Best drivers for 8600M GT, Vostro 1500?

Extremely confused...

I currently have 156.69, but I am having problems when playing CoD4: 'The display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and succesfully recovered' which is accompanied by a 30 sec freeze in the game.

Having chatted to Dell, I have been recommended 101.43, but the consensus of people on here is that 174.31 is the best one. Also the most up to date on nVidia's site is 175.19. Help?

 

Hi urbt, most of these drivers are outdated. Dell stops providing drivers for a product after a few months. There is an option though to use the newest drivers provided by nVidia with a modificated configuration file.
You can download the newest version at laptopvideo2go.com , just take a look at the forum.
I am currently using version 177.92 and its just fine. I've got lockups from time to time but this seems to be a Vista problem, it was there with every driver version I've ever tried. In case you experience this, minimize the game and enter it again

Good luck

 

Thanks for your quick reply. Also, I've heard of problems with sleep/hibernate when using LaptopVideo2Go drivers. Which drivers won't give me this problem? 175.19 looks to be the best for me, but I'm worried about sleep/hibernate problems, since the laptop is work first, gaming second and I can't compromise work by having problems. Thanks!

 

there is a 2 month old driver on the dell site 175.97 that is newer than the 174.31 that is to fix that problem you are having.hope this helps

 

Does this work for vostro?
Thanks.

 

well i have a inspiron 1520 which is the samething but just diffrent name and colour to vostro.so yes

 

I am using 175.97 right now and it works great, I have not experience crashes or artifacts in games. As a fyi, you will have to go to the 1520's support page to find the newest driver, for some reason dell didn't put it under its small business machine support pages (vostros).

 

I would recommend you to install the newer version if you plan to use some recent games.

I've got a Vostro 1500 with a T8300, an 8600M GT and didn't notice any problems with sleep/hibernate yet.

If you want, you can try to use my self-made .inf file for 177.92, it contains all the "tweaks" from Dell's recent Vista drivers.

Download the driver, replace the original .inf file with the one form laptopvideo2go or with the one I attached and execute Setup.exe.

Good luck

 

xsmile,
I am just curious, what are some of the tweaks from dell that you included in your inf?

 

Thanks everyone for all their help. I am going to try going down 2shot's route of installing the Inspirion 1520 driver - I am so pissed with Dell that they didn't say Vostro 1500 as well. Just wondering if anyone has had a 'The display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and succesfully recovered' problem with their current drivers.

BTW - I repped everyone for their help.

 

People forget to tell that everygraphic card is different (even if it is the same card in the same notebook). Just try a bunch of drivers and find the best for you!

 

Oops, just installed the 8400m driver... downloading the 8600 atm

 

@urbt: You're welcome!

@Pai: Actually I do not know the meaning of most of them, i tried to synchronize the entries as far as possible.
And maybe "tweaks" was not the right word, settings is better.. The result is - in my opinion - a good one
The only thing I actually changed, is the Powermizer setting. The video card won't downclock if the notebook is plugged in anymore.
It is also pretty much stripped because it doesn't contain any other entries beside the ones necassary for the 8600.

 

Is it a problem if I installed the 8400 ones?

 

They are the same I guess

 

Looks like they are... now for a few hours of gaming to see if the problem is fixed. I LOVE you guys, thanks so much. Even though I've never really contributed much to the forums, you're happy to help. Much better than Dell Support, trying to get me to install drivers from Jan 2007!

 

I've been busy with nVidia drivers for quite some time now during the last weeks and I'm always glad to share my knowledge.
By the way, you might have a look at the Powermizer Switch
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=273276

I guess if you got drivers which were published nearly one year before the game you want to play, there might be some problems ...

 

It is the same driver. NVidia, like ATi, use unified driver architecture, meaning one driver is the same for all graphics cards. As a notebook user we need to supply the information to the driver of what our hardware is. NVidia don't do this for notebooks (except a couple of Dell and Alienware GPU's). That is why we have to use either one from our manufacturers of a modified "*.inf" file.

 

Can u send me the driver for the vostro 1520 u have thru my mail box? if you can please send it to [email protected]. Thanks while I look forward to it.

 

Continue here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=258626

dada74, do not cross post on these forums and read the stickies before you post. Thank you.