Guys, just wanted to say that my solution fixed the problem of the computer freezing and having to hard reset, not the screen going blank and mouse enlarging issue. I think these are two different problems with the machines.
Just wanted to clear that up. Hope I could help some of you.
Thanks hwam. Your solution helped me to stop my Win7 freezes. Now I can do my stuff without having lock ups.
Unfortunately after updating my video driver, I lost my HDMI output. By that I mean when I connect my laptop to my tv, they somehow don't recognize each other where it used to be perfect. Well I am saying perfect because my previous laptop has also HDMI output but I never got sound when I connected it to tv. So anyway my new Dell Studio 1557 was working fine with audio and video.
Does anyone have a similiar problem or any suggestions to solve this issue?
Well I am not a professional issue solver just have personal interest but one possible answer is, since this new driver is not verified by either Microsoft or Dell my video card cannot recognize my tv.
I got HDMI video output without problems with the new driver.
Grt. Eric.
Hwam, first, thanks for the work-around... it actually works... except for a audio problem in HDMI mode... when i connect the hdmi device (i.e. my TV) the audio gets put on mute automatically for both the laptop and the hdmi device... the video works fine, but no matter what i try, I can't get the audio to turn on anywhere (even tried turning on the laptop's audio)... it does say the audio device is the ATI HDMI Device, so I wonder if the deletion of a few of those lines from the .inf file is the problem?
Its so funny, i got my 1557 on dec 24th and called dell by 29th with the same problems (youtube HD content was hanging my pc, BSD, etc.), after troubleshooting they asked if i wanted to try and replace the video card or have a totally new system sent to me... of course I said send me the new system... anyway, long story short, the new system that just arrived today (jan 8th) has the EXACT same problem... crashes the video hardware and hangs the pc on youtube with HD content in full screen.
oh well, seems the work around Hwam suggested will work for video on the lappy, but not on the tv... Hwam, let me know if you have sound on your hdmi connection.
Update: After installing the " Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller" update I had three lockup free days before another freeze. I tried hwam's tweak, but it didn't seem to fix the problem for me either (thanks anyway hwam)... however after messing around with video drivers I do think (although I certainly can't be sure) I have been affecting the frequency of the freezes which gives me hope that this is just a driver problem. I'm just waiting for either Dell or ATI to release a new one.
Just out of curiosity, do most of you that are still experiencing this problem most routinely see freezes on boot-up at the point that the Windows 7 desktop is up (cursor is available) and the OS is getting settled? The pattern that I appear to be seeing is that I frequently have a freeze at this point, forced to hard reboot, have a freeze again at this point, reboot, and then the laptop is functional for quite a while (although it still has occasional freezes in misc applications). This makes no sense to me as symptoms, but I've seen this same pattern half a dozen times. I'm just wondering if others are seeing freezes at this same point or if this is unique to me.
@La Tortuga, no, never once had that issue... the only thing is playing streaming HD video and now i've noticed it's only when on battery power (although, I thought I remembered it doing it with the power supply too a while back, but can't seem to replicate the issue now)....
@Hwam, same issue, less freezing thanks to your tweak, but i still had the two occasions where it hung the video and the mouse enlarged...and still no audio with HDMI connected..
It's obviously a 1557 problem, but what, is it physical hardware or driver related? I say this because the new laptop I received to replace the current has the exact same streaming video problem.
I'll call dell today and see what they say... hope they at least acknowledge others are facing the problem from their knowledge base...
I never had a freeze on boot time. I only got the freeze during heavy Direct X work. Reproducable with playing a DVD with PowerDVD 9.
The event viewer was full with: "Atikmdag has stopped responding and has successfully recovered". The screen went black and even a Ctrl-Alt-Del was not possible. This was sometimes after a large / big mouse pointer. It's a know ATI problem. Not only the 4570 card. So check the event log.
But I do have other blue screens. Not the Atikmdag anymore, this is fixed with the ATI 4570 gateway driver, absolutely!
I updated the wifi driver with the latest Network:Intel Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100, Intel(R) WiFi Link 5300 Driver. It's on the Dell download site. It's the newest, I checked it on the Intel site.
So we got a computer 1557 with a lot of old drivers. Even configured with old vista drivers. The wifi driver is updated with the NETw5s64.sys driver now. You can see it's a win7 (seven) driver in the name s = seven. The old was netw5v64.sys, the v stands for vista.
Please check the event log to know if you still have the "Atikmdag has stopped responding and has successfully recovered" problem. I think it's in the system log.
You can do this now and check at the system crash time.
I think I have solved my HDMI connector problem. After reading bunch of other forums, I simply tried a primitive method as unplugging my tv from electric supply. Waited a minute and repluged again. It worked.
By the way I had another froze yesterday, second day after updating my driver. I still think I will have other freezes in the future. Many social msdn forum entries mention about malwares and registry error for possible freeze reasonings. I don't know what mine problem, I also don't know how to resolve it.
hwam
147 Posts
0
January 6th, 2010 04:00
Great job MarvinLee!! :emotion-2:
Please keep me up-to-date and tell me if this is helping you too. Report me back every hang-up with the same symptons.
I'm sure it has nothing to do with the LAN Realtek drivers because I do not use the Network adapter at all.
Let hope this trick will help a lot of Studio 1557 owners.
Grt.
mellah7
4 Posts
0
January 6th, 2010 12:00
Guys, just wanted to say that my solution fixed the problem of the computer freezing and having to hard reset, not the screen going blank and mouse enlarging issue. I think these are two different problems with the machines.
Just wanted to clear that up. Hope I could help some of you.
Cheers
hwam
147 Posts
0
January 7th, 2010 07:00
MarvinLee,
And, what's your conclusion? Is the problem fixed now?
Grt.
nnavivan
18 Posts
0
January 7th, 2010 12:00
Ok,
I updated the ATI drivers.
I used the pc all the day today and I had no problems!
Let's see in the next days.........
Thank you to everybody, expecially to Hwam for his genial solution!
:emotion-1:
hwam
147 Posts
0
January 7th, 2010 14:00
Good to hear my trick is also helping other people. Thanks nnavivan!!!!!!:emotion-2:
I still hope Dell wakes up!!!!!
DELL PLEASE PUBLISH THE NEWEST ATI 4570 DRIVERS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!
I CONTACTED DELL SUPPORT AND THE ONLY THING THEY TOLD ME, WE ARE BUSY. WE CANNOT GIVE YOU A NEW VERSION.:emotion-12:
IT TOOK ME ONE WEEKEND TO TAKE CONCLUSIONS AND ACTION.
I ALSO CONTACTED ATI AND THEY WILL NOT PROVIDE ME DRIVERS, I MUST CONTACT DELL.:emotion-12:
SO DELL: PUBLISH THE NEWEST DRIVERS, YOU CAN READ THE RESULT!!!!
Thanks, HWAM.
barisavsaroglu
2 Posts
0
January 7th, 2010 18:00
Hi all,
Thanks hwam. Your solution helped me to stop my Win7 freezes. Now I can do my stuff without having lock ups.
Unfortunately after updating my video driver, I lost my HDMI output. By that I mean when I connect my laptop to my tv, they somehow don't recognize each other where it used to be perfect. Well I am saying perfect because my previous laptop has also HDMI output but I never got sound when I connected it to tv. So anyway my new Dell Studio 1557 was working fine with audio and video.
Does anyone have a similiar problem or any suggestions to solve this issue?
Well I am not a professional issue solver just have personal interest but one possible answer is, since this new driver is not verified by either Microsoft or Dell my video card cannot recognize my tv.
Thanks, barisavsaroglu
hwam
147 Posts
0
January 7th, 2010 23:00
Hi barisavsaroglu,
Sorry to hear that.
I didn't test the HDMI connector at all. Also with the default Dell driver I didn't tested it. I will do that today and let you know the results.
Grt.
hwam
147 Posts
0
January 8th, 2010 07:00
Hi barisavsaroglu,
I got HDMI video output without problems with the new driver.
Grt. Eric.
aviator_cowboy
11 Posts
0
January 8th, 2010 16:00
Hwam, first, thanks for the work-around... it actually works... except for a audio problem in HDMI mode... when i connect the hdmi device (i.e. my TV) the audio gets put on mute automatically for both the laptop and the hdmi device... the video works fine, but no matter what i try, I can't get the audio to turn on anywhere (even tried turning on the laptop's audio)... it does say the audio device is the ATI HDMI Device, so I wonder if the deletion of a few of those lines from the .inf file is the problem?
Its so funny, i got my 1557 on dec 24th and called dell by 29th with the same problems (youtube HD content was hanging my pc, BSD, etc.), after troubleshooting they asked if i wanted to try and replace the video card or have a totally new system sent to me... of course I said send me the new system... anyway, long story short, the new system that just arrived today (jan 8th) has the EXACT same problem... crashes the video hardware and hangs the pc on youtube with HD content in full screen.
oh well, seems the work around Hwam suggested will work for video on the lappy, but not on the tv... Hwam, let me know if you have sound on your hdmi connection.
thx
MarvinLee
9 Posts
0
January 9th, 2010 00:00
hwam,
First day after installation of drivers - no freezes. Second day - froze twice. Today, so far so good.
Having said that, the notebook is better than before the update.
Will test the HDMI output when I have the time.
Thanks a million.
La Tortuga
20 Posts
0
January 9th, 2010 09:00
Update: After installing the " Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller" update I had three lockup free days before another freeze. I tried hwam's tweak, but it didn't seem to fix the problem for me either (thanks anyway hwam)... however after messing around with video drivers I do think (although I certainly can't be sure) I have been affecting the frequency of the freezes which gives me hope that this is just a driver problem. I'm just waiting for either Dell or ATI to release a new one.
Just out of curiosity, do most of you that are still experiencing this problem most routinely see freezes on boot-up at the point that the Windows 7 desktop is up (cursor is available) and the OS is getting settled? The pattern that I appear to be seeing is that I frequently have a freeze at this point, forced to hard reboot, have a freeze again at this point, reboot, and then the laptop is functional for quite a while (although it still has occasional freezes in misc applications). This makes no sense to me as symptoms, but I've seen this same pattern half a dozen times. I'm just wondering if others are seeing freezes at this same point or if this is unique to me.
aviator_cowboy
11 Posts
0
January 9th, 2010 10:00
@La Tortuga, no, never once had that issue... the only thing is playing streaming HD video and now i've noticed it's only when on battery power (although, I thought I remembered it doing it with the power supply too a while back, but can't seem to replicate the issue now)....
@Hwam, same issue, less freezing thanks to your tweak, but i still had the two occasions where it hung the video and the mouse enlarged...and still no audio with HDMI connected..
It's obviously a 1557 problem, but what, is it physical hardware or driver related? I say this because the new laptop I received to replace the current has the exact same streaming video problem.
I'll call dell today and see what they say... hope they at least acknowledge others are facing the problem from their knowledge base...
hwam
147 Posts
0
January 9th, 2010 10:00
Hi La Tortuga and aviaor_cowboy,
I never had a freeze on boot time. I only got the freeze during heavy Direct X work. Reproducable with playing a DVD with PowerDVD 9.
The event viewer was full with: "Atikmdag has stopped responding and has successfully recovered". The screen went black and even a Ctrl-Alt-Del was not possible. This was sometimes after a large / big mouse pointer. It's a know ATI problem. Not only the 4570 card. So check the event log.
But I do have other blue screens. Not the Atikmdag anymore, this is fixed with the ATI 4570 gateway driver, absolutely!
I updated the wifi driver with the latest Network:Intel Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100, Intel(R) WiFi Link 5300 Driver. It's on the Dell download site. It's the newest, I checked it on the Intel site.
So we got a computer 1557 with a lot of old drivers. Even configured with old vista drivers. The wifi driver is updated with the NETw5s64.sys driver now. You can see it's a win7 (seven) driver in the name s = seven. The old was netw5v64.sys, the v stands for vista.
So keep updating the drivers.
Good luck.
hwam
147 Posts
0
January 9th, 2010 11:00
Hi barisavsaroglu,
Please check the event log to know if you still have the "Atikmdag has stopped responding and has successfully recovered" problem. I think it's in the system log.
You can do this now and check at the system crash time.
Grt.
barisavsaroglu
2 Posts
0
January 9th, 2010 11:00
Hi hwam,
Thanks for your reply.
I think I have solved my HDMI connector problem. After reading bunch of other forums, I simply tried a primitive method as unplugging my tv from electric supply. Waited a minute and repluged again. It worked.
By the way I had another froze yesterday, second day after updating my driver. I still think I will have other freezes in the future. Many social msdn forum entries mention about malwares and registry error for possible freeze reasonings. I don't know what mine problem, I also don't know how to resolve it.
Best
barisavsaroglu