M11xR2/R3 - NVidia Optimus Issues/Whitelisting Problems

Just a side note, you shouldn't post any e-mail addresses, among other things - they are easily picked up by spam bots. You can say like "leave PM" and setup in User CP to send you an e-mail when you get a new message.

 

Indeed, very good advice. I have that address setup as sort of a spam address so I expect it.

 

Nautis quite happy to do this for you. But how do I do this? Please tell me step by step as I'm new to this windows malarky

 

Here you go. And THANKS!

 

Has there been any word on the driver fix for optimus?

 

so i installed verde(the new driver) and modded the inf.. I still can't see the "run using nvidia" or of some sort option when i right click the exe..

 

click around in the control panel, you have to add it as an option.

 

On a side-note, I spoke to the graphic engineer today and it doesn't sound like it is possible to create a manual video card switching option (e.g. FN-F6) with Optimus... Sorry!

 

Im pretty sure that C&C3 requires a dedicated GPU, and its not showing in the Nvidia Control Panel. But I am able to run using the 335m. details all on high except shadows.

 

A possible bypass ---------- explorer.exe

What if, we use the nvidia control panel, and add EXPLORER.EXE to the programs that we run using the 335m?

If anyone willing to try it, cool.

Post results here. If not, I'll try it tonight.

Also, post a WEI.

 

Anyone have any problems installing Verde w/ the updated inf? I can't seem to get it to install properly, just keeps saying can't find correct setup and asks if I want to try with original settings.

 

Has anyone had any kind of official response from Dell / Alienware on this issue? I'm sitting here typing away on an eye-wateringly expensive M11xR2 that doesn't do what I bought it for. Even just an ETA on an updated driver would rock (if you're listening, Dell / Alienware).

 

I would like to know this too

 

Unfortunately this sort of situation is quite common these days. The worst thing is always that the customers are uncertain about the company being aware of the issues and if they are working on it/won't work on it.

It's really bad with the Sony Vaio laptops too. None of Nvidias drivers work, because they are not compatible with the Vaio software graphics switching.



It's funny about Optimus, as everyone just expected it to work flawlessly. Everyone thinking it was a good idea, nobody(not even in any reviews i have seen) thought that there might be compatibility problems!


Look at this video review from Cnet, about Sony Vaio Z11! They list the fact that it has switchable graphics as a negative feature, and that it can be "confusing".
They also mention that there is no need for it, now that we have Optimus.... Sony Vaio Z series VPC-Z116GX/S Laptop reviews - CNET Reviews

It's hilarious actually. How can it be confusing to press ALT + F6 or switch a switch to speed to stamina?


*sigh*

 

I have never liked the idea of Optimus, and always thought all the hype behind it was stupid. Especially if you know how it works technically, a manual hard switch is much better in every circumstance.

Sadly, reviewers and other tech pundits have hyped it through the roof, now it comes out and is pretty much awful.

 

So far i cant get the dedicated graphics to kick in on 2 games/ portal & battlefield heroes. I cant figure put how to add portal or any steam game to the list, & it doesn't recognize BFH.
Also 3dmark doesn't work for some reason with this resolution. Not sure what im missin.

 

I don't know if you've tried this, but the only game on Steam I play is Counter-strike, and here's how I'd try it with that (can't verify that it works due to my laptop being in production still): start Portal or whatever game you want, then hit alt-tab to minimize it. Hit ctrl--shift--esc to bring up Task Manager, and see what the actual .exe file is being run (with CS, it's hl.exe). Now that you know the name of the file, add that to Optimus's list.

 

Well 2 games with AWESOME OPTIMUS Issues so far. one would be Battlefield Bad Company 2 with its Mutilple Direct 3d issue. This will kick you automatically off the game to the title screen, and assassin's creed 1. while the first memory is loading, it will crash on you. "assassin's creed is not working"

waiting for NVIDIA to frakin fix this. I cant believe they're advertising this optimus.

 

I think you guys should go into the official Dell/AW forum on their website, and ask them to acknowledge this, and give an ETA on when there will be a fix.

Also explain them about the hinges and give links to threads in these forums. A considerable amount of people have hinge problems and a considerable amount of people have problems with games in Optimus.

We already know that it's not possible to get a ALT+F6 Optimus graphics switch like on R1!
But we could still ask for the software to work, when you add and remove games, and perhaps a hot switch for activating or deactivating TurboBoost.

 

I rang the number for Alienware support in the UK and was told that:

a) This (the Optimus issue) was not a hardware issue and therefore not something they could help me with unless I paid for software support.

b) They were not aware of the issue.

My position is that this *is* a hardware issue, in that Alienware has supplied me with a product that does not work as advertised (or even intended). The representative I spoke with was reasonably helpful / sympathetic and gave me his team email address, to which I sent this message:

Naturally, I'll keep you updated as to any response. Apologies for not raising the hinge issue, but I suspect we'll get better results by focusing on one issue per ticket.

 

Hey guys, a noob question here. Regarding the new Driver that is released from the Nvidia side. Must we uninstall the current driver or can we just simply download the new driver (w/o uninstalling the old one) and just proceed from there?

Thanks in advance for any reply.

 

Yes you need to uninstall the driver, restart the computer and be sure to cancel windows attempt to install it again.

You will also need to unpack the contents of the .exe from nVidias site and replace the nvdm.inf with the updated one at the beginning of this thread. Be sure you delete the original .exe!

 

Ok that sounds pretty hard. For my old Sony Vaio whenever there is any new Drivers for the GPU the Vaio update does everything by itself.

Can anyone do an idiots guide(step by step guide) for it pls. I know i suck at it.

Will there be any chance that the new Driver download will do the uninstalling of old driver and installing of the new driver by itself?

 

I installed Anno 1404 and Venice addon. i experienced the same problem you did, ie add the .exe to the list, but got no "apply" button, close Nvidia control panel, go back and see that the .exe is gone.

The game did not trigger the Nvidia card as fraps showed 1 ~ 3 on high.

Going back to Nvidia control panel, I chose the Nvidia graphic card as default, instead of Intel's, got a "apply" button, close the control panel and went back and found the change did take place.

Went back to the game and I got high of 60 on fraps.

I got about 1.5 hrs running on battery fully charged playing the game.

If you asked me, it's the drivers and/or nvidia s/w. h/w is working fine.

I'll continue with Nvidia as default for now until a fix comes around. Not the best for my money's worth but at least I can still play my games.

 

Yea i hope we see a fix soon this is too much BS to be putting up with to play games lol.

 

I'm checking with the factory - that option was supposed to be enabled by default. To add it, option the Nvidia Control Panel by right clicking on the desktop, then click VIEW on the toolbar, then put a check next to Add "Run with graphics processor" Option to Context Menu. This should enable the option when you right click. Make sure you do this on the executable for the game or file you are trying to run!

 

We've asked nVidia to add a utility to the Dell driver to show which card is running. Hoping this will be added soon, but no ETA at this time.

 

See my other post about this today for the Dell driver. I can't speak to the nVidia driver.

 

If you have Hinge problems, call support and get it taken care of. It will be covered under warranty.

For those having problems adding games, can you please post the game name and specific problem encountered? If you are using the non Dell driver, all bets are off. We are in the process of testing a much newer version of the video driver (than the currently posted Dell version). I hope to have an ETA for release soon.

 

I have C&C 3, 4, Red alert 3, Anno 1404, venice addon. all of which when I add the .exe in nvidia control panel, there is no ok or apply button to confirm. Exit and come back to control panel, the newly added .exe disappears.

What's strange is only steam.exe is listed. First impression I had was probably I had to add the .exe via some ini file or registry.

Would Brian have a short 5-6 steps on how to add .exe. At least I can know if I had added wrongly or missing a step.

 

thanks for everything erawneila:=) It's wonderful to have someone talk to us! Thanks a ton!

 

Yeah, this is confusing stuff. I'm guessing you aren't adding the correct .exe file. You have to be certain that you are adding the .exe that runs thatgame itself, not the shortcut on the desktop, not steam, etc. I'll see if I can put together some basic instructions. Hopefully nVidia will update the whitelist soon.

I'll try to do this tomorrow, but it might push out to Monday as I've been really busy.

Thanks...

 

No do this first,... PLEASE?? just tell nvidia to please fix the driver for optimus because that's the one messing up the games that were playing, and the crashing and all that... I added C&C 3 and it stayed there,, dunno what i did.

 

not sure if its been posted in here or not, but what's the name of the driver you need to uninstall if you were to install the verde 257.21?

 

I don't remember the exact name, but it is nVidia graphics driver or something similar.

 

question how do u mod the .inf. when i dl it, its just a .txt and i cant just overright it

sry for the newb question

 

Unpack the Verde .exe with winrar (or similar), delete the original, download the nvdm.inf file from the beginning of this post, copy it to the display folder inside the unpacked drivers folder, run the setup.exe and that should do it

 

!erawneila, uoy knaht

Looks like I'm okay on this front for now, but thank you for the reminder about the warranty policy.

As per my email (posted earlier), I am using only the drivers that shipped with the unit. I have not dared install any new drivers.

The game I am trying to run is: Armed Assault 2 (ArmA II) via Steam; please let me know if you want me to provide more detail (above what's written in my email that was posted earlier).

Thanks for participating in the discussion - assuming you're a Dell employee, you're doing them proud by engaging with us here. Fingers crossed on a swift ETA for that fixed driver ...

 

Its not working, and its giving me an error code.

Says its not compatible with my current hardware, and the setup will not exit

 

you probably have the original unpacked files somewhere, check your c:/ drive for NVIDIA, if there is a file delete it, have you deleted your current drivers yet? Did you restart the computer? If and when you restart, did you make sure to kill windows attempt to reinstall drivers?

 

Dont know what happened or what got updated. But when I got home and turn on the computer, C&C 3 and Red Alert 3 was added, and I could also add Anno 1404 and C&C 4. And this time the "Apply" button appeared!

So now all my games are in the list. I changed the default graphic card to intel's, restarted the system, and tested all the games. It all worked! Optimus worked!

So I guess my next questions are : Where is this whitelist? How is it updated? The Automatically Update "Preferred Graphics Processor... says last updated 6/22/2010.

 

Will it be easier if i just go to control panel/uninstall program and uninstall the nVidia Driver from there?

 

what driver are you using?
did you reinstall win7?

 

Has any of you updated your intel chipset drivers? if you are running stock, and if you have reinstalled did you install them from the dell cd, intels website or just win7 default ?

They are known to have the power to cause a lot of trouble too...

 

Hmm. Was browsing through nVidia's homepage to search for some detailed instructions on uninstalling/installing Driver but here is what i got.

Q: Do I need to uninstall my older driver first?
A: No. It used to be the case that an uninstall was first required. Today the recommended method is to overinstall the newer driver on top of your older driver. This will allow you to maintain any current NVIDIA Control Panel settings or profiles.

So i guess we can just download and run the .exe

 

Nope. All I did was update the drivers available at dell's website (i think the version is 189.69?) when I got the notebook on 6/21. But even after the update, nvidia control panel didn't worked as it did on 6/22 or 6/23.

 

That is weird. i got my machine 6/21 as well.. the games are working, but the control panel is flawed. All my games default to the 335m.

 

Better than defaulting to intel for now?

 

Well, all basic tasks default to intel. But the games default right away to the Nvidia Card. I haven't tried defaulting to the intel card for games.. lol just to see what it does.

 

That's excellent news, less of a haggle for the people just recieving their m11x as they don't have to install drivers just to play games anymore. Sure it maynot be using Optimus to it's full potential but it's doing half the job instead of a negating it. Do steam games work?