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    M17X freezing under windows 7

    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by thetruth1983, Oct 28, 2009.

  1. thetruth1983

    thetruth1983 Notebook Evangelist

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    Hello. I am having a problem with my windows 7 install and I hope someone here can help. I think the problem is with the graphics card. Everytime I install either of the nvidia drivers, the computer freezes like 6 seconds after I log on. Vista ran fine and I completed my windows 7 upgrade yesterday. I've been reading the forum and I seemed to have tried everything. I even booted into safe mode and remove the drivers before reinstalling them.

    Its really frustrating to be experiencing this. The latest dell drivers don't work at all and also the 186.82 or something like that drivers don't work either. I am running dual 260m with the onboard 9400m. I hope someone can help me or just point me into the right direction. Thanks!
     
    thetruth1983, Oct 28, 2009
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  2. Jamx87

    Jamx87 Newbie

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    I havn't had the problem on mine, weird.
     
    Jamx87, Oct 28, 2009
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  3. dondadah88

    dondadah88 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    i'm having similar problems with mines. With the 9400m or the 280m on. When I install drivers and reboot, my unit just frozes after I logn and then I have to hard restart by holding the power button.

    I haven't really messed with vista though to see if it is just the operating system causeing this..... When I have time, i'll try out vista. Right now I can't do it.
     
    dondadah88, Oct 28, 2009
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  4. augur_

    augur_ Notebook Guru

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    Out of curiousity, do either of you have the NVIDIA System Tools installed?
     
    augur_, Oct 28, 2009
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  5. thetruth1983

    thetruth1983 Notebook Evangelist

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    Yes I do. I was using it with vista to overclock the gpu. Do you think that's what may be causing it to freeze?
     
    thetruth1983, Oct 28, 2009
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  6. lordqarlyn

    lordqarlyn Global Biz Consultant

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    Anything is possible, try removing them and then running Win 7 for a while and see if it locks up....
     
    lordqarlyn, Oct 28, 2009
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  7. augur_

    augur_ Notebook Guru

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    The NVIDIA System Tools are a problem. They do cause random lockups, particularly during startup, in Windows 7.
     
    augur_, Oct 28, 2009
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  8. dondadah88

    dondadah88 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    yes I do have it installed.
     
    dondadah88, Oct 28, 2009
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  9. augur_

    augur_ Notebook Guru

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    Remove the System Tools.
     
    augur_, Oct 28, 2009
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  10. Blazertrek50

    Blazertrek50 Notebook Evangelist

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    I am still using the initial drivers on my GTX 260M's (dual) 179.85, and Win7 works well except for the occasional black screen hard boot (only once so far). WoW works great too. What driver would you advise I upgrade to and why?
     
    Blazertrek50, Oct 28, 2009
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  11. augur_

    augur_ Notebook Guru

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    Right now I'm using the Dell released 186.64 drivers. Before this was released, I was using 186.81 from the NVIDIA site with an edited .inf to include the 260's from our machines. Those worked well too. Using those I didn't have any sleep, hibernation, startup or SLI switching issues. I had the display driver crash once in normal usage.

    Now, after using the Dell released drivers for a few days, I'd say they're about as stable as the NVIDIA ones. Performance in a few older games like Fallout 3, Portal and WoW has been good.

    Long story short... use the Dell released 186.64 drivers. They're easy to install and you don't have to edit any files to use them properly. Just be sure to uninstall your current driver before rebooting to install the new one.
     
    augur_, Oct 29, 2009
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