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    Question About turning off 9400m on M17x

    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by Momiji1, Jul 15, 2009.

  1. Momiji1

    Momiji1 Notebook Geek

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    Hello, I received my m17x just yesterday and am enjoying it, however, I noticed a lot of stuttering when playing a game like supreme commander at times when things should be running smoothly. I've been reading around about the 9400m getting in the way of GPU performance, but when I access the bios at startup I don't see any way to turn off that card individually. Could someone please let me know how to do this? I've had no luck turning the card off in device manage since doing so makes my display go black screen, so I'm currently stuck. Any help would be Appreciated! ~
     
    Momiji1, Jul 15, 2009
    #1
  2. b0oMeR

    b0oMeR Notebook Consultant

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    Go into BIOS and turn hybrid mode off.
     
    b0oMeR, Jul 15, 2009
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  3. Momiji1

    Momiji1 Notebook Geek

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    I tried doing that, but then the 9400m ends up being the only card shown in devices and the 260m's are turned off.
     
    Momiji1, Jul 15, 2009
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  4. Kcissem

    Kcissem Notebook Evangelist

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    you have to disable hybrid mode as well as the integrated video. once both are disabled then it will use the discrete gpu's ONLY by default.
     
    Kcissem, Jul 15, 2009
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  5. Momiji1

    Momiji1 Notebook Geek

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    Great, that did the trick, thanks for the help! I enabled SLI mode in the nvidia control panel, but it doesn't show the icon in taskbar that its enabled, but I assume all should be working as it should with the two 260m correct?
     
    Momiji1, Jul 15, 2009
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  6. Kcissem

    Kcissem Notebook Evangelist

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    yes as long as you enable sli in the control panel it is working as intended, if you want to be sure open device manager and you should se 2 260's under display apdaptors.

    The tray icon will not show as that is for the hybrid sli function, so since that is disabled you will not see it.
     
    Kcissem, Jul 15, 2009
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  7. Momiji1

    Momiji1 Notebook Geek

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    kk, all is working then! Now just to decide whether to stick with stock drivers or switch to dox~ Have a feeling I'll be switching soon though :p
     
    Momiji1, Jul 15, 2009
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  8. Mandrake

    Mandrake Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    Yeah you have that whole issue with running on battery with these hybrid system. We need to figure out how to stop the 9400M from turning back on.
     
    Mandrake, Jul 15, 2009
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  9. Kcissem

    Kcissem Notebook Evangelist

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    what for? for the 20 seconds of use :p
     
    Kcissem, Jul 15, 2009
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  10. Mandrake

    Mandrake Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    Still would be nice not to have to worry about it.
     
    Mandrake, Jul 15, 2009
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  11. Momiji1

    Momiji1 Notebook Geek

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    I have one more question for you guys so I figure I'll just throw it onto this thread :p I've been trying to install the Dox 182.46 for my 260m SLI but am getting the message that the program couldn't locate compatible drivers with my hardware. Is there a different Dox driver that I should be using for 260m SLI cards?
     
    Momiji1, Jul 15, 2009
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  12. Mandrake

    Mandrake Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    Describe the process of how you are installing them.
     
    Mandrake, Jul 15, 2009
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  13. Momiji1

    Momiji1 Notebook Geek

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    Figured it out, just had to change boot mode so that I could install unauthorized drivers. System is working great now on dox 182.46 :)
     
    Momiji1, Jul 16, 2009
    #13