M4800 Owner's Thread

You are bang on about the issue and its UEFI only causing this. I tried the F12 during boot and it boots from SSD when I chose SSD from the options, but however it does not remember during the next reboot, unfortunately it does not stick (seems like UEFI is again causing this).

I will try this out with Linux Live CD/Gparted as I have used it previously and delete the UEFI partition. I have couple of follow up questions:

1. Either I can use Gparted to delete the UEFI (there is a related question below, with UEFI removed, can I boot from same HDD/Windows using legacy boot option?) or boot the Workstation with F12 option into SSD and format the HDD itself (which should wipe out the UEFI as well), will this work (BTW, I do not have any data on this HDD) and use this HDD for storage only?

2. I want to allocate 10-15GB to Linux on SSD to dual boot into Win8.1/Ubuntu, but looks like the UEFI partition on the SSD will cause issues during dual boot and wont work, and I did some search and most suggest to disable the UEFI - http://www.windowspasswordsrecovery...isable-uefi-secure-boot-in-windows-8-1-8.html Even though this disables the UEFI/secure boot in BIOS (and choose the legacy) the UEFI partition on SSD/Windows stays and throws error while boot that it cannot find valid partition to boot.
If I delete the UEFI on SSD with GParted and try legacy boot? Will this work or it will corrupt the boot and have to install everything?
Can you suggest any solution for this?

 

1. You can use the HDD for storage after the UEFI boot partition is wiped out. You just won't be able to boot the old Windows install. (I'd actually recommand deleting all partitions and creating a new one that spans the whole drive if you intend to use it for storage and don't care about stuff already on it.)

2. You cannot switch between UEFI and legacy boot on the fly. They actually use different partition structures and you have to use it the way that it was set up originally. (There is actually a procedure to migrate from legacy to UEFI, but it's a one-way process, going back is a bit more tricky.)
I haven't tried it but I think getting a dual-boot with Linux --- I just run Linux in a VM when I need it --- but it should be workable. Most modern Linux installations support UEFI and can share the UEFI boot partition with Windows. You may have to press F12 at boot to select which one you want to use. You might have to disable the "secure boot" feature of UEFI, which I think is what the article is referring to (this is not the same as disabling UEFI altogether), if the Linux UEFI bootloader is not signed by a key that your computer likes.

 

Thanks Aaron for quick reply, will let you know how it goes. Appreciate your help.

 

Were you folks able to install the latest graphics drivers from nVidia? http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=J0R0M
I am getting an error saying its not compatible with windows 8.1. I have Windows 8.1 with 2100M graphics card on my M4800.

Also, I see that - http://www.dell.com/support/home/us...ct/precision-m4800-workstation/drivers/simple "Detect Drivers" (Automatically detect driver updates for your system.) is not working on Dell website, anybody else facing the issue as well?

 

The driver auto detect never works right. don't trust it.

As far the latest from Nvidia, why not actually get that direct from them rather than from Dell?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I always get the drivers from NVIDIA directly. You can search here:
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us

The latest driver for the K2100M for Windows 7/8.1 is:
http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/93632/en-us

For my home system I actually use the GeForce drivers which run a little newer. Although it says they are for GeForce, they install and run on the Quadro without hassle. (Newer drivers take longer to work their way out of beta on the Quadro side.) Depending on what you use the system for, you may like having the features from the newer drivers, or you may prefer the stability/certification of the Quadro drivers.
http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/94210/en-us

 

Is there any difference between geforce and quadro now? Are they basically the same with a few minor tweaks? I know you guys can install geforce drivers on a quadro but what about quadro drivers on a geforce? Could you edit the .inf file and make it work like that.

 

The nVIDIA driver releases support a multitude of GeForce and Quadro video cards all within the same driver set.

I use LaptopVideo2go for my drivers (and I have for many years now) without issues.

When I get home, I will post more details about drivers for my K2100M on that site.

Edit: Information for K2100M drivers for Windows 10 x64

Here is the site: LaptopVideo2go Win10 x64 K2100M Drivers

 

Thanks, got the update from Windows update itself (before that had issues with the switchable graphics) and drivers got installed correctly (before that nVIDIA drivers were corrupted and it was refusing to come up).

But, with this switchable graphics thing, I do not know if its me, or if that's how it is designed, let me tell my observations.

1. With switchable graphics enabled - After boot, nVIDIA comes first then screen goes blank for a second or less and loads the Intel graphics (before screen goes blank for a second, on right click there will no be Intel graphics option), later comes up, can see both nVIDIA control plane and intel graphics options on right click. While system is up and running, at times I see screen going blank for a second or less and comes back fine, not sure if nVIDIA tries to see if it has to drive display through nVIDIA and not intel graphics?
2. With switchable graphics disabled - I have a Dell 22 Inch FHD display connected via DP on Pro2x USB 2.0 dock, once in a while (may be like 10-15 minutes once) the screen goes blank for a second and comes back (at this point if I have the laptop lid open, I do not see the laptop screen go blank, everything is fine there).

Questions/doubts:
1. I am not sure if I am using it correctly or not and this is normal with this kind of dual graphics option of its a bug/issue that I am facing and need a fix?
2. Also, when switchable graphics is enabled Power source is mandatory (Is there a requirement like that, I do have laptop connected to power always, as its on the dock always?)?
3. With switchable graphics enabled, is there a way we can manually select the graphics adapter it should use during a certain point of time?

 

Regarding switchable graphics. I have switchable graphics enabled on my M4800 and I haven't had any screen blanking issues like you've described.

Here's how it works.
With switchable graphics enabled, the Intel GPU *always* drives the internal display (and VGA display if you have one connected). The NVIDIA GPU drives all other displays (HDMI, DVI, DisplayPort --- except there is a BIOS option to allow the Intel GPU to also drive one of the DisplayPort displays on the dock, disabled by default).

Let's take the case where the laptop is undocked and you are using a single display, the built-in laptop display. The Intel GPU always drives this display. The NVIDIA GPU can be used to drive individual programs --- this can be set on a program-by-program basis --- and whatever the NVIDIA GPU renders is quickly shuffled over to the Intel GPU's frame buffer to be composited on the screen. This is NVIDIA's Optimus technology.

So, it's not like a Mac where only one GPU is active at any given time. The NVIDIA GPU may be used for certain programs, but the Intel GPU always drives the final output. The NVIDIA GPU will power off when it is not in use by any programs, saving you power.

By default, the NVIDIA driver tries to guess which programs you want to use with the NVIDIA GPU and which ones should run with the integrated GPU. You can override this default behavior as well as per-program options in the NVIDIA control panel. (I have mine set to default everything to integrated graphics, with only some specific programs set to run on the NVIDIA GPU.) And also, you can open any program shortcut and select "Run with graphics processor -->" to choose which GPU to use.

If you have multiple displays, the displays driven by the Intel GPU work as I outlined above and the displays driven by the NVIDIA GPU work sort of in reverse.

It is never the case that a power source is mandatory. You can use both GPUs while on battery, but not at full speed. The system can only draw 100W from the battery but it can draw 180W from the wall.