Problem with AMD 7970m driver/update

The WMDD1.2 is a intel driver design for your AMD card, it's inferior and usually a pain to deal with, when it does work you will not get anywhere near the performance you should from your 7970.

Go to the AMD website and download the drivers for your operating system and graphics card.

http://support.amd.com/en-us/download

Be sure to uninstall the WMDD driver and restart your laptop before trying to install the driver you download from the AMD website.

I would also suggest changing your windows update settings to "Inform me when new updates are available" otherwise you risk windows auto installing the WMDD driver again

Just for clarification.

There are two WMDD drivers windows may install, one for your intel graphics and one for your AMD graphics.

They both should be uninstalled and the Dell/Alienware intel 4000 driver used with the latest driver from the AMD website

No such luck.

Even after uninstalling Intel drivers and the driver listed on the AMD device, the WDDM1.2 just pops right back up after restart.

I uninstalled and tried to install the latest AMD driver only to have it crash just as usual during installation.

Regardless of whether or not I uninstall the WDDM driver, it always shows on the AMD card after restart.

I don't know what to do at this point, I think the card may be damaged. BUT, is that normal for the card to still register on the BIOS and everything else, but that the device has just stopped, while still being recognized? Are there any safe utilities to run besides my BIOS diagnostic to check the integrity of the card?

So next, I downloaded the guru3d driver uninstaller for the AMD driver. Of course, the problem here isn't an AMD driver, the blasted thing is still stuck in WDDM1.2 no matter what I do. I proceeded to delete the 1.2 driver again, restarted in safe mode, used the guru utility, restarted again, and of course the card is right back to the 1.2

No drivers work, no matter how or in which order I uninstall/install them. Trust me, I've tried them all, at least with regards to Dell, AMD, and even Windows.

As an aside, is it normal to have this advanced GPU crash out in just two years? I haven't even pushed it really. I play Skyrim on Ultra settings (which isn't too demanding), Starcraft 2 a lot (moderate settings), and Insurgency (simple graphics) and I've been doing that for the past two years, but that's about it. I don't overclock or tweak settings on the hardware at all. The thing has sat on a Cooler Master it's entire life, so I don't expect heat to be an issue.

So at this point, I don't know if there's anything else I can do to remedy the problem... Perhaps remove the card and try to see what shows initially? Perhaps then it wouldn't resort instantly to the windows driver I don't know. I've even read about baking it in the oven lol, well, obviously I want that to be the LAST resort. As I've never had to troubleshoot a GPU physically, I wouldn't really know what to look for other than something obvious (if there even was anything obvious).

Should I be looking to buy another? More importantly should it be another 7970m? Is it worth $150 to hopefully gain two more years of play.. Hmm tough to say, I'll tell you what though, reformatting my OS multiple times over for driver issues is a huge pain and I'm tired of doing it.

I actually own a Sony Vaio I bought years ago in Africa, with *** Windows Vista, and it (albeit very slowly) STILL WORKS! Never had to reformat once, although I didn't have advanced or switchable graphics cards in it either.

Hi again.

You may have a faulty GPU but I'd recommend doing a complete re-installation before you go spending any money.

You've done a reasonable amount of GPU driver installation and removal and there's a chance windows registry is messed up.

I can give you a couple of tips, but I'm not sure of what drives you have so I'll do my best.

Update your BIOS - http://www.dell.com/support/home/au/en/audhs1/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=XP73G

Current BIOS for M17xR4 is A12 - If you currently have something like A08, make sure to install each BIOS update and don't just jump straight to A12

BIOS: RESET TO DEFAULT FIRST

If you have a mSATA you use as a cache drive for your main HDD, these are your settings:

RAID

UEFI with Legacy OPRom Enabled.

No Fastboot

If you just have standard drives with no mSATA, these are your settings:

AHCI

UEFI with LegacyOPRom

No Fastboot.

The first five drivers are the most important, you will know by the end of the fifth driver installation if you have a faulty GPU.

1. Chipset - http://www.dell.com/support/home/au/en/audhs1/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=R09PR

2 Intel Engine Management - http://www.dell.com/support/home/au/en/audhs1/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=TTCJG

3. PCIE Card Reader - http://www.dell.com/support/home/au/en/audhs1/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=T5VDD

4. Intel HD4000 Graphics - http://www.dell.com/support/home/au/en/audhs1/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=97WPF

5 AMD 7970 Driver - http://support.amd.com/en-us/download

Make sure to restart system after EVERY driver installation, regardless of weather the driver tells you to or not.

You will know by the time you are upto number 5 if you have a faulty GPU or not, just watch the laptops behaviour after each driver installation.

Hi Andrew,

Forgive me for not saying so before but thanks first and foremost. I actually had a cordial greeting on my first reply to you but I went back to edit some technical info in my post and I accidentally removed it. I noticed today at work when I couldn't edit my post on my phone. I do greatly appreciate you taking the time to try and help out.

And believe me, I have spent hours upon hours upon hours trying to make this work, not even counting the additional hours of updating and downloading.

So just for clarification with regards to your latest post, let me share my specs:

BIOS v12

i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.3 GHz

Fixed Hard Drive: Samsung 840 Pro SSD (this is not my original HDD, which is the 750GB Seagate drive). I'm currently backing up my files on the HDD (mainly media) to possibly reformat (although I do not intend on using the HDD for OS, but storage).

My current settings are as follows:

SATA Operation: ATA (Now should I be switched to AHCI or RAID? I believe when you mentioned RAID you were referencing an altogether different setup in which an mSATA is the cached drive for the main HDD correct? Am I correct in that my setup with a pure SSD SATA with an additional HDD for storage space is not the same type of setup which would require RAID mode? As for the difference between ATA and AHCI, I think that my BIOS defaulted to ATA when I just recently reformatted back to manufacturer settings. I don't think it was in AHCI but I could be wrong. I will probably stick with whatever it recommends if I do roll back again.

Fast boot disabled

UEFI boot option

Load Legacy option ROM disabled

If any of that needs to be changed with regards to my HW, let me know, as I'm really a novice with the settings, other than from information like here online in forums

I just have a really bad feeling that even if I reformat everything (which I've aleady done at least 12 times in a week and a half) the GPU is still going to be faulty. Now I don't have a lot reinstalled per se as per software, and I have the majority of it backed up on a separate external drive, but I'm not really looking forward to downloading all drivers and updates again. But if it might possibly fix the problem, I guess it's the only option left because I don't see the point in only running this high end laptop with the standard Intel 4000 video card. I don't even think it can handle SC2 very well at all.

Once I hear back from you after you've viewed my settings, let me know if you can think of anything pertinent that we have not already discussed. I will wait for you reply to maybe see if we can think of anything else before I rip the card out and replace it. In your opinion, do you think it would be reasonable to upgrade the card? Would the remaining hardware be able to sustain a more powerful version? Has AMD had more issues or about the same as NVidia on this laptop? Just some thoughts before I fork out a few bills for a new 7970m.

Once again I sincerely thank you for trying to help me solve this enigma. Hopefully this info may help others in the future as well.

Hi antoranton.

That info help no end.

These should be your BIOS settings:

SATA Operation: ACHI

UEFI Boot Option

Load Legacy option ROM: Enabled

FastBoot: Off

Best way to be sure is to load defaults and then change to above setting, just in case you have changed something you can't remember changing.

Once you have done this, load the O/S, then the drivers I posted earlier in the order I posted them in.

If you have already downloaded previously then you don't have to do it again unless you feel the need, just check each of the files you already have and make sure they are the same as the ones I posted a link to.

Whole process from BIOS to fifth driver installation should not take longer than 45 minutes total.

No need to go past the fifth driver if you encounter problems, come back and post what's happening and we'll take it from there.

If it goes well then complete driver installation.

6. WiFi.

7. Bluetooth.

8. Airplane Mode Switch.

9. Touchpad.

10 Audio.

11. FreeFall Sensor.

12 Command Center.

13. Alienware OSD

14. Dell Webcam Central v2.4

15 Windows Update - Don't install win 8.1, it downgrades performance in your CPU and GPU

HOW TO PERMANATLY STOP WINDOWS 8.1 AUTOMATIC FORCED UPGRADE

http://www.askvg.com/how-to-stop-automatic-forced-upgrade-from-windows-8-to-windows-8-1/

Restart after ever driver installation.

Did nothing.

Clean install, SSD drive totally reformatted, downloaded first four drivers and restarted after each one. The AMD card was already showing in Device Manager that it stopped due to problems (it still is saying that). Downloaded fifth driver and in exact place as always, crashed to black screen and stuttering audio.

Even after initial reformat, the AMD driver was already reading WDDM 1.2 and as mentioned, there were already problems with it.

I opened up the computer to take a look at it, but of course, there's nothing to see physically.

I have to say, I'm very disappointed that this advanced and expensive laptop's GPU has died in just over two years. IMO that is not worth the initial investment. I'm trying to be positive but honestly I have to say that I truly regret the purchase of this laptop. It has really been the most taxing and laborious piece of hardware that I've ever owned. And might I add, the driver randomly crashed while I was looking up driving directions on google maps; not a graphics-intensive game, no advanced video or graphics software application, no automatic updates occurring.

Thanks for trying to help me out though Andrew, I really do appreciate your support. At this point I don't know if I should keep battling this system with a new $300 GPU or just look into another computer altogether.

I don't understand why WDDM 1.2 keeps appearing.

After the windows 8 install, during the initial setting when windows asks you to select desktop colour, Microsoft account and so on, did you have the "automatically find driver software"  box checked?

Where you connected to the internet during driver installation?

Do you have windows update to "Automatically install updates"?

Did you sign into your Microsoft account during installation?

Honestly, it does sound like you have a GPU issue, but as the stupid WDDM driver keeps appearing that also make me wonder if it has anything to do with it - I can't say with any certainty it is a GPU issue until that stops, like I mentioned before, WDDM causes problems, so it's hard to tell until you get that sorted out.

If you can be bothered, another re-install with all the above stopped may stop the WDDM driver and finally give you a definite answer.

UNCHECK - "Automatically find driver software"

DO NOT - sign into your Microsoft account.

DO NOT - Automatically connect to the internet

SELECT - Do not check or install windows updates.

If you have the drivers on a separate driver, there's no need to connect to internet at all during this process

I know it's hard, but look on the bright side - GPU have advanced quite a bit since 2012, so if you ungrade you can get something substantially more powerful than you currently have - I'd recommend a 4GB GTX780M - More reliable than AMD and overclocks better and runs cooler than a 8GB GTX880M

I definitely disabled "automatically find driver software". However, I was connected to the internet and I also logged in to my Microsoft account. "Automatically install updates" was deselected.

Okay I'll give it another shot and I'll upload the drivers from a separate drive. It's not going to work (call me Negative Nancy) but at least I'll have exhausted basically all options.

In your honest opinion, do you feel that this laptop's hardware is up to the task of receiving an enhanced GPU, and will it last long enough to be cost-effective? Since the default card only lasted 2 years, I'm hesitant to pump more money into the machine when for all I know, it may be responsible for killing the original card.

Thank you once more for more troubleshooting ideas.

No avail. Even reformatting with no internet connection, no Windows Live account, no automatic detection for either updates or drivers, the device manager still shows my display drivers as WMMD 1.1 and 1.2, for the Intel 4000 and AMD respectively (see attachment). Could it perhaps be an issue with my recovery USB stick? I find this highly unlikely though, as I've reformatted this blasted laptop SO MANY TIMES in the past 2 years and I never had this issue before.

I have no problems installing the Intel driver over the 4000 card, but I have the same problem (crash to black screen) while trying to install the Catalyst driver. The computer was restarted every time I installed a separate driver.

I don't think that there's anything that can be done to remedy the issue, except to pay money for another GPU. It is absolutely unacceptable that this GPU lasted only two years. Then again, perhaps that's normal, I don't really know because this is my first (and probably last) gaming laptop. Had I known though that I could only expect a life expectancy of two years out of the GPU, I would have never paid so much money for this M17xR4.

I don't know if the card or the computer is to blame; what I do know is that I'm very reluctant to pump an additional $350+ into this laptop when I don't know what caused the GPU to crash. Perhaps it is something in the other hardware? Perhaps it simply is the card? I just don't want to spend that money and then end up exactly where I am today :(

Hiya.

I'm honestly at a loss to explain why your laptop is behaving the way it does with the WMMD display drivers.

If you had not of told me differently, I would have suspected you installed a Win 8.1 O/S or the wrong drivers, where are you getting the OS files from? Is it a disk that come with the laptop? Maybe a download you purchased? It may, and I'm a little out of my depth here, be a updated OS with a service pack which may contain the WMMD files (this is just a guess)

But I'm also sure I could fix it if I had the laptop with me, so much is lost in translation (for want of a better term) trying to diagnose problems via email, given that a laptop is capable of doing the same task 100 different ways, that also applies to diagnosing problems

As for replacing the GPU.

AMD (unfortunately) have not had a great history recently, they used to be my favourite GPU, I always considered them better bang for your buck than NVidia, but recently (since the 7970's) they have been unreliable, overheating, rebranding lower end cards to higher clock speeds with bad drivers and very little updating.

Dell also have been pretty average with the application of the heatsink and thermal pads on their GPU, both NVidia and AMD, but I think the NVidia GPU's have handled it a little better than AMD, there have been soooooooo many Alienware GPU's I have dismantled over the years that have the thermal pads mashed together, on top of each other or missing - I'm not saying you have this problem, but I have seen it too many times to not think it may be a common issue.

My son has dual 7970's in his M18xR2, when I fixed it and gave it to him I checked and repasted GPU 2 but not GPU 1. GPU 1 lasted 4 months before I have to replace it, sure enough when I opened it up the thermal tape was mashed together.

I replaced it with a refurb GPU and new thermal tape, used arctic silver 5 thermal paste - That was two and a half years ago, his temps still only reach mid 70's playing witcher 3 on ultra graphics setting.

Of course it's worth replacing the GPU, you still have a killer laptop, it's just sick :)

I'd go for a NVidia GPU this time, they are so much more reliable than AMD these days.

Maybe having it professionally installed would be better, then at least you may get some warranty with it and you wouldn't run the risk of buying a new GPU just to findout it's something else like the motherboard. Pity your not in Australia or I could help you.

Another photo

Photo

The OS came from a USB stick that Dell sent to me shortly after I bought the computer (when I had already run into BIOS problems LOL). Although that was totally my fault because when I first bought it and changed to an SSD for my OS, I had no idea about boot settings and Windows 8. 

I don't think that the USB stick is to fault for the drivers, as I've used it every time I've ever reformatted this computer and never had this problem until recently. The device never showed as faulty if I recollect correctly when I reformatted.

I wrote to AMD to ask for their advice to see if there's anything I can do before I bake the card or just get rid of it.

Andrew I'm posting some pictures of it just as an FYI for anyone out there and also maybe to see if the paste looks problematic or not. Mind you I have never modified anything with this card and I've never even removed the card until this issue arose.