Vaio Z12 Getting the latest Optimus drivers to work in Win7 64

Well, after some toying around I found out how to get it the drivers to work together, auto mode works, but more tests will follow.

*** and we have a bug... after a a reboot or 2 the watermark pops up... very annoying! ***

You need:

• Latest Intel graphics drivers -> here
• NVIDIA Driver 258.96 -> here
• Optimus Tools -> here (bottom of first post)

What you need to do:

• Remove your current Intel and NVIDIA drivers
• Install your freshly downloaded Intel drivers as usual (no modifications needed)
• Reboot (just to be sure)
• Run "258.96_notebook_winvista_win7_64bit_international.exe" to extract the driver.
• Take note of where it will extract (in my case "C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\258.96").
• Cancel the installer when it is done extracting (When you see that it will only install the HDA driver you are far enough)
• Navigate your explorer to the "Display" folder in the driver folder (in my case: "C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\258.96\WinVista_Win7_64\International\Display").
• Make a backup copy of "nvac.inf", you are going to edit it in the next step.
• Scroll to this section:
  
  Code:

  [NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.1]
  %NVIDIA_DEV.0405.01% = Section002, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0405&SUBSYS_011D1025

• Insert a line to make it look like the next code block:
  
  Code:

  [NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.1]
  %NVIDIA_DEV.0A2B.01% = Section018, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A2B&SUBSYS_905A104D
  %NVIDIA_DEV.0405.01% = Section002, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0405&SUBSYS_011D1025

• Next scroll to this section:
  
  Code:

  [Strings]
  DiskID1 = "NVIDIA Windows Vista / Windows 7 (64 bit) Driver Library Installation Disk 1"
  NVIDIA = "NVIDIA"
  NVIDIA_A = "NVIDIA"
  NVIDIA_DEV.0405.01 = "NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS"

• Insert a line to make it look like this:
  
  Code:

  [Strings]
  DiskID1 = "NVIDIA Windows Vista / Windows 7 (64 bit) Driver Library Installation Disk 1"
  NVIDIA = "NVIDIA"
  NVIDIA_A = "NVIDIA"
  NVIDIA_DEV.0A2B.01 = "NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M Optimus"
  NVIDIA_DEV.0405.01 = "NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS"

• Save the file.
• Run "setup.exe" in "C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\258.96\WinVista_Win7_64\International", ignore the 'this driver is not signed' crap.
• Reboot
• Start "NvOptimusTestViewer64.exe" and your favorite 3D app to see it work. (I used Furmark to test)

Some more explanation on the lines entered:
%NVIDIA_DEV.0A2B.01% = Section018, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A2B&SUBSYS_905A104D
The piece between the % chars refers to the label you want to give your card (which we supply with the second modified line), the "Section 018" contains the optimus settings (in contrast to the Section 016 which is referred to by the normal 330M) and the last bits tell windows the device our entry is suitable for.

Good luck!

 

Can this Optimus driver be installed on Z11? And any bugs found?

 

Very nice !

Waiting for some feedback, but still nice... there is something here that could help in upgrading the drivers for hybrid graphic too.

 

Well, back to the drawing board, something weird is going on, because the watermark just popped up...

 

Thank you for your instruction. I'll try it soon.

 

Hmm.. We have been discussing this on here at Sony Z11 - NVIDIA Optimus for a while now. The overlay AFAIK right now is not removable due to the drivers detecting the Hybrid Graphics multiplexer. There is also the possible issue of the Nvidia side staying powered up at all times.

Regardless nice post. Glad to see others trying to tackle the Optimus on Hybrid Graphics issue and modding drivers. If you need any additional help or pointers let me know. It would be great to get this working fully, just not sure it is 100% possible.

There are posts up at various spots on NBR discussing Optimus on Hybrid Graphics like the one linked to above and also at LV2G here.

I have found some additional settings that may help, I will try to write them down again and post

 

I'm wondering if it's at all truly possible considering the DSDT was not written to support it. But progress does look like it's being made nonetheless.

 

First time looking at the 258.96 drivers. I notice there is a new PCI Filter service and file that has been added.

Something to note StefanHamminga. Modifying the device name something other than the original has been known to cause issues with some EA and other games in the past.

If you can duplicate Optimus on Hybrid Graphics running without the watermark, export the following registry areas and compare them to when the overlay is back.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\nvlddmkm
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation

 

Not really sure the DSDT is that different, you may very well be correct though. I have taken a little look at a couple of DSDT exports but am a bit unsure what I am looking at. (very little knowledge in that area)

AFAIK honestly Optimus is Hybrid Graphics with the multiplexer removed and a new software architecture which pretty much just hijacks the intel framebuffer. There is no new or different hardware.

The only reason it is working honestly is because it appears that it is something Nvidia is or was working on (hence the confidential overlay).

EDIT: Hahaha just searched Optimus DSDT and here is a post from Linux guru Dave Airlie saying pretty much the same thing I just did.

 

Thanks, I found both your thread here and on LaptopVideo2Go after the logo reappeared. I will keep digging...

Perhaps you mean the settings found in the driver file itself? They are emedded in the bin as unicode strings, visible with a hex editor. I tried a few (for example 'DisableHybridMux'), no dice...

Never had problems with it, but then again I'm not a big gamer... Thanks for warning.

I will do.

So for us to use it it seems we need to do at least one of 2 things:
Make the driver use the 'official' Optimus driver path (eg. no overlay showing) or remove the overlay from the current driver path (perhaps replace with a fully transparant image)...

 

Correct. There are a few others. The key is not only knowing the settings but knowing where they go and with what value.

Indeed. I know a few people were looking for it before.

Glad to have someone so knowledgeable on the case. Since I do not have an Optimus capable notebook I can not test much of this stuff. I assume you will have much better results than I.

The other issue to tackle and maybe something you can analyze is the possibility that the Nvidia GPU is not powering down properly. People have reported shorter battery life using Optimus on Hybrid Graphics. If you can further confirm this one way or another it would be great.

 

Nautis, do you know if anyone tried to run certificate management in Windows 7 (Pro and higher) and import your own certificate to trusted root certificates to avoid running in debug mode and just self-sign driver and have it accepted?

 

Well, I'd love to try, but according to the tool my GPU is powering down just fine (also seems to correspond with the fan behaviour).

I also thought RivaTuner might be something to try, but it does not detect the NVIDIA GPU properly, so no nvstrap (is that even still in there? it's been a while since I've been toying around with this...)

If you want me to test other things just let me know.

Oh and btw, the registry paths for the settings are included in the driver binary, I can list them if you like?

 

Not sure if the Nvidia Tool will be very accurate to see if it is powering down correctly it just really shows which GPU is in use. You may want to look at GPU-Z, Nvidia Inspector, BatteryBar or any other tool that shows load and discharge rate/power use of your notebook.

Not sure about Rivatuner but there are many tools that will not detect things correctly with Optimus.

If you can PM me with what you are using to see the strings and paths that would be great. There are some paths that can be seen but in some cases those paths do not properly relate to where actual location is.

 

If I am not mistaken this is essentially what signing the driver using a tool like DSEO is doing. As far as I know it only works if things are set to test mode. I haven't tried any other ways of doing it but I do have something in the works that should make installing my modified driver packages much easier in the future.

I haven't really looked into it too much honestly. If you know of another way it might be worth trying.

 

Not exactly. DSEO still requires test mode and certificate is still unverified. What I am suggesting is to run local machine policy editor (hence only Pro and higher editions of Windows Vista/7), allowing modification of root certificates, and then generating and importing there your own certificate. That, theoretically, should make your certificate powerful enough to sign drivers.

Default root certificates in Windows have a bunch of certificates from largest companies, for smaller players their certificates are signed by Microsoft certificate so it's like a chain or tree of authority.

The approach I suggest does not give you ability to distribute signed drivers but you should be able to self-sign anything you want for your own computer.

If it comes to some way of purchasing certificate from Microsoft I'd gladly donate towards that goal (a reasonable amount, of course). Another approach is to find a friendly soul among OEMs like Acer, ASUS who release customized NVIDIA drivers anyway

 

I have one question, I am not sure if i am posting on the right post.....if not just remove this message, I would like to know after activating the optimus, is it possible to link the Z12 series to the ViDock GTX4XX series(example GTX470/480)?? and gain some performance?

 

Sorry for one more dumb question to ask, any gain in benchmark after doing the optimus???

 

No, it won't. For proper driver signing you need the certificate which is also signed with Microsoft special kernel mode certificate.

Only few certificates (VeriSign and GlobalSign) offer this - and no others. That's how they manage to price them much higher than other regular code signing certificates.

Even if you can import your certificate "high enough" it would still miss the Microsoft part, and this will not work as Windows kernel expects drivers to contain certificate that is also signed by the MS key.

 

djhkll see this DIY ViDock post for more information on ViDock and Optimus.

psyq321, thanks for the explanation. Much better than I would have put it.
Just to put this out there: If there were a way around microsofts cert most smaller companies would be using it.

When it comes to signing drivers this process is really only needed with custom combined hybrid graphics drivers. If using an official hybrid graphics driver package with modified INF signing is not needed. It is the combination of Intel and Nvidia drivers into essentially a single driver that causes the certificate to then be invalid since the nvidia cert does not include the Intel drivers and vice versa. If there were a way to use two certificates for a single driver or combine certificates it would be one way around it. The only other way I know around it is to split the inf into its separate intel and nvidia parts and point to the proper cert for each.