6990M Crossfire Guide

Greetings
I am a newbie addition to the M18x club. Great community here. Great machine, except for the overheating issue with crossfire. In my case, I didn't notice the overheating until I hooked up to an external monitor. No fans, and then a thermal shutdown. Sometimes the fans throttle and maintain a good temp. Other times the fans are silent til the temp reaches 90+, then go on full.

After a few calls to tech I was advised that a/ they would send new cards, sinks and fans or I could (inside of 21 days) return the machine.

Now for the good news....the cards are on back order until November. Interesting, given the earlier comment about bad batch of cards. If I let them replace the cards in November, and if the replacement cards don't correct the issue, I'll be past the date where I can request a return of the machine.

I'm really considering a replacement instead. Can you tell me what's involved in the process? Thanks.

 

gderreck - welcome to NBR Forum. We're glad you joined us and happy that you are part of the Alienware Community. Looking forward to seeing your participation in many discussions.

We have two threads that are ideally suited for questions and discussions on replacement and warranty issues. Here are the links for you:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...arranty-discussion-thread-questions-only.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...placement-systems-warranty-repair-issues.html

As a new NBR Forum member, here are a few threads that will help you get off to an excellent start with the Community.

Alienware General Information & HOW TO: Search the forum - *READ BEFORE POSTING*

Forum Rules -and- Reputation Points/Power and User Titles

Now that you a total of 5 quality posts you should be able to create a signature in the User Control Panel and send private messages. Including your system specs in the signature will be useful when you need technical assistance from the Community.

Again, welcome to the Community.

 

Hi guys, my name is Richard; I just got M18x yesterday and I have been reading this guide/everyone's comments, see if I could pull it off by myself. I think im pretty over my head at this point, so I would appreciate friendly advice, by the way its my first Pc experience and this is kind of overwhelming X_x its almost 1 am and my head hurts.

This is what I have done so far:
1. I saved my Bios with Trixx, one that said 2.0 only, the other did not save... Its named Blackcomb, but its only one?!
2. I erased the dell drivers exactly like the step says, so there's no trace I guess.
3. installed the 11.9 Catalyst 64 bit posted by Mr. Fox
4. installed 11.9 Cap 3
5. installed Radeon Pro
6. Trixx doesnt find "supported cards", Im running on one i guess, because the resolution is high and not the one in the intel chip. I have no idea where to go from here... now I cant see my cards in the devices tab and lets say they where detected in the future, where do I enable crossfire? wasnt the catalyst a menu like the one the dell drivers had, I cant seem to find it... Im 100% lost!

Thanks in advance.

 

rpg1207 - I am seeing a number of recent posts that indicate some folks are getting a Catalyst 11.9 update that has the driver folders and files missing. It may update Catalyst Control Center and other things minus the drivers. Try grabbing 11.9 from here: download from Guru3D.com. I recommend that you go ahead and use DriverSweeper and Ccleaner before running the driver update.

I just downloaded from the above link and confirmed the drivers are there.

 

Mr. Fox
Thanks for the reply. I look forward to the learning experience and contributing to the discussion where I have anything useful to add. I'll go to the warranty discussion thread, so as not to bog down this topic. Thanks again.

 

Sure, same thing I went through yesterday. Called the customer care agent that has been helping me along the way with my order and told him I wanted to return the system. He emailed me UPS labels and I just boxed the unit back up and drove it to the UPS store and had them attach the labels. It will take a couple days to get back to dell and then the money should be put back in 10-12 buisness days according to my CC agent. Then re-order.

Remember to take out any RAM or HDD/SDD's that you installed yourself! I almost boxed mine up with 16gig of Hyper X memory I installed.

I too wasnt going to let the 21 days go up with hopes that the cards are the problem. I have my doubt that is the issue honestly, they are reporting the temps but something else isnt kicking the fans on.

 

Mr. Fox, that's where I had downloaded the 11.9 catalyst, from your former reply what should I do now? also I installed Cap 3 without installing Cap 1 and 2, maybe thats the problem?

 

No, the CAP files are not the problem.

Look where the Catalyst package extracted. You should have a folder structure with \Packages\Drivers and you should see folders named "Display" and "WDM" inside of the Drivers folder. Inside of those two folders you should have additional folders with .cat, .inf, ini files. If not, download the package again. These are the actual drivers and if the files and folders are not there then there is nothing available to install.

I downloaded the package myself and confirmed everything is in place. If you are using a third party download manager, don't use it any more.

 

Hi Mr. Fox, I have confirmed that both folders are there and they do include .cat, .inf and .ini files inside them. I could do the Driversweep and cccleaner, but if the files are right, wouldn't it have the same outcome? remember I have no experience with this, maybe Im just not opening some program

UPDATE: I ran Driverweeper and CCleaner in safe mode and uninstalled everything that was left over, downloaded the 11.9 you just posted, which was the same from last time, just to make sure it had the complete files/downloaded correctly (no third party download) I installed the 11.9 and it did not prompt me to restart my system... I did so anyway. No luck, I can't find the Catalyst Control Center its not installing it? its not in desktop or when I search. That leads me to think that maybe I should just erase everything again and download 11.8. Also its important to mention that when I first got my M18x the device manager showed the 2 6990 but then sometime later some amd drivers are not recognized message popped out (I don't remember exactly what it said but the original catalyst worked, never tested with a game though...) I really hope its not a hardware problem as I live in Mexico and sending it back would be hard, plus by that time the 21 day period would be null.

Any advice? Is anyone here even running in 11.9?! should I just go and install 11.8?, if so; please post a correct file for me (not saying you've posted anything wrong BTW!)

Richard.

 

just orderer m18x with x-fire 6990m.. guess, I'll have to read through this..

 

Richard - as a diagnostic step, please try installing the Dell drivers for the 6990M and see if you still have troubles. I'll be back after work this evening to see how it went and, if necessary, provide other suggestions.

How do the cards show up in Device Manager? What are the device names? Maybe post a screen shot of Device Manager with the tree opened for "Display adapters".

 

I appreciate your help Mr. Fox, my print screen button wont work, my display adapters show 2 Standard VGA Graphic Adapters. The bottom one has a yellow triangle with a (!) properties show that this device cannot start. I checked the resource DVD and it detects one card and it says it has the 6970 drivers... my guess is that the dvd is not updated for the 6990 in CF or... I dont even want to think of the other reason. Just as an additional detail the AMD Catalyst mobility suite says: cannot be downloaded due to incompatible hardware/software on your computer, and below that it says: your computer doesnt contain a proper graphics adapter.

BTW I got to save the 'Blackcomb' Bios with Trixx but its only one file. I think you mentioned saving Bios for each card... which it wouldn't let me do. but they were detected as 2 6990's. What a damn nightmare. @_@ sorry for the troubles. My problem is similar to Takiana in page 15 (but I think his cards where recognized)

 

The fact that both show up as a Standard VGA adapter is good. We know they are detected and the driver can be manually installed as a last resort. (That probably will not be necessary.)

Don't use the Dell Resource DVD. Download the Dell 6990M drivers from support.dell.com by logging in and selecting your system by model or service tag number, or simply go here and see if the "approved" drivers will install.

From the AMD driver page you would need to click on the middle tab and manually select the Catalyst package for download. The tab on the left is a download manager that will not recognize our AMD cards, and therefore will not continue the installation.

 

I FIXED IT! HELL YEAH!!! Takiana's fix works! the right 11.9 driver file is in that Ma-Config Website, I am so happy. you just have to download the log and then its scans which updates you need. I think the file in Guru is incomplete, as the one there was about 93 mb this one is close to 99. For this fix I also choose CUSTOM install, Thanks for your help Mr Fox, I will report if I see issues with fans/other stuff in my unit, in the future as I have not really gamed anything.

This forum is vital for us, seriously.
Regards, Richard.

BF3 here I come!

UPDATE: Brightness Controls WORK for me in 11.9

 

UPDATE!!!!

So I got my m18x today with xfire 6990's.

I have restarted and turned off the computer a couple times before running the test. I will shut it down and report back in about 5 min as well but here is what I got first run

Ran FurMark at 1920x1080 full screen.

Started around 60 degrees celcius. Fans stated they were at 30%. Within about 30 sec temps on card 1 were around 85 and card 2 around 80. Let card 1 get to around 95 and then shut it down. Didnt want to destroy them.

Guess the brand new build still has the same problem so what now?



EDIT!!!

Attempt 2:

Shut down computer (not restart)
Ran FurMark. Card 1 Temp started low 90's. Card 2 started High 80's.
Immediatly Left fan kicked on. Here is the weird part. Temp on card 1 started to drop but said fan was only at 30%. Card 2 temp kept rising but stated fan was at 100%.
Its like the fans were backward in FurMark. Card 1 dropped to high 70's but card 2 kept rising. At 102 I shut it down with no fan kicking in on the right hand side.

Will give a few to let them cool down and will try one last time.

EDIT!!!

Attempt 3:

Did a restart (not a shut down)
Ran FurMark. Fans both immediatly kicked in.
Card 1 temp stayed 79 or lower. Card 2 crept to 85 over the course of 5 min and bumped 86 once or twice.
Weird thing is that both fans only showed 30% the entire time.

Will shut down and try ONE last time. lol

EDIT!!! FINAL TEST

Attempt 4:

Turned off computer. (not restart)
Ran FurMark. Both cards started at around 60.
Within 20 seconds, both cards in low 90s.
Another few seconds and both cards at 100 plus. Card 1 peaked at 105 but then started jumping between 100 and 103?
Card 2 stayed around 102. Both fans said 100%.
As I started typing this. Left fan kicked on and cooled card 1 to 64. Card 2 is still sitting at 74.

WTH is going on here. lol
Time to call dell YET AGAIN!!!! GRRRR

 

what's this "same problem" you're talking about?

 

Review a few pages back. The problem is that the fans dont automatically kick in like they should.

The hope was that it was a bad batch of cards however my m18x was built in the last 5 days (assuming with new cards since people ordering replacements have been placed on hold due to shortage).

 

mine came with a 560m instead of dual 6990s.... called dell.. said they're on backorder (which still doesn't explain why mine came with a 560m... lol) anyways said they should be receiving some by nov 4th (in canada) and they'll dispatch their incompetent on-site techs asap. Looks like i'll have to do a double gpu install myself -_- ... anyways i hope this delay in 6990s is to fix this problem your speaking of...fingers crossed.

 

I think this is a bad batch of cards. Can someone with properly working fans tell me what the "Vendor" is when you copy your vbios into RBE? Mine is listed as the 1st option (Apollo, Diablotek, etc) and not as Dell...

I tried flashing someone else's bios onto my cards already with no results. The cards still work fine - as do the fans - but the fan controller seems to be malfunctioning. I think we're going to see alot of people that ordered 6990m xfire recently having this problem.

 

I just got my m18x today in the mail brand new with 6990's. I immediately had overheating issues with my left side GPU. I couldnt even watch an entire HD video on youtube without my cards getting so hot that it shut the computer off. The fans dont seem to want to come on at all and even when they do its only on high speed and only when the card is about to burn a hole into the computer. I have looked at the past few pages about the problem and it seems nobody has found a fix for this. I'm going to call tech support tomorow but I really really dont want a tech at my house messing up my brand new m18x...all of the techs hadnt even seen an m17x r2 before and had no idea how to take it apart I dont want to think how they will treat my m18x

I hope its just a simple software problem but it seems its going to be a hardware fix...

 

Just got off the phone with alienware/dell. Getting new videocards, heatsinks and fans. I DONT DONT DONT want the same tech working on my computer and really hate to have to tear apart my brand new 4 hour old m18x but what other options do i have.

Newayz, just the update on my end.

 

Got my new M18x, did a clean install with Cat 11.10 v3 and no brightness controls IGP brightness works fine, hopefully the final 11.10 have them. Anyone else have this problem?

 

Yes, it affects everyone. There have been no brightness controls on any of the more recent preview drivers. It was that way with 11.8 and 11.9 preview as well. The WHQL release has (thus far) always had it, so we should be in good shape.

Congratulations on the new system. An awesome beast.

 

This discussion has me kinda bummed. I was all set to order an m18x with the 6990's in crossfire, but this overheating issue gives me pause. The website does not say they are on backorder at the moment. Is is safe to buy?

 

Im almost positive that the ones that are on backorder are the refurb'd cards that they send to techs as warranty replacements. New laptops are built with new parts so those may not be on backorder but may be defective units.

 

I just installed CAP4, Im new to windows and I just wanted to know how to unistall these CAPs because I dont see them in the control panel.

Is CAP4 recommended? I dont seem to have Overdrive options in CCC nor can I enable or disable CrossfireX. I did have a problem with launching the AMD system monitor from their website.

Crysis 1 really doesnt seem to perform well anymore, but isnt this because of Crossfire? When I used to disable it, it ran decently at 35fps very high settings.

 

this is soo complicated after a clean hd fresh install I downloaded drivers from dells website. now in the catalyst control center where can I tell the driver number?

Are the directions here good for games such as bf3? or only witcher2?

 

Quick question....just noticed that my VDDC is no longer displayed in gpu-z any more...it was at one point for sure....I am using the latest 0.5.5 version....the only thing I can think of different is A04 vs. A03 bios....

Any of you guys have zero displayed?

TIA

 

Have the same thing here,0 displayed with gpuz 5.5!

 

Thanks torgars.

oncdoc, if you open CCC and in the top right, you will see "preferences" - select "advanced view" and then see my screenshot. Go to the Information tab which will expand, choose software and there you have your driver info. (I am using AMD 11.9 FYI, not Dell Drivers atm)

 

Have the 11.9 official too!

[EDIT]
Sorry question wasn't for me

 

Yes here also.

 

Thanks guys - thought it was just me for a sec.

 

thanks good sir, for that!

 

Just outta interest, what kinda idle temps are 6990 x/f owners getting....im on a cooler and getting primary 52c and secondary 42c......10c difference?? - anyone care to post their shots? or comment?

 

Those are good and normal idle temps. I'm unsure of what the ambient temp in your home is, as that is always a factor. You can always expect varying differences in GPU temps. Assuming you haven't modified any settings, only your primary card is being utilized unless you open a fullscreen 3d app, and one of your GPUs is literally right next to your CPU heatsink. I wouldn't worry about those temps at all. Grab a nice laptop cooler for some peace of mind, or manually control the fans with HWiNFO64.

 

Hey guys,

I was getting some issues earlier today and I wanted to share what I did to fix it.

The symptom was that the primary graphics card would slowly overheat at the desktop, or quickly overheat in game and the system would simply shut down. No blue screen, nothing. Just a shut down. This was using 10.11 preview 2 drivers and CAP4.

I reinstalled about a half a dozen times and couldn't figure out what was wrong, but the fix was this.

uninstall CAP, then ATI drivers from control panel.

Run atiman uninstaller to completely remove ATI drivers.

Install 10.11 preview 3.

Install CAP 4.

Perfect Now I'm idling on both cards around 50c, and in BF3 with each at about 90% usage, they don't go above 65c.

 

I'm glad that's working for you at the moment. I don't mean to be negative, but I wouldn't bank on that being permanent. My main concern with this fix is that everyone else is perfectly fine with other driver versions - yet ours have meltdowns. Please continue to monitor your temps to ensure the problem is resolved. After a fresh install, it took about 2 days and 15+ reboots before the temps went out of control again (for me).

 

I'll keep a vigilant eye out and report back

 

Does anyone know where I can submit a request for a bios/vbios update that will allow user fan control outside of HWiNFO? I'm sure this is a more than reasonable request - and something that should be enabled by default in a computer designed with overclocking in mind...

Fan control with Trixx or CCC would be 'fan'tastic
If I created a poll on the subject would you guys make some noise with it?

 

Nick, you may have read the 580 throttle thread and that the team green's have had a good chat with Dell about fixing the problem. The same kind of "discussion" is TBA by Mr.Fox and Dell_Bill_B......maybe the fan control could be discussed at the same time?

 

The new thread was created this morning. A date will be set for the conference call in the near future.

*Official Alienware M18x AMD CrossFire Discussion Thread (re: Dell/AW Conference Call)*

 

Yup you were right, it's back. Today the fan isn't going above idle speeds, and I'm getting pretty intense throttling. Is there anything I can do to force it on until a fix is released? Catalyst fan control doesn't seem to do anything.

 

HWiNFO64 will let you control the fans manually.

 

Could anyone that has used RadeonPro with BF3 help me with the settings and maybe share the results?

 

Curious to see if any of you guys can help me out. I'm currently running Starcraft II on my M18x and getting 30 - 60 FPS on a mixture of Medium to High settings. Needless to say I feel my laptop is under performing.

My m18x is using the i7 2670QM 2.2 ghz 3.1 w/ Turboboost

And AMD 6990's in cFX

I've got the 11.10 drivers and the 11.9 CAP4 Profile.

Any help is appreciated! Thanks guys

 

I have the amd_catalyst_11.10_preview3_win7_vista drivers installed and Cap 4.

When i start windows with internal (INTEL) graphics enabled the following message appears:

"Warning
The Catalyst Control Center is not supported by the driver verion of your enabled graphics adapter. Please update your AMD graphics driver, or enable your AMD adapter using the Displays Manager."

How can I get rid of it and why does it appear?

 

Go into msconfig and disable CCC at startup. It doesnt affect using the discrete cards and you can still open CCC via right click on the desktop when you want to access settings etc. It appears because CCC is booting also whilst in IGP mode and causes the error message.

 

Nicholaus.rossi and forum, I've also been victim of the fan troubles you've been having on the m18x, its really frustrating having to deal with all these issues after paying premiums and what-not for this laptop. In my case, this is the first gaming rig i've ever bought, so the complexities and problems have really taken their told on me. I live in Mexico so its not like I can just send this thing back so easily... the post office here is not to be trusted... but anyways; to the point, my right fan will rarely kick in, so my frame rate is pretty low, I know! I should be worried about my GPU exploding. How has Hwinfo64 been working for you? can you share your config, do I have to override/flash something for it to work(because Id like to avoid complex stuff) I heard you must keep the setting below 3900 rpm, please help me, remember I have no idea how to use this, I downloaded the hw64_388.exe.

Thanks in advance
Richard.

 

Perhaps if you want something simple, my solution to the problem is going to BIOS setup when you start up your laptop by pressing F2 (when the alienware head pops up at startup), then load optimal default settings (F9) and save it (F10).

This has been working great for me, fix the temp and fan issue, and this may be the simplest temporary solution i think. However you HAVE to do this EVERY TIME you start up you computer when using the 6990 GPU. The problem will come back if you shut the laptop down completely, sleep, or hibernate it.