My quest to play FFXI on an Alienware M17x R3 with NVidia GeForce GTX 460M

I have been playing Final Fantasy XI (FFXI, an MMORPG) since many years ago, and even if it is somehow an old game (9 years old!) it is still VERY actively developed with major updates about 4 times a year.

In order to enjoy my play experience further, I always wanted to get an Allienware laptop so I finally did last month. I live in México and even if delivery here took around 3 weeks I was pleased with it at start. 8 GB RAM, NVidia GeForce GTX 460M with 1.5 GB VRAM, the "8" processors (just a way to put it), etc. seemed like a real sweet deal. It really ended up as a bad nightmare, for now .

First of all, of course it was -MY- mistake of not reading about the NVidia Optimus technology that comes with this model and that seems to cause a lot of trouble to some users, but even if I did read about it beforehand, having two videocards doesn't sound terribly bad, just strange.

I promptly installed the game after getting the computer. Installation went through without a problem. This game uses a launcher called "Play Online" (POL.EXE) and right after it all was ready, I executed it and found the cold and terrible truth: "This program has encountered an error and must be closed"... (sorry, literal translation from Spanish Windows 7 but I am sure you know what am I talking about).

Tried a lot of things, of course, first from playing with NVidia control panel to force the game to use NVidia video card, no luck. Integrated card, also no luck. Changed a lot of settings, changed to default again and nada. My next move was, of course, update video drivers from Dell site so I did download the latest available (NVIDIA_GEFORCE-GTX-460M_A01_R300038.exe). After the update, same thing. I updated then the Intel drivers to see if they were causing the errors. Still couldn't run the game.

Of course, I did try to install the "verde" drivers from NVidia but couldn't install them without the modified "nvdm.inf" file. Either way, neither 275.33 or 275.50 (beta) worked as my windows BSoD on boot with an error message in "nvlddkdmm.something" (didn't write it down, message disappears kinda quickly) and after reading a lot more I found out that some of the M17x R3 do have that problem on "verde" drivers.

After that point I spent a lot of time online looking at forums and trying to find more people with the same problem, which I found and also found the "patch" that has allowed me to play FFXI for now, but it is FAR from being the "optimal" (pun intented, "optimus") solution: I need to just go to control panel -> device manager and DISABLE the NVidia video card.

Yup! In order to play my game I need to get rid of one of the (probably) most attractive things of these computers. Of course, since I have my game on pretty much all the time (even from work, because I can use the game as "a chat" with my friends even when I am busy) there is no point in reenabling NVidia video card "when I am not playing FFXI", because if I am at th computer most likely I will have it on. I also wanted a laptop because I use this computer as my main source of work/entertainment and it travels everyday from home to work and viceversa.

So, after much more researching (I had given up on this quest and was waiting/hoping for a Dell/Alienware update on drivers/BIOS but... it has been almost 3 weeks now without my NVidia card enabled!) I discovered that I -could- flash my BIOS (Insyde) with the mod posted somewhere in these forums but I think it is an extreme situation. Suposedly, flashing my BIOS would allow me to: 1) Install "verde" drivers to see if that will fix my game or 2) Disable Intel IGP and just use NVidia.

Oh! Before anybody mentions it as an issue, FFXI DOES work and has support for NVidia GeForce GTX 4xx and 5xx graphic cards, the issue seems to be ONLY when some computer uses Optimus technology.

Anyway, as I mentioned previously, I am just in a point of:

1) MAYBE I could return my computer, but I am in México and almost at 3 weeks since I got it. I have goten some advice that Radeon cards should work fine and could take the risk... probably. As I would be left without my work/play computer I really wouldn't like to do this at all.

2) Wait. Yes, just wait until a new BIOS/Graphic driver is released and continue using my IGP only, forgetting I have an actual real video card for everything else.

3) Try to flash my BIOS to see if that helps. This is kinda radical for me and would like to avoid it if possible, but may not have another choice.

Anyway, I am writing all this wall of text first of all because I needed to vent my frustration, of course, but second and most importantly, to HOPE somebody has a piece of advise on what could I do. I *think* I have tried everything "tryable" but you never know with these things.

Thanks in advance for your help! and I really really hope this issue could be solved .

(I apologize for my somehow bad English; it is not my main language).

 

isn't there an option in the bios to disable the intel igp so you only run on the nvidia 460 and that way are able to run the game with the 460

 

Unfortunatelly there is not such option in official BIOS; that's why I was talking about trying the "mod" one, which seems to have that option, but alas it is not officially supported by Dell and can potentially brick my computer :X.

 

Any flash can brick your computer.

 

ok thats a no go then, youdst figured there would be one there was in the R1.


you could try to disable the intel igp in windows device manager and activate the 460 and see if that works

 

I had a problem like this with a few of my games also. Try this option.

Right click on the exe file of the FFXI game, and look for an option that says "Run with graphics processor" and choose the nvidia card. That should work.

There might be an odd chance you will still get an error that way, and if u do, just use the intel card.

I also looked into the nvidia drivers regarding them fixing their optimus tech, but the dell site only updates their vcards every so often T_T
Otherwise, good luck T_T

 

Thanks!

Forgot to mention this. I did try that, run on the NVidia and even on the Intel card, still crash. Only way to run it is having the NVidia disabled

 

Can you post a link to the M17xR3 mod bios you were looking at?

I'll give it a go. I play another ancient MMO (Anarchy Online) and running just off the nvidia may enable a T&L option instead of software emulation mode.

Didn't figure out a way to get the latest nvidia drivers running on a optimus enabled R3 with A04 bios.

 

I play FFXI on my M11xR2 and you have to make sure you White list the game. It should be called "All Play-On-line Games" in your dropdown list. Also on my laptop I have to install Powermizer to keep the game from down clocking the GPU.

Hope that helps.

 

Yup, "All Play-Online games" is checked. Tried with NVidia, with Intel, nothing.

I'll take a look at Powermizer once the game works on NVidia, had never heard about it, thanks for the tip!

Info about the modified BIOS here: Insyde bios mod requests. - Page 665 but download link isn't working at this moment because they have some maintenance issue, should work in the next few days.

 

Just a heads up I got a hold of the Modded 1.04 bios.

Disabled the Intel GPU in the bios.
Set the Primary display adapter to PEG, which is the Nvidia 460m.

Windows booted and updated the display drivers to just be the 460m. Rebooted.

Loaded the Anarchy online launcher and it detected the Nvidia GPU and gave me a full hardware acceleration option, so no more software emulation mode. Seems to be working perfectly now. Going to go to some of the choppy areas and see if handles it better... already cranked all the graphics settings back to the max.

Also going to see if the 275.xx drivers will install with just the inf mod to the installer.

 

FFXI player here Lvl90 all jobs currently, all merits and that stuff.

If running Windows 64bit, you need the revised installer. You have to download this from the website. I don't think even the new versions have this. I have the ultimate version and I still had to do this *shrug* Hopefully this will help if I understand your problem correctly.

11.5/11.6 has crossfire enable but I don't think the game uses it at all. Still my 4870xf can run 4 instances of the game without issues, meaning you should be fine once you get the game up and running.

Let me know how things go, I'll be more than willing to help you to get going and play FFXI!

 

Is this the same modified bios as what was mentioned earlier or a different version? Anyway you could provide any screenshots and menu/option info on what is in the bios along with an actual download link to the bios? It would be awesome if you could. Thanks!

 

It is the same BIOS mentioned in this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/580828-m17xr3-bios-mod-released-5.html

Some pictures from another forum:
help with flashing bios

With the Intel GPU disabled I was able to install the latest Nvidia driver's using Darcoder's inf mod for the driver installer.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/7678603-post107.html

 

why not just run the lcd in 120 hz mode? IGP is disabled and enjoy the smoother and brighter panel. Thats what I did when I had my r3. I didnt buy 3d for the 3d i bought it for the better lcd.

 

Unfortunatelly it does not have anything to do with the installer, since the game installs without issues. Of course, i used the 64-bit installer from playonline.com. The problem is at the moment you run POL, it crashes.

I have no idea what are you talking about when you say "11.5/11.6 has crossfire enable", but you are also talking about "my 4870xf" so I assume your system is different.

My system is Alienware M17x R3 with NVidia GeForce GTX 460M on Optimus technnology.

Thanks for the comments, anyway!