Whats Missing?

I got my replacement m17X R4 last night and have this is the device manager? It shows a driver did not load on boot up?

 

Most probably the freefall sensor.

 

Well, the first difference I noticed is SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller. I would try to install Intel chipset drivers, then Intel management engine, SD card reader and finally free fall sensor. Also OSD is considered as hardware device if I remember correctly and when I did a fresh install on SSD it was 'unknown device' until I installed OSD software.

 

Try drilling down into the Unknown Device properties. It may give you some clue as to what device it really is.

 

Thanks

I will look it had the generic windows video driver for the GTX 675 and I had to install the driver from Dell. It appears to have been caused by AVAST (mini port error) I uninstalled Avast ran Ccleaner and reinstalled Avast and it seems fine O_O I just installed the realtek SD card driver and Management engine interface, freefall sensor, It already had the chipset driver.

 

They don't always appear under programs and features. Just make sure you don't have any missing drivers in the device manager, if you do you can get the hardware ID from the missing driver's properties and search for the correct one online.

Alienware M17x R4: Drivers

 

Luis,

The Nvidia drivers that came loaded on the machine were 296.39 which I do not even see on the dell drivers page fopr the 17X R4. Thats why I went ahead and updated to the driver that was posted on 11/1 - Alienware Nvidia Win 7/Win 8 306.97 driver

As for the realtek and management engine interface drivers I installed? Is there any harm in just removing them since according to you I did not need to install them?

 

Sorry, maybe I need to rephrase

The link I provided above is a list of all drivers for the M17x r4 with the correct installation order. Please check if all of them are installed, if you're missing one then you can find it in the list. As for the video driver, the 306.97 is fine.

 

My point was that I did not show any missing drivers in the device manager but since I did not see the realtek SD card driver, Management engine interface and freefall sensor in the add/remove programs I downloaded them and installed them this morning. . With that said do I leave them as is or remove them?

 

You should leave them as they are required drivers. Did you manage to resolve the missing driver issue?

 

Yeah After removing and reinstalling Avast Internet Security it was fixed LOL

 

Driversweeper the Nvidia drivers and get the latest beta ones Drivers | GeForce

 

Don't do this.

Install over the top to prevent issues with the iGPU.

 

Agreed. Thanks for pointing this out. I have the 120Hz model so didn't have to worry about that.

 

Did you see any FPS increase in games after updating from 306.97 whql? That's the driver I currently have, but if 310.33 gives any extra performance I would go for beta. I am on Windows 8 Pro btw as of yesterday.

 

I did a fresh install to 310.33 as soon as I booted up my Alienware

All I can say is, I have insane performance haha got like P6200 on 3Dmark11 stock clocks

Nvidia site says they offer good performance improvements for 600 series cards, and I assume that with the Windows 8 release they have been making improvements with compatibility etc...

Either way... I don't see a single reason to not update drivers. Probably more compatible with windows 8, improved performance, and it's been running rock stable for me go for it