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    M17x video driver issue

    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by Vandit, Jul 9, 2009.

  1. Vandit

    Vandit Notebook Consultant

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    Ok. So I reinstalled Vista after an unsuccessful Win7 install. I downloaded the latest drivers from Dell's website and asssumed everything was working fine. Well, I play a lot of Sacred 2 on my M17x. I noticed heat blowing from only one end of the laptop. Does this mean only one card is working and not my SLI? How would I check this?
     
    Vandit, Jul 9, 2009
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  2. Kcissem

    Kcissem Notebook Evangelist

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    did you check and see if sli was enabled? did you see if hybrid sli is enabled in the bios? what does it show in your device manager for yoru vid cards?

    simply first try FN+7 if it asks you to reboot then do so

    also make sur eyou are not on battery power as that will disable the discrete gpu's automatically.
     
    Kcissem, Jul 9, 2009
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  3. kilthro

    kilthro Floating in Space

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    Did you check hardware monitor or everest to see if there are temps for both GPUs.. This way you can see if both are working/on... Device manager should show both of them..
     
    kilthro, Jul 9, 2009
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  4. Vandit

    Vandit Notebook Consultant

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    device manager shows both. Icon says hybrid sli. Bios it is enabled. Are there more updated vid drivers?
     
    Vandit, Jul 9, 2009
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  5. kilthro

    kilthro Floating in Space

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    The most recent are on the dell's site.

    Have you tried it on other games.. Also if you launch the game and then check hardware monitor what is the temp of both? Is the one really hot and the other idle temps?

    I would probably disable SLI and then re enable it to see if it kicks in.. Try another game and see if it has the same result.
     
    kilthro, Jul 9, 2009
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  6. The_Moo™

    The_Moo™ Here we go again.....

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    the game could not support SLI
     
    The_Moo™, Jul 9, 2009
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  7. Vandit

    Vandit Notebook Consultant

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    how do u disbale sli? In the bios?
     
    Vandit, Jul 9, 2009
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  8. Kcissem

    Kcissem Notebook Evangelist

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    as moo said the game itself just may not support SLI, not all do. If your using the original vid drivers that came on the resource cd, you can try dell's newer beta 186.12 driver which is in moo's driver thread.
     
    Kcissem, Jul 9, 2009
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  9. Vandit

    Vandit Notebook Consultant

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    Here is the deal. I installed the 186 beta driver and now Sacred was using both Vid cards as heat was coming from both sides. The game was stuttering though. I googled it, and went into the Nvidia menu and disabled Physx. No more stuttering. There you go. Problem solved with new drivers.
     
    Vandit, Jul 12, 2009
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  10. Glzmo

    Glzmo Notebook Deity

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    Or at least the drivers may not include a SLI profile for the game. What could be tried is using nHancer and editing/creating a profile for the game and forcing SLI for it that way. I just wanted to mention that, as the information may be useful with other games that don't have an SLI profile included in the driver.
     
    Glzmo, Jul 13, 2009
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