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

No Lockups at 350/500 which is the lowest i can set via RivaTuner, unplugged, and on battery, which means automaticly CrossFire Disabled. Plug In Power Cord, CrossFire is automaticly Active again, and i can clock it to defaults again, where when the system is on the lowest clocks 100/150 it will freeze either way, plugged or unplugged when trying to sleep it.

Would like to know where the magic number is for that

 

I found 400/550 worked good when I had it setup before. If you go back to the original 10.7 thread, I put up a script to automatically launch furmark + set rivatuner clocks upon boot each time so people could put the system to sleep etc. I just hate the fact that we have to do these hacks. I know it's not entirely dell's fault either because ATi has been giving grief to the desktop crossfire owners as well. Great hardware, terrible software. The Clevo X7200 with xfire 5870s will likely have similar problems as will the X8100.

 

Try starting Windows (F8) with Last Known Working Version, when you startup on A/C.

 

Thanks grim.
Either way, rivatuner is switching off powerplay so its not really fixing the issue.

I guess the only way to test is to change the 100/150 clocks in the bios to 350/500, then flash the cards.

I still dont think it will help though, as its clearly a driver time out waiting on a response from the second card.

When the second card sleeps... it REALLY sleeps. It wont wake up at all. Hence the lockup.

BUT I have an idea!

Can you DISABLE the secondary card in device manager? (make sure to disable the right one) and try make it lock up?

If it DOES NOT lock up with the second card disabled, we know that its the second card not waking from sleep that is causing all the issues, and dell engineering know what exactly to fix.

-Ash

 

Well i'm still kinda new here. As i can't say i tested it before: So this is actually the Method that already worked with the official drivers? Then that would mean there is not really a Fix in this BETA afar from the Officials.

 

This beta release is no different in terms of functionality from the 10.7's AMD posted earlier. They still have sleep/wake issues and cannot function on battery unless Rivatuner is employed. The official Dell drivers (10.1 release) work fine in that regard but they're outdated and have issues with newer games. So unless Dell can work with AMD and find a solution to the battery/sleep problem, we'll be stuck on the official Dell release or using work arounds for these betas. For what it's worth, this Dell beta release is better than the 10.7 WHQL from AMD. Bad Company 2 didn't crash to teh desktop or freeze my system when I played for 15 minutes earlier today.

 

wow thanks for the info,

guess Ill have to wait for dell to release an update that doesnt lock up on battery.

 

I still get crash to desktop on BFBC2 with these new beta drivers It happens so randomly. Sometimes, I can game for hours, and other times, it'll happen after a few minutes. It always happens right when there's an explosion or something graphically intense on the screen.

 

Ok i disabled the second GPU, while on Battery and underclocked, and the Disable and Enable itself didn't cause a Lock Up, Windows changed to it's Default Driver and my Rsolution changed.

But then as soon i hit Firefox to reply, Lock Up

So i hope i did the right thing, you wanted me to do.

 

That sucks, I read some of the desktop people had the same problem but with with an earlier build of the drivers. The consensus for desktop crossfire owners is that 10.5 drivers are the best but I don't think we can use those unfortunately.

 

Yeah i actually like these drivers, but what i cannot understand is how that once worked and now it doesn't. I mean, shouldn't they apply the same fix again they did with the earlier drivers. Or didn't the official older drivers had this issue to begin with, is it on ATI's Side for taking something out of their drivers, or is it on Dells Side for forgetting to apply a Patch that fixes the issue?

 

Looks like you disabled the wrong card! lol.

Yeah, they are probably listed back to front in device manager.

Re-enable it, reboot, and disable the other one instead - NO RIVATUNER!

Report back what happens.

-Ash

 

I have been sticking with 10.5s for my desktop Joker since ATI seemed to have removed Crossfire profiles for games people said had issues... So instead of addressing it they just said yeah this is an easy fix lol...

 

thanks for the suggestion, but for now with a dead secondary MXM slot I'm going to label it a mainboard issue. The A/C booted fine the last time but then decided to freeze after 3 minites on the desktop with the OSD saying that the a/c adapter was not supported and the laptop was switching to battery power (which is what froze it the first time, switching power supplies)

 

Ok, disabled the other one this this time, works on A/C. But when enabling on battery, it locks up immediatly.

 

So let me understand this:

When you DISABLE the second card and DONT use rivatuner:

ON AC POWER:
Sleep and wake works fine.
Switching off display works fine.

ON BATTERY:
Sleep/wake locks up

Is this correct?

-Ash

 

Display on/off works always, that was already the case with the 10.7s.

Sleep/Wake works only with RivaTuner, Battery or A/C. Sorry for the confusion, earlier.

 

When you disable the device, does it still show up in the catalyst control center?

-Ash

 

Ah, when 1 GPU is disabled, no, it changes to standard VGA, therefore no Sleep option.

 

I assume there's no work around required with installing the new beta drivers? Also - can someone vouch that it preforms as well if not better than the 10.7 stock out of the box? I need to know which to install to get the best performance so that I can validate the integrity of my machine when it comes in.

 

Try one more thing.

Disable the device, and reboot. Then try the sleep/wake stuff.

I think I might know whats going on... maybe...

-Ash

 

What i just noticed in GPU-Z is that when i disable it, the clocks change from 700/1000 default clocks to 300/400.

By the way, do i need to reboot and disable the card on battery aswell?

 

Dont think it matters, so long as you reboot once after disabling.

This will tell the CCC that the card is "not there".

-Ash

 

Ok on A/C, i disable CrossFire in CCC. Disable the GPU in Device Manager, the driver stays alive. If i take the other one it changes to Standard VGA.
Sleep Mode doesn't work. Lock up. Hard reset, Booting up with CrossFire DISABLED. No entry in CCC. In device Manager still disabled.

Testing sleep mode.

Edit: As of now, it doesn't matter for me if one GPU or CrossFire with both Cards are enabled/disabled. The Single GPU runs with default clocks 700/1000 throttled during windows at 100/150. The system locks up while going into sleep.

Continue: Underclocking Single GPU 350/500, while CrossFire Disabled and GPU Disabled in Device Manger... System sleeps and wakes up.

Going to enable the GPU again in Device Manager.

 

Stick to the official and initial release drivers from Dell that will ship with your machine for maximum stability.

 

Just installed this driver. Works great, no problems so far. Fixed a problem where the computer would recognize but not use my second 5870 (and a mouse lag issue in CoD4).

Thanks to all who posted easy step-by-step instructions.

 

OK, then maybe the bios flash WILL work.

What clocks did you try again? 350/500?

If you are GAME and know how to vbios flash, open RBE and edit the bios so that 100/150 numbers read 350/500 instead. Make sure all 100/150 numbers are replaced.

If that works... gah.

-Ash

 

I can change that sure, but how do i apply it to the bios, i didn't had the time so far to read Marduck's Thread...

 

Erm... cant remember.

Winflash isnt it?

-Ash

 

Yeah i've seen that, is this a flashing process in windows itself or like the other method with using a USB Stick booting from DOS and using ATI Flash?

I don't think i'm very comfortable doing that in Windows when the cards are actually runnning... Tho i don't know

 

For inside windows:

techPowerUp! :: Download ATI Winflash 2.0.1.11

That is ATI winflash to flash ATI cards.

-Ash

 

Joker, your script with the Dell 8.761 driver now has its own thread. Feel free to continue there:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-8-761-beta-driver-jokers-furmark-script.html

 

I would recommend against using winflash. I've seen a couple people on the Asus forum brick their 5870s by using it.

 

Probably because Asus do very bad things to their custom cards and bioses.

Plus, im pretty sure its a reversed MXM layout or something hideously stupid like that? God knows what else they have diverged on.

But I have to agree on bios flashing, if you have the time use the dos method, as its safer. Personally I am happy with winflash as its never failed me yet.

Best way to go about it is a USB boot drive method.

-Ash

 

Guys - please stick to the topic. If you want to discuss flashing, rivatuner and clocks, etc., lets start another thread. I want to keep this one on topic as much as possible with posts concerning the driver and issues found. This way, Brian is able to return the info to his engineers without having to dig over several pages of OT posts. Lets try to give him the data he needs so he can resolve any issues.

If you need help with a specific thread title or whatever, send me a PM. Thanks guys.

 

Good points. Well the next step is for us to do some game testing. I think we've got the major issues covered:

1. Sleep/hibernate don't seem to work.
2. System doesn't work on battery (but that was sorta covered in the release notes since Crossfire is disabled in that mode).

We need some gaming issues. I'm going to play some bad company 2 for an hour or so to see if it still crashes to desktop.

 

Is the Sleep problem the same for everyone? When I put my laptop to sleepy, my screen goes black, the FX lights stay on, then I can not recover, I have to reboot.

 

Installed beta drivers. Played 3 hours of BFBC2. Initially, I get very poor performance. Around 30 FPS. Checked CCC and Powerplay was off. Turned it on and averaged about 80 FPS @ 1920x1200 with default settings. Not sure why this change affected performance. I thought Powerplay was only to control the power states, similar to Fusion or Windows Power Options.

BFBC2 crashed twice during my 3 hours of play. First crash was just the game to the desktop. Started it back up and continued playing. Happened while I was in the middle of an epic tank fight against 2 other tanks. Second crash locked up my computer while emitting this horribly loud sound before rebooting automatically. This second crash has been happening often, even before the beta driver install. I think one of my cards might be bad. I've also received several BSODs and similar crashes while not playing any games. I was hoping that the driver might fix it, but it appears that it didn't. Anyone else have similar issues?

 

When I played BC2 it ran pretty good untill 45 minutes into the game then the game would seem to lag a little bit. It wasn't my internet connection and I could tell it was my system. No crashes and the load times seemed faster

 

Ok, this is driving me insane, so i would really appreciate any insight that anyone might have.

the same problem that has existed in the ATI 10.6 and 10.7 drivers (for my 4870's at least)exsits with these as well.

Everything pre-10.6 works perfectly fine for me.

With 10.6 and greater though, there is a very strange issue that I CANNOT seem to get ironed out. I have installed/reinstalled drivers numerous times in different orders and simply cannot get them to work. I have reinstalled windows a couple of times within the last 2-3 months and still have the same issues.

I have 2 symptoms that I can show you guys. note that this video and screenshot are both taken with the AW beta driver, but that the exact same thing happens in 10.6 and 10.7 as well.

The first one:

The framerate in my games is not consistent. It is not a low framerate, but there are tons of small "hiccups" that make the framerate seem jittery and unsmooth.

I recorded a video of the BFBC2 intro screen with my phone to give you an idea. Watch the way the FPS counter does not stay locked at 60 and watch the way the scrolling text at the bottom seems to hiccup.

YouTube - ‪Video0001‬‎

I can confirm that crossfire is running and that utilization is upwards of 95% on both cards. I can also confirm that the clockspeeds change to their highest settings on both GPU's. I can also confirm that it does this same type thing in every 3d app that i have run.

Here is the other symptom im seeing:

The 2nd GPU cannot be overclocked from windows, it has no problem automatically switching to the pre-defined vbios speeds, but i cannot change it from AMD Clock Tool. The thing that sticks out the most however, is this:

the VDDC reading for the 2nd card does not appear.


I have no idea what this means, but this is what happens in any driver i try post 10.5a. I can only hope it might point someone in the right direction.

I CANNOT get this to change no matter what i try. I have uninstalled (booted to safe mode, ran driver sweeper etc) and re-installed. I have done the "have disk" method with no luck. I can uninstall 10.6 or 10.7 and install 10.5 and everything returns to normal. If i "have disk" from 10.5 to 10.6 or 10.7 the problem returns immediately, I do no even have to restart for Clock Tool to start displaying the thermal sensors this way.

I would very much appreciate any input. I have not read about anyone else having this issue, but most of you guys moved on from R1's to R2's pretty quickly so I know most of you are now dealing with the 5870's.

 

Hmm anybody there know how to get the best performance ?? The "Dell" Driver, or the ATI Driver for the card ?

 

I actually did a memory clock update via flash bios update for the 100/150 values to 350/500, and i still had the sleep issues. So no improvement with trying that.
Since the obvious issues are now known, i don't think i can do much more to test out.
For the time being i stick to these drivers along with the 10.7 ati app profiles, and see how comfortable i am with them.

 

nm

/10char

 

What about the games with this new driver. For me running on battery is not so much an issue but what about the SC2 issues with the ATI cards and what about the flickering, stuttering, wavy lines issues due to CF - are these problems gone with the new Dell beta drives (based on ATI 10.8) or not.
This is what concerns me more - I bought this system to get the most out of actual games as SC2, COD:MW2, Mafia II, Total War Series, CIV4, RUSE, THe Witcher ...
Can anyone please test games with the new drivers and how they work. Probably someone who hasn't played around with performance tweaks but simply runs a basic out of the box system but with these new Dell beta drivers.

2nd question:
I will get my M17X-R2 system on Aug. 18th - I doubt they will have these new Dell drivers factory installed - so my question - do I have to use the "workaround method" for these Dell beta drivers as well or do I just have to install them as described an the Dell driver side.

Many thanks
Best regards
Nathan

 

you just have to install them as described an the Dell driver side.

 

This is EXACTLY what i need to know too.....is it at all possible that owners who have "tweaked" clocks etc etc have indeed somehow done somthing to their systems which would prevent these new beta's from working correctly.

Im not a pro, obviously but my system will be kept "stock" for some time until i feel comfortable doing these "tweaks".
Seems very odd that some people again have no probs and lots do....are those people who have the probs heavily "tweaked" settings etc?

I dont know the answers but maybe someone does!

 

Game performance is ok for me, tho didn't invest too much time into it. What i do know is that if you installed the beta along with the app profiles, you can expect almost the same performance. What else it brings along are the fixes about flickering and such, aswell support for some games that need 10.6+, like FFXIV for example. If you don't want to mess around with something beta, as that's what it is, you might be more comfortable with the 8.692 stock drivers.

Also the sleep issues mentioned in the release info as fixed are still present, and yes that is for default settings not tweaked, it's present for everyone with HD5870 CFx.

If someone can verify this for True Single 4870 and 5870 and 4870 CFx, would be great.

 

i can confirm just about all of the issues on battery and sleep.

and regarding games, i notice NO flickering whatsoever.
performance is good. didnt check it with framerates, but didnt notice any issues on that.
the loadtime in BFBC2 has been drastically reduced

 

If Dell can throw it's weight around as a corporate giant and punk AMD into writing some proper drivers that have proper sleep/hibernate/battery with the current build, we'll be in gaming heaven. Dell's obviously trying, I gotta give them credit for that (I haven't seen Asus going to bat for their customers at all). It's time to put the screws on AMD though and only Dell can pull that off like they did with nVidia and the R1.

 

So what is the general concensus on these beta drivers??? - are they good? - are they better or worse than previous Dell drivers? - any better than Ati releases 10.6/10.7??

Issues obviously remain but what is the likelihood that a WHQL version of these beta's from Dell will iron out the sleep/power bugs??

I agree with Joker, If Dell can "muscle" AMD into getting things done correclty for us, then it would be great. Afterall, a gaming laptop is only as good as its drivers and for Dell to charge the prices it does for high end gaming laptops, it needs to address this major factor.