***AMD Beta Driver Release***

Hi guys,

**********UPDATE 9TH December 2011**********

The "Beta" AMD Dell Driver that we have been testing below has now been officially released on drivers & downloads. You can head on over and grab it "in all its official glory" from the following:

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers...rFileFormats?DriverId=H67DH&FileId=2778193084

**********UPDATE 30TH November 2011**********:

Finally, we have the new AMD Driver available for testing - big thanks to Bill for arranging for us to have a go before it goes live on the downloads page. I have uploaded the file and you guys can grab it from the following links:

Multiupload.com - upload your files to multiple file hosting sites!

or

Download 8.902-111012a-128052C-Dell.zip from Sendspace.com - send big files the easy way

Simply download the file, extract to a location of your choice (I left it at default) and then run the main setup.exe within the folder (2nd from the bottom when you open the extracted folder) - its up to you guys if you install over or uninstall and sweep, I normally do the latter of the two to avoid any conflicts.

You may also wish to manually create a restore point incase you wish to roll back your system to a point BEFORE you made any changes.

Enjoy!

For anyone wanting help or guidance on how to uninstall and reinstall AMD Drivers, please check out the follwing below. This is the exact procedure that I do each time a new driver becomes available and I want to install it.

Spoiler

The first thing you may want to do is to create a system restore point so you can simply roll back your system to a time before you started making driver changes. You can do this quite easily(if you have system protection turned on for your drive) by typing "create a restore point" into the start menu and enter, then click on "create" and give your restore point a name and click "create" again - job done. Now you can revert any changes you make.

On to the actual process itself....

1. Make sure you have the driver you wish to install already saved to a convenient location - I always leave it on the desktop as I will be using it shortly.

2. Uninstall the current driver:

i) Go to control panel > programs > programs/features > uninstall a program > double click the program to be uninstalled from the list (this would be AMD Catalyst Install Manager).
The Uninstall process will now start.

ii) The Install manager will appear, click "next" to continue.

iii) Select "express Uninstall all AMD Software" and click continue.

The driver package will now uninstall and it will ask you to reboot.

3. Reboot into safe mode by hitting F8 as soon as you see the alien face at post and then select "safe mode". This is where I now do an initial Driver Sweep and CClean for registry entries.

i) Run Driver Sweeper as an Administrator by right clicking its desktop icon and then put a check in the box for AMD Display only (ensuring all the other boxes are left empty).

ii) You can analyze if you want to before sweeping, this just brings up a list of items to be "swept clean" - I analyze to see whats there and then hit "clean"

iii) It will then sweep away those entries and you will see a message "desktop gadgets not available in safe mode" (close it) and say "No" to the prompt to reboot.

iv) Run CCleaner, again as an Administrator and select the "registry" tab on the left of CCleaner's console. Hit "Scan for Issues" and you will then have a list of obsolete registry entries.

At this point, if you hit "Fix selected Issues", it will ask you if you want to back up the registry - this is entirely up to the individual but you may wish to do this. Entries that will be removed are saved as a file for you to restore from should you need to.

v) Repeat the Registry cleaning process in (iv) until CCleaner comes back with "No Issues Found"

You can now reboot your system into "normal mode".

At this point, if you open Device Manager, you can check and where your display adapters are shown, it should now show as "Standard VGA" - now we are looking good to go....almost!!

I like to re-reun the Driver Sweep program (as before) and also the CCleaner program (as before too).....just because I like to check everything is nice and "squeaky clean" before installing the new driver.

Navigate to where you previously downloaded the new driver and execute its install.

That's it!

Hopefully, you should now have a nice fresh video driver installation.

UPDATE: 11-11-2011

Bill has kindly notified us that there will be some delay in release fo the new Dell AMD driver. Please bear with him whilst Louis and the guys get it rolled out. Thanks!

First and foremost, thanks to Bill for the news of a Dell Driver refresh for AMD based platforms.

As you all are aware, there is also a "Team Red" conference call on the horizon soon to discuss various aspects of AMD based M18x systems. You can follow the news for that topic here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ussion-thread-re-dell-aw-conference-call.html

Its not often (at the moment, anyway) that we get a new video driver to play with from Dell - its something that is on the table for discussion in the above thread but as we are going to have a new release in the imminent future from Dell, its wise to have a seperate thread for us to discuss the pro's and con's of this new driver.

Its a step in the right direction - who knows, we may end up getting regular driver updates from Dell in the same way as we get updates from AMD (and also Nvidia for "Team Green" owners). This would make sense to me as everything "in house" is my idea of the way it should be. As owners of "the most powerful gaming laptops in the universe", we should enjoy updated video drivers from Dell on a regular basis.

Anyway, as soon as the new Dell Video Driver is up, I will update this thread and we can start testing.

Feel free to download and test them out yourselves. I will be doing so and will be posting my findings as soon as possible - I dont know what to expect so if we expect nothing in terms of increased performance etc, we can only be pleasantly suprised!

Anyone who tests out, please post your findings here - good or bad, the more detailed the better. Also, when posting results etc - please state wether any overclock has been used, how much and wether cpu/gpu or both (where applicable) so we all know what's what.

I would recommend testing with stock gpu/cpu clocks for comparative purposes but any info would be greatly appreciated!

EDIT: As many of you will test the drivers with different games, different cpu's and ram/hdd configs, it may be a good idea to note how your system was performing PRIOR to testing these drivers, simply from a point of view of determining wether or not you have noticed an increase or decrease in peformance in the areas you test (which may be things like 3dmark11, Heaven, in game bencmark tools etc etc). How or what you test to determine is up to you, just let us know with your results what driver you WERE using and wether the new Dell driver is good or bad for you!

Thanks guys.

 

Let's hope it has the latest 11.10 whql driver and not something older. We need new drivers at least twice or three times a year and especially when major triple AAA games are released.

 

Am all up for testing.

 

100% Agreed. The more frequent, the better.

Excellent - look forward to your findings as and when.

 

Thanks for setting up the thread, steviejones. Looks good. I am eager to see the results with the new Alienized AMD drivers.

As our point person for gathering feedback on the driver test results and a "Team Red" panel member, if there are results to share in time for our conference call, we will have you share that information with Bill and Louis.

If the Community will keep feedback for the new Dell driver on this thread and avoid posting test results feedback on the Conference Call thread, this will help make steviejones' job of compiling the feedback more manageable.

I totally agree, Joker. I do not think that any of the boutique gaming laptop OEMs are doing a a satisfactory job on customized video driver support and they all rely too heavily on reference drivers as a one-size-fits-all solution. Being left with a choice of features and gaming performance, gamers are always going to lean the direction of excellent performance with the latest game releases versus features. After all, that is why they own gaming systems in the first place, correct?

Improving customized driver support for their high performance gaming systems with regularly scheduled updates to ensure good results with the most popular games, is one additional way that Alienware can distinguish itself as being the premier gaming system provider, and a cut above the competition.

 

I will test new driver also.

Dell is making an effort here. I appreciate the attention this matter is getting. Thanks Bill

 

Out of interest, and for purposes of accurately testing the new drivers, I wonder what Dell's official stance is on using AMD Catalyst Application Profiles in conjuction with THEIR video driver is? - anyone know? - should they be installed or not?

I recall recently that many users experienced problems with some preview drivers from AMD if they installed CAP's. Personally, I have not installed CAP's whilst running Dell video drivers but have always installed them whilst on AMD Reference drivers - it would be good to clear this up for future Dell releases.

 

exactly!

 

I have just installed Modern Warfare 3, so this new driver will be great for testing along with BF3 that I picked up last week. Also yes hopefully the Dellized driver is based on an up to date AMD driver version.

I'm also happy to test and share my results.
Thanks Stevie!

Cheers.

Also fox quick reference. I have taken a quick screenshot of my temps after my 1st run of 3d mark 11 with the new Cards. + another temp picture after leaving the notebook on over night downloading. Just so we can do some sort of comparison along with performance in games as well.

 

Great stuff Reborn, long time no see....where you been hiding! lol

 

HAHA
Thanks Stevie, no where I've just been extremely busy lol!

Oh yeh I just ran MW3 all graphical settings maxed out. Looks great btw; FRAPS FPS shows 60 - 80fps constantly moving around this number range. With a few dips to low 50s in intense graphical scenes.
I'm currently running on AMD's latest 11.10 GPU drivers.
This was after a fresh OS install and then installing Dells drivers and then AMD 11.10s over the top. + the latest 11.9 cap 4 of course.
Oh yeh also running on System bios A03.

Cheers.

 

Good stuff. Looking forward to some information

 

Just updated the initial post with the following:

EDIT: As many of you will test the drivers with different games, different cpu's and ram/hdd configs, it may be a good idea to note how your system was performing PRIOR to testing these drivers, simply from a point of view of determining wether or not you have noticed an increase or decrease in performance in the areas you test (which may be things like 3dmark11, Heaven, in game benchmark tools etc etc). How or what you test to determine is up to you, just let us know with your results what driver you WERE using and wether the new Dell driver is good or bad for you!

 

Any word on an Up-to-date Nvidia 580M SLI Dell Driver? Maybe one that has the same fixes as 285.62....like BF3 compatibility/performance. If it doesn't address BF3 & Rage like the current driver, why bother?

Does anyone know what reference driver these AMD Dell drivers are based off of?

 

No official word that I know of yet regarding a newer Dellized Nvidia driver although I would imagine that it would be "on the cards" (sorry for the crappy play on words there.... ) as Dell look like they are paying some good attention here with video drivers. Let's hope the "Green Team" get something in the mix in the near future....

As for the new Dell AMD drivers, nothing official as to what set they are based off at the moment, as others have stated, anything backwards of 11.10 WHQL would really be a step in the wrong direction for enthusiasts....

 

Thanks for the info. Hopefully they will start listening to the consumer when it comes to up to date drivers for SLI & CF systems. Do they have to pay AMD/Nvidia money for each Dellized driver or something?..................

 

I'm happy to give the new driver a run through 3Dmark Vantage/11 and Heaven as a start. I can do a benchmark run through Trackmania Canyon and Super SF IV as well if that'd be useful.

 

Thanks NBR members, thanks Dell tech , Dell Representative , anyone who related in this project !! All I can do is rep+ , I'm on mobile , I'll leave u guys a feedback later when I'm free with my beast. Thanks!!

 

Did dell releases the driver? I'm on my iPhone at work.

 

No nothing yet

 

Hi everyone, i will test new drivers too

 

OOh! Thank you bro.

 

wonder if this driver will work in the m17x r3 as well?

 

Its the same card without the Xfire ports so it should work. Much like using reference drivers.

 

I have updated the initial post with news from Bill that the new Dell Driver is still work in progress. Please be patient and details will be posted ASAP.

Thanks.

 

Thx for the update. I picked up Dirt 3 and F1 2011 on steam so can test with them (if it'll ever let me download F1) as well.

 

Just checked on support.dell.com and it's not there yet. Maybe sometime this week.

 

I'm sure Bill will let us know as soon as he hears back from Louis.

 

BSOD during install on M17xR3 is the latest word. Issue escalated back to AMD. Installs fine on M18x. I am trying to get a copy that I can release to individuals via email under NDA. I'll let you know when/if I have it and reach out via PM.

 

Sounds good, I wouldn't mind trying it even though I don't have any issues.

 

Thanks for the update Bill, much appreciated. I am sure that once these issues are ironed out, we can get to testing.

 

It sounds like Bill might be looking into letting a few members of the Community assist with the testing the pre-released driver on the M18x. That would be pretty awesome. It's excellent knowing they are not rushing this driver out for download without the due diligence on the stability testing.

 

We're shelving the "beta test" idea for a day. Will discuss on the call tomorrow afternoon.

 

Hey look, a guy from Dell!

Hey Dell guy, is there a compelling reason for us to install the driver versus the stock AMD driver from a performance/stability perspective? AMD stock drivers seem to be running fine on the M18x. Also, what version of the AMD driver is the Dell driver based on?

 

Give the guy a break - he's not here to compete with AMD drivers, moreso to provide us with an official Dell updated driver. The reason the thread was created was to evaluate the Dell driver performance when its available.

As its launch is temporarily shelved, lets wait and see what gives. If in the meantime you wanna test out the latest AMD offerings and post results and THEN compare, that would be GREAT!

 

Yes, I agree Steve. That would be a very valuable contribution for comparison purposes.

Mike, if you could help us out with some comparative data using the latest reference drivers, that would be excellent.

We can wait until tomorrow, Bill. Thanks for popping in on the thread with an update!

 

Hey customer guy, I know of no reason that, in a vacuum, would be compelling. I guess I'd have to have a discussion about what motivates you to know if the driver is compelling enough. (Just playing around. No offense taken here, so please don't take any.)

Driver = 8.902
Catalyst = 11.10

 

My first post on this forum as a brand new unopened box with an M18x with dual 6990's await me when I get back from a business trip. Fearing I will join in the ranks of those with thermal shutdown issues, but then again I might not.

Anyhow, this will be my 4th Dell laptop. I'd just like to join those who have requested somewhat more frequent driver updates. My current/old XPS M1710 (a supreme laptop 4 yrs ago) very quickly never saw any graphics card updates, same my Inspiron laptops before that. Like Dell-Bills humour, keep it up

 

Just remember that even if you do have the issue (it took us 20+ random units off the line before we found an affected unit), all you have to do is reboot after a cold boot to get the GPU fans spinning. That can serve as a temporary workaround until a full fix comes out. However, for the money you pay, we totally understand if you'd rather just return it and wait or look elsewhere.

 

That made me chuckle, which is impressive for a monday!

 

I've probably read all 568 posts (it gets real boaring during evenings at a hotel room!) regarding the cold boot problems that some are experiencing. I'm not going to think the worst, just a little brainwashed and real anxious to try my new beast, hence excellent job you're doing to prevent this (no sarcasm/etc).

No, my real message probably got obscured by myself: driver updates

 

Thanks for the update Dell-Bill B.

I'm up for trying it out via PM.

Cheers.

 

Err. at no point was I busting his balls - I was simply asking because there might be some magic sauce they're putting into the driver that we aren't aware of.

Dell dude, if you thought that was me talking smack, I apologize. That was CLEARLY not my intent.

Do we have a standard suite of benches that we're running?

 

No real standard suite atm. It seems that it is a more personal comparison for now. So like you run say a few games or benchmarks using for example the AMD 11.10 driver suite.

Post the results + settings used in game or standard bench settings.

Then when the new Dell driver is released just run the same games and benches under the same conditions or as close too; to gauge the overall difference, improvement or dip in performance.

However if a few standards are needed we can always use gaming benchmarks and the 3d mark range as a guideline.
Similar or the same as the ones that are regularly being used in the benchmarking threads.

Just my 2 cents

Cheers.

 

Sorry Mike. Likewise, I wasnt bustin' yours either, just looking out for our Dell friends on NBR who are under no commitment to be here - we need to keep their prescence at a maximum so we can all benefit from this relationship.

Lets hope the new drivers indeed have some magic hot sauce that delivers the goodies, looking forward to seeing som results for both AMD and Dell so we can have a good comparison going on here.

 

Will they have managed to fix the brightness issue from 11.10 reference drivers? That might be holding everything up, as they'll need ATI to assist on that build. And they are busy busy releasing 11.11 and skyrim support at the moment!

 

Good point mate - I'm sure that Dell are aware of the brightness probs. I dont recall if the current Dellized AMD driver suffered from lack of brighntess control as I didnt stay on them long.

I would imagine that they wouldnt release a driver which produced known side effects but we will have to wait and see I guess.

 

When are expected this drivers to be released?
Thank you!

 

We are waiting on an update from Bill and Louis as a few niggles need to be ironed out apparently. There is no firm ETA at the moment but I imagine it won't be long and I am also sure that as soon as its available for public consumption, Bill will give us the heads up.

 

Ok Thanks!!!

Long live Bill!!!