Help with my M9750, nvidia 8700 =<

Hello friends

So I just ordered/received my first AW laptop..

Win XP Media pro
2.0gh
2 x 1024 memory
Nvidia 8700 512mb
160gb HD

Here is my problem...

I have loaded 2 games to try out the power of my new computer with: Command and conquer 3 and Half Life 2.

C&C loaded great, but the first match I loaded 5 minutes into it, the graphics just crashed and the whole system needed a reboot. 2nd try, 5 minutes graphics go out, game stays on and everything is distorted and I can exit the program. After 2 more tries of this, I'm pissed and reluctantly downloaded the driver from the AW site most likely to work, wondering why i paid $2500 for this pos that won't even work correctly out of the box.
C&C loaded and has never crashed since. I don't even have any idea if the driver is what worked, I'm not great with pc's.

Half-life 2 is another story, but similar. 50% of the time I run it, the graphics crash early on (< 1minute), but the game doesn't fully stop. I windows key out, reload Halflife from the taskbar, and the game plays normally as though nogthing happened. There are sometimes little graphic blips on random areas of the screen also.

So, what is my Laptop doing?

On the My PC wordpad Alienware left me, it claims they tested Doom 3 on this, and I am having trouble believing that if every game I put on just crashes.

I'm trying so hard to not hate alienware right now. Ive been wanting a laptop from them for over a year, and I can't believe it's doing this to me after I paid all that money =(

I appreciate all the help you may have to offer.

 

try various drivers, check for patches or updates for those games, and monitor the temp of the video card and processor

 

take a read throught he sticky about SLI drivers on this forum...I think there are drivers out that work well with the 8700...the trouble you're having sounds a bit like driver issues...hope you can work out easily..

 

rdcpht,

This is a comon problem with the 8700. Try installing the 174.16 Nvidia driver, it is very stable. The stock AW driver are terrible.

Here is a link to download the driver.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=203797

And here for instructions on how to install the drivers

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=202449

 

yeah dude 174.16 are the best one for 8700//8700sli for vista and xp

 

Thank you so much eightd!
As soon as I get home from work in the morning, I will be trying to install the 174.16 for Win xp.

Okay. One question, the driver dl link I was sent to 404's me. I searched and found the same driver on nvidia's website, this will be adequate I'm assuming?

Second. Could someone offer a little info on the modded INF? I'ver read Stone's guide to SLi's and i'm not sure I understand how that works.

Thanks for the help =)

 

rdcpht, Laptop2go is updating their Driver server, it should be back up tomorrow. So all drivers on the site will be 404.

The inf issues is pretty easy. Just download the driver and inf file from Laptop2go. They are 2 separate links. The driver is a self-extracting zip, so when you click on the exe you will be prompted to save to a location. After it saves take the INF file and copy it to the folder where the driver extracted. You will have to overwrite the file that is already there.

 

Thanks eightd,

In the morning i'll update you on how things are working out =)

Appreciate it man!

 

Thanks eightd!

The driver seems to have worked perfectly with no strings attached, I've yet to see a graphics crash!

Thanks a mil friend =)

Any other advice for a first-time alienware user?

 

GREAT, I'm glad it worked.

I don't have any tips off the top of my head, just keep playing with it and tweaking it.

If you have any questions, message me or post, I'm more than happy to help.

 

I tried upgrading to these drivers this weekend and the link was no good. Tried again this morning and all is well. So far so good- we shall see when I get home and start playing some UT3.

 

i am having the same problem, but i can't seem to install the drivers. i'm using win vista 32 bit, nvidia 8700 gt 512 on an AW x15, and whenever i try to install drivers; whether it be 32 bit or 64 bit, it says that my OS is not compatible. how would i resolve this?

 

GetFrozty you should download the modded inf from Laptopvideo2go and put it in the driver Folder THEN install.