8710w with quadro 1600M SolidWorks Crashes and dual monitor question

I recently got the HP Compaq 8710w which came with the Quadro FX1600M (wanted the 3500M) and have been having trouble with Solid Works crashes and display ghosting as well as difficulties with having the dual display (laptop disp + big lcd - that helps in multi-tasking).

The driver that came on the machine (and did work the dual monitor) would not allow graphics to display in SWorks (unless you drag mouse over image, where you would get funky display).

Loading a driver from nVidia site (cert partners.. SWorks) got an older driver that allowed graphics to display, but would crash when loading some (not all) part files. BTW: files load ok on a nearby desktop with no crash. Dual display is not working either.

When looking at Solid Works site, it shows many compatible cards, but none in the mobile type.

Any suggestions to help optimize the drivers to get it all nice? Would it have been better with the 3500M?

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

-R

 

No, it would not have been better to get a 3500M. The card is not the problem, it is the graphical display driver.
From your post, it seems that you are using drivers which came with the laptop, or ones from nVidia's website.
I recommend going to laptopvideo2go's website.
They have new and updated drivers, which will allow you to get the most out of your graphics card.
Their drivers are basically modified an enhanced with performance tuned INF's.

What operating system do you have?
You can go to their website, and then click on the operating system you have.
Then you have to look through the different nvidia drivers and find the most recent one which supports your graphics card. It is a tedious process, but you should be able to find the appropriate driver in like 10 minutes.

Link to their site:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers


After you install the drivers, you may want to go into the nvidia control panel and tune your card so that the antialiasing is high, and the zbuffer and such is large.

K-TRON

 

Thank you for the reply, K-Tron!

The OS is XP 32 (machine was a 64 type, but IT dumbs them down).

IT sent me to nVidia site or HP for driver.

Solid Works has certified drivers at nVidia, which generally are old they don't recommend non-certified.

I wonder if anyone has run into this with SW and the dual monitor issue. I worry that I'll be trying many drivers and waiting to see how long before crashing.

I wonder how helpful Solid Works support will be on this.

Programs I run mainly are: Solid Works (cosmo works, pdm works, etc.works), Geomagic, UG, and Officey stuff (outlook, excel, word, project)

 

Here is the latest driver for the fx1600m for xp 32bit.
I use the same driver with my fx2500m and I run maya/inventor/rhino/autocad without any problems. I do not use solidworks, but I would imagine that it would work fine with this driver.

My brother runs solidworks on his intel integrated graphics, with the stock dell driver, and he does not have problems with the program. I do not think that you need certified drivers to use the program.

Here is a link to the latest driver: (156.80)
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=16078

Just click on the boldface driver link in the top left corner of the window and you can download the driver.
Make sure to uninstall your current nvidia driver, so that the new one will be used.

The drivers from nvidia's site do not actually work most of the time, this is why most people get their drivers from a different site, which performance tunes them.

I hope this driver works for you

K-TRON

 

Thank you much for your advice here. I think it may work out well.

I got the driver in and followed the inf steps. The dual monitor works well now and Solid Works seems OK, except for crashing when loading 1 drawing file (it doesn't crash other machines). I also loaded a bunch of other drawings and models (many at once, even), without crashing.

I'm going to leave it alone for a bit and do some solids modeling to see how it holds up.

Would the 3500M have been a stronger card? They're both 512MB, but the 3500M adds about 600USD to the price tag. If need be, is the card in the 8710w changeable and would the 3500M fit?

 

If you are having driver problems still, I would go into the nvidia control panel and change a few settings, so that you can maximize the performance of your graphics card.
You will want to enable all open gl capabilities which your card has.

The 3500M would be a stronger card, but in my opinion it is not worth the extra money. I do not think the 8710w has an upgradeable graphics card. I am pretty sure that a different motherboard is used with the fx3500m.

K-TRON

 

I know for a fact that it's possible to get the 8710w with a 3600m, if that's what your referring to with the 3500m.... the 8710 is pricey, esp with a decent hard drive w/ 4gb ram and the t9300

there's a weird numbering with the quadro's

the only one's I really know are the fx1600m and the fx3600m the 3600m is equiv. to a geforce 8800 gts, which is almost double the 1600m,

in my opinion very worth it, i just wish clevo would come out with capatabilities for the

as their systems are hands down the most powerful on the laptop market (quad core q9550, 3 hard drives, poss. of SLI dual 8800 gtx, etc... or hopefully soon the 3600m...like before late july)