New M11x R2, having some trouble, not sure what to do

Please pardon any ignorance. I'm not as savvy as a lot of people.

I just received this system today. One of the first things I did was to download and install Steam and Left 4 Dead 2. I started a game, but it was virtually unplayable due to performance lag. I tried lowering all settings to the bare minimum; still a very low framerate, not really playable. I thought it might be due to an outdated driver, but when I download the latest from NVIDIA, I get the error: "The NVIDIA Setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware setup and will now close," or something along those lines. So, basically, L4D2 is virtually unplayable, I can't update the 335M driver, and I'm not sure what to do.

ALSO: I tried downloading and running the FFXIV benchmark for laughs. I receive the error "The program can't start because d3dx9_41.dll is missing from your computer." So, I go to Microsoft to download the latest DirectX runtime, ran it and received THIS error: "An internal system error occurred. Please refer to DXError.log and DirectX.log in your Windows folder to determine the problem." Again, I'm at a loss as to what I should do.

Any help or advice would be very appreciated. Thanks for reading.

 

update your graphics. go the nvidia site and download the windows 7 nvidia drivers. come back to us. directX should already be installed you don't need to reinstall it and drivers would probably install it automatically

 

I did, but I receive the error that I mentioned when I try to install them.

That's what I thought, but then why is the FFXIV benchmark telling me that it can't find d3dx9_41.dll? Regardless, the DX setup program should still be able to run without a problem, but it doesn't. I'm still at a loss in both cases.

 

Also, when I start to run L4D2, I am warned that my video card doesn't appear in their database, and they list "Intel HD Graphics" as what I am using. It's as if it's not using the 335. If that is truly the case, how do I make the switch?

 

First problem solved somehow. Game's now running smoothly even on high settings. Not sure what I did. And I still don't know why I can't update DirectX. Maybe I'm supposed to have the latest version, but that benchmark is telling me that I don't with that missing .dll business.

 

I've found that doing a clean graphics uninstall often solves a lot of driver installation problems. Try uninstalling the Nvidia driver from control panel, then going into your Nvidia folder and deleting all the files that start with "nv" and reboot. Then install the latest Nvidia driver and see what happens.

 

The R2 has NVIDIA Optimus, correct?

I think Optimus wasn't working properly.

 

it sounds like you are switching between your integrated gpu and the 335m aka optimus. try disabling it or look for a option to switch to your discrete card

 

Go in to the Nvidia control panel and there should be an optimus option. Under that you should then be able to tell it to just use the dedicated graphocs (gt335m) that should solve your problem. An remeber after you have played the game to switch optimus back on so that you will get a decent battery life when not gaming.

 

I would head over to the alienware forum and look in the m11x subforum. Stickied at the top is how to whitelist applications to only use the 335 vid card. That way you don't have to remember to turn optimus on and off.