M18X R1 build, please help with GTX 780M Driver?

So I finally installed a bunch of upgrades into my M18X and for some reason the latest Nvidia Drivers for the 780M are giving me a message that I do not have the required hardware to use this driver.

Can anyone tell me which driver version they have working for their 780M so I can find that and save a lot of time checking each one on the Nvidia website?

Thank you in advance and Happy Easter

 

You need modded drivers, check PM

 

Did you edit the necessary files before installing the driver? Did you turn off the driver signature check?

 

No and No Vaeron... New to this. Every time I've installed drivers for a graphics card they just worked. Do you have a link to this process?

 

Guess you'll be having no 780M then if you refuse to use modded drivers.

 

He wasn't refusing to use modded drivers. He was indicating he didn't edit the files and turn of drive signature checking. You can read where he's then asking for a link to the procedure......

 

I wrote he needs modded drivers and he answered me with "no". How isn't that refusing? :'D

EDIT: I thought the first no was refering to my post, nvm then. LeL.

 

Here is a guide for you to modify your device ID

http://null-bin.blogspot.com/2015/08/how-to-modify-nvidia-notebook-driver.html?m=1

 

Thank you guys, and yes I was saying I had not modded the drivers nor turned off the signature checking.

 

So according to that link I need to find this 780 in my device manager and it is not popping up. My BIOS recognizes a NVIDIA device, but nothing in Device manager... any suggestions? Not being able to find it has stopped my attempt to mod the driver needed

 

Yes. When viewed under "Display adapters," I think it will show up as "Microsoft Basic Display Adapter."

It's easier after that. Right click it, then click on "Properties." Go to the third tab, "Details," and click the drop down menu. There should be a line there that says "Hardware Ids."

You'll know which one is yours after that. You can then proceed to editing the required NVIDIA files.

 

I recently installed the 780M card into my M18x R2 laptop which is similar to yours. All good comments here including the link to the null-bin.blogspot in an earlier post. That page is priceless and explains very accurately how to modify your INF driver file necessary for this particular laptop because Dell did not test the 780M. However the board works perfectly fine as in my case after I modified and installed the NVidia modified driver. The rest of this post is how to modify the driver.

http://null-bin.blogspot.com/2015/08/how-to-modify-nvidia-notebook-driver.html?m=1

In the "Display adapters" properties on the "Details" tab you have to click the drop down to select "Hardware Ids" like Vaeron said above.

In my case when I do that here is the hardware ID string that shows among a few other similar ones. This one is the important one that is described by the null-bin.blogspot web page.

Device Manager – Hardware ID from my laptop
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_119F&SUBSYS_05501028 (as seen from the M18x R2 laptop)

There are important numbers embedded in that string:
119F is the GPU code for the 780M. Other GPU boards have different numbers.
0550 is the laptop model code for the M18x R2. You will probably have a different number for the R1.
1028 is the laptop manufacturing code, for Dell I guess. That one will probably be the same for you.

Ok now what do you do with that information? Again the null-bin.blogspot link helps you. But below is run down or summary of what I did.

I downloaded the latest NVidia driver from their website for the 780M notebook driver. As of this post its version 391.35 for the Win7 x64 OS. The Windows 10 may be a different file.

Then run the installer so that it unpacks the files. It will probably continue to install and tell you the hardware cannot be found. Ok whatever NVidia, I know that and I'm about to do surgery one of your driver INF files to fool you into thinking the board IS supported. BTW you have to do these procedures every time you want to install a new driver.

At this location of the unpacked NVidia driver files
<whereever you chose>\DisplayDriver\391.35\Win8_Win7_64\International\Display.Driver\

find the nvdmi.inf file which pertains to Dell/Alienware. Other laptop/PC manufacturers have their own INF files.
Open the file in a text editor.
Search for "119F." (without the quotes) and yes I included the period to help narrow the search. Where you find "119F" is where you put in the laptop model code and laptop manufacturing code that you found from the Hardware Id in Device Manager - Properties.
(Other posts here will say you only need to change the first line where 119f is found but I changed them all to be identical as to avoid any potential problems. I figure this modified driver will never be used on other PCs or laptops.) Read the null-bin/blogspot page (link above) for the details for potential issues with Sections. There may not be a problem but I played it safe.

You want to find the lines for 119F (the 780M GPU) and specify YOUR laptop is a supported choice. So we put in the laptop model code and laptop manufacturing code. For the M18x R2 the 1028 or manufacturing code was already 1028 and I didn't need to change many of them. However I do show them in bold below even though many were the same already.

Below are the 13 lines changed. The numbers in BOLD are where I changed the existing number to be 0550. Again, the code for the R1 is probably different and will be found when you look at the Hardware Id in from Device Manager.

There were different laptop/PC model and some different manufacturing code numbers there. The only difference with those first 12 lines is the "SectionXXX" part which in the null-bin.blogspot link they say may cause a problem if you choose the wrong line with a Section number that causes a problem with the driver installation. So I chose to modify all 12 lines exactly the same while LEAVING the "SectionXXX" alone. You don't want to change them.

The changes I made are the lines in BOLD below. Search for "119F" in the four sections and replace the Laptop Model and Manufacturing codes to be 0550.1028 and 05501028. Note there are two places you need to modify in a line except for the line found at [Strings].

The [Strings] section had 4 lines all with ".. GTX 780M" but you only need to change one of them to include your laptop model code (0550 for the R2) and laptop manufacturing code (1028 for Dell)

[NVIDIA_Devices.NTamd64.6.1]
%NVIDIA_DEV.119F. 0550.1028% = Section086, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_119F&SUBSYS_ 05501028
%NVIDIA_DEV.119F. 0550.1028% = Section176, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_119F&SUBSYS_ 05501028
%NVIDIA_DEV.119F. 0550.1028% = Section080, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_119F&SUBSYS_ 05501028
%NVIDIA_DEV.119F. 0550.1028% = Section179, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_119F&SUBSYS_ 05501028

[NVIDIA_Devices.NTamd64.6.2]
%NVIDIA_DEV.119F. 0550.1028% = Section087, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_119F&SUBSYS_ 05501028
%NVIDIA_DEV.119F. 0550.1028% = Section177, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_119F&SUBSYS_ 05501028
%NVIDIA_DEV.119F. 0550.1028% = Section081, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_119F&SUBSYS_ 05501028
%NVIDIA_DEV.119F . 0550.1028% = Section180, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_119F&SUBSYS_ 05501028

[NVIDIA_Devices.NTamd64.6.3]
%NVIDIA_DEV.119F. 0550.1028% = Section088, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_119F&SUBSYS_ 05501028
%NVIDIA_DEV.119F. 0550.1028% = Section178, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_119F&SUBSYS_ 05501028
%NVIDIA_DEV.119F. 0550.1028% = Section082, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_119F&SUBSYS_ 05501028
%NVIDIA_DEV.119F. 0550.1028% = Section181, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_119F&SUBSYS_ 05501028

[Strings]
NVIDIA_DEV.119F. 0550.1028 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M"

That's it! Save the nvdmi.inf file.
Run setup.exe in the parent folder to where the INF file was found. Run the setup with "Run As Administrator".

The NVidia driver installation will start like you have normally seen it run before but this time with it checks hardware compatibility it will succeed!

During the installation it stopped with a RED popup warning me the driver was not certified. That's okay. Just click the continue anyway button (one of two choices) and it will finish the installation. The 780M will show up as the graphics device under adapter type from the Screen Resolution right click menu selection.

Hope that helps!

-Steve