M50 w/ Quadro4 700GL can't upgrade driver

[carric]

I have wasted approx 3 days on this, and I have not seen ne1 with the same problem.

I am currently running the 6.14.10.5655 with Video BIOS version 4.28.20.25.13. I have the A12 version of the M50 BIOS, and I am running XP SP1 (with all hotfixes). I had to have the mobo replaced due to memory slot issues, and after this, I started getting weird lockups where the screen went black, so I tried looking for graphics driver updates. I started with the released Dell drivers, then started trying different laptopvideo2go drivers, and found that every driver that I tried that was newer than the 5655 driver (also a laptopvideo2go mod), it boots up to a black screen with a single colred band across the bottom. I don't know if my card is hosed or what, but I run the drive cleaner util each time, and I can always get back to a working config with the 5655 drivers, BUT I also have the issue where the video doesn't come back if the machine hybernates. I checked the INF, and it had the mod to fix that, so it must have something to do with the drive.. With 3 kids in the house, it gets shut frequently (you can't RDP in either for some reason) causing me to lose my work, and I think my mind might be next.

I would like to know if anyone else has seen/resolved this, and if there are mods I should be doing. I noticed that Kamika007z has moded his video bios, and added an additional wireless antenna. Right now, it's just a stock 2.4Ghz, 1Gig RAM M50.

Thank you ahead of time.

[Kamika007z]

There is an A13 BIOS release for the M50, it's the same BIOS as the Latitude C840's BIOS, so you'll have to download it from the Latitude's download area. Once it detects the Quadro card installed, then the BIOS will read your machine as a Precision M50.

I don't think this BIOS upgrade would have an issue with your actual video, but then again, install it to get the latest (and final) fixes on it.

Was the video card working fine before replacing the motherboard? Or was the video card and motherboard replaced all together? If so, then there could be an incopatibility problem with your video card, and the mobo, that is, if it's an older revision mobo. I've had an A03 and now an A05 motherboard and they both work fine with an A00 Quadro4 700. You can find out your mobo revision under the ram slots, it's a sticker.

Who replaced the motherboard before? If it is Dell then I would suggest calling them and telling them about your video card problem even if you're out of warranty - they "broke" it, so you can argue it out with them and speak to their superiors about it. I'm sure they will have to help you, especially if they broke something.

And finally, also make sure you try Dell's stock driver downloaded from here and see for a while if it has resolved your issue.

Hope this helps :)

Edited May 22, 2005 by Kamika007z

[Guest Guest]

Yes, I have this exact same problem. As some researching pulled up, it seems that those with Samsung displays and their EDID values and WinXP not reporting them correctly... I'm currently trying everything I can to get it to work-seems like the only way is to either find some i8200 monitor drivers or send it back to Dell and get the Sharp one...

[®®®]

I would be interested in the ID of the Samsung LCD. So can both of you run NERD and attach logfile here?

[carric]

Here is the logfile from nerd: Thank you for the advice so far.. I had TRIED the stock driver from Dell, which had the same problems.

carric.LaptopVideo2Go_LogFile.txt

Edited June 4, 2005 by ®®®

[carric]

I thought I'd address your other questions too:

- It "works" but I haven't tried until recently to upgrade the drive. I finally got tired enough of having the thing black out when it's closed to try and fix it. This is one of the big reasons I want to upgrade.

- It was a Dell service tech sent out on-site that replaced the mobo. It actually runs better than ever now, and I suspect there was always SOMETHING wrong with this box until now, because it was always kind of slow

I have upgraded the BIOS to A13, and now I'm trying the stock driver. I'll get back to you and let you know. I really appreciate your help.

[®®®]

I checked the INF, and it had the mod to fix that, so it must have something to do with the drive..

Do you refer to THAT SEC3255 fix? Have you tried out the EDID override? I updated your memeber profile according to the nerd log :) .

[carric]

OK, I tried the EDID override in both the 71.89 version of the drivers from this site, and the stock Dell drivers (which appear to be 6513), all with the same results; it boots up to a black screen with a bluish band about 2/3 of the way down the screen. I am not sure why only the 56.55 works fine.. it's puzzling. It's frustrating as hell to because just yesterday my laptop got closed, and I had to hard-cycle it (again). Also, XP is in bad shape. I really need to rebuild it, but I am transitioning from using this as my main box to a Laititude D600 from work.

Thanks again for your help

[®®®]

Maybe it's would be best to just try a clean install of XP and Service Pack 2. I can't remember any other M50 user with these problems, so it might also be a hardware defect.

[carric]

Just an update: I am convinced that it's an issue with the screen on this unit. The display works perfectly with an external monitor given pretty much any version of the drivers. I spent about an hour no the phone with Dell tech support, and he had me downgrade the Bios, and then downgrade the driver to a 42.x version. He actually acted like he had fixed the problem ... I was so disappointed. No fixe offered, just basically, "Well, it works now, right?". I ripped them a new one when I got the follow-up survey, but got no response from that. I am debating over what to do.. I think they should give me an M60 for selling me a flawed M50. They sure as hell haven't offered to fix the problem.

[salzrat]

Welcome to the black screen issue!

I know what you are going through, I've been there myself.

Up to this moment, there is no fix available for the problem, so don't waste your time on any other attempts. The newest driver you can use is 65.90. Everything that is newer will not work.

The problem is caused by the Quadro4 700 GoGL not communicating correctly with the Samsung display.

However, since you seem to be in warranty still, all is not lost yet, and I would ask you to continue pestering Dell about this. Don't let them wriggle you off with the old driver.

You have bought a mobile graphics workstation that is advertised to work with a number of workstation applications. Tell them that you need the new driver for these applications to work correctly. The 67.22 is an official Dell driver for your product. If they don't listen to you, ask for the supervisor.

There are 2 possible outcomes for you:

- you get a new screen which is not a Samsung, but a Sharp. I have tried that route, but in Austria the Sharp screens are not used anymore, you only get Samsung.

- you help us get Dell to fix the driver problem.

In principle, the problem must be trivial and very easy to fix. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to get a Dell support guy to take action so that somebody deep within Dell contacts NVidia about the problem.

Have a look at this thread:

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index.php?showtopic=7861

The user Hube has exactly the same problem and is currently going through this with Dell. It might be beneficial if you talk to Hube so that you can refer your Dell contact to Hube's case and vice versa, so that they know this is not a single case, but a more common problem.

I personnaly can't talk to Dell because my machine is already out of warranty (and wasn't an M50 to begin with :)

Finally, the motherboard change you had has nothing to do with it, as you already suspected. It's just that you now tried the new driver that the problem manifests itself...

[®®®]

Great commentary, salzrat. :)

[Hube]

Dell basically changed my monitor to a Sharp rather than the Samsung, there are three other people at work who have this same problem, I have asked Dell about 5 times now what they plan to do about this problem with absolultely no response. I hear that Dell also pulled the 67.22 drivers... If I hear something I will post.

[stugod]

//Merged from other topic. --Bill

Hi, people been searching for months trying to find new drivers for my card that dont exist.. untill i happened upon this site! Im preying to god that they will work as my current drivers are ageing OEM 03' from the dell website - good effort Dell! I understand that Bill (some kind of nvidia driver legend bloke) has the same card as me and was hopin he could recommend what driver is best to squeeze what performance i can for latest games, currently running hl2 and fear ok, trying to run rome total war but failing at the moment - im hoping due to old drivers. It requires 64meg of video memory and the card to support directx 9b... which im not sure the old drivers do. Got directx 9c installed but guessin old drivers arnt up to the job...

The requirements for the game r...

Operating System: Windows 9SE/ME/2000/XP

Note that Windows 2000 and XP you will require the latest Service Packs and administrator privileges

Processor: Pentium III (1000MHz) or Athlon 1.0GHz (1000MHz)

Hard disk 1gb free space (plus 500mb for Windows Swap File)

Memory: 256mb RAM

Video card: 64mb Directx 9.0b compatible hardware accelerated video card

Sound Card: Directx 9.0b compatible

Your help would be greatly appreciated, please dont tell me im not gonna be able to run the game cos i might cry.. cheers! ( any other tips for my setup wouldnt go amiss either :) )

Edited March 18, 2006 by Bill

[salzrat]

Don't expect too much. The card is DirectX 8 only, so none of the advanced DirectX9 features are available in hardware. Those games you mention will only run moderately well if you turn off tons of features.

For older games, the 42.xx drivers prove to be the fastest. For newer games, try 82.10, this is what Bill has been recommending recently.

If you never had any new driver installed, don't panick if your screen goes all black with the new driver. If that happens, you have a Samsung screen, and you won't be able to go past the 65.90 driver.

Michael

[Guest Guest]

mm samsung screen it is then! nothing that can be done to enable use of newer drivers?..

[stugod]

managed to get the 65.9 drivers working as you suggested they would, unfortunately hasnt helped in gettin rome total war to run *sigh* not sure there is any hope :_( tried the newer drivers and as u suggest would happen - screen hangs on startup.

[Bill]

You guys should wait till the driver legend gets here. :)

I would recomend that you uninstall whatever driver you have using the add/remove programs menu, and download this driver.

http://download.laptopvideo2go.com/nvidia/80series/8210.exe

and get the 82.10 INF from here.

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index.php?showtopic=6972 (attachment on first post)

Just unzip the driver, add in John's INF, and install the driver using the have disk method.

If you have a screwy 1600x1200 screen (black bar or missing part of screen after driver install) you need to copy this info into the INF where the rest of the HKR tweaks are under NV_Modes.

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index.php?showtopic=6686

Only try this if it installs but your screen appears all screwed up, like strange colored lines and/or inability to select the full resolution. (like it thinks your 1600x1200 screen is 1400x1050 or something like that)

That game should run just fine on our systems, if there is a demo I will try it out for you.

*searches for a demo*

Also you should tell us what screen you have, no where in your profile does it mention your screen or anywhere in this thread, you could atleast tell me what resolution it is.

Also, I think the 65.9 drivers were busted, dont think you should be trying those. (have bad memory though, those drivers are extremely old, why try them?)

I should have a talk with Salzrat, even if you have a problem, we can fix it with an EDID.

Edit: I am downloading the demo right now.

[salzrat]

Bill, don't get me started on this :)

The issue with the Quadro4 700 GoGL and Samsung UXGA screen is quite old already, and there is no fix. No EDID hack or any other inf file modification will help here.

I have confirmed this already with several other forum members

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index....t=0entry28546

65.90 is the highest we can go. Anything higher, and we get just a black screen on bootup, with a small horizontal colored bar in the middle.

The issue can be fixed by having Dell replace the screen with a Sharp one, but I doubt anybody with this issue is still in warranty for the screen.

I am currently investigating this issue with some NVidia engineers, but they are not very motivated, i.e., this is taking time, and they don't have an actual physical screen to test with...

[®®®]

We would appreciate if you report back the result of the investigation. Good Luck Michael!

[stugod]

Hi guys, im running at 1600x1200, Samsung UXGA. 65.9 drivers. Got the game to run - was an exe. issue in the end! Would still be nice to get the new drivers to run though... i had a look at that post Bill; couldnt work out which info i needed to add to the INF (im a moron i know) U reckon that will get me past the 'black screen of death' ? cheers...