E6520 Owner's Thread

Wow! That's less than half the cost that Dell charges to upgrade to 8GB. I'm impressed and intrigued.

 

Hey guys - I got a e6520 from the outlet and everything seems fine except for one nagging issue with my nvidia display driver crashing. It seems it only happens when I am using a dual monitor setup with a docking station. Otherwise the driver never crashes. When I am using dual monitor (one vga, one dvi, my docking station only has these 2 display ports) my screen freezes alot, sometimes for minutes and then I get this entry in the event viewer everytime it happens

The description for Event ID 14 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.



also I get a display driver has recovered exclamation msg in my system tray everytime this happens. When I use the laptop without external display it is fine and I dont seem to ever get this msg or freeze up of my display

Is this software or should i swap out my laptop for another?

 

Well, from what I have here, I can tell you that on my E6420, the nVidia control panel shows the Intel graphics driving the internal display and the Quadro driving the two external ones. Since the problem only happens when you are docked and putting on two monitors, try putting the monitors directly onto the laptop to see if the same thing happens (you may need a HDMI to DVI adapter).

The error you pasted seems to imply a problem with the installation of the nVidia drivers. Maybe the outlet image wasn't made for the nVidia version of the E6520. I would recommend grabbing both the Intel and nVidia drivers from the Dell support site, uninstalling them, restart, install the Intel driver, restart, then install the nVidia one.

 

Since all video is still passed through the Intel chipset (frame buffer), it is important to turn off the Optimus feature if docking the system and/or using multiple screens. This way, there is no hardware confusion on what should be driving the additional video feed(s) - the Nvidia 4200M, not the Intel GPU or both fighting to control it via Optimus.

Try turning off the Optimus in your BIOS and see if things clear up. One day, we may have drivers that actually handle the video switching and frame buffer correctly.

Scott-

 

Thanks for the tip AlexF. I am guessing that on the dock it is using both GPU's for displaying and that is causing issues. I will do this test at my work where the docking station is and report back, I hope it isnt a defective card on my end, I did an install from scratch as well as using the factory image and it happened in both instances. THe docking station I am using is also from the previous generation e6510 so maybe that is causing issues also? Connecting the displays directly is a fantastic idea and should clear up if it is a laptop (hardware or software) or docking station issue

Also I know this laptop has an esata enclosure and external enclosure, can I fit any 2.5" harddrive in these enclosures and use it as both an external esata drive or slide it in the slot on my laptop where the dvd drive is?

 

Scott if I disable optimus does it just use nvidia gpu for everything? I dont mind doing this, I am guessing battery life will be less? Is this feasible in Win7 and will I get max 2d and 3d performance doing this? I dont mind if it means my Laptop will function correctly docked and undocked?

And is there a way to set the external displays so it always uses nvidia when docked and uses Intel for the Laptop display? Perhaps if I open the laptop while docked so the laptop screen also displays I can do this? I am surprised docking and external display handling on this line wasnt coded for properly as it is one of the primary reasons I got this line

 

Yes, everything will run through the Nvidia GPU.

Yes, performance will go up and battery life will go down, but not by a huge amount. I only turn on Optimus when I know I will be traveling and need the extra battery time. When docked or plugged in, Optimus is OFF for maximum performance within Windows and my Adobe software.

No, I have not seen a way to do this GPU mixing reliably when docked. Since the Nvidia GPU can handle up to 4 displays, I would just run everything off that. I believe you can have your dock video and laptop screen on at the same time by selecting it (quick key), but I haven't tested that yet.

Scott-

 

Yes, the media bay allows you to use a second hard drive or other compatible module such as the USB 3.0 unit. The hard drive caddy will accept any 2.5" HDD that is 9.5mm or less in height (most will work fine). I use a caddy for a second HDD (Western Digital 2.5" Black series) in the media bay and an external Dell eSata media bay module enclosure for the optical drive. It works well for my use since I rarely need the optical drive now that large flash drives are a dime/dozen.

Scott-

 

Errr, but it should still work even if Optimus is on. I'm using triple monitor (2x U2211H via DisplayPort + laptop display) on my docked E6420 with absolutely no problems (unless the E6520 has something different or glitched). What it sounds like is that it's trying to hand off to the nVidia driver when it can't.

 

Tried it with a different docking station and it did the same thing.

AlexF how are you doing multi displayport, using a dock? I used the dock from my coworker with 2 displayport and 2 dvi and I still get the same issue. Are you using 2 displayport via your laptop ports and if so how? I only have a single hdmi for a digital display port