M11x R2 335M appears healthy, doesn't activate - please help!

Hi, I’m hoping against hope for some help to get the GPU working on my M11x r2.

I bought the laptop used from a private owner last year and wasn’t playing games anywhere near as well as I’d expected, but I just put that down to the machine not being as good as I’d hoped until I recently realized that the GPU wasn’t activating.

When I realized the problem, I checked all the system settings and the GPU is recognized, appears to be healthy and I can switch to it and back with the Optimus settings, but it just doesn’t activate. (I’m checking the status using Optimus Tools and Nvidia Inspector.) Apps I’ve set to use the GPU still use the integrated graphics and when I switch the ‘Prefered Graphics Processor’ to the Nvidia card, it says it’s using the GPU but the GPU load stays flatlined.

More info:

• ‘Set PhysX configuration’ in the Nvidia CP allows me to switch to the 335M, but the displays remain linked to the Intel graphics chip in the diagram below.
• In Nvidia Inspector, the GPU Load, MCU and VPU all stay at 0% no matter what I do and the fan speed slider is grayed out.
• Also, Nvidia Inspector won’t allow me to change the Performance Level in the overclocking section. I can select over levels from the drop-down box, but it says at Performance Level 2 (Po)
• Device Manager and Dell Diagostics all say that there are no problems with the GPU.

I've tried removing (using DriverSweep) and changing drivers (old versions & new ones); I tried calling Alienware customer support who were no use (tried changing the driver which I'd already done, insisted on installing a benchmark test when it was clearly still not activating, then gave up and suggested I send it in to get fixed ) and expensive ($129 for THAT!) All to no avail.

I’d really like to avoid sending it in for repair if at all possible because it would cost a fortune because I’m out of country and the laptop is out or warranty (also it’s my main machine for work.) I’m hoping there’s still a chance to get it working because the hardware managers indicate that the card is healthy.

Could someone please give some advice? This has been a particularly huge headache because I work in video games and can't take play games, take hi-res screenshots, capture video or anything else my job requires. Any help or suggestions would be very much appreciated!

 

I can't remember if the R2 has a BIOS setting for turning the GPU on & off, have you checked that?

 

Unfortunately, it's the R1 that has the switching option in BIOS. The R2 can only be switched through Optimus.

 

I'm not talking about an option to switch the GPU, I'm talking about the option to lock out the IGPU and force discrete. Yea i know the R1 has it but my R3 doesn't and can't remember if my R2 did.

In Nvidia CP go Desktop (at the top) > display GPU activity

It's pretty easy to tell then if your GPU is being used - if the icon in your system tray is grey you're using the IGPU, if it's green you're using the 335M.

Open Nvidia CP > Manage 3D settings. Can you set global to 335M? If you do, what happens? If not, can you set global to IGPU and set a program to the 335M? Does it work?

My computer > system propeties > device manager, what do you see under display adapters?

Also check your Alien Fusion power plan. are you in high performance? Is the GPU set to high performance?

 

I set my global settings to use the 'High-performance NVIDIA processor' and followed the steps you provided, but the system tray icon was grey. When I click on the icon is says 'None' for GPU activity.

>can you set global to IGPU and set a program to the 335M? Does it work?

I switched global to IGPU and ran a game selecting GPU from the context menu, but no change to the icon.

>My computer > system propeties > device manager, what do you see under display adapters?

It lists:
-Intel HD Graphics
-NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M

(No exclamation icons or anything like that.)

>Also check your Alien Fusion power plan. are you in high performance? Is the GPU set to high performance?

The power plan is high performance, but GPU Settings window doesn't have any options in there other than buttons for 'Restore default values' and 'Enable admin settings'. When I click on Enable admin settings, the button disappears and there is only the cogs background picture in the window.

 

Try uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers.
You should also make sure that you are following all of these steps.
After doing that you can test the GPU functionality with this.
I hope this is useful for you.

 

Thanks, Luis. I will follow the steps and post the results!

 

No problem! Let us know

 

I followed all of the points at the links, but there is no change: the state viewers still shows the GPU as OFF.

Here's what happened:

• The NVIDIA drivers didn't completely uninstall when I followed the instructions, so I also uninstalled the driver from Device Manager and used DriverSweep from safe mode to clean the rest of the traces.
• The Intel driver uninstalled just fine.
• I downloaded and installed both drivers as per the instructions.
• I tested the card by using the context menu to start an application with the GPU while running the state viewers. The GPU read 'OFF' from start to finish.
• I discharged the MB as per the 3rd link (BIOS is already latest version and I just installed the driver) then tested the GPU again, but the state viewers still indicate it is OFF.

Any further suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

Yeah it was definitely better to use the driver sweeper (we need to add that step to the article).
Did you run the nVidia optimus test tool? Have you tried Fn+F7?

 

I'm using the test tool to monitor the GPU state.

Fn+F7 turns my speak mute on/off. Did you mean Fn + F6? It's an R2, so that doesn't do anything.

Something strange just happened:
I went to Alien Fusion to check my power management plan and the GPU went to ON(!) When I close Alien Fusion, it goes back to OFF again.
This replicates every time and the GPU stays on for as long as Alien Fusion is open. Does this help isolate the problem at all?

 

FWIW, I tried running a game with the GPU while Alien Fusion was running, but the game still only uses the integrated graphics.

 

& Nvidia Inspector shows the GPU load to be 0% even with Alien Fusion / Command Center running and the GPU at 'ON'

 

You need to run a benchmark such as unigine heaven or 3DMark to make that go higher.

 

Ah, thanks - I'll give that a try.

Does the GPU activating when Command Center (turns out it's not just AlienFusion that does this) is open give any clue as to what might be going on?

Btw, I tried repairing Command Center from Control Panel / Uninstall or Change a Program, but nothing changed. I'm tempted to try uninstall it and see what happens, but it looks like a bit of a 'mare, so I'll see how far we can get first.

 

Here is how you uninstall the command center

 

I tried the Heaven benchmark. The GPU Load went up to 3/4% when it was loading and closing, but was at 0% while it was running.

I have to run out for a while, but will try uninstall CC when I get back, thanks.

 

I uninstalled CC, but the GPU didnt' respond at all. I reinstalled it and back to where I was - it switches on while CC is running, but otherwise just stubbornly sits at OFF.

I think I'm out of ideas.

 

Hello everybody,

I have exactly the same problem as GenkiPatton, and I'm not really willing to throw this laptop away when it comes to gaming.

This is my setup:

Dell XPS 17 laptop with Nvidia Optimus technology (integrated Intel GPU für standard apps, extra Nvidia GT 555M GPU for games)

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit w/ latest updates

No matter which Nvidia driver I use (latest version from Dell homepage, or latest version from Nvidia homepage), the problem stays the same:

Even if games are setup to use the high performance Nvidia GPU in the Nvidia Controlpanel, games use the slow Intel GPU. (as shown by the GPU indicator tool)


Screenshots:




I don't want to give up on this, because this Dell laptop simply was too expensive to just use it as an office machine. And it'll make my wife cry if I won't get Civilization and Portal to run properly again..

Any help, hints, ideas are greatly appreciated!


Thanks & best regards

John

 

Sorry, I would have replied sooner, but totally forgot about this thread and now just happened to stumble back here.

For the record, I resolved the problem by reinstalling Windows and the m11x drivers.