DriverHeaven's nVidia Mobility Modder Tool released

Probably should post this in Hardware but I want to make sure all of my Dell buddies see it...

DriverHeaven posted an app that mods a stock NVIDIA driver for use with mobile cards. I haven't had time to test it yet, but if you want to give it a go, check it out...

LINK

This tool is a beta release, so of course you might run into a bug. They have a discussion thread up as well.

For users who are unfamiliar with laptopvideo2go and don't fully understand the process of installing their drivers, this tool might be helpful.

The tool supports the following GPUs (XP and Vista):

NVIDIA GeForce2 Go
NVIDIA GeForce4 410 Go 16M
NVIDIA GeForce4 420 Go
NVIDIA GeForce4 420 Go 32M
NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go 64M
NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go
NVIDIA GeForce4 448 Go
NVIDIA GeForce4 448 Go
NVIDIA GeForce4 460 Go
NVIDIA GeForce4 488 Go
NVIDIA GeForce4 4200 Go
NVIDIA GeForce FX Go 5100
NVIDIA GeForce FX Go 5200 32/64M
NVIDIA GeForce FX Go 5200 64MB
NVIDIA GeForce FX Go 5250/5500
NVIDIA GeForce FX Go 53x0
NVIDIA GeForce FX Go 5600
NVIDIA GeForce FX Go 5650
NVIDIA GeForce FX Go 5700
NVIDIA GeForce FX Go 5700
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6100
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6200
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6400
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600 GT
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600 TE/6200 TE
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7200
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7350
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7450
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 GT
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7700
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GTX
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 SE
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX
NVIDIA GeForce 7000M / nForce 610M
NVIDIA GeForce 7150M / nForce 630M
NVIDIA GeForce 7190M / nForce 650M
NVIDIA GeForce 8400M G
NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GTS
NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT
NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS
NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX
NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GS
NVIDIA GeForce 9300M G
NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M GS
NVIDIA GeForce 9500M G
NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GS
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
NVIDIA GeForce 9650M GT
NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GS
NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GTS
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GT
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTX
NVIDIA Quadro2 Go / Quadro2 MXR/EX
NVIDIA Quadro4 500 GoGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 700 GoGL
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500M
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M
NVIDIA Quadro FX 2500M
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500M
NVIDIA Quadro FX 350M
NVIDIA Quadro FX 360M
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M
NVIDIA Quadro FX 370M
NVIDIA Quadro FX 540M
NVIDIA Quadro FX 560M
NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M
NVIDIA Quadro FX 770M
NVIDIA Quadro FX Go 1000
NVIDIA Quadro FX Go 700
NVIDIA Quadro FX Go1400
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 110M
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120M
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 130M
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 135M
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 210S / NVIDIA GeForce 6150LE
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 300M
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 310M
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 320M
NVIDIA G70GL
NVIDIA G73M-X
NVIDIA G92-ES
NVIDIA MCP67M
NVIDIA MCP79MH
NVIDIA MCP79MX
NVIDIA MCP79SLI
NVIDIA MCP79U
NVIDIA NB9P-GE
NVIDIA NV31GLM Pro
NVIDIA NV31GLM
NVIDIA NV36M Pro
NVIDIA NV36MAP
NVIDIA NV44
NVIDIA NV44GLM
NVIDIA NV44M

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Looks like a fun tool to try out. Will definitely be sure to check this out!

 

I doubt this tool will preserve the driver signing. If the INF files are tampered with, the signing goes away as does blu-ray playback. The Have Disk method preserves the signing and works with any driver.

 

I just used the DriverHeaven tool on the stock 177.83 from NVIDIA. It mods the .inf file. After the tool reported the mod was complete, I ran the NVIDIA setup.exe and drivers installed without issue. Everything seems to be running fine.

One thing I noticed is the driver dynamically downclocks the GPU when idle (saves on heat and power). It ramps up to stock speeds when a 3D app is launched. I'm not used to this as the laptopvideo2go modded .inf doesnt do this. Need to test to be sure its not going to bottleneck performance.

**Testing complete**

So what I found is that the GPU does not upclock to factory specs even when a 3D app is launched. There must be an issue with the tool's modifications to the .inf relating to powermizer. As I play TF2, I don't notice any ill effects. However, being that the GPU should upclock when under load, I decided to revert back to the laptopvideo2go modded inf file. I will keep my eye on the DriverHeaven forum though. If they can fix this glitch, the tool can prove useful for those who are too lazy to deal with laptopvideo2go.

 

AARRRGH!!!

I *totally* forgot about Blu Ray playback issues and video drivers! You mean you have to be using Dell's standard drivers in order for Blu Ray to work?

Would just forcing regular Nvidia reference drivers to install WITHOUT using this tool keep Blu Ray working?

And...what's the advantage of using a tool like this over just installing Nvidia's reference drivers?

 

Yeah, but Dell has plenty of drivers available, just they are scattered all over the place amongst different notebooks.

The advantage of using a tool like this, is you can make tweaks and make your own revision of the driver and use it for your notebook, so you can potentially tweak it so that it performs just as good if not better than the best driver revision available, or tweak it so that its exceptionally good in movie playback, or gaming.

It just gives you a lot of freedom. Though the glitch doesn't seem like a very good thing and the fact it wont allow Blu Ray playback if you use one of these modded drivers is a turnoff for everyone with a Blu Ray drive.

 

If you use the Have Disk method to install/update drivers, you can use any nvidia release, signed or not. It wont affect the signing and blu-ray will work,

 

oOo interesting... so now all we need now is the glitch to be fixed. Its a good first release though. Lots of potential.

 

Excellent! Thanks so much! I guess I just won't worry about it and assume I can install Nvidia's reference drivers okay.

Any idea if you can do the same thing with ATi's drivers? I've only tried it before with Nvidia's (on a Macbook Pro-and it seems to work flawlessly. The drivers even still knew they were on a mobile part!)

 

Not sure about ATi. I know the Nvidia drivers are monolithic and support most all of the Nvidia cards out there sans say the 5200 and older. The Nvidia linux drivers are the same way. One driver to rule them all.

 

What glitch?

 

Actually I think they go back a lot further than that. Not sure if the TNT series are still supported, but unless they've recently removed support, all the Geforce cards are covered even!

 

Nvidia started to split out older cards on Linux awhile back. Most recently I have been getting warning about my 5200 not being supported on the latest nvidia linux build. Nvidia has stated in the past that the linux drivers would mirror the windows drivers.

 

The one BatBoy refers to: