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GeForce Go 7950 GTX SLI Owners (Alienware, DELL, Clevo etc.)


Guyver1

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where do u find the NVapps.xm_ under the 163.76 drivers i dont see it...

every driver release will have 2 .xml files

if the files are uncompressed versions the file extension will be .xml

if the files are still compressed they will have the file extension .xm_

the newer driver versions have 2 xml files:

nvapps.xml

nvwsapps.xml

copy those 2 files from the very latest driver releases (to get the most upto date profiles) and copy and overwrite into the driver set you wish to use, then install as normal.

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  • Guyver1

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not always :)

Exceptions happen sometimes when 3rd party driver sites unproperly pack drivers.

I cannot count anymore how often this occured with guru drivers in the past. And even NVIDIA once made a blunder here too :)

What happens here then is, you will find two xms files :P Which obviously will result in a total messed up driver installation as no game profiles (and no application) will be available. Earlier drivers which came with cfg files were also affected.

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Guest Rockgod
rock direct i think. they are pretty good too, not alienware though :)

I got my sli working on vista using the alienware beta driver. it just popped up after a reboot and asked "wanna enable SLI?"

Which I replied "Hell, it's about time!" :P

and for those wondering: I DO feel an perfomance boost. so its not just a fake SLI.

good luck mates

Any chance of getting the Alienware beta? The Australian Alienware site doesn't provide online access...and are a little slow to render assistance.. :P :)

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http://support.alienware.com/Support_Pages...t=2&manu=29

Graphics Driver 7.15.11.5655

For Models: NVIDIA GeForce Go7950 GTX (m9750)

Non-WHQL graphics driver for Windows Vista.

Features and fixes in this driver release:

Supports NVIDIA SLI

File Size: 55.0 MB

File Date: 8/23/2007

Platform(s): Windows Vista

We have v156.55 as a mobile driver (with original INFs included) for ages did anybody test it?

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can everyone with a SLI setup run the latest GPU-Z and let me know if your GPU's have identical BIOS versions?

For some reason my 2 Go 7950 GTX's have different BIOS revisions in my m9750

one card is showing a BIOS version of 5.71.22.49.23 and the other is showing a BIOS version of 5.71.22.49.22

I've emailed Alienware asking for clarification on this and asking if .23 is the most upto date BIOS.

will let you all know when i get an answer

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Guest Adon Malik

My cards are showing BIOS revs 5.71.22.49.23 and 5.71.22.22. Just for the record I'm able to install the modded 163.76 XP drivers from this site just fine. They seem to work just fine for just about everything but they have the same issues the stock Alienware drivers have with flickering textures in Guild Wars. Other than that though I've had no problem with the 163.76 drivers under XP; haven't tried Vista yet though.

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The different versions, in this case just 1 number is probably to distinguish the GPU's to the BIOS.

If they were identical they would probably not work at all in SLI, as each will be doing the same thing at once, or trying to.

Each one will probably have a slightly differnent susbsys number (or it could just be the BIOS version) to tell the driver there are 2 GPU's and to try and enable SLI.

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ah well that would make sense then if the driver was looking at the BIOS numbers

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The different versions, in this case just 1 number is probably to distinguish the GPU's to the BIOS.

If they were identical they would probably not work at all in SLI, as each will be doing the same thing at once, or trying to.

Each one will probably have a slightly differnent susbsys number (or it could just be the BIOS version) to tell the driver there are 2 GPU's and to try and enable SLI.

No. The drivers do not use BIOS versions to distinguish between cards, each card has its own PCI/PCExpress identity in the system determined by its location on the bus. BIOS version plays no part in this.

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Only way to find it is to grab both BIOS's and compare, other than the revision number difference they should be identical ?

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what image quality setting have you got set in the nvidia control panel?

High Quality, Quality, Performance, High Performance

i got my 8822 score with it set to high performance, looks like you might have yours set to High Quality?

run 3D Mark 06 on each of the performance settings above to see the spread of your score, this will give you a feel for how each one adusts your overall framerate depending on how good looking you want your games to run.

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got a response from Alienware on the variation in BIOS numbers:

Dear Leon,

Thank you for contacting Alienware.

The different video BIOS versions are meant to be installed like that; otherwise, the laptop will not even post. Due to its design, this system requires a daughter and parent video card and each has its video BIOS version, they can even be told apart because of it:

DAUGHTER VBIOS: 49.23

PARENT VBIOS: 49.22

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done some NERD output.

Seems that while the n100 chip doesnt show up in windows, some 'Unknown' nvidia parts show up in the NERD output as follows:

Bus 1 (PCI Express), Device Number 0, Device Function 0
Vendor 10DEh Nvidia Corp
Device 01B3h Unknown
Command 0507h (I/O Access, Memory Access, BusMaster, System Errors, Interrupt Disable)
Status 0010h (Has Capabilities List, Fast Timing)
Revision A3h, Header Type 01h, Bus Latency Timer 00h
Self test 00h (Self test not supported)
Cache line size 32 Bytes (8 DWords)
PCI Class Bridge, type PCI to PCI
Address 0 is a Memory Address (anywhere in 0-4Gb) : F6EFC000h
PCI Bridge Information:
  Primary Bus Number 1, Secondary Bus Number 2, Subordinate Bus Number 4
  Secondary Bus Command 001Bh (parity detection, VGA mapping)
  Secondary Bus Status 0000h
  Secondary Bus Latency 00h
  I/O Port Range Passed to Secondary Bus : 0000C000h to 0000DFFFh (32-bit)
  Memory   Range Passed to Secondary Bus : F6F00000h to FBDFFFFFh
  Prefetchable Memory Range Passed to Secondary Bus : 00000000A0000000h to 00000000DFFFFFFFh
New Capabilities List Present:
  Power Management Capability, Version 1.1
 Does not support low power State D1 or D2
 Supports PME# signalling from mode(s) D0, D3hot, D3cold
 PME# signalling is currently disabled
 Current Power State : D0 (Device operational, no power saving)
 3.3v AUX Current required : 0mA (Self powered)
  PCI Express Capability, Version 1
 Device/Port Type : 
 [tab][/tab][tab][/tab]	Upstream port of PCI Express Switch
 Device Capabilities :
 Upstream Port Power Data :
 [tab][/tab][tab][/tab]	Slot Power Limit Value :   0.000 Watts
 Device Control :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab]     Unsupported Request Severity is Non-Fatal
 Device Status :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Non-Fatal Error Detected
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Unsupported Request Detected
 Link Capabilities : 
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Maximum Link Speed : 2.5Gb/s
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Maximum Link Width : x16
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Link Port Number   : 0
 Link Control :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Common Clock Configuration In Use
 Link Status :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Current Link Speed : 2.5Gb/s
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Current Link Width : x16

Bus 2 (PCI Express), Device Number 0, Device Function 0
Vendor 10DEh Nvidia Corp
Device 01B3h Unknown
Command 0507h (I/O Access, Memory Access, BusMaster, System Errors, Interrupt Disable)
Status 0010h (Has Capabilities List, Fast Timing)
Revision A3h, Header Type 01h, Bus Latency Timer 00h
Self test 00h (Self test not supported)
Cache line size 32 Bytes (8 DWords)
PCI Class Bridge, type PCI to PCI
PCI Bridge Information:
  Primary Bus Number 2, Secondary Bus Number 3, Subordinate Bus Number 3
  Secondary Bus Command 001Bh (parity detection, VGA mapping)
  Secondary Bus Status 0000h
  Secondary Bus Latency 00h
  I/O Port Range Passed to Secondary Bus : 0000C000h to 0000CFFFh (32-bit)
  Memory   Range Passed to Secondary Bus : F6F00000h to F8FFFFFFh
  Prefetchable Memory Range Passed to Secondary Bus : 00000000A0000000h to 00000000BFFFFFFFh
New Capabilities List Present:
  Power Management Capability, Version 1.1
 Does not support low power State D1 or D2
 Supports PME# signalling from mode(s) D0, D3hot, D3cold
 PME# signalling is currently disabled
 Current Power State : D0 (Device operational, no power saving)
 3.3v AUX Current required : 0mA (Self powered)
  PCI Express Capability, Version 1
 Device/Port Type : 
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Downstream port of PCI Express Switch
 Port Type :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Port is an Integrated Device
 Device Control :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Unsupported Request Severity is Non-Fatal
 Device Status :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Non-Fatal Error Detected
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Unsupported Request Detected
 Link Capabilities : 
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Maximum Link Speed : 2.5Gb/s
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Maximum Link Width : x16
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Link Port Number   : 0
 Link Control :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Asynchronous Clocking in Use
 Link Status :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Current Link Speed : 2.5Gb/s
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Current Link Width : x16

Bus 2 (PCI Express), Device Number 1, Device Function 0
Vendor 10DEh Nvidia Corp
Device 01B3h Unknown
Command 0507h (I/O Access, Memory Access, BusMaster, System Errors, Interrupt Disable)
Status 0010h (Has Capabilities List, Fast Timing)
Revision A3h, Header Type 01h, Bus Latency Timer 00h
Self test 00h (Self test not supported)
Cache line size 32 Bytes (8 DWords)
PCI Class Bridge, type PCI to PCI
PCI Bridge Information:
  Primary Bus Number 2, Secondary Bus Number 4, Subordinate Bus Number 4
  Secondary Bus Command 0007h (parity detection, ISA mapping)
  Secondary Bus Status 0000h
  Secondary Bus Latency 00h
  I/O Port Range Passed to Secondary Bus : 0000D000h to 0000DFFFh (32-bit)
  Memory   Range Passed to Secondary Bus : F9000000h to FBDFFFFFh
  Prefetchable Memory Range Passed to Secondary Bus : 00000000C0000000h to 00000000DFFFFFFFh
New Capabilities List Present:
  Power Management Capability, Version 1.1
 Does not support low power State D1 or D2
 Supports PME# signalling from mode(s) D0, D3hot, D3cold
 PME# signalling is currently disabled
 Current Power State : D0 (Device operational, no power saving)
 3.3v AUX Current required : 0mA (Self powered)
  PCI Express Capability, Version 1
 Device/Port Type : 
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Downstream port of PCI Express Switch
 Port Type :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Port is an Integrated Device
 Device Control :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Unsupported Request Severity is Non-Fatal
 Device Status :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Non-Fatal Error Detected
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Unsupported Request Detected
 Link Capabilities : 
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Maximum Link Speed : 2.5Gb/s
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Maximum Link Width : x16
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Link Port Number   : 1
 Link Control :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Asynchronous Clocking in Use
 Link Status :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Current Link Speed : 2.5Gb/s
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Current Link Width : x16

the 2 GPU's show up fine so its not them:

 Bus 3 (PCI Express), Device Number 0, Device Function 0
Vendor 10DEh Nvidia Corp
Device 0297h GeForce Go 7950 GTX
Command 0007h (I/O Access, Memory Access, BusMaster)
Status 0010h (Has Capabilities List, Fast Timing)
Revision A1h, Header Type 00h, Bus Latency Timer 00h
Self test 00h (Self test not supported)
Cache line size 32 Bytes (8 DWords)
PCI Class Display, type VGA
Subsystem ID 2052161Fh Unknown
Subsystem Vendor 161Fh Arima Computer Co
Address 0 is a Memory Address (anywhere in 0-4Gb) : F8000000h
Address 1 is a Memory Address (anywhere in 64-bit space, Prefetchable) : A0000000h
Address 3 is a Memory Address (anywhere in 64-bit space) : F7000000h
Address 5 is an I/O Port : 0000CC00h
System IRQ 16, INT# A
Expansion ROM of 128Kb decoded by this card (Currently disabled)
New Capabilities List Present:
  Power Management Capability, Version 1.1
 Does not support low power State D1 or D2
 Does not support PME# signalling
 Current Power State : D0 (Device operational, no power saving)
  Message Signalled Interrupt Capability
 MSI is disabled
 MSI function can generate 64-bit addresses
  PCI Express Capability, Version 1
 Device/Port Type : 
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  PCI Express Endpoint Device
 Device Capabilities :
 Device Control :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]   Unsupported Request Severity is Fatal
 Device Status :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]   Non-Fatal Error Detected
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]   Unsupported Request Detected
 Link Capabilities : 
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Maximum Link Speed : 2.5Gb/s
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Maximum Link Width : x16
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Link Port Number   : 0
 Link Control :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]   Asynchronous Clocking in Use
 Link Status :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Current Link Speed : 2.5Gb/s
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Current Link Width : x16

Bus 4 (PCI Express), Device Number 0, Device Function 0
Vendor 10DEh Nvidia Corp
Device 0297h GeForce Go 7950 GTX
Command 0006h (Memory Access, BusMaster)
Status 0010h (Has Capabilities List, Fast Timing)
Revision A1h, Header Type 00h, Bus Latency Timer 00h
Self test 00h (Self test not supported)
Cache line size 32 Bytes (8 DWords)
PCI Class Display, type 3D
Subsystem ID 2052161Fh Unknown
Subsystem Vendor 161Fh Arima Computer Co
Address 0 is a Memory Address (anywhere in 0-4Gb) : FA000000h
Address 1 is a Memory Address (anywhere in 64-bit space, Prefetchable) : C0000000h
Address 3 is a Memory Address (anywhere in 64-bit space) : F9000000h
Address 5 is an I/O Port : 0000DC00h
System IRQ 17, INT# A
Expansion ROM of 128Kb decoded by this card (Currently disabled)
New Capabilities List Present:
  Power Management Capability, Version 1.1
 Does not support low power State D1 or D2
 Does not support PME# signalling
 Current Power State : D0 (Device operational, no power saving)
  Message Signalled Interrupt Capability
 MSI is disabled
 MSI function can generate 64-bit addresses
  PCI Express Capability, Version 1
 Device/Port Type : 
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  PCI Express Endpoint Device
 Device Capabilities :
 Device Control :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Unsupported Request Severity is Fatal
 Device Status :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Non-Fatal Error Detected
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Unsupported Request Detected
 Link Capabilities : 
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Maximum Link Speed : 2.5Gb/s
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Maximum Link Width : x16
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Link Port Number   : 1
 Link Control :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Asynchronous Clocking in Use
 Link Status :
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Current Link Speed : 2.5Gb/s
[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]  Current Link Width : x16

heres my full NERD output file - http://www.guyver1.net/stuff/LaptopVideo2Go_LogFile.txt

Edited by Guyver1
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what image quality setting have you got set in the nvidia control panel?

High Quality, Quality, Performance, High Performance

i got my 8822 score with it set to high performance, looks like you might have yours set to High Quality?

run 3D Mark 06 on each of the performance settings above to see the spread of your score, this will give you a feel for how each one adusts your overall framerate depending on how good looking you want your games to run.

Yes, im using High Quality...

Now I use 156.73 and I got 7339 points! =) (without SLI something about 4500)

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compatibility with some games thats all, AFR2 has some switches that sort out some compatibilty issues with some games, its no different to normal AFR

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i found a Clevo INF for 156.55 XP with lots of subsys IDs and repacked and reuploaded the driver.

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index....showtopic=14838

Does it support your DEV/SUBSYS ID?

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Guest Professor_Spank_It

This is extremely frustrating. It really irks me that we spent all of this money on an SLI-capable notebook with the best cards (at the time) and it's feature "locked" due to outdated drivers. Putting pressure on Alienware has only prompted them to release a Beta driver for Vista users (seeing as I have an m9750 with dual 7950 GTX, Vista will be a last resort due to the stability of running in XP). It seems that they will not be providing a further driver update for XP SLI users, and only for Vista SLI users.

So far, I've been able to circumvent a majority of the issues by downloading the latest official nVidia Betas and using their Nvapps.xml and Nvwsapps.xml files with Alienware's 94.23 driver. The added profiles help with improving performance with most games, but it's obvious that there are overwhelming limitations due to the chipset for us SLI owners. It's not just an SLI issue, as using this feature to play new games with SLI disabled doesn't yield the performance result that it should (i.e. minimal improvements with Crysis, World In Conflict, and COH:AF).

With the release of the 8700-SLI GPUs in the latest m9750, it seems that they'll be focusing on Vista drivers, as they'll be little care to cater to us 7-series XP users. The responses from Alienware support (US) have been unhelpful, and I was even advised at one point that if I simply "upgraded to Windows Vista" (i.e. paying them more money), I could avoid the issue and receive faster and more reliable driver updates (but at a performance cost, obviously, since Vista is still in the early stages). Ain't that some ****?

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Guest Professor_Spank_It

UPDATE:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=185060

I recentlhy stumbled accross this fix, and it seems to work. It involves downloading and installing the latest drivers along with the modified .INF file from LaptopVideo2go, but seems to solve the problem of the Black Screens with an easy fix:

1) Download the driver you want along with the modified .INF, and replace it (I used the latest 169.04 XP 32-bit "Crysis Demo" Beta drivers).

2) Uninstall old driver, reboot (preferrably use Driver Cleaner Pro in Safe Mode).

3) Install new driver BUT when it goes to install the second card (i.e. The 2nd Continue/Stop installation prompt), STOP THE INSTALLATION FOR THE 2ND CARD.

4) Reboot.

5) Navigate to the Device Manager and notice the second card is uninstalled. Update it's driver by manually selecting the driver folder for the one you just installed.

6) Reboot.

7) Voila!!! Successfully installed drivers.

If you were using Alienware's 94.23 drivers, you'll notice that you have full access to the nVidia Control Panel and SLI works just fine once you enable it. I ran 3dMark06 using the 169.04 XP 32-bit drivers and scored 8816! The Crysis demo showed only an improvement of 1 FPS, but had less random freezing, and most importantly I noticed improvement in just about ALL of the other games I tested (COD4 Demo, BioShock, Battlefield 2142, World In Conflict, Unreal Tournament 3 Demo, Medal of Honor: Airborne).

This easy trick fixes all of the Black Screens that occur from attempting to install drivers the usual way. I do not know why it works, but it does. I haven't got a clue as to why you must install any non-Alienware driver one card (i.e. one boot) at a time, but hey, I'll take anything I can get. I haven't tested this on any other drivers, but according to a couple of other testers, the following drivers successfully worked, all tested in XP with 2x7950 GTX cards - 163.76, 169.01, 169.04

My m9750: T7600 C2D, 2 GB Ram, XP Pro, Dual 7950 GTX 512.

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