I know exactly what you are saying. Dell refuses to admit that they need to get to work on these drivers. Try this link and install these drivers, they worked perfect on my system. I have a 9100 with the ATI 9700 128mb card.
I'm not using DVI, but am using VGA out on Insp 8600 using ATi 9600. A04 driver (8.05 vintage) is rendering stuff quite amazingly. Guess I'll have to see what happens when I hook DVI to my port replicator...
One thing, I caution folks about using 3rd-party drivers that if doing actual portables kind of activity like lid-down suspend/resume, docking/undocking (irrelevant for I9100, I know). Though they may scream in games, I was screaming in short order with two lockups and one BSOD in the course of a week using omega drivers. Your mileage may vary. 9100 users don't get much battery life and they are heaaavy so not likely to be porting them around, suspending, resuming and all that. May not matter a lot whether you use these drivers or not.
I do agree Dell really should put out more drivers, especially for the performance boxes. It should be a crime to use kerosene in a Dodge Viper. It should also be a crime to have high-end graphics with 3 or 6-month-old drivers in it :-(
Well no luck for me with the Omega drivers, they basically perform the same as the older Dell drivers, still get some screen snow and Aquamark3D score is exactly the same.
I am starting to think it is also the updated Video BIOS A03 that is causing problems as well.
To summarise as follows:
ATI Car Demo, 1280x1024 on DVI output
Dell Video BIOS A03
1. Dell Drivers R71256
Version : A00 OEM Name : ATI OEM Ver : 7.953.3-031222a-013046C-Dell
- Slight screen snow on Car Demo
- Resolutions output OK
2. Omega Drivers 2597beta Release
- Slight screen snow on Car Demo
- Resolutions output OK
3. Dell Drivers R83268
Version : A03 OEM Name : ATI OEM Ver : 8.04-040717a-017292C
- Heavy screen snow on Car Demo
- Many resolutions do *not* output on DVI correctly.
I am sure everything was ok with the original drivers AND ORIGINAL BIOS A00
Does anyone know where you can get the older Dell Video BIOS A00 ??
vandalii: The A04 8.05 driver you mention is for ATI Radeon 9800 cards, not 9700
Message Edited by Speckled10 on 12-07-2004 09:57 PM
Message Edited by Speckled10 on 12-07-2004 09:58 PM
Sorry for the boo-boo last night about A04 8.05 driver. I tried editing to kill that part but must've been too late. You're absolutely correct that it is for ATI Radeon 9800 cards, not 9700. My bad.
Have you tried the Acer panel in VGA out instead of DVI (just to see whether that makes any difference)? Seems new drivers aren't helping you so...
The reason I ask is I forwarded your complaint to a friend who works at Dell in their gfx area. This morning she went to check DVI on the LCD monitors available in her lab, ran the car demo and sees nothing like what you describe, including other resolutions. Of course they are probably all Dell-branded, but...
Is anyone else out there experiencing DVI out problems with the Radeon 9700?
Everything works fine in VGA out no matter what version of the drivers, so I dont suspect my ACER flat panel is at fault. I will try it on a different DVI screen perhaps this weekend at our co. head office (where they all have Dell screens).
Did she try running Car demo with the latest 8.04 drivers in DVI mode? As I mentioned with these drivers not only did I get worse screen snow but there was no output at all on many resolutions such as 1280x1024.
If she did not experience that problem then perhaps my Video card is faulty, but I am going to have a heck of a time trying to prove it to a local Dell Phone Support person to get it fixed, they will probably blame the monitor or the application since it's only DVI and only on high-end games & demos.
DVI & VGA go through completely separate circuits and have different timings from each other so VGA working is not an indication of DVI working.
She ran the Car demo with old and new drivers in DVI mode on both new models and older models. The older models would only go to 1280x1024 (like your Acer display) and her response is it is working fine for her.
You say everything was working okay on DVI with older VBIOS on the card (you've been looking for A00, right?). Just out of curiosity, how long have you had the system (question relates to age of card and what it would have shipped out of Dell with)? That might help my friend figure out what the "original" VBIOS of interest for you would be.
I'm confident the original VBIOS version was A00 but not 100% sure. I updated the BIOS at the same time I updated to 8.04 drivers.
Another thing I discovered in testing is that I *only* get the snow problems in 1280x1024 mode in DVI. Using 1024x768 DVI for Car Demo or 3D Games (Far Cry, Half Life 2) is perfectly fine, but in all programs I have the snow problem in 1280x1024. This is the max res of the LCD panel.
Really appreciate your help in all of this, if there is way to try reverting to the older BIOS would be keen to try. I am struggling to remember now that in fact the snow was actually a problem with that older version and I just didn't notice it (but I'm pretty sure I would have noticed if it was there.
I'll talk to my friend about the timing of A00 vs. A03 VBIOS (when it started shipping, etc.) to see when they changed over.
Interesting that 10x7 works but 12x10 doesn't. Let us know what happens when you try other DVI panels on it. I'll see if my friend has any other ideas.
IKSComan
10 Posts
0
December 7th, 2004 21:00
I know exactly what you are saying. Dell refuses to admit that they need to get to work on these drivers. Try this link and install these drivers, they worked perfect on my system. I have a 9100 with the ATI 9700 128mb card.
www.omegadrivers.net
vandalii
43 Posts
0
December 8th, 2004 01:00
Message Edited by vandalii on 12-07-2004 09:37 PM
Speckled10
14 Posts
0
December 8th, 2004 01:00
Well no luck for me with the Omega drivers, they basically perform the same as the older Dell drivers, still get some screen snow and Aquamark3D score is exactly the same.
I am starting to think it is also the updated Video BIOS A03 that is causing problems as well.
To summarise as follows:
ATI Car Demo, 1280x1024 on DVI output
Dell Video BIOS A03
1. Dell Drivers R71256
Version : A00
OEM Name : ATI
OEM Ver : 7.953.3-031222a-013046C-Dell
- Slight screen snow on Car Demo
- Resolutions output OK
2. Omega Drivers 2597beta Release
- Slight screen snow on Car Demo
- Resolutions output OK
3. Dell Drivers R83268
Version : A03
OEM Name : ATI
OEM Ver : 8.04-040717a-017292C
- Heavy screen snow on Car Demo
- Many resolutions do *not* output on DVI correctly.
I am sure everything was ok with the original drivers AND ORIGINAL BIOS A00
Does anyone know where you can get the older Dell Video BIOS A00 ??
vandalii: The A04 8.05 driver you mention is for ATI Radeon 9800 cards, not 9700
Message Edited by Speckled10 on 12-07-2004 09:57 PM
Message Edited by Speckled10 on 12-07-2004 09:58 PM
vandalii
43 Posts
0
December 8th, 2004 15:00
Speckled10
14 Posts
0
December 8th, 2004 19:00
If she did not experience that problem then perhaps my Video card is faulty, but I am going to have a heck of a time trying to prove it to a local Dell Phone Support person to get it fixed, they will probably blame the monitor or the application since it's only DVI and only on high-end games & demos.
vandalii
43 Posts
0
December 9th, 2004 19:00
Vandal
Speckled10
14 Posts
0
December 9th, 2004 19:00
vandalii
43 Posts
0
December 10th, 2004 02:00
I'll talk to my friend about the timing of A00 vs. A03 VBIOS (when it started shipping, etc.) to see when they changed over.
Interesting that 10x7 works but 12x10 doesn't. Let us know what happens when you try other DVI panels on it. I'll see if my friend has any other ideas.
Good on ya,
Van