6990M Crossfire Guide

Mr Fox, after reading your excellent google tutorial and attempting to flash my bios, I am having a problem getting atiwinflash to run. I have downloaded both version 2.0.1.14 and 13 and cant get the program to launch from either the zip or after install. I get two errors, the first saying I need to run in administrator (I am), and the second saying I don't have all resources. Or should this be on a flash drive and only used when booting?

Thanks!

 

Mormaer, here is a guide if you want to flash via DOS.

Man, I've been pwning this thing all over the boards lately! This post practically lives in my clipboard.

 

Thanks DR6! I am trying to follow his google tutorial exactly as I am not tech savvy and I don't want to mess anything up.

 

Thank you for the compliment on the guide, Mormaer.

No, ATIWinFlash is designed to work within Windows and usually works fine. Please post screen shots of the error messages regarding resources. (It may be a C++ or VBasic error message, but I cannot tell based on your comments.) It is possible something is happening during your downloads to corrupt the ZIP archives.

You can use a bootable USB thumb drive with ATIFlash (not ATI WinFlash).

You need to extract all files from the zipped folder before launching. Launching the executable from within the ZIP file can cause issues. If you have already done so, try running ATIWinFlash from a command prompt and see if you get any error messages. I have attached a screen shot of the ATIWinflash command prompt syntax and switches. (If you're not an old DOS nerd like me, this may look like gibberish.)

I don't have time to Google for more information about your errors at the moment. If you cannot run ATIWinFlash from a command prompt successfully and do not feel comfortable using ATIFlash without assistance, post again and I will provide some suggestions when I have a little more time. Also, don't hesitate to PM if you wish.

Good luck, and I'll wait to hear more from you about what you need help with.

EDIT: DR - just refreshed and saw your post. Thanks for jumping in to assist our friend, Mormaer. (I'll be back with a rep point for you after my 24-hour time limit on giving out too much runs out, LOL.)

Mormaer - the suggestions for flashing the vBIOS that DR650SE just posted will work as well as ATIWinFlash, just not as convenient. If you are not tech savvy as you stated, ATIWinFlash will be easier for you if we can get it to work right. However, as detailed as the instructions are, you will have good results using DR650SE's suggestion. Do you know how to create a bootable USB flash drive? If not, here is BatBoy's guide: HOW TO: Create a BOOTABLE USB Flash Drive to flash AW BIOS updates under DOS

 

guys, I ve been Ocing my 6990m xfire set up... what program do you guys reccomend to check for overclock stability? u know atrifacts, to test the overclock

 

Crysis 2 Ultra settings with Hi-res texture pack. 3dmark 2011 WITH tess enabled.

 

Best to overclock AFTER you already have plenty of those programs installed...

 

Any Cryengine 2 and Cryengine 3 based game will crash if the overclocks are unstable, so the Crysis series of games are perfect to test overclock stabilities.

You wont need more than 20mins of game play to notice crashing to desktop syndromes.

 

Hey guys what are the "normal" running temps on the 6990m's in non gaming mode? My gpu fans are running all the time and when I lift the lappy of the desk it drops down by about 5 - 10 degrees. Is this normal for the M18X and if so is it wise to invest in a notebook cooler for this reason?

 

Idle is 50-60C, maybe going in mid 60s at most

 

Hi all,

I'm having a problem with my M18x which I received 2 days ago.
For some reason, I have to keep restarting my computer after I turn it on; if not the 6990 xfire will overheat.

If i turn on my computer and begin gaming, GPU1 went over 100C, when GPU 2 is 70C-ish if I look from GPU-Z. After I restart my computer, the problem is fixed, both GPU were running at 55-65C.

However, if I shut my computer down and turn it back on, the overheat problem will come back. This also happen when I switch the GPU from intel to AMD, after the computer reboot, I will have to restart it once again to prevent the issue.

I'm using 11-8 AMD driver.. Can anyone plz help?

 

vanhausse, you definitely have a problem that needs to be rectified. Since the system is new, I would recommend calling 1-800-ALIENWARE and having them fix it for you. I have never had my CPU or GPUs go above approximately 84°C, even under extreme load.

If you want to tackle it yourself, the first thing I would check is that the fans are running. There is no mistake about it when they are, because they are loud and you can feel the air being pumped out the rear vents. You could have an issue with the heat sinks not having adequate thermal paste or even screws attaching the heat sinks to the GPUs left loose or not attached.

 

Yeah I'm sure the fans are running. I have a feeling this is because of a software or driver issue, because it is resolved when I restart the laptop. After the restart, both GPU never go above 65C. I mean this is not a big deal now, coz just a restart is needed to fix it, but I don't want it to get worse.

But I dunno, I am not an expert in this area Only reason I'm not calling tech support yet is becoz it's gonna take more than an hour and I have a bad experience when the last tech guy came to my home, breaking my system..

 

It sounds like restarting is not helping you either because you say you have to keep restarting it. If the fans are working then its probably not a software problem and likely a problem with the heatsinks.

I also would call and have them fix it.

 

No, what I meant is, after I restart the laptop once, then the problem is fixed. It will run smoothly without any overheat issue (both GPu stay at 65 max) until I shut the laptop down; then if I turn it back on then the problem will reoccur, which require me to restart it once again. So basicly every time I turn on my computer, I have to restart it once in order to make it run smoothly.

Sorry for the confusing explanation.

 

I have no idea why restarting is showing different temps. However, I would first want to make sure there is nothing caught in the heatsink..like a sticker. Dell is notorious for things like this and my money is on this despite this weird restart trick. The fans shouldn't be the issue as the temps skyrocket to over 100.

If you are not familiar with opening your computer and working on your machine do the following:
1. Call dell/aw support and have them log into your computer from support.alienware.com
2. Have them confirm a diagnosis of 100* DO NOT let them know things are fine after a "restart" unless you want to spend 10 hours troubleshooting other crap that likely won't fix your problem.
3. They will send a technician out with a new heat sink assembly.

IF you want to try to uninstall your drivers and or do a fresh install of your OS (timely) then feel free. However the likely culprit has to do with improper heatsink placement or obstruction. regards.

 

His problem is that the fans aren't turning on at all. I had the same issue. HWinfo reported the fan speed at 0. I'm not sure what really caused it for me, but I reset to optimal defaults in bios and reinstalled windows. The temps are much more acceptable now.

 

Alright, I'll try nicholaus' way and if it doesn't help i'll call them.

Also nicholaus I saw you wrote in another thread that this happened after you installed A04 bios, so you're using A03 now?? I'm asking coz I'm already in A03 bios and never installed A04.

thanks for all the help you guys, appreciate it!

 

He just rest it to BIOS defaults and that solve his issues.

 

Okay so I just tested resetting the BIOS default, and it works. I don't have to restart it. But, I still have to do this everytime I turn the laptop. Seems like the BIOS settings reset every time I shut the computer down.. weird.

I'll try reflashing the BIOS tomorrow, thanks for the help D

 

If re-flashing the BIOS does not work, try re-flashing the vBIOS. That helped with some issues I had experienced with two pairs of 6970M and it helped with a problem Aikimox was having as well. You could have an issue of defective video cards that powering on and off again is affecting.

I've had a poor experience overall with the AMD 6900 series... very inconsistent quality, with significant differences in temps and performance between two physically identical cards. I think they need to find another vendor to manufacture them, because they're not getting a consistent product from the vendor they are currently using.

 

Yeah it didn't work, I still have to keep loading optimal default in BIOS setup to make them work smoothly every time I turn on my laptop.

I dunno, I wanted to try reflashing the vBIOS, but I'm still new at this and the process seems complex and dangerous. I think I'm just gonna give up and contact tech support, ask for GPU cards or have them reflash my vBIOS.

One reason i don't really wanna call them is that I found out the replacement parts Dell gives to us are refurbished (had problem before and fixed), so uh.. I don't wanna give up my brand new cards for a simple issue

 

Can you give give me a link for the 11.9 official drivers for my 6990 xfire please?

 

Van, don't even bother reflashing the vbios. I have the exact issue and we got our computers on the same day oddly....

I've flashed A02-A04 and I'm currently using the modded A03.
I've also flashed the vbios on both cards several times. I even used a vbios that someone else uploaded to ensure it wasn't a problem with MY vbios.
2 windows reinstalls and I've tried stock dell drivers, 11.8, 11.9, and now I'm on 11.10v2.

Nothing works. The temps are acceptable I suppose. The secondary card is warmer - but It's also nut-to-butt with the cpu heatsink - so that's to be expected. My fans spin up randomly for no reason, and sometimes the secondary card doesn't spin it's fan up at all. I've resorted to just using HWinfo64 to control my fans manually. My wife has her M17xR3 now so I'm the only one touching the laptop anyways.

I'd complain more to dell, but frankly I'm sick of them sending me POS computers that don't ever work as advertised. I'd call tech support, but I've forgotten more about computers than they'll ever know.

Let me know if you make any progress with this issue. I'll just cope for now

 

Yah I'm starting to give up.. Did setting BIOS to default settings work for you? Coz it works really well for me, Both GPU run perfectly even under 70 when gaming. It's just annoying to have to keep resetting it every time I start my lappy. This problem even reoccur when I sleep and hibernate the machine.

I'm also contacting AWCC resolution expert next week, I'll see what they'll have to say about this.

 

Yea it works for me as well. So does just logging on/off of the computer. If I had to make an educated guess, I'd say we have a faultly batch of motherboards. The fan controllers for the GPU's are malfunctioning within windows. You'll notice that when you reboot your computer, your fans spin up like it's going out of style because they actually begin to work properly.

 

It could also be a faulty batch of AMD video cards as well, not communicating the right information to the motherboard fan controllers. If you go through Tech Support, you'll do much better if you can get your case escalated from Level 1 to Level 2. The grunts at Level 1 really don't seem to know much and generally offer no help with resolving complex issues that are not addressed in whatever troubleshooting flow chart they are using.

There is a misconception that "refurbished" or "recertified" parts are no good. That's simply untrue, although the basis for the misconception is logical. I have seen plenty of brand new electronics that were rubbish. Sometimes the items labeled refurbished are brand new, but come through an alternate parts channel. The important thing is getting parts that work properly and letting your warranty take care of the rest.

 

OK not sure what I did. Just got my M18X, ran some benchmarks and then attempted to update my drivers and Im stuck. I uninstalled CCC, restarted into safe mode, used disksweeper to remove the rest of the AMD software, restarted again and tried installing 11.9 I grabbed off AMD's website and it wont install. I get a CCC error messege saying

"AMD Catalyst Mobility cannot be downloaded due to incompatible hardware/softwareon your computer.

You computer does not contain a proper graphics adapter"

When I go to device mgr it shows "Standard VGA Adapter" twice, one of which has a exclamation mark. Tried uninstalling both of them, computer reboots and immediatly loads windows generic drivers and wont allow me to update.

 

Lason - go back to the AMD web site and select the center tab for manually downloading the drivers. The first (default) tab is a download manager (not the actual driver) that tries to identify your video cards and cannot. This aspect of the AMD web site causes quite a bit of confusion, where people believe they are downloading a driver but they are not.

 

Did that and it let me install the software but still shows Standard VGA Adapter in device mgr and when I try to update drivers and point it to the ATI files it doesnt find anything and sticks with Standard VGA adapter.

**EDIT** Also I used windows restore to restore it to before I removed the drivers so Im back to stock but I tried going back to AMD's site, used their auto detect and install feature and still got the error messege. Im so lost on what to do at this point. Oh and device mgr shows 2 AMD Radeon HD 6900M series again.

 

I have seen AMD release Catalyst packages twice this year without drivers. If that is what you downloaded, it's not going to work. You will always get the error message trying to use AMD's autodetect feature. It's by design that you do. Their autodetect database does not include our Dell flavor of video cards.

From what you have described, it sounds like maybe you downloaded a Catalyst package with everything except for the drivers. Look at the thumbnail below for the location AMD drivers are located. If you do not have this same folder tree with the INF files shown at the extraction locations, then you need to download the driver from an alternate source.

What Catalyst version are you looking to install?

 

Nope neither of the files I got off AMD's site had those. I remember going to that directory and didnt find them.

Im just trying to download the newest drivers.

Seems I may have another issue. My main GPU is overheating while idle like that other member complained the other day. Main GPU got up to 91* and the fan wasnt kicking in. Restarted and now Im sitting here with the fan going and the gpu is at a happy 52*. Called tech support and they told me send it to the depot or return it for a new one. Uggg!

 

Heres a screenshot I took before my laptop shot up to 103* and I shut it down. I wonder why GPU 2 shows 100%

Im afraid to get another and have the same issue though since it sounds like a batch of bad cards.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/Lason/temps.jpg

 

Awesome guide!! Thanks for this Canious, I will be following all these instructions tonight..hopefully i dont screw anything up...

 

Quick reminder everyone - when including images in your post - please be sure to follow the forum rules on images. This helps folks who are browsing the forum on a handheld mobile device or on a lower resolution screen.

Thanks

 

vanhausse, and others that are experiencing this problem.

I just got a brand new m18x in the mail a few days ago and i am experiencing the exact same problem you are. GPU fans fail to spool upon start up after shut down. But they work normally if you restart the system.

After playing the game of alienware tech support for 2 hours, and after my tech "consulting level 2" (even with my persisting *hints* at HARDWARE) they finally gave in and decided that it would be smart to replace the motherboard. With that said I have scheduled someone to come to my house and replace the thing. The following are some steps I took with the tech that I already did prior to talking with him but for the sake of wasting time made me go through.

1. Remove battery, drain remaining static power via holding the power button for 1 minute.
2. ReInstalling GPU driver from dell (obvious fail)
3. Updating BIOS to AO4 (came with 3)
4. Updating chipset for motherboard.
5. finally, after connecting to my computer I showed him GPU temps via HWmonitor while running a game without the fans working, then showing him the same thing after a restart to prove a point.

This is when he gave in, and set up someone to come out to replace my motherboard and or GPU's. I will keep you updated after the replacement

 

I opened up RBE and used the profile editor. I set the fan control to manual and put them at 2000 rpm. Then, I went into CCC and disabled the manual fan control through AMD overdrive (CCC 11.10v2) and my video cards magically woke the ***K up and now the fans just work as advertised. Max temp of 81ºC in Furmark. Idle of 48º-55ºc (800/1000 overclock). I also edited my registry to permanantly enable crossfire (change every entry of "EnableCrossfireAutoLink" to "1" and changed anything with "ULPS" in it to a "0".

I was trash talking the computer the whole time and threatening to bounce it off my living room floor. I'm not sure which one of these things fixed it - my guess is the RBE and CCC profile editing - but it's working. Try it out and let me know.

Specs are in the sig, I'm on Win7 Ultimate x64, CCC 11.10v2, cards flashed to 800/1000 with atiflash, using modified A03 bios - no settings altered except the thermal control in the bios (65% fan @40ºc and 100% fan @60ºc - this doesn't appear to have any effect on the fan speeds within windows despite what the bios description says), monitoring all temps using HWinfo64.

As a side note, when I opened the profile editor in RBE, I noticed my fan RPM's just had blank boxes... like there were never any settings in there. It may be something to do with the Vbios on the newest batch of 6990m's from Dellienware.

 

Yes, that's very odd that it shows 100% even though the clock speeds are in power saving mode. I wish I could tell you why, but the best I can do (which is not enough) is offer the observation that the 6900M video cards seem to be flaky and unreliable... at least in my experience they are. I think most of the issues with the 6900M series are related to lousy drivers more than hardware defects, but that's mainly a gut feeling based on observations. I've never experienced, or seen as many other people experiencing video problems, as I have with the 6900M series except for the victims of the NVIDIA defect. (Unfortunately, that issue affect me as well.)

 

Rossi, great to hear yours are working properly now! So no more problems?? No need to restart or load optimal bios settings? I read your instructions but didn't understand a lot of things since I'm kinda new in these things. But I'm glad it's fixable.. Might try your solution when I have the time.

Hope the replacement helps with you too Palolo, I'm still waiting for tech support to respond to my email, but probably won't do anything if Rossi's solution works

 

Nicholaus.rossi,

Sounds promising, I am trying to get into the fan control settings in RBE but the fan control tab is not accessible after i have loaded the BIOS file, How can I access the fan controls? Could you elaborate the steps you took a little more, i really appreciate your help as this looks like the cure.

edit,

how do i use the profile editor to manually set the fans to 2k rpm

 

Click "File" at the top and then select profile editor. There is also a button on the bottom of the screen for it. Don't mess with anything but fan control - that's all I did. Change the dropdown box from "automatic" to "manual" and put a number in the box for fan speed (rpm). I just used 2000. I restarted the computer and went into CCC > amd overdrive and disabled manual fan control (editing the fan control in RBE enabled it).

It seems kind of redundant to have to do it this way, but I've messed with enabling/disabling fan control through CCC alone in the past with no effect whatsoever. RBE seems to do something that CCC doesn't allow/can't do.
Radeon Bios Editor
You can use GPU-Z to copy your Vbios if you need it. There is a clickable button on the main screen when you open up GPU-Z that will allow you to save it. It will be named Blackcomb.bin by default.

What you are doing is editing your CCC profile within windows - this has nothing to do with flashing your bios at all. The profile editor should automatically open up the correct folder. Mine had 2 files in it - Manifest.xml and profiles.xml (something to that extent... I'm at work so I can't check at the moment). Select the profiles.xml file and proceed to edit away. As a general rule, don't mess with anything else that you don't understand. AFAIK the profile editor is only affecting your overdrive settings, but I'd hate to be responsible for you bricking something or having to reinstall windows or drivers.

 

I downloaded RBE and managed to load the bios but when I try to load a profile for the editor it wont allow me to make any changes for fan speeds. Im still running the dell drivers as I had issues earlier and wasnt able to update drivers.

 

You may need to to update that. The only way you'll be able to try my fix is if you have overdrive capabilities in CCC.
Try Catalyst 11.10 Mobility modded
Make sure you do a clean uninstall of your current drivers and run Driver Sweeper

Best of luck to anyone trying this fix. I'm happy to answer any other questions or concerns you may have. This may not be the permanant fix, but at least our laptops won't have a freaking meltdown while we work on something simpler.

 

Sounds simple and doable, I really wanna try but to afraid of breaking something. Do you have to use 11.10v2 for the AMD overdrive setting in CCC?

I'm using 11.8 and don't remember seeing anything like AMD overdrive settings.

EDIT: nevermind, just read your post

 

Overdrive works in 11.8 and up AFAIK, but it seemed bugged in all versions but 11.10 for me. Sometimes when I clicked on AMD Overdrive I couldn't see any of the options (plain white screen). 11.10 seems smooth. I don't have brightness controls but I also don't adjust my brightness ever. *shrug*

Edit:
While I'm talking about brightness controls, is there a fix for that? Some people have them and some don't... I remain confused. Perhaps a reinstall of the OSD program could fix this? <_< I just love it when I come up with these 'great' ideas to try out when I'm AT WORK....

 

Thanks Nicholaus, Im downloading right now. +1 rep for your time and help!!

Thanks again, I got my drivers updated with the help of your link. Bad part is RBE still isnt letting me modify fans in profile editor. Also I dont see AMD overdrive anywhere.

 

Lason - you need to manually enable Overdrive if it is not showing up. (It is not intended for laptops, so it generally will not be visible with Mobility drivers.) You will find a step-by-step guide for this here: LINK.

So far, other than manually setting fan speeds with HWiNFO64, nobody has found a way to control fan speeds on these cards. Even though Overdrive has the fan speed controls in CCC, they do nothing.

 

Yea sorry if you're having problems with overdrive not being enabled. My cards have had it since day one for some reason. I never even used the guide to enable it. When I drag my vbios to RBE to edit it, I also do not receive the error message that most people get stating 'there are no overdrive settings enabled for this card'

There's no telling why. Perhaps my cards are from a different batch/vendor?

 

Nick, it is interesting that you mention this. You're the first person that I have seen that mentioned this on the forum, but when my present M18x arrived it had Overdrive enabled also... straight out of the box. I thought it was a bit odd at the time and I dismissed it as a fluke. On the M18x that this one replaced, Overdrive had to be manually enabled. So, you're probably correct about the different batch or other vendor.

 

I'll take a screenshot of my vbios in RBE when I get home. On another note, if anyone wants the the vbios from my cards, I'll be happy to upload it.