M18x AMD - Updated Driver (P06 8.902) Released by Dell - Discuss Here...

Dell has released an updated AMD Driver for the M18x. As many of you are aware, this release is meant to resolve ongoing issues with Crossfire on the 18x platform and add additional game support.

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AMD HD6970M & HD6990M 8.902
Release Date: 12/8/2011
Version: P068.902
Importance: Recommended
File Size: 210MB

Applies to:
• ASSY,CRD,GRPHC,AMD,6970,M18X
• ASSY,CRD,GRPHC,AMD,XTX,CBL
• ASSY,CRD,GRPHC,AMD,6970M,CBL
• ASSY,CRD,GRPHC,AMD,XTX,M18X

Link to Driver Page:
Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]

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This driver is marked as 'Beta' on the Dell Support site. If you install this driver, please do post your feedback. If you run into any issues with this driver (install problems, performance issues, etc.), please post and be as detailed as possible. We have a few Dell reps watching and they can use this information to help with resolving ongoing problems.

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A system BIOS update for the M18x was released in conjunction with this AMD driver update. Links to download the A05 BIOS and feedback in relation to the BIOS update are on this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/629157-m18x-bios-a05-released-discuss-here.html

Thanks!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many thanks to steviejones133 for his great work managing the early beta testing thread before this driver was posted on the Dell Support site.

Also, kudos to Dell-Bill_B and Louis B. for agreeing to allow our community to assist with the early beta testing. We really do appreciate the opportunity.

Finally, for those in our community that have downloaded the drivers directly from the Dell Support site on or after November 8, 2011 and already commented in the early beta thread that was just closed, thank you! Your participation and engagement are appreciated. Please feel free to post your feedback again on this thread. This will give our friends at Dell one thread to reference for feedback since the driver went live on their web site. We will not count your feedback being posted again on this thread as cross-posting in this case. Otherwise, all other Forum Rules apply.

Note: If you have benchmarks that you want to share as part of the feedback, please post them in the http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/574780-official-alienware-m18x-benchmark-thread.html and include a link to the posted benchmark results in your feedback on this thread. (Please do not post the benchmark results here or in both threads.)

USEFUL THREADS FOR FORUM MEMBERS

Below are some threads that we encourage every member of the community to become familiar with.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ion-how-search-forum-read-before-posting.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/site-suggestions-help-announcements/109941-forum-rules.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sit...5516-reputation-points-power-user-titles.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/site-suggestions-help-announcements/137713-forum-guide-how.html

 

I clean installed the new Dell drivers and ran 3DVantage. Score up from 20719 to 21902.

My GPUs are running at 680/900 which is obviously low.

I have MSI after burner - is it simply a case of clicking the settings - general tab & checking the unlock voltage control to up these settings? Or how do I do it

I understand I should be safe enough with 830/1100?

Thanks for the help

 

after installed this driver, my screen was so very black that i can't see anything on my screen

 

For anyone wanting a guide or help with uninstalling and installing AMD based drivers (Dell or AMD Reference Drivers), you may find my process of use. It's never failed me so if it can be of use to anyone, check it out:

Spoiler

The first thing you may want to do is to create a system restore point so you can simply roll back your system to a time before you started making driver changes. You can do this quite easily(if you have system protection turned on for your drive) by typing "create a restore point" into the start menu and enter, then click on "create" and give your restore point a name and click "create" again - job done. Now you can revert any changes you make.

On to the actual process itself....

1. Make sure you have the driver you wish to install already saved to a convenient location - I always leave it on the desktop as I will be using it shortly.

2. Uninstall the current driver:

i) Go to control panel > programs > programs/features > uninstall a program > double click the program to be uninstalled from the list (this would be AMD Catalyst Install Manager).
The Uninstall process will now start.

ii) The Install manager will appear, click "next" to continue.

iii) Select "express Uninstall all AMD Software" and click continue.

The driver package will now uninstall and it will ask you to reboot.

3. Reboot into safe mode by hitting F8 as soon as you see the alien face at post and then select "safe mode". This is where I now do an initial Driver Sweep and CClean for registry entries.

i) Run Driver Sweeper as an Administrator by right clicking its desktop icon and then put a check in the box for AMD Display only (ensuring all the other boxes are left empty).

ii) You can analyze if you want to before sweeping, this just brings up a list of items to be "swept clean" - I analyze to see whats there and then hit "clean"

iii) It will then sweep away those entries and you will see a message "desktop gadgets not available in safe mode" (close it) and say "No" to the prompt to reboot.

iv) Run CCleaner, again as an Administrator and select the "registry" tab on the left of CCleaner's console. Hit "Scan for Issues" and you will then have a list of obsolete registry entries.

At this point, if you hit "Fix selected Issues", it will ask you if you want to back up the registry - this is entirely up to the individual but you may wish to do this. Entries that will be removed are saved as a file for you to restore from should you need to.

v) Repeat the Registry cleaning process in (iv) until CCleaner comes back with "No Issues Found"

You can now reboot your system into "normal mode".

At this point, if you open Device Manager, you can check and where your display adapters are shown, it should now show as "Standard VGA" - now we are looking good to go....almost!!

I like to re-reun the Driver Sweep program (as before) and also the CCleaner program (as before too).....just because I like to check everything is nice and "squeaky clean" before installing the new driver.

Navigate to where you previously downloaded the new driver and execute its install.

That's it!

Hopefully, you should now have a nice fresh video driver installation.

 

The uninstall of the old driver caused some sort of corruption I followed the suggested removal which worked. The new driver would not install. I had to rebuild my PC with a fresh OS in order to install the new driver. AMD/Dell should investigate and make upgrading the video driver a lot less painful and not require 3rd party utilities to uninstall the old version first.

 

tala16 - is your system still that way, or did you get it sorted? I know some have installed this driver on the M17xR2/R3 (and with some good reports noted). Since you have no information in a forum signature, is your system an M18x or something else?

 

is it possible to use with a m15x using a 5850m? Could I just modify the inf?

 

Is anyone else getting "file not found." when trying to download the dell drivers from the link provided?

 

@ mr.fox my m18x cf 6970. i'm using 11.11 + cap4 after i uninstalled DEll's driver because of black screen

 

Try using the Dell Download Manager to download it - some people experience problems trying to download via browser as its a large file at 210mb.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. That fixed the problem.

 

My pleasure. Enjoy!

 

Did you know to uninstall the original driver in Windows Control Panel, boot into safe mode and follow the clean installation process Mr. Jones described? If not, this is more than likely the reason you had a problem with the black screen. Perhaps you should give it another go, friend. I think it will turn out to be worth it in the end.

 

sry my friend, i followed the clean installation process mr.jones but it didn't work. is this Dell's driver = 11.11 + 11 cap 4 or higher ?

 

Im guessing here that you tried to install 11.11 direct from AMD and now cannot uninstall or reinstall any other driver?

I've seen many a user have similar issues after installing AMD 11.11 - bsod on startup. User tries to uninstall via normal process and install different driver and result is black screen. It seems to me that 11.11 from AMD is a particularly troublesome package and does not respond to normal uninstall procedures, leaving the user with a massive headache to resolve.

I found this article, which could prove helpful to those having probelms in this scenario. I havent tested as I no longer have AMD cards so YMMV.

If all else fails, and prior to a complete OS re-intsall or back-up recovery, users suffering from this may want to give it a go.

Could be worth a shot.

 

If I downloaded the beta driver 4 days ago, would this release be identical?

Still issues with native brightness control?

 

Yes. As of now, brightness control does not work on the Official Dell release available on Drivers & Downloads. Dell are aware of this problem, so hopefully, the issue will be addressed soon.

 

Is there something special I need to do to get this to work with the Eurocom 6990's from Upgradeyourlaptop? Do the 11.11 CAP 3 profiles work well with these? With 11.12 beta drivers, the CAP 3 profiles gave me a wonky skyrim issue and heavy artifacts in TF2.

 

IntenseIGFX, for the purposes of providing feedback to Dell on their driver while used with Dell/Alienware hardware, your technical questions concerning a modded M17xR2 with Eurocom cards is not the best fit for this thread.

If you would like feedback and technical advice from M18x owners, please post the question at the http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...s-performance-problems-discussion-thread.html as it is a little more generic. Ideally, getting technical advice and feedback from other M17xR2 owners that have machines with aftermarket upgraded video cards would be best.

If you are successful installing the drivers, please feel free to share how they perform (or don't perform) on this thread.

 

any help installing these on my m15x? I extracted the atiumdag to my skyrim folder, performance seems good. Im just not sure how to properly edit inf files.

 

Just an idea but have you tried asking in the M15x forum? - maybe someone has done it there.....

 

Good advice Steve. Thanks for posting it.

Team - let's stay on topic. This thread was not intended for discussion on how to mod the Dell drivers or use them on modded systems they were not intended for. There is nothing wrong with that and you are welcome to comment if these drivers work well for you in a modded arrangement, but asking for (or providing) how-to advice in these scenarios is off topic.

 

can someone pls upload the P06 8.902 on mediafire or something so I can download it ?

I tried to download and it said "file not found", maybe because i'm not in the US right now so Im not allow to download from Dell.

 

It would be better if you can download it from an official Dell location. See if this site works for you Drivers and Downloads | Dell.

Anyone not in the US/North America can go http://www.dell.com/support/drivers and select the country you are in (or near) from the upper left corner of the web page. You can find the drivers by your service tag number or model name. The driver you want is under video and it is labeled COMPAL; ASSY,CRD,GRPHC,AMD,6970,M18X.

dr_gin_rain - let us know if either of these links is helpful.

 

For those that have already tried and cannot successfully install this driver on your Alienware laptops modded with Clevo 6990 MXM cards, Stealth55 has added the Clevo hardward ID's to the driver package. Please go to this thread for download and discussion so we can remain on-topic here.

Stealth, thanks for taking the time to help.

 

After selecting vietnam, and go to diver download, it jumped to the US again, and I could'nt download the driver...

Can someone pls download the P06 8.902, and upload to mediafire for me pls

 

Same here , but if you use the download manager it works so select mutiple downloads when the first window comes up .

Cheers

 

thanks Mr.fox and Mr.stive tried to help me but it still black screen on Dell's driver. I decide to get back my driver ( 11.11 + 11 cap 3 ). i'm waiting someone can fix my problem.

 

tala16 - my recommendation would be that you call 1-800-ALIENWARE and speak to an Alienware tech support rep. If they cannot get Dell's driver to install, then they find a different approach to assisting you. There could be something going on with your system that you have not discovered.

Have you applied the A05 BIOS already? If not, maybe applying that first will help. There may be something we don't know about the 6970M video cards that might need the A05 BIOS as a prerequisite for the new drivers to function properly.

 

@mr.Fox thanks for quickly reply.i installed A05 BIOS already, then install dell's driver = get black screen. Tomorrow i will call DELL. Does nobody know how to deal with dell so that i can upgrade 6990 for free

 

There is no place for discussion or advice on getting free upgrades from Dell/Alienware on this forum. This would be a private matter for you to work out with Alienware. It's also off topic. Please see forum rules.

Be sure to call Alienware Support, not Dell Support (unless Alienware Support is not an option where you live).

I'm sure you will get the problems sorted. Please let us know how things turn out.

 

okie. i'm sorry dude ! Will call AW support tomorrow. Have a 9 dream Mr. Fox

 

I installed the new driver over the weekend. I've not had any problems of any kind. Apart from monitoring with GPU-Z is there any additional method for testing the performance of this ?

I would like to add that I found Mr. Foxes instuctions on how to best uninstall/reinstall AMD drivers very helpful. I noted Stevies instructions on the front page, perhaps one of the two could be added right to the top? As a total AMD neubie I'd not have known better had I not seen that other thread:

[quote Fox]
With AMD drivers there is a deliberate process you must follow to have a consistent good result. The steps are very simple, but it takes time to do it right. Taking a shortcut usually results in problems, so taking the extra time is worth the effort. Here is how you should proceed:

Download DriverSweeper from Phyxion.net
Download CCleaner from Piriform.com
Uninstall all AMD/ATI software - you can do this in Control Panel or
using the CCleaner uninstaller. "All" includes any CAPS installations and
Catalyst Installation Manager (CIM). You will get an option to uninstall
CIM when the driver uninstaller reach the end of the process. You
want nothing left with the AMD/ATI name.
Reboot into safe mode and launch DriverSweeper, add a check mark to
the box by "AMD - Display" (do not select anything else, or you will
remove everything that has a box checked)
Click on the "Clean" button and when prompted, reboot
Press F8 right after the BIOS splash screen to get the menu option of
entering safe mode again
In safe mode, launch CCleaner and run the registry cleaning tool (it
would be smart to select the option to back up the changes, just in
case - you can always delete the backup files later on)
Choose the option to "fix" all of the problems (the fix is typically
involves deleting invalid registry keys... and that is exactly what you
want to do)
Re-run the CCleaner registry cleaning tool and fix the errors it finds as
many times as necessary to have the scanner find no more errors
Reboot into Windows normally and run the driver installer
Reboot when the driver installation completes
Confirm CrossFire is enabled
Optional (Highly Recommended) - Install the DirectX End-User Runtime
Update for Windows 7 after every display driver update
Use the Dimscreen app as necessary if you wish to adjust display
brightness
[end quote]

 

Hi Yeti - so glad to hear these new drivers are working swell for you also, bro. You're going to be an expert soon... you're learning your way around the M18x pretty fast, bud.

As far as testing the performance of your video cards, here are some threads where you will find good advice already posted and be in the right place to ask new questions on that subject:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...s-performance-problems-discussion-thread.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/574780-official-alienware-m18x-benchmark-thread.html

 

Hi All, Just finished installing the new dell driver, as per Stevie's guide, and so far it seems good. Had Crysis 2 for 15 minutes and temps were same as before. Framerates and xfire indications seemed normal. Interestingly even though all the previous AMD stuff had been nuked it is still showing ccc version 9 as it did when I installed the beta driver we got from Bill and Stevie. Only small thing I noticed, but that maybe me, is that with the previous driver Crysis and other games ran buttery smooth and the present one not quite so. Be interested if any other Crysis 2 players find the same.

 

Mr. Fox...lemme start by saying that its pretty damn awesome to have someone like you on the forums. Props to you mate.
My question...
Can I add any cap to the new dell driver? EG Cap 3 for 11.11? or does this driver already have caps included? if so, can I update these caps when new ones are released? Soz, ima serious noob Spec - m18x 6990m in CF

 

Glad you got them working just fine.

Performance is pretty good isn't it? - I too noticed that games appeared to actually play "smoother" too, which is a good thing also. As for CCC version, I think its an AMD "glitch" that simply doesnt uninstall this info and it kinda gets left "in there" somehow. I recall talking to a few guys whose previous CCC version was displayed. Some had 11.8, some 11.10 - the constant was that their previous CC version was displayed instead of the latest. No biggie really and I imagine if you were to uninstall/reinstall again right now, it would then show the correct version. Not worth the effort, IMHO.

 

Are these drivers any different than the early test version we had here? The filename "111012a-128052C-Dell" is the same, so I'm inclined to believe that they just took the beta version and posted it officially...

 

They are the same, just officially launched on the website for the general public to download.

 

Thank you Sarongas... I appreciate your compliments.

The CAPs should work just fine. Dell added to the AMD reference driver, which was missing many pieces of code needed for it to function properly. The Dell driver is an AMD Catalyst package done right.

The only thing missing is display brightness control. Given that the driver posted is presented as a beta, I hope that means a final release with brightness control is coming soon. Perhaps Dell-Bill_B or DELLChrisM will see this post and clarify that is being worked on.

 

I say this jokingly but I find it hilarious that Dell can make a machine with the same power as a desktop fit in my lap with a 18 inch screen. BUT:

Dell: "Hey do you need to control the brightness"
Me: "Yeah, because when you open it from sleep it's one brightness setting lower"
Dell: "Well we haven't quite figured out brightness controls yet. Maybe 2012."
Me: "But you figured out how to fit 2 graphics cards into this thing"
Dell: "Ironic hunh?"

Again, I say that jokingly because I completely appreciate everyone here especially Dell having a presence. Funny though when you think about it.

 

Good humor, Maynard! I agree that it's awesome having a Dell presence here.

One thing that may bear pointing out is the Dell driver on their support page is a beta, which would suggest a final release is coming. It seems they have done so well with the OSD update, A05 BIOS update, and now this smooth-performing driver, that I doubt they will leave brightness controls broken in the final release if they are able to fix it.

It's also important for us to remember that the majority of the responsibility for producing decent drivers rests on the ODM's like AMD and NVIDIA. We've seen a rapid decline in driver quality from AMD this year and Dell may be facing a situation of doing the best it can with what AMD gives them to work with.

Since brightness controls have been broken since Catalyst 11.9 for many customers, it ultimately remains to be seen if Dell can do a better job of it than AMD can with their own product. One way of looking at the situation would be that "AMD broke it after Dell sold it" unless you go back to using old drivers that still support display brightness controls.

I'm crossing my fingers, and I know Dell/Alienware is going to give it their best shot based on their recent track record.

 

if we are discussing the new GPU driver updates from dell.......for me it broke the switching capability, so ...i'm back to the 11.10's

 

Sorry if I return to an old post ( if the moderator think so that this post is unnecessary they can erase it), but regarding the "brightness control" issue - that seems that it's not a fault from Dell side but an AMD fault -, can be solved very easily (and even in a better way than the original) with that tiny freeware program we already had proposed in different threads in this forum. Not so?
So, let's move on toward unsolved issues and / or new aspects...

 

Hello my friend SOS. DimScreen works nicely to make the screen dimmer. It's a handy utility and I use if for that. Based on feedback, I think the issue with some AMD owners is that their brightness can sometimes be less than 100%. So, while it can be used to dim and un-dim the screen, it will still be a problem when the unadjustable brightness of the backlight is stuck at a value less than 100% of its capacity sometimes.

If the display is stuck at 100% then there is no problem and this DimScreen utility does a wonderful job. Mine was always stuck at 100% and that was fine because I almost never wish to use less than 100% of my screen brightness. Maybe the solution is for everyone to be sure their display brightness is set to 100% before installing this driver so it can be stuck at 100%.

DimScreen is still a good utility to have even when loss of brightness control is not a problem. It's faster to use than the Windows slider control.

 

Dear Fox, thanks 4 explaining the facts to me. 4 me (maybe because of the age ) the brightness control become essential, particularly @ night.

 

yea ... I posted Benches about the new dell driver, its pretty great in general. No Brightness true ... but otherwise its great.

 

installed the new BIOS plus new DELL AMD drivers and everything works great. got about 5% increase in 3D mark 11 and Vantage results.

m17x R3: Red, 2760, 6990, 6GB, 750GB, 1900x1080, Killer WiFi
m18x: Black, 2760, 2x 6970 (or 2x 6990?), 6GB, 320GB, 1900x1080, Killer WiFi

 

lovethai and Shaden - awesome news - thanks for posting the feedback

 

Here is the link to my test runs on Synth benches ... should clarify to most ...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...are-m18x-benchmark-thread-66.html#post8127019