M17x Drivers thread

use sli update 3 as i do and see if this continues. however nvidia says that it must be used with drivers 191.xx.

 

Did you remove the previous driver before installing the 186.64 ? I tried installing over the existing one and got plenty of issues (including display colors change at boot and eventually a black/gray screen. Had to roll back through safe mode.
How are the temps comparing to the 179.85?

 

SLi 3 update worked like a charm on 179.85 enabling SLI in all current games including Dragon Age.

 

given the cooling of these machines, the minimal temp difference due to different drivers should not really be a deciding factor

 

Anyone know how to get Nvidia 9400m display working for ATI users..?

 

I would guess you have to disable the discrete cards for it to work, since you cannot use both ATI and Nvidia drivers concurently

 

yeah, I do that but then it wont accept nvidia drivers and windows 7 only registers STANDARD VGA ADAPTER...

 

check how this was done on the Area 51 m15x, it had Intel IGP and Nvidia or ATI discrete, so 2 sets of drivers

 

Does any one have stuttering in bioshock on the 186.40 driver ? i reinstalled the old drive that came with the m17x same results every once and a while it just stutters then smooths out. at first i though it was sli stuttering but i ran bioshock on 1 GPU using the Nvidia control panel and again the same.

 

sli update proved to be a headache for me. i use nhancer now on and searching for best advanced settings.

 

What is SLI 3 exactly? Were would I find the update? (and where can I find the 191.xx drivers? I'm not seeing them on Nvidia's website)

 

Sli Update 3 is an update to the sli profiles, that you can get from the nvidia website

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_multigpu_SLI_profile_update_v3.html

I just uploaded a copy of the 187.66 drivers from laptopvideo2go, with a slight change that allows blu ray playback.

http://rapidshare.com/files/305938945/187.66.rar

Try out this driver if you want an alternative to the standard 186.64 driver. This is the only driver I could use other than the standard driver that allows for blu ray playback. I explained how I modified it on the win 7 thread.

I was getting sketchy performance in Dawn of War 2, with 186.64 it would drop down to 6fps in the benchmark and average around 30 something. With the above driver the minimum is 12 and average is 44. This driver has improved performance a bit for me in Win 7. I wouldn't recommend installing the sli update though because it decreased my performance to a similar level to 186.64.

The 19x.xx drivers are available on nvidia's website if you search for beta drivers, but I have been unable to get any 19x.xx driver to work using sli in win 7, they may be ok if you have a single gpu.

 

Ok thanks for the help.

 

after installing sli update 3 (i want to run borderlands) my system messed up. all perfomance drop down - for randomly freezes. now i've done reverse to stock drivers.. dont know what to install now - all new drivers make flickering textures in gta4 but stock drivers don't..

 

the sli update 3 worked for me in borderlands. i get 3-5 more FPS. in huge fights where it would normally drop to 30 FPS it says at 40FPS.

 

the sli update 3 does nothing to borderlands and only gpu is still used. this 3-5 fps more is just by luck.

generally you guys confirmed i was right with sli update 3. it messed up performance. go for nhancer and manually set sli , sli mode etc. for each game

what i can say for the 187.66 driver is that its maybe the best driver for now. an example: from 32 fps on red faction dx10 i got 43 or more using nhancer and dx10 sli configuration.

 

I'm glad those drivers have been helpful, let other people know to use them if you see people asking on the forum.

I got dragon age origins on the weekend and wasn't getting the best performance, only around 30-40 fps @ 1920 x 1200 maxed out no aa. It wasn't running in sli, only one card was getting hot.

so I used the nvidia control panel to find the .exe and changed the sli mode to Force Alternate Frame Rendering 2. This enabled sli and increased performace by 100% to 60 - 70 fps.

Unfortunately there seems to be a bit of sli stuttering, while the game is steady at 60fps it kind of stutters every now and then. I still think the performance is better than without using it.

Try using force alternate frame rendering 2 on borderlands and see if that enables sli like it did in dragon age. good luck!

 

I'm not sure why you'd think this or maybe it's a consequence of the 187.66 driver as I had trouble with them and Borderlands.

Using 186.82 and SLI-3 update I get the SLI indicator as per the top image of the following (this is an example, not from my system and mine also says "SLI"):

 

BETA 195.55 was posted by NV today. If you want to test it, you will need the modded INF from LV2Go or mod the INF yourself.

BluRay playback is initially dead with LV2Go's modded INF. PowerDVD will throw an error when trying to play a BluRay. To work-around this, uncheck the box to have PowerDVD not attempt to disable Aero during playback (see attached). Games are running smooth and SLI profiles have been updated with this release.

If you do decide to test it, be sure to modify each of your game's 3D Settings Profile in the NV Control Panel. You will need to set the Power Management Mode pulldown (new menu item) to 'Prefer Max Performance' (see attached).

EDIT: Do not even bother with this one, EPIC FAIL.

 

So far the 195.55 seem more unstable than the 195.39 The only game I tried so far was Counter Strike Source which kept freezing almost every 10 minutes. I get random blue screens even when the screensaver is on. They support though the new CUDA and I am going to stick with them for a while...

 

Does anyone know which drivers you need to install after upgrading to Windows 7? All of them or what? Thanks.

 

Thanks for the heads-up BatBoy - and esp. the warning before people try to install.

For those interested, here are the notes taken from: http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/Find.aspx

New in Version 195.55

•Adds GPU-acceleration for smoother online HD videos with the new Adobe Flash 10.1 beta. Learn more here.
•Adds support for GeForce GT 240.
•Adds support for OpenCL 1.0 (Open Computing Language) for all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
•Adds support for CUDA Toolkit 3.0 features and performance enhancements. See CUDA Zone for more details.
•Adds SLI and multi-GPU support for many top new gaming titles including Borderlands, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, FIFA Soccer 10, and more.
•Includes numerous bug fixes including improved performance for Need for Speed: Shift. Refer to the release notes on the documentation tab for information about the key bug fixes in this release.

Cheers

Trelawney

P.S. grendelswr - you need the motherboard drivers and the graphics drivers. People are reporting that you need to ensure you disable the LAN powersave mode with the nVidia drivers under Device Manager else it may appear your LAN card isn't working I believe (I haven't installed yet so scroll back a few pages to double-check)

 

Had a really odd issue when removing 195.55 (had a few crashes in Dragon Age so reverting to Dell drivers). I 1st uninstalled the PhysX drivers, went to uninstall the display drivers and it gave the error message stating that the drivers may already of been uninstalled. So couldn't even get to the storage / chipset / smu uninstallers either.

Had to manually uninstall the devices, boot into Safe Mode, remove all the NVidia software and reinstall from scratch. Was very odd and annoying.

Side note on the 195.55 drivers, they seem to run several degrees hotter than the Dell stock drivers. Idle temps: Dell 36 - 38, 195.55 41 - 43. L4D2: Dell 50-54, 195.55 56-60 mark.

 

195.55 driver sucks. even the win7 rating reduced from 7.3 to 7.2 which have never happened before not to mention the 3dmark06 score.

back to 187.66 for me. 19x.xx drivers seems to suck which is dissapointing.

 

i thought 191.07 were doing well, just the 195xx ones suck

 

exactly. i remember i tried 191.07 once . good performance but it wasnt working with hybrid sli. but 195.xx series are those that nvidia decided to add many features.

 

Probably worth waiting a few more days/weeks to see if nVidia bring out something newer rather than making 195.55 WHQL - they certainly don't sound ready for prime time yet... probably as said above that they add so many new features too.

Cheers

Trelawney

 

I don't suppose someone could help with a mod INF for the MobileForce drivers? I'd like to give them go but I can't find the hardware ID for my GTX's, what's coming up is my 9400 even though it's disabled.

The link is here, http://www.notebookforums.com/thread229230.html.

 

Today Dell posted an updated Synaptics Touchpad driver.

• Disable scrolling feature as default setting
• Corrects Alientouch compatiablity in Windows 7

v14.0.12.0 Details Page

 

mmm can anyone tell me why when i downloaded GeForce/ION Release 195 driver it says it could not install as it couldnt detect something with my hardware?

edit

on the search i do

Product Type: geforce
product series : geforece 200 series
product gefroce gtx 280
op system: windows vista 64 bit

 

I always found that the default touchpad drivers are better than dells :E

anyone can comment on the the one drivers?

 

Chose the Mobile series. So it should be 200M series.

 

nope it never worked mate, it says ''The nvida setup program could not locate any driver that are compatable with youre current hardware. setup will exit now' any idea what to do? never downloaded drivers from nvida just the dell site before

 

Don't even bother with 195.55. The driver is a failure when paired with the M17x.

My test notes from 195.55:

ISSUE #1: BluRay playback is again not functional. Same issue was present with 187.xx. You can work around this issue by unchecking the option in PowerDVD to disable Aero for BluRay Playback.

ISSUE #2: If you are running SLI your second GPU will not downclock properly after ending a 3D Gaming session. Clocks for GPU #2 will remain @ default (583/950/1450) whereas GPU #1 will return to 200/100.

ISSUE #3: Uninstaller is broken. When accessing the Programs & Features Control Panel to uninstall, the display driver option is missing. You will need to uninstall each display adapter via the Device Manager.

For whatever reason, NVIDIA has chosen to leave the M17x out of the last few releases. Have no idea why.

I suggest 186.82 or 186.91. Others have also reported that the 187.66 is ok as well. If you are unfamilar with that site be sure to read the FAQs on using a modded INF file.

My personal preference is 186.82 but you should test for yourself to determine which is best for your needs.

Have fun with driver hunting

 

mm i even clicked and downloaded ur 186.91 , and when it goes to install it says the same thing i wrote up that it could detect my hardware =s anyideas?

 

Not 'my' driver lol.

Once you download the driver, you will need to run the executable to extract it.

Once the driver is extracted, look inside the directory for the 'Additional INFs' .zip archive.

Extract this and copy/paste the 'nv_whql.inf' into the top level of the 186.82 directory.

Once this is done, run the setup.exe app to install.

This is required for the driver to recognize the hardware in the M17x. The default INF (nvfu.inf) does not support the M17x GPUs.

Be sure to read up on their (LV2Go) FAQ's. It will help answer quite a few questions... Also, if any of this seems complicated (it actually really is until you get the hang of it), just install the 186.64 from Dell's Support site.

 

thanks mate for reply downloading now! one wee question sorry, where do i copy and paste 'nv_whql.inf' into the top level of the 186.82 directory. that in nvida folder?
thanx once again, im a novice =/

ahh think i got it, i just extracted it into the same section as the setup.exe? its doing somethng - installing anyways ;p thanks m8

 

When you run the executable for the driver you downloaded, it may prompt you for a location. If not, it will extract to the location where the .exe is (Example: you download the file to the desktop, run the .exe - it should create a folder on the desktop for the driver).

Once extracted, open the folder and then look for the Additional INF's .zip. Extract it and follow the notes I posted above. Basically, copy it over to the same level as the rest of the driver files.

Be sure you are running with the 9400M G active when updating the driver. This way, the driver is installed for your 280M's and 9400M G.

 

ye it just installed it mate, i took the assumtion it would go next to the setup.exe. thanks alot m8 =) hope i get a bit more performance now in sli, had bad stuttering with sli before hand in call of duty mw 2 etc <3

 

The GPU drivers from nVidia will never install without modding the INFs because they block them on certain OEM laptop cards such as Dell and others. AMD/ATI do the same thing - personally I think it's lame and should just pop up a warning, but it's done to discourage untested (by the OEM) drivers being used.

 

well no stutering in cod mw2 now =) that 186.82 is best so far=)) thnx m8, and ye i agree tao mate=)

 

Be aware, 186.82 does not have a valid SLI profile for COD:MW2. You can use nHancer or there is another solution, however I am unable to link to my blog posts.

 

o0 i just changed the nvida custom settings for sli performance mode, i set it to force alternate frame rendering, which seems to get the right side of my machine hot where the 2nd 280 is? or do i just download this nhancer? whats it actually do? tnx again m8 do i use this rather than the nvidia control pannel once if installed it? and if so what setting do i set the nvida controll pannel to, like application decide? then use nhancer to set options?
also cant see call of duty mw2 on the games list m8

 

edit... wow nhancer rocks, i get no fps lag at all with 32xq AA and max everything in enchanter with cod 2 mw! this is epic lol thanks soo much batboy <3 still get a bit of sli lag though where frame rate drops low ever 60 secs odd any way to fix it?

 

No worries. Glad its all sorted now.

 

what fixes stutter though m8? still get a fps drop every 60 secs with sli on in codmw2

 

setting "split screen performance mode" in control panel must solve this problem but fps may be lower than now

 

is this setting in nhancer also? and do u mean the multiple display /mixed gpu accerlation in the nvida control pannel? its set to multple for me will single help?

 

no i did't mean this. i mean sli settings in nvidia control panel. and multuple/single gpu accel is about other. i heard that multiple gpu accel works only with openGL so in dx10 it doesnt matter

 

still a bit confused mate, cant find 'split screen performance mode' where is that under the nvida control pannel?
thnx for reply