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

This happened to me too. Stay tuned and I will try remember how I fixed it.

-Ash

 

OK, I remember.

Type "msconfig" and go to services, hide all microsoft services, and disable rivatuner.

Do the same for startup icons, switch off rivatuner if its there.

The rivatuner auto OC was causing HWinfo32 and GPU-Z and certain catalyst screens to lock up.

-Ash

 

I haven't installed RivaTuner Ash. It's a fresh build. Thanks for the info however. The beast is hobbling on one 5870m leg at the moment. I'm almsot certain this is causing the crash. The only problem is if I enable the second 5870 I get a BSOD shortly after, so i still cant test.

 

Hmm... How tight are those screws? any bending of the PCB?

Make sure your fan cable is plugged in for the non working GPU. I remember the first time I did the mod, I didnt plug in one of the GPU fans... <-- noob.

It switched off nice and quick, and I realized the problem and fixed it.

-Ash

 

Thanks, testing out BC2 right now

 

First thing I checked was that all 3 fans were running. I did stuff up the LCD cable. That is a tricky connector. Made my Scroll lock and Num lock lights flash. But that's all sorted. Just ran 3dmark and it completed no worries. It is however only one card enabled. hmm.. 3691 marks is pretty sad and well.. unacceptable for a $4000 laptop

 

8.763 driver install caused BSOD too. Can feel my chest getting tight *gnnnnrrr*

 

It may not be what you want to hear, but sounds like you broke a solder link underneath the GPU chip, or at the worst cracked the GPU die.

I would reapply the heatsink on the bad card (make sure to find out which is which first!) and use the original heatsink config.

While doing that double check the die to look for cracks and chips.

-Ash

 

While it is a possibilty Ash, the laptop was exhibiting these problems before I took it apart. It is actually going to be picked up next week for refund if I can't get the cards working. I lost all hope, and then I see the discussion of the vbios. I'd really like to test the vbios fix asap so i can cancel the refund if it all comes good.

If I enable the second card and run Futuremark I get a BSOD. "a clock interrupt was not recieved on a secondary processor within the allocated interval"

 

If it had issues before taking it apart then I would say the card was faulty from factory. No need for a refund, just get them to send you another card. Im sure they would be happy with that.

-Ash

 

The issues I'm having are only with 10.7 drivers. The older dell driver 10.6 I think, are stable.

Edit: yep just tested the dell drivers from the dell drivers website. They are stable. Just really bad fps so I don't think its the hardware.

hmmm ok, something funny IS going on. Launching CPU-Z is causing a BSOD also..

 

Wow such a major difference playing BC2 with those different profiles! Nice find Joker

 

Okay I'm just seeing a re occuring issue now.

Everytime I'm using the notebook plugged in or not and the screen goes off I can't get it back after moving the mouse or typing on any keys. Its still on but I can't see anything just a black screen so I am forced to hard reboot.

Might have to bite the bullet and try the new VBios i think. Hmmmmssssss......

 

Does the new vbios adjust the vcore at all?

I can run CPU-Z in safemode... Would really like to test the vbios update if anyone can send it my way [email protected].

Cheers

 

Guys, if you already have problems running these drivers, you might have some hardware issue or a garbaged windows install. You might want to contact erawneila directly and ask if your problem can be solved by updating the vbios. IMO i wouldn't flash the bios within windows if the drivers did not install correctly or if you got a BSOD upon rebooting.

 

I seem to also have the unplug ac adapter and plug back in then freeze issue. Reboot and BSOD greets me with a msg. Restart choose last know config that worked and I'm back in.

 

Hey theres,

I just sent you the VBIOS. Cheers.

 

That is one option, you might also try a restore point and recover from that if you have issues installing the drivers. If that doesn't help i can recommend a clean fresh windows install where you can be more sure that no previous driver conflicts with other things, as i did yesterday. As soon i get home, i'm finally testing some games and benches over the weekend and see how the drivers actually perform for me.

 

Hmm.. Vbios update allows me to install the latest driver 8.763. I can now run CPU-Z without a BSOD. HWInfo32 however still BSOD's during startup, looks like it is when it initializes memory.

Going to do some more testing..

 

Thanks for the tip.
The system is pretty new like 1 day old lol eheheeheh. I installed the dell driver fine yesterday. Just having issues with the unplugging and battery mode thing.

Might try the new Vbios later. Cheers.

 

The VBIOS will take care of those power management issues and it will work as it should, the only problem i see if you don't install a fresh install, whenver you have to uninstall drivers with the new vbios and you are not on 10.8 cats or vga-mode, your system will BSOD upon rebooting. So no backward compatibility at the moment. What we can hope for is that dell gets that fixed aswell within the vbios for public release.

 

Hi Guys,

This is my first post, but i read this forum from the beginning.
two days ago i received my laptop MX17 R2 HD5870 CF / 820 Qm / 4GB

I have played different games, SC2 / Crysis and the performance was not so good and the noise of the fans when playing a game was terrible, it sounded like a yet plain.. :-(

i decided to update the drivers with the beta driver from dell without the vbios.

after that i rebooted the system and performance was perfect, noise however was worse.. if i opened a website the fans will boost up to 100 procent.. its really terrible.

the problem that i have was after that, i put the laptop off and later on the evening when i tried to start de laptop i get a BSOD, i restarted the laptop but the BSOD keeps coming..

i have tried to boot in safe mode but third time BSOD.. it not boots at all any more, i have the power connected..

now aim thinking to reinstall windows with the new drivers en vbios.
so i can test if this resolve the issue, but in terms of noise.. is there something to do about it or is this normal for this kind of machine.. ?
and the problem I have with the BSOD can it be hardware?

Thanks

 

Hey DWB,

for starters, start windows hitting F8 after the alienware bios, select either repair computer and upon windows restore to a previous point, or use the option Last known configuration on the F8 menu.

Anyway was the system running ok with stock drivers? And are you sure stealth mode was not enabled?

This would be the optimal choice.

About heat and fans, yes it is kind of an airplane during takeoff, but since it's a perfomance laptop you might have to live with that and just put up the volume of sound of course you can always try ash 's cooling mod found in this forum to keep the temperatures and fans at a lower level. Anything below 100°C is actually a safe state of working with your beast. Above that, i would be a little bit worried and ask dell about the issue and what can be done.

 

Just updated the vBIOS. first attempt failed. tried closing antivirus, and all other monitoring software running in the background, did a reflash and second attempt went through fine.

i've been having shut down issues with the new driver since yesterday. when i shut down, the laptop will not shut down, screen blank and fan rev up high and stuck. had to force shut down. will try again with the new vBIOS and see how it goes.

 

Even though both cards are enabled now, the second one doesn't seem to be getting used, even though Crossfire is enabled. Am I missing something?

 

I just had the shutdown problem as well.

 

But you're still on the old vbios no? I think i had that aswell with these drivers whenever i i tried shutdown, i think reboot was ok but not shutdown, it would stay on, locked up on black screen. That is until i installed the new vbios, since then it does what i demand so far.

 

Yeh still on the old VBios atm. Going to try out some games and things before I flash it.

So everything is still running fine for those on the new drivers and Vbios? Cheers.

 

Yep, make sure you have satisfied performance with the drivers in games before you update vbios, as you won't be able to get back to any other driver before 10.8 except vga drivers on default. Good Luck

 

Im looking at HWInfo32 my first 5870 is clocked at 300MHz, Memory 400Mhz.

The second 5870 is clocked at 100Mhz 150Mhz.


The second 5870 doesn't seem to be used for anything thus far. How can I stress test both cards aka crossfire?

 

Looks like the gpus card are not activated properly (maybe crossfire is disabled aswell), the low 100/150 settings are the default values in windows while the gpus are idle, so base core should be 700/1000 and on idle they are throttled via power management to 100/150. Try using GPU-Z 0.4.4+ and see if it tells you that 1. CrossFire is enabled and 2. that both cards are throttled the same under sensors while idle in windows.

 

You can try running furmark multi GPU, 3dmark06 or Vantage.
You can use GPU-z and use the gpu log and check to see the temps and core readings when you run the applications.
Cheers.

 

... edit...

 

Hey Grimfan ,

Thanks for the fast reply! Really appreciate it!

When the laptop arrived with the stock drivers everything worked only the fps was very low when playing games, I checked stealth mode and that was off.

Great idée to restore the machine with F8, but the option to reinstall windows with the new drivers and vbios is indeed the optimal choice i totally agree.

I will try this tonight and will test what the outcome is, temps / performance etc and will post it on this forum i saw a couple of people trying this method on the forum.

Airplane take off that’s the noise indeed…
I have looked at my temps when iam running furmark both the GPU,s are at 92 % load and the temps are 73 (gpu 1) and 76 (gpu 2) degrees so well within the normal temps.

Good to know that is normal the noise because I thougt it was a flaw of my machine.. I will turn the sound a lot louder or I will try indeed the mod from ash…

I will test tonight If can resolve some of the issues..

Thanks!

 

About enabling and disabling stealth mode, it is kinda confusing, as you get asked when you press the stealth button, it will ask you the same question for enabling and disabling. Normally you just say yes, for deactivate once, then again yes, to activate it again. The OSD should notify in the tray icon that the system is running on perfomance settings.

Also make sure you have the latest directx installed. What was the fps, running Furmark in windowed 640x480 settings? For my setup it is usually around 80-85 up to 180 fps with any driver installed. And crossfire enabled.

 

For those confused whether stealth mode is on or off, I highly recommend using Wattos stealth mode indicator application: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/463382-stealth-mode-indicator-9.html#post6589020

 

ok so VBios applied. Crossfire enabled. The second GPU wont crack. Im running MultiGPU furmark and the second 5870 is still clocked at 100Mhz running at 40Degrees Celcius. While GPU 0 is running at 300Mhz and 58Degrees Celcius.

Any ideas?

 

Turn on powerplay if you disabled it in CCC. And download that stealth application I mentioned above to make sure it's disabled.

 

Yes just check stealth. That is disabled. Will try powerplay. I'm pretty sure that is disabled.

 

Powerplay has to be enabled and set to High performance or it will have a strange power managment profile applied especially that 300/400 clock speed is something when powerplay is disabled, i've noticed. Your cards should both be at default clock to 700/1000, and throttled to 100/150 when idle.

 

Ok so the default powerplay profile was set to maximum battery plugged in. Changed that to maximum performance, and now the clock speeds are correct 700/1000 on gpu 0.

As for GPU 1, it is still clocked at 100/150.

 

Ahh this is really really annoying now. Every time I'm away from the notebook and the screen turns off; I come back later and move the mouse but the screen just stays black. Ah super annoying. Have to hard reboot each time and select last known working config.
Using the stock driver didn't have this problem though.

Looks like I will have to use the new VBios soon.

 

You WILL get this if you DONT use the new vbios - its the only thing that will eliminate the sleep/hibernate issues - dont expect by just changing the drivers that you will have an instant cure....it wont happen, at least AFAIK.

 

Yep the Vbios looks to be my only hope or just going back to stock drivers. They worked fine. No troubles there. I wasn't expecting the new drivers to fix things but also wasn't expecting them to hang every time my screen turned off; since the stock drivers worked okay and didn't have this annoying problem.
Cheers.

Steviejones or anyone else using the new drivers without the new VBIOS,

Was just wondering if your notebook also stayed blank black screen after it turned off the screen and when you tried to turn the screen back on?
Cheers.

 

roidz, set catallyst ai to advanced and double check crossfire is on. also run a memtest if you can.

- ash (on phone)

 

Any ETA for releasing the vbios to ALL ?

 

I installed the most current beta drivers from the dell website, I still cant get the second card to crank up tho. It seems im just running one 5870. Not sure what else I can try.

 

That's good to hear. Perhaps try testing some games and letting us know how they run? Cheers.

 

Sorry, No idea of when the public version of the new VBIOS will be released to the general public. You could try asking or PM Brian. However I don't think they will be released just yet. More testing to be done. Cheers.

 

I havent installed the latest drivers OR the vbios thats available if you PM Brian....im running stock but I am observing the problems others have BEFORE diving in with both feet first....(call me sceptical but in Brians 1st post, he states that you do the vbios at your own risk - until such a time that its on public release and deemed "safe", im not using my £3k laptop as a guinea pig LOL)

As far as what ive read, i believe that those who try the new drivers without the vbios still have the same lock ups upon sleep/hibernate/resume - if anyone has eliminated this WITHOUT vbios, lets hear from you! (though i doubt that will get many replies )