Still can't play games...

I posted about 2 weeks ago about how I couldn't get WoW or Portal (the only 2 games I currently have) to run on my machine. I had Dell send me a new M11x R2 that I just received today (to replace the other one that couldn't seem to run games). Here is what I have found with the 1st M11x R2 AND the one they sent me today:

I actually CAN run the games (WoW & Portal). I make sure to whitelist them, and they actually run quite decently on my laptop -- and they use the NVIDIA card. However, if I try to run them when I'm hooked up to an external monitor, they return errors.

If I try to run WoW (with the game whitelisted) when hooked up to an external monitor, it returns a message that says:

"World of Warcraft was unable to start up 3D acceleration. Please make sure DirectX 9.0c is installed and your video drivers are up to date."

If I try to run Portal (with the game whitelisted) when hooked up to an external monitor, it returns another error. Some crazy error that I honestly cannot remember at this time.

So I tried taking the games OFF the whitelist (and set them to use the Intel graphics card) and tried running them with my external monitor hooked up. They actually ran, but of course did not run all that well -- because they were using the Intel card to run.

So then I whitelisted them again and used a different monitor. I got the same error messages. The 2 monitors I was using were:

(1)24" HANNS-G (1680 X 1050 native resolution); This one was connected using a Display Port-to-DVI adapter.
(2) 22" Dell (1600 X 900); This one was connected using a HDMI-to-HDMI connection.

So I don't think it is the monitors or the display output ports that are the problem...

I even tried dropping the resolution on the monitors down to the M11x R2 native resolution of 1366 X 768. I still received the errors.

I went and updated my NVIDIA drivers (followed the instructions from Kopicha here):
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/499208-nvidia-verde-notebook-driver-258-96-beta-discussion-relating-11xr2.html

After installing the modded drivers, I am STILL getting the errors when I attempt to use an external monitor.

So...

I updated my BIOS to A03 and...still getting the errors...

Again, I can run these games through an external monitor as long as I don't force the games to use the NVIDIA card. They run (not well though) as long as I force them to use the Intel graphics card.

Also, like I stated above, this exact same problem was happening on the 1st M11x R2 that Dell sent me, as well as this one that I just received today.

Has ANYONE seen this before? Since I've received TWO of these laptops that give me the same exact issue, I can't imagine I'm the only one who has seen this. Would anyone possibly know how to remedy this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

For portal, I'm pretty sure you have to whitelist hl2.exe instead of the portal one.

You should check the WoW thread that's around here somewhere.

 

I don't have portal or WoW so I can't help you with those games. I got Batman Arkham asylum, Fallout 3 and Mass effect 2 to work on external monitors on the M11x R2 with nvidia 257.30 and also more recently with your drivers (258.96). The maximum resolution I tested was 1680x1050 and the games run relatively OK with best results on an older samsung 15 inch display running at 1280x1024. I used the hdmi to DVI to connect to the external monitors.

If you can remember what error portal gave you I might be able to help you. I know the source engine inside and out, I designed a drive simulator for research using that engine.

 

I hate to say it, but it's probably the user, and not so user friendly system.

 

I know you say you whitelisted it, but have you tried right clicking WoW and specifying how to run it?

 

Thanks vzachari, I will replicate the error when I get home & am hooked up to an external monitor & post it on here.

I think you are probably right, which is why I was asking here. I was wondering if someone who has seen this before might be able to shed some light on whatever I'm doing wrong. Being that it is happening on 2 different M11x systems as well as 2 seperate monitors, I figure it hass to be something I'm doing. It can't be the system itself.

Yes, I have. See, the problem is...I CAN get it to run using the NVIDIA card...but when I do (when using an external monitor), it seems to cause the fatal issues.

 

It could be simple as driver issue. Give different drivers with modified inf files.

 

Have you made certain that you have your external monitor's drivers installed (If there are any). I ran into this same issue with my BenQ 24" monitor untill I intalled the driver support for the monitor itself. now I can run most games full settings on native res.

 

The error I receive when I try to run Portal (through my external monitor, using the NVIDIA card) is:

"Failed to create D3D device! Please see the following for more info. httP://support.steampowered.com/cgi-bin/steampowered.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=772

*note - pretty much, when you go to the URL that is suggested in the message, it tells me to set the launch option to "-dxlevel 81". I've tried that and it doesn't clear up the issue.

 

I have NOT done that yet DanDarko. I honestly never even thought of it. I've never really used any drivers for a monitor -- just always let Windows find them for me. So maybe I need to do a search for some drivers for the monitor. I'll go try that now.

(Tried to give you a rep point, but it said I had already given out too many today. I'm trying to give credit to all who have been so helpful with me on this thread. I'll hit you up tomorrow)

 

Hope that helps. I may have missed it in the OP. Have you tried reinstalling DirectX 9.0c or higher?

 

Oh well. I guess there are no drivers to install for my monitor (HANNS.G Hi221D). I don't have a disk for it so I did a search for the drivers. I got a bunch of results that said I could download the drivers for this monitor. But when I actually tried DLing them, all it was giving me to download was some trial version of something called "DriverDetective". So I went to the HANNS.G website & in the FAQ section they said:

"All Hanns.G monitors are plug-and-play meaning that they do not require a driver to work. There are no performance enhancing drivers for a monitor. The drivers provided on the disk simply provide your computer with the Hannspree marketing model name rather than a default monitor."

So I'm guess thing that isn't the issue. Thank you very much for your suggestion though!

 

When I run a "dxdiag" I see that I have DirectX 11 on my machine. But still, I went & DL'd the DirectX 9c drivers -- which I'm nto even sure is a good thing, but I figured I'd try. After DLing & installing them, my dxdiag still shows that Ihave DirectX 11...whcih is weird to me. And I still have the issues.

 

Bumping this up, because I have the exact same issue (just with different LCDS).

For some reason, I can force WoW/SC2 to start externally in windowed mode, but it crashes if set to fullscreen (on external monitors).
I can launch the game perfectly with the integrated Intel GFX (on external monitors).

I'm using the latest drivers direct from nVidia. No GPU overclocking.

 

Sounds like drivers and whitelisting to me. FWIW I hooked up to an LCD TV the other day and ran RIFT without having to do any tweaking of any kind.

Tried rebooting? As in, hook up the external monitor, then reboot? Also make sure you're only running on the external monitor and not mirroring or extending to the built in one (I seem to recall that's how mine was configured).

 

I've got dual external monitors, and it's worked in the past. Drivers are standard from nVidia, so not sure how that would change things. The m11x is used primarily as a desktop, so it always boots to the external.

 

Right, I get that. What I was saying is that I've run games on external displays on the M11x with absolutely no problem - the only thing I recall about the setup when I've done it though is that I have the built in screen turned off, and I remember booting into that configuration - so, single external screen only. Might be worth a try to see if that's some oddity that's stopping things working for you.