Sony Z11 - NVIDIA Optimus

Good stuff. I haven't looked at the INFs really. Just need to make sure to download the Notebook version of the drivers.

These seem to have a whole lot more to them than the old ones.

Lets keep our fingers crossed for the overlay to be gone and for these to work.

 

Broadband at the hotel I'm at isn't very broad. The 250mb download failed twice so tonight is a boner.

 

No worries.. same here on the INF mod. Busy night.

 

Just went to the new drivers download page, and it says at the bottom
:
Update: Sony has joined the Verde program by supporting the following VAIO notebooks: Sony IRX-5300 with NVIDIA GeForce 310M and Sony IRX-5300 with NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M. Other Sony VAIO notebooks are not supported at this time (please contact Sony for driver support).

Now, anybody know what the IRX-5300 laptop is ? any chance of it being the Z, because there aren't many vaios with the 330.

 

The Z1's use the 330M.

Still can't download, tried a few times this morning.

 

They've added nvszf.inf where there is "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A29&SUBSYS_9067104D" for GT330M. Z11 is "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A2B&SUBSYS_905A104D"
At least it should be easy to mod. I am not going to try it though as I am going to travel and want my Z in working condition

There is nvdisp.nvu and NVDisp_HP.nvu but nothing Sony-specific except for nvszf.inf. Perhaps Sony implementation of Optimus is "standard." On the other hand, that could be a new laptop line coming out soon and we may never see Z supported in Optimus. At least, upcoming refresh might bring slightly newer drivers.

One more edit. Apparently, that's for VAIO VPC-F11 series.

 

Nvidia supports non-hybrid GT 330M and 310M Vaio GPU's in F, CW and S series.

 

I managed to get the files downloaded (friggin finally). I have the desktop and laptop ForceWare 257.15 bits.

I'll try some tests if I have time at the airport. I'm on the way home today, so if I dork something up my work won't get interrupted.

I'm pretty keen on closing this one up. It should work.

 

Hmm, following this thread with the utmost interest!

 

I'll be honest, I'm interested in getting this to work but I'm not sure I'll use it.

I don't game on the machine all that often. I've run on the Intel GPU and left the tri-selector on Stamina about 95% of the time.

How efficiently Optimus manages battery life will be the deciding factor if it stays or goes.

 

Having working drivers would be a blessing to everyone who wants to use CUDA or who has some issues with the current driver, be it screen of death in various colors, hangs and improper switching and of course... gamers

 

I just tried modd inf 257.15 from nautis method

Optimus Drivers on the Vaio Z (and other newer Hybrid Graphics notebooks?) - LaptopVideo2Go Forums

After uninstall vaio driver, i managed to install 257.15 with modded inf.

The installer work fine. After install it act like no drivers installed but in device manager it show up Geforce GT 330m with standard vga driver. But i can't open any nvidia programs. It's say that no display connect to the card.

So i install GFX_Vista_Win7_64_15.17.64.2086_PV_Intel and then get blue screen every time to boot...
The text on the blue screen say like it cause from nvdia files.

 

Just did a quick pass following the steps I wrote up in the initial post (the NV*.INF name is indeed different).

The Nvidia installer completes, but Windows wouldn't boot after. It stopped early on in the boot cycle. I let it cook for about 5 minutes and did a hard reboot. I was able to revert back to the Sony drivers by uninstalling everything in safe mode.

Keep in mind that this was quick and dirty. This will require more time.

 

Sorry guys.. haven't had much time to get to the INF. Will do so as soon as I can. There seem to be a lot of little changes in the new INF that could be affecting things. Will try to get on it today when I have time.

 

OK I have uploaded a 64bit Optimus INF for 257.15. The seeings are the same as previous so there still may be delay issues and the sort. May be able to fix the delay with the set downloaded a bit back from Windows Update. Will take me a bit to dissect the appropriate settings.

64bit Optimus INF for 257.15
Best bet would be to remove all other INFs from the 257.15 directory before installing. Make sure that you have the 257.15 Notebook Drivers.

 

Awesome.

I'm back home and will try tomorrow.

 

Hi,

I installed these Drivers. so far it works, but I have 1 thing that is realy strange:

If I restart the device it locks at the "Windows is loading" screen and the fan gets louder and louder.

All other things works well:
Shutdown and turn on again iss realy fast.
Hypernation works.
Standby is fast.

No sign of an bootup delay.

The overlay is still present and is realy anoying.

Greets, KirK

sorry for my bad english.


The Autobrightness is not working anymore. FN-Keys works fine but if i cover the lightsensor the Keyboard light comes up and the display stays at full Brightness.

 

Interesting.

I'm thinking the overlay problem may be a type of copy protection for machines not approved to use Optimus.

If this is compiled into the drivers themselves, we may be borked.

EDIT: Autobrightness is useless, in my opinion. I turn it off.

 

I don't have much doubt that this is indeed the case. Nvidia has a history of doing such a thing. What I am surprised at is that they didn't just disable it fully. One of the biggest reasons I started on this path was to prove that Optimus is capable of running on some Hybrid Graphics notebooks but may have been a conscious effort made to disable it. I don't think Nvidia wants people to know that Optimus is basically a hacked (but better accomplished) version of Hybrid Graphics. They want people to assume what most Hybrid Graphics users assumed after reading reviews which was "I was TOLD Optimus will not work so it won't work".

I believe Optimus could fully work on the Vaio Z, M11x and Asus U#0VT notebooks if enough of an effort was made to get it too. If there is not a setting that will disable the overlay then I am sure it could be hacked (though I wouldn't know where to start nor would I want to).

The larger issue for me is the fact that the Nvidia part doesn't seem to power down properly. I wonder if this is still the case with the 257.15 drivers.

I plan on continuing poking around the drivers to try to get this working. It may take someone much more skilled than I to remove the overlay though.

 

Ok, I just tried the install following the "Nautis Protocol."

1. Download the latest Intel HD drivers: Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Windows 7* 64 and Windows Vista* 64 (zip)
2. Download the Notebook 257.15 drivers: NVIDIA DRIVERS 257.15 BETA
3. Switch the tri-selector to SPEED
4. Uninstall the Nvidia drivers, reboot
5. Install the Intel HD drivers, reboot
6. Extract the Nvidia notebook drivers, delete all INF files in the Display directory. Download Nautis' modified INF (rename from .TXT) and place in the Display directory
7. Install the drivers, reboot

Results:

• Windows boot - fast, issue resolved
• Context menu option - working
• Automatic GPU switching - working
• Graphics overlay - Demo text remains
• Function key brightness - Working

I'm pessimistic we will be able to get the overlay problem resolved, but other than that, everything works.



I'm going to run with these drivers for a while.

 

BTW: I had to force Media Player Classic to use the Nvidia GPU. It defaults to the Intel.

The overlay will not affect the playback of HD YouTube, Zune or iTunes video.

 

Wow, doesn't that mean Optimus is fully working on your Vaio VPC-Z? Or does the Nvidia GF 330M still doesn't power down properly? I can't thank you guys enough for what you are doing. You guys are like the only thing preventing me from kidnapping a bunch of Nvidia employees at gun point and demanding them to write new drivers for my Z. XD

 

Yes, Optimus is working on the Z1.

The overlay is the only major issue.

 

CUDA 3 also works:

Code:

CUDA Device Query (Driver API) statically linked version
There is 1 device supporting CUDA

Device 0: "GeForce GT 330M"
  CUDA Driver Version:                           3.10
  CUDA Capability Major revision number:         1
  CUDA Capability Minor revision number:         2
  Total amount of global memory:                 1034616832 bytes
  Number of multiprocessors:                     6
  Number of cores:                               48
  Total amount of constant memory:               65536 bytes
  Total amount of shared memory per block:       16384 bytes
  Total number of registers available per block: 16384
  Warp size:                                     32
  Maximum number of threads per block:           512
  Maximum sizes of each dimension of a block:    512 x 512 x 64
  Maximum sizes of each dimension of a grid:     65535 x 65535 x 1
  Maximum memory pitch:                          2147483647 bytes
  Texture alignment:                             256 bytes
  Clock rate:                                    1.04 GHz
  Concurrent copy and execution:                 Yes
  Run time limit on kernels:                     Yes
  Integrated:                                    No
  Support host page-locked memory mapping:       Yes
  Compute mode:                                  Default (multiple host threads
can use this device simultaneously)

PASSED

Press ENTER to exit...

(It looks like OpenCL and DirectCompute don't).

 

Thank you very much for your installation detail. ^^

But does the nvidia gpu still alway on or this issuse is resolved too ?

 

Same here. Everything is perfectly working except for the overlay that is still here. I also don't get the "Run with graphics processor" menu when I right click on a application. The optimus context menu is not displayed when right click.

 

We know that Optimus retrieves an application settings list automatically. Maybe there is such a list of 'approved devices' outside the drivers too.
I'll do some kernel driver dissection as soon as I have a working debug setup.

 

Hey Nautis,

So all of this effort has been made to get Optimus working, what about just making this a driver update?

The elder Z's never worked unless you used the hybrid package, but this process seems to get the drivers installed while maintaining function key, er, function.

Thoughts?

 

Yes, I would be ecstatic with just being able to use newer drivers.

 

I'm just thinking the demo overlay words probably can be hex edited out (assuming if someone can find the words in the driver files).

 

Just installed this package myself hehe, and i must say it works great ^_^. Although there is that overlay thingy xD. Been trying to look through quite a few (primarily .dll) files to find the overlay words, but i have been unsuccesful...

Although the overall nvidia menu seem to have less options as the previous one (scaling, color adjustments etc.)

 

It does have one nice feature. You can select if you want Physx to use the CPU or GPU. I don't recall seeing this setting before.

 

Instructions are now on the first page. It would be interesting to also check battery life for the new optimus setup.

 

I've almost got my slow boot problem resolved. I'm going to do some battery life tests.

 

Hmm been busy searching for the overlay issue. Did alot of hex searching through nvidia loaded files and came up with a small list of files which could be relevant somehow;

The two that seem the most intresting;

field: NvCplSetOptimusOverlayRegistry.
file: nvcpl.dll (c windows system32

seems this one has been ''discussed'' already.

field: NvCplForceBkgdWatermark.NvCplDoNotShowMessage
file: nvcpl.dll

a very interesting value, although i can't seem to get it being used ... (at least the way i want to)

Don't know much about hex editing overall but maybe it's of some kind of value xD.

 

you figure this out and I'll buy you a beer, or Coke depending on your age

 

Battery life is not that good.. I get 2 hours battery life with optimus compared to the 4 to 6 hours usually... Not sure if it's a setting problem. On top of that I get 3 random blue screens, but not sure how to reproduce them.

Any feedback from you Zoinks ? Does optimus have the normal behavior on your laptop ? Did you have any issue ?

I'm using my laptop most of the time on power saving mode and fan set to "silent". I can't get the same behavior with optimus. It seems the fan keep on turning fast and the battery life is not good as if I was on "performance mode" all the while.

 

I'm running on a disposable install of Windows to research another issue.

Once I get the problem fixed, I'll run with the "Optimus graffiti" config.

 

Dead end here, couldn't really find anything useful. Tried a bunch of different configs with the register files but can't get that to work.

Tried to extract the data1.cab file at the install to see if there's a file with some more info in it, but nope.

We need to find out which file it loads when launching a ''gpu/3d'' program; but that seems to be a kinda hard xD.

 

After getting an iPad (for my mom), it kinda makes me sad how much work it takes to get a high-end laptop running at its best w/o issues.

Not that it stops me from wanting a Z11, hehe (the reason I'm not getting it is because I don't really _need_ it at this point in time).

 

What does forcibly installing unsupported drivers have to do with the iPAD's ease of use?

 

It doesn't take any work. And it does ALOT more than the ipad, even typing is much faster.
The idea behind the thread is to optimize the Z to our liking.
When you take it out of the box there's no "alot of work" or 'hard work" required.
I can get a lot more done with a 250 dollar netbook than the Ipad. its nice, though/

Apple wants everyone to believe that everything it makes is soo much easier than everything else, when that's not necessarily the case.

 

And they do that by putting you into Apple jail.

 

That jail is reserved for members of Gawker Media's writing staff

 

lol ya, those gawker folks(mainly gizmodo) are permanently on their knees and attached to Job's crotch.

 

Anyone have any progress on being able to install the drivers in a non-Optimus state???

 

I haven't been trying recently.

Maybe this weekend.

 

Would love to see it! Would bribe you with beer!

 

So Dell just refreshed the Alienware M11x with Optimus, it previously had Hybrid Graphics configuration similar to the VPCZ11s. It may be worth taking a look at these new drivers to see if they will work any better on the Z11.

 

Anyone have any updates lately?