M11xR2/R3 - NVidia Optimus Issues/Whitelisting Problems

so where did you find the driver to fix the problem from optimus not switching over??

 

Check the mod note on the first post and follow the links. Make sure to download the 257.21 verde nvidia driver, extract it, copy over the inf I created (overwriting the existing one) and install. Not sure it really fixes anything though. *shrugs* Wish I had one to test.

 

@ honda - how fast did you OC your system? 166?

 

It fixed Fallout 3 for me for sure.

 

Mine won't post past 1.60. However, I did a full reinstall with the newer NVidia optimus drivers and everything is working great.

The funny part is I buy a laptop that can play the latest games, and last night I spend the majority of my time setting up DosBox and getting all those games running.

 

Sorry..
Full OS reinstall? Is it really required?

 

I don't think you'd need a full reinstall, I cant tell for sure since I did one anyways (used different HDD)

 

Nice Dosbox with those classic PC games!!! they're still video games! and yeah, you meant reinstall of just the NVIDIA drivers right?

 

Love my classic Dos games as well. They drain less battery life and they are free!

 

Yeah I did a full OS re-install. I think it made a difference. Besides I have an MSDN account so I upgraded to Ultimate.

For DosBox I was having issues mounting folders as CD drives. So I had to make ISOs instead. Got everything working now. Played some Star Control II, Duke Nukem 3D, Star Trek A Final Unity... Good times.

 

ALL:
This will not help with many games with Dell's driver. You need the most recent Nvidia driver and it doesnt support the r2, so you'll need to use a modded inf.

If you've added it as Brain says above, and it doesnt help, update the driver and it should run fine.

 

Full Reinstall it is.

 

How do you know if the computer is running integrated or discrete? The default for google chrome is discrete graphics for example and I cant change it.

 

This Optimus is a total waste. It refuses to switch over (as far as I can tell 'cause the games are crawling).

This is not OSX. I can manage to change my own graphics. Can I have the old manual switch back???

 

Not good, I hate it when they make something like Optimus and then intentionally don't include a manual override. Maybe you just WANT to run on the discrete all the time, but with this new auto switch it simply isn't possible.

Hopefully it gets fixed.

 

I wonder if you can assign a system tray app as one requiring discrete graphics, and have it already running before the game starts...

 

Surprised to see so many people running into issues with Optimus. andye39s have you tried 257.21 with my modded inf, people seem to be having good results with it.

Modified INF for 258.49 coming soon.

I really wonder if the existing hybrid power taskbar icon/switch would work with optimus. IF anyone wants to play with a regeditor you can enable it with
HKLM\Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Hybrid
dword - HybridPlatformRole
1 or 2 (other numbers may work also)
make sure to reboot after adding that to your registry.

 

I've an excellent IDEA. Listen, manually add cmd.exe to the optimus list, then let a console open and run the games. That should work...

 

Yes I did. I wasn't going to bother as it was running fine. Then all of a sudden when I started SF4, the game shows up on the taskbar with a blank screen and will not go into full screen, and the Nvidia control became active and was flashing on the taskbar. I fiddled around a bit and got it back into full screen, going at 10fps. It was obviously using the Intel graphics, so it actually wasn't that bad LOL.

Installed 257.21 with the inf mod, same thing, and then I lost the Nvidia control panel. Messed around some more and it seems to be working now.

I don't understand manually adding .exe files. I chose the executables I want to add, close the control panel and they're all gone when I go back in. The remove button is always grayed out, suggesting I never really added anything.

Other than that, this thing feels very responsive in everyday tasks.

 

Another thing that's kind of annoying is the WEI score. Only a 3.4 for graphics, and 6.2 for gaming graphics. The R1 was 6.5 for both. Winsat.exe is in the stock Optimus list. Shouldn't the 335m kick in as soon as WEI test start?

 

Does Dragon Age and Mass Effect (1 and/or 2) work with Optimus?

 

I'm really dead set on taking the plunge for i7 R2, but all this stuff I'm hearing about Optimus is the last big wall before I do. Fallout 3 and GTAIV might be big games to me... has this been sorted out yet? After reading this whole thread, I'm very confused as to the back-and-forth "NVIDIA drivers this, Dell drivers that" and what the actual fix is, fresh after opening and turning on the M11x.

 

You can rest assured these issues will be fixed in time. I think right now there are a bunch of different methods to fix or bypass the problem. However, eventually Nvidia will release a driver that fixes all of this, and thus the problem will be solved.

 

So for some reason it wasn't recognizing that I had Dragon Age or Fallout installed so it was defaulting to the Intel Video. When I tried to added the exe's it wouldn't save them because (I assume) that it already had them in the DB and really didn't think I had them installed... so I unchecked "Show only programs found on this computer", made sure that the settings for both games were the nvidia card, applied the changes and that fixed my problem.. both games switched over and ran nice and smooth.

Now my only problem is that Fallout keeps crashing on me and random intervals.


John

 

Is there anyway to use the discrete card for the windows desktop/aero so you can use GPU acceleration for playing 1080P ?

 

Ok, if it takes a bit for certain games to become compatible, I can wait I suppose. Here is my "launch list" so to speak, of games I'll likely be playing as soon as I get the laptop:

Borderlands
Dragon Age: Origins
Arkham Asylum
Crysis
Crysis Warhead
Blur
Burnout Paradise
Mass Effect 2
GTA: San Andreas
Splinter Cell: Conviction

Which (if any) of these games are currently experiencing problems with Optimus not kicking in the 335M?

 

I may be wrong but I dont think they have a fix yet on any of those games.

 

Really? So EVERY one of those games has Optimus issues? I've seen benchmarks from Crysis users on the R2 that suggests it works fine with Crysis at the very least.

 

I haven't heard of any of those having any issues. Borderlands works for sure.

MOST games work fine, the issues are with only a handful that are mostly fixed with NVIDIAs driver. Dells is , as usual, old as hell.

Install nvidias driver and you should be generally ok.

The other issue seems to be it doesnt seem to always know what game you have installed, which is stupid, so if you have a problem with a game, uncheck 'show only installed programs' and you can then change whatever setting you like to ensure the 335m gets used.

I still wish it had 1. a manual toggle and 2. a checkbox that did something like' use intel for AERO/Explorer *ONLY* where all other tasks would be 335m.

 

I mean, everything works fine. It's just a small stupid thing that optimus does not recognize the games, and thus not activate the GPU. It's such a small and silly mistake in the software...

I wouldnt call it isssues. Nvidia/Dell will hopefully be on top of this, lol.

 

But NONE of those specific games listed have any issues I am aware of. The ones with real optimus issues have issues on all optimus machines, but I beleive they have all been sorted out at this point, so the remaining issue is Dell has an old driver, and the 6/15/2010 NV driver doesnt support the r2 without a custom inf file. Just use the inf on the forums to install it and you are golden.

Once I did that it is night and day, zero issues.

 

Both those games launch just fine. DA runs surprisingly well on the R2.

 

I tested a few that you listed. No issues.

Borderlands
Dragon Age: Origins
Arkham Asylum
Mass Effect 2

 

Just a note for you and all the others who are wishing for the manual toggle. It cannot, and will not ever exist. Why? Because the way Optimus functions. The GT335M (and all other discrete NVidia GPUs with Optimus support) will hijack the framebuffer of the Arrandale onboard GPU to do all the rendering and displaying. Thus, the 335 is basically just doing all the extra math and legwork, and handing it to the IGP to draw (which isn't very intensive at all).

What you can control is what engages the 335M. It is possible to achieve what popypopy desires, with a bit of clicking on the manual list. It is not, however, possible to simply switch to the discrete, as the discrete uses the IGP to display what's on your screen.

 

Excellent explanation, thanks! That explains why disabling the IGP in Windows device manager renders a blank screen. After rebooting the desktop goes to 640x480, need to re-enable IGP and reboot again to get it back.

It is kind of annoying to get a 3.4 overall WEI score, which is what Windows Aeros graphics scores, even gaming graphics is only 6.2. On the R1 it was 6.5 for both.

 

WEI is pontless though!
Real world usage and in game benchmarks are much more important.

 

Why you changing to the R2 i7 ? Can't see anything I've read on here yet to justify cost of loosing on selling R1 machine & price increase of the i7?

I was considering changing myself but for gaming there doesn't look to be any reason, or have I missed something??

 

The main game I play is BFBC2 which is as good as unplayable for me on my R1. I am expecting it to play well on the R2 due to the hyperthreading and higher clock speeds of the i7. If it doesnt perform as well as I am expecting it is going straight back!

If the i7 gets a good overclock it should run at 1.5ghz idle, 2.3 on dual core and 2.8 on 1 core. That should be a decent boost for cpu bound games (BFBC2, GTA4, shattered horizones etc)

 

Yes I know, and I think most here knows. It just doesn't look good if I stick the WEI screen capture with my Ebay listing showing a *3.4* as the score when the time comes to sell.

 

Hmm. Tempted with the UK discount myself. Can you return to Dell once delivered with no cost penalty then? Any figures I've missed showing how much better the OC i7 is compared to my OC Su7300?? Whats it show in WIE??

As I understand it, the Optimus issues can be fixed ?? Currently playing Witcher, ME2, GTA4.

 

You have 7 working days to return it with Dell. They will charge you £20 for collection and admin unless it is faulty.

 

In that case, just say it's faulty as you couldn't get the gigabit ethernet working.

 

Doesn't it

 

I post this in the M11xR2 problem thread. Go read it there for the detail.

 

I suppose now would not be a good time to say "I told you so"?

 

They don't advertise it as having 10/100/1000, though.

 

If you look at the manual, it does say 10/100/1000, both the PDF manual and the paper manual included in the box. And you can read PDF manual before you buy R2, so in a way it's an advertisement because it's in the specification, but it's not promoted as 10/100/1000. Think of it this way whatever Dell state as specification, it can(and should) only goes up and not down. Dell may say on the web page 10/100, and if u throw a gigabit in there, it still does 10/100, but if you say it 10/100/1000 and it only does 10/100 then there is a problem, a big problem.

 

I said no advertisement, and the manual isn't an advertisement . I know it says that in the manual.

No ads, not on the configuration page when you're ordering, and not on your order page does it say 10/100/1000. One can argue with them, but considering you don't see the manual until after the laptop is in, while the whole time you're ordering says it's 10/100, they'll probably just say the manual is a typo. It can't hurt to try, though, I suppose.

 

I just update my post, sorry, but you can see the manual, and I did read the manual before i buy it. You can track my older post and see that too. The manual is available online and you can read it before you order it. I think of it as a way to see it the usage would fit my need. eg: how keyboard layout, or application that come with it and stuff.

 

If I can get a registry export of the following sections on a M11xR2 I may be of much more help:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\nvlddmkm
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation
You can send it to [email protected]