M17 Tips/Drivers/Apps

what's the difference between 2.2 and 2.18? why should we upgrade?

PS: i hope we're talking about sound drivers here

 

hello. I'm new to the forums and kinda new to PC gaming. I just purchased and recieved an Alienware M17 system (specs below). This is my first Alienware and first PC directed towards gaming in general. Any tips...or which drivers I would need to install to get the top performance out of my new rig? I'm not sure what has already been put on it by Alienware...I just got it yesterday (March 28, 2009)

Thanks

ALIENWARE M17
Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad QX9300 2.53GHz
Dual 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon 3870 xFire
4GB DDR3 RAM
512GB (256GB x2) SSD
17" WideUXGA 1920x1200 (1200p)
DL BD-ROM Reader
Ultimate N 5300 Network Card
Windows Vista Ultimate (64bit)

 

Use E-Wreck's 9.1 ATI Drivers and get the newest Realtek drivers:

E-Wreck:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=347611

Realtek:
http://www.realtek.com/downloads/do...=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

 

Thanks you very much Fox

 

No problem and enjoy your M17!

 

Regarding Windows. I don't have any experience with Vista. Previous PC ran off XP. My question is if I should keep Vista...or install XP or Windows 7 Beta?

 

its ur call
vista isnt bad
xp is good win 7 is vista 2

i would keep vista

 

Another vote here to keep Vista - it's not so bad anymore, and your system has a good amount of RAM to keep it running well. To me, it's just not worth running XP even as a gamer - Vista is the new thing, might as well just get used to it...

 

Thanks for the responses. I'll keep Vista

 

Is it true that people who buy the comps in July
get free upgrade to Windows 7 ?

 

As far as I know, there will be something like this^^

Greetings
Julian

 

Does anybody know if this problem could be the 9.1 E-Wreck drivers? TES4: Oblivion runs smooth and perfect for about 15 - 30 minutes...then it crashes ("Oblivion has stopped working"). I've tried changing to admin properties..xp compat mode..disc defrag..still happens. I haven't tried it on any other games yet. Any help would be great

 

try this one, it's not soo easy but not realy hevy, have you tried to use HW Monitor to see wheather your notebook gets to hot.

Give an other game a shot, may be the problem is related to oblivion^^

Greetings
Julian

 

I'll do that, thanks. Just so I know...what's the range where my CPU and GPU's should be at? What's the hottest temp that's too hot, and would crash?

 

for the m17? your CPU should idle at 40-50°C, the GPU similarly. as for max temps, about 70°C for the CPU and, at most, 90°C for the GPU (hopefully less). of course, it all depends on the room temperature, if a cooler is being used, etc.

 

Thanks for the info. I'll check it when I get home. Probably invest in a laptop cooler.

 

What notebook cooler would any one suggest for an M17?

EDIT:
The max temps i got right after the game crashed were:
-Intel Cores: 59c (all four)
-ATI Radeon HD 3870 #1: 76c
#2: 79c

 

Temps look fine. As far as I know, you shouldnt worry about temps until they go above 90-100? Maybe something else is wrong?

 

I realiced, that higher temps (even beyond 90) make the gpus slower, so a cooler could help you even when you have "good" temps

Greetings
Julian

PS: under 80° after running Crysis for more than one hour is realy nice so as far as I experenced it, Crysis (try the demo^^) is the game which makes my GPU hotter than other games

 

Waiting for the new Bios, any information about it?

 

Thanks for all of this! I can't wait for my notebook to arrive, is this thread totally up to date now?

 

my sig has every drive out for the m17

 

Ok so I uninstalled and followed all of ewrecked procedures in deleting the old drivers.

Everything seemed to go smooth until I finally installed the setup. At the end it says the driver failed.. I did it twice just to see if there was something I did wrong, but couldnt seem to find the problem.

The driver package is the 9.3

Also, the first time I went to install the driver, right before I clicked begin, the screen starting flickering, as if it was trying to find a video card. I started task manager after about 10mins and it stopped.Then the second time I went to install the driver, it did it again, except it started doing it right when logged in..

I installed 8.5 drivers. Im going to install 9.4 later if I cant find a solution to the ewrecked 9.3

 

I had the same problem with E-Wrecked's 9.3 drivers when I tried to install them, so I reverted back to the AW 8.57 version. That is until someone posted the MobModded 9.5 version, and I just ran the install and they work fine. I didn't even do the clean install nonsense. Whenever you run the computer without drivers though and it uses the standard VGA, you get the screen flashing you were referring to, but ctrl-alt-del task manager brings it out of it.

 

Wow,

I guess you got lucky. I've seen not doing a clean install screw things up many times.

 

new ati driver released! 9.7 www.ati.com

 

Schweet! Thanks.

 

9.8 is available.

 

In combination with Mobility Modder it works great, 3DMark06 score is realy good and Crysis test inc

Greetings
Julian

 

But AW does not recommendor Updates these Drivers on MyHive

They stil have 8.5 or 8.7

Is it worth updating the Ati Drivers
are there risk or benifits ?

Please Help

 

Risk: None

Benefits: Much, much higher performance in some games

It's well worth updating the drivers. AW might not recommend the updates but that's only because they want you to use official AW drivers.

 

I think Catalyst 9.7 performs better than 9.8 IMHO

well in terms of benchmarks and performance scores....for me anyway!

 

I've seen next to no difference if I'm honest.

 

Thankyou

Also as you can see every few weeks
new driver is out
so should we try all or wait for few then update
to the 4 or 5 Version out

 

some new drivers?

 

Yes. realtek sound, and ATI driver.

 

I uploaded Win7 ultimate 64bit on my Vista

All was working fine till I installed my Game to play
& when I tryed to play it was in Smaller screen(No Full Screen)

game was working

I chk in Device Mang & saw the the Below Ati card is showing error

so in I tryed to update driver - NO LUCK yet

I tryed uninstalling Ati from control panel but it still shows in Control Panel after I remove & restart Laptop

& I even tryed to Install 9.12 still seeing - Yellow Triangle Error

ATI icon also doesnt show in system tray or Programs list
& i download & ran GPU-Z, it says Drivers uptodate

thats the only thing in device manger with an error mark

Please Please Help

 

Did you mod the 9.12 before installing?
Did you clean your old driver in safe mod after uninstall?

 

ive got same problem ever since i tried to update the driver my slave card wont work now ive even tried in vista and im still having the same problem ( my card might be bust tho)

 

How do i do that ?
Please
EDIT :-
For Safe Mod -> I Found This
Is there a FREEWARE for Drivercleaner

To Mod Driver should I install - This Software
Should I run this After I uninstall Ati Drivers or Before ?

Gives me 3 Option which do i choose to Download ? -
msxml6_ia64.msi 3.6 MB
msxml6_x64.msi 2.5 MB
msxml6_x86.msi 1.5 MB


Guess I can follow this step by Step if u approve
Or give me Easer way to do it

How do i chk if my Hadware is problem or Driver Issue ?

 

EDIT: Pls see next post...

It seems ATI have changed the driver so the software

I have just had a go at installing the 9.12 driver, after modding it. After getting the BSOD I did some more checking around and found this...


http://www.hardwareheaven.com/hardw...-howto-install-newest-ati-drivers-9-12-a.html


Unfortunately this fix is beyond my skills, so I'm sticking with what I got at the moment.

 

Following the mobility modders instructions, I didn't do a clean install. Now I have and so far this seems to be working.

ibraveheart... I used this one "msxml6_x86.msi 1.5 MB"

If I get any issues I'll post.