Guest Matt0402 Posted July 25, 2008 Report Share Posted July 25, 2008 Hi, I've been using this forum for ages now and the advice given has always been great so i'm really hoping you can help me. I was just given an XPS M1730 from dell (old M170 was not able to be repaired) and i'm rediscovering my love for gaming now i have a decent system. The first step in that is wanting the most from my hardware. The dell drivers are stupidly out of date but i come to expect that from them and i have tried good few of the drivers here but out of the various ones i have tried from each of the sections "175, 177, etc" I cant find a driver that will let me boot while on battery power other than the default dell one which is 156.61. As soon as i use a newer driver i can not use the laptop with battery mode. I get great, flawless performance on AC and the system boots ok on battery - I can still blindly type my password and play music using the buttons on my laptop but there is nothing on the screen. What have i done to solve this? Well i have limited knowledge of nvidia drivers but i tried the general rule of thumb - there must be something conflicting. So i tried every power options mode, tried making sure high performance battery matched high performance AC and then took of quickset but still no joy. As far as my knowledge says there should be nothing wrong. So..... the laptop came with vista home premium and i had ultimate so i took the oportunity to install a fresh (reformatted) copy of vista ultimate SP1 and then immediatley install the drivers. This way i figured there cant possibley be something conflicting. But the problem is still there. With any other driver than the original dell i get a black screen on battery power. Is there anyone who could possibley point me in the right direction to get this fixed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew55 Posted July 25, 2008 Report Share Posted July 25, 2008 First of all, you're really lucky to be almost 'given' a xps 1730. Secondly, this is not usually supposed to happen. If you want the latest 'dell' drivers, look here: http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index....showtopic=19274 Those should work well. If those work and you want a greater performance increase, then go for these: http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index....showtopic=19571 Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt0402 Posted July 25, 2008 Report Share Posted July 25, 2008 Yeah - i dont half know how lucky I am. It took ages for them to say something other than "we will send an engineer to replace part x" I had nine engineer visits in 3 months. Still.... i am very very grateful to the amazing person who decided to give me the replacement. I have tried both the drivers you suggested with no joy. I am just about to try 174.31 which has been given to me by dell as thier latest drivers for the xps m1730..... will let you know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt0402 Posted July 26, 2008 Report Share Posted July 26, 2008 (edited) I sure know how lucky i have been. To be given this system as a trade in for the M170 has been amazing! Well.......... i tried both the drivers u mentioned and dells upposed "performance" driver but nothing works other than the stock driver that came with the system. If I use anything else i am left with a blank screen on boot with battery power. Edited July 29, 2008 by ®®® Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew55 Posted July 26, 2008 Report Share Posted July 26, 2008 I say call dell. I don't know what's going on there and the people at dell should be able to give you some advice. You could try updating your bios though: http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index....c=19777&hl= Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt0402 Posted July 26, 2008 Report Share Posted July 26, 2008 They dell xps tech I spoke to said that they would only support the original driver or whatever driver is next release so i am stuck there. OK.... So I have done some digging and first of all compared the two INF's - the on from the original driver (which was called nvdm - does that have any bearing on things?) and the one from the 177.35 release of this site. Now the first thing i noticed is that there is alot missing in the original INF - there is no mention of powermizer, SLI or anything like that. So i thought maybe it had something to do with Powermizer. Completely disabling powermizer didnt fix anything on the new 177.35. I still booted to a black screen from battery. While having a look at powermizer i decided to see if the original driver made any mention of the settings to turn powermizer off and guess what - the default for the original INF that came with the XPS M1730 doesnt downclock at all. This was confirmed by GPU-Z - it showed the GPU with the old driver runnin at a constant 625 and 800 with temps in the 70's just after boot. Surely that isnt a good positiion to be in? If default driver that does nothing to kepp your laptop cool? Anyways with the new 177.35 I get powermizer working when it should, 30-40FPS in HL2:EP2, Quake Wars and Unreal 3 and low temps when the Laptop isnt used as much. I am willing to sacrifice booting up in battery mode for that. I will just boot up on AC then move the laptop (if i have a forklift nearby that is :) ) Anyway - thanks for your help Andrew. Its much appreciated. btw - I have attached the original INF if any wants to look at it and could maybe shed some light on what makes it so special? Thanks again, Matt nvdm.inf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dancom96 Posted July 26, 2008 Report Share Posted July 26, 2008 Have you tried reinstalling the driver, but replacing the INF with the original dell INF? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew55 Posted July 27, 2008 Report Share Posted July 27, 2008 ^^ I don't think that will work as the inf has different names. Anyway, I'm going to look at both the inf and the power management feature to see if I can come up with anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Marley Posted July 27, 2008 Report Share Posted July 27, 2008 The INF name doesn't matter. As long as the file is a *.INF, the nVidia installer will check it to see if it describes the card installed in the system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew55 Posted July 27, 2008 Report Share Posted July 27, 2008 Have you tried reinstalling the driver, but replacing the INF with the original dell INF? This may work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt0402 Posted July 27, 2008 Report Share Posted July 27, 2008 Have you tried reinstalling the driver, but replacing the INF with the original dell INF? I have tried it - the driver didnt even install - it went through the program n then the progress bar zipped up to 100% then it wanted to restart. After restart the driver wasnt installed and no reg settings had been changed. ^^ I don't think that will work as the inf has different names. Anyway, I'm going to look at both the inf and the power management feature to see if I can come up with anything. Did you manage to find anything? Thanks for all your help guys, Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
X3lectric Posted August 17, 2008 Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 whats happened here is when you selected SLI config there was a drop down menu and insted of selecting sharp you selected Display and rebooted into a black screnn... normal if you you have a secondary screen plugeed in if not your royally floocked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oblox Posted August 18, 2008 Report Share Posted August 18, 2008 Its nothing to do with that X3electric its just a weird issue with 1730's that lots have had, i tried tinkering with the inf myself but got nowhere (http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index.php?showtopic=19911) all i can assume is its something ive missed or actually linked to driver files other than the inf. I would be very glad to get this sorted, ive reverted back to the 167 as im not really gaming at the moment but id love to get max performance if i did choose to again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oblox Posted August 21, 2008 Report Share Posted August 21, 2008 Anyone found anything new on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
X3lectric Posted August 21, 2008 Report Share Posted August 21, 2008 (edited) Anyone found anything new on this? up for download from nvidias site v175 for this ought to fix it it supports M1730 though is it me or 8700GT is not on that list however I have dual 8800GTX and it werkes fer me. http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_175.19_whql.html Edited August 21, 2008 by X3lectric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oblox Posted August 21, 2008 Report Share Posted August 21, 2008 You have the 1730m dual 8800? And were experiencing the problem described in this thread before this driver and used the modded inf from here for these? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dox Posted August 21, 2008 Report Share Posted August 21, 2008 try driver 177.83. with the modded inf. before you install, open the modded inf up with notepad (or just double click it) and scroll down to this: ;if upon reboot after install you have a black screen remove the ';' from line below and reinstall driver. ;HKR,, ModesetBlankDelay, %REG_DWORD%, 1 and change it to this: ;if upon reboot after install you have a black screen remove the ';' from line below and reinstall driver. HKR,, ModesetBlankDelay, %REG_DWORD%, 1 and install Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oblox Posted August 21, 2008 Report Share Posted August 21, 2008 I tried this with another driver as i saw it in the inf and didnt make any difference but will try again. Its not just a black screen on reboot after install though its every boot if on battery but fine on mains. Will post how i get on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
X3lectric Posted August 21, 2008 Report Share Posted August 21, 2008 ftp://ftp1.us.dell.com/video/R182343.EXE thats a rapid response official driver for this card version 174 if you have such issues with this problem I would say get on theire case and keep nagging until they escalate the situation until then by experience with Dell 1st line supoport is useless ask for a manager staright away. and dont take no for an answer. I got my laptop replaced by a whole new one after it failed several times and had repairs mounting after repairs so it was a battle but in the end I won... it cost me a load of agro but dont stand for it I recon if you have a faulty card they should replace it... end off maybe upgrade it to the 8800 gtx thats what I would go for... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oblox Posted August 21, 2008 Report Share Posted August 21, 2008 Tried that one also same issue, the problem is it works fine with the 167.51 and laptop is fine with other drivers except on battery when booting up so i really dont think its a technical issue. As a guy said in this or another thread on the issue hes spoken to dell and they will only support the driver it shipped with. Trying Dox' suggestion now anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
X3lectric Posted August 21, 2008 Report Share Posted August 21, 2008 well then in that case its a open shut case you have a valid claim to call dell and demand a service call obviously intall the driver it came with when the tech guy comes around and what I suggest is that you battle for escalation and gfx card upgrade.. either way your decision depends if you wanna lay down and let dell ###### all over you if you let them they will of fight them like I did and win. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oblox Posted August 21, 2008 Report Share Posted August 21, 2008 Youve missed the point X3lectric the driver it came with works fine so a service call would lead to no fault found. Dox i tried your suggestion and same old black screen on boot from battery im afraid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oblox Posted August 21, 2008 Report Share Posted August 21, 2008 (edited) Oddly i just tried SLi enabled on battery with 177.83 (without the commented out bit added) and it boots so it does appear to be a non sli issue although ive tested that before on previous releases and it didnt work. Tried with an earlier 174.74 and the sli doesnt boot either. Really bizarre, i guess ill have to live with it in Sli then on the latest drivers. Edited August 21, 2008 by Oblox Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stonegolem Posted September 28, 2008 Report Share Posted September 28, 2008 any solution ? I got my XPS 1730 recently , and when I update my graphic card driver, I started to have this issue. thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Marley Posted September 28, 2008 Report Share Posted September 28, 2008 What version of the BIOS are you guys running? This sounds like it might be a BIOS-related issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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