Latitude E6510 Owner's Lounge

i read all 50 pages of this thread.....just to get in the loop....

with my e6510 due tomorrow

w00t !

 

You can also work through the E6410 thread to further broaden your knowledge. The E6510 and E6410 have much in common.

John

 

Perusing the thread, I see several other people have a configuration similar to mine (E6510, i7-720, FHD display, 3100M graphics, Win7 Pro x64).

Several times a week, its screen blinks black briefly and Windows generates a popup saying the graphics driver had to be restarted. The system event log reports that nvlddmkm stopped, with an event id of 4101.

Has anyone else seen this problem?

I've updated the graphics driver twice, first to the most recent one on Dell's site, and then to the newer one on Nvidia's site. It's currently at v. 8.17.12.5896 (aka v258.96)

This actually is a replacement laptop. The original one had exactly the same problem as the replacement does. The local Unisys repair person (subcontracted by Dell) believes it's a driver issue and not hardware.

Thanks for whatever help you can provide.

Selden

 

Web searches finally led me to the PowerMizer Switch thread here. I've run the PowerMizer Switch program to update the registry. Now to be patient and find out if it actually helps....

s.

 

That should not be the solution to your problem.
Beside you need to restart your computer to apply changes. The reason for this is that the drivers load the registry setting when it loads once. The post says "If nothing works restart the computer", a clear sign they the developer of the tool has no idea what he is doing or did any testing, or get any understanding of how things works. In other words (which is true because I traced his problem), he find some registry tweak on the internet and made a program that does the step automatically, no mater your computer specs. It can be an old Nvidia graphic card or a new one, desktop or laptop.. doesn't care, applies the same tweak. A double clicking on a *.reg file would do the same. Don't get me wrong his intend is to be nice, and it's a free program, but I find it not amusing that no tests where done, and going blind fold on it's user, causing many problems.

Why am I critical about this? Because, as a developer myself, I hate seeing other developer release a half job.
So do better you say? Already did.
Tweak Nvidia GPU's - PowerMizer and more - Multi-GPU support!
Every version is tested with a multitude of graphic cards and tested from Windows 2000 (yup I got this low), all the way up to Win7 64-bit, and I get great feedback from beta version's with their system which ensuring that at every release the software does what it's supposed to do. It's also fully Windows 7 ready.

Anyway, using my software won't help one bit.

What is happening is not a simple screen flicker... it's really something at a hardware or software level which crashes the graphic card drivers. In XP it would be a BSOD. But, in Vista/Win7 thanks to it's "no more tied in to the kernel drivers" system, it can recover failed drivers (hence the flashing screen).

Do you run anything particular when this occurs? Flash video/content on a page (including a Flash ad)? any videos? Do you use Chrome Beta, or Firefox 4 beta 4 where on either you enabled Direct2D rendering engine? or anything else that might use the graphic card?


Here is something you can try:
- Download and get CCleaner (free): Piriform - Download CCleaner, Defraggler, Recuva, Speccy - Millions of users worldwide!
- Uninstall (but don't restart you computer) Nvidia Control Panel, driver, software EVERYTHING (including nView).
- Now open CCleaner, and perform a registry clean up. Once done, perform another one.
- Now you can restart your computer
- Once your computer has restarted, install the latest Nvidia drivers., and restart your computer when it's done.

See if that helps.

 

Greetings,

I bought my refurbished E6510 for a decent price. It came with i7-620M, 4G, 250G/7200RPM, and 3100M, and even a 3-year warranty. The only thing that's bad about this laptop is the screen-- a crappy 1366x768 LCD that
1. has very narrow viewing angles, both horizontal and vertical.
2. can't go beyond 59Hz in refresh rate.
3. looks blurry and gives me eye strains.

I am thinking about replacing the screen with a FHD one. My questions:
1. Is it as simple as swapping the screen? Or do I need to change other components?
2. Where can I get a FHD screen for E6510? Dell certainly doesn't sell it. I don't see any on e-bay.

I am seriously considering returning the laptop because of the screen. If not for the 15% restocking fee they charge for the return, I would have done it already. Finding a replacement screen for it, to me, seems to be a good way around my dilemma. Any suggestion is appreciated. Thanks.

 

Not sure if this helps:

One of my M4500's had the exact same symptoms and same event id. This sample had an i7, the nVidia FX880M adapter, and the factory software install. It occasionally exhibited the problem under relatively light CPU/GPU load.

As part of a planned reconfiguration, Win 7 was reinstalled with a minimal driver/utility set. The problem disappeared, but the exact cause was not identified.

 

I have to agree. The 1366 x 768 displays on both my samples are a definite downgrade compared with the 1600 x 900 on the M4500.

 

This is a Windows 7 bug. For some reason 59.997Hz monitors are not rounded to 60Hz in the display properties, but rather rounded down to 59Hz. But don't worry, when you put 59Hz, the graphic card output 60Hz. On desktop monitor, if you open the monitor OSD menu, you will see that it receives a 60Hz signal.

Only displays that supports 60.001Hz will have the 60Hz option there and selectable under Windows 7. Hopefully, this bug will be fixed in SP1.

If it makes you sleep better, using the Nvidia Control Panel, you can create a custom resolution with 60.001Hz. That extremely small difference should not cause any porblem to your monitor (ie: you won't get a "out of range" message or black screen).

This is because the dot pitch (the distance between pixels) is too large.
For a 14inch, you already need 1440x900 to have a nice screen, lower and text is hard to read. Now you have an even lower resolution, on even bigger laptop.. that is a asking for disaster, as you witness yourself.

I would return the machine and exchange it with one with a higher resolution, or see with Dell in the possibility in upgrading the screen for a small fee.

 

GoodBytes,

Thanks for the suggestions. I've downloaded NV GPU Pro and used it to disable the powermizer options, even though you say that won't help.

Every display glitch seems to happen in a different circumstance: sometimes when I'm editing text with emacs (v21.3), sometimes when viewing static pictures with Windows Photo Viewer, and just a few minutes ago while viewing your response using Firefox (v3.6.8). I downloaded and ran your program right after that happened.

Next I'll try your suggestion to deinstall, clean registry, and reinstall the drivers.

VeryOldGuy,

I don't have a retail W7 kit, just the Dell reinstall discs. I dunno if they'll let me do a minimal install. I'll investigate that option, though.