VGN-Z11MNB: Stamina Speed Switch dead?

Hello guys,

i've got a problem concerning my vaio z11mnb. In march in decided to interchange ma hard disk with a intel x25m ssd. Therefore I had to dismantle the laptop as a repair manual i found online told me... It was no problem, all things went fine and i could install windows 7 x64 without trouble.
The stamina/speed switch did also work.

Several month passed and as most vaio users I did not use the stamina/speed switch frequently, rarely is the better word!
A few ago i suddenly notice that there was no green light near the switch which normally shows the current status. No matter what direction i put the switch, the leds stay off
The device manager tells me that die Nvidia 9300GS was deactivated, when i active the device windows says it cannot load the driver?!

What could be the problem? As i googled some source mentioned a sudden death of these graphic card generation? Do you know anything?

Thanks!

Sanyo

 

Did you try to reinstall GPU drivers?

edit: First I would try to reinstall GPU drivers. If it doesn't help, than Vaio Event service.

 

Thanks I did help, perhaps i had choosen the wrong drivers as i tried this last time...
Can i use any Nvidia driver or must they support the stamina-speed switch?

 

Glad it helped. Gotta be special driver...either from Sony, or here on NBR from Nautis (in that case you need to run your machine in Test mode though, if you're on x64 system).

 

Actually, I recall reading somewhere that provided you set your switch to speed (and reboot), and if you install an nVidia driver from nVidia themselves, you'll be able to use just the 9300GM.

Though as said previously, you'll lose the graphics switch functionality (hence the Intel card) as the graphics will be stuck on the 9300. Kinda pointless though considering the Z's key feature is hybrid graphics...

In regards to the OP's worries with bad nVidia cards.
The sudden death issues are prevalent only on the 8k cards. There were a FEW late model 7k GPUs suffering that issue too. The 9k series however are relatively immune to the sudden death. I say relatively as the issue can happen to any chip component consistantly exposed to hot and cool temperatures; nVidia simply used a low-quality solder which cracked quickly / easily when repeatedly heated and cooled. The cards in question failed as the cracks resembled open-circuits (no / poor electrical flow).

 

Well my MB was already exchanged once because of GPU overheating/death. But it also could be because I messed with the computer too hard...

 

You mean these drivers?
Latest OFFICIAL Drivers for Hybrid/Switchable Graphics & Optimus - LaptopVideo2Go Forums
Concerning to the hardware analysis tool "Everest" my vaio has the GMA 4500MHD onboard graphic. So I will choose the alienware driver 197.72?

The drivers i am using at the moment, will do their job as well but i have a
problem with cuda support in CoreAVC while playing a video. CoreAVC does not use the hardware acceleration for video playback altough the 9300GS supports CUDA. Maybe a newer driver will help....

Thanks for your information.
Of course the stamina/speed switch is important so i will better use the hybrid drivers....

 

No I meant these drivers (those on LV2Go seems to be old).

CoreAVC with CUDA works with stock drivers, but only until version 2.0. If you want CoreAVC 2.0 to work with CUDA, you'll need those drivers from Nautis.

 

Ok i have version 2.0. The mentioned test mode is needed to sign the driver and afterwards i can leave it? What about the watermark, instead of my normale background a watermark will appear?
Any other constraints?

 

There will be a small watermark on your normal background. There is a workaround for that, but I didn't bother. Otherwise you'll not spot a difference between test & normal mode.

About the drivers. As they're really work-in-progress drivers, every version usually have some small glitches. The last package's problem seems to be lack of brightness control on Nvidia side for some users (incl. me, but it doesn't bother me) and problem with HDMI output (you can choose only projector-only mode...not a big deal for me as well).

 

The problems you mentioned let me think if its worth to try these drivers. HDMI output with alle feature is quite important for me.
What driver version is exactly needed for cuda with coreavc, maybe the 197.72 from Latest OFFICIAL Drivers for Hybrid/Switchable Graphics & Optimus - LaptopVideo2Go Forums will work?

 

Well I'm not sure how they will work as they are originally for M11x. But you could try them out. Any drivers past 191.07 should support CUDA in CoreAVC 2.0.

 

Thanks for your advice. At the moment my laptop is very important for me because i have to do some exams this week. So this test will be delayed by a few days.... After the exams I make a image of the system and try the mentioned drivers.

Of course you get information about the result.