The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    GTX 280M not recognised?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by bengreene, Apr 26, 2011.

  1. bengreene

    bengreene Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hi folks,
    Backstory - Back in January I had some problems with my laptop and windows update (I suspect strongly) corrupted the OS and when I tried to use Alienrespawn to restore it wouldn't work. In the end I formatted the disk and installed Windows7 from scratch. I used the drivers from the Dell website and everything installed just fine, everything worked ok.

    A month ago I installed Fallout 3 again (after a spell of slumming it with some older games like Fallout 1, 2 and Fallout Tactics) and the game intro was stuttering, the framerate was in the low teens. I had played Fallout 3 on the laptop last Autumn and it had zero problems.

    Problem - When I checked the graphics I saw that instead of two GTX 280Ms in SLI the system manager was showing me some NVidia 9400/9000, which I think is the integrated graphics.

    I've messed around with the BIOS, tried switching between integrated/discrete graphics, tried uninstalling and reinstalling drivers ... nothing has made a difference. Not sure that's 'cos I'm missing something or if it's 'cos the 280Ms are actually broken ... I doubt the 280s are broken though, my luck can't be that bad!

    Any advice or solutions would be much appreciated folks.

    Ben
     
    bengreene, Apr 26, 2011
    #1
  2. Psychotic deformity

    Psychotic deformity Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    59
    Messages:
    247
    Likes Received:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    31
    just to be clear: in the bios, right now both integrated and discrete are set to "enabled" and the 280Ms do not show up in the device manager?

    I would make sure of that, then procede with a clean installation of the 270.61 drivers.

    1) download and install driver sweeper and ccleaner
    2) go to the device manager, right click on the 9400m and uninstal the driver for the device
    3) reboot, go into bios setup make sure all the cards are enabled in the bios
    4) boot into safe mode (f8), run driver sweeper (clean nvidia display only) and don't reboot, run ccleaner (clean registry until no items show up)
    5) reboot normally, install 270.61 drivers
     
    Psychotic deformity, Apr 26, 2011
    #2
  3. bengreene

    bengreene Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Thanks for advice! I'm at work at the moment, I'll give this a go this evening when I get home.
     
    bengreene, Apr 26, 2011
    #3
  4. bengreene

    bengreene Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I tried that and it worked a charm. Both 280M cards are now recognised and working. I gave them a quick baptism with Dawn of War 2 and it ran perfectly, no stutter, no lag ... no way that's happening on a 9400.

    Thanks very much for the advice! :)
     
    bengreene, Apr 26, 2011
    #4
  5. Psychotic deformity

    Psychotic deformity Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    59
    Messages:
    247
    Likes Received:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    31
    No problem, glad I could help ;)
     
    Psychotic deformity, Apr 26, 2011
    #5