Quadro FX 3700m issues in Area 51 m15x-r1

tl;dr: i can't get the nvidia quadro drivers to install. it keeps saying that it's not detecting any nvidia hardware. i've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the OSD with no luck. have not tried running in compatibility mode with UAC disabled yet. will test this tomorrow.

more info:
so i just got an a51 m15x fixer upper unit, and i have a new back panel on the way to repair the hinges. the 8800m gtx was dead, so i took it out and resold it for parts. i have successfully gotten a quadro fx 3700m to work without issues inside an a51 m17x before, so i thought i might as well do the same on the m15x as well.

before i put the quadro in, i installed windows onto it without having any d-gpu in it and running on just the base intel chip, which installed automatically with windows 7 x64. after i had the system a bit back together after a good cleanout and removal of about 100 plastic bits that had broken from the hinge system and other areas of the back panel, i put the quadro in. the computer displays a picture without issue, and the bios says it has 1gb of video memory, which is exactly what i'm looking for.

when i boot into windows, it installed some other intel driver, then asks to restart, which i do. when it starts back up again, it's still using the standard vga graphics driver. after a little bit, the OSD says that it's running on integrated graphics, and that it could be running on the external/high performance mode bu hitting fn + f7. but when i do this, the OSD program crashes. i try restarting manually, but it still started up in the standard vga mode with the same message popping up about switching to the high performance card. i try again, but this time i get no response at all from the program.

at this point, i go ahead and download the latest nvidia quadro drivers for this card (342.00), but when it starts to install, it says that it doesn't detect any nvidia hardware. this is as far as i've gotten. i have read up on other forum sites and threads on this site saying to uninstall and/or reinstall the osd program after installing all the video drivers. but i tried to do this as well, and i still get the same no hardware detected error even after i uninstalled the OSD program.

 

Have you tried running GPU-Z to see what it detects? If so share the scree shot.

 

it seems that gpu z is seeing it correctly, but the nvidia installer isn't.

so i did a reinstall of windows and installed all the drivers in order that the file says, and i finally got the alienfx lighting and keyboard to work, but i still get the same nvidia could not find compatible graphics hardware issue. doesn't matter if it's in discrete or integrated mode. it still pops up.

 

ok i think i got it to work. it's installing the drivers right now. i had to flash the 3700m to a 9800m gt to get it to work. fingers crossed it does everything correctly and it works flawlessly.
i also got my new back panel in, put on some epoxy and installed it. i also loosened the hinges to the point that it just barely holds the screen up. it now stays up fine with no creaks or cracks!

it didn't work. it blue screens on startup with this code:
at least it can run on the base intel graphics so i can set up programs and stuff.

 

If memory serves me correctly this was actually a common issue with Nvidia drivers and the m15x years ago. I think the last version of drivers that worked was the 186.xx version. The ones you are trying are MUCH newer. Try to find and old download and see if it works. If you can find an AMD 3800m you will be able to use newer drivers and have a much more stable card.

 

i found a 8700m gt with its proper heatsink assembly for $25. so i'm going to see if that will work. i'm not so much in it for stability, more for maximum performance. so i would like to get the quadro running in it in some way or another.

 

Did you try the driver version I suggested?

 

I will try this when get back home

i just tried 186.81 to no avail.

 

It was worth a shot. The 186.81 should fix the BSOD with the 8700 at least

 

i just noticed that i tried to install the old geforce drivers instead of the old quadro ones. would that make a difference?

 

just to clerify, it only bluescreened when trying to install latest drivers on the 3700m when it was flashed to a 9800m gt.

i've tried the old drivers on the quadro with it flashed as a 9800m gt, and now it works!

 

one weird thing is that the gpu fans seem to kick in only in stealth mode, and go off in normal mode. shouldn't it be the other way around?

nvm. restarting it seems to have fixed it. it idles hot around 60c, but stays under 85c when gaming. stealth mode does bring the idle temps down a little bit.

 

You can try using HWInfo to control the fans. What paste are you using? Is it spreading well?

 

i'll try setting a better fan curve in hwinfo. i used arctic silver 5. i used a little bit more than i did on the cpu to ensure it gets as much paste as possible on the copper center of the heatsink, and i put some 3mm thick thermal pads on the memory and power bits.

is there a trick in getting the fans to kick in? because i set it to be custom, but it doesn't sound or feel like it's going any faster than normal. what should the temp sensor? because i have it set to the gpu.

 

I just soldered my fan lead to a constant 5V source in my m5750. I could never get HWInfo or other tools to properly control them on my particular machine. This way they run at 100% all the time.

 

i'm not sure i want to do that on my machine. the fan does kick it into high gear when it gets around 90c to bring it back down to the 80s. i just wish it was a little bit less jarring, and so i could keep the idle temps in check.

 

Why would you flash a 9800M GT VBIOS? It's not a same GPU configuration as Notebookcheck says the FX3700M is based on 280M.

But, you don't need to flash a Geforce VBIOS for the newer drivers to work. Did you try using modded inf files or tried adding the necessary entries yourself?

I'd expect only Geforce cards are whitelisted in the driver inf files for Alienware laptops so you just need to modify those to allow your GPU/laptop combination.