[GUIDE] Fixing video playback & overclocking problems.

Please update your guide, im not up to date with radeon drivers problems. So i overclocked my 5650 before reading this thread, without replacing those files and noticed my screen started flickering when moving my mouse. I asume this is what this fix is for? or?
If not, whats up with the flickering ?

 

Sorry, only now I've read your post in the thread, I'm sleepy.
I assume that you have tried to overclock with the 13.1 WHQL unmodified driver and got the screen flickering, right?
If so, unfortunately that's another driver problem that I was aware of.
The main problem we get with 12.x and 13.x driver is that we get black screen during video playback. Aside from that AMD removed from the driver two files needed by the overclocking tools (atipdlxx.dll, now included in MSI Afterburner installation).
So I found this workaround for the screen flickering that works on 13.1 driver with the 4 files for video playback: if you set "UnofficialOverclockingMode" to 2 in the MSI Afterburner cfg, file you can kill powerplay when overclocking (meaning the clock will stay to what you have set even in 2D). This way my screen doesn't flicker, at least until you reset the clocks. I don't know if this breaks anything so use it at your own risk, but IIRC the voltage on these VAIO are hardware set and you can't change them even with a bios mod.

Not sure if this is clear. Also I think the VPCEB and VPCEA have slightly different setup.

 

The atipdl .dll's can be taken at most from 12.2 preview 8.940 instead of 11.12 or 12.1.

After this driver they disappeared...

Are the 11.12 WHQL video .dll's broken with black screens on 5K mobility ?

And if so do the 11.11's work ?

There are some people still stuck on 11.9 because of it...

 

When time permits; I even forgot I've made this thread until leucos started posting replies. =b

No; the fix is mainly to simply enable unofficial OC via Afterburner.

The flickering you're having while moving your mouse might actually be hardware-related, something like an overheated GPU or VRAM.
Or it could be something leucos stated before me.
Dunno really; never had something like that on my laptop so I'm not too sure.

IIRC, that only goes for some versions of AB.
After 2.2.4, I don't think AB had them included in its installation, unless you're installing over an older one that did include those files.

No need for editing anything if you use the /XCL switch.
That achieves the same effect as editing the .cfg file for enabling unofficial OC, and much cleaner (although it does need a restart because it makes AB adding some registry entries to enable the unofficial OC).
You revert/delete those entries simply by using the /RCL switch later on.

No, 11.12 still works IIRC.
I use the ones in 11.11c because it's the set I still keep around.
(I might have to update the guide later to reflect that)

11.12 doesn't have all the optimizations found on 11.11c.
12.1 WHQL has 11.11c optimizations but the files from that set already borks EVR (t3h black screen), hence why I only keep 11.11c.

 

That's probably because almost all the files in the 11.11c driver are newer than the ones in the 11.12 WHQL package. Beta's and and Hotfix tend to have newer files because of the WHQL signing. ( Microsoft WHQL Signing can take up to a month).

 

I know.

AMD said that 11.12 had some fixes that 11.11c didn't, while 11.11c had performance optimizations that 11.12 didn't.
And on 12.1 release, they said it had both the fixes from 11.12 and optimizations from 11.11c.
Funny thing is, 11.12 and 11.11c worked fine with EVR (no blank screen), while 12.1 managed to break it.
I really, really want to know what had happened in-between the releases, seriously. =|

 

This is probably because it's AMD. AMD in the sense that they need to make changes to there driver for improvement in performance and visual quality so we there customers are happy. They need to make changes to the files in there package so they can Add support for newer Graphic Cards. And of course, it's also because AMD are just known to break things after fixing them.

 

Now that AMD has secured contracts with the three big boys of console gaming, I just hope they don't cut another tie with 'old' hardware, this time the 5000 series, because they rather shift fundings to somewhere else 'that matters more'.

Anyway, this is getting off topic.
And I really need to update that guide.


[edit]
Guide updated.
[/edit]

 

11.12 video components are higher than 11.11c ones nevertheless so they can be taken and used, even if the drivers themselves don't include the 11.11c optimisations.

8.930.7 (based on Catalyst 12.1 (8.930)) was the Windows 8 consumer preview, and the start of Windows 8 support with an early driver. Maybe this explains the video mess up.

Interestingly, even the (working on Windows Vista/7) 11.9-11.12 .dll's do not work when forced on Windows 8 without green screens in flash & DXVA on 4K series. At least on the Win 8 64-bit version (I haven't tested 32-bit)

Also this thread might be of interest...

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=163652

 

I know.
It's just that the files from either version (11.11c and 11.12) would both work just the same, so I preferred to keep 11.11c.

There were versions prior to 11.11c/11.12 that borked EVR just the same.

Probably due to different handling of system calls on Win8? Or GDI? Dunno.
11.12 wasn't meant as a Win8 driver anyway.

Yeah, that made me glad keeping 11.11c around.

 

It's not just the 11.12 driver under Windows 8 from a Windows 7 compatiblity mode install, it's the real "official" Windows 8 system driver and Windows 8 legacy driver doing it as well, well at least on 4K.

I've also tried many other older components in an attempt to get rid of it, some even just crash instead of green screening. I just gave up in the end.

Only solution I've got right now for Windows 8 and legacy is to use software browser rendering in IE10 for the html5 green video issues in advanced settings, and turning off flash h/w acceleration in the case of Firefox/Waterfox.

Pity about the legacy atikmpag.sys 0x116 BSOD's on cold start under Windows 8, older ones don't BSOD they just hang and freeze the system instead requiring a reset, can't find a way around those problems even though I worked around the broken multigpu clocks on the second ASIC...

They should really remove the Windows 8 legacy driver and advise everyone on legacy to just go back to Windows 7. It barely works adequately on Win8, and these are the system supplied drivers.

 

AMD probably only focusing driver support on the 7000 series, occasionally on 6000 series, and next-to-none on 5000 right now.
Whatever improves performance on the newest series is being given a priority, even if it means breaking support for older series.

I'd actually be surprised if it doesn't.

That's what I've been doing on the Flash player when I'm not on 11.11c, or too lazy to edit newer sets.

When 12.11 betas were out, I virtually couldn't use any of them since they made my laptop BSOD on each and every boot.
I didn't even have time to enter my password before Win7 BSOD'd.

Everything had gone downhill relative to product support ever since ATi was acquired by AMD, unless you're someone who always bought their latest.
The graphics division has been infected by AMD's PR spins; the 'legacy support' is no different.
It's only there to make them look like they still care about older cards.
They probably knew further optimizations for newer cards would break older cards' functionality even more, so they just moved non-DX11 cards to legacy status.

I just hope that with their deals with the three console giants they don't shift their fundings from driver support to somewhere else.
Fulfilling orders of that magnitude is quite a big feat for a company without its own fab.


ANYWAY...

I'll just stop here; let's get back to the topic.

 

Yes, of course. If I do find something that's a real solution for the Windows 8 environmentally friendly videos, I'll post it in the thread.

 

i have Sony VPCEB44EN with ati mobility 5470 card and have same black screen issue. i installed 12.1 mobility driver from http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=4229311 and i dont have black video issue with this driver but i remember with 12.6 mobility driver i have black screen issue... i have to find between 12.1 to 12.6 which last driver works without black screen issue

 

Thanks!
I can't really test out Windows 8 because my desktop uses 560 Ti.

Then you can just follow the guide to patch newer drivers, like 13.2 Beta 6 for example.
Just replace 11.11c with the last known set that worked fine on your card, which in your case would be 12.1.

 

yes, i understand. but i was wondering whether you actually can overvolt with your OC software of choice (Afterburber, for example).

i'm already overvolting my GPU with TRiXX, but that means i'm also on Catalyst 11.9. it's a very slight +4mV overvolt, but it makes my overclock stable to play Battlefield 3 properly. so you're saying that even with Afterburner, you can't change the core voltage of your GPU?


EDIT: just reread your first post in this thread. you've removed all the INF-modding instructions i was using your post as the go-to place for my INF-modding experiments. is there any chance you have saved those bits and could re-add them to the first post (maybe under the new instructions)? much appreciated.

 

So .. funny thing happened after i followed your (updated) guide.
I've installed afterburner, placed atipdlxx.dll in the afterburner folder, started the program with /xcl and rebooted.
And after the reboot, without running the afterburner program again, the overdrive tab appeared on ccc !?!?.. woot!
So i overclocked my gpu in the overdrive tab and got some small flickering. After another reboot overdrive settings are grayed out and i cant change the clocks but the overclocked settings remained, and the flickering is gone.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/1571/31222528.jpg
How weird is that?

Edit: aaand 10 minutes later, without doing anything, the overdrive settings arent grayed out anymore..

 

Confirmed! Working on 13.1 WHQL + 11.12 WHQL on Win8 Pro, at least after the first reboot. Also no screen flickering for me.
Great findings. :thumbup:

Testing now...
After rebooting again overdrive is retained. Also I get flickering on my second VGA monitor after I've extended my desktop.

 

To put it simply, no.
The 'fix' is just to enable OC on Mobility GPUs via Afterburner which is disabled by default.
Whether you can overvolt with it or not is simply hardware and/or BIOS limitation(s).

Again, entirely depending on your system.
Also, even though an OC tool might show that you've changed the voltage, in reality it might not change the voltage at all in some cases.

You mean the one to mod the atipdlxx.dll into the installation setup?
I'll re-add them if time permits, but basically you can just compare the differences between 12.1's .inf file to that of newer sets; it'll show you what's missing.
You can try Notepad++ to do this sort of thing, by using its Compare plugin.

Yes, the registry entries Afterburner added when you're using the /XCL switch also enables the Overdrive tab on CCC.

You probably haven't given CCC enough time to load properly when you got into desktop the first time you reboot after applying the OC.

Also, the rest of the world have moved on from ImageShack.
Use a proper image hosting site like imgur or TinyPic.
(hint1: ImageShack can't be opened worldwide)
(hint2: I can't open the damn link)

 

Thanks to chrome , i saved that old guide web page as .pdf , here is th link
http://www.solidfiles.com/d/f3ad8a3028/