Dell ATI 8.763 (M15x/M17xR1/M17xR2) Driver/AMD 5870 VBIOS **READ POST 1 AND 2!!!!!**

Yeah if the GPUz show on right number version of that, I have exactly the number like on Grimfan picture page 33, My story is I did install 8.763 first and then flash the Vbios, made it successfully and I didn't find crossfire option on CCC so then I was back with stock ( 8.692 btw) and now with that driver and new Vbios...so confused!

I'm gonna give you a shot about that!wait a second pls!

 

Very informative article. Thx for the link and quite useful for insight into why the issues occur. At the risk of being totally WRONG I will go out on a limb and say it's quite probable that the issues that this vbios fixed were most likely due to underclocking. I do know that one fix had to do with changing the registry setting for ATI's ULPS that basically was responsible for shutting down the idle video card. The registry change kept it from shutting it down. Still if I ever grow the ballz to tweak a vbios I will be well informed. If not, I can still run RBE just to compare one vbios with another to see the changes made. Thx again.

 

Once you upgrade the vbios you can’t use the 8.6xx driver stack any more. By using 8.6xx, you're inviting BSOD. If we don't see you post for some time, we'll know why.

 

look at the my GPUz picture I posted ealier above 3 or 4 posted,you'll see new Vbios + 8.692, don't know why but it's real!

 

Can you reboot correctly, if so you might have something special, good for you Would still like to know, what could be different...

 

Yes everything in running smothly, I can go to sleep mode and log on again,boot with baterry, restart manytime tonight and no probs at all except the dropped FPS in Street fighter 4 after about 10 minutes, that's all by now! But still one question should I or could I update to 8.763? so confused

 

Definetly, why was there a problem with them before, are both cards flashed correctly, can you retry the flasher and see if you get the message both adapters already flashed?

If so, you can install the Beta Drivers of course, and see if the games work better:

Uninstall Catalyst via Programs, Chose Express Uninstall, Remove the Software and Reboot when prompted, Start Windows normally or if you don't have a clean windows install, use safe mode if you BSOD, imortant is that you get your system back to VGA Display Driver only, use Driver Sweeper, Analyze ATI Display Drivers, Clean, Reboot when prompted. Install beta Driver, Reboot when prompted. Test the drivers.

 

Me too! I love playing on my TV Sony FTW

 

Did you clean off the 8.763 drivers completely... ie in Safe mode using CCleaner or Driver Sweeper? If not this could be a remnant of 8.763 allowing for this config to work eventhough you installed the old drivers 8.692 afterwards. Just a guess on my part. If you thoroughly cleaned off the 8.7 drivers then my guess is just bunk.

 

Probs before that I got Steath mode on but I don't know so everything in game so terrible and then I tried to update, after flash new Vbios and 8.673 I do restore everything to stock by alienware respawn in without save data mode!so... don't know it was clean or not.

And I've just tried to flash again,I'm really on new Vbios with 2 adapters already programed!So maybe I'll give a try again with 8.763 and I'll tell you what's happening then...

 

True! Btw. got FFXIV working now on the tv, awesome game, awesome graphics, tho it only runs on Crossfire 2x35% and on single gpu on 60% load, so weird, but it does run quite well and is lot of fun, here my settings:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/515271-ffxiv-graphic-problems.html#post6667148

 

Yeah Infernia could be right. But well we might never find out maybe.

 

It's a little luck for me so maybe we don't have to find it out and one more question, before when I got 8.763 and then I didn't see Xfire option on CCC and I couldn't make that work so when you install your 8.763, you need something else more? thank you!

 

Could someone plz send me the Vbios.

Great long thread lol ! thank you guys learned alot from u.

 

Not to scare anyone off. But this was my experience with flashing the video cards...

1. Started the process in Windows. Progress bar kept looping. After about 5 minutes, I moved the bar out of the way and saw a message stating that the process failed. I closed it and the progress bar quit as well.

2. Started the process again. This time, I moved the bar out of the way immediately and saw the same message hiding behind it. Quit... I figured that since everything else was up and running, I'd give a system restart a go.

3. Restarted with no problems. Started GPU-Z and noticed that it was reading the new bios for both cards. However, CCC was reading the old version.

4. Tried the Windows install again. Fail window behind the progress bar. Quit.

5. Decided to give it one more go. And this is where things got interesting... The system immediately locked up. Froze. Kaput... So I waited. After about 5 minutes, the screen went black. 2 minutes later and the screen powered down. Not good... 5 minutes later, the little Windows start button came back up, along with 2 Gadgets in the Sidebar. I figured that maybe it was rebuilding the screen or so. Another window partially came back up. I thought we were on a roll. Then it all failed.

6. At this point, with tears forming, I smudged my sweaty finger over the little alien head and pressed. After a few prayers, I started the system back up. I think even my dog could feel the tension... BIOS, check. Windows splash screen, check. Anything? Anything? Bueller? Nothing! Just frozen on the splash screen.

7. Picked up iPhone and started frantically searching for ways to flash the VBIOS from DOS. All seemed complicated and somewhat involving of money... And then I remembered something... When I was having problems with drivers before, I'd launch Safe Mode and disable the video cards. More prayers.

8. Reload W7 in Safe Mode. Got the desktop up. Went into device manager; Disabled cards. Pray. Restart.

9. No SSD is fast enough to quell this anxiety.

10. Windows splash screen up. It was animated! Desktop loads without video drivers! But in full, regular mode!!!

11. 'The point where most would shine this on and count their lucky stars'. That stupid flashing utility was calling me, like the Ring was calling Frodo... (Oh no he di'int.) Oh yes... I did

12. Progress bar zips to about 50%. Alert window pops up IN FRONT of it. Reads: Update has already been completed.

13. Install latest ATI (excuse me, AMD) drivers without workaround.

14. No problems. Power management functions.

15. Wipe tears. Thank whoever He is. Play it off, like it was no big deal.

CCC still reading old BIOS. As far as I'm concerned, CCC is broken

 

You did make sure to install the video drivers first before flashing right? And also are you running A07?

 

just on simple question:

what is the big advantage of this new beta vbios for the 5870 ? what that is do that the original/older one doesn't ?

 

This beta vBios was made to fix a few problems.
You first of all have to have the dell 10.8 8.763 driver installed before flashing.

The vbios so far has fixed sleep, running on battery mode, unplugging, plugging in ac adapter blank black screen hangs, fixed sleep and hibernation functionality, it also fixed the black blank screen hang whenever your monitor turned off and then you tried to move the mouse to bring the screen back. It has also fixed a few other minor bugs. Overall it is running really well for those who have decided to give it a go.

Also one other major fix was of course to allow users to run on a newer GPU driver instead of the stock older drivers. Improvement for games and extra added support. Improved stability.

Cheers.

 

man, your post just made me want to go for the big jump, BUT:

1) any downside for the moment?

2) flashing to the new beta vbios will void your waranty right?

 

1) non reported so far
2) No

 

I tried this beta driver on my M17x-R2 and when the monitor went off after 5 minutes of inactivity, the system crash and i need to reboot it with the power button... I reinstalled the previous driver and the issue is gone...

 

The New VBIOS will fix that, read page 1, I had the same issue until I fashed to the new VBIOS.

 

Tried this one and i also didnt do the workaround and it installed just fine and this one had the video driver.. But no hdmi in this install either and no improvement in bfbc2 or mafia 2..Strange..

 

If you want to use the reference drivers, it's almost a must to install Crossfire App Profiles along it, try 10.8a. You should see the difference with them installed.

Also you can use this beta, to only install the hdmi driver, should work aswell. Though i can use my TV on HDMI without the driver installed, weird

 

Grimfan I test the 8.763 already,everything better now but I still have some wave line on screen when play Street Fighter 4,anyone have that prob too?

 

what if you have a single 5870?

 

Then you won't have crossfire performance issues and won't need the crossfire profiles

 

I'm sure it's not only for CrossFire, sometimes there are other fixes they make to get the games run smoother, maybe we should releate to them as Catalyst App Profiles (CAP), not only Crossfire. It won't hurt to find out

 

Hi theres Stevie,

I finally found some time and installed Metro 2033.
Grimfan is gonna love this lol. Its another Nvidia "The way its meant to be played" game again So once again another game optimised to run better on the Nvidia GPUs. Oh well no worries I'll give it a go anyways.

I had previously tried this game on my mates new notebook which had a Core i5 combo with the 5730 GPU. It ran pretty well except when using DirectX 11 settings, it just became totally crippled. LOL. It was even running at a low RES of 1368 X 768. Or some sort of weird res the lower end models use. It did run fine on DX 10 maxed out though. So not to shabby.
So I was kinda expecting roughly the same performance before I tried it here. I wasn't to sure what to expect when running DX 11 settings. Perhaps a little better performance. So far it seemed that DX 11 wouldn't be to great on the 1st gen tech as is always the case with new tech and settings.
Metro 2033 also ran really well on my other R1 machine. Maxed out settings it was very playable at DX 10 settings. No DX 11 support on those specs though of course.

So I've just installed it. Stock install I'm not to sure if theres any patches out for the game; I would assume so by now. Might get to them later.
I've set the settings to maxed out everything except AA which i set to the lowest in game setting of 4XAA.
I must say the loading in this game is insanely fast. 2 secs per load level lol. and I'm not even running SSD's!!!

Everything looks great. Starting off the game the FPS was around 30 - 40fps. The ATi crossfire logo was also present top right hand corner. So I assume crossfire was working correctly. The game looks pretty amazing and very shiny and super detailed.

Overall FPS ranged from 15fps - 70 odd FPS. Using FRAPs to gauge this atm. In super graphical scenes and in intense battle scenes the FPS drops quite low to around 15fps to 25fps. During other scenes it stays above 40fps to 70fps. So it seems to scale between quite a large range. During the battle scenes running at 15fps you do feel the lag however it is still pretty playable. I would probably recommend lowering the graphical settings though. I might give that a try later on. Or see if I can find a update patch that might improve performance on ATi cards.

Overall not to bad. Runs pretty well for a DX 11 game.

On a side note I've had the machine for a week now and still getting used to having ATi cards after using Nvidia for so long now.
One thing I have noticed with Crossfire compared to SLi is that when you go to load up a game it just loads that much faster without the need to black out the screen about 5 times and then flash a heap of times before it finally loads into the game. I used to find that quite annoying with SLi, however I eventually got used to it. It also happens a lot when changing different resolution settings in game.

Cheers.

 

I've just been running some more tests and benchmarks on the 10.8 8.763 driver combo with the vbios.

SCORE: 15399
AVERAGE: 176.90FPS
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 740 @ 1.73GHz
Memory: 8192MB
Graphics Card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870
Display Setting: 1920x1200 60Hz

(c)CAPCOM U.S.A., INC. 2008, 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.


SCORE: 8813
AVERAGE: 118.20FPS
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 740 @ 1.73GHz
Memory: 8192MB
Graphics Card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870
Display Setting: 1920x1200 60Hz 8xAA

(c)CAPCOM U.S.A., INC. 2008, 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

 

I've played NFS Shift with new driver and Vbios,something wrong when I race in dawn time,the screen dark like a night or look like something through the X-ray,sometime it was normal in some second and then it's still dark,I changed camera view,it's disappear and there are another prob,the screen with wave line appear sometime.I could play that game on old Vbios and driver fluently,any recommend for that prob? I set all setting max with 2xAA, I tried with OxAA but the screen still with wave line...

 

Hey Reborn!

Thanks for the feedback on Metro....I had it installed on my previous system which had 720qm crossfie 5870 and 4gb....i too kinda struggled to max everything out using dx11...it became unplayable but there is a setting in dx11 settings (advanced dof) which i disabled and even running dx11 with same 4xaa it ran fairly well.....if i recall, when i used fraps it seemed to be around 30 ish but obviously dropped quite a bit recording (havent kept the logs). I noticed the mouse was very floaty with advanced dof enabled (depth of field) but the game seemd to run really well without it anyhow so whhile i did play a bit (and i mean a little bit) it looked really cool and realtively smooth even in dx11....

Dont know if there are any patches out there as i did not check....

I have been told its a pretty cpu intensive game much like crysis and the like so my 720 (not as good as your 740) i felt played it quite well, although bear in mind, this is my first gaming laptop ..EVER LOL

I got my replacement on its way with the specs in my sig so i am really looking forward to testing this out with max settings and see how we go....

Would be interesting to hear how someone using the new vbios and dell drivers with an 820/840/920/940 gets on with this game....

I bought it as a kinda benchmarker for my system as i got the m17 cos of the gpu's being dx11 and Metro being a dx11 game i thought what the heck, give it a go.

Thanks very much for testing it out and giving the group feedback - top banana!!!

Catch ya later !

 

are you guys absolutely sure it's playable with all max very high settings DX11? even with the latest dell driver+vbios and a 940XM cpu with throttlestop, my system struggled really bad with this game. it's like less than 25FPS and less than 10FPS during intense scenes. even with DOF disabled, it still doesnt go more than 30FPS during normal scenes. any other settings u guys turn off to achieve 30FPS?

 

All i can say is that when i loaded it onto my original system which was the 720 cf 5870 4gb ram, it was one of thhe first games i tried to test out my system.

I kept my system "stock" and d/l fraps.

Played thhe game for 5-10 minutes with fraps on but not recording and my fps was no lower than 20 ish from recollection...it went up to 50ish with dx11 and DOF disabled.

I dont know if this is due to the fact that the first scenes arent very intensive but i got to the stage where Artyum gets his stuff from the artilliray and moves out to the "hand train"....(apologies for my lack lustre description as i didnt get very far LOL)

Looking at your spec, you should be able to blitz me in terms of performance as i cant see a single area where you havent got the very best apart from ram.......(jealousy is an ugly thing LOL)

It seemed to play really well although it was on high and not all settings maxed...didnt have msaax16 on....i tried it dx11 maxed out and it was a no go on my system .. way too sluggish.

 

even before the vbios update, this game was behaving like this. Only the original dell 5870 drivers had no issues in this game, any drivers after had the same issue. sometimes it's normal, then you hit a car and it changes.

 

I have a question on the new VBIOS. in the original post Brian states you can not flash back to the old VBIOS. I have a copy of the original VBIOS, obviously the VBIOS only changes the programing, so assuming I reflashed to the old VBIOS, and loaded older drivers, this woud work right? I dont see why not. Just checking before I decide to flash.

 

As you know, im no expert but i presume Brian means that DELL dont offer the ability to reflash to a previous vbios...i dont think he means it CANT be done - thats how i read it but i wouldnt personally like to give it a whirl even though i think its kinda like just rolling back a driver.....if you have the previous vbios to flash back to..

 

Hi,

I'm pretty sure joker and a few others maybe have already tried the flashing back to the original old bios. So yes to answer your question there is no reason why you won't be able to flash back. I think there was some info about this on pages 33 - 35 if I recall.

Cheers.

 

Thanks for your confirm,and I've just flashed to A08 Bios that seem better!

 

I noticed there is a new BIOS listed in Drivers & Downloads under BIOS (dated 9/3/2010).

Does anyone know if this will fix the shutting down problem with 8.763 driver?
I did not flash VBIOS with the one on page 33 because I want to be able to go back to 8.692.2.
(Because final fantasy 11 has problem with skipping about every 3 seconds with 8.763 driver)
I'm currently switching 8.692.2 and 8.763 (with CCleaner and Driver Sweeper) depending on what game I play... (FF11 does not work properly on 8.763, FF14 does not work on 8.692.2, GTA4 works on both)

 

Finally I m going to take the plunge........ I have decided to go for the VBOIS update "Can't wait for DELL to officially launch the VBIOS". I think that would take a lot of time.

I have been reading this thread and the others related to the new beta driver and the beta VBIOS from DELL.

First things first I am still unable to PM anyone for the beta VBIOS. Can somebody please email me the beta VBIOS on a newly created id just for this one time use [email protected]

My System Specs:
M17x-R2 Black Cosmic | i7-720QM | 6GB-1333MHz DDR3 RAM | ATI Mobility Radeon HD5870 CrossFireX | 17" 1920x1200 RGB LED | 512x2 Raid0 7.200rpm HDD | Windows 7 Home Premium

Bios: A06
Current Graphics Driver: 8.692

I have never done a VBIOS update before so I would like some of you guys to please confirm the below steps. I understand the risks just want to be 100 % sure of what I am doing

1) Start/Reboot the System

2) Download the A08 Bios from the Dell site

3) Flash the Bios with A08

4) Reboot the system

5) Go the Device Manager Uninstall both cards (tick remove drivers)

6) Remove all ATI drivers/software using Express Uninstall

7) Reboot the system

8) Use CCleaner and Driver Swepper to clean the system for all ATI references

9) Reboot the system (Check Device manager)

10) Install the new Beta Video Drivers from Dell posted on the Dell Site

11) Reboot the system

12) Flash the VBIOS using the exe provided
- Run the exe in administrator mode

 

Can someone also tell me how to check if the VBIOS update is done successfully..

Check it using GPU-Z ? (just after the VBIOS flash is completed or after the Windows reboot)

 

You can check your ATI properties they should look like the above. Under BIOS Version.

 

i thought ati 5870 was supposed to support openCL

 

alright I waited for replies.......since I didn't get any went ahead with it.

Took the VBIOS from link provided by Joker in his signature for manually flashing the BIOS.

I followed the steps in my previous post. The whole thing took me about 40 mins.
Was getting a problem while uninstalling the previous ATI drivers but I persisted .... cleaning with driver sweeper till I saw display adapter under the device manager being displayed as the Standard VGA Adapter.

After VBIOS Update.....

No issues with Sleep/Battery Mode/Stealth Mode.

Tested BFBC2 with everything set to High and everything turned ON

No wavy lines.....

During cut scenes FPS is around 45-60 and during game play the FPS is between 50-75. But I felt the mission load times were more than before.

Will test some more games...... feeling very happy for the first time abt my M17XR2 purchase

Will also test for stability issues.

 

apollo999, I did reply Post#795

 

I've seen that and I couldn't find the solution for that,can you solve that with new driver,not original dell?thanks...

 

Went along with Joker's guide to manually flashing the vBIOS and I must say it was as easy as easy can get. So far everything has been much to my liking sleep and hibernate now work properly and performance while gaming is much more to my liking and suiting to an Alienware laptop. I would very much recommend flashing the BIOS manually through Joker's guide as it is much safer than flashing from within Windows. To anyone who seems afraid of attempting this method of flashing I can assure you that it's not as difficult as you may think. Granted though if you are not sure of your abilities of accomplishing this task then it's probably better to ask more questions and read this thread more thoroughly in order to become more knowledgable on this topic.

All in all I'm very satisfied with these new drivers and will remain hopeful that my laptop won't be destined to become a paperweight after all.

 

I found a working Driver
I tried driver 8.762 (Not 8.763. Got it from AMD site) and it works fine for both Final Fantasy 11 and Final Fantasy 14.
It has shutdown/sleep/turn off monitor problem.
But since it's playing games fine, I flashed the bios (with the one from page 33 here) and everything is working perfectly now
I'm the next happy M17x owner.
Appreciate everyone's help with this (I read the whole 80 pages of this thread and researched/learned about flashing bios).
I learned a lot!!!

 

A little late but i also tested some things.

i have installed the latest vbios, with the latest drivers from the dell site the beta drivers.

i also did a clean install of windows before doing this, and updated the bios to A08.

Everything went fine booting up / shutdown on battery everything works perfect

Now the down side, when i play a game the ati crossfire logo doesn’t appear and performance is really bad, i played SC2 on ultra with no AA and the FPS is around 60 on the beginning but after a while when more units appear it drops to 30 fps and sometimes lower...

Also when aim playing batman the FPS is around the 30 to 40 fps on normal levels but when there are a lot of enemies the fps drops to 12 fps

I forgot,

Specs:

Alienware MX17 R2 / HD5870 CF / I7 840QM / 4GB / Full HD RGB LED /

i really don’t now what the problem is.. if anyone can help thanks in advance