Compal IFL90/Sager NP2090 stutters in DOTA.

Hi everyone,
I have used this laptop for almost 1.5 year. Loving the fact that this is a quiet laptop and a nice "glossy"15.4" screen size. The GFX as most of you know, is the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 512MB and the ForceWare version is 156.65. The Driver version is 6.14.11.5665. I have only updated ALL OF MY DRIVERS from the CD that came with it(like Chipset, VGA, and Intel ProSet/Wireless, might be random, but Smart Battery setting Charging at 25%, which is the lowest.) The BIOS ver. is 1.12. I have played COD4, CS1.6, and DOTA.
I know in COD4(Single-Player Mode) it stutters/freezes a little so as CS and DOTA. For DOTA, i can't tell if its whether the stutter is from the GFX or the net since it does not show FPS. I would be really appreciated if i can get some solutions. FYI, my GFX is not over-clocked. I also use the Zalman NC-2000 cooler, which is an awesome product that does a fantastic job of cooling HDD,GPU, and CPU temp. Am I the only one that uses the out-dated BIOS, drivers, these days?
PS: I'm not familiar with Computers. Please help!

 

You can try fraps to check for FPS. You could also update video drivers from nvidia.com or laptopvideo2go.com.

 

Thanks for your response grbac
I will check out Fraps and i will download the driver from laptopvide2go.com
Correct me if am wrong, but the correct way to install driver is to select the driver version from the list and select OS and then download the .INF file and put it into the C:\(NVIDIA Folder?) and also am i be able to upgrade my BIOS from ver.1.12 to 1.18, which is the recent one?

 

When you download the drivers you simply extract the file using winrar/winzip/7zip and put the modded .inf inside that folder overwriting the original.

 

nVidia is finally providing their own laptop video drivers for download.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_drivers.html

Slightly simpler than the modded .inf method needed from laptopvideo2go...

 

@maditude - Yes, but not as good as lv2go or even better DOX enhanced drivers, so far seems like te 185.22 are the best, correct me if I'm wrong

@jdmsaber - sorry for the late response, what arfett said. Plus, yes definitely you should update BIS coz it changes the fan speed regime, the fan kicks in to higher speed at lower temps, reducing the average temps a bit, not too much. I'm now on BIOS 119, you can find it here in NBR, just search for it. So far I don't have any problems with it.

 

Once again, i would like to thank you all for your support.

@arfett-"put the modded .inf inside that folder overwriting the original."
I'm trying to put the .INF file into the NVIDIA directory; however, I cannot find the "NVIDIA" folder.

@grbac-i'm cool about with the late response. Is it possible to upgrade my BIOS ver from 1.12 to 1.19? and when you mentioned the driver ver. 185.22 that is for 8600GT-M right?; i will update my driver ver to that if i can find my NVIDIA folder to put the modded .INF files.

@maditude-thanks, i will check that out too.

 

If you DL driver from lv2go, then you will have to extract it, just click on that .exe driver file. It will extract where you want it to or, by default, in the folder where the .exe already is. It will make a new folder with name of the version of the driver. In thet folder paste the .inf and it will ask to replace the old one. After that you can go inside the folder and to setup.exe. What you are acctualyy doing is just in that .inf file is just your model of mobile graphic card so that the setup can accept. All those drivers are made for desktop graphic cards, so you need to replace the .inf file because your card is not on the list. That is why you could have a bit higher temps with these drivers, but not always. Hope that clears up things a bit.

Now with the BIOS, yes you can go to 119, people say it's buggy but I don't have any problems. If you don't want to experiment, then go to 118.

 

Hi grbac,
I have tried to look for the driver 185.22 under "INF Enhancer" from laptopvideo2go.com and the most recent one they have is 185.20.
I would like to know where did you get your video driver from?

Regarding about the BIOS, did you do it by yourself? Well, I have found threads about upgrading BIOS on the Compal IFL-90 both positive and negatives. To be honest after reading, i get really lost. reading same threads from left and right will even make me confuse and very worried about actually updating it.

I do not know,but some IFL-90 users might experience this; (3) things:
1.) When you turn on your computer the Phoenix Tech screens comes up then it will be blank, with the "blinking" _ or underscore bar. Sometimes, it will just stay at this screen, therefore, it won't move to the Windows XP loading screen with the small loading bar. So, sometimes i would do CTRL + ALT+ DEL or restarting it then it will load fine. Anyone ever face this problem?:confused2:

2.) This is typically, when I opened up Spyware Doctor, or when its running at the background/taskbar that the computer totally freezes/ no response at all and end-up having turning off the computer holding the power button.

3.)Sometimes, you hear the loud "tick" for a second, a noise as if something is getting jammed/stuck.

 

good job for nvidia..

 

Hm...185.22. I know it exists, but somehow it's gone. Some guys have it. Anyway you should try 185.22. Difference is only in support for one game, I don't know which one. Here is the link
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers/xp/185.20

I don't know your OS, so this is all drivers page but the one you want is on top. Choose your OS, DL drivers and then DL the modded inf colored in green. That is the inf that should replace the one in an extracted nvidia folder. I just saw you have XP and changed the link.

Updating BIOS is very simple process. Read this and if you have issues, ask. Put your battery in, before updating. And after updating go to BIOS and disable AHCI, otherwise it won't boot. At least that happened to me.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=288668
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=326927
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=93453


About the other 3 issues, I can't say much. The tick you hear, is more like TONG. It could be that your HDD is dying. That would explain the hang at boot. Maybe someone who is more into tech. and mech. stuff could tell you more.

 

Thanks for your response:
My OS is XP PRO SP2(Planning to upgrade it to SP3, if necessary)
By the way, I cannot find my NVIDIA directory folder, i used "Search" button to search under My Computer,and yet it can't find it
I will take time reading/researching on the BIOS, because i really don't want to kill this laptop.
Once again, thanks for the support.
Currently i have a 2GB RAM from Corsair and I'm thinking of replacing to a 4GB RAM Corsair. About the HDD,I didn't know that it could die out, so i might also replace it with http://www.sagernotebook.com/product.php?pid=61239
For the RAM, if possible, i want to put more than 4GB. Is that even possible
I know that RAM is DIY, does it apply for HDD as well??

PS: How are your guys' 8Series M GPU going? My temp is fine when playing DOTA, which is at high 50's and low 60's. But COD 4 boost the temp up to 80 the max...which i was surprised and i use Zalman-NC2K cooler. In fact, I know that there aren't any recalls yet for Sager/Compal laptops according to the place where i got this IFL-90.

 

Emhh...Sorry it is not maybe nvidia folder, maybe it is named after the driver number so try searching 183.20. But it should be in the folder that you downloaded it, by default.

There is no need for you to upgrade your RAM, 2gb is OK. You could only upgrade to 3gb, so one more gb. It is your OS and chipset that is restricting use of 4gb. OS because it is 32bit and chipset, PM965 because it supports only 4gb. Even if you put 4gb, WinXP will see only 3.25gb.

 

I had stuttering in dota today... i alt tabbed and that fixed it xD

 

grbac- About the HDD, if my HDD is dying then, would you recommend me to replace with a new one with the HDD link i posted? and is it DIY? I'm thinking of replacing the HDD for 2 reasons, 1.) i want more space and 2.) the "tong" sound sometimes, bothers me. I would be happy to hear your suggestions

aan310- ha, really? it might be also the net huh? as if im spiking may be??

 

Well don't take my words for granted, I can't be sure that your HDD is dying. You can test it with some HDD programs like HDTune or anything similar to that. Even then you won't be sure.

The HDD you gave the link is fine. But there are better ones, try finding some with 7200rpm speed and SATA300 support. The size I wouldn't change. I think you can do it yourself if your warranty is not valid anymore.

 

Thanks a lot again
I will check out that program out.
May I ask you why you wouldn't change the (GB) size for the HDD?( I assume is because of price, right?) and yes i have found out some site regarding on the spec's you recommended for the HDD and I found :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...50380 1035507776 1035915133&name=SATA 3.0Gb/s

Does it matter which brand is better than the other brand?
OR
Is it just better to buy an external HDD, which they have like terabytes these days now

 

Sorry bout the misunderstanding, I was saying that I wouldn't change the size that you mentioned, so 320GB should stay. But, one thing , read further.

I would recommend this one. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148374 . AFAIK it is one of the fastest on the market, if I'm wrong, someone please correct me.

I don't know so much about the brands. I did a little search before on the web about it and found out that some are more reliable, some tend to heat more than others and so on. But I forgot what I read, I think that Seagate and Fujitsu are the fastest. But don't take my word. You can google it, just search for HDD test.
External is better, bigger capacity, faster, but it's also not so portable due to it's size. I use it to store data. It's up to you.

 

@grbac I would somewhat disagree with you. I find seagate laptop drives are somewhat noisy and reach higher temps than others. I prefer Hitachi drives only. The 7k320 or the 7k200 is all I would put in my laptop. I had a friend who has a WDD Scorpio and he likes that also.

 

^^^Thanks for correcting me, I said that I might be wrong and out of date.

 

A. Buy it from Zipzoomfly
B. Did you actually confirm that it was the HDD?

 

18x.xx are all freeze drivers, the only drivers that I found without this problem are 179.28, 179.44, 179.48.

Some time driver freezes and clocks are dropping, here's advice that I found on some forum for 3gb+ rigs:

I can confirme that it helped me.

 

oh, i should have mentioned that:
The lv2g drivers don't work right, only the official nvidia ones did xD

 

First of all, thank you all for the suggestions/recommendations/supports!
Adding rep's for all and I appreciate the time that you guys contribute to this threads. Thanks a lot.

Now, i'm in dilemma whether getting 500GB or 320GB lol...This is like quantity vs quality
Yes, i will research on HDD's and I will check out the Seagate vs Hitachi. I have old WD external HDD, that is 120GB and this time i want to actually install HDD by myself, if its DIY.

Splashpants, do you know if they have more than 320 GB for Hitachi? i mean the one you recommended seems not bad at all.

aan- I have not yet checked whether if it's my HDD, but I want more GB on my drives and is Zipzoomfly.com just as same as Newegg.com?

Hey Dirt, My OS is Windows XP PRO SP2 and not Vista
yet, i'm still using the 156.65(Stock driver) ver.

Does the one from the nVidia site has the .exe one? because i cannot find my gfx directory to put my modded .INF files into the folder, so that is why i'm asking you if there is .exe or auto-run type for M-'s.

 

Yes, but they are not greedy scumbags at Zipzoomfly (where they are at newegg)

and yes, go to nvidia's site, then click on notebook drivers under downloads.
it's all set to go, just run like normal, no replacing files

 

Thanks for the info [I will check the site out]
and currently, which Forceware Driver version are you using? is it stable?

 

i am using 179.xx which is what nvidia gave me on the DL page

 

Hi, I assume that you are talking about this version
http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_notebook_winxp_179.48_beta.html
am i correct?

or

Any 179.xx series

 

those are the ones! (the link)

 

aan310- cool! thank you.
Am I suppose to uninstall the nVidia display driver from the
"Add or Remove Programs"?
and install the new display driver after the uninstalling?
The thing is, I heard some people uses Drive sweeper ( i think that is what its called) to remove the driver again after un-installing from the add/remove programs. How would you recommend updating a new driver?

 

Yes, you can do that. I believe there is also a nvidia driver cleaner or something like that. I don't use that, I sometimes don't even uninstall the old driver, just overwrite it, works as well.

 

"driver sweeper"

but yea, just uninstall from as/remove programs, that's enough

 

Thank you so much for your cooperation
I have successfully updated my display driver version from 156.65 to 179.48
Once again, Thanks.