Problems installing GTX980m into P157SM

Hi,

(You can refer to this album for screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/1UJ2YSj )

I have a P157SM running Windows 10 and had been running my GTX780M with NVIDIA 391.35 drivers running stable long term. I inserted a new GTX980M and started my laptop. Everything seemed to be working fine (I was halfway through a benchmark and it was clearly using the new GPU with higher performance numbers), until suddenly everything froze and I had to reboot. I kept having issues, my laptop would often freeze, so I did a clean install of Windows 10.

Since the fresh install:

-Device Manager would initially recognise it as "Microsoft Basic Display Adapter" and then automatically install driver 388.xx in the background. I continued to have issues, so I tried to do a regular (no modded infs) install of 391.35, which seemed to install well enough, but after rebooting I would run into errors again.

-I downloaded DDU to do clean removes of the NVIDIA drivers and to stop Windows automatically installing 388.xx. I have tried installing 391.35 with modded nvcvi.inf file. Before installing the modded driver I would reboot with the "Disable Driver Signature Check" option, and then I installed the driver.

Here are the edited sections of that inf file (the line I added is in bold, I included the whole 13D7 section):
[NVIDIA_Devices.NTamd64.10.0...14310]
….
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.0376.1558% = Section058, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_03761558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.0870.1558% = Section060, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_08701558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.5281.1558% = Section062, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_52811558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.5106.1558% = Section062, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_51061558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.6540.1558% = Section064, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_65401558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.6541.1558% = Section066, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_65411558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.6556.1558% = Section062, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_65561558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.6780.1558% = Section064, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_67801558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.6781.1558% = Section066, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_67811558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.7481.1558% = Section062, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_74811558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.7500.1558% = Section068, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_75001558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.7502.1558% = Section070, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_75021558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.7700.1558% = Section068, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_77001558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.7702.1558% = Section070, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_77021558
.....

[NVIDIA_Devices.NTamd64.10.0]
...
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.0376.1558% = Section057, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_03761558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.0870.1558% = Section059, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_08701558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.5281.1558% = Section061, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_52811558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.5106.1558% = Section061, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_51061558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.6540.1558% = Section063, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_65401558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.6541.1558% = Section065, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_65411558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.6556.1558% = Section061, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_65561558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.6780.1558% = Section063, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_67801558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.6781.1558% = Section065, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_67811558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.7481.1558% = Section061, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_74811558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.7500.1558% = Section067, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_75001558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.7502.1558% = Section069, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_75021558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.7700.1558% = Section067, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_77001558
%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.7702.1558% = Section069, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_77021558


- However, I still run into issues. See picture 2 of the imgur album for what Device Manager reports (and to see that Task Manager does not even recognise the GPU). Picture 4 is one of the blue screens I sometimes get. I have tried reinstalling the drivers (picture 1) with different section numbers but it does not seem to work, I reboot and I still get the same thing as Picture 2.

Does anyone know what the root cause of my problems might be? I am open to the possibility that I did not do everything completely properly. For example, I think sometimes when I tried to installed modded inf drivers testing a new section number, when I installed the driver I may have booted Windows without going through the "Disable Driver Signature Check" boot process (however, it seemed like the driver install itself seemed to work fine, although after the reboot I ran into the above described issues). If anyone could point me in the right direction I'd be grateful. Thank you.

 

I've been downloading the notebook drivers from the official NVIDIA archives and replacing some files according to the J95 page here: https://premamod.wordpress.com/2017/08/15/j95-nvidia-inf/



No matter what I try, after installing drivers and restarting, I open up Device Manager and the GPU is recognised as a GTX 980M but the Device status is reported as "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)".



I have tried multiple driver versions, replacing the nvcvi.inf and setup.cfg with J95s, replacing nvcvi.inf, nv_dispi.inf and setup.cfg with J95s (even though the P157SM Optimus 980M shouldn't require nv_dispi.inf to be replaced). I've fresh installed Windows and tried those again. Nothing seems to work



If anyone could be so kind, could they package up a set of old NVIDIA drivers with the appropriate files already modified so that I could simply run setup.exe and expect it to work? I have already tried so many permutations but maybe it would just settle the question of whether I'm doing something stupidly incorrect or if the correct instructions simply aren't working on my machine.



Is it possible that BIOS and vBIOS or anything like that could be an issue here? I have just the oldest stock BIOS.



I've attached GPU-Z screenshots. The one with the card name as "GTX 980M" is after installing 398.36 drivers but rebooting and Device Manager showing the error. The one with "Microsoft Basic Display Adapter" is after running DDU to clean remove the NVIDIA drivers. Both of them show 0 Mhz for the clocks and Unknown BIOS. Not sure if this information is useful.

 

Ok so after flashing a vBios for the GPU from techpowerup, GPU-Z shows a BIOS version but still 0 values for memory and clocks on the card. Did I receive a faulty card, or would this be resolving by having a different BIOS on my mobo or vBIOS on the gpu?

 

Drivers have to be installed properly to show sensible values.

 

Hi Meaker, Thanks for the info. I guess I have no reason to believe the card I received is faulty then. Do you think it is true that I would need updated BIOS/vBIOS to be able to install a GTX980M into my P157SM?

 

That system does not require any kind of BIOS updates or driver mods to run a 980m.

Error 43 is the typical error code of a hardware failure, often broken solder to the GPU core. What was the source of this "new" 980m? Was it actually a used card?

 

I purchased the card from an eBay seller (who sells these in bulk with a high satisfaction rating), and it did seem to be new to my eyes. It was in a sealed plastic packaging and all elements of the card seemed to be clean. Do you think I should try to get a replacement from them?

 

Yes. The sudden freeze and error 43 after are in line with a defective card.

 

Could have been ultra sonically cleaned or some such but seems like something is up with it.

 

Ok, thanks for the help everyone. After trying so many things to get the drivers installed I agree that it seems like there's an issue with the card itself. I'll ask the seller for a replacement and update you all when I receive it. Cheers!

 

Good luck