***AMD Beta Driver Release***

For those without display brightness control using the Dell driver or the AMD reference drivers following Catalyst 11.9, the DimScreen app works excellent with the AMD cards even without proper driver support. Try it, you may like it.

 

Hi, have we got a date when the full release will be?
And will there be a vbios update also?

 

I'm not sure there will be a vBios update for the AMD cards - nothing wrong in that department that I am aware of....unlike the original vBios of the 580m's which cut the legs off them by throttling the cards under load.

Hopefully, the driver will be sufficient to resolve (with A05 system Bios too) the AMD problems.

I will ask regarding brightness control - hopefully this is something that can be addressed in maybe a future release by Dell or a "tweak" to this current driver.

Stay posted and until then, enjoy the AMD cards with A05 and this driver.

 

Brightness control issue i have with this driver, hopefully there will be a fix

 

Don't wait 4 it.

The DimScreen app is very tiny and solve the issue giving you even better control of the brightness...
( http://www.nirmaltv.com/2008/08/21/change-monitor-brightness-using-dimscreen-freeware/)

And then you can also use Put your monitor to power save mode, with Sleeper - Windows Freeware / Troubleshooters which will give you the option to turn off the screen @ a simply click whenever you want... you save energy and save your screen...

 

See Fox's reply above. I've been using that software for a while and it works great

 

Cheers, i will try.

 

Is there any difference between this driver and the one they provided the link to previously as a preview?

 

@evil_mike - not sure, buddy. Probably not, but since it was not posted for a while they may have done some additional tweaking. Compare the MD5 hashes and that should tell you if something changed.

 

Yeah, that's what I was thinking of doing. Thanks Mr. F!

 

AMD Catalyst Application Profile - 11.11 CAP3 (Release Notes)

New profiles added with this release:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Improves CrossFire performance
Saints Row 3 (DirectX 9 version): Improves CrossFire performance
Serious Sam 3: Improves CrossFire performance
Java Control Panel: Fixes black screen corruption seen on single and multi GPU configurations when Anti-Aliasing is forced on through the Catalyst Control Center


Cheers.

 

I have tried twice to update the stock Video driver to the one that Dell posted and it listed in this thread. I have followed the procedure uninstall, CCCleaner, Sweeper, save boot etc. Everything works to the point of the new install and that does nothing. I launch it and wait... it does not install even if I try to run as administrator. I have to use restore point to get back to the original driver. At this point I have had it with AMD drivers and support from Dell on them. Had I had the choice with the current price point, I would have gone with 580M cards. I hope Dell_Bill reads this and can provide a solution and help me get these two M18x machines I have upgraded. I am so frustrated at this point I do not want AMD even if it can be fixed.

 

I hear you jbowden, im fed-up with AMD driver support as well. my next purchase will be definitely Nvidia.

 

jbowden - browse to the Catalyst extraction folder and see if you have the folder with the drivers in it. The folder is named something like W7A64_INF and it should have cat, inf and msi files in it. If that folder is missing (which I have seen numerous times with AMD drivers) this would be the cause of the installation failure since there are no drivers available to install.

If the folder is there, open Device Manager and open the primary display adapter properties, go to the update driver button and manually browse to the folder to install them that way. Once installed, re-run the Catalyst installer to get the rest of the CCC apps installed. I have had to do this at least a half dozen times with AMD drivers. This is not a Dell issue, it's an AMD fiasco. I have no explanation why a manual driver installation is sometimes necessary, I only know that I have had to do it occasionally on my Alienware M17x, M18x and my home-built desktop with a HD 6770 video card. I've even had to do this on an old desktop (now retired) with an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro a time or two. It is very irritating to have to do this and it's super odd that this can randomly affect one user different than another with essentially identical hardware and driver packages.

 

I'm using an m17xR2 with dual 6990's. Would this be the best driver for me? Should I also pair it with the latest CAP profiles? Also, in 11.10, I turned off surface texture optimization (or something like that) under catalyst ai, as I felt like SC2 didn't run as "smooth" with it on. Is that the case with this driver? Are most people able to just click the exe and install it no problems?

 

Mr. Fox - thanks for the suggestion. I did the manual driver install as you suggested. I am still stuck with the same issue trying to get CC apps installed. I launch the installer and it does nothing. So I am 50 installed but cannot get CC/apps to work.

 

Odd. Have you tried re-downloading the drivers? May there is something messed up with the .exe file in the package you downloaded.

When you say you launch and "it does nothing" do you mean it actually does not show any evidence of action as though you were double-clicking on nothing, or does it try to do something and fail to load? Is anything visible on your screen?

If absolutely nothing happens, try right clicking the setup file and select properties. If there is a button to "unblock" the file because it "came from another computer" click it. Also take ownership of the file and give yourself complete control over it. You may have something messed up with file permissions in your Windows 7 installation.

 

Give it a shot. Should work fine with the R2. Yes, just launching the setup.exe file should be all that is necessary. Seems it is working just dandy for most that have installed it. You'll need to browse through the pages of this thread to see if any other R2 owners have tried it yet. No reason you cannot use CAP with it that I am aware of. All Dell did for their version of the driver was add missing code that AMD should have included and did not. Be sure to do a "clean" driver installation. You can pretty much guarantee issues will arise with AMD drivers if you don't nuke all of the old files and registry entries.

 

The dell driver didn't work so I went ahead and used the 12.1 beta driver. By "nuke" old entries, you mean by uninstalling everything and booting in safe mode and doing the drivercleaner right? I know that there's ccleaner as well, but I don't think that does anything.

 

I have tried re-download several times. The Catalyst Installer launches and I get past language/english and the screen goes away, never comes back and it appears that my machine is now messed up. I cannot launch CC app at all.
I looks like I will have to go find my recovery/windows CDs and perform a fresh install. I am not happy with this AMD driver and would say from my issue it is not ready for release. AMD and Dell need to perform additional testing on the install/upgrade of this driver...

 

Well, a clean OS reinstall may be the best option at this point. I'm sorry to see you having this issue, but I am glad I haven't seen anyone else going through the same thing. It seems to be working well for most.

I think you already mentioned doing the full nuke of all AMD files in Safe Mode with DriverSweeper and the registry tool in CCleaner. The symptoms you just described to me sound an awful lot like what I have experienced by simply uninstalling the Catalyst package in Windows Control Panel and attempting to install new Catalyst drivers without nuking everything first. If you have done the clean driver install, then I'm not sure what is going on.

 

Clean OS install allowed me to install the new driver. Now I have to re-install all my other applications....Something in the de-install of the old driver corrupted my system. AMD driver install/upgrades are very poor!

 

I had no issues installing the 12.1 beta driver. Only issue I've had with the 12.1 beta driver is an odd yellow screen when I pause in skyrim. Anyone know how to fix it?

 

Have you asked in a Skyrim thread already? http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...mance-problems-general-discussion-thread.html

 

I've had the same screen with 11.11 CAP3. Ininstalling it resolved the issue.

 

Is there a way to add the DevID for 6970/6990 clevo cards in order to install the Dell driver set on modded R2?

 

As we learned in our conference call, the AMD reference drivers are missing more than 30 pieces of code that are needed to handle everything properly on mobile platforms. Alienware is one of many companies working with AMD to try and get them to build proper drivers. NVIDIA reference drivers are not missing anything and that is why we don't see as many issues with NVIDIA. Until AMD starts building good drivers, Dell does what they can to add (patch) what was left out in their occasional AMD driver updates. I'm sure you noticed how much larger the Dell update is compared to the AMD Catalyst reference package. My assumption is that this is why.

 

I too would be interested in this. I'm running 11.12 beta and having no issues paired with 11.2 app profiles. Even so, the dell drivers may still give performance gains.

 

Have you already attempted the installation of the Dell driver and found it to fail?

If so, after doing a clean removal with DriverSweeper and CCleaner's registry tool, try to manually install the drivers through the display adapter properties in Device Manager. Open the properties, browse to the extracted driver folder and manually select them. Once installed, then run the Catalyst Installation Manager to get the rest of the package. I have done this to install desktop drivers in the past and it usually works. A few times it did not work I was able to add lines to the INF file to trick the driver into installing, but that's a real pain.

 

Tried all that. Nothing.

 

Mr. Fox - I would recommend that we highlight in the AMD sticky the need for Dell to work with AMD on a better driver install package/process. We should NOT have to download third party utilities (CCCleaner, Driver Sweeper) etc, in order to update the Video driver. This is a major issue and it has caused me to rebuild my PC from scratch twice. Where I stand is no more AMD products will be purchased given this add-hoc upgrade constraint.

 

jbowden - we learned in the conference call that Dell and other laptop vendors are pressuring AMD to do a better job on their drivers. It has been a problem for a while and the clean install process is something I have had to put up with for about 3 or 4 years. It's actually a good practice no matter what driver, but it's a recipe for disaster with AMD drivers if you skip it. I feel your pain. I've had the same thing happen a couple of times. Somehow the OS gets corrupted by the AMD stuff. My guess is that it's an issue in the Windows registry.

At any rate, putting more pressure on Dell or any other computer vendor is not going to solve the problem. Until AMD steps up to the plate with good drivers it's going to be a love/hate relationship with their video cards. Dell is watching this thread closely, so we will not need to sticky it for them to see it.

Once you have your new installation all set up and everything you normally install is installed, I would encourage you to create a drive image. You can get free versions of drive imaging software from numerous places. A good place to get one is the web site of your HDD manufacturer. Seagate and Western Digital offer a branded version of Acronis that only requires a drive of their brand to be attached to install. (Even an external USB drive allows the installation.)

Having an image of a clean install with all of your apps and tweaks in place makes the prospect of starting over from scratch far less onerous. You can be back up and running in minutes instead of hours.

This is a link to a list of programs: Free Hard Disk Backup and Restore, Hard Disk Image and Cloning Utilities. I use Macrium Reflect (retail download) and they have a free version. I also use Seagate DiscWizard app (free version of Acronis). Both work excellent, as do most of the others. (I have used many more and use what I like best, but all that I have tested have worked.)

 

After yesterday's issue, I have made a backup using Casper that will make it easier if it happens again. I believe you are likely correct that the registry is getting corrupted, caused by the removal of AMD software or Driver Sweeper (AMD software would be my guess).

 

I tend to think that something gets left behind in the cleaning process sometimes that causes the installation problem. Another thing that I have done to help avoid problems is manually delete the extraction folder and re-extract the package to a different location or new folder name so there is no possibility of association with the original installation folder.

 

What are you supposed to do with CCCleaner? For a driver that's "supposed" to work on my machine, I never have problems installing and I don't use CCCleaner. I've opened it up, but no where do I see anything that pertains to cleaning the video card drivers. The way I uninstall my drivers and clean are:

- Uninstall from device manager (checking uninstall software as well)
- Uninstall the CCC from programs, doing the express uninstall of everything
- Uninstall APP profiles
- Reboot into safe mode
- Run Drive Sweeper as admin and analyze / clean out the ATI software
- Boot into windows
- Install driver software
- Restart
- Install App profiles
- Restart
- Enjoy

Question, though - can I postpone the reboot after installing the new drivers and then install the app profiles without having to reboot first? I always do, just to make sure the new drivers are fully installed before integrating the app profiles, but I have no idea if that's necessary. I don't know what to do with CCCleaner. Am I supposed to go to "Registry" then scan and fix issues? When I've done that, I've never seen anything that says ATI in there.

Thanks.

Also, there should be a sticky somewhere with the proper way to fully uninstall drivers. I'm sure a lot of people have issues with it.

 

I can only go on what I do to uninstall/install. I put a spoiler on the 1st post of this thread with my procedure and I have never had a problem uninstalling and reinstalling AMD drivers.

I use CCleaner's registry tab - this cleans out any invalid registry entries that may be left over after an uninstall.

I use Driver Sweeper too as I think its a good tool and CCleaner simply "picks up the crap" left over.

If you check your 1st three steps with how AMD tell you to uninstall, the are different - AMD recommend uninstall via add/remove and express uninstall. Thats exactly what I do....then run the combo of DS & CC.

Works for me...dunno why anyone else would have problems with it. As a precaution, I also have "update from windows update" disabled - ensures that windows does not auto update any drivers I dont want....I like to have control over my system, not Microsoft.

 

Do you go into safe mode for anything? So you never uninstall the cards via device manager?

 

IntenseIGFX - there is nothing in CCleaner about cleaning video card drivers. CCleaner works excellent to clean up the registry of all garbage left behind by programs or drivers that have been uninstalled. I recommend using it any time you uninstall anything because it deletes obsolete keys and dead links.

I can tell you from personal experience that AMD driver installations have failed for me (not always, but often enough that I don't skip it) when CCleaner was not used following DriverSweeper. I generally repeat the registry cleaner process 2 or 3 times, or until the scanner finds no more obsolete data in the registry. So, I am a strong advocate of using CCleaner following DriverSweeper.

About postponing the reboot... why risk not doing it right when all it takes is an extra minute or two to ensure the installation goes as smoothly as possible? There are a lot of folks on our forum that follow this process religiously and we rarely have issues. These folks are frequently providing assistance and support to those that don't follow the process.

As far as following AMD recommendations, until they start developing decent drivers that don't have problems, their recommendations don't really hold any water with me. Doing it their way often yields poor results. Even Alienware Tech Support reps clean the registry when updating drivers. DriverSweeper and CCleaner simply automate the process and CCleaner helps catch things that DriverSweeper sometimes misses.

Below is a step-by-step for those unfamiliar with the CCleaner process. Hope this helps...

Spoiler

Edit: To clarify questions posed as I was responding with the info above...

• Uninstall all AMD/ATI software in Windows Control Panel.
• Boot into Safe Mode and run DriverSweeper to remove AMD/ATI display drivers.
• Reboot, entering Safe Mode again.
• Do the CCleaner process.
• Reboot into Windows normally and install the new drivers.
• After installing, reboot and you're done.

 

Thanks a bunch for clarifying. I'll start using CCleaner now then! So you don't uninstall via device manager either? I guess if it works it works.

I'll continue to reboot after installing the drivers and then install the app profiles. Its been working so why mess with it to save a few extra minutes. I don't understand, though, why you have to boot into safemode twice? Why can't you run driver sweeper, postpone the reboot, then do ccleaner and reboot?

 

You're welcome

Uninstalling all AMD/ATI software in Control Panel then following the "clean install" process eliminates the need to uninstall in Device Manager. When you go into safe mode and use the DriverSweeper/CCleaner process it deletes the drivers from the HDD/SSD. You only need to manually uninstall in Device Manager if you are not in safe mode because the drivers are locked and in use. If you manually uninstall in Device Manager and do not do the DriverSweeper/CCleaner process before installing the new Catalyst package the old drivers and old version of CCC are often automatically reinstalled by Windows instead of the new drivers. If the files are deleted, then that is no longer a possiblity... they no longer exist.

 

So in the future, just uninstall the CCC program + the app profiles, reboot into safe mode and do the driver sweeper, boot again and do cccleaner, boot into windows and install new drivers? Don't touch device manager?

 

^^^Correct-a-moondo

 

I tend not to class the efforts I sometimes have to go through as a problem, as drivers in windows are terrible in generral...and ATI don't help matters unlike some hardware vendors.

In general I uninstall app profiles, then ATI CCC from program files. This removes the driver. I then reboot as normal , and uninstall the driver from device manager as windows will sometimes install one, then reboot and run driver sweeper. No need for safe mode anymore as files are not placed in protected locations. At least from my experience.

I then install the new driver.


I then never have a problem. Although I only install beta and official drivers, some underground drivers have not go through some of standard QA stages and can end up providing headaches which ultimatly involve reinstalling your OS.

 

That's what I was referring to earlier. To avoid having windows "update your driver for you", simply type "change device installations settings" into the start/search box (without quotes) and change the setting to:

"No, let me choose what to do"

and then select:

"Never install driver software from windows update"

This will ensure that when you reboot, you wont get windows "trying" to update drivers when you dont want it to.

 

Yes a software called Orca. If you'd like pm me you ID' from your card (might be diff then my clevos 6990) ill add them to this dell beta driver and upload on a share site for you i guarantee everything will install.

 

Hmm, that may be interesting. Does the dell driver work with the CAP profiles? Also, if I have the 11.12 beta working well, is there any real reason to do the dell drivers?

 

Nope, not necessarily... the best driver is always the one that works best. If Catalyst 11.12 is making you happy I would stick with what works for you.

Yes, the CAP profiles will work with the Dell-tweaked AMD drivers.

 

Dells beta is much better then 11.12 imo with clevos 6990's on m17x r2

 

That's good to hear, Stealth55. It definitely seems to work good on the M18x. Can you elaborate on what makes it better in your experience. Hearing why you feel that way may nudge some readers off the fence once they know why and how they will benefit and should use the Dell drivers instead of AMD reference drivers.

 

It just performs simply amazing on bf3 just have to keep a eye on your cpu temps or else some stutter will occur when the cpu throttles because of high temps. Skyrim also plays just as amazing but with that atidag.dll file on its folder. The difference with dells driver on my r2 compared to the amd/ati's drivers came to me rly obvious its just it THE DRIVER ( its better then ati's). It Totally craps on ATI considering it's their own card and cant get it to work how its suppose to. Do Lamborgini govern their cars to 80 like a school bus? No but ATI do with there bad driverz. Only thing dell needs is a brightness fix.