Today's the Day!

Any minute / hour now the truck will be showing up with my M17x! I have a plan for what I'm going to do, but I have some questions. The first thing I'm going to do is run 3dmark06 with everything stock. Then I'll run it with 10.7 and make sure everything is dandy. I'll be playing Starcraft 2 so stock drivers are out of the question.

If I have an issue with the 10.7 and I get the loop and have to restore from last known good config, do I need to set a restore point before hand? Or enable something so that it knows to do it? Or will I be fine just as is?

Also, for the 10.7 issue, does that include the display turning off? Or just sleep mode?

Also, in terms of bios OCing, should I enable turbo mode and leave it there @ all times?

Thanks in advance for all your help folks. I've been on this forum for a few weeks now and everyone here has treated me with the utmost kindness and respect. I truly appreciate it.

 

Hey theres,

YAY exciting times ey ehehehhe. Hope the system arrives all safe and sound eheeh lol. Let us know how it goes.

I'm interested to see which Bios version it has on stock and which ATi driver it has installed stock as well. Cheers.

 

Which key do I mash @ startup to get into bios?

 

that key would be F2 for bios.

F8 for safemode
F12 for diagnostic and boot menu options.

 

Thanks. Anyone have any insight on my initial post?

 

Just check the Control Panel - > Recovery to set a new restore point before messing with the system.
Ideally, get your OS partition imaged ( Acronis True Image for instance).

 

Dear IntenseIGFX

Congratulations on your purchase. Get to know how your system works in detail and do youself a favour and don't change any settings for 4 days. The reason is simple, you need to understand what your system will do stock before tinkering with it. If you change settings and run in to trouble you will have no reference point. Taste the soup before adding salt so to speak. You have 21 days to return your system no questions asked, use that time wisely. People that have expert knowledge are still unable to get Catalyst to work 100% so you are setting yourself up for a world of disappointment if you must have Catalyst every month. Turbo mode will be enabled from the factory.

P.S. You need to make sure the hardware is working properly and you can't do that if you change drivers as you have no reference point. You have spent an incredible amount of money on this system. Make sure you are happy with it as is.

 

All I'm doing is installing 10.7. I shouldn't need to do much more than the restore point, should I?

Also, I was thinking about installing HwInfo32 for monitoring temps and things. Would that be the best way to do it? What other software should I download?

Edit: Falcon, I'lll try out the stock drivers, but I don't want lines or dissapearing units. I don't mind not being able to put into sleep or unplug. From what I've read, those are the only issues with 10.7.

 

HWMonitor is good just use the 64 bit compatible version. Also GPU-Z.0.4.4

People have been promising a long term solution for Catalyst for the last 4 months. The issue is very complex and you will only begin to grasp it if you read multiple threads and multiple opinions. My advice to anyone who simply must have Catalyst is to buy a desktop. There is no guarantee that the Catalyst issue will get resolved to everyones satisfaction.

When I purchased my M17x I knew full well that support would be limited for video drivers. Knowing that I have been very happy with my purchase and are patient and wait for games to come out with their own patches. My last dell gaming laptop was blocked from downloading Nvidia drivers. Dell likes full control over drivers and that is just the way it is.

 

I don't care about "Catalyst". I'm not even sure what it is! All I want to do is have the best possible preformance ingame that I can. No wavey lines, no disapearing units, and a working Crossfire system! Thats why I feel I have to get 10.7.

 

Catalyst are the ATI drivers ...

 

I assumed that. I thought he was refering to something more!

 

You will have a phenomenal experience with your computer. Here is the best advice by Alienwho I have read on this forum.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/509397-warning-do-not-update-drivers.html

P.S. Alot of performance can be lost through third party utilities. Microsoft Security Essentials is very light, very good for gamers, and FREE from Microsoft. Never pay for antivirus again.

 

The Catalyst 10.7a Hotfix for Starcraft II is what you will likely want to play Starcraft II without issues (or wait for Catalyst 10.8 which should also come with all the fixes).

 

I can't get the hotfix without getting the 10.7 driver first, correct? With the newest version of the driver, wouldn't the hotfix be included in the download?

 

10.7a are another set of drivers entirely... You dont need 10.7 first to go to 10.7a...

They call them hotfix but when in fact its a whole set...

 

So I assume I should download 10.7a and do the workaround with that then?

 

Mine shipped from TN, USA, I think. Thats what it says on the tracking, but I haven't gotten it in yet.

 

thanks for the input. Enjoy your machine when you get it!

 

Anyone?....

 

Just got 19071 in 3dmark 06 right out of the box! That tells me my system is working ney?

ORB - World of Performance

 

nice score! is 3dmark06 set to default? what's your settings?

 

Nice score indeed. What drivers were that with? 10.6 or 10.7.
GPU-z should tell you cheers. Also was the bios A07?

 

Everything is default. Stock drivers. I'll check bios when I'm done downloading some stuff.

 

cool Cheers. GPU-z pic would be nice cheers.

 

GPU-z? My driver version : Driver Packaging Version 8.692.2-100203a1-095371C-Dell

Is that the one that everyone has the issues with?

 

yeh GPU-z
Its a nice little tool that you can use to check driver version installed, heaps of other information about your GPU setup, SLi Crossfire enabled disabled, TEMPS, GPU load, GPU memory load, default and Overclocked clocks and logging GPU usage is provided as well. Quite the niffty little tool.

You can dl it from here

techPowerUp! :: Download TechPowerUp GPU-Z v0.4.4

Hows the machine? U enjoying it?
Cheers.

 

Still installing games. Haven't tried any games out yet. I still have stock drivers. Is it a 100% chance I'll have issues with SC2?

EDIT: Just played TF2 and had wavey lines. 10.7 here I come!

 

AH cool.

How do you like the system so far?

Well its not 100% chance. Some people have reported problems while others who also have remained stock report no problems.
Just not sure which stock drivers are being shipped with current new systems now.
If you want to check the driver version your using it will also tell you in GPU-z. Cheers.

 

I hit f8 and nothing happens. I need to get into safe mode to do driver cleaner. How do I do it? I have a07 bios.

Edit: got into safemode and did the driver clean. Installed 10.7 and got a 20k benchmark 3dmark 06. I still had wavy lines in tf2 but when I put on vertical sync they went away.

Do I already have 10.7a fix or do I need to get it? I don't see it on amd site.

 

As soon as the machine boots just keep hitting F8 over and over till you see the screen with all the choices on it....

You can start hitting it right after the bios screen but for some it takes practice to time it right ...

 

Got that done. 10.7 a fix? Do I already have it or do I need to get it?

 

I posted where to download them in the other thread ...

Always remember that when ATI releases a Hotfix driver its not just a simple patch for existing drivers but infact a whole new set of drivers...

 

I installed the 10.7a hotfix right on top of what I already had. Is that okay? In the driver info it just says 10.7, not 10.7a...

 

Problem: I keep getting blue screens. How do I boot from last good config? I made a restore point with all stock drivers before i made changes. I need to go back in and do a fresh reinstall of the 10.7a

Edit: got to where I could clean uninstall drivers. Installing 10.7a fresh now.

Edit 2: blue screened again while installing 10.7a. Going to try to just get 10.7 working.

Edit 3: Got standard 10.7 on here working fine. Anyone have any idea why installing 10.7a would be an issue? I tried doing it from a clean install but continued to blue screen. I got the download here: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/ATICat107aBetaDriver.aspx

 

this is why i returned my r2 to many problems lol, ordering the top spec area 51 alx=)

 

Congratulations. Can you please drop me a PM and let me know how you like the machine. Curious about the dual 5970's,

thanks

 

No one has been able to get M17x with 5870CF to work with Catalyst without some subsequent driver issues or BSOD since the first release of M17x with 5870 CF. Dell has placed a beta driver on their website but even that has issues as I have read. If you must have Catalyst you have bought the wrong platform. Alienware Laptops have custom drivers and custom hardware which do not run well with generic drivers. Again if you were expecting catalyst to just drop in every month you have come to the wrong place. You are in a fortunate position where you have 21 days to decide if this is going to be acceptable to you or not. Many people are less fortunate and are now stuck with a system that will probably only get a 2 or 3 more official driver updates. Much has already been written on this topic so go back to May and read foreward. The short answer is that Catalyst drivers are generic and they do not support some of the Alienware features. When the correct drivers are missing these features no longer work and cause instability. There is no simple solution to work around that.

 

Minus aa in sc2, and minus not being able to unplug or go into sleep lose, ive had not one performance issue with xfire. I love the machine. I had some issues because I installed some things incorrectly but I was able to take care of it and it's been smooth sailing all night. The frame rates and beauty this thing pumps out is just unreal. If you don't have one, get one.

 

have u tried joker's tip to get the beta drivers (recently released by dell by taken off the site now) to work with sleep mode and battery?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...0-crossfire-work-sleep-hibernate-battery.html

 

Na, I'm just going to stick with 10.7a until the new dell drivers come out. I haven't even tried unplugging or putting into sleep, nor do I intend to. I've gotten one freeze up playing starcraft 2 on a campaign mission, but other than that its been near 100% smooth sailing. This thing is a beautiful beast and plays everything extraordinarily well. Judging by my framerates, I think Xfire is working just fine with 10.7a in the games I'm playing.

 

Wow, what an intense tread.