to install/retain one and not mess up my system?

 

No, What I want you to do is use that program to clear your computer of anything ATI related and then install the drivers for the 5870 posted on dell's site, and re download the VBIOS. Install the drivers from Dell first then. try to flash the VBIOS.



so download this program to clear out your existing ATI drivers then restart:
Guru3D - Driver Sweeper (Setup) download from Guru3D.com

Download and install these drivers then restart:
Drivers and Downloads

Download and flash this VBIOS using the guide I posted earlier:
Drivers and Downloads

Then post back the results. I can run that Flasher fine just downloaded it and tried to run it.

 

Ok, I just want to make that that if I delete the drivers and then restart, my computer will actually come back up instead of becoming a giant paperweight.

 

no windows will install the Standard VGA adapter won't be a paperweight.

 

Okay, that's what I wanted to be sure of. I'm going to do that today and post my results.

 

Alright, I ran driver sweeper and rebooted. I then installed the latest display driver from the Dell website and rebooted again. I then tried to run the Setup application that will help create a bootable USB/disk from which to flash the VBIOS and it still doesn't work. It didn't work before the second reboot, either.

 

Did you redownload the VBios?

 

No, but just now I did. Deleted the folder, redownloaded and hit run, and it still had the same problem.

 

Ok, goto the folder and try to run it from there as admin.
should be C:/dell/drivers/R281544

 

Same problem. Still not working.

 

I have no Idea anymore bud If worse comes to worse I would Re-install windows and flash them from a fresh install downloading the drivers posted above first do not flash them until you have the dell 8.763 drivers installed.

When I try to run it using 11.3 the blue bar comes up quick then disappears then i get this so I know the flasher is working.



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Also you said that you have your SSD's in RAID?

Might try a secure erase instead of a normal format

 

Alright, thank you for spending so much of your time to try to help me.

(By the way, your number of posts is at 1337. Just thought that was cool. )


EDIT:

Yeah, never get that far. Just blue bar, then nothing.



Anyone else have any ideas of how I would fix this?

 

Hey man Just found this site
ATi/AMD 5870M Vbios Flash

this seems to be a fix if the installer wont work

 

Thank you. The only thing is, that site is giving instructions for downloading the beta version, and I would rather get the regular version working if at all possible. Thank you again for all the time you put into helping me. Anyone else had this problem / heard of this problem / know a way to try and fix this problem?

 

Thank you again, Mkelliny. I was finally able to flash my VBIOS, and my computer is shutting down properly again. Here's how I did it: I right-clicked on the Setup application that was not running properly and found out that it was in 7-zip format. I installed a 7-zip creater/extractor and used it to extract the files. I could then make a bootable USB and flash the VBIOS. I turns out that the Setup application was in the form of a 7-zip self-extracting archive that was not extracting itself properly. I have one last question in this matter: does anyone know what would cause a 7-zip self-extracting archive to not extract itself on my computer, while it works fine on other peoples' computers?

 

Glad to hear that you got it solved man! Honestly it could just be that the compression utility you had wasn't associated with 7zip. What program do you use and Ill tell you if it supports it or not.

 

"7-Zip File Manager"

 

now i have the same problem but it also is on restart on sleep. so, if i do the video bios update i cannot restart the computer without having to hold down the power button. upon starting up again, can i do the flash correctly even though the restart was bad?

lastly, i have a m17x10...this isn't listed on the dell website. is it the m17xr2? this is the one with the 5870.

i want to make sure that i get the right bios otherwise im toast.

thanks.