980M/Optimus issue

Hello

I have received my P170SM-A this week (4710MQ, 980M, 8Go DDR, Seagate Momentus XT 750).

I am running Windows 8.1 and I tried the Nvidia drivers 344.75, 344.65, 324.22 (or the first one supporting the 980M, I can't remember the exact code). I have installed also the chipset driver from Clevo (Chipset driver (9.4.0.1027) but release date 2013/11/8, looks quite old)?


I have tried 3dmark Firestrike and I got a score of... 43! When looking at GPU-Z, it looks like that the 980M is not working (2D clocks and the GPU fan doesn't work).
I have also tried Furmark and I am getting a score of 700 (average 13 FPS) for the 1080p benchmark which looks very low for this sytem. However, in Furmark, the 980M is running at full clocks (and even boost clock) and its temp is lower than 60°C but I can hear the GPU fan.


I have tried changing the energy setting in Windows, forcing the dedicated gpu in all the nvidia control panel options but it doesn't change anything.

SInce this is my first computer with a thing like Optimus, I don't know if I do something wrong, maybe the Chipset driver I installed is too old, or I should install something else ( Intel Management Engine Interface driver maybe?)?


I can also mention that my screen brightness control does not work with the 3 drivers previously mentioned...

I am now looking for some ideas... thank you

 

..try checking your bios first. See if optimus is enabled. Then try uninstalling the nvidia driver completely after rebooting in safe-mode, then reinstalling it. There's a... it's windows and the driver database entries registration. Bunch of ****.

And I don't think the chipset driver is significant in the sense of enabling the switching. This is done via a different set of hardware calls through devices that would be supported for direct addressing anyway. But what might cause issues is an old intel hd driver, and a badly outdated windows version (pre last summer).

So look at those three drivers/updates and the bios before recall.

 

Hello

Thank you for your answer.

I can't see any option related to Optimus in the bios, I assume there is a hidden menu but I don't know you to access?

I have indeed just installed W8.1 but I don't have any updates on it.

 

If it's there, it's in the perpherals->display tab, I think. If it's not, then it's set from factory, and so on.

Since I am very cynical and think very badly of people, I would also have flashed the bios with the official model with the right letters and slashes at the end, just to make sure that setting actually was enabled (since there are several models in the series without an extra graphics card). But unless you want to exhaust all options, that's obviously a lot of work for no reason.

But try rebooting in safe-mode, uninstalling the nvidia driver. And then reinstalling the intel drivers and the nvidia drivers in order.

..booting into "safe-mode" in windows 8 is something like... .. er.. Swipe right side, settings, change PC settings, recovery tab, "advanced", and then hit restart now. When you reboot, you then reboot into an uefi shell of some sort. And this has an option to boot without loading user-space(ish) device drivers, etc.

 

have to ask this
when you received lappy was it pre installed with operating system or did you load your own copy.
also did you get a driver cd with all the latest drivers on it.

the drivers have to be loaded in a certain way or they can conflict with each other. if you do have the driver disc it will open with the order you need to load them.

another thing to check is are you running on high performance or balanced. no idea how you find that out using 8 but on 7 all you need to do is click mouse on the battery on taskbar.

 

Hello

I got the laptop without HDD and I installed everything myself. I already did it for several computers and never had any issue. Windows 8 is genuine.

However, I haven't got any CD driver. As I said I tried to look at the clevo website but most of the available drivers are more than one year old so I don't know if they are still valid for a P170 with a Maxwell GPU.
You can change the energy option just by clicking on the battery on the taskbar in W8 also, but it don't solve my issue.

 

normally suppliers send the drivers cd out with the laptop. try their support and ask for one.
clevo is not the best place to look as they never update their drivers as the lappy's are sold by resellers so thats the best place to look.
here are the drivers from sager NP8278 / P170SM Software Upgrade

 

Yes, you should have been given a driver disc even if you did not buy the machine with an OS. I can confirm that this is standard practice. Where did you get it from?

 

Damn I feel stupid. I ran Windows Update and installed the HD4600 drivers... and everything is now working fine.. I tought it would run normally with the Nvidia drivers...

I did a FireStrike and everything is OK: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4710MQ,Notebook P17SM-A

The screen brightness control is now working, so I can start enjoy it

I bought it at a french clevo reseller (PCW anyware). However, I picked it up at their store and I left them the box, so maybe they forgot to give me the driver..?

 

Haha! ...