Inspiron 1520 Drivers

1520 owners, post your OS, graphics card and what drivers you have tried and which ones you are currently using. My laptop specs are in my signature. Here is a guide for installing drivers for beginners:

163.16 Instant BSOD

158.45 Stable-ish; allow overclocking; games still crashed

162.22 Frequent Crashing; Considerable increase in FPS in F.E.A.R.

101.43 Frequent crashing; games skipped

163.14 No crashing; improved FPS in F.E.A.R. and CnC3; Very Stable; No crashes yet

162.18 Fastest drivers tested; No crashes; Restored several features such as nVidia Control Panel, improved performance in games

163.44 Very stable; increased performance; Retained nVidia Control Panel; newest drivers; a keeper

 

good idea. could certainly help people out when they get their 1520's. i'm hoping to get mine soon so i'll keep this bookmarked.

 

So far, I have only noticed one problem with 163.14, which I don't mind that much because I noticed a considerable amount of stability and improved performance than most other drivers.

In CnC3, the shadows or shaders seem to....flash on screen....if you stay in a certain spot. It is very weird. But it's easily fixed....you just move to another location and then back...and it's gone.

EDIT: I think that's actually normal. I just didn't notice it before.

 

Ok, after much use of the 163.14 drivers, I have concluded that for now, they are the best available Vista 32-Bit drivers, at least for my laptop. Other people; post your own experiences so others can see which ones allow overclocking and which ones are stable etc.

 

Can you tell me what your settings are for C&C 3? (video ones)

 

You mean the graphics settings?

 

when will we get the vista sp1 ... so many bugs and we definitely need stable drivers for the 8600m gt!!!!

can anyone adjust the image sharpening on their Nvidia control panel?

 

all rite..
i had 101.43 initially-low fps frequent crashes.
158.45- better but still inconsistent frame rates...even on fifa-07 and nfs-mw

 

for those who are interested in the vista sp1(beta version), check this out

http://www.vistasp1.net/

EDIT: also, lookout for an xp sp3 beta in the same site.

 

Try 163.14. And no, I couldn't get image sharpening working.

Try 163.14 if you crashed a lot with those drivers. I have been using it for about 3 days of frequent gaming with 0 crashes.

Thanks. Anyone know about those Performance Patches for Vista or something?

 

Where did you download your 163.14 drivers from? I got mine from laptopvideo2go and they are the worst ive tried. Both GRAW 2 and test drive unlimited crash everytime and i am getting like 15fps in nfs carbon with minimum setting and 640*480 resolution.

 

Wow nice. Can you take an in-game screenshot of something big? (explosion or something interesting)

 

That is VERY weird. I am really with my 163.14 drivers and I downloaded them and the modded INF directly from laptopvideo2go. I made sure with RivaTuner....which shows 163.14 as my drivers.

Make sure that you uninstall the previous drivers, as that may cause problems with the new ones by leaving files behind. Also, make sure you restart your computer immediately after installing the new drivers.

Just check my sig for the link to the Official VGST.

 

what do you guys think of the 165.01 drivers? they make my dell run just as well as the sager 2090 or whatever its called.vthey gave me a 4 fps increase over the 163.11 drivers.

 

I'm using 163.16 on Vista 32-bit and I'm having no problems so far...

 

I have a quistion guys,what the different between the drivers that came with my Dell 1520 and the 164.13 drivers in laptop2 go .com ? I mean If I stick with the dell drivers that came with my laptop,is that means decrease performance?

 

dell drivers are super slow for me but very stable. 163.14 has crashed in NFS Most Wanted, but everything else is better

 

It doesn't necessarily mean decreased performance, but if you update your drivers, you will get more performance out of certain games. I noticed that drivers really affect F.E.A.R. It's up to you whether you find it too slow or you think it's fine to leave it stock.

Yeah, I noticed they were stable, too. However, I like the increased performance of the newer drivers and 163.14 doesn't crash so...

 

is it better to switch back to xp in order to avoid crashes and enhance performance?

 

To avoid crashes then no just find the right drivers try the ones op recomeds.
As far as performance goes (Im quessing in games) then XP is the way to go right now.

 

Yes yes....definitely if you have the choice/opportunity....you should "downgrade" to XP. I feel funny using the word downgrade, but it's the appropriate word.

You WON'T experience crashes like these if you are not using Vista. My 6 year old PC never even crashes....haha. XP Home Edition

I recommend you install XP Professional if you have the opportunity. Otherwise, in time, Vista will get better support. As of now, XP is the right OS for gamers.

 

Now to get back on track....
I am on Vista 32-Bit, 256MB 8600M GT GDDR2
Driver 3d Mark 06 Score
stock 3264
162.18 3328
163.14 2383(Yeah, not gonna happen)

The attachments are in order
I'll also update once I try more drivers

Update: OMG 163.15 got a 1522 and 163.16 wasn't even able to finish the test (crashed)

 

Is that means driver 162.18 is the best for 1520 / 8600GT Laptops ?

 

Yep, very stable in stalker and big improvement in 3d mark scores. A couple of posters on the laptopvideo2go sid it was the fastest yet, but not overclockable. One other downside to it is that it doesn't have a setup file and u'll have to install it through device manager.

 

Oh ok But how I can do that? Thanks for your help

 

On the site there's a guide next to the driver download, but basically just extract the file, go to device manager, click on the display driver, update driver, file from disk (second option), have disk, click on the inf file in the extracted folder.

 

1. Right-click Computer and go to Properties.
2. Click on Device Manager and hit Continue if prompted.
3. In the Device Manager window, go to Display Adapters and double click on your video card.
4. Go to the Drivers tab.
5. Click Uninstall to get rid of the previous drivers.
6. After that, click on Update Driver.
7. Click on Browse my computer for driver software and then click on Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.
8. Now click Have Disk and browse to where you have the downloaded drivers with the replaced INF file inside of it. Select the inf in the browser and hit Open and then Ok.
9. Click ok and let the drivers install. After it is done, reboot your computer.

 

hmm, I got a 2893 in vista with 163.14, at a higher resolution too (1280x1024)
I've heard people getting ~3200 at that resolution before, but I don't know which drivers they were using.

 

I will def give the 162.18 drivers a try. I'll let you guys know what happens.

 

Really?!?!

Right now I'm running 163.16 on Vista 32-bit, and so far so good, but I've only tried CS 1.6, which I get a constant 100 fps on.

I think I might try and run 3dmark06 later tonight.

 

anyone know what kind of settings/performance we could expect to get on bioshock? i'm looking forward to playing that.

 

@bezekiel
They were prob using the 162.18 they r the fastest out there. It is even mentioned in the gen disc. 8600m thread, first post, in the graphics forum.

@ilmatic
go ahead man ull won't regret it.

@larson
Yeah u should download the 3d mark 06, but it takes awhile to test. The thing is 3d mark test at diff. resolutions for me on 162.18 it tested at 1200x800 while on the newer ones it tested at a weird 1280x854 (which might be a performance hit) I have the free version and cann't change the settings.

@blahboy
Boishock should play at leat on med. but its all speculation since itll be our first dx10 game.

 

My Inspiron 1520 should be arriving soon. Will the DVD with all the drivers be more-or-less up-to-date with the latest drivers available off the Dell website?

I'm planning to do a clean install of Windows Vista when I receive mine.

 

Im not 100% sure, but they should be since it hasn't been a long time since release. Dell doesn't update very often, but in any case after u reformat and load the dvd w/ the drivers, go online and see if u have the latest or use device manager to seach online.

 

I've had a long battle with finding just the right drivers, here is my exp.

7200RPM HDD
2GB RAM
8600MGT
XP Pro 32-bit with SP2

>16x.xx's: I've tried like 5 of these, can't even remember which ones. Worked well, but screen did not come on after Standby and GPU IS ALWAYS UNDERCLOCKED when booted on battery and not AC power. Even if game demands more performance. This is an issue with the newest drivers.
>101.xx's: I've tried like like 5 of these as well. Dell gives you the 101.28's on their site, which work well, but like the rest of the 10x.xx series, cause random graphics glitches in games--I didn't get crashes, but my Source engine games rendered everything in the distance as a white glimmer.
>158.xx's: Since they are in between the 100 and 160 series', they tend to have the problems of either, or both. The only set that I have found that avoids all the problems above and has given me perfectly stable performance in games, extended use, etc. are the *158.22's*. I recommend them to anyone using XP Pro x86.

 

WowoWoWoW.....162.18 is definitely really good. It restored the nVidia Control Panel along with all the features and increased performance in my games. Nice.

 

Really? Any bugs?

 

The only problem with 162.18, is that they slow down ur computer on boot up and running apps in general, but its a decent trade off for the modest increase in games.

 

how much slower exactly?

 

How would a video card driver do this?

 

yea everything about that driver seemed amazing, but the "slow down your computer on boot up and running apps in general" sorta worries me.

 

....If anything, my laptop booted faster and my apps ran fine..

162.18 is fine

 

awesome. I better tell my friend (a fellow 1520 owner) that this is the driver to use.

 

Definitely should.

 

So 162.18 is great, without any of the app or startup slowdowns? Is there real confirmation on this?

 

The slow down happened to me and a couple of other guys in the graphics forum http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=143103&page=12had the same problem. The driver some how hogs more recources, but gameplay has marginally improved

 

I'm not sure 162.18 is so great, i experienced many weird crashes with these drivers (black screen during 3-4 seconds and a yellow triangle in the bottom right hand corner).

 

For those of you wondering about XP performance I just got a 3DMark06 score of 3491 3dmarks at 1280 x 800. I used the great guide on this website to install XP clean (slipstreamed disk with fast SATA drivers and all other drivers). The only things not working with the Xp install are the modem (havn't found drivers yet) the little net detection switch on the side, and hibernate does not work properly. I havn't given these minor annoyances much attention yet as I'm sure a workaround will be discovered soon enough. For the hibernate thing I just selected no action when screen is closed. If anyone want FPS in game leme know as I own most current games and can play them all. The one I was most impressed with is MSFSX at 20 FPS with setting in the med to high area! Note that SP1 patch for flghtsim X helps a lot. Also I get 470fps in quake 3 lol. I liked Vista but it gave me slight hiccups in Stalker and seemed to be doing something in the background all of the time. The amount of processes in the background for Vista was ridiculous. I am setting at 24 right now with XP Pro.

 

What about 163.11??
and 165.01??
can anyone post 3Dmark up please??

 

seems like there are new drivers out. they are made to improve bioshock (it says it on the site lol) and overall i read that they improve everything basically. anyone here try them out?