Sony S580 Problems with Counterstrike

So I've gone through three S570 notebooks and now the Sony S580. All four notebooks had the Nvidia 6400 video card. On all notesbooks when I load CS I get a blue screen with the nv4_disp.dll error. I'm fairly surprised that nobody has posted about this problem so if anyone has this same issue or has actually gotten counterstrike to work on a 6400 card please let me know.

I tried changing my drivers from laptopvideo2go.com but that didn't seem to help.

 

Hi there,

I assume you mean Counter Strike Source? I have the same problem too on my s4xp (2GHz, 6200). The same problem with HL2. The problem goes away with the official sony driver for the video but that is way old at 7.0.8.7.

Interestingly, it was working fine about 6 weeks ago on a version of the driver from laptopvideo2go (can't remember which version.) I suspect it has something to do with an update to Source that has caused the problem.

 

I've tried running the HL2 demo on my s580 w/ 6400. I'd always get flashed the blue screen of death then the computer would restart. It's probably the same problem you two are having. I haven't touched the drivers. The Sony support website doesn't seem to have any updated drivers. Not sure where else you'd be able to find them for the 6400

 

Thanks for the replies guys. At least now I know it's not just me.

Fongbeast, yeah I meant counter strike source. I was thinking maybe the 6200 didn't have this problem but looks like it does. When you say the problem goes away with the official driver, you mean the one that came with your system right? As foolthrottle said, on my s580 with the stock sony video drivers I get the blue screen issue. This was also true with the S570s.

Foolthrottle, yeah we all have the same problem. Essentially it's just a blue screen of death. There is some boot menu you can get into that will allow you to choose whether or not your computer automatically reboots when the system fails (ie blue screen). This is the reason why it just reboots immediately. I changed that setting before and took a look at the blue screen. The error it gives is nv4_disp.dll.

I've started a thread with the guys on laptopvideotogo.com regarding the issue. http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8049

Hopefully we can get this working.

 

Hi slidahz,

On vaio-link.com, there is an updated version of the display driver for the s4xp. The version is 7.0.8.7 and this version of the driver worked with CSS, well it did the last time I tried which was about 3 weeks ago. The driver is pretty slow though, I get about 400 points less on 3dmark2003 than compared to my current version which is 78.01.

Hopefully we will get a solution, I was pleasantly surprised at how well it ran on my laptop (1024x768 res.) Very playable.

 

Thanks fongbeast.

So I downloaded 3dmark05 to run some tests so I can at least get an idea of how well these different drivers perform and hopefully find one that works. However, I'm getting horrible scores around 1803. This was on 7.7.7.7 (from laptopvideo2go.com)and 7.7.4.2 (what came with the notebook). What kind of scores are you guys getting and any idea why my scores are so low? Thanks.

 

Hi slidahz,

I don't have access to 3dmark05, but the scores for my laptop for 3dmark03 is approximately 3000. This is with driver 78.01 and the gpu overclocked (core 400MHz, mem 691MHz).

Worth checking the "power profile" you have selected and that you are running of AC power. Vaio Power Management slows down the cpu and gpu depending on the power profile. Check that they are set to the fastest possible when running the tests. I believe the options for the gpu are titled Power Saving Mode in the Vaio Power Management tab of the power options in control panel. I think this is the same as the Powermizer option in the nvidia driver control panel.

 

Hi,
I have the same prob. on my s5xp, has changing the drivers to the older version helped?
Can i install the 7.0.8.7 on my s5, as it has the 6400 Card and not the 6200?

thx

 

First of all I will thank you guys for your comments. They helped me a bit further, but didn't solve this problem finally. I bought the VAIO VGN-S5 HP/B with the 6400go/TC. Half-life runs great, but everytime launching CS.S it crashes with the same "beloved" bluescreen. I tryed the 77.77 version and also the new 82.10 but nothing helped. P L E A S E help again...

Greeting from Cologne (Germany)
Johannes

 

Hello all,

Sorry I've been quite busy and I have not had a chance to play around with the drivers much. I did try 77.77 though and that did not fix the issue with the blue screen. I think this problem seems to be consistent across the 6200 card and the 6400 card on the Vaio S5xx series.

I just checked the thread i started at laptopvideo2go.com (link in my earlier post) and fortunately someone has found a link that supposedly resolves the issue we are having.

http://www.forumplanet.com/counterstrike/topic.asp?fid=8452&tid=1766149

" you just can´t start in in fullscreen mode...so go into steam...then change the launch properties from counter strike source to -console -window and it will start in window mode...let it load and when you´re into the game you can change to fullscreen and it will work! a little circumstantially but it works."

I haven't tried this yet, but I hope this helps everyone out.

Good luck and let us know if you get it working.

 

Hey all,

I'm happy to report that the above solution works!

Here are some more detailed directions:
-Go to Programs > Valve > Steam > Steam
-You should see three tabs: Store, My Games, and Tools. Click on My Games.
-Right-click on "Counter-Strike: Source" and choose "Properties"
-Click "Set Launch Options"
-In the line provided type "-console -window" without quotes.
-Now launch CS and you are good to go!

To get back into full screen:
-On the main server page click on Options
-Click on "Video" tab
-Change "Display Mode" to "Full screen"

By the way, to make the console go away just hit the tilda key (~).

I hope this works for everybody!

 

Hi All, after all I've found another way to go. Here it is:

You have to delete all files from "Windows>Drivers>Video" that begin with "nv". Then you got to delete the "nv4_disp.dll" from your "sytem32". then you go into your hardwaremanager and uninstall the graphics card. Then your install the following driver: "XTreme-G MobileForce Drivers" found at: http://www.hwupgrade.it/news/software/15871.html or at http://downloads.guru3d.com.
But it i important that you first delete all the old crap of drivers that were on your system before, and then perform the new driver installation. The installation you shuold perform how it is well described by BILL from laptopvideo2go.com in the replies above!

Then finally you should have done it! (with a little more work than slidahz describerd!-)

Greetz
JoH
[email protected]

 

I can confirm this, I had posted a eSupport query to Sony and the answer came today with the same solution as mentioned by slidahz. So great to see it working!! Played around with the settings a bit and it's still playable with everything on "high" and 4x antialiasing.. not bad!!

 

Good to hear that it's working. I'm quite surprised Sony had a solution since when I asked them a month ago they had no clue.

Just wanted to add that when changing CS back to full screen,a resolution of 1280x768 and aspect ratio of widescreen 16:10 work well for me.

Happy gaming!

 

Well I had asked them almost two weeks ago and they reply just when a solution is posted so it seems they might of had the same source of information as you

Unfortunately they couldn't tell me when or if a driver update for the graphics card is coming

 

Has anybody had experience using the "XTreme-G MobileForce Drivers"? What exactly has been changed, is there a noticeable higher performance?

 

Great to hear that solutions have been found. I'm curious what kind of impact those alternative drivers have on its performance though. I wouldn't have time to mess around with this kind of thing. Keep up the good work.