Dell not updating intel graphics drivers :/

I went to Intels site to update my igpu drivers and it says check manufactures site for drivers and alienware's/dell's site is at v8 while intel is at v15. I think that is why no games work on IGPU :/ Still waiting for GPU fan to come in and i am dying...can't even play old classic games in class :/ Only RCT3 works all other crash on load :/

Any idea on work around or why such a huge gap in updates?

 

Because there's no need for them. We are in the Alienware section, so I'm assuming you're speaking of an Alienware computer, which you know has a dedicated GPU for gaming.

 

GPU fan is dead so stuck on igpu...plus windows actually runs faster on igou btw so there is a reason to use it plus better battery life and a lot of games actually run on igpu btw...still no reason to never offer updated drivers

 

It isn't a priority. We are gamers we don't need igpus, sure I love the batter life. But I got the macbook for the powerful iris pro, for my integrated graphics needs.

 

still isn't an excuse for never providing updated drivers....we are gamers we dont use bluetooth audio.....we only use sdif ports because we want 24 bit blah blah sounds. Sorry garbage point

 

Looks like in your sig, you already rage quit. Cheers! Your post therefore garbage.

 

Alienware (and other OEMs) generally do not release their own drivers, but they have validated specific drivers provided by the device manufacturer. In some cases they might tweak something to add a proprietary feature, but that is not the case most of the time. The exception over the past few years have been AMD video drivers. They have frequently had issues with things like display brightness control and Alienware has needed to fix what AMD screwed up, but that problem is not as common as it used to be.

Most of the OEMs generally validate specific drivers do not cause malfunction on their machines and leave it up to the device manufacturers (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Broadcom, etc.) and the end user to determine if other drivers optimize performance. Games are always changing, so this would be a nightmare for the OEMs to try to keep pace with and it's really unnecessary. Just install a generic reference driver and be done with it. If things do not work as well, go back to the Alienware/Dell "Recommended Driver" if you need to. When a product is first launched the "recommended" driver is current or close to the newest and it works really well. Over time, in almost all cases newer generic reference drivers work better than the OEM "recommended" driver as they are optimized to work with the latest and greatest games.

You will generally need to have the OEM "recommended" drivers installed as a condition for receiving tech support because they generally know (or believe) the system will function correctly with that driver. Understandably, they want their "recommended" driver installed for troubleshooting to sift out offending drivers and conditions not contemplated when the system was originally configured.

There are certain exceptions where an OEM might release an over-the-top crazy proprietary mess (IBM/Lenovo and Sony have been big offenders on this over the years) that ONLY work correctly with one highly modded driver provided by the OEM. It really sucks when this happens because they usually do not update them very often. Fortunately, this is not the case with Alienware/Dell video hardware.

 

BTW...as i stated what is in bold is not possible. Try going to intels site and install intels drivers...it says please visit manufacture for drivers or something a long those lines, which is why i made this post because that is ridiculous.

re downloading them so i'll post picture

UPDATE:

ok so i re did it and redid it with windows selecting on how to install it....when something fails it asks to reinstall with the right settings or whatever i clicked reinstall. I am not sure if you understand what i am referring to but any who.

Here is the first error and after redoing it with windows reinstall thingy i got this error, which is even more stupid because i am using win7 64 bit and installer is win7/8 64 bit -_-



2nd error

 

Do you have Secure Boot (filth) enabled or Legacy Boot? I haven't run into that problem with generic Intel drivers before on an Alienware M18xR1, M18xR2, Alienware 17 or 18, but I never use Secure Boot. Just curious if maybe that is the cause of the failed installation.

Edit: Ooops, I see you are running Windows 7, so not likely Secure Boot since it is not supported. Not sure what the deal is. Did you try an earlier Intel driver, or just the latest? Maybe the hardware ID is missing from the driver INF. What system are you attempting to install this on? M17xR4?

 

yea it is an m17x R4 in IGPU mode and win7 home premium and i dont know about legacy boot. Is it set to default?

i haven't tried an earlier drive i haven't see any on intel's site when i did the search it only pulled up nearest one so i'll look around this weekend when i have time for a different version

 

Windows 7 does not support Secure Boot, so that probably is not the problem. If you were running Windows 8 with Secure Boot and the driver did not have a valid signature it might produce a similar error message. I suspect the hardware ID could be missing from an INF file, much like upgrading your Alienware to a newer GPU than what was available as a configuration (i.e. installing 780M in M18xR1/R2 or M17xR3/R4). I would try the driver one release earlier than the one you are attempting to install. If that one installs correctly, then it's most like a mistake on Intel's part.

 

I would stear clear of the Intel iGPU drivers any ways. I tried a few times on my R4 and most of the time once the Intel drivers were installed ( They did install for me no problem ) if I ever tried to switch GPU's the computer would blue screen before loading windows on restart and I would have to format the system to get it back up and running. Even loading safe mode would blue screen. In short the Dell iGPU drivers were a much better fit and worked just fine.

Either way, you are in the minority my friend when it comes to a want for iGPU driver updates, as most of us just don't care or don't need them as long as it works and lets us browse the internets when we need to save power. I hope you get it sorted out but getting mad at Alienware is probably going to fall on deaf ears. I would be supremely impressed to see any of the other laptop manufacturers making iGPU drivers updates for their machines either, most of them probably rely on Intel for the updates. I work on several laptops all the time and 99% of them work just fine with the Intel drivers, although the manufacturer will have a driver it will be supremely out of date.

 

well half my programs dont work because of being on iGPU and i figure that is because of crap drivers. Everything worked fine until i switched to iGPU and now opera freezes like a butt, flash crashes, shockwave crashes, games don't work, and many other things so i figure the 1+ year old drivers are the issue since everything was fine on dedicated GPU a couple days ago :/

Also is there a way to force windows to keep more restore points? keeping 2 restore points is useless...that is 1-2 days for me and many times that is too late. Luckily i am using acronis so i dont have to bother with restore points but it would be cool to be able to keep like 10-20 restore points :/ 1-2 days is a joke -_- Sometimes it takes a couple days to find out there is an issue what am i going to do then lol

 

You can click the "configure" button and move the slider. I think the amount of space you allow for System Restore determines how many restores points can be saved.

What happens if you uninstall the Intel HD Graphics driver from within Device Manager (check the box to delete the driver) and reboot, then go back into Device Manager, right click on the iGPU (may be listed as Standard VGA Adapter without a driver) select "Update Driver" and let it search the Windows Catalog? Might be worth a try if you have not already done that.

It might not be your iGPU driver causing those instability issues. It could be a number of things, including messed up java, .NET or C++ causing all of these issues.

 

i have it at max and it is using only half of the space :/

well everything worked fine before my GPU fan blew and i had to switch to iGPU so i am leaning towards iGPU for this one. I'll know when i get my gpu fan in the mail from dell...it'll be a couple weeks :/ Also steams boot strap wont boot either :/ So no steam friends chat. That is new issue though happened after being on iGPU...maybe installing i GPU driver caused issue...err tempting to?

I was thinking about removing drivers but i wasn't sure if the computer would boot without any graphics drivers or if that would cause even worse issues....removing things is almost the last thing i try...that is more likely to make it worse. Well most of the time.

 

Should boot fine... Not having video drivers will be no different than when you are doing a clean OS install before the drivers are loaded. Windows loads a standard VGA driver and the display resolution will be low initially, but it should not make the machine unbootable.

 

Exactly what has happened to me and is what I agree with.

 

well i tried uninstalling intel GPU drivers in add/remove programs and i reinstalled the new drivers. After i did that it would just flicker on and off so i had to uninstall the new drivers and go back to the old ones from dell. Intel's site drivers definitely dont work :/

stuck on out dated iGPU drivers that make my system buggier than hell (marginally better than flickering though) it is either a constant fast flicker or certain programs dont load....but suck -_-

 

Easiest way to check for Intel driver updates - including iGPU - is by going here: Intel® Driver Update Utility

If there are updates available and you want to download and install them, you can download and install them directly. For example, see below:

 

obviously.......intels drivers from site are not compatiable with the m17x R4 as far as i can tell. They don't install for the reason stated in beginning of thread and when trying to uninstall first and install it goes all buggy trippy. The only drivers that work are ones from dell.

 

This is correct.

 

my question is why?