Calling out to Alienware Support Where are our Official AMD 7970m Crossfire drivers ??

Yeah, I looked into the AMD website, and they are recommending the update to the 12.6. I'll have to run the sweeper through and do it properly if I decide to go through with it!

Thanks again

 

I have to agree, DumbDumb. If I were in a position that involved customer service, people demanding things and having an attitude would be the last ones I would want to go out of my way to help. I'd only want do the bare minimum for them. But, Dell/Alienware reps are pretty tough, and especially the Level 2 and Level 3 reps. They really know what they are doing and they care about the product and the customer. They do a better job with angry people than I think the average person would do.

Back on the subject at hand, here is another really strange thing that happens. It's not very frequent. This started from the first day I installed these video cards. I thought doing a clean Windows install would cure it, but it did not. I see this about once every 3 or 4 days at the most... perhaps longer, maybe 1 out of 50 times I have restarted my system. Among all the serious problems I had with 6970M and 6990M video cards, this was never one of them. It's not serious, it's just strange.

I have Device Manager open to show that the drivers are installed and the GPUs don't have any trouble codes. The one with the red X simply appears without anything that I can identify that triggers it. After that error appears, if I try to manually launch CCC I see the other one with the exclamation point in the yellow triangle. Restarting always corrects it, and I have seen it with 12.5 beta, 12.6 beta, 12.6 WHQL and 12.7 beta. This is one of the reasons I think the issues are still related to buggy drivers and not a hardware problem.

 

We obviously have different standards for how a company treats us as a customer. Alienware's customer support told me
it would be AT LEAST a full month before I saw a replacement laptop, to me THAT is ridiculous!

So yes I do expect a certain level of satisfaction when purchasing such an expensive piece of hardware.

 

I hope this new driver release schedule results in more responsive driver support. The reason they went that direction anyways is so that they won't have to deal with Microsoft's WHQL certification process, which, according to AMD takes time and resources.

That being said, 12.7 installed with no issues. Haven't tried OCing both cards simultaneously due to power adapter constraints, but it overclocks nicely.

Also, I'm sure most will be switching over to 680M SLi once it comes out since the new Kepler cards seem to be doing better than AMD's equivalents in both Vantage and 3d11.

 

Comparing Hackness's 6074 in 3Dmark11 with his OCed 680M, with just one 7970 OCed I get over 6600. Other folks luckier than I with better OCers have gone past 7K.

Not that I don't love Nvidia, because I am more green than red by far as evidenced by my Tri-SLI GTX 580 Classified desktop (used to be quad-SLI).

This debate will go back and forth, but they are both VERY close to each other in the grand scheme of things. Which is actually good, or Nvidia/AMD would charge whatever they felt like charging and never lower prices. (looking at Nvidia's mobile offering)

 

I can say that I have wonderful experience with Dell support team. Probably they are 'over-doing' it!

I had 3 systems changed already and this last one I have noticed that it does not have the extreme sticker (which is not a big deal) + there is a small area where the paint has come off (on the bottom case / left side).

As I said, already 3 systems replaced; so I called them and told them about the paint issues (there are no scratches / dents, nothing, it just looks like it was not painted properly there) and about the sticker. I said, please send me the part and I will replace it myself. They refused! They said that the system is to new and they do not want to meddle with it and they will send me a replacement?! This was discussed with them yesterday afternoon and today my system is in production already.

Before I could not order a new system unless I returned this one, got the refund and then placed a new order. This time the guy told me that as soon as I receive the replacement and I am ok with it, I can return the old one back to Dell. I said, you guys prefer to have so much of loss and expense when you could have just sent me that part and solved the issue... I do not mind, it looks like I am getting every few weeks new system until I will be perfectly happy

The only problem I am facing is with the corsair memory, but I am returning it and getting the kingston hyperx which is very stable.

Otherwise the GPU's I have, work perfect so, I have to focus very much on this when I will receive the new system and make sure it works perfect otherwise I may swap those in (ofcourse I will call dell and ask them first)...

 

Out of all the drivers, I do think 12.7 beta is working best. It installs for me without any issues as well. WHQL certification is a real pain from the things I have heard about it... I've heard rumors that is why NVIDIA drivers are mostly beta releases as well. I don't blame them a bit... if I were running either company, wasting financial and personnel resources only to get something labeled as "WHQL" would be most unattractive.

 

Well the WHQL isn't such a bad thing. The last 2 beta drivers from nVIDIA are actually bad. People are getting crashes in various games and there are some stuttering issues. It's not just AMD that's having bad drivers these past few months.

The WHQL driver doesn't have these issues. There's a thread dedicated to Alienware 680 SLI (desktop) users that are having all these issues.


I've had some crashes myself. Neither company is perfect this year...

 

I know that WHQL certification exists to ensure only good drivers get approved. It's just unfortunate that it is a pain and an overly burdensome expense if those things are true. I think it is good for consumers that WHQL certification is in place. Both companies should focus on releasing two or three, maybe four, good drivers a year with WHQL certification and just stop with the beta thing. I think we (consumers) drive that by being too OCD about things. At the first sign of an error some people just about have a brain hemorrhage. Most things improve over time and being impatient doesn't speed up the process. I think we are seeing a great example of what speeding up the process too much looks like with 7970M CrossFire.

 

yea i have had that happen lol... no amd card detected and your stomach drops for a second lol

Do not get me wrong.. I will be the first in line to knock on dells door if some thing really goes wrong.. Yes I do feel that the issues with the 7970s are bad..real bad but im not going to put my self on record and offend a rep i may later have to ask for help..

I hold both accountable at the moment.. but what i want to know and maybe a rep can chime in hear.. Does amd build these cards or do they ship you a bunch of little chips and dell puts them together.. or does amd build the cards and ship them to you?

 

Where's Porras? Where's dell official drivers promised on the end of this week?

 

Late end of the week

Sorry for the sarcasm... I guess is better to wait a little longer and have good results, instead of going back to the square one.

 

I don't remember seeing anyone making promises or giving us a delivery date. It's possible that we already have the same broken drivers they are trying to make work properly. We will have to wait and see, but unless they have something newer that is not available through normal channels, there may not be any such thing as a good driver for 7970M at this time.

 

Page 18 post # 173

Re: Calling out to Alienware Support Where are our Official AMD 7970m Crossfire drivers ??

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wanted to let you know that the engineering team is working on the release of the driver.
Will likely be out late next week. **This could be subject to change**

Will post back if there is a delay.
__________________
Luis Porras
Dell | Alienware Technical Support
Opening your case and/or replacing parts yourself does not void your warranty, check our disassemble videos on YouTube
Quickest way to get support from Dell: Twitter via @AlienwareTech or Facebook.com/Alienware using the "message" link.
I can't always reply to PM's, please for extra assistance use any of the Facebook and Twitter links

 

There was kinda this holiday yesterday... just a small one... I would know it is my b-day... And it is very early in the day...

 

Anyway, if you decide to go through with it again, you know now how to go back and recover... Just follow the steps ( carefully read: http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...ve-amd-nvidia-drivers-using-clean-method.html ) and let us know how it goes

 

TOUCHE TOUCHE

 

Think that Luis Porras was trying to be as possitive as he could. Anyway he state clearly: "**This could be subject to change**"
So, in the meantime, "the engineering team is working on"
When you deal with this kind of technology, it's understandable that delays occur.
OK, he posted also: "Will post back if there is a delay." But it's also understandable if they don't have at any given moment, a real picture of the magnitud of every delay while they are working on it and discovering new pieces of code (or something alike) interfering with another (or alike) chaining subsequent and consequent delays.

 

When ever the drivers come. I really hope they address all the freezes (within reason) as a first priority.
My previous comp for 2 years was a iMac 27 - not one freeze in its lifetime I kid you not.
I know, Apples with Oranges, but as a consumer it builds confidence.

I'm not regretful though. I do love this beast, even with its gimpy CF. I just hope Alienware can manage to take it to the next level with these 7970's.

 

Can anyone tell me how to get my original screen brightness back? I can't stand this dim display. I tried switching back to SG and enabling the IGD but that just screwed everything up (ie: I couldnt switch cards). I've also tried a multitude of drivers, all with the same problem. I am currently using the 12.7 desktop driver.

Any tips?

 

Download and run HWiNFO. It'll get your brightness back.

The downside is that you have to run it every time you boot up for the screen to brighten up.

 

AMD has had very funky brightness control for as long as I can remember. This may work for you to adjust brightness, as it has helped people out in the past with AMD drivers to "regain" control over a simple thing that AMD continually bodge up.

DimScreen - Download

 

As I recall, DimScreen only works for dimming. It may not be effective for increasing brightness. Among the plethora of problems with 7970M CF, that issue has not been on my list of problems yet. I'm puzzled that HWiNFO64 will brighten the display for those having the issue. I am wondering if this is happening on the M17x R3/R4 with a single 7970M and not in CrossFire.

 

Indeed, that sounds like a brand new AMD brightness problem then. If the screen is simply just dimmer than what it should be at max brightness, I agree - dimscreen may have no benefit in increasing brightness. Weird!

 

Running HWINFO has no effect on the brightness for me. Maybe mine is configured differently. Can someone post a screen on their hwinfo configuration?

 

I can adjust my brightness up and down with 12.7 but not when they were install incorrectly..

 

After I got my R2, I just did the normal uninstall of the AMD stuff and then installed 12.7 and my brightness controls work fine.

 

I can adjust my brightness up and down as well, its just the the highest setting is only about 1/2 to 3/4 the brightness it was prior to installation.

 

No probs on brightness here. Im on 12.7. Hwinfo patched a prob on reading ceryain sensors would cause black screen, flickering and or brightness control to be lost and all of it was fixed so im unsure why you still have brightness probs perhaps do a clean install and search registry to be sure the last driver entries are gone. Doing great kn 12.7 and actually played a few hours now in Witcher 2 in xfire crash free i cant explain it but its working for now. Ill test again for few hours tonight. What i did was load 12.7 and 12.7 cap and ended up making a CCC profile and selecting the actual Witchrr 2 cap for crossfire profile then enabled vsync in game and in CCC and turned on triple buffering and voila no crash. Ill test more but maybe someone else can see if that fixes Witcher 2for them?

 

Yup, check out this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=658958
Edit: Around post #514 is an example.

 

Hi, I too am having this brightness issue with a single 7970m on a m17x r3. I have tried using multiple drivers, multiple settings in my bios (enabling IGD with sg/peg) and tried using hwinfo.

The one breakthrough i have had is that when i get the grey lines after clocking too high i managed to get back to desktop without a reboot and the brightness was at its fullest. but when i used fn+5 to go down then try to go back up it was back to being dim.

I have now found if i close my lid and send the computer to sleep then wake it the screen is also working at the correct brightness... so this must mean its a bios related issue???


Thanks for any help

 

I still think it is drivers, but it could be a buggy vBIOS as well. AMD has had random issues with display brightness controls for a very long time. That was a constant issue with 6970M and 6990M GPUs. AMD often leaves important code missing from their drivers that affect this.

Jeff, you might be onto something.

 

My recent run ln 3dmak11 was like that when it gets to the pillars for the first physics test its flickering now and didnt before. Ive seen a few things similar to that video while using mine. Are all these cards damaged? Im getting more and more discouraged on 7970m.

 

The space ships have their cloaking device engaged, LOL.

 

Remember the old but true adage, "you get what you pay for". Couldn't be more true with AMD.

Sent from my GT-N7000

 

Guess it paid to wait! I got my M18X R2 on the 14th of June, and have had none of these issues with either of my 7970Ms, other than a few hits and misses with crossfire and unstable drivers. Which have been resolved with the desktop 12.7 BETAs.

Yes, it does suck that QC is apparently very lacking. RMA the things 'til you get some that work!

 

That soubds like good advice

 

There have been a few lucky ducks out there. Mostly not so lucky. Seems there are plenty of Clevo owners that are suffering with 7970M functionality issues as well. Multiple hardware exchanges until getting parts that work correctly doesn't seem like a good option and doesn't speak well of the GPU. If that is what it takes to luck into a good pair of video cards, replacement part availability will become problematic very rapidly and people will be waiting weeks for parts to become available due to stock shortages.

The fact that improvement came with new drivers, although not enough to call it resolution, holds a glimmer of hope the problem is primarily incompetent drivers. I will report on my testing with thermals after the pads and paste arrive, but I am hoping that will be a cure for erratic functionality problems.

 

Mr. Fox, why wouldn't you want what you paid for? At the very least, if after 3 or 4 RMAs a lemon can be declared. Maybe not for those that outright purchased the 7970M by itself, but at least for those that got new machines.

I've seen some of the temps reported by those with the 7970M on other than Alienware - and it seems that those manufacturers cooling solutions are absolute crud compared to Alienware's.

 

It should be more than obvious that I want what I have to work, otherwise I would not be busting my tail looking for solutions. You've not been around here long enough to know to what lengths some of us have gone to fix problems that benefit the community at large. Part swapping based on assumptions benefits no one. The 7970M CrossFire setup has potential to be awesome, and when it works right it is pretty awesome.

It would be a lot better, and less frustrating, to fix what we have; whether through drivers that work right or correcting latent cooling issues. Rushing to the assumption that the cards are defective and swapping them for others that might be the same or worse is not a good approach. There is an underlying cause that must be addressed and it will not be effectively addressed through multiple part exchanges.

We are operating on an assumption that the temps being reported to our monitoring tools are accurate. They may not be be accurate. Additionally, those temps are for the core only. There are other components on the cards that must be properly cooled. If they are not, they can cause the issues we are seeing.

 

Perhaps, but one won't know until one tries?

 

Exactly, and that's why I am trying. Replacing video cards arbitrarily without proper troubleshooting and verifying the cards are no good is a bad idea to me. It would be like replacing an engine only because it has a blown head gasket.

 

Did you put a pad on the back side of the card like in Slick dude guide pics. I dont have one there... is that different from what you have set up mr fox?

 

Hmm... I will have to go look at the photos and see what you are referring to. I must have missed that. Since I don't know what you are speaking of, it is safe to say, no I have not done that... yet.

One thing that I think is remarkable and may hold a clue is the difference in back plate design between the GTX 580M and 7970M. The back plate for the AMD GPU has no heat management component, whereas the GTX 580M has pads and heat sink for the memory. I am suspicious of thermal issues as I have previously posted and that might be a clue that leads to resolution.

 

What about the 7970's having more problems on the R1 than the R2 I personally never saw all those issues running benchmarks or games the problems I had was poor performance in some games with crossfire enabled and different issues with different drivers like a black screen with one driver and flickering with another driver everything solved with the 12.7 beta but the crossfire performance on skyrim and arkham city

Quad has a single 7970m in the R1 and he never mention a single issue other than color profile not loading and slower vantage score I personally use a single card for a long time to minimize the issues and it was perfect for the most part

so yeah to me AMD crossfire is broken for some games something not acceptable when you paid a premium to upgrade GPU's and is taking to long to see a proper driver something that is a joke already and I really think you guys with R1's are experiencing a lot more problems with 7970CF I don't know why but seems that way

the cards should work fine on both machines because couple of members got upgraded to 7970's on their R1 that makes all this more strange but I am sure the techs who approved this upgrades don't have any idea of the support on that machine again is not their fault but could be as simple as a bios update on the R1 to properly or partially support the 7970's like the R2 lol

My machine is up for sale but I may just keep it if I keep getting this low ball offers lol

 

I believe that pad on the back of the card was only for the R3 because whatever component is behind the card and plastic can potentially interfere with the Video card in the R3 but our layout is totally different therefore not needed.

 

Well, I see posts in our forums by some owners of the R2 with 7970M CF that have exactly the same symptoms that DumbDumb and I have with the R1. But, I do agree that systems with only one GPU seem to have far fewer problems than CrossFire. I see owners of desktop computers with 7970 CrossFire reporting some of the same problems, too. The two that cause the most problems are the system freezes with a black screen and striped screen. That seems to be a common thread among many systems with CrossFire.

It is also very puzzling that we have maybe 2 or 3 M18x R2 owners reporting that their systems work perfectly or almost perfectly. What's different? That's the mystery that we need to know the answer to so it can work right for everyone. That's one of the reasons I think it is possibly an overheating problem that is difficult to verify. It may also be something external that is making the GPU malfunction. The possibilities are almost endless and you have to do the process of elimination to know for sure.

What may be different about the severity of the problems is the distribution channel(s) of our GPU parts. If the early distribution of 7970M video cards that were defective accidentally found its way back into the supply of components available for upgrade and those being used in new systems are a more recent release it could explain some things. I notice also that my GPUs came with an older vBIOS which may also suggest it is from a different manufacturing run.

Honestly, that's not what I think is going on, though. I still think it is a problem with the drivers being borked and maybe a problem with overheating, and maybe something that needs to be set differently than before in the BIOS. I wish there was an unlocked BIOS on the R2 so we could compare some of the hidden settings relating to the PCIe and GPU components.

So, Speedy, I would be very upset about owning a new $4,000 system that only works correctly if one of the GPUs is removed or disabled. I know that Quad's R1 works fine with only one GPU, but that is not an acceptable option for the M18x... at least not for me. One 7970M performs very similar to 580M SLI, but 580M SLI is a far superior product than one 7970M GPU with partially functional drivers. At least that was true for me.

 

yeah I am really upset after spending this kind of money and there is still no drivers after almost 2 months but DELL did't listen to us and this is getting old sometimes is better to turn around and walk don't you think so ?

at this point or we accept that crossfire is going to be partially working forever or we move on

 

why are you selling it speedy?

 

Oh yea i wanted to say.. could this be a vbios problem and the cards are conflicting against each other? because like others have said 1 card works but who wants just one card when you can have 2?