Sending it back

I give up, this is stupid. I cant even get the drivers from Nvidia's website to install, says hardware not found. Powermizer is ruining any chance this laptop has of gaming.

Screen is pretty but thats it, **** this thing its going back.

This is really disappointing.

 

Most Nvidia forceware drivers won't install on mobile GPU's anyway, you're better off using a modded driver from laptopvideo2go. Apologies if you've already tried this.

 

No driver will install, I downloaded regular drivers from Nvidia.com and they failed to install.

 

Nvidia's drivers USUALLY WILL NOT INSTALL ON A DELL. That's what Jake just said. Try drivers from laptopvideo2go, install via device manager.

 

download them from dells website

 

I tried 171.21, 169.28, 175.80 (crashes), 167 wont install at all. Modded INFs on all of them from laptopvideo2go, all say no compatible hardware found.

Im downloading Dells driver, and if I cant install other drivers again after I install this, its going back tomorrow. I'll look into some Sager laptops, or Asus.

 

hmm what is your processor speed?

 

T8300, 2.4ghz


Why?

 

idk what the case is with nvidia, but with the intel stuff (1525 in particular), dell uses different drivers than the ones posted on the intel site. how to install the new drivers from is to update the driver in the device manager.

 

That sucks. Did you try calling tech support?

 

I'm a little confused here...

Dell doesnt provide you with the drivers?

What cant you get on there? Why do you need it on there? What exactly does this prohibit you from doing with your laptop?

Is your notebook malfunctioning or is this a beef with design/implementation?

 

I got the original dell drivers back in, battery not in. Guess what? Powermizer wont up the clocks past 168/100 when I try to play a game. **** this.

 

What was so wrong with the drivers already pre-installed on the notebook when you got it? Why did you have to upgrade them? Now, you probably have a mess of leftover drivers all over the place. Recommend running Driver cleaner pro, CCcleaner, then reinstalling the Dell stock drivers.

Also, for the Modded inf's.. They all work well. You probably are not coying them in the right folder when you're trying to install.

 

reformat laptop, reinstall vista and start again, others have gotten good 3d marks, thus i'm sure you just have the wrong driver still installed lingering somewhere causing all this difficulty

 

Sounds like he is trying to overclock the videocard and the drivers dell ships will not allow him to edit it. IMO, no laptop, unless its a dedicated video gaming machine, should have any of its components overclocked. Its not like a desktop where you can up the cooling to compensate for excess heat. If you want to game, get a desktop.

 

well it sounds like this article is right on lol

http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/03/95-percent-of-all-returned-gadgets-still-work-americans-dont-r/

 

Really you don't NEED to overclock it. I wouldn't call that an issue. Driver installation.. well.. thats a issue.

Calling Dell tech support is useless. What they will tell you is to reformant, reinstall OS when there is always a better option. Its all scripted. They don't actually know anything from my experiences.

Regardless of the case, clearly Dell has some problems with Quality Check...

 

Asus? I have to admit that it'd be ironic if you ended up buying an Asus.

Seriously though, sorry about your troubles. I'm not clear what started your mess (perhaps that was another thread) but at this point, why not just do a system restore back to the stock Dell image and start over? You could also do a clean Vista install, but since there may be some question as to an actual hardware problem, I'd suggest the standard Dell restore for testing purposes since that's a "known good" set of drivers and software. If the system is still acting up with Dell's stock image, then have them swap it our for you.

I know it's frustrating, but it really is a sweet notebook when it's working as it should.

 

I completely agree with you fountainhead, especially with the last statement. My replacements supposed to arrive at my door today despite no tracking info available... but if its not perfect and I have to return both...

I MIGHT consider... an ASUS.... or just end up waiting till Montevina comes out and just buy the next refresh, or maybe who knows LED 1680 display?

 

Heh. If a 1680 LED display shows up as an option in the next 16 days, I might just decide that my Samsung display is crap after all.

 

No offense Lucanesti. But this is 100% user error. I am sure your laptop is 100% fine.

According to your other thread, PowerMizer would kick on, and then you would jack up the clocks using Ntune. You do know, that 169/100 is a 2d setting correct? And if I remember right, Ntune only gives the option to adjust the 3d setting. Where as Ati Tool and RivaTuner (fyi if you OC using Rivatuner it might report jacked up clocks if you go over 520mhz on the core, but it does set the clocks correctly), allows for 2d/low power 3d/and standard 3d adjustments. Which you should never adjust the 2d or low power 3d anyways.

Of course the drivers off of Nvidia's website will not install. That is why there is Laptopvideo2go.com , if they did install off of Nvidia's website there would really be no reason to have a laptopvideo2go.com now would there?
To use a modified INF from laptopvideo2go.com (although I do suggest using a "original inf" from the "original inf" folder that is in most of the newer drivers, and you would use the inf named nvdm.inf). All you do is download the modified .inf (or the other one I mentioned), and put it in the folder where the driver files are that you extracted. If it prompts you to replace an existing inf, do it. If not then delete the existing inf that was in the driver folder when you first extract it.

You can also do this to use the 174.31's from dell that will install without any modification (I did find that the 174.31's are good, but do not perform the best with TF2). Go to Dell's website, and under support where you can pick the model of your computer. Choose a Inspiron 1720, on that page select your OS (Vista I assume), and download the Nvidia drivers under the Video Tree. Those are the 174.31's.

Also I will ASSUME you are not properly cleaning out your installed drivers every time you try new ones. The proper way to do it, is under Add/Remove Programs uninstall the Nvidia Drivers. Then reboot and boot into safe mode, and run a program called Driver Sweeper (just google it), and select Nvidia Display Drivers (not chipset), and run it. Then reboot back into standard, and reinstall the new driver. Not cleaning the old drivers this way could be part of your issue.

And my last question to you is, were you a Mac user?

 

He probably has the 174.31 drivers on his hard drive anyway. I received my M1530 last week, and it had 174.31 already installed. (Dated 2/22/08). In addition, there is a "Drivers" folder in the root of C, and the Video Drivers folder has the install files for 174.31.

If this is the driver that is being shipped on new M1530's, I wonder why it's not the driver available for download on Dell's support site?

 

Have you tried the drivers from dell.com? Im using a release from 1/11/2008 and they work awesome.

edit: scratch that Im using XP thats why mine are newer it seems.

 

Which is it?