Alienware M17x R3 driver issues

Apparently the 8th time is the charm.... did everything the same way and finally got past the black screen, it started normally...

based on that guide I then went ahead and installed the 11.10 reference drivers..

But now I can't get past the next part... "Install the ATI/AMD drivers as you normally would".. I run driver autodetect from AMD and click install and it says its not compatible...

is that driver autodetect giving me the correct driver? On AMDs site I found 'AMD Catalyst™ Display Driver version 13.10', is that what I'm looking for?

I recommend you look for the driver through the search options on the AMD website. Otherwise you can use the one listed in the tutorial guide.

I'm confused... there are no drivers listed in that guide... besides the reference drivers and dell's drivers.

** Download the reference drivers you wish to install. The Cat 11.10 WHQL set will do fine.

** Install the ATI/AMD drivers as you normally would. Ordinarily, one of two things occurs:

I assumed there was another set of drivers I should install over the reference drivers?

I went ahead and installed 'AMD Catalyst™ Display Driver version 13.10' from amds website...

I finished all the steps and still not working...start up into the low res screen with no access to CCC and device manager shows video cards not working.

IF I do f8/disable driver sig startup... I still start in test mode.. higher res though... Can switch between powersaving and high performance GPU (Although last time I switched to Power saving and then back, I got stuck with a black screen and had to shut down)... Device manager shows  my video card is updated to 13.10... but CCC still shows version 8.4..

I've followed that guide 100%.. only thing I'm not sure of is if I downloaded and installed the right drivers AMD Catalyst™ Display Driver version 13.10... but it was the only thing I could find on amd's website matching my card.

If that doesn't work here it is another guide on how to do it manually.

If you are using windows 7 you can use this driver version.

that manual guide worked perfectly to get the original dell drivers working (had to start from scratch again after my last post).. then I tried using that driver in your reply... no go, not compatible..  Decided to give that 13.10 driver another go and almost everything seems to be working now...

Only one problem.... I can switch to the power saving GPU but when I try n switch back... I get a black screen. tried it 3 times and black screen everytime... so I have to hold the power button down to shut down everytime.

Now I could care less about powersaving mode... can't remember a time when I had to switch and then switch back.. but obv something is wrong... is it something I should be worried about? (switching back n forth worked when i just had the dell drivers installed)

device manager shows both cards at startup, but If I switch to powersaving mode.. device manager only shows the intel card... which is obv why it can't  switch back I guess.

I'm speaking from personal experience here after trying to find updated drivers for my HD 69xx card.

You cannot use "official" AMD drivers as a substitute for the customized Dell AMD drivers because of the switchable integrated graphics. If you try to use AMD's verification tool, it will fail every time and tell you to return to the computer manufacturer's website for the latest drivers. If you do manage to get an official AMD driver to install, it will only use the integrated graphics. 

I bought my M17X-R3 in Jan 2012. The latest Dell AMD driver (v 8.8.51.2) for my system was released Jul 2011, six months prior to my purchase. It has NOT been updated since then. I have, however, been successfully using the M18X Beta driver 8.902 P06 dated 12/2011. I have not found any other driver newer than that date which works. The M17x R4 and M18x R2 only support HD 7xxx drivers, neither of which I could get to work on my system.

I hope this answers your question and explains why the "official" drivers are not working correctly.

In case you want to try the M18X beta: http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails/Product/alienware-m18x?driverId=H67DH&osCode=W764&fileId=2778193084&languageCode=en&categoryId=VI

well I have gotten the official AMD drivers working.... device manager shows driver date 4/27/13 and version 13.1 for my amd card.

alienwareusersupport.weebly.com/proper-amdati-driver-install.html

that's the guide I tried in my original post and its for getting AMD drivers working on top of the dell drivers

that guide seems to work for most people... I did some things differently and got it working after about 25 times of uninstalling and reinstalling over 3 days time.

It really is ridiculous that dell doesn't update their drivers... we, the customers, shouldn't have to go through this much trouble to update this stuff, especially since we paid so much for the laptops. I remember when the witcher 2 came out, I was getting like 15FPS... on LOW settings... that and countless other games were unplayable on a GAMING laptop... just ridiculous... Maybe I'll reinstall that and see how much better things are since I finally updated the drivers. Needless to say though, I'm done with dell after this laptop finally dies lol...

but anyway... the only thing that doesn't work, which I said in my post before this one, is that I can't switch to the intel GPU and back... not a problem for me since my laptop is always plugged in and on high performance GPU (AMD)

SUCCESS...after all of these years, I finally have updated AMD drivers installed and working.

First off, thanks for that link dwl9287. Here are the steps I used to get both the Intel card and AMD card to work together.

I did a complete format of my hard drive, so I skipped all of the uninstall steps obviously.

I downloaded both the Dell Intel driver and the AMD beta driver Milena linked above.

As per Section Two of that guide, I loaded the Intel drivers first and rebooted.

I then installed the AMD beta drivers and again rebooted.

My screen went black at this point so I did a force quit.

During the restart I tapped F8 until I got into the boot select screen.

Next I selected "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement" and rebooted.

At this point I'm still on the Intel drivers, so I went into device manager and disable the Intel card via right click > disable. Reboot....again.

Now I'm on the generic driver, so I reinstalled the AMD beta drivers over the first AMD install. Guess what? Another reboot.

Finally, I'm on the AMD driver...WOOHOO. I check device manager and my Intel card was automagically re-enabled.

Right clicked the desktop and chose "Configure Switchable Graphics"

AMD CCC pops open and I'm able to switch between the Intel and AMD drivers.

The switch is not as smooth as the official Dell drivers. My screen will flash several times between completely blank/black to desktop. After about 10-15 seconds, AMD CCC will reflect that the drivers were switched and the flashing stops.

Intel driver I used: www.dell.com/.../alienware-m17x-r3

Thanks so much to everyone for wading through and developing this whole process. Thanks to Tragr, I am now running catalyst 14.4 with the latest AMD drivers for my 6900m. I followed above, but instead of installing the beta driver from dell, I installed AMD ccc 14.4, rebooted, then installed the AMD drivers, then rebooted.  It came up on the generic drivers.  The intel driver didn't work, but the AMD drivers were ok, just not working.  I then reinstalled the intel drivers from above.  rebooted.  spammed f8 and again selected "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement" and rebooted.  After logging in, everything works.  CCC14.4 works, AMD driver works, Intel driver works, and I can switch between AMD and Intel.  I can even play Wildstar now at more than 1-2 fps.  Am now up to 20fps which makes the game at least playable.

Thanks again.

Alienware 17xR3

hello

could you help me out how to fix that. I've done many times to follow your step, but none are successful.  when i installed intel driver, it was ok, during installation for amd driver, my screen went black and need to force shut downt. if i manage to pass that next is during starting windows logo, will stuck endlessly....

if you got tutorial on this or the video will much be appreciated.

Alienware m17xR3, AMD Radeon HD 6970M

hello   could you help me out how to fix that. I've done many times to follow your step, but none are successful.  when i installed intel driver, it was ok, during installation for amd driver, my screen went black and need to force shut downt. if i manage to pass that next is during starting windows logo, will stuck endlessly....   if you got tutorial on this or the video will much be appreciated.     Alienware m17xR3, AMD Radeon HD 6970M

You are posting in an old thread. Maybe start a new one, but link back here.

So, this is Intel/AMD "Switchable Graphics"?

What version of Windows are you running?