ATI - Display Drivers stopped responding

Hey
I have my new M17x (replaced my old, faulty one) and the display drivers sometimes fail, with a message that comes up in the corner 'display driver stopped responding but has been recovered'. I assume it is the default 5870 one from the Dell website. I uninstalled the default ones are installed the 5870 one from the Dell website (probably the same) but it still does it.

Does anyone know what could be causing this?

Thanks

 

Hi Redbalrog

It sounds like a TDR (Timeout Detection and Recovery). This is a vista and windows 7 feature. Basically windows has detected the GPU has stopped responding, it disables it and than reinitialize it without the need to exit windows and reboot.

A TDR can be caused by almost anything and is very hard to diagnose as it can be caused by both hardware and software related issues.

Here is a list of hardware issues that can cause a TDR.
- Failing overclock on CPU or GPU
- Bad sector in memory resulting in corrupt data being communicated between GPU and the system (either video or system memory)
- Corrupt hard drive/windows install resulting in corruption to the system registry or the page file
- Over heating of GPU or CPU again resulting in corrupt data being communicated.
- GPU failure due to any sort of issue from insufficient power.
- Bad hardware connection.

The following software issues are examples that can cause a TDR event:

-Incompatible drivers of any sort (either GPU, sound, etc)
-Messy registry
-Bad direct x files
-bad system files
-Bad driver

As you can see there is almost a limitless number of causes of a TDR. It is very important that you retrace your steps and examine what you have changed since the computer arrived. If this happened right out of the box than it would be more likely a hardware problem. If it happened after you made multiple adjustments and added games and utilities than it is more likely a software issue.

When I get a new computer I will not make any major adjustments for about 3 days. This cooling off period allows me to get familiar with the system and also to test the machine to make sure it is working properly. My last system had cabling loose in transit and was easy to diagnose because the system didn't work straight out of the box.

If the problem happened almost immediately upon using the computer for the first time than I would certainly make sure all the internal connections are being made. It is possible that your new system was factory tested with 4870's and than do to demand they swapped them out for a pair of 5870's. When I returned my single 5870 I reinstalled the operating system to remove personal data. I noticed that the rescue disk contained 4870 drivers and no 5870 drivers. I thought that was rather odd and may indicate on that particular system that they had swapped the GPU rather than built and tested from the ground up. Also they are getting a ton of returns these days so you never know where parts are comming from. I think all the returned computers are either sent to the resale center or scavanged for parts depending on what they need more of.

The fact that you are the first to report this problem tends to indicate that the problem is not the GPU driver as more people would have the same problem if it were bad. I would start by checking all the connections before changing any more drivers. Unfortunately it makes it harder to diagnose now that you have deleted and added drivers. As a benchmark the computer should work right out of the box without any driver problems. I was told that Alienware had some driver related issues on the 5870 CF but assume that they are fixed otherwise they would not have shipped. If the connections are found to be all good than I would retrace your steps and remove any recently added software. Have you added any antivirus? I recommend Microsoft Security Essentials as it is very light, great for gamming, and is written by Microsoft. Also try another game and see if it happens across multiple software titles or just one in particular. Often multimedia utilities like Nero, Roxio, and Cyberlink can also cause major instability. Only use Windows 7 updates that are critical, don't use their generic drivers for printers and other peripherals.

Sorry to hear you are having so much trouble.

 

FalconMachV provides an excellent overview of the TDR feature. It is useful because it avoids a hard crash or lockup.

In our world, the most common cause of the event is overclocking, particularly the video card, to or past your system's limits for the particular program or settings involved. 3dMark06 and 3dMarkVantage are particularly prone to this, but unusually demanding games, stress tests or benchmarking programs can also cause it, particularly with new or unstable drivers. If you're overclocking, turn it down a notch. Also, check for patches or updates for the program where the problem occurs.

 

Wow, thanks very much for that long explanation!

Hmm, if I reinstalled Windows from stratch would that eliminate a software issue? If I do, how do I get my Alienware wallpapers, avatars and the special log on background back on?

Cheers!

 

I think your system comes with a restore feature. I found these instructions on the Dell website. If you reinstall windows manually you will delete your restore feature. So definately try to restore rather than a manual install. Call tech support before doing a manual install. A restore to factory settings would be so much simplier.

Step 1 Back up important files and data
Step 2 Remove non-essential peripherals
Step 3 Restore the computer's software to original condition
Restoring the original factory image erases ALL existing data. This includes files, folders, programs, drivers, E-mails, photos. Before performing a PC Restore, back up all personal files. If you do not back up your personal files, the data will be lost.

1) Turn on the computer

2) As the computer starts, press F8 on the keyboard until the Advanced Boot Options menu appears on the screen. You must press F8 before the Windows logo appears on the screen. If you press F8 after the Windows logo appears on the screen, the Advanced Boot Options menu will not appear on the screen. If you do not see the Advanced Boot Options menu, restart the computer, and then repeat this step until you see the menu on the screen.

3) Press the Down Arrow on the keyboard to select Repair Your Computer on the Advanced Boot Options menu, and then press Enter.

4) Specify the language settings that you want, and then click Next.

5) Log in as a user who has administrative credentials, and then click OK.

6) Click Dell Factory Image Restore.

7) In the Dell Factory Image Restore window, click Next.

8) Click to select the Yes, reformat hard drive and restore system software to factory condition check box.

9) Click Next.
The computer is restored to the default factory configuration.

10) When the restore operation is completed, click Finish to restart the computer.

The software is now installed as it was when the computer was first received.
Step 4 Restore your personal files and data from backups.

Edit: Alienware use to have disks called RESPAWN but I think that was several years ago when they used XP. Does anyone know why they stopped using RESPAWN disks. Has anyone been successful with the restore feature? Thanks

 

Awesome, thanks! Hmm, will the Dell DataSafe restore thing work just as well?

 

I reinstalled Windows like you said, but it still done it twice in the last 10 mins. Now I'm getting visual 'artifacts' before the driver stops responding
Sigh, could it be faulty video card(s)?
Should I email the guy that sorted out my replacement? This is really bad, surely after 2 faulty machines they can get it right but maybe not, lol....

 

Yep, sure sounds like a faulty video card/s. The up side is that you are under warranty so it's a matter of contacting tech support.

 

Yeah, that's pretty good. I'm sure they will send new ones/send someone around to replace 'em.

 

I don't know how comfortable are you opening the laptop yourself but I would not under any circumstances let a Dell tech touch my new AW. There are a lot of horror stories out here about them scratching and breaking parts. So if I were you, when that tech comes to replace your cards let him watch but not touch

 

Oh yeah, I've read a few on here as well. Hmm, yeah I am a bit iffy about replacing them myself, never opened up a notebook before, but done heaps of desktops; so is it that much different?

 

Naah, you'll be fine. I just replaced both video card fans of mine two days ago. It was my first attempt on opening an alienware, took me about 10 minutes to open replace and close. The service manual is pretty good explaining how to open, but the tech that came with the fans was nice enough to give me the internal dell document for techs that is much more detailed. if you run into problems let me know
EDIT: service manual :
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/Alw_M17xR2/en/index.html

 

and you haven't touch your card ? (no OC, no bios flash, no changed thermal paste or thermal pad) ?

 

Hi redbalrog

Email or phone tech support. If you are having visual artifacts after 10 minutes and you have not tried to OC or mess with BIOS it sounds like a failure of the GPU. My last laptop GPU failed and I got visual artifacts and a BSOD (blue screen of death). I was going to suggest a towel as a work surface but that would be loaded with static. Perhaps a nice piece of soft 1/8" black flexible foam from a craft store would make an excellent work surface. When the Tech comes have something that he can lay the laptop on to keep it from getting scratched. If your work area is clean, and you take these precautions than I wouldn't worry about it being scratched.

I have heard that desktop failure rates can be as high as 10% from shipping. I am not sure what the failure rate of laptops are. If your laptop traveled thousands of miles over bumpy roads than it is easy to have a cable vibrate. This is a new unit and you should not accept anything less than perfect from Dell.

If you have to replace the GPU yourself than take screws out of the unit and take a piece of paper and make a grid and number the squares on the grid. As you take the screws out place them sequentially in the grid. The last time I took a Dell Laptop apart there were several different lengths of screws and it was hard to remember where they all went.

If you break something while trying to replace a warranty part youself than Dell will not warranty the broken part. This is a new unit so I would ask Dell first if they can send a Tech as it is a free service. If they want to just send you a part than I think you should have no problem either. The other option is to ask to send it back.

I assume from your comment that you did a Dell Factory restore rather than a manual restore? Was it a true factory restore or were you just using the Windows restore feature (not the same thing). If artifacts are comming up after a factory restore but WERE NOT before than I am wondering if the factory restore was for a 4870 and not a 5870. If they start swapping 4870 for 5870 GPU's at the last minute than the factory image reinstall may contain the wrong drivers for the GPU. My driver disk has the wrong GPU drivers and that is why I wonder. The great news is you are getting a new laptop under warranty, the bad news is you may have to jump through hoops to get one that works.

I would definately keep the person in the loop who supplied you with the warranty laptop in the first place. He may be able to pull more strings. Ask him if they can send you a factory fresh laptop as opposed to one rebuilt with spare parts. Also start keeping a diary of emails and phone calls to Dell just in case.

When you get a new GPU's or replacement laptop I would run a benchmark (like Unigine) for several hours and see what happens.

 

IM having the exact same problem with my m17x. I just got it on the 20th. and i have been batteling it out with my gpu driver. I even tried the new driver from ati web site. and still no good. Im getting these problems just sitting on my desktop, before I even do anything. we gotta get this prob fixed. or dell i getting this machine back up there perverbiel wazoo.

 

i just only recently had this happen after i've updated to the 10.5, would happen just doing regular tasks, so i'm back on 10.3 right now and haven't seen it happen again.

 

Dell have finally approved a full refund of the purchase price.
What do any of you recommend I do? Buy the parts & build myself a desktop? I wouldn't mind a 5970 or something, lol

 

I love my desktops. I would recommend going the high end desktop + m11x route, personally.

 

Yes, I was thinking about doing that

 

Well I have read a lot of comments like this in here but people should remember that in some nations you will break your warranty if you open your laptop and start messing around. So in cases like this I would not open my laptop myself even though I know how to. The reason is clear and simple leave the proof for the Technician so he can see that the hardware failure it not to blame on you. Should the technician allow you to do so when he is present then the story is completely different

 

If portablity is not important to you than I would definately go with a desktop as you can simply add an extra GPU later. If you want a 24" screen than one 5970 will work with Enthusiast settings. I was advised TWO if you use a 30" with Enthusiast settings. If you are going with a desktop I would go with a 1200W power supply if you plan on adding additional 5970 GPU as each one takes 294W. Pick your mother board very carefully as some don't have enough PCIe slots and others have the PCI express slots to close to fans, and coolers. If you want a sound card than it will take up one PCI express slot. You can always upgrade a GPU, Ram, Processor later but changing mother board is more work. The EVGA X58 Classified 4-Way SLI has 7 PCIe slots. You could go 4 x 5870 and save a bundle. There are some good youtube video on building your own. You can save a lot of money doing it yourself. Pay close attention to the cabinet as well to fit it all in.

 

Hmm, yeah. I think 1 5970 might be enough for now, but I'll make sure I would be able to fit/support a second if need be
Question: How would the Core i7 870 desktop CPU compare to the i7 820QM? There are some good specials here on the 870.
Thanks!

 

Hi redbalrog

Here is a side by side comparison. Have included an i7 950 as well. Bus to core ratio is smaller with the mobile. The price points are pretty close.

Compare Intel® Products,

Build an Alienware & Falcon Northwest system and than work backwords and see what those components will cost separtely to build yourself. Also read Falcons FAQ as they have some good tips and advice on there.

Places like tiger direct will build a system for you to your specifications for a nominal fee. One of the big differences between the custom built vs factory are the cooling solutions. Many companies use Asetek LCLC solution as it is extremely reliable. The do it yourself kits shown in magazines are more prone to leaking and require the reservoir topped up occasionaly.

Also pay close attention to how compenents will fit into the case. Both fan or water cooler can cover up PCIe slots making an additional 5970 impossible on some boards. As far as ram go I think 8 gig is a good amount. I have 12 but rarely use more than 8.

 

I just went through this exact same thing.. Long story short, it seems to be a bad GPU. Tech just came over today and replaced it. So far so good.

 

Mine is doing the same thing but only when I load up a blu ray disc and try to play it with windvd, or powerdvd. Games work fine in crossfire. I dont know how to fix my issue. Did you figure out yours?

 

I am having the same issue here. Graphic glitches before turning black and showed the message. Do you think my graphic card is bad?

 

If you're having the same problem, then YES!

 

But the problem is, I don't get this before a RAM upgrade from my 6GB to 8GB. I suspected the RAM may be the culprit so, I ran the memtest86+ for almost a day and no issue detected so far. By the way, dell is sending me the RAM again.

PS. I can play crysis and run furmark for several hours without issue but when the system left idling, it will happen.

 

so in short it's just a useless anoying little pop up with no impact?


i've been ahving this issue with my m17 and 4850 ever since i got it but for my part it happens only when using certain function of Opengl

 

Yeah, it's just very annoying.

 

Very good explanations Falcon! Rep on its way.

In the past I have gotten this when I would disable the page file. I had 8 gigs of ram and didnt think I needed a page file on vista. Every time I would disable it, or even move it off the boot partition (with os) i would get these same issues with a desktop. As soon as I would re-enable the page file, the problem would go away with my nvidia cards..

Not saying that is the issue here, just wanted to post what caused mine in the past when I had it.

I hope that you all get it squared away and resolved to your satisfaction. This can be very frustrating.

 

Same issue here.

its only when i try to load a web video (or when a site plays one)
screen freezes up and recovers...

i have my Alienware since last wednesyday...

 

same issue with any games : just cause 2, mass effect 2, assassin's creed 2, far cry 2, oblivion, fallout 3, sims 3 and need for spped undercover.

 

i don't think so many people all get bad gpus. i rarely have this issue only when i boot my laptop. after reboot, never happen. i believe it is a driver related issue

 

seems like driver related if not it wil get fixed anyway

 

well.... i might have solved my issue

disable powerplay in the catalyst control center.

seems like alienware has its own clock tuning system and those two bite

 

wierd power play is suposed to detect the gpu bios programed clock and play with them

how ever the 5870 also has a voltage modifier so it might be that + power play that cause the issuer

 

well... it seems to work for me.
but my issue wasnt with 3d, it was with playing video

 

You are a champ bzzje! I wanted to try this before calling Dell and now it seems to have fixed the issue.

I am experiencing the same issues as you guys. Mine crashed every 2-3 mins with me doing nothing special. At times, the laptop was completely frozen which I had to hard reboot. Very frustrating!!

Also tried the catalyst drivers but with no success. Went back to the Dell drivers. Disabling powerplay seems to have fixed the issue. No crash in the last hour.

Did this fix your issue permanently bzzje?

 

eh... it might have

since i am toying a bit with new drivers and such.
but it did help.

other trick is to use AMD gpu tool and set the clockspeed to 200/400

 

so the default 5870 clock speed are to low the same hapened t me when i testted the clock speed i could reach in underclocking with my 4850

when ever the memory is under 300 mhz if freeeze i can get it to 280 but when ever my clock get to rise like when the UVD kick in on youtube i get a crash

 

Falcon, I too have this very same issue on my brand new replacement. It is stock from the box and been running it as such for a few days. No messing about with it...no installing of anything and no change to anything at all.

Interesting to hear that you think in such a case it may be hardware related.

I too also noticed that my resource driver disc on my original system only carried drivers for 4870 whn my system has 5870's - something i mentioned to tech when i spoke to them the othher day concerning reinstalling OS on my original system (not this one) - they had no answer.

Alas, looks my replacement is also doomed at the outset....wonder when im gonna catch a break?

 

Lets not bring back an old thread. Since this is the dell driver being discussed on the 17xR2 platform, please move your discussion to this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/503710-dell-ati-4870-5870-driver-discussion.html

Thanks.