GPU stays in Sleep mode with new Drivers.

Well I tried alot of different drivers(most current 173.90) to see which ones are performing well in Vista. It seems that when you try and install any drivers besides the stock 167.55 drivers from AW the GPU stays in Stealth mode.

Only thing is I can't figured out how to revert it back to full power settings.
Tried everything in the Alien Fx controls and nothing.

Anyone else having the same issues?


EDIT. I give up on new drivers with this system. Tried the 174.12 driver set from LV2go.com and the same issues. Even ried installing it with Have disk method. I will be calling AW today and figure out wat is going on. Can someone with the M15x try installing the driver and using GPU-z can you see what your clocks are please. This is driving me nuts.

 

that sounds almost as if the drivers havent installed correctly

did you use the modified inf files from laptopvideo2go?

 

yeah have tried it with 3 different drivers. Using the Driver Cleaner method. Nothing helps.

I even tried seyting the GPU to Performance in the Alien Fusion setings. Still nothing clocks the GPU to full speed.

As anyone been able to install any other divers and still have good performance.

 

i believe driver 164 was best tested ...not sure if am right but i read it somewhere in this forums.

 

Tried some 164 drivers aswell, and nothing enables the GPU at full clock speeds.

 

not having one of these myself, is there an application that needs to be installed to switch from one vga setup to another? have you tried re-installing that
by that I mean remove both the graphics driver and the switching (stealth) driver
install the graphics driver first, then the stealth driver so it picks up the current default.....

 

I don't believe there is a stealth drievr. I was thinking there was just one. But I will give it a try it if I can.

Thanks for the tip.

EDIT
No installers for the Stealth option.

 

so how is it activated? thats a bit strange because the machine can switch from discrete to onboard graphics....
although there was another laptop that did that in the past I think
(hmmm xp drivers somewhere then )

does the whole thing work if you install the supplied drivers again?

 

Ok the integrated graphics and Stealth mode are 2 seperate things. The stealth mode just downclocks your GPU. The Integrated using FN + F7 restarts your lappy switching to the x3100 onboard.

The issue is that with any other driver the GPU stays at the same speed as the Stealth mode. Wich means crap performance. Even setting the GPU to PERFORMANCE in the Alien FX dosn't change anything.

There must be a different INF file for the Stealth mode.

I am looking at the INF files from 167.55 now. Trying to see the difference.

 

ah (penny drops) finally I see what they mean
I thought it was just switching between one board and the other.

now that throws a different light on it, and yes you are right to look in the INF file
you could copy anything obvious into your new inf file to see if that helps

make sure you have good backups of them before editing
and make sure you backup your data in case it causes the display to fail to boot
(although safe mode should always be available)

 

I will forward the inf over to the people at LTV2GO.com and see if they can isolate the string value that is keeping the GPU in stealth mode.

Hopefully they can figure out this mess and come back with some answers. I am baffled.

EDIT:

Ok sent off to the brains at LTV2GO.com hopefully they can help us out.

 

You rang ?

In Modded INF look for this:
HKR,, PerfLevelSrc, %REG_DWORD%, 0x3333
Change it to this:
HKR,, PerfLevelSrc, %REG_DWORD%, 0x2222
reinstall
And report back with good news only

also have a play with these settings:

Possibly even remove or disable powermizer and the slowdown commands.

This has given you some homework to do.
I'll try and visit to keep an eye on this.
havnt' been here in ages.

 

Thanks Mobilenvidia I have changed the 0x3333 to 0x2222. Thats hasn't yielded any results. I will work with HKR settings next.

Thanks for your help.

EDIT: #1

Ok had a look at the AW INF files and there are no setting for POWERMIZER. I have made a new INF using the missing values from the 174.12 that were present in the original AW INF file.

INstalling now and will report back later.

Edit: #2

That didn't work. I am going to delete the power mizer strings now and try again.

EDIT: #4

Tried adding the 167.55 AW INF to the 174.12 files. Rename to nv_disp from nvqu. If you modify the INF files to represent the 174.12 driver:

DriverVer = 12/21/2007, 7.15.11.6755

to

DriverVer = 12/21/2007, 7.15.11.7412

The drivers continue to stay in Stealth mode. If you leave it original the driver installs correctly and I`m back to over 10k 3dmark06 and GPU-z represent the correct speeds.



Just wish we could figure this out.

 

ummm ............. this is a SERIOUS issue...

if nvidia don't support the m15x (not that they should have to its alienwares haxed stealthmode that is the prob) in driver updates this will be highly annoying.

may opt for a Sager np5973 or a Xps1730 because of this <_> keep us posted
order on Hold

 

Do a search around, its not just the m15, but it seems a lot of people are experiencing issues with drivers for the 8800.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=211255

There was another one I saw which was basically saying the same thing about the GTS too but im too lazy to search that one up again

 

Right next thing.
Grab original Driver INF, now put this in a newer driver.
remove any other INFs.
Now Install via device driver update, do not use setup.exe.

This should work, if not there might be the issue that only special drivers can disable stealth mode.

I'm not sure why you'd want to have an Intel Integrated Video as well as the 8800M
It can only lead to trouble as you are experiencing now.
It looks very likely that only AW special drivers will work with stealth mode.
I hope I'm wrong.

 

Try to re-install the latest laptop drivers (167.58) before using desktop one...
You do as beta test with this modified .inf, and sometime, it happen ! I had same problem with 171.16 on my m9750.

 

Hi Mobilenvidia

it seems I also got my wires crossed re: stealthmode

stealthmode clocks down the 8800gpu its doesnt switch to the x3100

the gpu switch causes a bios change and a reboot from what I can gather

I will know for sure once I get my machine

 

BOFH1971 you are exactly right.

Mobilenvidia I inserted the original ING file into the 174.12 drivers as you requested, the driver installs fine and allows for the full clocks.

The driver though still says it's the 167.55 driver. Although it does allow for full GPU speeds.

So maybe it is only a simple INF problem.

 

That is good news for you guys.
Now we just need to find tweak(s) that fix it so I can add to future INFs.

I'll take a closer look but will need tester(s) to trial things to find the culprit.

I'll be back

 

I will be your test subject lol..

Thanks again MobileNvidia.

 

well mobilenvidia you can count on me for testing both vista (for a short while LOL) and XP I need to make sure this thing will work on xp

I am quite adept at fiddling with inf files, and your site has helped so much as I tend to be tech support for anyone who knows me and laptops are so popular , I am only building like 2 pc's a year now (BOOO again)

 

Before I mod any INFs give this a try:

Grab modded INF (any modded INF your testing)
Edit it, and go down to:
;PowerSupply settings
Now add this line to that section:
HKR,, FastResume, %REG_DWORD%, 0x1
Reinstall driver no need to uninstall if it's the same version.

Failing that look back in INF down to same section as above look for this line:
HKR,, AllowMaxPerf, %REG_DWORD%, 2
Now try various settings.
0,1,3
After each change install the driver again no need to uninstall.
For the more adventurous they could look for the current control set and mod it manually to save the continual installing to try each setting.

This should keep you guys busy for awhile.
Hopefully fastresume will do it, and this will be a quick fix to add to future INFs

 

Ok gave it a shot with the 174.12 driver set and still no luck.

I will try a different driver set and report back.

 

FastResume accepts values of either 0x1 or 0x2. It's set to 0x1 for:

• Acer (mobile)
• Clevo
• Compal
• FIC (mobile)
• Lenovo (ThinkPad)
• Mitac
• Quanta (generic)

It's set to 0x2 for:

• Arima (mobile)
• Quanta (HP)
• Wistron (HP)

I'm not sure whose set of .inf files are being used for AlienWare's 167.55 drivers, which is why I provided more information than otherwise necessary. AllowMaxPerf is set to a value of 2 only for Dell's mobile .inf files; otherwise, it's set to 0x302 in a small number of files.

Hope that helps! And don't ask where I got the info.

 

No need to try another driver as if the original INF works with driver then something in my modded one must be disabling it.

I'll make up some test INFs to narrow the culprit down.

Sogarth I won't ask where you got it from but do you have access to a certain nV PDF document.
I have a certain document but from the 60's so quite ancient.

 

This machine uses a Quanta INF

Allowmaxperf is used in many Mobile OEM INFs.
It's usually 0x333, but a few machines use 0x222 and the odd one I've seen with 0x302 (this the default setting ?)
With my Dell best performance is with 0x333 and still allow all powermizer levels.
Some machines must not allow all powermizer levels in the 3 modes.

There are so many settings I would love to know what they did (what values actually do what)

 

Right I've made a heap (well 5) INFs to test in which section the issue could be in.
To test this.
1)Install working driver
2)Uninstall this driver.
3)Rename INF you are about to test to just nv_disp.inf (remove the code to tell us what tweaks are removed from INF, do remember this as I need to know )
4)Copy this INF into the directory of new driver (INFs are from 174.12 but any driver will do)
5)Now install driver
6)Test the sleep mode problem
7)IF problem is back then goto step 1 (yes one), if problem solved goto end
End) Come back here and tell me with much joy which section is the culprit, you can now if so desired go to that section in the INF now enable each setting and find which one it is (will safe me making INFs just to do this)

I'll see if the setting can be applied to future INF updates.

 

Truth be told, I don't know what most of the settings are/do; I was just letting you know which OEM reference .inf files had AllowMaxPerf had those entries, and what they were set to, at least for the Vista (32-bit) files.

 

Hey guys !! What is the status on the driver issue? Has it been resolved and if it hasnt then is it still possible?
I think all of us are waiting to hear a good reply from you guys because we need to upgrade our drivers to improve performance in the future.

Does the upgraded driver work properly with games and only has problems resuming from sleep right?

 

Still testing right now. No real tiem so far been busy with the family.

Hopefully tomorrow I will get a chance.

Cheers

 

Anyone else get a chance yet.. Going to get at it now this morning.

 

Was there any resolution on this? Did any of the .inf files work out for you?

I'm hoping to be able to get Vista64 up and running when mine comes in (even though the Alienware control center won't work to start with... )

 

Anybody had a chance to try these?

N