AW ATI 8.761 BETA Driver - M17xR2/M17x/M15x (August 2010) - Discuss Here...

A snippet from erawneila's (Brian) original post:

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LINK REMOVED

ATI Graphics Driver Update for M17xR2/M17x/M15x (August 2010)

Compatible with:

Alienware Laptop M15x
Alienware Laptop M17x
Alienware Laptop M17xR2

NOTE:
This Beta Driver has been through limited compatibility and stability testing by Dell on Dell platforms.
There may be more stable drivers, including the drivers originally shipped with your computer, available under the video section

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EDIT:

As of 8/13, AW posted this message:

 

Enhancements:
1.Driver updates
2.Support for new game titles
3.Fixes reported power management issues (Sleep and Hibernate)

#3 helps. ALOT. I'm gonna let you guys experiment with this one before I take it for a spin. Happy hunting

 

will try right now, as my pc didnt want to boot AGAIN after using the 10.7 with workaround=true for a few days.
strange thing... it is exactly a week after my last issue with not booting...

will post update asap

 

Is this driver exclusively for the 5870's or will it also work with the 4870's too?

 

downloading right now to test

 

I want to know this as well

 

It should obviously work with 4870s as with all ATI drivers that support many graphic cards series.

 

Can we install the 10.7 application profiles?
or is it better not to?

installation went just fine, without any issues... going gaming to test

 

Taken from the driver ini file:
"ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4850" = ati2mtag_M9x8, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_944A&SUBSYS_02A21028
"ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870" = ati2mtag_M9x8, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_945A&SUBSYS_02A11028
"ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 " = ati2mtag_M9x8, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_945A&SUBSYS_043A1028
"ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730" = ati2mtag_Manhattan, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68C0&SUBSYS_02A21028
"ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850" = ati2mtag_Manhattan, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A1&SUBSYS_02A21028
"ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870" = ati2mtag_Manhattan, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A0&SUBSYS_043A1028

As i have Dual 5870 i don't know for sure, atleast these drivers should install if you have the 4870's. You might try checking device manager, for your hardware id and compare it to the above. Give it a try

 

PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_945A&SUBSYS_043A1028&REV_00
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_945A&SUBSYS_043A1028
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_945A&CC_030000
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_945A&CC_0300

was what i got

 

Yup, that's the 4870 "ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 " = ati2mtag_M9x8, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_945A&SUBSYS_043A1028

That should work!

 

This release should support all the currently shipping ATI cards on the M15x, the M17x and the M17xR2.

 

Link updated and thread moved to main alienware forum as the driver supports the 15x and 17xR1 in addition to the 17xR2.

Post away, be sure to include as much detail as possible when reporting issues.

 

Woohoo, downloading now!

 

Any discussion on using AMD GPU Clock Tool should be posted here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/508352-amd-gpu-clock-tool-discussion-m17x.html

Reason for not including in this thread: Not originally packaged with driver - Not even sure when this tool was last updated.

Thanks!

 

So far so good for me.

GTA 4 flicker gone...

 

dumb fedex! no gpus for me to use beta drivers with today for me!

 

I'm still having issues with putting it to sleep and running on the battery.

I tried booting with the batter unplugged and right before I get to the welcome screen it completely locks up. Just a frozen screen.

I told my AW to enter sleep mode and the screen went black, keyboard lights stayed on, and couldn't wake it up. tried pressing all the keys, touching the Alien head. Had to Hard shut down.

Haven't tried any games yet.

 

There is a good chance that the Beta driver are not responsible but that you still have traces of the 10.7 interfering with the Beta.

Did you use a driver cleaner software?

 

I had the older dell drivers installed, uninstalled them, Ran Driver sweeper. Restarts between each. Installed Beta drivers and having this issue

 

So you never installed the 10.7 or 10.6 etc...

You went from the stock Dell drivers to the Beta?

If so clarify this and report this to Brian. It's an important find.

 

still have the sleep issue. laptop doesn't sleep.

 

Yes I had 10.7 installed. Last night before Brian announced the beta drivers from Dell were coming, I backdated to the older dell drivers, using uninstall and driver sweeper again.

This morning before the beta drivers were available I tested the battery and sleep and both worked fine.

Did the upgrade to the beta drivers and am having the same issues.

 

Mazada and Jesse, perhaps try another install? Anyone else seeing this? If so, as Joebar mentioned, this is important info for Brian.

 

In the release note, it's stated that the system may lockup when CrossFire is disabled, this means if you start your laptop on battery, and as soon it hits windows where it probably loads the Alienware Drivers for Stealth Mode, and that gets enabled, it'll lock up.

When i'm on A/C sleep is working fine for me, also when i close the lid, the laptop shuts off the display, and comes back without any issues.

 

Just noticed one thing, in realation to uninstall prior to installing the new beta's, Brian says to uninstall everything Ati so that nothing appears.

Now does this mean to uninstall the CCC as well as the drivers?

Could this be a reason why it isnt working for some or they are having problems? - maybe just uninstalling the older drivers isnt enough.

I could be (and probably am) completely wrong but thats how I understood Brians instructions for installation - get rid of everything ATI.

Am I just barking mad for thinking this?

 

Yeah I 'read' his post the same way Stevie. Good point.

 

Yeah when I was saying uninstall I meant going to the control panel and uninstalling everything ATI.

That does make sense about starting on the battery and it automatically going into stealth mode. May it still doesn't do well running on the battery.

 

Just that I noticed the file size is 128mb - does that mean that its bundled with CCC??? and not just a driver???

Again, could be me being a noob but seemed rather large for just a video driver.

 

Everything installed fine for me, I never use the sleep function so nothing to report there. I get a few more fps in BFBC2 and the watermark thing is gone with water areas. Only thing I did notice is sometimes the cursor starts freaking out when it is thinking, other than that, everything works fine

 

Just to clarify, is this 10.6 or 10.7 beta drivers for Dell/Alienware? Only reason I ask is, I did a clean uninstall of my old drivers (10.6 release workaround), but when I install this, the Catalyst control panel still lists my current driver version as 10.6?

 

Hey im running 10.6 straight from the amd site...is it worth updating? and what software should i use to uninstall drivers? thanks for any help xD

 

I just installed this beta driver and mine still cannot wake up correctly after putting it to sleep. I also LOST FPS in SC2. I might go back to 10.7.

 

Someone please correct me if I am wrong...

I would suggest uninstalling your AMD entry in the Programs & Features Control Panel of the Start Menu

Once done, reboot into Safe Mode, run CCleaner's registry module to remove any left over registry entries from the ATI drivers

Reboot normally

Upon reaching the desktop, run the Dell 8.761 installer you downloaded.

This should take care of all traces of the previous driver. I suggest not using any type of 'workaround method'.

 

I uninstalled the driver from Device Manager first, then uninstalled App + Driver from Control Panel. Rebooted. Ran Driver Sweeper. Rebooted. Installed the Beta driver without having to use the true/false method. It installed perfectly fine. It just dropped my FPS more than what 10.7 provided.

 

These are 10.8 Ati Catalyst Beta Drivers if you want. I also noticed slightly frame drops in games.

The only issues i notice so far are, when on battery, booting windows locks at login screen. Stealth Mode locks up after enabling it via Button. Disabling Crossfire in CCC locks the system up. So that covers known issues for disabled Crossfire i guess

 

I just tried disabling / enabling Crossfire. I didn't get any lock ups but tried running SC2 again. I pretty much get the same FPS whether or not Crossfire is on or off. Either SC2 isn't utilizing Crossfire or the driver is still isn't much optimized.

 

On A/C disabling CrossFire works. But on Battery it doesnt, i think Stealth Mode doesn't allow that somehow.

 

Can you link a good place to get the registry cleaner module?

 

It doesn't work for M17 with 4850vga. I think problem with wrong subsystem recognition. In driver folder I found:
"ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4850" = ati2mtag_M9x8, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_944A& SUBSYS_02A21028
In original system id
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_944A& SUBSYS_207A161F&REV_00

 

can't get sleep to work no matter what. tried every different way of installing. i used drive sweeper to clean ati drivers. even installed fresh os, still doesn't sleep.

 

well it's not made for the m17 alienware droped suport for us when window 7 went out

 

As the title of the thread and mentioned by Brian these drivers are for M17x-R2 M17x and M15x. Do you have a X aswell?

 

Brian only mentioned support for the M17x, M17xR2 and M15x. I dont believe this is going to cover the Alienware Legacy systems.

http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

Also be sure to review this page before using if you are new to CCleaner.
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/help

 

Same problem here, can't go sleep, doesn't power off, same as 10.7, did a clean install. I don't know what Alienware has change on this driver....:/

 

Game performance in BC2 is great and map loads even faster than 10.7

 

Unless you provide full details (system specs, data from CCC Control panel which includes VBIOS, etc.), path you used to install, etc.), this does not help Brian. He asked for specifics, need to give him as much info as possible in order to resolve issues like this.

Just a thought...

 

What i did for uninstalling is:
1. Uninstall ATI Catalyst via Contol Panel -> Software
2. In Uninstaller i selected Express Uninstall (Removes all ATI components)
3. After something uninstalled, it should prompt you to uninstall another thing (I think the ATI Installer itself).
4. Reboot normal.
5. ATI Software was removed. But then i still had the 692.2 driver installed, so i went to device manager and uninstalled those aswell manually, on the first one i think you get prompted to remove software aswell.
6. Reboot normally again.
7. Now it's better to disable any internet connection, because as soon you start up, Windows will try to install the driver again online.
8. After that Install the New Beta Drivers.

I have to admit i didn't use any DriveSweeper or CCleaner.

If you are dependent on having your Laptop on Battery, then you should stick with the Non-Beta Drivers for now, until it gets resolved.

For M17xR2/5870X2 CF:

 

M15x/5850m -- installed smoothly and working well. Will report any hiccups.

​

 

You can actually prevent this by using this method:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6566281-post4.html

I suggest using it only for driver installs and then reverting back to original settings. Easy to do and takes seconds.