XPS M1530 w/ WinXP causes screen flicker and game crash - please help

Hi all,

So I "upgraded" my M1530 XPS to WinXP and everything works flawlessly, including the video card. I use original Dell driver for XP posted in this forum ( search for XPS M1310 or XPS M1530 XP

HOWEVER, I found that ALL kinds of games crashes during playtime. The symptom is as follow:

1) Turn off all background applications (SpySweeper, Anti Virus, etc.)
2) Start game (games tested:
- Frontlines Fuel of War
- Team Fortress 2 / Half Life 2
- Battlefield 2 / 2142
NOTE: all games tested at 1280 x 768 with medium - high settings
3) Games starts and play just fine, but then:
- Screen freezes
- Screen flicker
- Game / OS not responding
- Must press Ctrl-Alt-Del and shutdown machine

I checked the Event Viewer for any errors -> nothing.

I tried the following, but still the above occured:
- Disable SmartDimmer
- Turn off all unncessary services (MS Auto Update, etc.)

Is there anything else I need to do? Like tweak NVIDIA Control Panel settings or update the driver to Laptop2Video v. 169.09?

I

 

Use drivers from laptopvideo2go.com

 

Which version? 169.09 or 169.28?

 

go for the .09....28 is still not as stable for the custom 8600 in m1530...
personally using the 169.09 and has been running games flawlessly since...

 

What anti-virus are you running?

 

Symantec AntiVirus 10.1.5.5000

 

The reason I asked is that I was having similar problems running some newer games on my old Dimension PC under XP and having looked in various forums it was suggested that my Anti-virus software maybe interfering with the Windows Pool size allocation. It was either uninstalling the AV software (AVG 7.5 in my case) or changing the size of PagedPoolSize in the registry.

I choose the latter and it seems to have done the trick.

You need to change PagedPoolSize in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management to 0x20000000 (to allocate 256Mb - recommended).

Do a google for PagedPoolSize and all will be revealed.

 

Hey thanks for the pointer. I will try that, although my Anti-Virus is different than yours.

I will also try to update the video driver to LaptopVideo2Go 169.09. BTW, when updating the video driver, what is the best way to uninstall and install the new version? My thought is:

1) Boot to Safe Mode
2) inside Safe Mode, UNINSTALL old video driver
3) Re-boot to Normal Mode
4) WinXP will say it found driver. Say "no" or ignore
5) install new driver.

Is that it?

 

Just a quick update: the size is actually is 100 (Hexadecimal) or 256 (decimal).

 

OK, so changed the PagedPoolSize and my XPS m1530 goes through a constant BSOD. I had to go to SafeMode and changed the registry entry.

I am going to try replacing video driver. Anyone can tell me if the steps I stated above is OK?

 

No it's not. It should be 10000000 (hexidecimal) for a 256Mb pool size. If you entered 256 then that's only 256 bytes, no wonder you kept getting a BSOD.

 

if i'm installing xp on my 1530 can i just put that laptopvideo2go driver in without putting any of the nvidea stuff in?

 

My bad, I was meant to 10000000 because the 0x200000 is not acceptable by WinXP Registry, so I googled further.

 

I am using the newest nvidia drivers from the dell website that just got release a few days ago. Look for winXP video drivers for the M1330 and download those. Thats what I'm using and BioShock runs just fine. Not one single crash. Ever.

To uninstall your old drivers, you don't have to reboot in safe mode. Just go into the device manager and under "display devices" right click on your video card and click uninstall. Then restart. Or depending on your current drivers you just might be able to go into the control panel and click on "add remove programs" and remove it there. Once your computer restarts keep clicking "no" or "cancel" when it prompts you. Then simply click on the .exe file you downloaded from dell.com and the rest is simple.

 

umm if you use the m1330 drivers for your m1530 you are using the 8400m drivers, unless you have an 8400m on your xps1530..... if you use that driver for your 8600m im sure you are missing some functionalities of that vid card.....

 

Gang,

Just a quick update:

I disabled teh AntiVirus and Spy Sweeper, except Symantec SPBBCSvc becaues the service can't be turned off and the problem still occur.

I updated the driver to 169.09 and problem still happen.. worse actually. I am wondering if my install is not proper. The way I did it is by going to safe mode, uninstall, reboot to normal mode, and then install 169.09.

My friend told me to use DriverCleaner, but before I do that, what is your take?

 

Oh, just an explanation how the game crashes:

First, the screen will flicker and the whole game hang while the screen STILL flicker. Then nothing works, not even CTRL-ALT-DEL. So I had to press the power button and hold it until the system shutdown.

 

Anyone have this problem with the XPS M1530? If no one does, then I think this is hardware issue and I need to send it to Dell. But I just want to confirm before I send it back to Dell because it's really pain in the a55 to do that.

 

I must admit my 1530 has been running xp since i got it a good month or so ago.
Its running perfectly i never get any problems so maybe you do have faulty hardware

 

What games were you running and what video driver do you have?

 

Guys,

Just updated to LaptopVideo 169.09 driver for XP and problem still appears.

I uninstalled Norton AntiVirus and use Avast! (less problem based on Google).

Is the 8600M GT have in the XPS M1530 have issues that I am unaware of? Problem I am having is with ALL Steam games, including Half Life 2, Team Fortress.

 

Sounds like overheating to me. Put your game settings all on low and see if it crashes out the same. Also how long are you playing before the problem pops up?

Did it do it before with Vista? How long have you had the laptop?

 

Did you ever change the PagedPoolSise as suggested. This was the same problem as I was getting with HL2 which was fixed by this method. It's also been widely documented in the various HL2/Steam support pages.

 

Yes I did, per suggestion in Post #9.

That's my thought: hardware problem. It happened with Vista too, before I "upgrade" to XP. I just don't know if this is a known overhating issues with Dell laptops.