Larry's INFs for Dell 5150/5160

[LSudlow]

This is almost certainly due to heat. Get a can of compressed air and blow out the cooling fins inside the vent next to the A/C jack. Let us know if that doesn't solve the problem.

[Xenofon]

Larry, thank you VERY much.

You were right it was a heat problem. Now it works fine!!!!

Although I keep my laptop clean I haven't realized that dust could enter and stay inside. I have the 5150 since December 2003 and this is the 1st time I blow the dust!!!

Be4 the fan was working ALL the time, i.e. from the time I was pushing the on button till I turned off my laptop.

Now this not the case anymore, even when I play games it does not work 100% of the time.

Finally, I have another question. Is there a possibility of further upgrading the laptop's graphic card Geforce Go5200 64Mb? Either more memory, or another model? Of course not through Dell!

[LSudlow]

Unfortuntately, the 64MB FX Go5200 is the best we're going to get. A couple of years ago, there were rumors of a company planning to sell upgraded parts for laptop owners, but it never developoed into anything. Even moving to 128MB, which our current cards should support, would be an enormous help.

I'm glad the dust problem is solved!

[halo_djk]

Hi,

I'm mainly using my 5150 for playing music videos fullscreen on tv out. But I just noticed a sort of "Chopping" effect through fast moving objects on the TV, that I normally only expect to see on a computer monitor!

I have noticed that the settings for Pal/B seems to set the card to run with a refresh rate of 60. But at 25 frames per second, how would 25 devide into 60? On our game cube, the default refresh rate is 50HZ, with interlaced that would devide into 50 correctly. An option on some games allows you to set it to 60HZ for tv's that support it, but it seens to give the same result as I'm getting with the PC.

I suspect that on fast moving objects, the bottom or top half of the screen is being refreshed, while the other half is waiting for the thext refresh, thus the chopped looking picture.

Is there anyway to set the driver for a 50HZ refresh, to fix this, as the settings won't allow anything other than 60HZ?

[LSudlow]

I don't know of any way to do it. You can set the refresh rate for the external deivce separately, so it shouldn't normally be a problem, but the lowest available frequency for any device seem to be 60hz. However, the tearing you see might have a couple of other causes:

- I think I've set the default vsynch to "off." If you turn it back on, it might help.

- The other problem is with Windows Media Player. If that's the player you're using, there is a glitch that causes a strange diagonal line from the upper left corner down to the lower right corner, as if two frames are being displayed that don't quite line up. Many people have complained about this, but as far as I know, nobody knows what causes it or how to fix it.

[halo_djk]

Thanks for the reply, I'm actually using Virtual DJ. The tear is Horizontal. Will try the vsync switch, Hmm where is it? =)

[LSudlow]

It's on the Performance and Quality page of the Nvidia control panel.

[halo_djk]

Found it, and it solved the problem, Your awesome! Thanks, =)

[halo_djk]

:) Ok, More Bad Luck!

This has happened on the odd turn since about ver 91, now on 97 I have a firm repeatable cause to the sympton.

On 91, while changing the size of images in adobe photoshop (IE Free transform, grabbing image with mouse and resizing), I would sometimes get a blue screen of death (BSOD) with the lised error on NV4_DISP.DLL. It was annoying, but as I didn't do It every time, I had to hust bite it and hope it never happened during a show (I DJ from this PC). Now with ver 97, I found the other day, that trying to drag and drop a large mpeg file (IE; 700MB) across the network into vegas 7, I get the same error, everytime i try, and have to restart. I figured it was a problem with vegas, even though the same error .DLL was shown!

Now today, I try draging and dropping two files with a size of 1.1GB total within windows, from My documents, to a network drive, I'm getting the same BSOD! And everytime I try.

I Google BSOD and NV_DISP, and I find a site that is trying to sort the problem out for quite a collection of people, they suggest it's ahardware problem, not a software problem, and I start to fear the my hardware may be faulty!

Just for a giggle, I reinstall, (after uninstall) the orig DELL drivers, from '94 (their latest) 67.42 and the problem does not happen! Remember this has been happening from time to time with 97, 91, and 94 (from memory).

Anyone else seen this, and did anyone else find the latest driver, that "Doesn't" perform this nice party trick. I'm aware I'm proberly one of few, but perhaps I'm not the only one. Larry, your a smartie, love your suggestions too, you've been a great help before..

Kym

Edited February 5, 2007 by halo_djk

[LSudlow]

You might not like my recommendation, but you really should avoid the 9x drivers. Try 84.25 with my 84 inf and you should be fine. You should uninstall your current driver first (in Windows Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs), just to be sure all traces of the 9x drivers are out of there, and do a clean install. Let me know if that doesn't solve it.

[Xragon]

Hey,

I'm about to try the newest driver 97.92 with your inf, any suggestions... do you think there is going to be any issues with it?

I know a lot of this is trail and error, but what driver from the 97 series do you suggest? Or are they all pretty much the same from a performance point of view?

[LSudlow]

The only one I've tried is 97.44 and it works pretty well for me. However, as you can tell from some of the previous posts, there are some issues with the 9x drivers that some machines and/or apps can't seem to get around. Go ahead and try it, but be prepared to drop back to the 8x series if needed. (84.25 seems to work well for most 5150/5160 owners.)

As I've mentioned earlier, don't try to do an upgrade installation. There's something about the 9x drivers that doesn't seem to upgrade or downgrade well. Instead, uninstall your current driver in the Windows Control Panel and do a clean install of the new driver. Do the same thing again if you decide to drop back to an earlier driver.

[sdz]

Arg!! I can't get anything other than the Generic Microsoft Driver installed, which pretty much runs everything slow.

Computer: Inspiron 5150 (3GHz P4Mobile) 1GB RAM

Video card: NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 (32MB)

Windows: Vista Business

INF: nv4_97_disp.inf

Driver: 9754_vista.exe (from this site)

I have tried this on several 97.xx versions of the NVIDIA driver downloaded from this site (all with the same issue). The driver listed above is the one that this post applies to.

These are the steps that I do:

1) Extract the files from the self-extractor

2) Copy the 5150 INF from this thread to the driver directory

3) Change the DriverVer line from the nv_disp.inf in the driver directory

4) Go through the "Have Disk" method

5) Load the INF file from the driver directory

6) Select "NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200"

Then the error occurs: The system cannot find the file specified.

I have been unable to find anything that says what file is missing, but I noticed that the CatalogFile in the [Version] section points to a file that does not exist. I've tried changing it to each of the .CAT files in the directory, but I still keep getting the same error.

What am I doing wrong?!?!?!

Which driver should I be using w/ any of these INF files?!?!?

All I want is something better than the Microsoft driver!

Help!

... also, I tried 88.61 for vista (with and without the associated) but it just showed garbage on the screen....

... also, I tried 97.44 for XP w/ this INF file which did install, but turned out to be EXTREMELY slow and the dialog boxes for video were buggy

Edited February 22, 2007 by sdz

[LSudlow]

As you've discovered, my infs are only for XP drivers. I need to update the information in the first post to reflect that.

You can use Vista drivers with either the native inf or Pieter's, and Pieter's is the one I recommend if you want to try to get Aero Glass to work. Unfortuntely, with only 32MB Video RAM rather than the required 128MB, your performance likely will be intolerable.

Your best performance under Vista should be with an XP driver, my inf, and Aero Glass turned off. You can still use the Aero theme, just without the transparency effects.

Of course the "Windows Classic" interface will be faster still, but most people prefer Vista's eye candy.

[LSudlow]

February 22, 2007 update:

- Returned StartType to "System" since the "Plug & Play" setting caused problems for several people. It also seems to be a bit faster.

- Clarification that these infs are for XP drivers only. They won't work with Vista drivers.

As always, let me know if something doesn't work correctly.

[Greyclaw]

Ok, I'm pretty much at the end of my rope, here's my situation and I hope someone can shed some light on this for me, as I've been all through this thread and several others and have had no luck getting this corrected.

I have a Dell Inspiron 5150 with nVidia Go5200 64 MB GPU. Recently I dropped it but thankfully had the completecare warranty so they pretty much gutted the body and replaced the innards. I've been busily reinstalling software and upgrading drivers and am having an issue with the nVidia drivers. Previously, if I wanted to watch a movie on the television through the laptop, whether it was through PowerDVD or BSPlayer, I would connect via Dualview and my video would appear on the TV in full screen and the laptop in normal resolution. Now however I get no video on the TV screen at all unless I go into Clone mode and switch to full screen. I used to enjoy the Dualview mode because I could easily work in the laptop screen while sending videos to the TV in a pinch, and now can't do this. I'm not sure which driver set I was using before, but I now have 97.44 installed with Larry's 97 INF as well. I've tried all the suggestions about VMR and video overlay with no luck.

Hope someone can help

Thanks

[LSudlow]

Greyclaw, try dropping back to 84.69 or 84.98 and see if it works. I've seen reports from others of DualView problems with the 97 series. (You'll probably need to uninstall 97.44 before installing the earlier driver.)

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

[Greyclaw]

Greyclaw, try dropping back to 84.69 or 84.98 and see if it works. I've seen reports from others of DualView problems with the 97 series. (You'll probably need to uninstall 97.44 before installing the earlier driver.)

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

Ok, so tried the 84.98 and then the 84.69 series drivers and still no luck... I haven't changed the software I use to play back video (even using the same old version I had before) but can't get the second display to show the video in dualview. I must have been using one of the old 7x.xx drivers previously. I like the performance enhancements I've been reading about and will likely switch to 97.44 if I can't get the dualview to work, as it works well enough in Cloneview...

GC

[LSudlow]

You may have been using 72.14 ot 71.44, which were the last two drivers to fully support all features of the Go5200. PowerMizer support was lost after those versions, and other problems started cropping up as well.

I'm currently using 84.98 without PowerMizer, in my case because I want the Oblivion enhancements, but it's definitely a tradeoff. If you can live with Clone mode, then your plan sounds like the way to go.

[LSudlow]

May 30, 2007 update:

- Minor tweaks to all infs to maintain compatibility with current nvidia practice.

- Added NV_94_Disp.inf to enable installation of the new 94.24 driver. Note there is a long pause during installation that looks very much like a crash. Given enough time, it should recover and complete successfully. Note also that the 90 series drivers require that older drivers be uninstalled first before upgrading.

- Still no customized Vista inf for the 5150/5160 as I have several apps that force me to stick with XP for the moment. I do plan to create one in the future, though. In the meantime, Pieter's Vista infs should work fine - just without the 5150/5160 customizations that I add.

As always, please let me know if anything doesn't work correctly.

[LSudlow]

After a rather nasty crash with the new 94.24 driver, complete with some scary snapping sounds from inside my case, I've removed my recommendation for it from the top post.

In fact, I can't really recommend any of the 9x drivers for the i5150/5160. All seem to have problems of one kind or another, and many cause serious crashes. I've dropped back to 84.98 for now.

Here's my rundown of recommend drivers for the 5150/5160:

67.66 is the fastest and most stable driver for the 5150/5160. ...Period.

If you need something more recent, try 71.44. It's the most recent (and last) driver that provides PowerMizer support for the Go5200 GPU. 72.14 supports PowerMizer but is six months older than 71.44.

If you are running a game or app that requires something more recent than the above recommendations, try 84.98. It contains all the game and app tweaks that Nvidia made prior to July 1, 2006, and I've never had a crash with it. It lacks PowerMizer support, so I've locked the GPU at the derault speed in the installation. You'll have slightly shorter battery life, but not as bad as you might think. And of couse you'll have a lot of game fixes and tweaks. 84.98 is my driver of choice for now.

[eric_craven2005]

I don't know of any way to do it. You can set the refresh rate for the external deivce separately, so it shouldn't normally be a problem, but the lowest available frequency for any device seem to be 60hz. However, the tearing you see might have a couple of other causes:

- I think I've set the default vsynch to "off." If you turn it back on, it might help.

- The other problem is with Windows Media Player. If that's the player you're using, there is a glitch that causes a strange diagonal line from the upper left corner down to the lower right corner, as if two frames are being displayed that don't quite line up. Many people have complained about this, but as far as I know, nobody knows what causes it or how to fix it.

Hi Larry,

I am having the problem you describe of the diagonal line when playing a movie, I have tried a lot of different driver versions and even in the v67.66 I have that problem. Also it is not a problem related with the player as it happens also with Real PLayer and the magnific VLC media player. Do you have this problem too?...as it is very annoying. Have you hear anything new about it?

Thanks a lot for your help.

Regards,

Eric

[LSudlow]

I still have the diagonal line too and have never figured out what causes it. For a long time I could get rid of it by reverting to an old version of Media Player 10, but I lost that file in a hard drive crash and all recent version have the line.

I don't think it's driver-related. It only happens (for me) when playing files that use the Nvidia DVD decoder. The decoder is a year old now and I keep hoping for a newer version that fixes the problem.

Edit: Your post prompted me to experiment a bit and I may have found a solution. Go into the Nvidia Video Decoder options and uncheck the Hardware Acceleration button. Presto! No more diagonal line.

I don't know what we're losing by turning off Hardware Acceleration, but the image looks about the same to me. Probably just using more CPU cycles this way. I'll be interested to hear if this works for you.

[eric_craven2005]

Hi again Larry,

First of all thanks for your fast response. I am afraid I have not been able to check your solution yet as I dont know where to find the Harware acceleration button that you mention. I would appreciate any help to find it.

Thanks

e

Edited June 13, 2007 by eric_craven2005

[LSudlow]

They don't make it easy to find. When you play a video that requires the decoder, you'll see the decoder icon appear in the System Tray on the Windows taskbar. Right-click on it and choose "Decoder Properties." The Hardware Acceleration box is on the left side.