Larry's INFs for Dell 5150/5160

[LSudlow]

That narrows it down, which is good! And yes, 71.44 is still the driver of choice at the moment.

[LSudlow]

May 9, 2006 update:

I fixed a pesky problem that was preventing application profiles (game profiles) from loading properly. They should work fine now, but if they don't please let me know. Thanks!

[Guest Guest]

I'm using 71.44 right now but anytime a video plays in a game it is always choppy. I get sound and video in only a few second at a time. Movies and everything else play fine. It happens even on older games. Nvidia, activision and other logos are also choppy. Is there some setting I need to turn on or off to fix this?

[LSudlow]

Try disabling VMR on the Overlay Settings page. (Or try enabling it in whatever media player you use.) VMR is the wave of the future, but is much more resource-demanding than hardware overlay is.

If you're using Windows Media Player, check the settings under Performance\Advanced. The VMR boxes are obvious, but it's not so obvious that the overlay boxes under them will override the VMR setting. Play around with those settings, with the Nvidia VMR switch enabled and/or disabled and you should find a combination that works.

Also, make sure FastWrites is enabled in the Nvidia control panel. It's critical for smooth video.

Good luck!

[Guest Martin]

Hey guys,

Have been reading over Luriahs problem, sounds like the prob I'm having with my 5160 atm....I've tried the 71.44 set as well as several others, even with the modded .infs my pc is still slowing down when i play any game, never mind recent ones, i get slowdown on things as old as Doom.

so i'm guessing i need to get rid of some dust? i've just formatted my HD and reinstalled xp, and i'm still getting some degree of slowdown and my pc still gets hot very quickly, the fans at the back of my pc where my g4ce go fx 5200 is are pumping out hot air.

my question is how exactly do i access these fans, as Dell's website/manuals/tech support has not been v helpful. and is a can of compressed air the right tool to use?

thanks very much for your help,

martin

[LSudlow]

You're describing a classic overheating problem. But before taking apart your 5160, get a can of compressed air and blow out the cooling fins inside the port on the rear panel, next to the power adapter jack. That solves the problem most of the time.

If not, find the 5160 service manual on Dell's website. It's a series of PDF files that walk you through the disassembly/reassembly process. In your case, you only need to remove the keyboard and wrist rest to get at the fan.

Good luck with it!

[Guest Martin]

One good clearout later, and all is well thank you.

However, I found that I was still getting a choppy framerate at times. When I updated my card with the most recent drivers from Dell this disappeared. I was running the modded 71.44 drivers beforehand, maybe I didn't replace the .inf correctly. Just thought I'd let you know. I know the Dell drivers are old, so maybe this wouldn't suit newer games.

Appreciate the help.

martin

[LSudlow]

I'm not surprised... The older drivers definitely are faster. In fact, I think the 48 series has never been topped for sheer speed. 67.66 is still the fastest DX9c driver and is close to the Dell version you found. Unfortunately, those drivers don't support some modern games, so we try for the best combination of speed and support we can find.

Unfortunately, things become significantly worse with the newer drivers. 72.14 is the higest driver that supports our version of PowerMizer. And drivers higher than that are much slower, with the 80 series being the worst. The advantage of 71.44 is that it's a relatively new driver (January) that supports PowerMizer and new games too. In fact I'm using it for Oblivion, which is about as tough as you can get at the moment. 67.66 ran Oblivion faster, but with too many graphic artifacts.

Our motto always is to use what works best for you. If you like the Dell driver, you might try 67.66 with my modded inf, just to gain the extra features. It's a solid driver that's about as perfect for the 5150 and 5160 as we're likely to see, as long as you aren't running software that requires something more recent.

[Guest mike]

I'm trying to use the new nvidia windows vista beta 2 drivers on my dell 5150 but i can't get any of the infs to work. it keeps saying that they were intened to use with windows and im not using windows but i am.

[Guest Guest]

Great site you've got here! You guys put a lot of hard work into it! Keep it up! I was wondering if anyone else was getting the same problem as me.. I've just installed Vista beta 2 (5384.4) on my 5150 (64 mb 5200) and I've tried every possible driver and forceware (even the new ones) but I can't seem to get the glass effect to work. Has anyone else experienced this problem? Or is the glass effect not supposed to work for the nvidia 5200 in the higher vista builds? Any info would be appreciated! Thanks!

Cheers

[Guest Campbell]

Hi Larry,

Thanks for all the hard work on this INF, I've been successfully using it for over a year now. Just got a new usb TV card for my laptop so need support for DxVA. I've been using 67.66 for some time and, more recently, the 71.44. Are they meant to support DxVA? If not, can you recommed any in particular that do support it?

Cheers,

Campbell

[LSudlow]

Both fully support DxVA, so you should be all set. Let us know if you run into any problems.

I'm glad the inf is working for you!

[Guest Mahi]

Both fully support DxVA, so you should be all set. Let us know if you run into any problems.

I'm glad the inf is working for you!

Hi all , i'm new in the forum, i would like to optimize my graphic card by updating the driver.

My computer is a Dell 5160 2.8 ht with a Geforce FX GO 5200 64 mo.

the only games i play is : F1 challenge 99-02 mostly and Counter strike rarely.

I don't know what's the right driver to download that optimizes and make faster my graphic card.

Any advices ?

Thank you in advance.

PS: sorry for my low English level , my fisrt language is French. :)

[Guest rbscene]

I have installed the Driver using the nv4_disp.inf, and it installs fine, but I still can not enable the Windows Visto Visual Styles, it keeps erroring saying "the visual style could not be applied". I have a Dell 8600 with a Geforce FX G0 5200. Any suggestions.

October 24, 2005 update:

- Vista Glass effects are now enabled in all infs and all drivers. (Be prepared for slow performance and bugs with Glass effects enabled.)

This only works on Vista - it should have no effect on XP.

Be warned there are many bugs with glass effects in Vista, including crashing bugs and inability to play certain games. We're still waiting for nvidia to release a decent Vista driver, but this should work until one arrives. Remember, you can always switch to the "classic" interface for fast, stable performance and relatively few game problems.

Let me know if this change causes any problems with XP. (It shouldn't)

[LSudlow]

That's my fault for not deleting that text. Unfortunately, Microsoft removed the ability to force Glass with XP drivers several builds ago, so our tweak no longer works. I mentioned it in one of the changelogs but forgot to fix the main page. My apologies!

You can use one of the new Vista drivers to get Glass to work, but it's still pretty slow on the 5150/5160.

[Guest JarredNotCanned]

Hi Larry,

I'm running a 5160 on XP Media Center Edition with the 7.1.4.4 drivers and your modded .inf

THAT is a recent change, and only one in a long chain of attempted fixes. We all know how long ago the 5160/5150 came out...and during all that time (which for me included a deployment to Iraq)...I had no video issues on the games I like...ie: Counter-Strike 1.6, Battlefield 1942: Desert Combat, or Rise of Nations. No problems whatsoever. Within the past couple months, I've developed a serious issue during gameplay. Immediately after starting CS or any big game....I'll have about 5-10 seconds of clean video, and then I get total laggy chop for about 10-15....and then it clears back up for a moment again. Rinse. Repeat. You get the point. I've bounced around on different drivers and your modded .inf's. I'm at the end of my rope here. Ideas?

JarredNotCanned

ps: I went thru a lotta threads on here and double checked my nView settings for max performance..etc

[LSudlow]

Hi, JarredNotCanned...

Your problem sounds like heat, especially since it happens during gaming. When the Go5200 overheats, it drops back to half or 1/4 speed until it cools off and runs at full speed again. The 5150 and 5160 are both very prone to this. Fortunately, the solution ususally is easy. Just get a can of compressed air (the kind with a tube to direct the blast) and thoroughly clean out the cooling fins in the vent on the rear panel, just next to the A/C jack. You should see a pretty good puff of dust come out. In most cases this solves the problem, but let us know if it doesn't.

Good luck!

[Tabs]

Hi,

Ive read through this forum many times and I'm still totally confused!! Im a complete noob wen it comes to video cards.

I have a Dell Inspiron 5160 with a 64MB Nvidia GeForce FX Go5200 Graphics card, with a version of 6.14.10.6742 (from the dell website). Could you please help identify which update for my card would be most suitable for playing Counter Strike Source.

Thanks

Tabs

[Guest JarredNotCanned]

However dumb it made me feel....it worked. Thanks LSudlow.

[LSudlow]

Tabs, try driver 71.44 with my nv4_disp.inf. It's a very good driver that will get the most out of your display. (But don't expect fast performance from any driver. The Go5200 is not a good gaming chip.)

JarredNotCanned, you shouldn't feel dumb at all. Virtually ALL of us learned about that problem the same way.

[Guest Guest]

I just wanted to ask you, have you performed a benchmark test against your 71.44 driver and Omega Drivers' 66.93?

I'm using omega drivers' 66.93 at the moment (as it is the latest one out before he put in on hold) and i was wondering if your 71.44 performs better than this.

could you help me bench this? its at www.omegadrivers.net

[LSudlow]

I haven't compared against Omega, but I have benched both 66.93 (using my inf) and 71.44. 66.93 is slightly faster than 71.44, but only by a few points.

[HaMsTeYr]

But based on what u tested, the new drivers perform slower than the older ones? i'm the kind of person who loves updating stuff, including drivers O_o I'll trying running an Fps test or 3d Mark test against ur 71.44 and omega's 66.93 sometime...

[LSudlow]

Please let us know your results when you do. Thanks!

And yes, illogical as it sounds, newer drivers almost always tend to perfoem slower than older ones once the GPU has been replaced by a newer series. Nvidia always optimizes their drivers for the newest series of GPUs while still trying to maintain compatibility with older GPUs. This means adding code that doesn't apply to the older GPUs, slowing things down. Even worse, drivers in the 7x series (and up) are optimized for cards that have at least 128MB RAM, which our Go5200 doesn't have.

In our case the fastest drivers I've benched have been in the 53.xx range, although they aren't DX9c compatible. The fastest DX9c drivers are in the 66.xx series. 71.44 is just a tad bit slower, but seems to be more compatible with recent games like Oblivion. It's not enough slower to matter, which makes it the best choice for current games.

[HaMsTeYr]

I'll bench it later... for now i feel like crying coz i have such a shiyt laptop... i dun even have the chance to get a new laptop yet coz i'm waiting for the arrival of Vista Home Premium >_>

I'll fps test Battlefield 2 and see if i can get my pc to run 3d Mark 06 O_o