190.X upwards NVIDIA driver compatibility possible?

Wow. Let me just say that in more than a year of pursuing a solution to this problem, I only found this thread now (months after it was created). Nothing else on the web comes as close as this.
Part of the problem is that the community of m15x r1 owners is now so small and spread out that there are a million versions of this very thread.
If anyone still needs to be disabused of the notion that old drivers don't matter, try playing BFBC2.
Now I've been trying to find out how to overclock the sh*t out of the m15x for its last few months alive to try to get some value out of this thing.
Obviously never buying AW or Dell again...

 

madrabbit, did you get any further with this?

 

I've got an Area-51 m15x too.

Or more precisely, I've got the world's most expensive netbook.

Pretty much only good for surfing the net now.

I've given up on trying to update the nvidia driver.

I think every else should too, just to save yourselves the frustration.

And I'll never buy an Alienware/Dell again in my life.

Sorry for ranting, but that's all that we can do now.

 

I've decided to try the Vidock with an ATI card if my 8800 ever dies out

 

THANK YOU ALL for finally answering this question (or at least researching it to the end).

I do have one question left:
I know that 186.91 works on my m15x, but I've had some issues playing The Witcher (1). I have to lower the graphics (quality and resolution) significantly to get it playable, and even then the GPU heats up radically (103C in one case before I caught it). I turn on Dead Space 2 and I can get it near high settings on high resolution with little lag. So I'm puzzled.
In the end, I'm wondering if the driver is to blame, and ultimately if a different one is better. I was wondering if anyone has tried Dox's drivers from laptopvideo2go? I know some of the older ones (pre 190.xx) have worked but I don't remember which one and perhaps some of you already know if any of those drivers are better than the laptopvideo2go standard 186.91.

Thanks!

 

Hmmm so it even happens on Borderlands at mid-midlow settings. It's a slow, but steady runaway in temperature with the GPU starting at around 85ish C and continuin up to 100 (probably higher, but I closed the game just in case). I'm going to try one of Dox's that is below the 186.91 and see what happens

 

What GPU does your m15x run? Mine has the 9800GT and yes I notice it runs or used to run very hot when running full game mode like in Black Ops. I pretty much solved the issue by just buying a laptop cooler with dual moveable fans. I placed one under the GPU and the other the CPU. This has kept the temps between 65 and 70 when gaming. I had one GPU die when still under warranty but not because of gaming. It turns out if you use the Stealth Mode this also disables the GPU temp cooling system which leads the GPU to go into meltdown. I now just keep it in full mode.

 

I have a m15x and, of course, can't update my drivers beyond those mentioned. Would be awesome if someone could get aroung this.

 

I am really curious what would happen with Win8?
Maybe new drivers will work with Win8 or in worst case even the default drivers will fail.
Anybody wants to try?

 

You guys know a possible fix for this?

Buy an ATI Mobility Radeon 3870. Yeah its not the best card out there for the m15x, but it almost meets the performance of the 8800m or the 9800m. Plus, the drivers still support hybrid graphics, and you won't have to worry about using up to a certain point of drivers with ATI.

Also, I don't think that ATI makes many video cards that are defective like Nvidia. This will be my first experience using an ATI card.

 

So we are now faced with the worst case scenario.
Win 8 doesn't even start and fails with ACPI_BIOS_ERROR.
Seems to be a major mainboard/BIOS design flaw.

 

Coming from a guy who didn't mind Windows ME or Windows Vista. Windows 8 blows! Stick with 7 or read up on what valve is doing in the Linux world.

You could also just get a more reliable 3870m or try getting in a 4850m/4870m.