M17x - Dell NVIDIA 186.24 has been modded

Last night I finished tweaking the INF for the Dell released 186.24 driver. This driver was released for the XPS M1730. Upon closer examination, the driver did have support for the 280M and 260M however it did not provide support for the 9400M G. (Thanks on that one Dell).

I have added the support back in and it should now work with the M17x and you shouldn't have to disable the 9400M G at time of install.

I've attached a modded INF file for use with the 186.24 driver as well as instructions on how to install. See attachment.

A big THANKS to Mandrake for testing out my changes.

Only one issue (not sure if its a bid deal yet) is Mandrake reported that there is no longer a prompt to reboot when switching from the 9400M G to your discrete GPUs. If the consensus is there, and the majority want the prompt back in then I will look into this.

Any questions, let me know. Please report any issues. I will be looking into the 190 series next.

Enjoy all.

UPDATE: Before installing this driver, please see this POST.

 

thanks for your help

 

not sure what i am doing. but cant get it to work 8 (

 

@Moo - no worries bud. Here to help as always and this will benefit all of us (including me once my system finally arrives - lol... Cmon' Build Stage!).

@Muppet:

1. Download the attachment in my first post of this thread. Feel free to scan it with any virus app (its clean, but I always scan anything I download from a stranger) Extract the Archive (right click on it and choose 'Extract All...'). Open up the ReadMe file.

2. Download the driver via the link in the ReadMe.

3. Run the installer - this will uncompress the driver files. IMPORTANT: When prompted to CONTINUE with Driver install, select CANCEL.

4. Next, open up your C: drive and look for a folder called 'Dell'. Open up the Dell folder and then look for a folder called 'Drivers'. Open up the Drivers folder and find the folder titled: R229351

5. Next copy the INF file from the archive you extracted in step 1 and paste it into the Display folder within the R229351 directory. You will be prompted to overwrite a file titled nvdm.inf. Allow the overwrite.

6. Now you can go back to the top level of the R229351 directory and run the setup.exe. This will start your driver install.

NOTE: Prior to doing this, I personally suggest UNINSTALLING the Display Driver via the Programs & Features Control Panel. Once uninstalled, reboot into safe mode, and then run DriverSweeper 2.0 and clean any left over NVIDIA DISPLAY DRIVER files. Once DriverSweeper has eliminated any remaining traces, run CCleaner and scan and fix any registry issues. After running these two nifty apps, reboot into normal mode and then proceed with step 6.

This is just my process I use - you don't have to, but I find it ensures any residual traces of the old driver are removed prior to upgrading to a new NVIDIA driver. Some people believe its not necessary, and thats fine. This is just the process I have found that works best.

Hope this helps.


@delfane1: Check your previous post in the Order Status thread - reply is there

 

I don't even have my M17x but I'd like to participate. I was in the Order status thread asking about mod/upgrade threads, and seeing as you're modding INF files... pretty sure you would be the correct person to ask about this Plz help, in return rep XD

 

Thanks BatBoy! Haven't stopped using them since you gave them to me.
Highly recommended for benching and gaming.

 

When I get home I surely gonna try this! If I get it correct this is for Dual 260M's aswell?!

I will of course post my experience/results afterwards, thanks for the manual.
+rep BatBoy

 

Yep - 260M and 280M will be fine... So have at it and see if you can exceed Mandrake's benchies...

 

LOL, Only got the 260M's. So... That would be kind of hard, (But I'm very skilled with Photoshop, so the only thing I could do to beat him is to fake the scores )
But I'm not realy a benchie, more of a gamer, would like to see some improvement though.

 

Awesome work....now I know what the 2nd thing I will be doing to my M17x will be (first is installing the OEM QX9300 I got off HP cheap)

 

You should at least wait until you test it out a little. lol

BTW all my benchmarks yesterday were done with this driver.

 

will this drivers support hybrid? and are there any sacrifices from using these drivers instead of the stock drivers?

 

test....don't these all run 100% out of the box?! lol

Ya I was gonna play around some before taking it all apart of course haha

 

Yes they support Hybrid. No sacrifices, you can leave everything on.

 

I did all that, the issue i am having, and i guess i should have been more specific.
i do all the stuff as ordered, and the file that you want me to over write is not anywhere. so it dosent overwrite

 

Trust me, its there. Make sure when you go to copy/paste the nvdm.inf file from the attachment, you are pasting it into the correct folder.

C:\dell\drivers\R229351\Display

The Display folder is the folder which houses the INF file along with all other files the setup.exe calls.

 

I seem to be having major issues with this driver and Windows 7 x64 RTM. It boots to a black screen half the time. It is like it is using the wrong GPU and not displaying any thing on the screen. I had to scrap it and go back to the Beta Dell driver sadly.

And yes I uninstalled completely and ran driver sweeper prior to installing yours.

 

Interesting... Anyone else on Win7 having issues or not having issues? If no issues, can you post your install method (i.e. Ran installer in Vista compat mode, Ran installer normally, etc.)?

This shouldn't be an issue since its based on a Windows 7/Vista INF.

 

How do these drivers compare to using Dox 182.46 with the 9400m disabled?

 

Nevermind... It's all been removed@ the same time.

 

It doesn't work for me. I used the modified .inf and the driver, but when I install the driver with the .inf I loose the ability to turn on Hybrid SLI and SLI at all.
I'm back to the Dell 186.12 for the time being.

 

Very similar, worth benching with but more stable.

 

Mandrake, can you address Gizmo's issue since you haven't encountered any issues? I can't really assist until I have my system in front of me.

 

Doesn't sound like he wants help.

@Gizmo: Was Hybrid SLI and Integrated graphics on in the bios when you tried this? Did you go through the proper cleaning procedure to remove the old drivers?

 

I do have a question, because I am back to point 0. The new driver installation keeps telling me there's no 260M file to be found...? But the 9400M is found so that's a start. Are u positive this driver should also be able to run 260M's?

I tried it trough the setup, and even manually whitin the divice manager itself.
Facts;
-Hybrid an integrated where both enabled in the Bios.
-I was running in safe mode.
-Made sure the devices where properly sweeped en cleaned
-INF file in the setup was replaced with the one provided.

I continiously get the a self installing device manger (even in safe mode) which starts installing the device immediatly, right when i just finished booting. Is there a way to stop this from happening, without asking me to do this? Never worked with Vista but this is a nasty feature...

 

This HAS to complete or it will not work. Do not cancel it!

 

BTW, the only thing I did differently that BatBoy's instructions is I did not do step 2. I simply extracted the driver with winrar.

 

Its picking up the old stock drivers date:23-4-2009 version: 7.15.11.7985
It simply doesn't get info from the new .inf file I guess. Even when I run the setup from the new Beta drivers (without BB's mod) it's giving me an error about the 260M's?

 

Once you clean everything you should see the default vga adapter try to install. That's the part that needs to complete. Can you provide a screen shot of devices manager > display adapters?

 

The point is, it's installing the 260m's at the same time with the 9400M.
Maybe, it's because i'm very tired! But again you have been a great help, thanx much appreciated.

Gonna give it another shot tomorrow after work, to see if only the VGA adapter will appear in the device manager. And make a screenshot.

This machine is destined for further tweaking!
Btw congrats with you score, 17K+

 

@Dutchy:

LOL - i should've understood the issue you were having but I didn't 'get it' until you posted that device manager was automatically installing a driver.

You need to do the following to disable Vista's automatic driver install which is enabled by default. It's rather annoying and I actually prefer having control over the OS . By disabling this function, Vista will no longer automatically install a driver for a newly installed device it detects. Instead, it will prompt you to take action. A dialog box will appear asking you if you want Vista to search online for a driver, search its driver store or insert a disk. This is much better and essential to properly installing a device driver.

So, let's get started:

1. Open the 'System' control panel
2. On the left side of the System control panel window, select 'Advanced System Settings'
3. Click on the 'Hardware Tab'
4. Click the 'Windows Update Driver Settings' button
5. Choose the middle option, 'Ask me each time I connect a new device before checking for drivers'. Select OK and close the System Properties window and then close the System control panel. That's it.

That should do it. You are now free to move about the cabin... Use the uninstall/cleaning process mentioned earlier and then try the install again as outlined in my notes (copy/paste inf, etc.)

 

just installed, so far everything is great. thanks!

 

Great, I didn't work with Vista before, but this is probable gonna fix the problem. I have been searching (not thoroughly, it was too late) for this "assistant" to turn it off. I didn't even Google it. When I get home i'll give it a go again. Thanks BB.

LOL, It's kinda like the annoying paperclip in the early days of Word.

 

No worries. Just doing my portions... Let me know if it doesn't work and we'll keep trying.

 

runs good for me but i got 200GPU points less as xfastest 186.24, but it give me hybrid sli, thats a good point

i will try my game battleforge and will see if it runs stabil(it didnt with all other drivers).

 

i'm allready used 190.56 modded and evga pach 1.4 , to able all most game to SLI

 

@andytom69:

Which 190.56 did you use? Link?

Did you have to disable the 9400M G?

Thanks.

 

I haven't had to disable the 9400m when using any driver other than but above 186.03 and i've pretty much tried them all except for 190.56. Currently still using 190.38's myself.

 

That's interesting. I was under the impression that the 9400M G had to be disabled when installing the newer series. So, HybridSLI (Power) is working for you without any issues under 190.38? If so, thats great news. Could you .zip your 190.38 driver and post it please. I'd like to take a look at it.

Thanks.

 

I finally got it working. I don't know what the problem was, but repeating the process did it.

By the way, is there a tutorial on how to mod drivers to work with Hybrid SLI? I would really like to learn that so I can always use the most up to date drivers.

Update: The 186.24s perform bad. I got only 6000 points in 3DMark Vantage compared to 12000 with the 186.12 drivers. Games crawl as well. SLI indicators are working and everywhere it says SLI is enabled, but I suspect it's not.

Anyway, I'll give the 190.52s from Latpotvideo2go.com if they indeed work with hybrid SLI. Otherwise I'll just roll back to my 186.12s which worked the best and without problems so far for me.

 

no it is the older drivers 186.03 and below that you are required to disable the 9400m inorder for them to work. above 186.03 supports hybridsli.

190.38 drivers i'm using are from laptopvideo2go, you can get from there.

 

hm i got slow downs(game runs on 40fps but break down to 5-10fps) and battleforge crashs too.

i will try the 190 line. maybe they will work better for me.

 

Well got it working, after the "assistant" was gone, 1 go and solved.
So now I'm checking if it's better and run some benchmarks. The rest is talking about bad performance of these drivers, I still think BB and Mandrake are right. We'll see in a minute or so...

 

Yeah Dutchy... I'm curious as to what you are able to churn out with that QX...

Bear in mind everyone, this is a Dell/AW driver. All I did was add in the correct info to allow the driver to be installed without disabling the 9400M G.

 

I'm aware of that, but an upgrade with the 9400M seems the right direction.

 

My conclusion: An increase of 400 points just by this driver, instead of using stock. TNX for that!

For the completeness, also temps during Vantage.



So the drivers do work perfectly and they do fix the 9400M issue. Guess the others are running W7 instead of Vista? Correct me if I'm wrong here.

 

maybe i missed the display setting

 

Is there a reason why the option to disable SLI is greyed out?
Did i do something wrong during the install? I followed the cleaning procedure and everything.
My reason to turn it off is because i am having problems runing prince of persia, and want to test if by running non sli i can get it to work

 

Try disabling Hybrid SLI and see if the option becomes available. If so then that would need to be fixed.

 

I did som e tests, and this is what i found.(number 3 is the important one)

1-With hybrid turned on, i was not able to switch SLI on or off. And the game prince of persia would crash.

2-With hybid turned of (but integrated not disabled) i was not able to switch the sli on or off. As a matter of fact, the only card present in hardware manager was the 9400. I tried to use the function+f7 keys to enable the discrete, but that didnt work either (afgter a restart) and did notice that the bios changed itself to enable hybrid.

3-with hybrid off and integrated off, I was able to switch sli on/off (requiring a restart of course), but I was able to play prince of persia once the SLI was turnedd off.

Hope this helps