PC Drivers & Software

[joez]

I'm considering updating the driver for my Radeon R9 270 on my Dell XPX (from 2014). I'm worried about doing this. Is there a risk it will not work and I'll be stuck with a black screen? Years ago- updating drivers was always very risky so I've learned to not rush into it. My video card on this computer is working just fine with a few exceptions. I recently installed a video editing program, Cyberlink PowerDirector 17. It came with another smaller program, Cyberlink Screen Recorder 2. That program won't run. It crashes all the time. I asked tech support at  Cyberlink and they suggested updating my video card.

So, should I not be worried about the update? Any chance it will mess up my system?

Oh- one other less important problem is another program, Lizard Tech GeoViewer which allows viewing ultra compressed aerial photograpy for GIS purposes. When I load a "Mr. Sid" file into that program- the program has the following message:

"DirectX is not available.
This application is unable to initialize the DirectX system, which is required for 3D visualization.
DirectX is not installed or is an older, unsupported version. The application will continue to run, but 3D visualization will be disabled.
The latest runtime libraries may be installed directly from the web: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=04ac064b-00d1-474e-b7b1-442d8712d553."

Does my lack of DirectX have anything to do with my out of date video card driver? Is there any risk in installing those runtime libraries? No conflict with my Radeon graphic card and its driver.

thanks,

Joe

[joez]

I didn't get a reply. I could use some help. Just had another video card problem. I was doing some intense video editing and for a second, my screen flashed- and I saw a message in the lower right- saying something about the video driver crashed but it restored itself. Well, it did for a while- but the next morning when I booted up- I had a problem - everything went much slower. I restored by boot drive from a backup- and the problem went away. So, for the previous reasons and this reason- I probably should update the driver- but I get nervous doing so. I know how to find the driver. But, do I need to uninstall my old driver first? I see there are instructions to uninstall a driver- but then what? How will the system work without a driver until I install the new driver? It would be nice if the installation of the new driver took care of all that.

I can't seem to find an email address for AMD's tech support. Anyone have it? I'm not happy with companies that make it difficult to reach them.

thanks,

Joe

[kingfish]

Online Service Request | AMD 

[joez]

Wow, Kingfish, your reply was within seconds. I appreciate it. I usually don't try to contact any tech support until after asking in a community forum but I didn't get any response. I do understand such forums are voluntary. Not sure where that email address is hiding on the site but it sure is well hidden. If I have any luck - I'll get back here for historical purposes.

thanks greatly,

Joe

[kingfish]

There are several ways to contact AMD support:

[pokester]

I want to reply to offer some help hopefully before you try and update to the latest driver. Make sure to do a few things.

Since you are updating from the old CCC I wold do the following:

Download the current driver.

Download DDU from Wagnardsoft_com. Read the instructions. 

Disable Fast Startup / Hibernation. (you can re-enable this later if you want)

Disconnect fromt the internet. 

Uninstall CCC from the windows add or remove apps aplet.

Run Safemode with no internet and run DDU removing all GPU driver

Restart to normal and install the latest driver with the internet disable. 

This method should avoid you getting some of the common system hangs on those R series cards reported here in these forums. 

[joez]

Pokester,

Wow, that sounds complicated. I'm sure I could do it- but because this computer has all my business on it- I'm hesitant unless updating the driver is urgent. As I noted, it did crash but it's OK now that I restored the boot drive from a backup. I'm wondering- I see that from within Device Manager- there is an option to update the driver- but how well would that work?  Apparently, it would do everything necessary? I suppose if it messed up- I could restore the boot drive again, using a fabulous backup program, Macrium Reflect. I should think that AMD would offer a better, safer way to upgrade. I believe the web site gives instructions- but not as complex as yours. Apparently, as you said, there are problems upgrading the driver. I might put it off for a while, but I appreciate your comments. I did email the company after Kingfish gave me the address- still waiting. Oh, by the way, not sure what CCC means.

thanks,

Joe

[pokester]

Catalyst Control Center is what is meant by CCC. They now call the interface Radeon Settings not CCC, since the Adrenaline drivers first came out. The running of DDU is not really complicated but can be a discouraging thought for those never having done it. It literally would take less than 10 minutes to accomplish and is a task recommended by most GPU makers when problems arise. The disabling of fast startup also is something that takes seconds to do followed by a reboot. Do to so many people having issues updating their drivers on R series cards I would stick with what you have if you are not willing to invest 15 minutes of time to do this. It is only a preventative measure to make sure the driver loads correctly the first time.

You certainly never need to update any driver unless that driver claims to fix an issue you have or is required to be compliant with an OS update or upgrade.

Good Luck!

[joez]

OK, I never looked at the AMD applet. Mine looks a bit different- but must be just an earlier version. Lots of stuff there which I had better not experiment with or I'll mess it up. But thanks for bringing it to my attention. If I'm looking at the wrong thing- let me know- and thanks again.