No decent GPU driver available for M2800

Question

For a long time now, there has been no decent graphics driver available for the W4170M. The driver provided by Dell isn't up to date, the drivers from AMD are not compatible and now Windows cannot update normally anymore due to this issue.

The 15.201.1101 driver Dell provides since October 2015 (!) does not have the management features of newer drivers, isn't updated for newer applications and has issues with power management (see e.g. https://community.amd.com/message/2857291 ) which are not acceptable for this supposedly professional product. I personally notice that with this old driver, the card is often stuck at a GPU core frequency of 400 MHz while plugged in, whereas it should reach 900MHz when using CAD applications or games. When using such applications, the GPU needs to be restarted manually first.

To solve this, one can try installing a newer driver provided by AMD. However, all the latest AMD drivers for the Firepro W4170M are incompatible with the Dell Precision M2800. Manual driver installation of the 18.Q2, 18.Q1.1 and 17.12.2 drivers crash right after installing on Windows 10 64 bit, even though AMD release notes suggest compatibility with AMD FirePro W4170M. This issue is reproducible in several Dell Precision M2800 workstations (even with fresh installations of Windows 10 and Intel graphics drivers) and is due to the Ultra Low Power State (ULPS). Disabling "EnableUlps" in the registry(Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxx}\0002) in safe mode after installing the new driver allows the machine to function, but keeps the Firepro GPU Core running at 300 MHz (Plugged in) / 400 MHz (Battery), even when it is not in use. For mobile workstations like this, it is not desirable that the dGPU is running all the time as it wastes battery power.

This now includes an extra dimension of pain: The Windows 10 April 2018 update fails because of it. After rebooting for the Windows 10 feature update, the latest drivers are installed along with the operating system. Consistently, the machine will hang at 42%, requiring a hard reboot after which the previous version of Windows 10 is restored. Uninstalling the Firepro W4170M and blocking the installation of the device in Group Policy is the only way to successfully install the Windows 10 April 2018 update.

Could you please figure out with AMD how to solve this issue with the Firepro graphics driver for the Precision 2800 Workstations. Not being able to install Windows feature updates and poor driver performance are becoming a real nuisance.

Pauluzz · Accepted Answer

Alright, we finally have a real solution to allow for both a new FirePro driver and using ULPS, but not thanks to AMD or Dell. Jonnyjo discovered 2 years ago that it is a simple problem that both Dell and AMD could have addressed to support their costumers, but neither did:

"Problem was solved in May-2018 [...]

Install AMD's PCI BUS driver to solve this ULPS-related driver freeze in the latest AMD drivers

Nov-2017 driver: AMD-PCI-DRIVER.zip

Newer versions: AMD PCI Express (3GIO) Filter and PCI Bus Driver requires manually updating. | guru3D Forums

The issue of ULPS causing the system to freeze with the newest drivers can be solved by loading the above AMD PCI BUS driver, prior to loading the latest AMD driver for your Dell notebook. Then you'll get the newest driver features AND ULPS's excellent low power modes when running the laptop on your battery. No other workarounds are then needed. The above Nov-2017 AMD PCI driver fixes it on my M2800. Can't vouch for newer versions of this driver.

This AMD PCI BUS driver was installed as part of the Dell E6540's original HD8790M 2013 driver installation, which meant loading the newest drivers on those systems after the 2013 driver didn't freeze. AMD has removed the PCI BUS driver from it's newest driver installation, hence the freeze. A E6540 vs M2800 Windows installation comparison was made to identify this as the culprit.

Hope you're all well and get some enjoyment out of this fix."

Shoutout to Johnnyjo who literally spent several days to discover what was really going on. Hope this will help all you Precision M2800 owners.

Yoda1560 · Answer

The hassle this issue has caused me with my computer crashing on the latest Windows10 update is crazy. I will never buy a Dell again. They have just left the M2800 users in the dark.

psycl0ptic · Answer

I have seen the same with m2800. I have one stuck on Windows 10 1703 build since it hangs on upgrade to both 1709 or 1803. I'll probably roll it back to Windows 7 and let it live out it's life there. Dell and MS have yet to solve the issue. Lots of posts on both dell and MS forums. Supposedly the similar Lenovo model has a bios disable for the dedicated gpu, which users have been using to work around the upgrade issue, by going into the bios - Disable dedicated GPU - reboot - run upgrade - back into bios - enable dedicated GPU. Dell m2800 doesn't have an option to disable the GPU.

Dell appears to have stopped testing the m2800 with windows 10. Odd since there should still be some under warranty: https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/sln297954/dell-computers-tested-for-windows-10-april-2018-update-and-previous-versions-of-windows-10?lang=en#Precision-NB-FCU

Naz_Crimson · Answer

I have the exact same issue here too - the m2800 video drivers(AMD) have been nothing but trouble! Anyone have any further workarounds to deploy the update?

mavelar · Answer

I found a lot of post about this issue and Dell just ignored

Pauluzz · Answer

Start in safe mode after installing the new driver, then edit the registry in: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxx}\0002 by setting EnableUlps to 0

If you are usually plugged in, this is fine. It will keep the Firepro GPU Core running at 300 MHz (Plugged in) / 400 MHz (Battery), even when it is not in use, without the freezing problem. Thus allowing you to use the latest AMD drivers.

If you are often unplugged, it is not desirable that the dGPU is running all the time as it wastes battery power. Then, you are better off uninstalling the AMD card altogether and preventing re-installation through group policy. Or using the 2015 driver.

CPAUK · Answer

I too, have fiddled around with Graphics drivers in a way that's disappointing when you consider the business use. We, the users, should be able to have a system running as per specifications without having to go online and hope that 'things will just work themselves out'.

Pauluzz · Answer

Dell updated the description of the same old driver last week. The 3.5 years old 15.201.1101 driver is still the one to use according to Dell, even though it has performance and power management obvious issues, as described in the opening post.

To date, I still use my workstation with last year's AMD driver. It requires "EnableUlps" to be permanently disabled in the registry, to prevent freezing. With ULPS being disabled, every time I go on battery with the notebook, I have to manually disable the AMD card in system manager to save battery life. It is ridiculous that I have to do so, but even worse that Dell hasn't had a decent GPU driver for this notebook for basically its entire product cycle.

CPAUK · Answer

Thank you for posting this Paul, I have the same issue with the same machine / OS. At the moment I'm considering to revert back to Win7, as I would quite like to use the graphics card without any fuss.

Recently I noticed AutoCAD was glitchy, then noticed it was using the on-CPU GPU and could not get it to work with the AMD GPU. I have no doubt taken all the steps you have with regard to drivers, I noted that both AMD and Dell's website claim a revised driver on their websites (dated 1st Jan 2019), though this is nothing but the most recent troublesome driver (15.201.1101_A01).

I have an extended warranty with Dell, before reverting to Win7 I'm going to contact them. I will report results back to this thread should it assist others.

Many thanks,

Chris

UPDATE: I have contacted Dell, my warranty is only hardware based, so I'm just going to revert to Windows 7.

dellm2800000 · Answer

what do you mean start in safe mode after installing new driver?if i try installing new driver it will freeze out so what your tryna say?

dellm2800000 · Answer

so question?in windows 7 does it works fine?and do the update works?explain please cause id love to revert only if it works fine

dellm2800000 · Answer

how do you prevent it from freezing when trying to install the latest driver?i try disable ulps but it still freezes

Chuck80 · Answer

I'm reposting this message here so that it can hopefully help some more people. I orginally posted this at: https://community.amd.com/thread/220531

After a lot of searching around I found what appears to be an easy, reliable, permanent fix that allows us to install the latest drivers straight from the AMD site or Windows. I don't take credit for this fix. I first saw it mentioned by ax7 in THIS THREAD.

As has been mentioned many times, ULPS seems to be the problem. Most people are having trouble reliably getting that disabled or even getting the driver to install far enough to do so. ax7 created a small file that runs a service in the background that constantly looks at the ULPS setting and immediately disables it if it gets turned on. There is a small window of time during driver installation between ULSP being turned on and the computer freezing. This service is able to disable it before the laptop freezes. I was able to successfully install the 19.q1.1-feb19 driver from the AMD site using this. You can see below that AutoCAD recognizes this card properly. I haven't tested any power usage but I'm considering this a suitable fix for our needs.

Annotation 2019-03-25 140907.png

Anyway, the fix is simple if you want to go this route:

Optional: Run the AMD Cleanup Tool

1. Go to: https://github.com/qbsa/ulps

2. Download the correct pair of files for you system. If it is 64-bit (most likely) you will need ulps64.exe and install64.cmd

3. Put both of those files in the same folder somewhere on your computer

4. Run install64.cmd

5. Now there is a service running called ulps. This will remain even after you restart the computer and will (hopefully) prevent freezing in the future when driver updates happen again.

6. Install the drivers of your choice from whatever source you prefer. I grabbed the latest straight from AMD.

Note: I had a generic 1603 error during the AMD control panel installation but the driver portion installed successfully so I didn't care. The error may have been a result of some regedit tinkering I had done earlier to try to resolve this. It might also be a side effect of the service turning off the ULPS setting but I can't confirm either way. I hope this helps. This was a very annoying and unfortunate problem for AMD and Dell to fail to work on. Thanks to all those that did their parts to research and come up with a fix.

CPAUK · Answer

Well done for this Chuck, I'm certainly go to try it when I have a moment - never thought I'd say it, but I've become very happy with Windows 10 these days and it's running on my main workstations very well.

CPAUK · Answer

Yes it does work fine in Windows 7, updates work although some have caused problems but it doesn't relate to graphics (likely other software I have, such as Google Drive). On the hard drive is a hidden partition meant for recovering the OS, you should be able to access it and restore. Just make sure you backup all of your data first, preferably buy a new hard drive (SSD is recommended) and clone the original hard drive onto that. Then do the restore - that way, you have the original install should anything go wrong.

Precision Mobile Workstations

No decent GPU driver available for M2800

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