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

NICE!, maybe CS6 will work :FINGER'SX'ED

 

Direct link (when it will work) Dell - Support

 

Looks like it just went live. There you go Driver

 

^^^ You are mistaken Mark. The link is not yet 'live'

 

its live and im down loading now! i hope this fixes things for us!

 

Thanks, Brother Mark_O... I posted this in the other thread. Have a great weekend. Downloading it now.

 

For me it gives me HTTP 404 error?!

It works with a download manager

 

really? this doesnt install on the r1...how very very bad

 

Does anybody have it installed and any results?

 

It will not install. The Catalyst Install Manager does not even list a display driver. My assumption is that the INF is missing the necessary information to identify the GPU. This makes no sense because the AMD Mobility and 12.6 and 12.7 beta desktop drivers have the information that allow my GPUs to be recognized and the driver installs without an issue, they just don't work properly.

I haven't attempt to do a forced installation because that's not really a legitimate solution.

 

slew of error if you force install.. mostly 0x000003B on every thing in xfire.. edit.. getting em on single card also
This is getting old.. going on 3 month for me and i haven't been able to game properly

 

Yeah i modded the inf actually, just a single line, then installed the CCC from AMD_Radeon_8.981.2.1_Hotfix_Win7.

The driver works fine on my R1 but yeah i have a single card so......

Image quality is fantastic on these drivers and all my scores are identical i ran everything again just to see.

 

Do you have a link for AMD_Radeon_8.981.2.1_Hotfix_Win7? I'm not finding a good link using Google yet.

Edit: just found it... and added hyperlink above. I had not tried that yet. Is it better than the almost-good desktop Catalyst 12.7 beta?

 

That driver also worked flawlessly for me but again i feel bad about commenting since i dont have issues with any of them .

I used the Dell driver and that version CCC by unchecking the driver install part of the setup process and everything is good.

Dumbdumb said he gets errors trying to use my INF file so i have no idea whats going on with his machine .

 

my cards are uber jacked. nothing works right and 95% of all other owners of this card from around the net and all the diff manufactures are having these same problems... amd need to write a driver from scratch.. and quit trying to recycle old soft into a new card that act and behaves differently form any thing before it..

 

Well Dumbdumb just call Dell because you have been dealing with this everyday and i dont see Dell reaching out to you on the forums asking what help you might need to resolve it ? and other then be patient and wait on drivers which are not even supported to begin with for your setup you are essentially waiting on what ? nothing really because this wont change for possibly months.

Call Dell like i said on Monday and start your case with them.

They officially upgraded you to 7970s and the Official drivers dont work for you so what exactly do they want to you to do ?.

It was a great thing when you first got the cards because no one had them so you were the guinea pig and it was exciting etc but now that the smoke cleared all your left with is a machine you are coming on to a forum every day complaining about ? I am sure you want to do more with your machine then trouble shoot 24/7 and sit around waiting on drivers.

 

Sorry about the delay in responses. Having major storms and have no internet. Using my phone, so I will not be able to communicate quickly.

Couple questions. From the comments I can see, most folks having issues with the drivers are on the 18XR1. Can you all confirm if the driver is working well on the 18xR2? Also anyone having success on the 18xR1? If so, what steps did you do for it to install?

Will work to get more info from our engineers when back in the office on Monday. Really need the info to the questions above for me to escalate the issue.

Thank you for the feedback.

 

Hi Mark. In the http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/677009-dell-official-7970m-driver-released.html thread it appears that M18x R2 owners are also having problems with the driver. On the M18x R1 it will not install without tweaking, but when it is installed on the M18x R2 it is causing degraded performance and problems that are more severe than with 12.7 beta. Some of the posts outlining the problems were deleted because they contained offensive content and in one case the account was banned because of forum rules violations for insulting specific members of the Community.

 

I was pretty pissed so that ban was deserved, I apologize for the directive nature of my insults; but back to business. These truly were Friday 13th drivers.

I did purchase the 7970m Xfire m18x R2 which arrived the 25th of June with unhooked xfire and a bad blemish on the hand-wrest...after I connected the xfire link gaming worked somewhat well, but it was obvious something was still malfunctioning as FPS were very low on most titles while Xfire was enabled. The 12.6 and 12.7 drivers had nearly everything (95% utilization of GPU0 and 80-90% GPU1) working except for proper OpenCL support within PS:CS6. Then a couple of days ago you guys release a Bios update which does nothing...all it did for me was cause popping speakers and my SS Sensi mouse to now have connection issues from the first time I booted after that bios update. Yesterday your team delivered the graphics driver's which were so bad that even when applied in correct clean install fashion, (I did it x2 to check my procedure) the drivers have left a permanent negative effect on my system, even after a system restore some issues experienced [during my testing of official drivers] persist (Black bars[never had these before ever, persist after system restore], the flashing [Skyrim paused, never had this before either], highly unstable fps in LFD2/Portal2/Diablo3, driver crashes in openCL CLbenchmark. went away with system restore) FPS while using official drivers was 20-40% slower while using Xfire.

I don't see a single good report (besides arre) about these when using Xfire on a M18x R2. What factors do R&D use to pick their testbeds; what qualifies a machine as just broken drivers in opposition to hardware incompatibility or failure??? Why do Dell driver packs contain 295MB compared to 185MB (approx) of the AMD 12.6 and 12.7b drivers; what is this extra garbage exactly? Do you expect the Dell QA team to improve? Where these Friday 13th drivers a mean joke to scare the ______ out of us???

 

Hi it seems as if the R2 is your main concern at the moment..
and the R1 has been thrown on the back burner..
Lets get some things straight..
1. there is not a compatiblitly issue with the cards and the r1..
2.in this Driver the reason why the cards dont work is because of this..

ATI.Mfg.NTamd64.6.1]
"%AMD68A8.1%" = ati2mtag_Manhattan_PRAI, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A8&SUBSYS_04901028
"%AMD68A8.2%" = ati2mtag_Manhattan_PXAI, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A8&SUBSYS_04BA1028
"%AMD68A8.3%" = ati2mtag_Manhattan_PXAI, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A8&SUBSYS_04BA1028
"%AMD68A8.4%" = ati2mtag_Manhattan_PXAI, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A8&SUBSYS_04BA1028
"%AMD68A8.5%" = ati2mtag_Manhattan_PXAI, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A8&SUBSYS_04BA1028
"%AMD6720.1%" = ati2mtag_Vancouver_PXAI, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6720&SUBSYS_05511028
"%AMD6720.2%" = ati2mtag_Vancouver, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6720&SUBSYS_05501028
"%AMD6720.3%" = ati2mtag_Vancouver, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6720&SUBSYS_057B1028
"%AMD6720.4%" = ati2mtag_Vancouver_PRAI, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6720&SUBSYS_04901028
"%AMD6720.5%" = ati2mtag_Vancouver_PXAI, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6720&SUBSYS_04BA1028
"%AMD6720.6%" = ati2mtag_Vancouver_PXAI, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6720&SUBSYS_04BA1028
"%AMD6720.7%" = ati2mtag_Vancouver_PXAI, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6720&SUBSYS_04BA1028
"%AMD6720.8%" = ati2mtag_Vancouver_PXAI, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6720&SUBSYS_048F1028
"%AMD6800.1%" = ati2mtag_R576B, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6800&SUBSYS_05501028
"%AMD6800.2%" = ati2mtag_R576B_PXAI, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6800&SUBSYS_05511028
"%AMD6800.3%" = ati2mtag_R576B, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6800&SUBSYS_057B1028
"%AMD6800.4%" = ati2mtag_R576B_PXAI, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6800&SUBSYS_05871028
"%AMD6800.5%" = ati2mtag_R576B, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6800&SUBSYS_05861028

the device id for the r1 is written into the inf file for the 69xxm and not the 79xx series.

so from the start of this driver we did not have a chance to begin with for this driver to work because are systems were never properly written into the driver...

these problems are on every system from every manufacturer and there are less than 1% of people with these cards right now that claim they work properly..

so please do not try to alienate us as just having the problems on the R1..

Now I force installed the driver on my 18xR1 and from what i can tell xfire is still broke.. I get 0x000003B code and other codes all the time..
got one the first time i tried to type this..

gaming is no go..

 

Finally got fed up with the random texture flickering/disappearing problem. It's very easy to see in Heaven 3.0 with roofs popping in and out occasionally, and happens with Dell reference drivers and all AMD's BETAs and WHQLs all at stock clocks. Replacement cards should be here Tuesday - I'll see then if it is a manufacturing defect or not.

Oddly, this problem wasn't apparent to me at first, and has slowly grown WORSE.

EDIT: Oh, and the new Dell reference drivers for the 7970M? Absolute garbage - after uninstalling 12.7 again after testing them out last night, and again installing the latest from Dell - BAMPH! BSOD, BSOD! Thankfully the Dell tech only needed to confirm this, and got my new cards/crossfire cable on the way.

 

I guess Dell should offer a discount upgrade to 680 m gtx sli for previous M18x r2 owners who bought the 7970m crossfire.

 

Hi im new to the forum and have a M18x R2 with the 7970m. I recently installed this new driver last night and after testing it for about a hour on the Witcher 2, I no longer see any flickering or unstable frame rates. During the installation however, the screen went black and i had to force shutdown my alienware after starting it back up again it worked!! Im not sure about everyone else but the driver works....so far

 

I don't think they should do that because they are still selling the 7970m crossfire options on their website.

That would mean they would have to offer the upgrade to every future 7970m purchasers as well (since it's not fair)

They might as well pull the 7970m and only offer the 675m and the 680m then since obviously the 7970m is unusable for some people.

 

lol its unusable for 99% of people who have them..

 

Dell/Alienware has always done the right thing for me and countless other customers. If they stopped offering 7970M CrossFire it would make a bunch of people start complaining about that, even if it were for their own good. It was less than 2 months ago that many Clevo fans were switching to Alienware based on the availability of 7970M, so it would drive business away for folks that want (or those think they want) 7970M CrossFire in spite all of its defects.

 

I think some sort of solution for people encountering problems needs to be offered by Dell soon. If they have no answer I think some sort of upgrade deal should be on the table. If it hurts Dell financially, they can take it up with AMD or learn from their mistake the hard way. At the moment the customers encountering these problems are the ones loosing out.

I'm prepared to hang on a little longer with the 7970's or before I think about contacting Dell in some official capacity, I do love these cards, but the random freezes with my shiny new system, its really starting to take its toll on me.

Dell needs to be very careful how they handle customers in this situation in terms or repeat business and positive word of mouth. I still have 100% positive things to say, I don't want that to change as these sorts of things happen.
My advice to Dell is to be fair and leave the door open. I appreciate the reps coming on here from time to time and helping out. But I'm afraid its almost time to take it to the next level.

 

Accepted... and, thank you.

 

so many Alienware logo's in this thread..
just wanted to chime in: A Consumer Nightmare - Alienware M18x-R2 + AMD 7970M Crossfire | Tech|Inferno

 

Hi Folks! We have seen your feedback and have submitted it to the right places, we will be working on this as much as we can because we also want you to have something that works perfectly. I know that it has been a long wait already but we are doing our best to get things straight.
We will be using all feedback here to make the needed changes.

Appreciate the patience!

Sincerely;

 

Thanks for the feedback on the latest driver. I have passed along the comments and details we have so far to the quality engineering team.

Need to address two points.

As far as systems not sold with these cards, we cannot guarantee or support functionality of our drivers in your systems. You would need to seek other avenues- perhaps directly from AMD support forums or elsewhere- to get the drivers working.

For those owners of systems sold with the cards, we are working as quickly as we can with our partners at AMD to get a working driver from them qualified and posted for our systems. When they give us something new we can work with, we'll post back updates here as they become available.

Will address questions as well as have one of my team on here to help out as well.

 

Just a quick question - what about support for those who maybe upgraded to 7970m via Dell ?? - are they left out in the cold ??

 

The cards have not been validated on the 18XR1. As far as upgrades goes, it is really dependent on the driver. From the feedback on the thread, many are not able to load the driver. Could be issues with the INF? Might need some tweaking. The issue has been escalated to engineering for analysis.

 

Thankyou for the update Mark. It's good to know you guys are on the case.
I am currently just with in the 21 day period. Should I be be thinking about returning my m18x due to the 7970 cf problems I'm encountering, or waiting for some good drivers?
I hope I'm not coming across as sarcastic or snipey. I know you're working within your capacity. I'm just interested in being part of the solution for us all. I guess my question is, what sort of wait would you deem acceptable in terms of having a functioning system, before you think it better to move on and talk about alternatives?

 

Maybe someone at Dell should try validating them as there are a few owners that have bought the cards from Dell that I know of and are "trying" to use them in the R1.....that's just not ethical to be sold something if its not been validated - if you get my drift?

 

Absolutely agree because is not just people who bought the cards from DELL there is others who got them as an upgrade to solve their problems with 6990,580's but lets be honest steviejones133 there is no point of asking to a rep in the forum to do or try to do anything because apparently there is nothing they can do at least that's what i see here

asking for them to validate the 7970's in the R1 is like asking them for money lol

I attempt to get answers before and all they can do is say we are working to resolve this problem that's all we can expect and that was for the R2

in this case they already have to many problems to give support to R2 owners that R1 owners is the last thing they worry about

people who got their cards as an upgrade should call and get their problem resolved individually I know the reps will help to replace the hardware until the laptop works correctly that's what the warranty is for

this thread should be closed because we already have the R2 drivers even if they are crap and we have to revert to 12.7beta but we got them no?

if some one is brave enough to open a thread to get help about the R1 and 7970 compatibility and they think that will get DELL attention go ahead

 

Stevie, I am working on it.

Speedy, Thank you for your constant feedback and getting the driver process moving. I am going to take your request and run with it. I agree that we should close this thread. I am going to create a specific thread for feedback on the driver quality and the R1 accessibility.

 

Thanks Mark. As always, much appreciated feedback and information.

 

Thank you for the feedback you have provided on the new driver release. I understand that there are many users having issues with the driver and we are tracking that.

Here are the main points so far:
M18xR1- Not loading the driver
M18xR2- Degraded performance.

Some of you have provided feedback on the driver so far, but we are looking for more. Can you please post exactly what errors (BSOD’s) and downgraded performance that you are experiencing and what you are doing when it happens. Be sure to include your model revision when posting.

For now, my advice is to run the 12.7 beta driver while we sort out the issues with AMD. If you running the new driver without any issues, please provide any feedback you can as well including benchmarks.

I thank you for your patience and will continue to have our guys in here answering questions and gathering feedback.

I am going to have the thread closed and consolidate all the feedback to one location as we want to track more efficiently. Please post there only as we will be camping out there gathering the feedback.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...er-18xr1-18xr2-compatibility.html#post8714373

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...roblems-discussion-thread-93.html#post8716386 POST #927