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    M17 R1 ATI Radeon HD 3870 Driver problem

    Discussion in 'Alienware Area-51/Aurora and Legacy Systems' started by RadRSB, Jul 27, 2011.

  1. RadRSB

    RadRSB Notebook Enthusiast

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    My computer has been freezing frequently while playing all kinds of games: New and old. I play a game for a few minutes and then the computer stutters freezes and I have to manually shut down the computer. I'm pretty sure it's a driver problem, but I've tried to download the driver from Alienware's website and the computer goes black and I have to shut it off, and when I try AMD's recommended download with Catalyst suite, the computer's resolution becomes terrible and my computer will no longer start up. It flickers and then the screen goes black. I then have to leave it powered off for hours, let it cool down, and then do a Alien Respawn complete recovery. I know this could be a number of issues, and I don't know too much about computers so I need some help here. I've been trying for months to fix this issue but I've been unsuccessful. I'm using the facotory condition driver: 8.570.0.0 and could not update to 8.630 or 11.6 I've got my specs below. All help is appreciated.
     

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    RadRSB, Jul 27, 2011
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  2. granyte

    granyte ATI+AMD -> DAAMIT

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    full spec of the machine plz
     
    granyte, Jul 27, 2011
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  3. RadRSB

    RadRSB Notebook Enthusiast

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    It's up there now. I had thought I uploaded it before.
     
    RadRSB, Jul 27, 2011
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  4. granyte

    granyte ATI+AMD -> DAAMIT

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    ok i see it now hum vista

    have you ever tryed a clean install instead of the recovery thing
     
    granyte, Jul 27, 2011
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  5. RadRSB

    RadRSB Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yes, several times to no avail.
     
    RadRSB, Jul 29, 2011
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  6. kobe

    kobe Notebook Virtuoso

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    You should try the 11.2 Extreme G Catalyst Drivers.
     
    kobe, Jul 29, 2011
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  7. RadRSB

    RadRSB Notebook Enthusiast

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    Okay, could you post a link to it?
     
    RadRSB, Jul 31, 2011
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  8. kobe

    kobe Notebook Virtuoso

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    kobe, Aug 1, 2011
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  9. RadRSB

    RadRSB Notebook Enthusiast

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    I had the same flickering screen shut off problem. Thank God my computer reverted to the old drivers automatically in safe mode this time though. Otherwise I would have had to do a complete system restore again. I may be doing something wrong because I don't see anyone else having this problem. Do you know of any forums that show the instructions for updating a driver or do you know the step by step instructions?
     
    RadRSB, Aug 1, 2011
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  10. kobe

    kobe Notebook Virtuoso

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    Uninstall install the old drivers with windows. Then run driver sweeper. After that install the new driver.
     
    kobe, Aug 1, 2011
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  11. RadRSB

    RadRSB Notebook Enthusiast

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    Okay, do i uninstall them from device manager?
     
    RadRSB, Aug 1, 2011
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  12. kobe

    kobe Notebook Virtuoso

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    You can do it that way too. :)
     
    kobe, Aug 1, 2011
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  13. RadRSB

    RadRSB Notebook Enthusiast

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    Okay thanks, I messed it up before with device manager. Should I be uninstalling both drivers if I have dual cards? Also (I uploaded a picture to better illustrate) uninstall programs shows the Xtreme drivers but device manager shows the original HD Radeon 3870 drivers. How could I accurately tell what driver is in action? (The top portion of the picture is Windows Uninstall/Change programs and the bottom part is device manager.
     

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    RadRSB, Aug 1, 2011
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  14. kobe

    kobe Notebook Virtuoso

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    You have installed it correctly. That's what you should be seeing.
     
    kobe, Aug 2, 2011
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  15. RadRSB

    RadRSB Notebook Enthusiast

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    Okay great, thanks for the help. I haven't had the crashing problem. Thanks a ton!
     
    RadRSB, Aug 2, 2011
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  16. kobe

    kobe Notebook Virtuoso

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    You're welcome :)
     
    kobe, Aug 2, 2011
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