GTX 680m driver install issue. Would love help.

Hey guys, I'm having a lot of trouble with this graphics card. I'm upgrading from my AMD 5000m to this GTX 680m but I'm having a hard time with the driver install.

Basically Windows isn't picking up the driver and I don't have the disc for the GPU. Also on the Dell site they're only offering drivers for the Alienware 14 - 17 and something else I forget.


Would love some help since I really need to get on tonight.

 

Actually, I ended up getting the install down with some help but I've noticed my card is running about 50c on idle and like 87 while all settings are set to ultra. I'm using a Dell alienware m15x however I have yet to upgrade to the other power supply and I've yet to get the adapter and pull the pin out. Also my FPS seems to be very odd, with ultra settings, i3 processor with 2.4 ghz, 4gb ram I'm only seeing the max 30 FPS and even then the screen will freeze for a second and I'll drop down to 10 before going back up to 30 and then I'll even shoot to 40 for another second or so.


Would love some help here.

 

The i3 does not cut it for gaming and is probably limiting your framerate.

At this point you should only consider the i7 920xm as an upgrade! Then you won't have a framerate problem. I also have a 680m

Also did you mod the inf file for the driver? You need to do so if you want your driver to install and work properly! All nvidia cards require this done in the m15x

 

You also need svl7s vbios for the card to reach its normal clock speeds.

 

Well as far as flashing vbios I have NOOO idea what I'm doing. I'm very, very new at this and I haven't a guide or anything to do such a thing and I'm not sure if I need tools or any of the such to flash it. I mean.. it'd be sort of simple, right? Or is kind of like a complicated ordeal? I heard I also need to undervolt but I've never dabbled in overclocking or anything else of that category.

@King of Interns! I did happen to get the inf file down with some help from someone on here but right now I'm a little confused as to why my GPU is burning up more than the Jonas Brothers. I did however just purchase a IC diamond 7 along with 1.5 mm of thermal padding, I hope that will do the trick and I was thinking of getting one of those fan things you put under your laptop.

Also you guys replying back to me is a lot of help, Thank you guys so much.

 

First of all make a USB stick bootable. Then you need to put nvflash program on it and the bios files you want to flash. There are guides. I can help if you can't find how

 

Honestly dude, I would love you forever and always if you can help me out with that lmao. I've been so confused on working with all this. Also I know this is sort of out there but could I possibly use my samsung galaxy as a way to toss it around or do I need an actual USB flash drive?

Also, would undervolting help my GPU from over heating so much? I mean Warcraft isn't too strong on graphics so I don't see why I should be hitting temps from 88 - 92.

Like I tried to say, I'm like as much of a beginner as it gets but I'm trying to learn and I really do appreciate everyone's help.

I wouldn't suppose you could link me a flash drive to get if I do possibly need to purchase one would you?

 

First of all get GPU-z and monitor your card a bit. Besides the temp, what clock speed is it running at? It also tells you the vbios version that is currently on it. Your high temp could mean that the card is already flashed with svl7s vbios


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Graphics card: Screenshot by Lightshot

Sensor: Screenshot by Lightshot

Render Test: http://prntscr.com/4zvd7r

As far as I know the tech I sent it too didn't do any such thing other than help me get the Inf. file down. He's not exactly as tech savvy as most of you are on here.

 

I don't know the card runs pretty cool IMHO. Unless he has it OVERvolted and is running at 1ghz on the core overheating should not really occur. Perhaps re-paste and get the bios flashing down. Re-flashing won't hurt. At least you then know exactly what your card is supposed to run at.

If you want I can email you a copy of my own vbios. You can simply flash this one. It features a very modest OC of just 40mhz. 760mhz vs 720mhz at stock clocks and is very stable. You can easily OC further using software if need be.

 

Wow, that's a first class thermal throttling. What was the max gpu core clock before it throttled? I see on the graph that it was higher then 135 mhz for a while.
Also, does your gpu fan spin? something is definitely wrong here, check the fan speed with hwinfo, it should be about 4500 i think. I suppose you cleaned the vents of the heatsink when you installed the card and made sure all heatsink makes proper contact with the gpu die?

Edit: how much time did it take to reach 89C? If the temp spikes fast I belive the heatsink or gpu fan may be the problem.

 

Well as far as everything goes I've only did the. Inf file so I'm not sure what other things my tech could have done other than that since I wasn't particularly with him the entire time since I dropped it off.

@King And as far as the GPU goes on overlocking, would that be a good idea for what my GPU is at now? I mean I was also interested in undervolting too but like I said no experience.

@Chopsy lmao tell me about it.. As for the cleaning it looks pretty decent if you asked me but I'm no professional and as far as the fans go I can feel them perfectly but yeah as soon as I put it on any kind of load it shoots to 89. While playing Warcraft now with ultra I easily hit those numbers but when I dropped it to lowest settings I'm now getting about 67 - 75c. My clocks however if memory serves me right was like around 750 or so until it took a crash.

Also should I even attempt to game in this condition or should just wait it out until it gets fixed? I played ultra on Outlast last night and my temps stood about 89 about the entire time but the game ran smooth other than some lag spikes at random moments.


EDIT: So I downloaded the software you told me to get but I'm a little confused as to where the fan is on these pages but heres a SS of this too.

CPU - GPU Screenshot by Lightshot

Heat / Voltage: Low settings on WoW: Screenshot by Lightshot - Ultra Settings on WoW: Screenshot by Lightshot (Screen shots were literally taken seconds from each other)

GPU detail: Screenshot by Lightshot - Screenshot by Lightshot

 

Ok, so I checked and you don't need to reflash, 80.04.5b.00.02 is svl7's vbios. I think you have to reseat your heatsink and check that the heatsink is making proper contact with the gpu die. Are not the 1.5mm pads too thick? Maybe they keep the heatsink a little too elevated.

 

OH, I just bought the 1.5mm pads since I don't know what the tech used and when he mentioned the thermal paste he used it didn't ring a bell so I doubt it was a proper brand. So I told him how the PC was over heating over the top and he said he'll redo it however I told him I'll get the stuff that I want him to use.

Thermal paste: IC Diamond 7 Carat 1 5g Thermal Compound Paste Grease ICD7 New | eBay

Padding: GPU Thermal Conductive Heatsink Pad 2 5cm x 2 5cm 1 5mm Thick | eBay


EDIT: I don't think you guys realize how much I appreciate your help.

EDIT2: If the pads that I purchased aren't up to par than I can easily purchase another since they don't seem to be too much anyways and this one I got for super cheap.

 

The thermal pad seems to be of a poor quality, but that should not affect the temp on the gpu die. I still think there is a problem with how the heatsink sits on the gpu.

 

Well the Heatsink I have was with my AMD GPU (The original Heatsink that came with the laptop) and I can't remember what it was, 5000 - 5800 series though

Also I wasn't having this issue before the install, I should mention that too.

Also is the ICD 7 the proper one? I was sort of confused when I got this stuff.

EDIT: Think I should get another thermal padding instead? I mean I want the best stuff I can for this thing to make sure nothing goes wrong with it.


EDIT2: I know I've said this a lot and it's probably starting to be annoying but seriously thanks for taking your time to help me with this.

 

To be honest I think even your old thermal pads could have been better then the ones you have now. Best ones I think are fujipoly and phobya xt. Get the 1mm thick ones, and some a little thicker for the right side of the card. What x breacket are you using? You got the 680m with the xbracket too or ar you using your old one?(they may not fit) Also the screws may be a bit longer, check that too.
I think the best way would be to check it for yourself, don't call for a tehnician. Pull the heatsink and the videocard from the laptop and then mount the heatsink on the videocard to see if proper contact is being made on the gpu and on all components with thermalpad on them.

Worst case, you change the heatsink or (less desirable)get a copper shim to put between the gpu and heatsink.

Edit: the pad placement should be something like this: http://imagizer-cv.imageshack.us/a/img822/4905/m0d5.png
The photo is not made by me.
Best way would be to check eveything makes proper contact like I said.

 

Oh, I'm using the new X bracket for the 680m (Not the one that came with my AMD)

I suppose the problem is that I'm not entirely sure how everything's supposed to look since I've never really done it myself before, It's the reason as to why I've been so uneasy doing it personally. I guess I'm worried that I'm totally going to mess something up! I don't mind purchasing a new Heatsink if thats the issue but at the same time it didn't seem to give me an issue before but if it is the Heatsink then which one should I get from here? Just another original or something different? I feel at such a loss here.

I also just tried looking for the thermal pads you told me to look up and once again I find myself at a loss on what to get since all of the ones I've seen so far say 1.5mm Maybe I'm just finding them properly.

 

Important checklist of things to make sure of:

- heatsink copper core to GPU core must be as perfect as possible (i'm thinking you're not getting any at all, to be honest). Clean the paste off both card and heatsink, apply a tiny amount of paste to the GPU core and spread it evenly with a credit card. Assemble, take apart and check if the paste is now also marked on the heatsink core.

- thermal pad usage MUST be ideal. Any thickness added by the thermal pad that isn't needed will push your heatsink up and ruin core contact. You should check every chip for the thermal pad thickness required in that particular area. And once more, there's NO chance to get good temps with 1.5mm in my opinion, unless the heatsink designed was made especially for this thickness. In previous m15x and m17x machines I've worked on, the sweet spot tended to be between 0.5mm and 1mm.

 

^ Love this guy. Well I bought the new thermal pad Fujipoly / ModRight Premium System Builder Thermal Pad Blister Pack - 1/4 Sheet - 150 x 100 x 0.5 - Thermal Conductivity 6.0 W/mK - FrozenCPU.com (From the link you sent me) I should be getting this and the ICD 7 within the week and HOPEFULLY this solves my issues.

As for the vbios. I'm guessing already have slv7's thing so I don't need to worry about flashing over, yeah?


Just.. out of curiosity.. I've planned on upgrading my CPU to a 920 XM (Theres a few on ebay for like 200 bucks or so) I was just wondering.. Am I going to have to do the same kind of procedure for that too or is it more simple? For example like with this I had to change the inf file and then theres the throttling that needs to be fixed and etc

 

The .inf file thing is just nvidia being a pain. The CPU will be plug n play. It will also be hot enough to light your machine on fire if you don't master the fine art of enthusiast cooling Quite honestly, unless you're an experienced overclocker, don't bother wasting the money on a 920xm, because you NEED to overclock it and to be good at maintaining everything to justify the upgrade from a 840qm.
But if you're willing to put in the time and patience, a 920XM overclocked properly can get you up to 3.5-3.8GHz with about 3-3.5GHz across 4 cores whereas an 840qm is much, much lower than that when using multiple cores.
But the first part of it is plug and play. Stick it in, paste it, screw it, it works. The tweaking may require you to mess around with the mounting screws on the CPU heatsink, and tons of BSODS until you get the best throttlestop settings for the overclock

 

Hrm, Well I didn't want to overclock to the point I couldn't use my PC with my own stuff. As far as cooling would go the only thing I know to do is probably buy a fan that goes under the laptop (Like a cooling master thing) Other than that I really don't know how to cool a PC. I mean, I'm such a scrub I don't even know what BSDOS.

The 840QM is only a little cheaper from what I can see on eBay but I mean l'll go with this if getting a 920XM would be too difficult. I'd feel like I'd have to come back here and make another thread lmao and as much as I love you guys I'd hate to run into issues. So basically with stock clocks with the 920XM I wouldn't be able to run it? I mean anything beats my i3 duo core processor lmao. This thing literally drives me insane. It's so damn slow.

OHH and while we're on the topic of upgrades. I have a 1TB hard drive and people are always telling me to get an SSD samsung drive or whatever. Is the M15X able to have both an SSD and a hard drive? Or do I have to choose between one or the other?

 

It's not too difficult to get overclock the 920xm, you just need to get the correct settings in throttlestop like sangemaru said, then it's at the push of a button. However, having an overclocked 920xm and a gtx 680m makes your laptop a beast(that draws more power than your current adapter can provide) and you will need a new charger and the right angle adapter with the pin pulled out.

If I were you I would wait until I got the gpu temp problem fixed and not game at 90C. You are slowly killing your gpu at that temp.

The m15x has only one hard drive bay and one optical bay, but you can get a SSD to replace your hard driver, and mount that hard drive where your optical drive currently is. However, you need an adapter for the hdd to work in the optical drive and you also need to tear the whole laptop apart to install it.
You can jest get a bigger SSD and leave it at that.

Don't worry about starting threads and asking for help, we're all glad to help you.

 

This tech if yours seems to be not reliable if he managed to install the heatsink with zero contact to the core! You stuck you head over his shoulder and make sure he does it properly this time haha.

I do not agree with sangemaru about the CPU. The 840qm is rubbish these days. You can Di at most 2ghz across all cores. The 920xm can be set to 3-3.2ghz across all cores 24/7 for daily usage. The CPU cooling is quite excellent for a 15 incher.

Now if you do what I have done (3.7+ghz across all cores by overvolting) then you need enthusiast cooling. Nobody has done this except I for 24/7 usage.

 

Well, I don't exactly wanna go too high on the overclocking but you know something modest. I wouldn't mind staying at 3.2 GHz, in fact thats sort of where I was looking to sit with it. However my idea of a purchasing order is sort of like - Fixing this GPU to stop over heating > a cooling fan that goes under a laptop (Not exactly a modded one since I'm pretty sure I'd break something if I tried to cool my laptop like in your pic lmao) The new 210 PSU with the adapter to pull out the pin THEEEN my processor + Ram mix. I may end up trying to self install these the next time I upgrade since this guy really irritated me.

My girlfriend and I are trying to get our PC's ready for the new Call of Duty game lmao I know that sounds cheesy but we were pretty excited about it. Think a 680m could handle up to the new upcoming games coming out?

 

You don't need a cooling fan for that machine that much unless you'll be pushing the walls of overclocking. It's got very good cooling.
The 680m will handle any new game for around 2-3 years I'd say, although you won't be maxing out the details on all of them.
Consider that most of the games coming out in the next half-decade will be optimized for the performance level of xbox360/ps4. Even if the PC versions have higher detail settings and much higher system requirements, they're still going to look really good and work very well even when not maxed out.
Get rid of the incompetent tech. Learn to maintain your own machine, and it will treat you right What good would it do you if a tech assembled your machine, your temps were good but the voltage regulators blow after 2 weeks because the tech didn't know to cool them?
If you're careful not to short anything (you discharge yourself and use non-static gloves, although I don't bother with them myself), only touching the bare PCB and no traces/chips, and if you're patient and careful, a few hours of work will solve all your machine maintenance and upgrade problems for months and years to come.
If there's ever anything you don't know how to start doing, drop a thread on the forum and explicitly mention exactly what you need done and what info you already have, the NBR-space is very welcoming
Regarding the 920xm, I'd initially though you want to avoid overclocking altogether, and since 840qm sometimes runs up to 1/3rd of the 9x0XM price, it would be a better deal for a non-enthusiast.
But you SHOULD get an extreme CPU for that card, since nehalem extreme cpu's are the easiest of all to OC to a decent level. Pretty much all of them can do 3.2GHz across all cores, and many can go up to 3.6-3.7.
My crown jewel could hit 3.9GHz single-core and 3.7 across all cores, but it was a monster to cool and couldn't run a prime test run to save its life
I had to replace two heatsinks, use a laptop cooler, switch from using paste to high-performance indium foil, pressure mod the CPU heatsink screws and spend hours to find the even pressure on the screws to be able to keep the chip under 95C @ 3.8GHz single / 3.6GHz multi.
And that's under gaming load. Stress tests almost instantly got it to 100C and system shutdown ).

 

Ugh guys, I really appreciate all the advise you have all given me so far with everything. As for the thermal pads I got them in but it's just 0.5mm should I buy 1.0 - 1.5mm too or is it possible to just sort of make the 0.5mm into the others? I'm asking because the picture provided early with how to apply thermal pads on the right area says some places take more than 0.5mm and even up to 2.0mm

I mean like If I can put it to 3.2ghz and leave it there I'd be happy. I mean I do game pretty frequently on it and I love my laptop. I just don't wanna burn it out either.

Also I was checking my volts using the monitoring too.. Wouldn't you guys say I'm undervolting a little.. Too low? It's between 0.800 to the max being like 0.925 or something. I think I have a picture above showing that

Just waiting on the paste and I'll be golden

 

Hey guys! SO with the new thermal pad and paste, these are my new temps: Screenshot by Lightshot

Now I had the guy who did the install previously do it since I feel like I'm not ready to do it myself just yet (I'll take a swing at the processor / ram) Anyways! He used the thermal pads placed above but he said he made it to like a 1.5mm, That.. isn't a problem is it?

Also! Running Wold of Warcraft in full ultra and I'm getting 60 FPS but occassionally it'll drop down to like 20 for a brief moment then pick itself back up to 60 FPS.

I suppose what I'm wondering now, are these temps good? And is the FPS issue just because I'm still on the stock charger and have yet to make the upgrade to the 210 watt? Or is it because my undervolting is super low?

Also.. thank you guys.. so damn much because YOU ALL! helped me get this PC up and running again

 

I think undervolting too much will cause artifacts. If you don;t see any, you're good. What are you using to undervolt? 0.8V and stock core clock seems way too drastic. Maybe you refer to the card undervolting and underclocking itself when not used?
ALso, fps drop may also be because of the CPU. If you get HWinfo and MSI afterburner and monitor your CPU and GPU usage while gaming I suspect that while your fps drop, your gpu usage goes down, while your cpu usage is nearly 100%. (clear cpu bottleneck)

 

It is time to say goodbye to the i3 and hello to a 920xm.

Seriously you will NOT regret it! The 680M is also a beast of a card. At stock voltage almost all cards can OC safely and easily to 950mhz on the core. This puts it at the same level as a stock 780M GTX without any need for extra voltage!! Of course the vram has to be increased too to reach the 780M but it isn't impossible at all.

The i3 was slow back when it released for actual gaming nowadays forget it! In terms of getting what you pay for you are in a great position. The i7 will be a BIG upgrade and well worth the money!

Don't bother selling the i3 as it won't be worth much at all. Instead seal it in a static proof bag and put it in a safe place. Keep it as a backup (especially because it has an IGP) if your GPU ever gets faulty you should be able to pop the i3 back in and at least temporarily get the display back up and running while you get the dedicated GPU fixed/replaced etc. I have no such backup and would be dead in the water if my GPU goes poof.

 

Con you use the processors iGPU in the m15x? I thought it didn't support it,

 

You might be correct there! I have never run anything other than a 920xm so I just assumed...