M11x R1 Hybrid/Optimus Driver

Just wondering how the status is with hybrid drivers if you are still working on them. I'm going to download and try the optimus one but I'd prefer to use switchable if you are still working on that one. Either way your the man for working on these.

Okay so I'm having some trouble if someone can help me. I removed all of my old video card drivers but seemed to have some problems with the Intel card, then installed the drivers in the order other people have posted, restarting after every part. Now when I boot up, the nvidia logo shows up but when I try to click on it I get an error message about not using an nvdia GPU. When I try to open fraps I get an error message about not having DX9 installed and update my video card drivers etc. If I try to open a game to see if it is using the 335, it tells me my system is not good enough to run a game. Using GPUz, both the Intel and 335m cards show up. In the device manager however, both have yellow exclamation marks next to them. I'm going to go back and probably try uninstalling everything completely again and re do it, but any help or advice would be appreciated.

This is quite frustrating. I have uninstalled the intel drivers from device manager and control panel. I have set my computer to not automatically install search for/install new drivers, both in hardware under system, and also in the local group policy editor. I then ran driver sweeper and removed all traces of any nvidia drivers as well as the intel chipset drivers. Anytime I reboot my machine after this, the drivers are back in place and my computer restarts at full resolution etc. I disable/uninstall the intel card and it will either tell me to reboot for the changes and the card is back, or if I scan for hardware changes, the card pops up as a VGA adapter and then 2 seconds later pops up to intel as if it was just installed and detected properly.

 

Wifi on, backlight at about medium I guess, not minimum.

 

I have the same problem here.
I'll wait for the answer while tweaking here and there.

===SOLVED===
Apparently after the fourth try i went succeed, didnt know where i make my mistake tho.
@Lunatics try reinstall the official nvidia driver from dell website and then retry the whole proccess.

 

Yeah I'm back on the Dell drivers for both, just leaving i here for now. I will try again if no one can post anything about what I may have done wrong specifically, and hope for the best I guess.

 

So I've come across something rather annoying...I can't force the M11x to use the nVidia GPU for VLC. VLC automatically shows up in the Control Panel, but the option to switch graphics is grayed out...and most of my high-resolution videos stutter on the integrated graphics. Going and manually picking the EXE does nothing.

Then I tried and installed Media Player Classic Homecinema...same exact problem. Even tried using the non-installer version.

EDIT: Wow. Apparently just renaming the EXE is enough.

EDIT: Nope. Still doesn't work. Guess I'm reverting back to Dell drivers.

 

Idk wether its really the mistake but did you uninstall the driver in the device manager?
try to uninstall the driver only from the "program and features" in control panel then reboot to safe mode, and then sweep the remaining driver then reboot normally, install the intel driver, reboot, install the nvidia optimus driver then reboot.

good luck.

 

getting crash to desktop during games. Not OC on gpu but the vid driver is crashing then "recovering". Not a unique problem with this driver but for ME its crashing more.

Didnt notice because I had not tried a longer session (and NFSW has less issue). Exploring some things.

 

One really cool thing is it appears you CAN have three monitors working all at once with different screen content on the R1. Because both GPUs are active I guess. yay.

M11xR1_3LCD.wmv - YouTube

Inspiration to revisit topic:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-can-i-connect-3-monitors-into-my-m11x-3.html

 

Yes I uninstalled the Intel drivers through the device manager. I uninstalled Nvidia from programs and features however my Intel drivers do not show up there so I'm forced to do it from the device manager.

 

I used driver sweeper to get rid of the intel drivers. I don't think you need to completely remove them through device manager. I didn't anyway.

Start off with the most recent driver pack from Dell, then uninstall the nVidia drivers via add/remove programs. Then use driver sweeper to cleanup the nvidia drivers and the intel drivers. Then reboot and start with the intel drivers linked in the first post, reboot again, then wait a couple minutes after that reboot, then install the modified nvidia drivers, reboot, then wait again for 5 full minutes after you log back in.

 

I tried it out, and did the 5 minute wait interval, but it keeps freezing up on me, so I reverted back to 285.62.

 

I am getting lockups and freezing as well. I went through the whole process again, this time making sure I was using the Intel card when installing which I think I ed up last time. Everything looked like it went through okay. My aero was working, waited 5 minutes, told me it was finished, but when I opened the nvidia control panel (which worked), my computer froze when trying to close it. Every reboot it would either freeze while starting start up programs, or when opening a program and trying to close it.

As much as I would love to use these drivers they just won't work for me. I've tried just about anything I can think of, and everytime something doesn't work right. I always feel like I am not getting rid of the Intel drivers because after I uninstall them through device manager, it pops back up detecting it as an Intel card but it's using the windows default driver and there is no way I can get it to not even use that and just act as an unknown device or something. There is no Intel anything in program remover in the control panel so I'm stuck going through the device manager.

Any suggestions or possible help I will try but it's just very frustrating going through all of this, trying different things and ending in the same results everytime. For now I am just stuck on Dells drivers.

 

Well as this is experimental it might be better to skip. I get more GPU crash in games with this but seems same as ever using desktop apps

 

Getting quite a few bluescreens/hard restarts with this, it sometimes happens when I try to run 3d applications with the intel card. The exact cause is hard to pin down though, it just seems to be frustratingly random. It's still miles ahead of the dell drivers and works surprisingly well however, I'll try to pin down what causes the crashes.

EDIT: You can also run two windowed 3D apps with different GPUs (just tried with minecraft) - this is cool!

Also I've noticed that after resuming from sleep, or even just shutting the lid with no external monitors attached, the screen sometimes remains blank. Not sure if the system has actually crashed or it's just decided to pretend the internal display doesn't exist.

 

less crashing when I disable built in screen (intel not loaded)

 

Uninstalled/Reinstalled several times, have reverted back to 285.62 after my 16th bluescreen. Every time I opened the Optimus monitor, control panel, or nvidia inspector, or any time it tried to enable the nvidia GPU, there was a good chance it would BSOD. Not always, but too much to be usable yet. If you can fix these crashes, this driver would be mint.

 

Same for me. If I didn't crash right at boot after the windows login, I would get a bsod or freeze when trying to open the nvidia panel, or anything else it seemed. I will just be using the stock drivers for now, but I really hope you continue to work on and fine tune these drivers,or even come out with a manually switchable one. At least I'm not the only one who seems to be doing everything right and it just won't work.

 

Any slight variances in chipsets? You guys oc the GPU?

 

Only OC I have is the bios cpu one, nothing else is touched.

 

ok, not that we (I) can do anything about it but wondering if there are any combos in play here that make this work better for some than others.

For desktop use, I have pretty solid perf. Certainly nothing worse than prior drivers. Games are less stable but seems so far that if I go into projector only mode things are much better (intel not under load or "active").

Here is what nvidia sys info reports:

Intel

 

Thinking of giving this driver a go sometime soon. Couple of questions:
1. Has anyone been using this with the modded A05 BIOS?
2. I should be able to install the linked Intel driver and the NVidia driver from the first post on a clean Windows install without having to install anything else first right?

 

1: no
2: probably a best case scenario

 

Could the crashes be something to do with the nvidia driver not being "ready" to accept a command or something like that? when the GPU is forced to idle with an external monitor, there are far less crashes, but when it is "off", and the intel card takes over, provoking the nvidia card to do anything seems to be risky. I'm not familiar with how windows manages/swaps between graphics drivers (in fact I'm stunned that it works at all), so this is pure ignorance talking.

 

backwards. My crashes in the minimal testing I have done went away when i used projector mode. Once I prevented intel from doing any work it seemed to improve a LOT.

What I mean:
I was getting crash to desktop in BF2 playing the same single player level just before match ended. Very consistent. This became my benchmark. Two different tests now for a total of over 2hrs and no crash in projector mode. Using external monitors all the while.

Now as I type, I am mobile for the first time since driver install. So far so good.

If I can convince myself the only remaining issue is NIC freeze I might replace the network card.

 

Don't wanna break your motivation , but did you saw this ?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...285-62-driver-appears-dell-download-site.html

Damn , they need to do the same for R1 ... i want thoses switchable driver
Hope that if they don't release same later , you'll find a way to fix it


BTW , i can't fix my color problem on the M11X ... Since i use your Optimus Driver, colors seems to be " washed " , and i can't fix this with any settings ... anybody have that kind of problem ?

 

guys. this working now?

 

Not for all apparently. I'm happy so far as I am less mobile and gaming is a small % of use.

 

So, I think the bf2 crash to desktop is something to do with the newest nvidia driver itself. I have the one from nvidias support page (bios set to nvidia only) and I get constant CTD with bf2. I think over the weekend I crashed about 30 times in the 16 hours I played.

 

yeah I read that and a tear came down my eye :'c
seems like were stucked with old drivers to have the switchable option

 

The modd driver is ok in BF2 while in projector mode. I think it didn't like three active screens.

As far as BF3 drivers go, will the game not play for M11xR3 users without it? If just a perf enhancement then unlikely it would do anything for R1 users.

It might be wrong to assume that all we need is drivers for a happy BF3 experience.

For the old stuff I play (rarely) I noticed no improvement from 197/263/285m and a host of non switchable driver versions.

 

I cant play bf3 at all with out the newest drivers. The game launches then errors and says I need the new drivers.

But with the new drivers bf2 crashes to desktop alot

Im torn between playing bf3 at low frame rates, and playing bf2 in all its glory.

 

Like I said, BF2 crashed for me unless in projector mode (native screen off). So might have some success trying that with the BF3 enabled drivers.

Extra question: anyone using Ultramon or other desktop manager? Hacked nview? Taskbar add-ons or other bits that spread accross multiple monitors? I would think anything like the above could cause issues - even system monitoring tools.

Note: I use my external dislpay as primary while doing this bit of testing. So when in projector mode the only change is that my local display goes blank. Both external LCD's stay active (both same model also).

Hope that helps.

 

BF3 all the way... what do you mean by "low frame rates"?

 

Sorry, Lower than bf2

The b3 frame rates are actually pretty amazing for this little guy, but I also have a non overclocked computer.

 

I get around 25-30FPS on BF3 with the OC in my sig on the GPU only... no CPU OC other than BIOS stock OC (1.6Ghz, like you)

I run BF3 on native resolution, all low settings except textures, which runs on high.

 

i can play bf3 on my 192 drivers

 

beta closed, any demo? I would give it a quick go but no plans to play long term/buy.

 

Some new development but first background:

Never been able to overclock GPU. Have experienced misc vid crashes at different times. Seems pretty stable now though. Except:

Twice now I have had lock ups with artifacts. Once in a game test and just now on desktop. Looks a lot like GPU ram issue but much more subtle than this: Diagnose video card problems by comparing with example corrupted screens

Does NOT have artifacts on native display (run by intel).

I have had crashes with other drivers but artifacts are new. Hope its not a failing card but rather a driver pushing my borderline non-overclockable-card beyond its limits.

I wondered out loud in the GPU voltage mod thread if higher voltage could improve stability. Still wondering. As a test my GPU is now underclocked a little.

 

There is any news abount hybrid drivers?

thanks for your work and your time!

 

this is what I did


safe mode

drive sweeper -> removed all intel/nvidia stuff

reboot

installed intel

reboot

installed nvidia

reboot

however after nvidia install, when i look in drive manager it says both intel/nvidia drivers are not functioning.

before installing the nvidia its fine. why is the nvidia installation ruining things?

 

any error during install?

DMgr shows:
Location - PCI bus 1, device 0, function 0
Driver date - 9/22/2011
Driver ver - 8.17.12.8538 (285.38)
Resource settings - auto

335M hardware ID:
subsys 04431028&REV_A2

Intel hardware ID:
subsys 04431028&REV_07

In my add/remove programs list:
Nvidia graphics driver 285.38
Nvidia PhysX System Software 9.11.0621
Nvidia Update 1.5.20

(So far so good on artifacts after downclock)

 

Hi all,

First message.

First thing : a big thanx for those driver, as I read, you are the men.

2 questions :

Did you guys noticed that the fan always work, even when you are just surfing on the web ? Is it normal ? I used to like that my r1 does not make any noise while using the intel proc.

Did you guys noticed a difference about the battery use between official driver and the optimus driver ?

I only have 2h45 minutes left (72% remaining) (screen light is max). My R1 is 1,5 year old and i can't remember if this is normal or if I lost battery duration when using optimous driver.

Big thanx again.

Tpom

 

Im using external wifi and on max power settings I get ~2hr50min. No doubt the 25% batt wear has something to do with it. had it 1.5yrs also.

Not sure of batt impact with these drivers as I didnt measure. Fans are normal.

 

Don't know if you know this solution :

There is a workaround.

Switch video to switchable graphics in BIOS
Install official alienware M11x R1 video drivers (263.08, A02) and restart.
Switch to NVIDIA discrete video card via hotkey
Install new 285.65 NVIDIA drivers from NVIDIA site
Restart and switch card to descrete in BIOS. Wait all drivers are installed.
Go to Windows\system32\ and run the following as administrator
igfxsrvc.exe -install
igfxtray.exe
7. Restart and switch card back to switchable in BIOS
8. When windows starts it will enable Intel GPU, then it will switch it to NVIDIA GPU by itself and start search drivers again.
9. DONE

You will not be able to switch cards from tray but it will be possible by hotkey Fn+F6

P.S. 285.65 doesn't contains nvBridge.kmd, so there is no need to replace it. But for earlier versions you need to replace it by extracted nvBridge_int.km_ file from A02 drivers. All these actions could be done by alienware dell department by simple setup.

P.S.S. I guess I missed something cause tray icon doesn't show radio button to switch cards.

This works for me.

I found this one there :

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/p/19420783/19988892.aspx

 

But switching only works once after each restart right?

 

Yes, only one switch. If you wanna go back to the intel graphic card, you have to reboot.

I prefer this solution because with the optimus driver, my fans are always on and my battery goes down faster than with this solution.

 

Are we off topic?

 

Any updates here? Thanks for the work!

 

Well - stunned silence - it seems to work, got a BSOD on the install of the intel drivers, but they were there after the reboot so continued (existing windows 7 install - no driver cleaner just uninstall of Nvidia and reboot before installing Intel driver) and the Nvidia installed fine - after reboot seems to work as advertised, tested with 2 games ran Optimus tools to test for function and yep seems to go OK starts and stops as advertised.

I'm impressed, +1 rep for you

 

285.65 NVIDIA??? no version release like that. i think that is 285.62
. what do you think guys??