m17xtremely annoying driver updating - Please Read before updating

Hi, you all probably know that i now have an m17x notebook.
Anyway, I recently had a bad experience that was fortunately or not, my own fault. It wasn't a hardware problem it was software. More specifically graphics drivers.

I fell into the trap, in all normal situations, updating drivers is the best thing to do as you get more performance etc.

Unfortunately this is where the theory goes wrong. Well, in the case of the m17x you see, it was when i loaded the 177.73 drivers that things went wrong. Media player wouldn't play DVD's and PowerDVD crashed Vista...

Oblivion also seemed to play but with glitches...

It was tonight when i reinstalled the original drivers that AW use that these problems went away. I can use both Media Player and PowerDVD without problem and when i ran 3dMark06 my score was 500 lower than AW's score, more than with the "updated" drivers score.

My reason for this thread is simpl :-

If you have a m17x and think that updating the graphics drivers will get you better performance, you might be causing more problems than you realise.

My advice, leave them alone, for now at least.

It's up to you, i am only trying to help and possibly prevent anyone else having the problems i have had over the last week.

Thanks

OB

 

whew....i saw the title and thought.....NOOOOOOOOO...
but glad it is just limited to software for your issue....

 

I thought it best to post it sooner rather than later in case anyone else tries the same thing and has a nightmare solving it.

No, no problems other than that, the m17x is awsome

OB

 

Good Advice. Have not seen any M17X drivers that perform better than Alienwares yet.

 

Yeah don't scare us like that Oodle. Anyways wanted to let you know that I loaded up a dvd and begin watching it with powerdvd. Didn't have any issues and I'm using the 177.89 laptopvideo2go drivers. So I'm not sure what could be causing your issue.... maybe your video cards. I have the 8700's for right now.

 

yea this is probably why you should follow Stone825's advice to stay away from SLI in notebooks. its a nightmare to search for drivers.

 

This is actually a problem consistent with having a computer with SLi. Playing the latest games WILL need a driver update because the profile for the new title has not been created or optimized. More often than not, you're really playing a new game in non-SLi and only a few months later will the drivers be good enough to be used in SLi.

Your advise is still sound though. Update at your own risk.

 

I had the same problem with my m15x I was forced to stick with the shipped drivers because the new drivers wouldnt play anything such as DVD movies or games.

That was my other disappointment with the m15x which i really didn't want to mention until now.

 

I have the 177.72 drivers for my m17x and they seem fine atm. Oblivion runs excellent and haven't run into any problems as of yet. Sorry to hear of this OB.

 

I am assuming that oodle is refering to blu-ray dvds?

I had the same problem from trying all differernt drivers, 175 series, 177 series. But powerdvd 7 keeps telling me it needs a newer version of driver than 174.xx

I even bought a copy of powerdvd 8, but the problem still exist.

I don't think I want to buy another copy of WinDVD, tho I'm curious if WinDVD will play blu-ray under other than aw stock drivers.

 

I must admit i haven't tried loads of drivers, i tried 177.73, then 177.89 which all worked fine as far as gaming and windows was concerned, the only problem came with using either WMP or powerDVD.

Strangely VLC still worked fine.... Wierd eh?

OK guys, i'll change tht title...eh, how?

OB

 

haha Oodle-Bear. That did make a good April Fools. If it was april Fools day. It great you gave us some good info.

 

Thanks, i'm still looking for a solution to the updating problem, when i have a solution i'll let you know (",)

Apart from that the m17x is a great machine

OB

 

hmmm... do m1730 users have the same problem?

 

Well OB I don't know if you remember but I was telling you about how mine was going into hibernation instead of sleep after I installed the new GPU drivers. Well when I got home I confirmed it was in high performance mode. I then looked in my Fusion Power Optimizer panel that comes with alien fx and everything was set to sleep how I wanted it. Under the hibernate option I had it set as NEVER. But still it would hibernate. I went through every singe setting through that little program and had nothing set on hibernate in any of the modes. Right clicked the power management icon on the task bar and again made sure all settings where set on sleep. Still this thing no matter the power setting was going to sleep when I shut the lid, then after about 10 mins I could see the keyboard lights come on through the crack, I then watched it wake back up and go into hibernation mode. So next I opened control panel and decided to go into the power settings that way. Well then I noticed that an extra option comes up when you go into the power settings that way and well you guessed it. All the settings where set on sleep except this extra box that says hibernate and turn off hard disk after 1000. Well I set that to never and needless to say no more problems right now. Funny that it says that same exact thing in the Alien Power Optimizer but even though I set those settings to never it doesn't seem to be following those guidelines. Again this only happened after I updated the video drivers. When I revert back to the old drivers that box extra box goes away. So just thought I would share incase any one else was encountering this issue.

 

Interesting, seems these updated drivers have issues lol

Did you click the show admin options in the FX power options page (top right hand corner), when i click that i get a larger list of things to "tweak" lol

I'll keep testing though, it could be because i have the 8800GTX's, reading on the Laptopvideo2go forum it seems that the majority of people using the updated drivers are using the lower powered cards...

Maybe it's something that Nvidia will change in the future...

Ho Hum (",)

OB

 

Yeah I'm under the admin options, but I agree I think it has something to do with your cards OB.

 

I was thinking about that, i have used the most up to date drivers and the graphics are fine it's just playing DVD'd that didn't work. I'm wondering if it's a codec problem or if PowerDVD enables or doesn't enable hardware support when it's running. I'm going to try a few things and then see what happens.

Trouble is i need to find out if updating the drivers will casue problems when i ring CS. They might suggest using the stock drivers because they support those lol

I'll PM Armando and see what he thinks?

OB

 

have you tried the official nvidia driver 175.32 for laptop running 8800m gtx sli?

 

Not yet,m I was away for the weekend, i'll give them a try and see what happens...

What drivers are you using?

OB

 

Hey OB did you see on the laptopvideo2go site where they released a new inf file that should take care of the dvd no playback with the new video drivers? Just thought you would be interested....info is on the home page.

 

well good luck trying to get alienwareto update thier graphics drivers and solve grapic problems because it been a YEAR AND A HALF and i still had factory drivers for everything. over the past year ive been having non stop artifacting and tearing when i play any of my games and im not the only customer thats experiances it either. it seems that anyone who has the x1800 has the problem and alienware wont solve it and they wont upgrade ****. I resorted to modded desktop drivers for my x1800 and i still have the problem.So again dont expect jack from alienware

 

Wow, i'll have a look at that, thanks mate.

I'll give it a go and see how it works out.

OB