Drivers for ATI Mobility Radeon 9700

[Nifty]

I have a recurring graphics problem with my laptop's graphics card. I occasionally get severe screen distortion when running 3D games, its apparently random and no amount of settings tweaking can fix it.

On attempting to locate some replacement drivers for my GPU i came accross the problem that there are no drivers designed for my Sony by Sony or ATI. Can i just download the latest drivers from ATI and use them or will that be just as unstable becuase they are not intended for my Sony system?


Maybe my problem is not GPU related (although i reckon it is). I can only describe what i see as lots of artifacts as if my GPU is overheating but they are everywhere and i mean everywhere, pixels seem to get drawn in the wrong place resulting in almost a blender effect. The problem even spills over into the desktop so when i close the game all my icons are fuzzy and distorted, but other areas are fine. This problem can happen as soon as i boot a game so im certain its not simply GPU overheating.

Its not a serious problem; it only happens occasionally and a reboot fixes it, but i would like it not to happen in the middle of playing games!

[kee-lo_]

Sony do really need to adress this problem though.

[joesmi]

Hi,

I have a S1XP which has the same graphics chipset and have had no problems so far and I've been testing a lot of games as I intend to take the laptop travelling with me.

I've used the Sony supplied drivers for my laptop (which are basically modified Catalyst 4.3s), Catalyst 4.8 and 4.9 by both ATI and omegadriver without any of the artifacts and corruption you mention.

What version of the drivers are you currently using? Have you tried uninstalling the current drivers *completely* and reinstalling the Sony supplied ones? Have these problems only begun recently or ever since you've had your laptop? What games are you playing? Are they patched and up to date? Is the problem reproducible? Some more info would help us try and work out what the problem could be.

If you're using the Sony supplied drivers they may be quite old (the Sony ones for my S1XP are Catalyst 4.3 which was originally released way back in March) and newer drivers may fix the problems you're having.

I suggest you *completely* uninstall the current drivers you're using and either reinstall the supplied Sony drivers or the latest ATI Catalyst 4.9 (modifed with the Mobility Modding Tool) or recently released omegadrivers 4.9 (which don't need to be modified) and see if the problem still occurrs. Also ensure that the games you play are all up to date and patched to their latest versions.

Also, contrary to some posts here, omegadrive is pretty respected in the ATI community and his drivers often fix bugs in ATI's official drivers. He does package his drivers with third party utilities that allow you to overclock your card, but these aren't enabled by default, so whether you overclock or not is up to you!

Try searching the forums at rage3d and driverheaven for possible solutions to your problem. At least those forums have a search function.

Hope this helps.

FYI I use mobility modding tool modified Catalyst 4.9 on my S1XP and omegadriver 4.9 on my (overclocked!) desktop

[Perjescu]

I'm currently using some independent drivers called Omega. Go to www.omegadrivers.net and have a look. It seems to do the job pretty well. Better than waiting for Sony for updates.
As for Catalyst drivers, I don't think that you can install them on your laptop very easy. I think you need some kind of software to do the trick. Good luck!

I'm using a A117s with radeon 9700.

[joesmi]

Ok, to install the regular ATI drivers (http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html) on your laptop use the 'DH Mod tool' at http://www.driverheaven.net/patje/

Works for me with Cat 4.9 and below! :smileygrin:

Alternatively, use Omegadrivers (latest is based on Cat 4.9) at http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati.php

HTH

[empo]

joesmi - thanks for that, it worked a treat using the DH Mod Tool

for anyone else's info this was for the Mobility Radeon 9200 on the A115M

now i can play star wars battlefront without any crashes :smileygrin:

[Nifty]

There are new Mobility Radeon 9700 drivers out on the Vaio Link website, they are for models: VGN-A197XP, VGN-A197VP, VGN-A117S, VGN-A297XP, VGN-A217S, and VGN-A217M.

Im debating wther or not to actually use these new drivers because from the patch notes all thats been fixed is:

- Lower part of the screen is not displayed when you switch to LCD+DVI mode

- Screen whites out when you switch from LCD + DVI to LCD mode with XGA resolution

And thats it, nothing else has been fixed according to the notes, and ive never had either of these problems anyway. Seems like a crap job to me so im going to stick with the Omega drivers i have had little problem with so far.

[inectarios]

NO these new drivers fix more than that...

I did not have any problems with my A117S 's MR9700 card, but i still downloaded them.

I discovered that i could overclock my ATI without ANY problems up to 504Mhz core speed and 238.5MHz memory speed. This gave 3130Marks on 3D Mark 03 which i believe is more than satisfactory on such a non-Gamer machine with only 64MB of VRAM.

This proves that a well built machine should be capable of performing more than promised.. .and this VAIO ..does..

Of course i still use the default (Sony) setting of 384Mhz core and 222.75Mhz memory for many reasons..( which btw gives nearly 2900 marks still v.good..)

so...I would recommend to anyone having the ATI MR9700 card on his/her VAIO laptop to download the latest drivers from vaio-link for the ATI card AND the latest BIOS update.

[SANTA]

Oh my goodness,...
Hi, I'm from germany and this seems to be a greater problem for more users than i thought

(sorry for my english)

Me, owning a VGN-A217M too, experienced the same problems with those flashing pixels while playing 3d-Games and haven't found a solution yet,.... read so much thing 'bout the alternative drivers (OMEGA, DNA) and opther things, but none of them could help me or my notebook ... no, i even get more and more confused ....

I already downloaded that latest Version from the VAIO-Link site, CATALYST crap thing or what its called, but the pixels keep flashing! ...

So, if anyone can give me one hint what to try next, pls be so kind and mail to:

frank_my@hotmail.com

Would be very kind of u!
Thanks!

[kee-lo_]

See http://www.club-vaio.com/clubvaio/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=13898

[SANTA]

See http://www.club-vaio.com/clubvaio/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=13898

Anyone tried it yet?!

Did it solve these pixel flashing problems during 3d-games too?!