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

You will need at least 5 quality posts to have access to the Private Messaging (PM) and signature system. This is to stop spam created by bots.

After you have reached 5 posts you will need to wait for usergroup promotions which runs at 11pm EST every night.

Shouldn't be that hard - find some threads and post (quality posts of course - no one liners).

 

Thank you appreciate the heads up.

 

Just did a fresh install of Windows 7 and i am very comfortable with it, and it is in the actual state i was thinking of. The system is loaded with default vga card drivers after windows installation. I was able to install the latest beta driver onto the system, and everything is working just smooth i would say. When i uninstall ATI Catalyst via Express Uninstallation, and after you get prompted to reboot, the system will boot up with default vga drivers again. Very clean system and stable so far.

So if you get a Lockup / BSOD frenzy when you installed your newer drivers over earlier ones or maybe try to uninstall catalyst for whatever reasons, a fresh windows install will get rid of the influence of older non supported drivers along the new vbios, as it is not backward compatible. Also the Automatic Windows Driver Update was always on, and it didn't attempt to update the gpu's while they were in their default vga state in windows. So in my oppinion this new beta driver+vbios combo can be looked at as the new default driver package you have to install upon a new windows installation, as we did with old vbios and 6.962 dell driver to have our systems work properly.

 

Looking forward to hearing how you get on ! - i havent PM'd for the beta vbios, i think im gonna hang fire and wait and see how you guys get on with it....if it works, thats brilliant! - will it mean that we can use reference ati catalyst drivers as they get released or will Dell have to Dellize these as and when? - maybe too early to say yet but that would be great.

Im having to return yet another system so im hoping that my new build replacement (not ordered yet) may come with the official vbios if its released to the public in time....i guess its no biggie, the major thing here is that it actually works which it seems to be doing at the moment from what ive read about test reports from those who have the vbios/Dellized drivers.

 

So far I have zero complaints. Mass Effect 2 was flaweless and bad company 2 ran well enough. Going to play more games in a bit.

 

HELP! - i did a clean install of the beta drivers, and than from within windows (no safe mode), i flashed the cards as admin and got an error ROM Could not be read or something like that, now my crossfire is totally broken and ANY game i try suffers from the old style severe flickering before the A02 Bios, my only solution is to disable crossfire and that way everything goes smoothly, i have a feeling it was a bad flash on the secondary gpu anyways i tried different drivers from 10.7, 10.8 and the dell beta and all suffer from the same issue and only solution is to disable crossfire which is not a viable solution, if anyone can help me reflash the cards or tell me what to do please PM me or post a solution or your ideas here, thanks.

 

You can probably flash them through dos. I dumped the bios files and saved them and can walk you through it. I'll see what Brian recommends for you first.

 

Hi Guys, I've been reading these forums for a good few months now. Always the reader, never the contributor. I now own an M17xR2 and have been getting pretty frustrated with the BSOD's. My job is to automate windows 7 builds and certify the hardware/software and drivers, much like the image recovery you use for an Alienware Laptop, only for corporate environments 10 - 20,000 pc's.

I am very interested in obtaining the VBios for testing as I would like to be able to use my Alienware as a demo for new clients. I have used work arounds up until now to make the machine stable, but the new VBios sounds like it is fixing the problems I am seeing. As this is a demo machine I am more than happy to test and provide feedback.

email: manfromdownunder at hotmail.com

 

NOTE: When I tried to flash the vbios the first time (only do this as administrator and in windows, not safe mode) it only half flashed the first card and failed for the second card (after checking GPU-Z).

Did it a second time before rebooting (cos if i rebooted, I would have had a shiny colored brick) and it worked.

Hairy.

I would have to recommend using DOS rather than the dell winflash stuff, unless you really know what you are doing and are a gambling sort.

-Ash

 

Wow close call Ash, glad you knew about not rebooting when you have a failed flash!

And yes, you need to do this in a normal windows session. I also can't complain so far, the almost 1-click flash run without problems, i do hope people realize when the flash fails, to just try it again until it says 100% succeed, that is if the system doesn't BSOD right away

 

I just tried the unplug, sleep combo with no problems . So far this "new" VBOIS and Dell 8.7 Driver are working as good as Roster in a Hen House, ah or something like that

 

This is one of the main reasons i AINT gambling my cards with a beta vbios....am gonna sit tight till the storm passes LOL

Lucky you Ash....that indeed sounded like a close call....

 

Excellent post. I wouldnt have know that at all and may well have rebooted if i had problems flashing the beta vbios....others should take heed of this and should be a MAJOR footnote to anyone wanting to do this....

+rep.

 

If somebody could please post exactly what do the vbios beta actually fix? Is it just sleep/hibernate problems, and minor game fixes? Or do the betas fix the battery issues and gpu heat issues as well?

Reason I ask is because the only problems that I have experienced since I recieved my R2 is the battery charging issue (plugged but not charging, and occassional shutdown when battery reaches 70% or less) and gpu heat issues (max 100C).

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

What i may find very important, is that you have to have no issue installing the BETA drivers BEFORE you update. Your vbios with the almost 1-click-installation, there should be not much room for personal mistakes, just make sure your system has been running stable on A/C normally, and there are no other programs open, don't kill any process. Best is you install beta drivers, reboot into windows, let the system idle for like 5 minutes, so it has booted up correctly, and then you can flash it. And that should be the optimal procedure.

 

The VBIOS is the one thing that fixes the sleep/hibernate/boot on battery issues for both official and dells 10.8 driver released yesterday.

What i noticed is that when the gpus are stressed, the fans are a bit louder/ more active/dynamic... It has also a new profile included in the vbios that looks like it prevents the gpu from overheating, with a throttle down when the gpu temp hits a certain value. But if you're GPU is hot all the time, it may have some internal e.g. thermal releation. You might want to check your heatsinks and thermal paste from time to time, if it's applied correctly.

About the other battery not charging up, there might be another post in the m17x forum that might have some info for you...

Don't know if it's releated, but you mentioned almost the same battery percentage: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/494569-m17x-r2-battery-boot-lock-up-woes-10.html#post6637749 + for Heat Issue discussed: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/513100-temperature-issue-m17x-r2-gpu.html

You might want to check Ash's Cooling Mod, which i'd like to do aswell this weekend.

 

I've got a manual flash guide for the beta vbios available but you will have to PM me to get to it.

 

Just to clarify: is the manual, albeit DOS, installation of the new vbios safer and more secure than the dellized one click?

 

I think it is as long as you follow the instructions correctly. There's always room for user error no matter how much you try to simplify something. For now, if Brian sends you the vbios, stick w/their winflash installer. Mine is only there for those that are comfortable with dos flash or have run into an error with the ATiWinflash. Also, if you know how to flash the vbios with dos, you can revert back to the old shipping vbios even after flashing this new one--it's not a permanent change. In fact, as a test, I did it and I'm currently on the old vbios.

Edit: Just used dos to flash back to the new beta vbios, 100% success.

 

Excellent, that comforts me on another side again, if something goes wrong with future updates. Thanks for trying it out.

 

So even if you use winflash to flash to the new vbios, you can later go into dos and revert to the original shipped?

 

Yes.

10char

 

you could use RBE editor which is a windows utility too if you wanted I would assume.

 

SC2 is running just fine under new setup so far.

Does anyone have any CCC settings they would suggest? Or just leave it as is?

 

Leaving it as is should be optimal. I like to use radeonpro to create individual profiles for my games.

 

Just opening up my M17xR2 to do your cooling mod Ash. I'm supprised how easy this laptop is to dissasemble. The MacbookPro was a lot more difficult than this.

If anyone is able to send me the vbios I would be most greatful. manfromdownunder at hotmail.com

 

Grim,

Thanks for the feedback, as this was my main concern being that I haven't experienced the sleep/hibernate and gaming issues like some others. I haven't built up the courage to dive inside my beast to perform Ash's cooling mod yet but I will eventually. Hopefully when the official release makes it, I will install to fix the battery issues (hopefully if your correct, the overheating issues as well). In the meantime my eyes are glued to this and the 10.8 thread to observe the bios and driver performance issues.
In the end I do hope that these end up becoming the default vbios, and drivers for a long time running.

Also, thanks Brian for going that extra mile to ensure that our systems remain "All Powerful"

 

Sup guys wana say so far my system is at 100% fix / performance with the vbios/driver no crashes lag spikes nothing only problem i had was when i was flashing my cards took so long my system went to sleep and i had to use safe mode disable cards reflash and enable them again. Awesome gaming / watching movies it no longer goes to sleep while watching movies. Only thing im curious about is why the ffxiv benchmark score so low. Anyways thx again brian hoping to see the final version out soon.
Vbios+8.763= Win fix fps wavy lines sleep etc. Played L4D2, WOW,Aion,Fallen earth, SC2,Mafia2 good fps stable clean graphics.

 

Got done playing BC2 for an hour, no crashes but major lag. Hope the final version corrects this.

Is there a reason why a bios is not being made so we can use regular ATI drivers instead of waiting and waiting for Dell drivers?

 

Actually, im pretty sure thats what this vbios does - you just need workaroundinstall=true.

Im probably going to mod the bios and change the HWID to something compatible with the stock ATI drivers. Gonna look into it and if I can, release it.

-Ash

 

how to go into dos and revert back to originally shipped? =?

 

I don't know if anyone else experienced this problem but hdmi out is awful with the new drivers. There's like a cloudy film over the screen and all of the colors are awful. Looks like it's back to the stable drivers.

 

I am also having the exact same problem. What causes this to happen and will the vbios release fix this problem? I read a lot of fixing the sleep/hibernate problems (which i also have) but no clear response to the freezing up when reconnecting a/c power and getting BSOD on restart. I do have the 8.763 beta drivers installed. I can boot up and run fine with just battery. Its either all battery or all a/c.

m17R2 i7 820QM 6G RAM 5870CR BIOS A07

 

Vbios fixes all sleep/battery issues.

-Ash

 

Joker i tried your method to no avail, it says "flash already programmed" when i try to reflash them, can you or anyone else here please give me the original vbios files so i can try flashing back and than to this again and see if it fixes my problem, thanks.

 

Yeah everything is working good with the new Vbios and driver combo... Yanked out the power plug and no lockups etc plus restarting works as it should...

 

Been running the new Vbios and Beta drivers since yesterday without a problem. Switched to the AMD ATI driver today and haven't see any issues. So far so good. Been testing with SC2, and Bad Company 2.

 

Is anyone else getting this issue? I MUST know before trying the new driver as I use HDMI out all the time at my house and my brothers house. Although, I never thought it looked quite right anyway compared to my old lappy...

Please check, let me know...I will delay installing vbios and driver until I have a few reports.

 

I don't have the new vbios and check on your tv and see if there is a way to rename the port as "PC" because it puts it in some sort of special mode. Anyway, it is definitely from the new drivers, as it worked fine this morning and now it doesn't.

 

Hey Quadzilla, wanna do a test for me?

Plug your 30" monitor into your laptop, set extended desktop on and set the 30" as the main display, then try running, say, SC2 with crossfire on and catalyst AI set to standard or advanced.

Does it run ok?

Thanks

-Ash

 

Quad doesnt have crossfire.

 

Good news: ATi has released a hotfix for the 10.8 Crossfire Profiles which enhances Bad Company 2 (FINALLY) and AVP performance. You can read about it and download it here: CAP 10.8a - ATI CrossFireX Application Profile 10.8a Performance | [H]ard|OCP

 

Yep no CF and also my 30 inch is hooked up via DVI not display port ... Been meaning to buy one of those cables but never really saw the need so i just didnt bother ...

 

Joker,
I am new to ATI, I have used Nvidia for years. When I install the ATI CAP file, is there any thing I need to do in CCC? Or does it just work automatically when I load a game?

 

Ok Cooling mod finished Cheers for the tutorial Ash. Going to run some tests now.

 

.. HWInfo32 is BSODing the machine. Please please pleeease can someone send me the vBIOS?

 

Are you using the latest hwinfo version?

 

It works automatically, there's nothing to load.

 

Yep. I currently have one of my video cards disabled so I can use the system. Not sure if that is what is causing HWinfo to BSOD the pc. I can run GPU-Z and am stress testing the cpu to test the cooling mod with Prime95. I'm 100% sure the VBIOS will make some of my grey hair go dark again. Or at least drop my blood pressure :S

I know it's slightly off topic, but my CPU is running at 80 degrees Celcius under full load with Prime 95. Pretty stoked. Thanks again Ash for the tutorial. I would like to get the graphics cards sorted now so I can test temps for OCing, and get back into BC2. If anyone is online and able to send me the vbios I would be most greatful. [email protected]

 

Use two instances of GPU-Z to monitor your temps instead.