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

Well, as you know, installing the beta driver before is essential as this beta vbios is not backward compatible prior to that, CAT 10.8. When you have those installed correctly, you can flash the vbios with given instructions. I don't know if it's ok to run it from a CD (storing them on this is fine), as it is write-protected and don't know if this is a influence. I advise you to run it from your harddisk where no disruption of the read/write process should occur, same goes for memory stick or running it on battery where the system could interupt the flashing process. I ran it from Desktop, just from the restart of the Beta driver and waited like 3 minutes into windows, extracted to the default defined folder and the flashing process was already finished as i noticed, of course if it fails for you, just restart the flasher again, good luck

 

Yup, thought it would be safe to STORE it on a disc but not to RUN from optical. I presume its ok to load it onto my new lappy FROM the disc to the DESKTOP and then run the .exe after I have uninstalled old drivers to the "Standard VGA Drivers are displayed" - once at this stage, run driver sweeper from safe mode,then restart and load the beta drivers. Restart again and then run the vbios file?

Also, the file that i have extracted is 599kb in size and has an icon the same as those that are d/l from Dell.support...is that the right file to run to begin the flash process or do i need to do any more "unzipping" of it etc etc....

Its named "AMD_MOBILITY-RADEON-HD5870_X09_R278781

Assuming that is the correct .exe i have, after following the above process, all i need do is run that file as admin to execute the beta vbios?

Obviously, if it doesnt succeed 1st attempt, just keep repeating the process until both cards are flashed, right? - DONT RESTART WITHOUT THIS BEING DONE!

Is this right Grim? (sorry for being uber cautious but i dont want any mistakes - measure twice and cut once as carpenters say innit?)

 

For every question mark you made i can just respectfully say, YES, you understood. Stevie approved!

Edit: Just rechecked the provided VBIOS Flasher. After renaming, you have a zip, after extracting the ZIP you get an Extractor Installer, run it and extract to the default Folder (C:\dell\drivers\R278781), after that starts an automated Setup run from the extracted folder and you will see a progress bar and a finish message upon completing, one of the images provided in the instructions. Cheers

 

Grim, just wanna be 1000% sure on this.....

The file i got in the email, (.rar) , i renamed to .zip and extracted the contents....that gave me the file i have now as name above with AMD MOBILTY RADEON X09 in it (its a .exe)....thats as far as i have gone as i thought running this would start the process...

Are you saying that by running that file, i will then get a file in the C: location you mentioned above? - is that right?

If so, then i just navigate to said location and run that file right?

EDIT: Just checked Brians email instuctions....rename as .zip, extract to desktop and run .exe to launch...

I have the file with the "R" number in it, properties say its .exe so should be a case of just run that file when im all ready to go eh?

 

Actually, after you started AMD_MOBILITY-RADEON-HD5870_X09_R278781.exe everything gets automated when you click next, so after you started that, you cannot abort anymore, the flasher will start right away after extraction and progress and status message will be displayed upon completion. Good luck now

Edit to your Edit: Yes. It's as simple as 1-2-3, that's the flash process

 

Cheers Grim.....gonna "go silent" now LOL and reset this lappy back to factory status and start the procedure...might not get round to flashing tonight but once i do, i will report back...

Thanks for all your help.

+Rep for all you assistance and good advice!

 

I am due my replacement M17X any day now (with dual 5870's) and I just want to be sure I understand this process correctly;

I should have BIOS A07 installed (I dont need A08 since I never use the touch pad)

I need to install the latest Cat 10.8 drivers. Can I use Dell drivers? The 10.8 are glitchy on my dual 4870's and I dont particulary like them (BFBC2 flicker is unbelieveable).

I then need to email Brian to get the latest VBios for these cards.

I extract the file and click on the .exe to flash the cards

Once the cards are flashed I'm home free and everything is right in the world


Question is how can I tell if this new VBIOS has already been installed? It is a new machine afterall. I would rather not go through this process if I dont have too.

Grim you seem to be the man in the know

 

As far as the vbios location I believe there is a link to it on page 33. Look for Joker's post. I would verify but I changed my page settings to put a lot more than the standard number of posts on one page.
The vbios has not been rolled up into a one click solution as yet. And Brian posted farther back that the first place you will see the fix is in Dell support but that it would take a few months longer to get it into the factory and shipped out with new systems. Odds are you won't have the new vbios.
However as you check the thread there are a lot of people that have checked their version with GPU-Z. If I get the chance to link that info for you this morning I will but I'm off to school soon.
Grim is the man!

 

Cheers Infernia

Page 33 is where its at. These things tend to get lost in the thread;

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...driver-amd-5870-vbios-read-post-1-2-a-33.html

Once I get the new machine it will be the first thing I do before installing programs etc.

 

Welcome

I just second Infernia's reply. I think you understood what it is needed and what you have to do once you get your system, also i'm pretty sure your system will come with the original VBIOS. This new VBIOS is so much more likely to be an reference vbios with some minor adjustments to the physical hardware id written into it. The ultimate goal for Dell at the moment is to provide a vbios that will support standard reference drivers from ATI (I think that Beta VBIOS does already a pretty solid job doing that). I hope that ATI, Dell and maybe other manufacturers are working closely together to get the issues fixed with the latest games and working properly for everyone using this HD5870 setup.

Cheers!

 

You're right. I wish Dell/Ati would sort this out once and for all. One things for sure when I decide to upgrade in another few years time - I wont be getting ATI cards!

 

Well most blame at the moment is forwarded to the ATI driver team, to be honest, i think even DELL provides more accurate Drivers with their modifactions to the the original ati driver. I really hope they provide something stable and good with 10.10 Catalyst since they decided to skip 10.9 Cat Mobility. I'm also waiting for the wind of changes. Well actually i just want to play FFXIV on my M17x-R2 on full performance without gpu throttling or bad scaling, don't think it's too much asked for... o.o'

 

Yeah I dont think its too much to ask for considering the price of these things. It really annoys when when I am showing someone this system and suddenly games begin to flicker or theres a blank screen after it goes to sleep. I usually get asked the price and then its followed by "you were shafted - that thing aint worth a quarter of the price. My laptop is a ...... and it works flawlessly etc etc". Meh!

 

Totally agree with the blame issue there. Still Dell is wise to move us towards the ability to use reference drivers. In another year Dell support for the components in this system won't be 'up to par'. Reference drivers might just be what we'll have to depend on.
DX11 support is a in its infancy and as such we are all going through the growing pains. It shouldn't be this way as it's been out awhile but I guess that is just the way it is. I will wait until they get all those kinks worked out before making a big DX11 game purchase and end up angry that I can't play it.
Red team or Green team they both have their issues. I do like NVidia's drivers and software a tad bit more than ATI. But I hold no allegiance. If it gets the job done and does it well... that's who I'll buy from.
Mooneyd - I feel your pain. It is highly embarassing to have those things happen especially in a project with other 3D modellers in the room and they are laughing at my driver issues. But hey I did not pay the 10K for the precision so I am the one with enough left over to get a new system if I felt like it. (or had that to spend in the first place )
On a side note, after installing these drivers/vbios combo and running the 3DS Max 2011 app that checks the gpu's/drivers, it's reporting I have DX10 support only. I will get a screen shot of this later when I get home tonight. Not that it's a big deal but I am curious. Plus I need to dig up the info on the app too and maker doubly sure it recognizes DX11.

 

Hey Infernia, what you see in 3DS Max 2011 is probably the directx driver showing like that, if you open up dxdiag you will see the driver shows 10.1 instead of 11. It's the way it gets handled, i don't know if this applies only to DirectX or OpenGl aswell, i'm not that techie to know that, just a guess.

But as you can see in GPU-Z or even aware of, the HD5870 is clearly a DirectX 11 card, but since we are just rolling out the second generation of that, DirectX might be not up-to-date and supporting that nicely aswell. We are totally in the jump from DX9/DX10 to DX11, but it's just the start i guess. Support will come for sure once the second generation of DX11 cards has been released. Slowly as always in Computer Development, because someone has a 20 year plan and likes to make money all the time, you know that

 

Hi Guys...could do with a bit of advice here

I am using two systems at the moment....i am in the process of doing a clean install of windows 7 and then the obligatory drivers.

I have all the drivers saved on disc that i need including the video drivers for the 5870's (r259589)

Now question is , the lappy that im doing a clean install on only has standard vga at the moment so would i be better off using the beta drivers from dell (will d/l to disc and then use on the system) straight off???

The whole reason behind doing this was to test out the new drivers/vbios on a system thats being returned.

I am aware the process for the vbios states to uninstall older video drivers and install beta drivers but as i am in the process of clean install, would i be better off just going right for the beta drivers instead of choosing the 5870 drivers which arent beta on dell support....i presume this would avoid having to uninstall any other video driver before flashing the vbios as i would have installed the beta drivers without any other drivers being installed in the first place?

Advice??? - thanks

EDIT: I am not installing directly from disc, i am copying each individual driver to the desktop and will run from there....correct to do???

 

Stevie, you don't want to install the older drivers first if you do a clean install. Also install every other latest driver first from the support site incl. beta driver and install them, with the video driver being last. I think you can't even install the video driver before you didn't install the chipset driver. Also don't worry about OSD and Command Center giving out errors until you installed the beta drivers. After that, you should be able to update vbios.

And yes, you gonna update your system the whole time in vga mode, after the first boot up, change resolutions if it's not already a bit bigger. Please PM for advice during the process, so we don't fill up this thread with how to do that

Edit: Running them from Disk is fine, you have to extract them to the predefined Dell folder anyway.

 

The order i was told to do it in was chipset / video / network / audio and that after doing chipset / video, it didnt really matter about order for the rest...

Just wanted to clear up which video driver to initially install....suppose it makes sense to go right for the beta rather than having to uninstall anything else eh?

Beacuse i did a clean install a few weeks ago, i saved all the relevant drivers to disc and as i dont have an internet connection to d/l via dell on that system, tech said that i could use the ones i saved to disc previously....is that ok or do i specifically need to get them again from dell on the system i am reinstalling?

 

Well i don't know if you downloaded ALL the latest ones, but make sure you don't even try to install the 6.962 video driver, what you wanna do is install the beta driver as your intial driver upon the vga driver. When you uninstall the beta and like to update then, you don't have to worry the system will revert back to a previous installed not compatible video driver and you will instead go back to the vga driver, where you can safely install any newer driver then. Let's be optimistic about CAT 10.10 and how that works, i'm confident you won't even need the Workaround with the new VBIOS, well 10.8 reference drivers work like this already

 

Thanks Grim....im geting there....done the chipset/beta video drivers....then the newtork gigabit and audio drivers.....got a few more to go on the other system so hoping it all works out ok....

BTW, all the drivers i have saved on disc are up to date, checking website at same time to make sure....is it ok for me to be loading the drivers from disc onto the computer im reinstalling, copy to the desktop and then run the driver updates?

 

Yup, you can also extract them from your CD onto your disk, the default folder should be the same, just make sure it's C:

 

FYI - the non beta releases of the video driver and the VBIOS should be posted today for those of you who have been waiting, so I will not be sending out the beta any longer. If you requested this over the weekend, please download the release versions when they mirror later today.

For reference, the VBIOS will be posted as ATI Radeon Mobility HD5870 A01 VBIOS (13B96101.104) Win7 64b.

Release notes:
1. Fixes display corruption issues found on some 5870 video cards.
2. Fixes issues on battery (BSOD, S3, S4, and black screen) with older VBIOS and 8.7xx drivers.


The video driver will be posted as AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5870 (8.763-100810a-104118C-Dell) Win 7 64b.

Release notes:
1. Displays configuration becomes incorrect when Crossfire is disabled.
2. A non existent 2nd monitor appears in CCC and Display Manager after resume from S3/S4 with CrossFire disabled.
3. Dual 5870 internal LCD gets no display after disable CF and un-plug external monitor.
4. System hangs when crossfire is disabled and re-enabled.
5. Driver updates.
6. Support for new game titles.

 

Hahaha, thanks Brian....just my luck im in the middle of a clean install as i wanted to ensure executing the beta vbios without problems! - looks like now i can just go to dell support and do the one click fix huh?

Thanks very much for letting us all know of this - and for your hard work.

 

Once this is up on the dell support site, we will have individial discussion threads for the 15x and 17x vs a combined thread.

 

Yep, it's not a Windows flash for the release version though. You'll either need to burn to CD or use a USB boot drive...

 

Hi Brian,

Just wanted to double check.
Those of us already running on the beta 10.8 8.763 drivers and new vbios, do we need to use the newly released update from the dell site?

Or is it the same thing?

Any new ATi drivers on the horizon?

Thanks Brian for all the news today.

Cheers.

 

Basically the same thing, so up to you...

I'm not aware of anything newer coming right now, but the goal is to get to a relatively regular release cadence...

 

BTW, we will also be releasing this driver for the 4870 - no VBIOS flash required on that card.

Here are the release notes:
1. Displays configuration becomes incorrect when Crossfire is disabled.
2. A non existent 2nd monitor appears in CCC and Display Manager after resume from S3/S4 with CrossFire disabled.
3. System hangs when crossfire is disabled and re-enabled.
4. Driver updates.
5. Support for new game titles

 

Well done Brian, thanks for getting this out there.

 

That was a driver problem? That thing was driving me nuts!!!

Can't wait for the release...even though I waited until yesterday to try the beta

Thanks Brian!

 

If you can't wait for the updating on the support page, i posted the link for the DELL 8.763.0 WHQL Driver in the A09 Bios Thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...bios-a09-discussion-thread-3.html#post6721145

Also it is not exactly described if it is a known issue or a resolved issue...

 

regardless, its in the notes so its "in view" at least

 

The beta driver has been replaced with a non-beta version. Please see the following links for current dicsussion threads:

M15x 5850 Owners:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-dell-8-763-5850-vbios-discussion-thread.html

M17xR1/R2 4870/5870 Owners:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...5870-gpus-5870-vbios-discussion-non-beta.html

This thread is now closed.