178 replies to this topic

[Guyver1]

Official Alienware drivers:

32bit XP (forceware v94.23) - <a href="http://aliendl.alien...14.10.9423.zip" target="_blank"><a href="http://aliendl.alien...14.10.9423.zip" target="_blank">http://aliendl.alienware.com/Mobile/m9750/....14.10.9423.zip</a></a>

Vista (forceware v101.29) - <a href="http://aliendl.alien...15.11.0129.zip" target="_blank"><a href="http://aliendl.alien...15.11.0129.zip" target="_blank">http://aliendl.alienware.com/Mobile/m9750/....15.11.0129.zip</a></a>

Vista Beta driver (forceware v156.05) - <a href="http://aliendl.alien....5605_BETA.zip" target="_blank"><a href="http://aliendl.alien....5605_BETA.zip" target="_blank">http://aliendl.alienware.com/Mobile/m9750/...1.5605_BETA.zip</a></a>

NOTE: 23-08-2007 - the new 'bioshock' nvidia drivers for 32bit XP dont work on my SLI m9750, dont install. I will update when i find out more info and if i find a fix.


SLI Information:

SLI only works properly on XP, and as the 7950 GTX cards are Direct X 9 cards theres little reason to be using Vista, couple this with Vista's poor gaming performance, and various other performance problems I would personally recomend that anyone running a laptop with 7950 GTX cards be using XP. If like me you have the Alienware m9750, there does appear to be an upgrade path to Direct X 10 GFX cards in the future (when the Go 8800 GTS/GTX parts become available from nvidia), this is the only time you will need to upgrade to Vista.



SLI using laptopvideo2go drivers and modded inf files:

So far I have had no success using various versions of drivers (32bit XP) from this website to get SLI enabled. It would appear that SLI for the Go cards is broken in nearly all drivers posted here.
If someone has successfully got SLI working (split frame rendering) on 2x 7950 GTX cards on any drivers found on this site please inform me so i can test and update this thread.
NOTE: If your laptop only has one GFX card installed then any of hte drivers posted on this site will work, feel free to experiment with various drivers to find the best for your laptop.


SLI modes, getting the most of your SLI setup

got 2 cards installed, then you want to get the most out of your system. For gaming the best way to increase performance is to enable 'Split Frame Rendering'.

heres a quick guide to SLI and SLI modes and how to enable them - <a href="http://www.guru3d.co...content/231/2/" target="_blank"><a href="http://www.guru3d.co...content/231/2/" target="_blank">http://www.guru3d.com/article/content/231/2/</a></a>

Note about AFR, when using alternate frame rendering you sadly get input lag, meaning your mouse/keyboard movements will 'lag' behind the image rendering, this is why SFR is the better option (SFR also gives a better performance boost generally).
Since that article was written we have a new mode FSAA rendering, where once card handles the 'image' (textures, polygons etc) and the other card handles all the FSAA (full scene anti aliasing) and AF (anisotropic filtering). please google these terms for an explanation as it would take a whole different thread. basically FSAA and AF get rid of all the 'jaggedy' lines and make edges look nice and smooth.

V-Sync and laptop monitors
laptop monitors generally refresh at 60 times a second (60Hz). what this means is that if you have v-sync enabled, then any game you run will only display 60 frames per second. the GFX cards are 'locked' to showing 60 fps even tho they can render far more. This can actually have a negative effect on the 'smoothness' of the game. disable v-sync in the nvidia control panel. Now all your games will run as as fast as the gfx cards can render (your monitor will simply ignore the 'inbetween' frames as the monitor is still only displaying 60 fps, BUT importantly they run 'smoother', to your eyes the games will appear to run much more smoothly and fluidly and sometimes even slightly faster). A side effect of disabling v-sync is whats called 'tearing'. This effect generally doesnt rear its head on most games, but some games are worse than others. Basically tearing is the visual effect of the 'missed' frames the monitor doesnt draw, its a mild effect and unless your a pefectionist wont bother you or affect your gaming experience.

[Addition]

Mouse cursor freeze/disapear bug on Alienware m9750
There is a bug on the Alienware m9750 regarding the mouse cursor (this is a bug in the XP drivers v94.23, I'm unsure if this bug exists in the Vista drivers, please let me know)

When you close the lid, or the system goes to sleep, or any event that turns the screen off, when the screen comes back on the mouse cursor will appear to freeze on screen. What's actually happened is a driver bug. the cursor is frozen but hte mouse is still moving, you can still select things and click but its difficult as you have no cursor on screen telling you where the mouse is.

there is a simple fix for this. When the cursor locks, simply press Fn+F3, the screen will go blank for a second and then come back on, your mouse cursor will now work properly. Fn+F3 is the shortcut command to switch to the second monitor, regardless of whether you actually have a second monitor or not, pressing Fn+F3 will fix the frozen mouse cursor bug.


[Addition]

Benchmarks

Ok so heres my spec Alienware m9750 and some standard benchmarks so you to compare with and see if your machine is running in the right ballpark:

heres my spec:

[1] Area-51® m9750

Display: 17" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD with Clearview Technology - Stealth Black
Operating System: Genuine Windows® XP Professional UK with SP2 - English
TV Tuner: None
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7600 2.33GHz 4MB Cache 667MHz FSB
Graphics Processor : Dual 512MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7950 GTX - SLI Enabled
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz - 2 x 1024MB

and here are some benchmark figures for you to compare:

3DMark06

Default test at 1280x1024

nVidia gfx setting High Performance - Score 7885
nVidia gfx setting High Quality - Score 8200


Test at native res of 1920x1200

nVidia gfx setting High Performance - Score 6035
nVidia gfx setting High Quality - Score 5891

Half Life 2 Lost Coast stress test @ 1920x1200, high quality driver setting, everything on High in game
Result = 123 fps



[UPDATE]
I have some more info regarding SLI,drivers and chipset info.
Having done some testing and reading i have found some 'enlightening' info.

The i945PM intel chipset used on the m9750 requires an additional chip to enable SLI, nvidia came to an agreement with Intel and produced the nForce 100 chip so that 2 GPU's could be attached to the 945PM PCI Express lane. Because of this 'extra' non standard piece of hardware you cannot use 'standard' drivers, even with a modded INF. It would appear the nforce 100 chip requires sepcially written drivers to correctly identify and enable the nforce 100 chip and thus also enable SLI correctly.

As a test of this, i downloaded the new 32 bit XP 163.44 'bioshock' drivers, unzipped them and deleted the INF file. I then copied over the INF file from the Alienware 94.23 drivers. I then did a manual update of the drivers using device manager pointing each card to the inf in the 163.44 driver folder.

both cards updated no problem. reboot

got back into windows no problem at 1920x1200, all looking good. go to nvidia control panel, oooh I've finally got the SLI Multi GPU option there! could it be??......

erm no... while the SLI option is now there in the control panel, i have no button to enable SLI as normal. What i have is a message telling me that my system appears to have a SLI interface but that i should make sure that both cards are connected to a PCI Express lane of 4x or more and for more info see a link.

So no go, I tried Bioshock, still crashed and wouldnt initialise (this is a steam issue and a driver issue)

So back to the Alienware 94.23.

Get my mobile phone and call Alienware tech support, i explain everything i've gone through over the last 2 months trying to get drivers to work, i also explain i have a top spec 'gaming' laptop that cant run a top spec 'game' and try to get some reassurance from the guy at the other end of the phone that Alienware WILL be updating the XP drivers for the GPU's and not just the Vista ones. He says yes, as soon as there are new drivers i will get an email/newsletter. I then try to get a timeframe but he obviously hasnt got a clue. ah well i tried!.

So basically, because of the nforce 100 chip requirement for SLI you cant use any modded inf drivers as they wont work. We are stuck with relying on Alienware to keep the GPU drivers updated, to that end i suggest anyone with an m9750 send an email to Alienware expressing their concern and asking poiltely for drivers to be kept upto date for the new games that are due for release this year and next year.

[UPDATE - 01-10-2007]
A small workaround for some newer games and SLI. You can pull the nvApps.xml file out of newer driver packages and use it instead of the 94.23 nvApps.xml.
download the required driver version from laptopvideo2go, unzip. restart your machine in safe mode and copy the nvApps.xml file into C:\WINDOWS\System32 overwriting the existing file.

If your clean installing drivers, copy the new nvapps.xml into your 94.23 folder and rename to nvapps.xm_ to match the naming convention of the files. then install as normal.

[UPDATE - Alienware support emails regarding GFX drivers - 02-10-2007]

this is a truncated version of an ongoing email conversation with Alienware support, i will update this as i get responses back from them:

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Customer ( Guyver1) 08/13/2007 11:26 AM
Hi,

When will Alienware be releasing new SLI video drivers for the Go 7950 GTX's??

nVidia have now released new WHQL drivers for 32bit XP which are now at version 162.18.

I have tried various drivers from <a href="http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/" target="_blank">http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/</a> but none of these can get the SLI options to work.

the 94.23 are now somewhat outdated.

cheers

Leon.

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Response 08/23/2007 06:05 AM
Dear Leon,

Thank you for contacting Alienware.

In regards to your inquiry, currently we do not have a release date of an SLI enabled driver, this is currently being worked on. We do have a beta driver which allows SLI functionality, this driver is available from our Support section of our website. Although being a Beta driver we have had few issues with stability so I would encourage you to try it out. Obviously as a precaution back up any important information in case it does have unexpected results.

Please do not hesitate to contact Alienware on 0800 279 9751 if you have any further questions or concerns. Our office hours are from 8am to 8pm (GMT) on weekdays and from 9am to 3pm on Saturdays.

Thank you for choosing ALIENWARE.

Kind Regards

UK Technical Support

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Customer ( Guyver1) 08/23/2007 06:26 AM

the beta driver is for Vista not XP, i am looking for updated windows XP drivers. nVidia have now released the 'Bioshock' drivers for all windows versions. the new drivers are v163.44. I want to see updated drivers for XP, not vista. SLI works in XP, i use XP.
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Customer ( Guyver1) 08/24/2007 06:14 AM
Following on from my previous reply. Please find here some information for your driver team (please pass this email on to the people who write the XP drivers for the m9750/GeForce Go 7950 GTX SLI).
You may or may not be aware of an excellent community site - <a href="http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/" target="_blank">http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/</a> . This community take standard nvidia Forceware drivers, and adjusts the INF file, adding every single mobile Go series card to it so that laptop users can use the most upto date drivers and features. I have tried various driver versions from this site but while they install, i get no SLI options and thus cannot use SLI. See my thread on this sites forum for Go 7950 GTX users that cover these topics -
<a href="http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index....showtopic=14594" target="_blank">http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index....showtopic=14594</a>

nVidia have released the 'Bioshock' drivers v163.44 for both XP and Vista to improve performce and issues with the new Bioshock game. I tried installing the laptopvideo2go drivers with their modded INF file, but got a black screen during installation, other Go 79XX series users also reported the same problem.

as the m9750 uses the intel 945PM chipset with the nForce 100 chip to allow SLI do the alienware 94.23 drivers have some sort of 'hack' that is out of the ordinary from normal forceware drivers to allow SLI to work, is this why i cannot get any other driver versions to work (even tho the modded INF has the device ID of the Go 7950 GTX added - 0297)?? again, i must point out that i CAN install other driver versions, just i DONT get the SLI options to enable SLI.

Please can Alienware update their windows XP drivers to at least the 'Bioshock' v163.44? can you provide me with info on how to modify the INF file to get the correct info in there to enable SLI features in whichever driver version i choose to use?

I am finding this situation so frustrating that i am considering going back to a desktop/shuttle platform so that i can use normal GeForce cards in SLI with normal easily available Forceware drivers that dont require modification.

I am curently trying to contact nvidia to question them on why they refuse to support SLI properly on high end mobile SLI solutions, and why it is so difficult for their customers to upgrade drivers when using mobile high end SLI.

I would appreciate a detailed technical response, I am no stranger to hardware/software/ as i'm an IT manager and full time 'geek'. I would really apprciate a response from your driver team who actually write the drivers and not just some weak 'help desk' response.

Kind Regards,

Leon.
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Response 10/03/2007 05:22 AM
Dear Sir,

I have escalated the driver issue to the team that deals with driver validation. Presently there is no release date of a newer driver however I would appreciate if you experience any problems running certain games with the current drivers if you could take note of the game and the error and provide it to us. Newer drivers are normally released once we encounter games that are having problems with the existing driver set.

Thank you for choosing ALIENWARE.

Kind Regards

UK Customer Service Team
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Customer ( Guyver1)October 3rd 10:22am

Problems with current drivers (so far, quite a few games being released november/december on the new Unreal3 engine that will suffer the same Bioshock)

Bioshock - poor framerates, stuttering framerates (fixed for desktop/non SLI users by using nvidia's 163.44 drivers)
Stalker - split second freeze every 10 seconds or so

Total lack of SLI profiles (in the nvapps.xml file) for any games released after the 94.23's were written.

People who own an m9750 with only one GPU CAN use any driver and modified inf file from laptopvideo2go and successfully install the newer driver versions. BUT, pleople who bought an m9750 with 2 GPU's for SLI cannot install ANY drivers because of the nvidia nforce 100 chip that allows the intel chipset to utilise SLI. This chip appears to require specially coded drivers to even allow the drivers to install let alone get SLI to work (and believe me, I've spent the last 2-3 months trying!!)

As a customer I find your companies policy on releasing driver updates for a PREMIUM GAMING laptop only when "Newer drivers are normally released once we encounter games that are having problems with the existing driver set." very disturbing.
New driver releases by definition fix bugs and improve performance, Alienware should be releasing new drivers in tandem with nvidia's new releases to ensure that their 'premium gaming' laptop performs at a premium expectation level for the people buying it.
Couple this with the fact that your SLI customers are relying on you directly for updated SLI profiles and updated drivers because normal drivers dont work, and you have a situation where resentment and frustration will grow with your customer base because they cant do a most basic thing like update their GFX drivers
I personally are come to the point where I'm actually beginning to regret buying your laptop becasue of this very problem, My next PC will most probably be a good ol' desktop built by myself as its the only way i can get 100% driver (and hence performance) upgradability.

I would appreciate it if you forwarded this email to your driver department again and to any individual who has a bearing on Alienware policy as i feel this problem needs to be addressed. You cannot sell "the fastest gaming laptop" in the world and then not bother keeping your GFX drivers upto date!!!!

Kind Regards,

Leon




I hope this thread has helped answer a few questions and I will continue to update this thread with driver updates if they appear

Edited by Guyver1, 19 October 2007 - 01:37 AM.
enhanced title and pinned

[Guyver1]

either of the Vista drivers i linked at thte top of the thread, I'm taking a guess here but i think the Beta drivers may fix some SLI issues, but this is just a guess on my part as i use XP.

try the non beta drivers first - Vista (forceware v101.29)

you can always uninstall them and try the beta ones to see how the performance differs and whether there are any SLI fixes etc.

the XPS 1710 is a single gfx card laptop yes? If thats the case you should be free to download any of the Vista 32 bit drivers with modded INF on these forums. (makes no difference what 'flavour' of vista you have, basic,ultimate etc)

[update - 22-08-2007]
added frozen mouse cursor bug for Alienware m9750 owners.

Edited by ®®®, 07 September 2007 - 08:53 AM.
Removed Full Quotation of Previous Post

[Guyver1]

visit the other sections of this website such as Release 160.XX Drivers

in there, find the latest version to suit your version of windows (XP 32bit, XP64 bit , Vista 32bit etc)

click on a thread, at the top of the thread will be a link to the driver, and also a link to the modded INF.

an INF tells the driver setup.exe what to install and how.

nVidia with their normal driver packages from nvidia.com dont include their laptop/mobile 'Go' gfx processors in the INF files, meaning that if you downloaded the official ForceWare drivers and tried to install them it would tell you that it couldnt find a valid device and wouldnt install.

The people who run this website, download the official drivers and then modify the INF file to include all of nvidia's mobile gfx cards.

so, you download the driver package you want from these forums, unzip it, then download the modded INF and copy it to where you unzipped the driver pack, when asked if you want to overwrite the existing INF file select YES.

then run the setup.exe and install the drivers.

[Guyver1]

for some reason the Alienware site that has all the drivers suddenly got passworded a few weeks ago. I dont know how to access it to get BIOS updates.

Have you tried contacting Alienware direct and asking if they have any bios updates for your machine?

http://www.alienware..._alienware.aspx

[Guyver1]

Excellent, thanks a lot for that - do my systems symptoms sound like a driver issue or am I expecting too much performance from my spec? If so what should the FPS be like on something like lost planet?

Many thanks

heres my spec:

[1] Area-51® m9750

Display: 17" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD with Clearview Technology - Stealth Black
Operating System: Genuine Windows® XP Professional UK with SP2 - English
TV Tuner: None
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7600 2.33GHz 4MB Cache 667MHz FSB
Graphics Processor : Dual 512MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7950 GTX - SLI Enabled
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz - 2 x 1024MB

and here are some benchmark figures for you to compare:

3DMark06

Default test at 1280x1024

nvidia gfx setting High Performance - Score 7885
nvidia gfx setting High Quality - Score 8200


Test at native res of 1920x1200

nvidia gfx setting High Performance - Score 6035
nvidia gfx setting High Quality - Score 5891

Half Life 2 Lost Coast stress test @ 1920x1200, high quality driver setting, everything on High in game
Result = 123 fps


Regarding Lost Planet, I've read some bad things about this peformance wise. if you've only got 1 7950 GTX installed i wouldnt expect much in the way of framerate without running at a reduced screen resolution and dropping quality settings.

anyway see how your rig compares in the benchmarks above to gauge how your machine is running.

[Guyver1]

why are you still using Vista then??
vista is NOT a gaming OS, it wont be for a LONG time yet.

your laptop has a directX 9 gfx card in it, use a directX 9 OS = XP

you are losing out on so many levels by using Vista, your not gaining anything by staying with it, your only getting much lower system performance overall compared to XP.

the ONLY reason for a gamer to use Vista, is if they have a DirectX 10 GFX card and want to play crysis, lost planet and any new upcomming title that has directX 10 features.

It took me 2 years and a service pack for me to make the switch from windows 2000 to XP all those years ago. It will take the release of the Go 8800 GTX upgrade for my m9750 and a Vitsa service pack for me to move from XP.

If you want your games to perform at their very best and fastest, go XP. you've got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

[Guyver1]

update: 26-08-2007

added more info regarding 163.44 'bioshock' drivers and chipset discoveries

[Paz]

Very good info m8,

Quick question, how do you benchmark the performance of your SLI enabled rig? I have an identical machine in model and spec and have had no problems with SLI. Panel is there and it's enabled with no errors. Same driver, version ending in 9423. Im assuming your story is a bit mixed up that you were mucking about with Vista and now ur on XP-sp2 to get it working?

For anyone else who wants to go with XP instead of the shipped Vista, two things to know:

1) There is a bios update for XP or Vista from AW. Dont know what it does but im pretty sure it might have something to do with button controls as I didnt update my bios and my volume slider doesnt work. No biggy though.
2) If you bought a RAID configuration for your drives like I did (RAID-0, 2x 160gb-7200rpm drives = 320gb stripped drives for SUPER fast disks) you will need to slipstream your own XP installation. Download the RAID drivers from the AW site and download the nLite program. Its a great tool. You only need to use the Drivers option and add the RAID drivers from the unzipped driver. I also add the latest drivers from Intel for the 945PM chipset.

Only strange thing I dont get is the Intel chipset id utility doesnt say 945PM, it says its a 945GM. Anyone know something about this?

[Guyver1]

I use cpuid to get all my chip/motherboard details. so it might be a quirk of either peice of software

my volume wheel worked out of the box. have you got your bios revision number so i can compare and dod you have the download url's for both the vista and XP bios updates?

I've never mucked about with Vista, this laptop has been XP since order time, I wont go Vista till i get DX10 GPU's.

For benchmarks i just run a full version of 3dMark06 in default test resolution of 1280x1024 and native res 1920x1200, each time i run the bench i change the nvidia quality settings from high quality to High Performce to get the 'width' of performance loss from the one setting to the other. I also used HL2 Lost Coast and ran the stress test from within the game.

Edited by Guyver1, 31 August 2007 - 12:43 AM.

[tobreakcustom]

Well, I downloaded the XP driver you linked. Doesn't work for my 7950 GTX. Says that no drivers are compatible.

[jon457]

well i went to the driver update and i ddint see go 7950gtx compatible i only see the go 7950gt and i found a driver from dell that makes bioshock work as well they 2 damn driver folders on there computers so for you to install it correctly you have to manually delete the driver here is the location C:\DELL\drivers they run the driver should install to this folder the the video driver folder where they are in there delete them because the control panel way unistall drivers doesnt work here is the link for the driver this will fix bioshock and some other issue as well http://support.us.de...p;fileid=190734 THIS IS NOT THE DRIVER click on the Dell Rapid Driver Release right under it and its version R159161.exe that should fix alot of games and bioshock runs with out crashing