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    M11xR2/R3 - NVidia Optimus Issues/Whitelisting Problems

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by hondalife, Jun 15, 2010.

  1. jeep364

    jeep364 Notebook Consultant

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    Thanks I havent even bothered to check up on this since firefox has not forced nvidia when watching a youtube/flash video in a long long time.

    Though I have been trying to do this by going to the nvidia control panel and when I click add (to try and select plugincontainer.exe) it just puts 'firefox' back in the drop down menu.
     
  2. dogchimp

    dogchimp Newbie

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    Alright, so I have an m11xr2 core i5 over clocked to 166mhz, when I try running mw2 on my external display (viewsonic vt2430) both screens go black and blink between black and the desktop, I also get a blue bar on the external display that says hdmi 60hz....(obviously im connected via hdmi) any way this happens for about 2 minutes, then I get a directx sufferd an unrecoverable error message. any one know my issue
     
  3. Docsteel

    Docsteel Vast Alien Conspiracy

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  4. DigDung

    DigDung Notebook Geek

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    Are you using dual displays? Fn+F1 to cycle to only your external monitor (non dual display) I have noticed the Nvidia and Games dont play well together with dual displays.. Either HDMI or the main screen, but not both..
     
  5. Vico100

    Vico100 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hello i want to buy this laptop, has this been fixed?
     
  6. ihazaliens85

    ihazaliens85 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Sry for being and complete idiot but what is Nvidia Optimus. Im a new Alienware 11mx owner, should i read the manual ? :O

    ty :rolleyes:
     
  7. BranMuffin

    BranMuffin Notebook Consultant

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    yes your current m11x has optimus. Alienware 11mx / i7 640UM / 8GB 1333mhz / Intel SSD 120gb / :]

    Optimus controls whether the laptop is using the gt 335 graphics card or the intel hd graphics gpu. Other then that there is a new branch of certified whql signed drivers at the nvidia which includes the m11x.
     
  8. surfxombie

    surfxombie Notebook Evangelist

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    I'd check out the threads on the R2 Optimus so you can understand how you tell if the GPU is enabled for an application &/or how you force the use by adding it to the list.
     
  9. brndnbrlw

    brndnbrlw Notebook Enthusiast

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    Doing so will disable your primary VGA controller. I know, only because I tried it. Once the controller is disabled, you need to boot the machine into Safemode and re-enable the Intel Driver.


    At some point, there's bound to be a software guru that will write us a program that allows us a permanent way to disable the Intel GPU.

    I'm willing to pay for that.
     
  10. slickie88

    slickie88 Master of Puppets

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    Yeah, the white list will very often mis-label applications. It's been doing that since day one.
     
  11. slickie88

    slickie88 Master of Puppets

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    That's never going to happen. The IGP handles the output to the display for both itself and the 335. Software will never be able to change that. The R1's hybrid graphics can do it because the 335 does have it's own output.
     
  12. thegh0sts

    thegh0sts Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    anyone know why the whitelist and other options in the nvidia CP disappear?

    EDIT: though every time i reboot they come back. every time it has disappeared i was using the alienfx thing to change the colour/color of the lights....but strange.
     
  13. darkdomino

    darkdomino Notebook Deity

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    This was a problem that happened to me when I installed the latest 266.58 drivers. It was seemingly random... sometimes the control panel would show up, sometimes it wouldn't.

    If you check your windows 7 reliability report, you'll probably notice that the control panel process is crashing repeatedly (or at least it was for me)

    either way, I'd highly recommend ditching the 266.58 drivers and reverting to 260.99 - I've been using 260.99 for about a month now, and had no issues of the control panel disappearing or anything like that. I'm about 99.9999% sure that the problems you're having are a problem with the 266.58 drivers.
     
  14. thegh0sts

    thegh0sts Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    that's what i have done: gone for the 260.99 drivers. though if i left it and did things other than touch the command center/centre then the control panel didn't crash while on 266.58 drivers. so i think the 266.58 drivers must have a conflict with the command center/centre when it is being used to change the colo(u)r scheme.

    i have yet to try GTA4 because i have been fiddling with the overclocks on my m11x but i should get a chance.
     
  15. ebotee

    ebotee Notebook Enthusiast

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    For the people concerned with the ethernet capabilities, my M11XR2 with an i5 is 10/100, no gigabit.

    I have updated to the new Nvidia 266.58 drivers. I am trying to run GTA4. Even when I tell Nvidia to always use the GPU, GTA4 isn't using it. GTA4 appears in the desktop tray to be using the GPU, but the game says it only has 59MB of video memory to work with. The last post I've seen about this issue was in September and there is no fix that I know of. Does anyone have any advice on getting this game running on the M11xR2?

    Thanks!
     
  16. darkdomino

    darkdomino Notebook Deity

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    Well, for starters, get rid of the 266.58 drivers. GTA4 doesn't like these drivers. You need to be using the 260.99 nvidia drivers.
     
  17. minnus

    minnus Notebook Consultant

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    I am in the process of installing new video drivers ~ is there no benefit to install the newest 266.58?
     
  18. darkdomino

    darkdomino Notebook Deity

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    read the post above yours.
     
  19. minnus

    minnus Notebook Consultant

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    I read, but I don't play GTA4, so I did not find it very relevant. Is the driver just incompatible with most games?
     
  20. bobloadmire

    bobloadmire Notebook Enthusiast

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    ok i whitelisted plugin container to intel HD and i have the latest verde drivers and intel hd drivers. But if I enable flash hardware acceleration, it will only play at 360p. anything 480p or higher just freezes, but audio still plays. what gives? oh optimus says its not being used, as it should.
     
  21. MaxGeek

    MaxGeek Notebook Evangelist

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    Have you tried different browsers? Like chrome and whitelisting chrome?
     
  22. bobloadmire

    bobloadmire Notebook Enthusiast

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    yes, i just whitelisted chrome, and it has the exact same issue as firefox, so i'm feeling there may be an issue with flash some how. Even though i have the latest
     
  23. bobloadmire

    bobloadmire Notebook Enthusiast

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    ok i just reinstalled flash plater, and now its better. The problem is intermittant. It will freeze above 360p but if i skip forward it will unfreeze, even at 1080p with about 20% cpu usage, so its working, just kinda a pain in the butt.
     
  24. i has m11x

    i has m11x Notebook Evangelist

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    I wouldn't enable hardware acceleration for flash. It is causing issues when enabled such as Youtube video controls disappearing and showing a black screen when playing videos in fullscreen.
     
  25. slickie88

    slickie88 Master of Puppets

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    If you're having problems with hw acceleration for Flash content of any resolution up to 1080p then there's something wrong. The intel IGP is more than enough for Flash. No need to use the 335.

    Try different drivers.
     
  26. Berko1se

    Berko1se Newbie

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    I've downloaded Oblivion via Steam...

    I've went to the Nvidia control panel, went to steam's folder and white listed the exe for Oblivion.


    However, I go to play Oblivion, and it automatically runs using the wrong one. I can I get it to see the 335? I'm getting frustrated, and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
     
  27. Pyon

    Pyon Newbie

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    Hey guys,

    So I've had the M11x-R2 for a couple days and I have to say it works great. However, I've found that the whitelist for Optimus has been acting up lately.

    I had a couple games and programs added to the whitelist to start using the geforce. When I check the whitelist today, all the games and programs are gone. After trying to add them again, the box under (1. Select a program to customize :) the box is blank, and the complete list of programs is down to "Siemens NX I-deas (bridge.exe)", which I don't even have on this laptop anymore.

    Can anyone help me out? I'm not sure if the programs are running under integrated graphics or with the video card.
     
  28. MasivB

    MasivB Guest

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    Install the latest 267.24 beta drivers if you havent already. It solved this issue for me. Make sure you check 'clean install' during installation.
     
  29. shadowghost21

    shadowghost21 Notebook Guru

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    I am using driver version 257.30 as they work fine with l4d2, in fact they work perfectly. Problem is now Crysis 2 demo is crashing with "Error loading DLL: CryInput.dll, error code 183" This happens right after I launch the game from steam. I was hoping that it would work better on my alienware now that I have it rather my gaming desktop since I couldn't even log into the damn game from there (sorry, side track rant) Is there a freaking driver version that just works? Can I just turn Optimus off? I have the default preference to be nvidia graphics. Also whitelisted the exe from the steam folder. Is there anything else I need to do? I have an R2 version and running 1600x900 resolution from HDMI to my external monitor. And side note, why doesn't 3dmark06 run? Crashes to desktop as well. I think it has something to with resolution changes?

    EDIT: Never mind fixed the crysis crash: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=21065379 Turns out just needed to run a DX update from the crysis 2 demo folder. Still grumble grumble about the drivers and 3dmark being a noob.
     
  30. sfoxtrot

    sfoxtrot Notebook Guru

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    I'm not sure whether this is a problem or not, but it's just strange.

    My R2, with 266.58 nvidia driver ( from nv site), and intel HD( "Installs graphics driver version 15.21.10.64.2291 (8.15.10.2291) for Intel® integrated graphics.") from intel site.

    the 'problems' are,
    1, missing nvidia panel/icon in the task bar notification area ( ever since I installed 266.58, FYI, I didn't do clean install, and the old driver was stock 257.xx something)

    2, when I'm playing a few older games, ex evil genius (2004) when I exit out of the game, I would see a intel graphics icon on my task bar notification area, and it will be gone in a min or so. then when I right click on desktop to bring up nvidia control panel, the 3D setting option. nothing but 3D setting --> set physX configuration.

    so, could anyone help me out here? thank you

    ==
    edit 1

    for the 2nd problem, seems that rebooting helps. hmmm
     
  31. GCK

    GCK Notebook Enthusiast

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    I've had the issue where there is nothing under the 3d portion of the nvidia control panel after playing a game.

    A simple restart fixed it for me.
     
  32. indietronica

    indietronica Newbie

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    I'm having a problem with the 260.99 drivers and L4D2, it runs smooth but it'll randomly go from 60 FPS down to 20-15 FPS. I've tried installing other drivers and this problem still persists, can anybody help me? :confused:
     
  33. M11Ash

    M11Ash Notebook Evangelist

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    StevenX has written a thread on how to disable network throttling via registry editing - very simple and easy to do, in one of his threads. I believe this may solve your problem. the thread is called 'M11x R1 Optimization must have' if I remember correctly. It works a treat on all windows 7 computers though not just the M11x R1 and R2
     
  34. ebotee

    ebotee Notebook Enthusiast

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    Just to follow up on the GTA4 issue. I downgraded from 266.58 to 260.99 drivers and now GTA4 is actually using the GPU; it sees all of the video memory. Gameplay is alright, but I think I'm going to finish this game on my desktop because I left my save file there. Really disappointing that GTA4 was left behind like that.

    Have drivers later than 260.99 improved performance in other games? I'm thinking of getting back into Starcraft 2 and Dead Space 2.

    To the user who was having issues with Youtube playback, I am having the exact same issue. It seems that whenever you change the quality of the video, it will sometimes freeze the frame and continue playing video. As a workaround, after switching quality, I skip forward until the screen goes blank so the buffer is empty and refilling. Then I go back to the beginning and it plays back fine. This issue always happens in Chrome so I'm not sure if it's browser related.
     
  35. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    It's a problem with Flash 10.2 and NVIDIA's drivers. If you do a search on the NVIDIA forums, they are aware of it and supposedly working with Adobe on a fix. With Chrome, the latest version of Flash is already installed so you'd have to disable it, find Flash 10.1, and install that separately. In theory, when you disable the plugin from Chrome, it should revert to whatever is separately installed on your machine.
     
  36. ebotee

    ebotee Notebook Enthusiast

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    A relevant thread over at the Nvidia forums is Optimus + flash 10.2 = no fullscreen video - NVIDIA Forums

    Nvidia tech support says our flash player needs to be updated to a new version of 10.2 AND we should get a new Nvidia driver which will be made available in a couple of weeks from now. This issue was also present when I tested the Nvidia 267.24 beta drivers, but my Flash version in Chrome may have changed because Chrome updates Flash silently. It's good to see some recognition on this issue.
     
  37. hiarieshi

    hiarieshi Notebook Evangelist

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    I am having issues with installing the recent 266.58 driver from Nvidia.

    Right now my driver is version 260.99; I recently got Darksiders for $10 and read that an increase in performance in a number of games including Darksiders would be helped by installing the 266.58 driver.

    When I go to the install it gives me a message that says:
    " This NVIDIA graphics driver is not compatible with this version of Windows"

    I am running the stock OS, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

    Can anyone guide me to the right direction?
     
  38. thegh0sts

    thegh0sts Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    uninstall, get driver sweeper to see what needs to be removed and install the 266.58 drivers. it should really say that though.
     
  39. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    You probably downloaded the driver for 32-bit Windows. Make sure you get the ones for 64-bit.
     
  40. instantcold

    instantcold Notebook Consultant

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    I just bought cod4 mw it was on sale, and I keep on getting pb issues. im using 266.85 drivers. I can run bfbc2 without any pb issues, but I get pb issues with cod4.

    I did clean install with 266.58 with driver sweep.

    anyone have suggestions?
     
  41. Docsteel

    Docsteel Vast Alien Conspiracy

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    I see the same thing... not all the time either. Annoying, but since I so rarely change settings once they are configured I haven't sweated it.
     
  42. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    I'm having an issue with any 265.xx or later driver on my R2. I often play the original Half-Life and its ilk (Blue Shift and Opposing Force). With older drivers, the games can be launched and played on the NVIDIA GPU, no problem. With 265.xx and higher, they can only be run on the Intel GPU. The NVIDIA control panel has Half-life listed as a game, but it defaults to the integrated GPU, and I can't change it. I can right-click on the hl.exe file and select the 335M, but according to the GPU monitor, it's not being used when Half-Life is running. Now the games run fine on the integrated GPU and I'm not noticing any compatibility problems with other games, but I'd like to have access to the NVIDIA control panel tweaking options for Half-Life. Hopefully this break in compatibility won't last, but I don't want to wait forever for a fix either.
     
  43. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    And another thing. Triple buffering with OpenGL games set via the NVIDIA control panel causes them to crash.

    I'm really sick of Optimus.
     
  44. brontosaurus

    brontosaurus Notebook Enthusiast

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    just got m11x r2 i5 8gb ram

    playing games like black ops, gpu z shows the intel HD gpu and not the NVIDIA graphics... I also "whitelisted" the game.

    Does the optimus driver update on nvidia work for m11x laptops?
     
  45. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    For the R2, yes. Not the R1. When you do install the latest drivers (get the 267.24 betas), enable the GPU activity icon in the system tray. It will tell you straight away if a program is using the 335M. All you have to do is launch the game and alt-tab out of it.
     
  46. thegh0sts

    thegh0sts Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    does anyone know why some time the nvidia GPU will the "You are not currently using a display attached to an Nvidia GPU" error?
     
  47. nnyymm

    nnyymm Notebook Enthusiast

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    Sorry if this question has been asked repeatedly.

    1. So it is safe to download the latest nVidia driver from the official website?

    2. Will this affect the Optimus feature in any way?

    3. I've been having issues with games like TorchLight where the GT 335 just doesn't kicks in, no matter what I do.

    Thanks.
     
  48. i has m11x

    i has m11x Notebook Evangelist

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    The drivers from Nvidia's site should not affect Optimus. Did you whitelist Torchlight to use the 335?
     
  49. DeeVu

    DeeVu That Compsci/Psych Major

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    This. Anyone?
    Edit: I solved it. I looked in MSconfig and found that an NVidia service was stopped.
     
  50. Maca0716

    Maca0716 Notebook Consultant

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    Hi guys i made a post on the m11x forum titled Dark age of camelot.

    Basically im trying to whitelist the camelot.exe but the game seems run off a "Game.dll'' how do i whitelist that?
     
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