T520 Optimus Headache

Hi all,

I've been using the T520 in my signature for a good five months. It's done all that I've asked it to do but there is a strange issue I've been having. nVidia's control panel crashes every time I open it. I've tried updating, reinstalling, and have even tried uninstalling, booting into safe mode to wipe the leftover drivers, and reinstalling with the latest drivers.

It doesn't matter which set of driver I use. Neither Lenovo nor nVidia's drivers will cause control panel to work. It will simply load and then crash to desktop in one second. The longest I've got it to work is three seconds. I cannot change my default graphics processor for anything.

The problem has been going on for a few months now. It worked briefly for a month but stopped. I say this is a headache because it wants to use the NVS card to run Acrobat and programs I want to run with the card with the integrated card. According to ThinkVantage, it has to do with nvgames.dll.

Mods, if this belongs in the gaming section, please move it.

Thanks.

 

no idea,, but have tried uninstalling intel graphics card and then reinstalling both drivers?

 

well, if it's consistent then send it back and have the engineers look at it

 

If it helps, the card itself "works" but the software doesn't. Might just call up warranty as the ThinkVantage button seems to be booting into SimpleTap tiles and it did have some nasty POWER STATE FAILURE crashes while sleeping shortly after unboxing.

 

similar issue here
intermittent, though
sometimes, usually on a boot after the notebook's been sitting for a while, NVS fails to start or be recognized at all (right click on desktop menu has no Nvidia Control Panel option). a reboot usually takes care of this.

and sometimes, the display port connector gets hot to touch, skin-burning hot. this also gets taken care of with a reboot

intermittent problem, reinstalling the drivers did not take care of it

soon to receive a new ssd, will try with fresh installation

 

I would probably backup your personal data, wipe the drive, and reinstall the OS, drivers and apps before I'd ship it off to Lenovo support.

This sounds more like a software problem at the moment.

If the machine works properly with a vanilla Windows install or the Lenovo factory image, then I would just be careful in the future on how you customize the machine.

 

There are a couple of things you could try. First, I would download CPUID's Hardware Monitor or GPU-Z to see what temps your video card is getting. Then, I would try using the drivers directly from NVIDIA. To reinstall the drivers on my desktop, I've always used Guru3D's Driver Sweeper with success. I never have issues with driver corruption (AMD drivers too! ) and I don't even do it in Safe Mode. Give that tool a try and see if you have better luck. If you still don't, I would try a reformat - it does sound more like a software issue.

 

In the duplicate thread at forums.lenovo.com I suggested a smarter approach to my slash and burn recommendation below.

Instead of wiping the current drive, remove it and set it aside if you have a spare HDD. Experiment with the spare. So do a factory image restore to the spare and see if works properly.

 

not that your problem is the same as mine but:
I've confirmed that my Nvidia unit has gone bad.
However, mine did not crash back to desktop upon launching the settings, but near-froze, and took at least a minute before releasing the computer. shutdowns would also take a long time, and the notebook sometimes would fail to shutdown.
It happened slowly, intermittently, and there are still times when it boots right, but it's a crap shot.
I'll be sending it back for warranty repair as soon as work permits.

 

I just remembered something (late, yeah I know) but it only happens under the "Manage 3D settings" tab. I've seen two cases of this on the nVidia forums (one was with a Lenovo too) but no solutions.

Hope that helps (share the suffering). haha

 

Ran it on NVS only and it gave a code 43 under device manager. RMA-time?