Repaving my R2

[Easirok]

It's time to bulldoze and start fresh. I have been using my m17x-R2 for a year and a half now - and it operates great for the most part. But eventually something was bound to give. First, I am stuck on ATI Catalyst 10.9. I have not been able to load a newer display driver, nor have I been able to fully uninstall that one. The CCC installer did something nasty (well, that's who I am going to blame), and I can't get a clean uninstall/reinstall done. I can't even open up the CCC config right now - no matter how much effort I have put into hacking around. Second, SP1 for Windows7 refuses to install. The error points to a driver installation issue, so I presume it is linked to the ATI driver problem. But no matter what I have tried, I still have never been able to load this service pack. Third, I am having other minor issues pop up, like Steam's updater not working correctly, etc.

So I bought a new Series 510 Intel SSD (250G) and intend to repave this thing soon. My 160G gen2 Intel SSD will become the secondary drive once I am happy with the install.

I haven't been keeping up here or on the notebookreview forums, so I am hoping someone can bring me up to speed on the current versions of major drivers / bios / etc that I need to worry about.

My system specs are:

• AW m17x R2, with the LED screen, A09 BIOS
  
• 940XM (ES)
  
• ATI HD4870 (single)
  
• Intel 6300 WiFi
  
• 8G RAM
  
• SSD drives mentioned above
  
• Razer Naga mouse
  
• Microsoft Sidewinder X6 keyboard
  
• NuForce Icon uDAC-2 external DAC
  

I use both the HDMI port and the VGA port to drive two 24" monitors. I will likely be adding a USB-VGA or USB-HDMI adapter to support a third monitor soon too.

I have seen the posts about the potential to upgrade my display adapter to a 69xx card, and I am contemplating doing that within the next few months also.

I never operate my system from battery, nor do I ever use hibernation functionality. I have a far more portable MacBook Air that I take with me when I need to be mobile.

I have been using several tweaks and tools from these forums and the NBR forums. I am comfortable continuing to use them, unless there is a reason not to:

• I have modified my registry to tighten up the CPU C power states (aka, "JJB Tweak")
  
• ThrottleStop (actually still on v2.89), 17x multipliers, 100% cmod, TDP:80, TDC:75, Max turbo limits 1-4 cores = 25
  
• Disabled core parking via registry
  
• RadeonPro (1.0.11.2) to handle core affinity for Fraps and SC2 (other programs have internal settings for this)
  
• Intel SSD Toolbox (weekly cleanup process)
  
• Installed the 940XM CPU myself, following guides originally posted to NBR
  
• Re-pasted the GPU heatsink following guides originally posted to NBR
  

Thanks!

[unclewebb]

I am kind of biased but I think ThrottleStop 3.50 is worth upgrading to. The price is right, more features and I think it is more efficient too. It also has a new C States reporting window that might be handy to monitor how the JJB tweak actually works. The R2 with a 940XM is a beast. Good luck getting the most out of it.

[Nospheratu]

You've got the right idea there, it really looks like a fresh install is in order. Even if you manage to remove the driver with tools like ccleaner, driversweeper, etc I would still trash that install and start fresh. There would be nagging at the back of mind whether everything is really working as it should especially on a high end machine where you're tweaking for optimal performance.

It looks like you pretty much covered all you can do and are planning to do. So all that is left is to sit back, relax, and enjoy that beauty once your new drive arrives

[Easirok]

I was planning to update to the latest ThrottleStop as part of this (already downloaded it) in addition to updating all my other tools and software. It has just been running well for a long time now so I didn't want to break anything by tinkering. This is also my primary work machine in addition to being a gaming rig.

I guess my biggest questions are - is A09 the bios revision I should be using, and what is the most stable / best performing Catalyst release for these machines?

[Nospheratu]

I've been using A10 from the time it was released and have not experienced any issues. There's also a modded A10 out but I wouldn't recommend that especially on a work machine.

I've never had any problems with any of the Catalysts from AMD apart from the beta's and I've been updating as they come out. I'm on 11.9 atm and have had no issues. I've just completed Deus Ex: HR with them and also played with 11.8 before the 11.9's were released. I'm playing F1 2011 atm and again no issues, but the loading times in this game sucks even with an SSD. I haven't benched the 11.9's yet for comparison. Although since you have the 4870M your experience may differ.