Please, help me kill Optimus

I'm completely frustrated. I've almost given up.

I bought a $2000 gaming laptop that refuses to use it's 460M in a lot of games, crippling some and slowing many. I have absolutely no idea why they included Optimus. We didn't spend this much money to sit around in windows watching a DVD on some flight. I spent it to game.

- Demigod, Company of Heroes, others... won't play unless I use integrated video, which destroys FPS.
- If I even try to use 460M, games often fail to start.

I'm using the latest bios and 460m drivers from Dell's site.

I saw something about a modified bios deeper in the forums, but the links to it are down and I can't find one anywhere else. Please, oh gods of the intertubes, help me destroy this horrible technology.

 

a bump for this dude!

 

I'll be selling an AMD 6870 soon -- that will solve your problems. Shoot me a PM if you'd like. If not I'm sure some of the Nvidia guys can give you a hand.

 

same position as you mate, gt555m with optimus and although some games don't automatically start I can "usually" force them to use the GT555M through nvidia control panel (had to force MW3 today)

unfortunately Sonic Generations doesn't work when you force it as the config tool never recognised the NVIDIA card in the first place (due to optimus) so am stuck with the sonic game I've been waiting for since the 90s using integrated graphics (and there is no work around for me)

I'm not sure how a bios update/hack would work - technically even when using the NVIDIA card the Intel GPU is still outputting the image so if it was disabled you'd literally have no picture at all ;-/

the most we can hope for is that developers work with NVIDIA to make sure these things are tested and work before release... failing that the only work around to disable the intel card is just use HDMI out which bypasses the intel GPU and uses the NVIDIA one directly to a monitor - but who wants to do that? :-(

EDIT - says you're using the latest 460 drivers from DELLs site, might be worth you updating to official GTX460M drivers from NVIDIA as Dell don't update the drivers very often and nvidia include profiles for games along with driver releases which may fix optimus compatibility issues

 

Latest modded bios:
[Unlocked] A08 w/ Unlocked Options & 580M GPU Thermal Throttle Removal

There is an option to disable igfx.

 

Than You for replying!

I managed to create a new problem for myself, however. The bios update worked, but I selected the wrong video input in the bios and now the pc won't display a thing!

I selected PCI option thinking PCI Express in my mind, but apparently that is the wrong one. Now the computer won't do anything but give me a series of eight loud beeps and a blank screen.

I know it's not bricked, I just can't tell what I need to select to reset the thing! Does anyone know of a way to rest the bios to defaults externally? Or the keypresses I need to change the option?

Thanks for any and all help!

 

pull out your cmos battery

 

Taking This thing apart is the last thing I want to do. Isn't there a way to reset it otherwise?

 

Just take the back-plate of (Take the battery out, it will show you two screws). It should show you a clock-battery with a connector that is connected somewhere closeby. Just pull out the connector and wait 3-4 minutes.
No big surgery
- Scott.

 

Problem Is that I'm deployed to the middle east at the moment and don't exactly have access to a really small phillips screwdriver. I'll have to hit the exchange tomorrow and see if they even have one that small... But I don't think they do...

I was hoping there was a way to reset it via the power button or some other key press. =(

 

I'm sorry to hear that.
Try to talk to guys who work with electronics, they should probably have some small screw-drivers

- Scott.

 

There is another way. Make sure you have a USB key in hand. Format it to Fat. Download this:
recover.zip
and put the PAR00X64.fd file from inside the zip to the root of the USB. Do not copy the zip, make sure you unzipped the file to the root of the USB stick.

Now shut your comp down, take out the battery and cord. Plug the USB stick in the esata combo port. Hold down the END key and plug the cord in. It will automatically turn on. Keep holding until there have been 30 or so beeps and the system has shut down.

I don't really remember but I think it may restart again. If not, power it up, it will shut down and power up again. Hopefully you should have recovered your bios

 

Not trying to thread jack I'm in the same boat. Running gtx 460, will this a04-a08 really brick my laptop?

 

the bios won't brick the laptop...i'm running it now fine. But be careful what you touch in the bios options after

 

Is there a guide on how to flash the bios and also how can you find out what bios you currently have?

 

check your PM

 

Thank you!!!

I found a screwdriver and was able to reset my bios. I'm back in windows and everything appears to be running fine, minus a few minor problems related to a system restore.

I set the primary display adapter to AUTO and set the integrated graphics to DISABLED. Then, after trying to resolve a blue screen issue I finally realized that it had set my hard-drive stuff back to RAID, when it should have been ATA. All working now and I'm back in windows.

I want to thank ye wondergod of the internets, widezu, who posted the bios for me and Slickdude for the CMOS tip!

 

Glad to see you got your system working great, gonna try the modded bios and see if i can force my r-3 to force recognize my new 6990m cause it refuses to see it

 

WOOOT finally every game is loading and not freezing after I installed the bios and turned off igfx! Now my question is what should I check to make sure everything else is working like turbo mode etc?

 

should be working fine, i wouldn't tweak to many settings as you can really screw up your system if you aren't careful


tried disabling integrated graphics and forcing the 6990m. All i got was 6 beeps. Put the 460m in and it booted just fine. Could it be the bios on the 6990m that are the problem?