techbear

Thanks for the info , here is the link in case someone can't find it. Drivers and Downloads

Thank you for putting up the links.

So far with most people the OSD application is 100% stable, although some people is still finding minor instability with it, but at least there is huge improvement.

@techbear thanks for the heads up!

Always glad to help and return the favor

There is a new update on the Dell driver page that fixes the Aero crashing after running games or WEI - thanks to Mr Fox that posted it on NBR

Thanks man

Hm, hope you get this solved. Did you already try a complete fresh installation of Windows?

Thanks for the VBIOS, I'll check it out, maybe I already have this version somewhere...

Yup the tearing is gone for good ! only aero bug remains, but it is really no big deal as long as I can play games without any issues I'm happy

Also please note that the bios did not fix my aero crashing as I first thought - running WEI crashed it on the first run - will have to wait for update On Screen Display files though.

Good to hear that your issues are solved!

It's easy, the best method is using a DOS bootable USB stick with ATIflash on it, then boot from this stick and when the command prompt appears just type in "atiflash -s 0 orig6970.rom" (without the quotes) and it will safe a copy to the stick. This is a read-only process, so you don't have to worry about your GPU.

I don't think the two cards have different VBIOS files on them, but you should be able to backup the second VBIOS as well, with "atiflash -s 1 6970m2.rom", though I'm not 100% sure whether this works, never had the chance to play around with a dual card system.

There's also an easier method to do this, but there are slight chances of corrupting the VBIOS backup file when doing it this way: Open GPU-Z and click on the little IC symbol at the very right of the "BIOS version" line.

Ok it appears that my gpu bios is older then some others:

Standard version:

My version:

If anyone is interested in the "older version" and in my case stabler - see attached.

6970bios.zip

In the mean time I will keep on testing for both tearing and stable aero issue - the installation is still the same with newest Dell driver, only gpu bios was upgraded - would not mind sharing this bios update for the 6790, but so not know how to "download" it from my current gpu and how safe it is.

Hey Nospheratu - just checked again on Dell downloads page, but only mainboard bios there for M18X.

Do not want to be hasty, but it seems like it fixed the aero crashing as well - been testing games now for the last 3 hours continuously and windows aero is still up and running - need to verify this with more and longer testing - never knows when murphy is walking around messing with us...

The tearing is gone for sure

Good news finally !

Did not need to send away my laptop - Dell did a remote log in and updated the gpu bios.......... - problem solved !

They also advised strongly against using AMD drivers (was not using them anyway) and the best method according to them to uninstalling the 6970 drivers is to directly remove it from device manager.

The laptop was stress tested by all the previous games + furmark for the whole morning and did not even once gave the black line again - very pleased that it was not needed to send it away for repairs

Thanks again for helping me through this.

I gave in my laptop to the supplier and Dell might send a new gpu - will probably get feedback by tomorrow

Yeah lots of people from overseas and even South Africa come here and then they sometimes likes Namibia so much that they want to move here permanently - small population (2+ million), but we have decent size malls and plenty of open space

Thanks Jimbo, don't know what you see as awesome in Namibia ,but Aussie is great place as well - been to Brisbane a couple of years back.

Thanks anyways for everybody's help

Made a fresh install on an external hd via eSata, installed sp1, dotnet 4, directx, chipset, del ati driver and symptoms exactly the same

Only thing besides disabling cf that really makes a difference is lowering the refresh rate inside ccc down to 40Hz - tearing is then 99% gone in furmark, css and vegas 2.

I'm convinced now it is hardware related - will take the laptop back to my supplier on Monday and ask them to check if refitting the graphics cards will help - really hopes it can be solved that way otherwise it needs to be send back to the USA and it could takes months...

Only saw one shortcut with newest Furmark version 1.9.1, but it definitely running both gpu's as both of their temps is shown to rise during the test in windowed mode.

Nospheratu suggested it may the second gpu that is causing this issue (in cf mode it becomes activated) - tried to disable the first gpu to test, but win7 does not like it any way to test ONLY the second gpu ?

Good point - Furmark tells you about both GPU's, but I did not specifically checked for both when it was running in windowed mode.

After doing some research realized that it is actually very easy to install to an external disk via the eSata port - same as standard install and much less complex then installing via usb port.

Have to find a connecter/adaptor first to connect an hd via the laptop's eSata port - hope I can find one today.

Yes I disabled CF in ccc by removing the checkmark next to it - the tearing then goes away.

Would really help me if I can restore to an external drive to save on my SSD for testing purposes - will remove the SSD as you said - might even be possible to disable all the internal hd's via bios.

I presumed you answered on the win7 on external point of mine ?

Still need to know the difference in result between running windowed or full-screen.

Hi StamatisX - I do not understand why it does not happen in windowed mode ?

Also I only have an factory image made in win7 that was made on it's original 320GB drive and now have to try and restore to 120GB SSD - win7 might not like it - Acronis should be able to do the trick.

Was thinking of before writing to the SSD once again wearing it more, like to try to recover to an external hd just to verify that the drivers issues is resolved, but might be too complicated.

Have done in 1080 windowed mode and no more tearing or scrolling - strange

No worries mate

Ok just ran it at 1080 fullscreen and the famous tearing is there - the screen sometimes scrolls as well - so something not right somewhere.

Is Driver sweeper only removing files not registry entries ? - in that case I will rather try to clean with ccleaner that everybody is raving about - just do not like any registry cleaners as they sometimes removes more than they suppose to making more damage.

"http://www2.ati.com/drivers/mobile/11-7_mobility_vista_win7_32-64_ccc.exe"