Tired of Messing With Windows 7?

I've been messing around with this for days trying to get my video card driver installed but to no avail.

Tried to install XP Professional but kept getting a BSOD, probably has something to do with my SSD.

Anyways, never gave Vista a chance, before I go back with the hassle of installing it in a few hours, how much slower is it with all of the updates versus Xp Professional or even Windows 7? Will I notice a huge difference?

Thanks guys, just making sure I am not wasting my time with a reinstall of all my apps.

Thanks!

 

I noticed Windows 7 boots about twice as fast as Vista from what I remember with a fresh install, any way to solve this?

 

You have to install the video driver in power saver mode with just the 9400 m g enabled, reboot, then enable your discreet video cards.

 

Ah, I only have the 9400 m g anyways, so that shouldn't be a problem. But how do I enable power saver mode? And why can't you install it normally

Thanks for the help as well!

 

I've tried drivers from nvidia and from laptop2go and none have worked. What version exactly are you using? And did you use the modified INF file before?

 

Yes, I use the modified inf by installing and extracting drivers to desktop, then saving inf file to the extracted folder saved to the desktop.

 

I think it is "stealth mode" with your Alienware.

 

Awesome, thanks going to try it out now. And "stealth mode" is accessed via the Command Center with Alienware (if so I will need to install that again) or can this be done via the control panel?

 

The procedure that I use is to download and extract the drivers to desktop then download inf and save to extracted driver folder. Switch to power saver mode, in my case right click on power icon lower right corner of desktop, select power saver mode under power options. uninstall display drivers in add/remove programs/ reboot/ install drivers/ reboot/ select high performance in power options.

 

Maybe you ARE in power saver mode and need to select high performance to enable your 260m gtx!

 

Awesome, pretty much everything is in place except for one thing, when I look under add/remove programs, display drivers does not exist.

 

Don't think so, I only have two options, "Balanced Mode" and "Power Saver", don't even see the High performance mode unless it is located elsewhere.

 

Also, when I try to install the video driver after rebooting, after the driver installation it says "Your system has not been modified. To install this, please run installer again" However, right before this is says "Installation Complete"

Can someone please offer some advice who has done this with the single geforce on windows 7 on the m17x

 

Edit: Nvm, found the high performance option. But still not working

 

It's under Nvidia, select remove display driver only. You are getting, "your system has not been modified", I think because you have not properly uninstalled your previous drivers. Try driver sweeper in safe mode.

 

Try rebooting in high performance so that drivers can complete installation. In device manager do you see your 260 m gtx and if so what is the error code?

 

The only driver i found to work on the m17x in Windows 7 with Hybrid SLI is 186.18, if you install these drivers followed by the Chipset drivers from the Resource DVD you should be able to use both your 9400M and 260M

 

Cool, forgive my ignorance, but what is the difference between the 9400M and the 260M?

 

Based on your SIG im guessing you chose a single 260M as your discrete video option. That card is you will normally run your PC on when on AC power. the m17x offers Hybrid SLI which means it has a second chipset video card also the 9400M. The 9400M is used when on battery power to get good battery life. The 260M is a high performance card for gaming where as the 9400M is a lower end card for basic Web Browsing and such.

 

The 9400m is the Nvidia chipset or "motherboard gpu". The idea behind hybrid graphics is that while you are not gaming or otherwise using demanding graphics applications you can switch off the powerful, in your machines case, 260m GPU. I'm surprised that there are not as many threads focused on maximizing battery life as there are that focus on plugged in performance.

In control panel/device manager/display adapters what do you see when in high performance mode?