980m mxm upgrade on Windows 10

Hey all

I already posted this (without success) on the Alienware section and on TechInferno... So I hope I'll finally get lucky here.

I am the owner of a 2013 Alienware 17 (60Hz screen). I bought it with a 880m which had issues (well known, which I won't bother to list here) but did the job for a while. I replaced it with a 980m MXM last month.
At the time I was using Windows 10 and for the life of me I wasn't able to install the Optimus drivers on Windows 10. I wasn't too familiar with modding drivers at the time but upon reverting back to Windows 8.1, I was able to get it working in a couple minutes.
So for a month now I have been using my laptop normally but I actually would really like to get things working on Windows 10 again.
So last night I attempted this again. I thought that now that I am very comfortable modding my own drivers I could debug whatever is preventing the 980m from being installed a bit better. But nope, waste of time.
I guess this might be related to the vbios... (I am using Prema's vbios 1.1.1)
I am 100% positive that I am doing everything right. On W8.1, it takes seconds to get things working. In W10 the best result I got was just get it to show up with a warning sign (disabled) in device manager.

The only people with 980m mxm that managed to get it working on Win10 are all using it in dedicated mode with the 120Hz screen (which disables the integrated gpu).

So I am looking for the needle in the haystack here... Has anyone here been able to accomplish what I just described above? Or do you at least know someone who got things working in Optimus?

Thanks!

 

you know you can run in dedicated mode right: it's called FN+F5. that will lock out the intel GPU.

also, are you sure you disabled driver signing enforcement? you definitely need that disabled when you install modded drivers.

I've done this when i had a 60hz panel.

when you install win 10, you'll be in optimus. install the alienware OSD to make the FN+F5 function available and after a reboot you can switch to dedicated mode and install nvidia drivers (with DSE disabled).

Also there are modded INFs specifically for optimus mode. Just look on techinferno.

If you were in toronto i could walk you through it but oh well.

EDIT: I have always run the laptop in dedicated mode because optimus is an annoyance.

 

If you don't want your screen corrupted on 10, stay in Optimus mode... My strong suggestion to you OP...

 

and make sure that precision x or AB is not installed.

 

Hi guys

Sorry, maybe I didn't make it clear in my original post but I know very well the steps that I need to follow to mod drivers, disable DSE etc...
I would personally like to stick to Optimus which is why I am trying to make it work in Windows 10.
In Windows 8.1 it takes me a minute to mod an official driver from Nvidia and use it for my GPU. In Windows 10, it fails miserably. I follow EXACTLY the same step, aside of course from downloading the W10 version of the official driver.

What I am looking for, is not an alternative to Optimus (which is of course switching to dedicated) but for a solution to this issue and to finally be able to use Optimus in Windows 10.

Edit: Just to describe a bit more the issue I face when I attempt the installation in Windows 10. Disabling DSE and using my modded drivers DOES the job. I do get the warning message during installation that the drivers I am installing are unsigned. It's just after that step that the installer ends with an installation failed notification. If I try installing the driver manually from Device Manager, the 980m DO show up but with a warning icon and it is not activated

 

of course it isn't active because the intel is the dominant GPU for like 80% of the time you use it.

i think you may need to disable the auto install and update of drivers by win 10....or just stick with win 8.1 - you're not missing much.