New m17 BIG Problem!

Guys,

Help?!

I have booted my m17 this evening and looks like i have a GFX fail on me

device manager shows 2 cards, but CCC only shows one, GPUZ shows 2 but only shows one being loaded/used and temp stays cool on other one when playing games

3dmark score is down to 8k and games that were slick are now unplayable

removed drivers and re-installed no difference...

both cards show in system information as follows

Name ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9509&SUBSYS_207A161F&REV_00\6&7C2E2F2&0&00000008
Adapter Type ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x9509), ATI Technologies Inc. compatible
Adapter Description ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870
Adapter RAM 512.00 MB (536,870,912 bytes)
Installed Drivers atidxx32,atidxx64.dll,atiumdag,atiumdva,atiumd64.dll,atiumd6a.cap,atitmm64.dll
Driver Version 7.01.01.861
INF File oem27.inf (ati2mtag_M76 section)
Color Planes Not Available
Color Table Entries 4294967296
Resolution 1920 x 1200 x 59 hertz
Bits/Pixel 32
Memory Address 0xD0000000-0xDFFFFFFF
Memory Address 0xF81F0000-0xF81FFFFF
I/O Port 0x00002C00-0x00002CFF
IRQ Channel IRQ 4294967294
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\atikmdag.sys (7.1.1.861, 4.85 MB (5,084,160 bytes), 19/05/2009 23:15)

Name ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9509&SUBSYS_207A161F&REV_00\6&1198083A&0&00280008
Adapter Type ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x9509), ATI Technologies Inc. compatible
Adapter Description ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870
Adapter RAM 512.00 MB (536,870,912 bytes)
Installed Drivers atidxx32,atidxx64.dll,atiumdag,atiumdva,atiumd64.dll,atiumd6a.cap,atitmm64.dll
Driver Version 7.01.01.861
INF File oem27.inf (ati2mtag_M76 section)
Color Planes Not Available
Color Table Entries Not Available
Resolution Not Available
Bits/Pixel Not Available
Memory Address 0xC0000000-0xFEBFFFFF
Memory Address 0xF8200000-0xF82FFFFF
I/O Port 0x00003000-0x00003FFF
IRQ Channel IRQ 4294967293
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\atikmdag.sys (7.1.1.861, 4.85 MB (5,084,160 bytes), 19/05/2009 23:15)






please guys this been heard of before?

Pete

 

your scores show that you have 2 cards

 

What is your power management set at?

 

He said they're now down to 8k.

 

powermangement is set to high performance

Pete

 

oops, missed that part. what driver version are you running? and what temps are you seeing on both cards?

 

i was running 8.10 now running alienware standard that came with it to try to restore normality

showing 54 on each card idle

in game one goes to 75 other stays around 60

Pete

 

ok partial update

looks like might be driver issues somewhere, as i am in windows 7 and 3mark seems to be running better (more normal)

will post once completed in windows 7

all problems been in vista so far

Pete

 

ok windows 7 gives normal performance,

what the hell could i have done to my vista to make it do this? :S

Pete

 

Some programs are not accurate. You should not trust them in deciding you computer is broken. You should have tried more programs like you did and that's the right way of tackling problems!! congrats!!

 

yeah so it appears the hardware is ok *phew*

just now really really confused about vista :S

 

well, i would like to ask too. how to know if crossfire is enabled or not ?
without using GPUZ.

 

ok install 8.12 drivers and enable catylst ai and put it on standard. you should be fine. also where do you get your drivers.

 

i normally used e's ones i had 9.3 which i removed to try 8.10 to clock with, which seemed ok until today :s

so i put e's 9.3's back and all is ok again, thats very strange

u can just tell xfire not working when you score 4k less in 3d mark

Pete

 

ok look in CCC and tell me if catalyst AI is on

 

well here's the thing 8.10 and below doesn't utilze everything in the cards for whatever reason. and the worse thing is 8.10 and below is the only one's that we can overclock with. it's garbage in a way but we can't do nothing about it.

 

no no no ... don 3dmark 06 score high on 8.10

 

well thats why it is so strange, i scored my record score over 13k on 8.10

then when i went to play tonight everything had gone haywire and it jus wasnt working for some reason.

removed 8.10 -- installed AW drivers -- nothing
removed AW installed 8.12 nothing
removed 8.12 installed e-wrecked's 9.3 (ones i was using to start with) and now all seems normal again

note that a did a full uninstall, device manager, CCC, and reboot to safe and run driversweeper as well

wierd thing is i only rebooted to vista from W7 as ventrilo doesnt always work correctly for gaming :S

this is mad :S i feel a vista re-install might be needed as something is very badly wrong with the driver setups some where

doh!

 

did you check and see is Catalyst AI was enabled?

 

Its crazy that it works in win7 but not vista.

 

i am at work at the moment, but i will check when i get home and report back

Pete

 

Hi Pmanuk, please feel free to contact us at AW support if you continue experiencing issues with the graphics cards in your new M17 system via online support at- http://support.alienware.co.uk/Support_Pages/contact_support.aspx (Interntional) or via telephone at- http://support.alienware.com/Support_Pages/Support_Area.aspx (USA) by logging into My Hive.

Please feel free to PM me your AW account and issue you are experiencing and I will also work to assist you.

Have a nice day!

 

you see thats why this is the best forum in the world ^^

i'll report back tonight once i have checked on my "baby" again

 

Lol please do.

 

It would appear we have yet another victim:

My various posts on this subject (as of yet not resolved satisfactorily IMO):

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=368282
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=376049
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=376540
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=376506
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=373854
http://support.alienware.com/Forum_Pages/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=572725
http://support.alienware.com/Forum_Pages/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=573421
http://support.alienware.com/Forum_Pages/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=575066
http://support.alienware.com/Forum_Pages/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=574936

A couple of things I do to lessen the possibility of issues.
1. Use High Performance Power Mode.
2. Wait about 5 mins after starting your computer to launch WoW (I watch my Sidebar gadget for rapid fluctuations of the CPU and wait for them to stabilize before doing anything).
3. Wait a min after launching into the game to move around or mess with settings (I wait for all the graphics to load around me before making sudden moves).
4. When entering a populated area (i.e. flying into Dal on your super fast flyer) pause after you land and wait for graphics to load before moving on.
5. Crank the AC up and freeze to death while playing (Not sure if this helps, but I've been doing it anyway).

Best I can tell its just trying to process too much too fast, and there's some issue with the CPU going nutso on startup that won't settle down for a few minutes after booting up.

 

Why you gotta put my post second. i just copper modded and just reinstalled win7 x64 and so far i am perfectly fine. i will report on the quad core thread what's up.

 

Fixed the order just for you Donda, but again, bottom line is: "I should not have to spend my time, money, and resources to modify the internal components of my computer to make it work".

 

Lol you didn't have.

 

Hi Moo,

yeah AI was on, it was on standard

never used that option before, is that something i should pay attention to?

 

well if it disabled then all your tweaks and one card will be disabled as well.
advance doesn't really show any performance difference. so standard is recommended.

 

catalyst AI can make your system only use one card instead of 2 thus resulting in low scores and game play consistent with only one card being used. which would be 8500-9000 3dmarks

 

I found it and its enabled. so it means i have cf enabled ?

 

yes it does.

 

i am stumped now .... how its showing both card but only useing one in 3dmarks .... one could have went poo poo

 

I did alot of digging around and apparently its a bug with ATI when removing a new driver to install an old one, specifically 9 series drivers >> 8 series.

I cant find a suitable peremeant solution other then a windows re-install.

Still this doesnt explain why it worked for a day then bugged out on me.

all i want is to O/C my gfx

I removed the 8.10 and re-installed E-Wrecked's 9.3 and now all working fine again

Pete

 

Glad you got everything working again. Let us now how the OC goes.

 

problem is cant over clock with the 9.3's tho

nvida can overclock at will, i want to be able to do that!