M17X Hybrid Graphics and W7

So I have an Alienware M17x with dual gtx260m graphic cards but I cant seem to get them to work. And yes, I have read like the first 15 pages of the "Alienware M17x and Windows 7" thread but none of the solutions worked. I only see the 9400M G in device manager and thats all... I have tried installing the most updated video driver from nVidia, and Dell and the chipset from Dell. It worked before I did this recent system reformat so I don't know what happened.

OS: W7 Ultimate 64-bit (Same OS when it used to work)

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

EDIT
-Also, when I press FN+F7 it tells me to restart and when I restart, the screen is black at the desktop screen (Can only move cursor) and I have to turn off Hybrid via BIOS to have it boot properly.
-Not in stealth mode

 

Hi there,

Try checking in the BIOS and see if integrated GPU and Hybrid SLi is enabled. You can enable Hybrid SLi and then if you have a Nvidia driver before version 25X.XX you can control switching from the 9400m to the 260ms down in the right hand side of the taskbar. There will be a green boomerang looking icon which control's Hybrid SLi switching of your GPUs.

If you are using one of the newer 25X.XX drivers then you will need to go into the advanced power options and set the GPU settings in there to what you want to use in different situations; ie High performance mode plugged in or unplugged in battery mode etc.

Another way is you can try disabling the integraded GPU in the BIOS completely and that should allow you to run on your 260s SLi depending if you have the drivers installed correctly. Cheers.

 

You can also try driver sweeping the GPU drivers in SAFE mode. Then reinstalling ie 258.96 driver back in normal windows mode. For this particular driver you will need to use the settings in advanced power options to set and choose which GPUs you want to use and in which situation.

The green boomerang looking icon will still be in the right hand side taskbar but you won't be able to use it to switch to and from your GPUs no more. 1 green boomerang for indicating your using 9400m GPU and 2 boomerangs to show that you are in High performance mode and running on your GTX 260 SLi's. Cheers.

 

Tried sweeping drivers and reinstalling Dell's most updated driver v186.64 one time and then it didnt work so I sweeped it and installed nVidia's most updated driver v258.96. Niether worked. Niether had any green boomerang nor did it work with FN+F7 or turning on Hybrid Graphics via BIOS. FN+F7 game the same black screen error and Hybrid on via BIOS just gave the same black screen. I would prefer to get the version with the green boomerang that lets you toggle between integrated and hybrid (That was the one I got when it used to work)

Thanks...

 

try running dell Diagnostics

Even with out drivers the laptop should be able to boot into windows with the GTX260 enabled.

Turn both GPUs on in the BIOS and boot up, see if they are both identified in the Device manager

 

NVM, i found out the solution. It was to install the drivers after enabling Hybrid in the BIOS.

 

Ah thats good you got it working. That's always what we want to hear!

Yeh, if you want to be able to use the boomerang to change and toggle between GPUs you can't use any of the newer 25X.XX drivers because you will then have to setup the Power profile options instead. You will still be able to see the boomerang however it will just be telling you which mode you are in. What I did when using the newer 25X.XX drivers was set High performance mode to use my GTX 260m SLi's and the I set balanced mode profile to use the 9400m. So I just changed to using the power profiles to do the same work the boomerang did last time.

Also if ever the boomerang does disappear the 1st thing you should check is whether or not the Hybrid SLi is enabled in the BIOS. Cheers.

 

not to bring back an old post, but I am having the same problem as xGary. How did you install drivers (not sure which ones) if you kept booting up to black screen when in hybrid mode? I'm having the exact same problem and not sure what to do. Thanks

 

Finally got it to work. For those who are having the same problem:

-During boot up enable hybrid graphics in the bios (even though this causes the black screen with cursor)
-When the black screen with cursor comes up, I hit gfx and after a minute windows automatically shut down the gtx260m graphics cards and ran on integrated
-install drivers (I used V186.64)
-enjoy

Sorry for the other post, i didn't know that you had to wait at the black screen and hit the gfx key and wait for windows to shut down the gtx260.

 

Or you could boot with hybrid enabled, log in safe mode and uninstall video drivers and after that boot into normal mode and reinstall a proper driver.