Problems and Questions when moving from NVIDIA to ATI GPUs - M17x R1

There have been many posts recently asking about proper methods of installing ATI drivers, settings, overclocking, tools, etc., by owners of M17x R1 systems who have had their GPUs changed out due to the DPC Latency issue.

In addition, if you are having issues you should also reference the following thread - many questions and answers have been posted their as well:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=456634

These posts need to be confined in a specific area - this will help remove excess/OT posts from the DPC Latency thread.

DPC Latency related posts need to go in the DPC thread. Not here. This thread is only for "installing ATI drivers, settings, overclocking, tools, etc., by owners of M17x R1 systems".

Thanks.

 

when using the modding utility, should I use the change memory option ?

also, should I install this ? http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/ATICatalyst912Hotfix.aspx


thx

 

I did none of these and as far as gaming is concerned - everything is smooth. The temps look a little higher than with 280s but that's probably as good as it gets with ATIs.

 

Installed ATIs today. Did a fresh OS and driver install. Everything is working pretty good with the exception of my GPU-Z readings.
Is this normal or something flaky with one of the cards?

 

i DID do a fresh install.. or more like i used my 2nd os which has NEVER had nvidia on it before. all it had was windows home premium fresh install and i left it on default vga drivers with windows update stuff and other essential drivers for this test and thats the spikes and performance problem im getting.

30 fps max for borderlands..

crysis runs quite ok at 22-24 fps 1920x1200 all enthusiast though with some artifacting for distant objects. i think ive read someone has it as well

EDIT: er i dont see my ati cards on hwmonitor.. is that normal? i can only check the temps using gpuz =(

 

The ATI cards will not show up in HWMonitor. Sorry I can't offer any advice on this one Ruby. Will have to see if Gadget can comment on how he handled the install. Could be as simple as not using the 'better' ATI driver, I just don't know since I haven't had to deal with it first hand. The last time I used an ATI card was on a circa 2002 desktop system.

 

is there any program to detect ATI temps except gpuz?


thus the modifier of desktop drivers doesnt work with 10.1 version?

 

Thats correct - MobilityModder is not compatible with the 10.1 driver. According to the devs of MobilityModder it is being worked on.

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/hardw...ility-modder-catalyst-10-1-a.html#post1340461

 

Everest will detect temps on the ATIs too.

 

Update: Waiting on a second pair of cards. 10c difference in cards and intermittent black screen on warm/cold boot.
I used GPUz and Everest with TS connected and both read the same as far as GPU temps.

 

Can any ATI owner tell me what are the best drivers to use on your R1 with the crossfire 4870 cards? I see 9.12 and 10.1 and then there's hotfixed drivers....
Which are the best?

Thanx,

D

 

9.12 with hotfix is best so far. not that you have lots of choice. its only the dell driver or the 9.12 since the mobility modder supports up to 9.12 only for now

 

Cool, thanx Ruby!

 

I have another problem, when the machine goes in sleep mode, it doesn't wake up anymore. Black screen and I have to hard reset it.

Also, does anyone know how I can test the crossfire ability? Like the SLI could be tested with those green bars ingame?

Thx,

D

 

yea its in an option in the crossfirex setting. the one which says show crossfirex status icon where applicable. it doesnt work like the bars showing load balance but it just shows an icon on the top right saying crossfire is working i think.


when i had my gtx280s sleep and hibernate waking is a hit and miss thing. was using dell's 186.64 drivers and sometimes it just fails to wake properly or it just wakes and be really laggy so i have to restart anyway.

 

oh and i forgot to add, with the dell ati drivers i had no issues plugging out my power cord and go on battery with the ati cards on but after installing 9.12 sometimes when i pulled it out, the system freezes. hotfix doesnt help either..

 

If I open the crossfire settings through the ATI menu, it doesnt show a crossfire setup. It just shows 1 ATI card. However, in the Windows System it show 2 ATI 4870 cards... Am I doing something wrong? Should I 'turn' crossfire on in a different way?

 

when in the ATI control panel, go to Crossfire settings and then there should be a box checked stating "enable crossfire". If it isn't, click the diagnostics button/tab. Mine told me the CF cable wasn't properly connected. Reconnected the cable and now I'm back in business.

 

Now, I've experienced several hard lock ups while running multiple applications or games even after a swap to ATI 4870s and I'm getting peeved. What do I do? I believe that the mobo and chipset are fubar and want Dell/Alienware to give me an R2 board and proc, but they say that they can't as its incompatible with the current configuration. I'd suggest demanding a system exchange accept that the newer R2's don't offer blueray drives! I think I'm really screwed now......

 

Well, I just got my brandnew M17x replacement with 4870's delivered...Now ATI control panel is telling me the crossfire cable is not connected. What the hell is Dell doing? They are not capable of delivering a machine that works out of the box. Now I have to dig into this system and connect cables....Nice work at the testing dep....ffs.

 

What is this hotfix I've been hearing about? Where can I find this?

 

I'm assuming it's mobility modder?

 

So, on my second set of ATI cards. Temp problem was resolved, but I am still getting a Black Screen on warm/cold boot.
Symptoms:
1) Black screen from the very start no Bios screen
2) No backlight, CCFL never truns on.
3) CPU fan comes on full speed and stay on
This senario is happening about 60% of all boots, even during OS re-install.
I did not have this issue with the 260m's. Anyone else have this issue post switching from NVIDIA to ATI ?

 

In addition to the other symptoms I was able to capture LED error code a couple of times today. This has only been present post NVIDIA to ATI swap and this is my second set of cards. I guess it is time for a MB swap. Waiting on a call for Dell now.

 

I'm sorry, but I'm a bit new to ATI products, I've been running modded Nvidia drivers forever but I'm not sure what to do with ATI drivers. I've read that I need Mobility Modder which I believe I've found. I can only find the 10.1 driver from the ATI site. People have been having fairly good luck with 9.12, so I want to use that. Can you anyone tell me where to get this driver and a tutorial would also be helpful.

 

Currently I am using the 9.12 hotfix. It can be found here:

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/ATICatalyst912Hotfix.aspx

On the Modder download page there are 7 steps to mod and install the drivers about 3/4 down the page. Pretty easy to follow and install.
Should also note that I first installed the ATI drivers from the Dell site and then installed these without un-installing anything.

 

Thanks for your help. I'll try that!

 

So an update on 2 issues post ATI switch from NVIDIA. These issues where not present before the swap.
1) Black screen at cold/warm boot
- I have noted the symptoms in a previous post, basically the ATI cards are not posting on bootup. Ran diagnostics right after a non posting event and got and error on the MB which stated a problem with the inverter cable. Dell T/S recorded the details including error codes.
2) Hardlockup when the AC adapter is disconnected from the unit and it is operating on the ATIs
- TS doesn't have an explanation or remedy for this and it is concerning because the TS guy and the engineering department thought I should get a dialog box to reboot enabling the integrated graphics.

Currently I am waiting for a 4th set of ATI cards and the MB to be replaced.
I am posting this incase anyone else is/has switching/switched to ATI from NVIDIA and experiencing the above problems.

 

gadgetboi i have the same issue as you during boots except it only occurs like maybe 10% of the time? not so sure but i havent got time to run diagnostics.

all i can say is those r1 people who bought the system with 4870s only held on to them for less than 3 months so maybe there are some major problems that werent said out so as not to affect their sale

 

I can unplug no problem, but I have experienced a the black screen a couple of times when I was using 10.3b.

Now, with 10.3 preview I have no problems.

 

Remove the BIOS battery for half a minute and see if it helps.


<<<<< I mean - unplug the BIOS battery cable, no need to remove the battery itself. And for convenience remove the CPU fan before.

 

For an update on my Black screen issuse (no posting). My system went the repair depot after the last ATI and MB swapped did not resolve the issue. The repair depot swapped the ATI cards and MB again and set everything back to factory conditions but this did not fix it. Everytime it fails to post I can run diagnostics on the next boot and it throws an error related to the video inverter cable.
TS indicates the solution for this error is a MB swap.
After 5 ATI swaps and 2 MB swaps, along with several hours of Troubleshooting with drivers, bios battery unplugging, and OS re-installs, TS has decided the sytem can be exchanged. So that is where I am now.

The suggestion would be if you encounter the no posting(Black screen) run diagnostics (F12) on the very next re-boot. The error will show at the start of MB testing.

 

Gadgetboi i had a similar problem where OS would not boot properly. I would always get a black screen with a white cursor on the top left. No matter how long i would leave it on it would not pass this stage. The only fix was to do the ctrl+alt+del to reboot and then it would go into windows. After many calls to the tech reinstalling windows, all the drives on dell site, having my hard drive replaced, running windows diagnostics and alienware diagnostics, the problem would not go away. Finally before giving up completely and asking for a replacement, I made a call to see if any engineers had figured out my problem. Reluctant to try any other methods the tech asked me to do one last thing. I was already upset. He asked me to reflash the bios A03 again. And guess what? It FIXED my black screen finally. Now the laptop has no symptoms and is finally working how it should have from day one.

 

I am glad that you got the support you paid for.

 

I also have the hard lockup with unplugging and it is a pain. I have to shutdown and then unplug.

Dell has really let me down this whole time. Their use of the forum as free tech resources to debug their issues is increasingly a problem and I refuse to do it anymore because they should do it themselves.

The amazing thing is how Dell is able to turn the PR around just by having an employee join the forum. Seriously, I don't have the time or energy anymore to reinstall, try new drivers, etc so that you can fix:

The latency caused by web browsing or PDFs
The random 20-30 second freezes while browsing
The lockups when unplugging the power

I wonder if we'll hear from Dell on this thread. Probably not because they already split the community into NVIDIA vs ATI.

 

Help please!
I have swaped out my 260M's SLI for ATI's and I can't enable crossfire
My device manager shows both cards but GPU'Z shows crossfire diabled and I do not see any options to enable it in the ATI CCC. Please help???

 

I know you probably have but just in case did you go into bios and make sure that the intergrated is disabled?

 

Thanks for the response but I checked that too

 

---------------------------
NOTE FROM AW MOD:

Post copied from DPC Latency thread - Perhaps this will help with driver install order. Seems to have helped Aristotel quite a bit.
---------------------------

OK i will post my drivers installation sequence as for ATI users which is actually the Dell recommended.

- Chipset driver
- Then run nvidia chipset controller remover fix
- On-Screen Display Manager Application
- ATI R2 driver ( 8.68.2 A00 Dell)
- Then install modified 10.2 or beta 10.3 driver IF YOU WANT
- Wireless network adapter driver
- Audio driver
- Bluetooth driver
- Touchpad driver
- Media card reader driver
- Remote control / Infrared driver
- Webcam driver
- TV Tuner driver
- Command Center application

PS. remember to restart each time you are asked to. All drivers are official Dell drivers (no the red spikes are not caused only by the 10.2 or 10.3 drivers but also from the Dell R1 and R2 drivers too).
after all those, remember to try gpuz in parallel with dpc latency checker just to check the gpu clocks and how those are related to red spikes.

 

just a note here. it didnt help me because i never had red spikes during idle. just follow this driver sequence in case you havent already.

dont expect the red spikes during browsing, switching windows, scrolling pdf files to be fixed. I posted this just in case it fixes red spikes during idle or idle and mp3 playback (for the people who have them. i never had them with the ATIs as i always followed this drivers installation sequence)

IT IS IMPORTANT FOR ALL ATI USERS TO FOLLOW THIS DRIVERS INSTALLATION SEQUENCE if not anything else, just to have results that can be compared. you have nothing to lose!

remember to try gpuz in parallel with dpc latency checker just to check gpu clocks and how they are related to red spikes.

something like this i have done

http://i40.tinypic.com/15xkaww.jpg

good luck!

 

here is the option

http://i42.tinypic.com/2ccl3bn.jpg

no one can use the ATIs with intergrated graphics enabled! so if you see ATIs then you only have atis. Hybrid sli technology is only the nvidia GTX users.

 

I will try installing everthing again. Thanks for your help! When I open my CCC it does not show that crossfire option as the last option shows, Powerplay...hmmmm

Thanks again for your response!

 

Hello everybody.. I got a new R1 mx17 because of my faulty 1730.. What i got is t9600, 4gig memory, 320 hdd, and a single 4870.. I have asked them at the suport many times if i can upgrade to crossfire and they have said that is ok. I finaly got hold to the right person at dell and he gave me a price and its 1 graphic card, 1 fan and some other stuff.. But as many of you guys i have dpc problems and wants to fix them before buying the secundary card.. I called them again and then the suport guy said to me that my motherbord doesnt suport crossfire and i just said what the......... My mother board is a nforce 730i/9400 nvidia.. Im not an expert in this area so im asking you guys if its realy true? If i buy the card i have two weeks open buy so i can send it back. But i just want to know.. A tech guy is going to change the mb tomorrow .. I even tryed to get a mb thats suports crossfire but they just said no.. Thats not how they build it from factory was the answer.. Ive noticed that some of you have had gtx and changed to atis.. So did they do anything else with your system.. Tanks for a realy good forum

 

and you said you see both ATIs in device manager? try uninstall ATI driver from control panel. then restart, then uninstall both ATIs from device manager including the drivers. then use driver sweeper to clean remaining files of ATI driver. restart and start from the beginning with installation of dell drivers.

 

Again, thanks so much for trying to help me. I even tried a fresh install of windows 7 and the steps you gave me but i still show both cards in the device manager and the CCC shows no crossfire option and under the graphics harware in CCC it shows the second card disabled. I'm at my wits end and it looks like I might just go back to my 260's in SLI as I can't get crossfire working.

 

Now that I'm back to my 260's in SLI. Does anyone want to trade my ATI's for 280's? Unfortunatley I can't get the crossfire to work on my system but both cards do show up in device manager. I'm just gonna stick with Nvidia. Thanks.

 

Yeah!!!! I finally got crossfire working!!! Thanks again for your help!!!!

 

nice. now do you have red spikes during idle?

 

No, but it does jump into the yellow on and off. No sound stutter, so I'm happy!

 

good sign! do you have any red spike when open and close firefox, during browsing, and finally when pdf scrolling?

and which ATI driver do you use now?