Mr. Fox's GeForce 345.20 Desktop Driver Mod for Alienware and Clevo Mobile GPUs

It should work fine with geforce experience... It appears like these AW's with 970M/980M don't like Mr Fox's desktop driver lol..

 

Although I really don't have any use for Geforce Experience, so I'll just leave that out.

But yeah, I guess its hit or miss with these modded drivers.

Kind of annoying. I don't think Clevo models suffer from this when you install a new graphics card.

 

Do you have Optimus enabled? If so, it will never work. Go into the BIOS and select PEG mode to make your Intel iGPU totally disabled and then it should work. This is most likely why NVIDIA has not made it work for laptops through standard installation... way too many laptops out there that it would not work and saying it is supported would create a lot of drama for them to have to deal with for those that can't use it because of crappy Intel graphics throwing a monkey wrench into the works.

Should make no difference. It does not change anything for me. I don't own any laptop that is running a stock NVIDIA vBIOS. They are all modded vBIOS.

There's probably a registry key missing that they need for some reason. The driver itself doesn't seem to be any different than the mobile driver, but how the INF instructs it to install is definitely different. I still think it has something to do with pure UEFI/GOP and the absence of Legacy support. However, the previous mod I did worked fine with my M18xR2 and 980M... well, if you could call the way 980M throttled fine. No black screens or instability problems.

 

Well, I pretty sure that I set my primary display on PEG, And I got no reading for integrated graphic. But I just double check it by go to BIOS, go to the desktop and suddenly it just works.....

But I still found some problem Mr.Fox, At the first time I can recording normally. But if I leave it for a couple of time, it just didn't work. There's Red Line across the Recording icon. And when I checked into the Shadowplay setting on GFE, The Shadowplay still ON (Green) But all of three option is greying out (see the picture). Somehow I can't grab the Red line icon during screenshot.

It is only me who get this experience ?

 

Well, looking at your screen shot, regular ShadowPlay also isn't working right, not to mention desktop capture. I see you have the desktop capture icons showing on the desktop preview, but the ShadowPlay application itself seems to be disabled. Here's a screen shot of how mine looks with full functionality. Notice how my buttons are green? I have ShadowTime disabled on purpose because I have no use for it. I use only manual recording mode.

 

Well, it works at the first & second time in fact, I took some of the my desktop capture here

Spoiler: Desktop Capture

And the Shadow play Panel still normal (See the picture)



But after a couple random time after, there's just pop up the red line icon even if I'm not activate the shadow play hotkeys. Shadow play Panel stuck like you can see in my previous post. The only thing I can do only Restarting my laptop, everything go back to normal, but the Red Line Icon will come up again eventually.

Edit : After some googling and searching, found that GFE Installation famous to be faulty. So I Uninstall & Reinstall the GFE to my last known working version (344.60) and let the program to Upgrade itself into our latest version (2.2.2.0) and added your Registry Tweak. Desktop & Normal Shadow Capture working fine so far...

Thanks Mr.Fox

 

Mr Fox, plz don't be offended by my post.. I've seen your mod work perfectly with the 17x R4 and 18x R2 however I think with the new 17/18 something in the BIOS has been causing issues with it... I think that's why Ramzay was having problems... Once again, no offense meant.. I should have phrased my answer better...

 

No offense Brother @TomJGX - there is no question that strange things are happening on these Alienware machines, probably mostly attributable to needing to run pure UEFI with Maxwell in an Alienware. I don't think any of these machines are ever going to work 100% properly with any drivers. Some seem to misbehave more than others. With the OEMs being pushed by Micro$haft to the UEFI Class 3 standard (no Legacy BIOS support at all) I think what we are seeing now with Alienware is just the tip of the iceberg. I think we are all headed for troubled times, with upgrade complications and compatibility problems to become the norm for all brands as this restrictive filth becomes status quo.

The beneficiaries of UEFI Class 3 are Micro$haft, Intel, NVIDIA, AMD and the OEMs that will be able to control what we can upgrade and what we can't. They'll get to sell more crappy machines when upgrades are effectively blocked by UEFI Class 3 restrictions on hardware, firmware and software.

More info on the UEFI cancer can be viewed here: http://www.uefi.org/sites/default/files/resources/UEFI_Plugfest_2011Q4_P2_UEFI.pdf


I believe the garbage causing issues with Alienware (and others in the future) are the last two topics from the event that PDF came from. The last one is especially filthy. This is one good reason to NEVER apply BIOS updates if you don't have a very specific problem that needs to be fixed. You never know what kind of horrible nonsense might be introduced to completely ruin an otherwise great system.

 

The strange thing is I don't get throttling in Optimus mode however it's dedicated mode which is causing problems for everyone.. It seems with the push for single GPU systems and especially Optimus systems these new GPU's are not playing nice with our BIOS's etc.. I definetly get your point about UEFI.. It has its advantages with faster speeds but it's also like a cancer!

 

Im trying to install on alienware 13 i5 nvdia gtx m860 (win7 64)

(so this - > NVIDIA_DEV.119A = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M")

but setup fail even in unsigned mode, no compatible hw found !?!?!,

even forcing only driver install from devices, i get error not supported version of windows?

any help?


Chooo

 

I never get an ounce of throttling on certain drivers on a stock vbios and no OC.
The weird, annoying and disappointing part is once I overclock the performance doesn't scale as it should. This is what needs to be fixed.
That's what I've experienced.

 

Not sure what is wrong. The hardware ID is present in the INF under all of the right places. Maybe Optimus is making it where the GPU is "asleep" and not visible to the driver installer. Try running HWiNFO64 with both boxes checked to wake them up... perhaps that will help. Unfortunately, the new BGA Alienware laptops are missing the valuable option of disabling Intel Graphics and running solely on discrete graphics... very sad they took that away.

 

Not sure what is wrong. The hardware ID is present in the INF under all of the right places. Maybe Optimus is making it where the GPU is "asleep" and not visible to the driver installer. Try running HWiNFO64 with both boxes checked to wake them up... perhaps that will help. Unfortunately, the new BGA Alienware laptops are missing the valuable option of disabling Intel Graphics and running solely on discrete graphics... very sad they took that away.
View attachment 122646

 

Thx for the reply, tried now, no works I don't want to mod bios of the gpu on notebook, so i will look foward to instal modded driver.. Missing my old M11xR3 at time like this
Btw, still signed as DISABLED, even gpu clocks ecc. refer to intel.
So IDEA, run a game in background at voila, it is on now in hwinfo64,
but the setup still not recognize a compatible hw.

Hope the guru here will know how to help.


Chooo


ps : LOL u are the guru here of the modded drivers!

 

Thank you for the compliment. Honestly, I'm just a reckless hack that likes to tinker and do stuff just to find out what happens and hope nothing blows up in the process. Once in a while I get lucky and one of my driver cocktails actually works, LOL. Our friend @j95 knows more than I do about NVIDIA driver mods. I think some of what he knows has come through trial and error as well.

Just to confirm we are not overlooking one important detail, having driver signing disabled in Windows 8 is not enough. You are manually selecting Disable Driver Signature Enforcement from the Advanced Boot Menu during POST, before Windows 8 loads? Correct? If not, then that may be the problem. Selecting it manually before Windows 8 loads is absolutely required every time you install an unsigned driver even when driver signing is disabled and Test Mode is enabled within Windows. Unfortunately, Micro$lop does not give us a real option to permanent disable DSE cancer 100% with Windows 8. That can only be accomplish from the Advanced Boot Menu and it only lasts until you reboot the system. Then the DSE cancer comes back, but the unsigned drivers are approved. At some point Micro$lop may even rob us of that liberty. It's part of their evil plan to do that down the road, but the Gestapo in Redmond hasn't fully implemented their Nazi dictatorship yet.

If you have Secure Boot enabled in the BIOS, that can also cause you some unwarranted heartache.

 

Im in win7 64bit, in test mode(driver unsigned boot mode with bce command) and no secure boot ^_^; But still no lucks.
Maybe because i have DELL nvidia drivers on now? :| and not the pure nvidia?



Hmmm can i clean all with ddu and retry, but it's always a pain to reinstall all.. nvidia driver are like a driver of HP now, 200 autostarting up services >_<.
It is possible to take old driver and merge just some new dlls ? :\ where is written the info to block the clock modding? :|


Chooo

 

Windows 7 has the same Advanced Boot Menu. Just for kicks, try pressing F8 like you would for Safe Mode, but instead select Disable Driver Signature Enforcement from the menu as shown in this photo. See if the driver installation still fails.


If, after disabling this way, the driver still refuses to install, it probably has a problem with how the Intel graphics and NVIDIA GPU are inappropriately tied at the hip so that the driver installer does not see the NVIDIA GPU. You might be able to force it using HWiNFO64 to make the NVIDIA GPU take over as I alluded to before.

Do you have the NVIDIA Control Panel Global Profile set to use NVIDIA Graphics instead of Intel? If so, and forcing the NVIDIA GPU to wake up using HWiNFO64 does not work, create a custom profile in NVIDIA Control Panel for C:\Windows\System32\ dwm.exe to use NVIDIA discrete graphics and that may let you install the driver. If that does not work, I'm not sure what to suggest. Maybe @j95 will have an idea that he can suggest.

 

I booted in that mode, i've created profile forcing nvidia processor.. no working.
I was creating profile for C:\Windows\System32\ dwm.exe but it can be run only on integrathed graphic (intel) lol damn new dual gpu!
I will wait j95 if anything will come up in mind.
Thx for now


Chooo

 

@Ninja_Gundam I'm noticing something weird about the situation. About the ID you typed out and the ID the GTX 860m. They're different.
Luckily, someone on my forum had the same problem, so I should be of some assistance.
Which drivers have you tried? I see you have tried 347.25, but what about 344.73 and 344.88?

 

Right now im on ufficial dell driver 347.25. I've tried "345.20-desktop-modded_by_mr_fox" this for now, dunno about old modded. But i will like to try new basedriver modded instead of old, for new games like RE,DyingLight ecc.


"344.75 Desktop Mod" << this worked, install went ok, and i can change memory clock, but not core clock or voltages.


Chooo

 

@Ninja_Gundam the GPU you are using is the GM107- Maxwell 860M the GPU that the modded driver is for GK104- Kepler 860M (hardware ID - 119A)
So it's the cause..imo

 

Apparently, the hardware ID posted was not actually the hardware ID of the GPU in his machine. All he would need to do is edit the INF and replace the Kepler 860M ID (119A) with whatever his GPU is and it should work. I didn't include it in the mod because I don't know what it is. I only keep track of hardware IDs for the GPUs installed in my own machines and those already listed in the INF file. If it's not one of my own or not already identified in the INF, it will not be included in the mod.

 

Dunno btw with 344.75 modded Fox drivers and Nvidia Inspector i can do like this :



seem to no apply the changes, but looking monitors it works and in benchmark i get higher values even if a bit


Chooo

PS : Sorry to ask, HW ID Is "10DE" in my case ? So i have to change like this : NVIDIA_DEV.10DE = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M" or i need another ID? :\

 

If it's 10DE, you need to change it to that...

 

The old alienware 17 r1 is the same too. There's no way to disable the intel chip.

And it's not a software or firmware design, it's a hardware design on most optimus laptops to save OEM costs.

Basically the monitor isn't connected to the nvidia chip. Any processing that is done on the nvidia chip is passed onto the intel chip which passes it on to the monitor. Therefore it's impossible to disable the intel chip because nothing would render on the monitor without it.

The other way you can use nvidia optimus is to have a hardware switcher that detects which GPU should be used (both gpus have a connection to the monitor) but that adds complexity and hardware costs. So OEMs choose the easy option and let nvidia deal with the software issues of figuring out which gpu to process on.

 

Hey hey hold on, the Alienware older gen <2015 uses different Optimus approach
(Most new machines use the optimus to pass display data through dGPU>IGP>Display, while old ones can bypass that bullcrap dGPU>Display)

 

I don't think so. I have an alienware r1 (2013 with a 780m) and unless I've completely missed something there's no way to disable the iGPU.

You can switch between "integrated only" and "integrated and discrete"... There's no way to go discrete only AFAIK.

The older models (pre 2013) you could disable the integrated GPU...but afaik from 2013 onwards you can't.

 

No, that's not correct and this will not work. The "10DE" part of the hardware identifies "Dell" and not the GPU... and 10DE is part of the hardware ID string for all Alienware systems. The "1392" part of the hardware ID is the Maxwell 860M. We don't need to even use 10DE part of the string in this mod because it is brand agnostic. The Kepler 860M is 119A, so you could use NotePad's "Replace all" feature to replace all 119A with 1392 and the mod should work fine.

 

There's a good reason why I let J95 and u do the inf mods Mr Fox .. See I got it so horribly wrong there

 

Ok clear all now Just a bit scared to try all , when i have time i will..
In meantime Dell kicked out another driver : "Video_Driver_4R26V_WN32_9.18.13.4752_A02.EXE"


Chooo

 

Hi, is it possible a mod for a 660M over aw17 r5? thanks a lot.

 

Try this one... see opening post.

 

Any new drivers coming mr fox????

 

Nope, not at this time. 350.12 doesn't play nice with some systems and throttles when overclocked with 780M on all three of my Alienware systems. I also don't usually tinker with drivers released for only one or two game titles, because it's not worth the effort. When NVIDIA releases another multipurpose driver worth having, I will mod it... right now I am still waiting for them to do something right again... the clock is ticking.

 

a 660m over aw17 r5?

 

Will do and thanks. Also, thanks to you Mr. Fox, I have been able to monitor things better recently ( I'm slowly learning things a little at a time here) and noticed that even when in "prefer max performance" my cards are still throttling down between 750-880. The highest temp I have seen is 75c. This is after rolling back to 347.09 because I was getting even worse throttling on the new drivers. So at this point, my main goal is to just get the cards consistently running at the max stock speed of 953. So not looking to overlook as much as just get the max stock performance from these things for now. I would be thrilled with that. I am assuming your driver recommendation here would still be the way to go. Thanks so much for all you do here.

 

so sorry, but I just want to clarify a couple things. It looks like all I have to do is run DDU, turn off driver signature enforcement and install this just like I would a normal driver I downloaded from NVIDIA. Is that correct? I see the inf files, do I need to do anything or are they all just there and the changes will be automatically done? Also, are there any specific system bios or vbios versions I need to be on? And, is there anything else I need to disable? Other than that, I guess I'm wondering how I would go about setting the clocks once I do this. Like I said, my first goal is just getting these cards running at full stock consistently, then once that happens I might want to dabble in some minor overclock, nothing major. Between learning and the fear of breaking something beyond repair, it's baby steps for me at this point.

 

Yes, if you are running Windows 8, any kind of driver mod requires Driver Signature Enforcement be disabled. The modding breaks the signature and Windows 8 pitches a ridiculous hissy fit about it. With Windows 7, all you need to do is override the warning about an unsigned driver and proceed during the driver installation. You will still need to do that with Windows 8 also, in addition to disabling Driver Signature Enforcement before Windows logon.

Place the files from the zip archive Display.Driver folder, overwriting any original files with the same name. After that, install as you would any unmodded driver. You do not need any kind of special BIOS or vBIOS versions or mods to do this.

 

Just installed this driver and stock performance has a marked improvement over what my machine came with (no surprise really!) as 327.45 was the default driver.

Stock 327.45 Firestrike = 8193: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6872918?

Stock 345.20 desktop Firestrike = 8421: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6873327?

Thanks, Brother Fox!

 

You're welcome.

 

Just wanted to touch base and say that my laziness has taken control of me lately. But...I WILL get this done this weekend. I know I will. (So I tell myself). Didn't want you to think I asked for the guidance then forgot about ya.

 

OK, so I installed the driver, no issue there. Immediately noticed an increase in performance and an increase in how fast the GPU's heat up. Within 5 minutes however, I also noticed throttling. Dropping into the low 800's to high 700's. This was with "prefer maximum performance" selected in Nvidia control panel. I then switched to "adaptive" and the throttling went all the way down into the 500's. This starts at roughly 70c. The highest temp I saw was 80c.

Now I am wondering is it just a matter of me going in and manually setting the clock speed? If it is, what program do I use? Also, if I set clock speeds manually, should I then manually up the fan speeds to compensate? If so, what do I use to do that. Getting real tired of having to go through hell just trying to get these cards working like they are supposed to.

 

Not sure. I haven't experienced that with this driver on the M18xR1/R2/18 or my Panther. What model system and GPU(s) are you experiencing this with?

 

AW18 2013/14 model. 880m sli. As an example. I was playing Metro LL and My gpu's were running right around the turbo clock of 990 or so. Out of nowhere, down to 700's then within 30 seconds it's back up in the high 800's or back to almost max. Not staying anywhere long, they are fluctuating all over the place. Better overall performance but hotter and definitely not stable at all. In "adaptive", it was a fluctuating disaster. Max, then 500, then all over.

 

Are you using a stock vBIOS or the @svl7 mod? The behavior you describe sounds a lot like "normal" (undesirable, but common,) 880M malfunction with a stock vBIOS. Others using this driver with svl7's vBIOS have reported good results, so I don't have any suggestions for you if you are already using the modded vBIOS.

 

Just stock. I have never messed with a modded vBIOS before. I added a little more info above in case it would help.

 

Well, ranging from mild to wild levels of failure, NVIDIA stock vBIOSes have been pretty darned worthless for a very long time... in fact, 580M, 675M, 680M, 780M and 880M all seem to run like crap with a stock vBIOS. I think the only way you are going to get stable clocks and stop what you are seeing is using a modded vBIOS. I would get the svl7 880M vBIOS flashed and see how it goes. It should be pretty decent once that nasty stock vBIOS is exorcised from soul of your 880M cards.

Side note: this is one of the reasons resources like Notebookcheck.com erroneously show the ancient 7970M holding its own against 680M, 780M and 880M. They are using stock vBIOS, which translates into having a crippled NVIDIA MXM GPU. It's not even a close race with the right vBIOS mod.

 

ughh, ok. What a PITA this is. I will look into it soon as I can. This has become one of those things where you think you are done and then...bam! No being done for you!! Thx again.

 

It's a one-and-done operation that only takes a few minutes. Using NVFLASH, use a command to back up your stock vBIOS, use a command to flash each GPU with the new vBIOS, reboot, and you're done. You don't even need to reinstall the drivers. Whether you use NVFLASH for Windows or DOS, the commands are the same. Flashing in Windows, you need to use an administrator command window.

Kepler VBIOS mods (there is only one for 880M - look for Nvidia GTX 880m - 'OC edition' - rev00.zip)

NVIDIA VBIOS flashing

 

Thanks man. Might not get to it until this weekend due to the work week, laziness and tv. (not necessarily in that order). Does that mean that trying to set the clocks manually with afterburner or inspector or whatever would not even be worth trying at this point? Still don't understand how they got away with selling these cards this way. I knew going in I might have issues but I was desperate to replace my previous 18 with something more current since they discontinued the line. Been cool learning though, feels good. Once again thank you for your help and understanding that some of us don't have as much knowledge about all this. And of course, I will let you know that I have been successful at this as soon as I am. (that's me playing positive mind tricks on myself)