new alienware owner needing some help (M17x R3)

(I apologize in advance for the wall of text)

Hi, I was recommended by a friend to visit this forum to receive help with the new system I received. I was told this forum was filled with helpful people, so I decided to try it out.

I used to own a macbook from 2004, but it recently died on me, and apparently I received this laptop(r3 model) as a gift from a friend while I was away from home 2 months ago. I found it under a mountain of books in another room. It was a nice surprise, as I was about to buy another macbook.

Here are the specs

i7 2820qm
nvidia 460m w/ Optimus
8gb ram
750gb hdd
17.3in 1920x1080(wled i think?)

I also have 2yrs of warranty left on this.

The bios said A03, and the gpu driver is apparently the 267.64 A01 from the dell site.

I've used this for 2 weeks now and I've had a few issues.

The main issue is the blue screen of death errors. I attempted to play a few games such as League of Legends, Dead Space 2, Deus Ex: HR, and a few other games. However whether I run games with the integrated mode, the games are generally below 30 fps, which makes it difficult to play. When I run via the "High Performance" option through the nvidia card, everything runs crystal clear for at longest 25 minutes on LoL, and the shortest being less than 2 minutes on Dead Space 2, and I receive bsods. This only happens with the high performance gpu option.

All the blue screens share the ntoskrnl.exe and Driver power state failure message. it also says the source address was ntoskrnl.exe+7fd00. There has been 15 total in a span of 2 weeks.

With the laptop I was given a flash drive with a few drivers to install.
One was a driver for the gpu, the 275.33 driver, and the other was a Bios file labeled "A04."

The a04 was installed and now the bios says I am running A04. However when I attempt to install the 275.33, it says compatible hardware not detected. This one irks me the most because I apparently cannot play Heroes of Newerth without updating at least to the 275.33 driver.

I am debating calling Dell to ask for help, however after reading all the horror stories of their terrible tech support, I'm not sure if I am up to the challenge of arguing with seemingly unaware tech people. If I must absolutely call Dell however, some advice on who to talk to, or what to ask for in terms of help, would be much appreciated.

Any help will be much appreciated, and I apologize again for making such a long post.

Edit: I am running it plugged in, on high performance battery settings, and checked for such a thing called "Stealth Mode."

 

Right, update the bios go to the Dell support site and download it from there.

You need a modded version of the Nvidia driver. Someone here sure know where to find that.

 

First of all welcome, roswend and thank you for all the details.
I advice you to do a clean install of the nVIDIA drivers, one on top of the other don't play nice:
Uninstall your current nVIDIA display drivers, reboot into Safe Mode (repeatedly press F8 while booting and choose safe mode), run CCleaner and clean your registry for remainders of drivers. Reboot and install the newer version choosing 'perform clean install' option.

Edit: the incompatibility error you encounter is due to the fact that the .inf file is missing your GPU ID so you'll have to add it manually.

 

Thanks for the welcome,

I updated the bios to the A08 that was mentioned in the stickies.

I found user DARCODER's thread about the modified inf files. I have used it and it installed fine(275.33). However, on restart, it instantly went into bsod. I booted it in safe mode, and had to revert drivers to stop it from instant bsods. I then proceeded to try the 280.26 driver since its newer. That one installed fine, was able to load normally. However it randomly went into blue screen within 2 minutes before I could play any games.

I again had to revert to the factory dell drivers.

Is the gpu faulty here? Or have I done something wrong?
I used ccleaner after uninstalling the driver, then installed the new drivers both times.

Also it's still showing the error as ntoskrnl.exe+7fd00 on bluescreenview.

 

Is Windows up to date? SP1 installed? Remember something a while back that the Nvidia drivers crash if SP1 isnt installed.

On my first R3 with GTX 460m I never had these problems because I did a fresh install to get all the "junk" off the system.

 

Yeah, i've had SP1 installed.

Am I going to have to call Dell and go through their nightmare?

 

Ntoskrnl.exe has something to do with W7. Could be corrupted. Repair or fresh install would be your best bet.

Got this info from google so dont shoot me if it doesnt work.

 

ntoskrnl.exe causing BSOD - Windows 7 Forums

 

Blue Screen- Driver power state failure- but no driver highlighted - Microsoft Answers

Try taking out memory moduls 1 by one, maybe one is bad. Dont know if it will help but you can try.

 

Nope, it's not the memory sticks. Besides, I trust samsung products. Most of the time.

I found this post. Should I try it out?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/594723-properly-installing-bios-drivers-a04-mod.html

 

You can try but dont brick your system!!

I'd rather do a clean install then messing with modded bioses.

 

I'll do it after I get more input. I was gonna wait at least 2 days for multiple input before doing anything major.

 

That seems to be the best thing to do right now yes.

Or call Dell and they will probably replace the mobo/GPU.

 

I put my money on bad hardware. Call Dell and have them come out and fix it.