Nvidia Optimus Issues

Dear forum,

I hope you can help us with our problem. My wife has a M14X with GT555M video processor.

The bottom line is, no matter what we do we cannot get the Nvidia processor to turn on. I'm talking specifically about Diablo 3 but I can't get it to turn on for anything at all.

I have a M11XR2 myself so I know all the little headaches that come with Optimus technology but so far either through Nvidia control panel, or just by updating my drivers I never had an Optimus problem on my own laptop.

1) I tried 295.XX drivers both from Nvidia and Dell support website. I set Diabloiii and diabloiiilauncher.exe all to run from the Nvidia processor but when I launch the game it doesn't work.

2) When I connect the laptop to our TV via HDMI, the graphics processor does kick in. Weird huh?

3) I tried the brand new drivers that were released last week, it still won't work.

I'm really hoping someone can help us with that. It is very frustrating when your $$$ machine won't even run properly.

 

In addition to the original post, I have now tried:

- 280.26 drivers from Nvidia (as I heard these worked better for optimus) and it didn't work.

- Updated Intel HD drivers to latest ones and it didn't work.

- Did clean installation with Driver Sweeper and what not for 4 different driver versions, none of them worked.

I'm really, really, really, really frustrated at the moment.

 

I'm not certain about this but I think Fn+F7 brings up some graphics menu where you can manually enable the GTX. It's worth a shot.

 

FN+F7 is Muted for M14x keyboard, to bring the NV Control Panel, right click on Desktop or type in "NVIDIA Control Panel" in the start menu or find it in the Control Panel also work, there is a link on my sig guiding on how to Whitelist/manually enable the GPU to run on the game.

As for Diablo 3, that game, it is not only you who has that problem, there are also majority of people here has this same problem with the Optimus, do a forum search I'm sure you would find some answers.

 

have you tried white-listing the .exe file for Diablo 3? If you don't know how whitelist check out the guide in my sig.

 

Yes, if you look at my original post, I did put both diabloiii.exe and diablo3iiilauncher.exe on the whitelist. I even tried right clicking diabloiii.exe and select run with Nvidia processor.

Both Intel and Nvidia drivers are up-to-date. I don't even know who to blame at this point, Blizzard or Nvidia?

 

At this point I have tried 4 different games (D3, WoW, ME3, and Skyrim) and NONE of them activates Nvidia GPU. Once again, latest drivers, they are all whitelisted to force them to use Nvidia GPU.

When I plug the laptop to the TV via HDMI, then everything works fine. is going on, seriously...

 

Sorry I read through the thread quickly. might be time to call dell and see if they can get you fixed up?

Sent from my Galaxy S2 using Tapatalk 2

 

Have you tried to disabled all other display monitors and just leave the laptop one. Does it still have this problem?

 

I dont know for the other 3 you list, but for Skyrim, you may need to whitelist both TESVLauncher.exe and Skyrim.exe and also whitelist Steam as well. And enable the "Display GPU Activity at the Notification Area" in the "Display" drop down menu found on the top of the program, once you enable it, then it will show you what program is using the NV GPU right now, this also work when you in game by Alt-Tabbing out of the game and have a peek at it in the Notification/Hidden Icon Area. And if all else failed, then I'd suggest (like Bigtonyman suggest) is to call Dell for help, because if in doubt they'll send in a technician to have a look/replace the GPU for you.

Which Driver version are you? The latest one just came out a few days ago, and that one is the 301.42 WHQL and which version of the GT555M are you? Is it GF116 or GF106, 1.5GB or 3GB? You can check all those info with GPU-Z

 

I'm actually having the same issue with Diablo 3, the game runs on the Intel GFX and it fails to switch to the 555 GPU.... I'm using the latest Nvidia drivers (301)

 

I just got off the phone with Alienware (Dell) support. The guy was actually very upfront and honest. Bottom line is the alienware M14X comes with optimus and it does not allow you to disable the integrated intel card. Enough people complained to technical support and the 6th edition of the bios for the M17X gave them the ability to disable the Intel chip. That is the only way to get the Nvidia video card to work all the time. My benchmark was 6 fps and that is within normal range??? are you kidding me??? (BTW the reason the nvidia works when you plug an HDMI device into it it because it is directly connected to the nvidia card) So the bottom line is call support and complain. Tell them you want the ability to disable the intel card in the bios. Don't pay for the extra gaming support and don't don't give up. This is s high end gaming machine I am plugged into the wall and am not worried about battery life. and we should be able to use what we paid for ...when ever we want. I just want to pick my video card.....that's all !!

 

From what I remember from back when the m17x r3 first came out was that the BIOS was unlocked by some people on a BIOS Modding site, not dell. Second, I'd like to point out that with the m14x r1 it was impossible to turn off the integrated gpu because of the way the whole mobo was designed. If it was disabled it let to no picture ending up on the display at all. I don't know if dell continued with the similar mobo layout, but if they did you won't be able to turn off the igpu as far as I understand it. Not trying to rain on your parade, just trying to fill in a few gaps.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2 using Tapatalk 2

 

bigtonyman said it all. Motherboard design on m17x is different then one on m14x. On m14x, your display is connected to intel IGP. Even while gaming on nvidia, the data is first processed with nvidia and then transferred to intel IGP to display on screen. If you disable intel IGP, there wont be any display at all.
Only workaround i guess is to use an HDMI display which runs purely on nvidia GPU all the time.

 

In which case I'm extremely lucky cause I just bought a 32" T.V. to play games on.. 1080p may be a bit pixelated for web browsing but for gaming it's epic!

 

Here is a way to determine why the optimus is not working fine on the computer. You can also go here and check if all the set-up is correct for the video card to work on all your games.