M11xR2 Nvidia 335M Optimus

Upon updating to the latest version, the only game where the GPU actually switches over is Bulletstorm.

This is confirmed with the tools and task bar icon which monitor the GPU status.

Starcraft II, it thinks about it but blinks idle for a moment but ultimately remains off.

Need for Speed HPII used to work, especially if I right clicked, but it cleary now DOES NOT switch to the nvidia GPU.

I'll experiment with some steam games.

Any help is appreciated, I've spent most of today experimenting with driver versions but the post are so old I have no idea what actually works in the last 6 months.

The sticky is nice and full of information, I wish I read it prior to purchasing this used. My brother never had any issues, but in my infinite wisdom I upgraded the drivers and have no idea what was on it before.

For what its worth, I am adding them to the white-list correctly and even watched the video that baby steps it just to make sure.

 

why not when gaming just set it to use the Nvidia gpu as default instead of auto. i have mine on the nvidia gpu only all the time unless on battery and not gaming.

 

I do, but that however doesn't seem to work either, it still is off. The R2 doesn't have an option in the bios to default to the nvidia GPU. I wish I could have just done that because rarely am I using the computer for word processing one moment than racing down canyons the next.

 

playing with more options I discovered bulletstorm wasn't actually using the Nvidia GPU for graphics (performance proved that) but just for physx. Changing physx to CPU showed the GPU idle at that point.

Its strange for Startcraft, its kind of thinks about starting by going to idle for a moment than clicks off.

Is there any windows service I should look into thats supposed to be running for this?

 

Is there the possibility my GFX card has failed at a hardware level? What can I do to test that theory? This laptop has been through a lot. "You'd know if you asked" From what I gather both the CPU and GFX card are integral to the motherboard?

Was so simple troubleshooting desktops, just open the side and have it swapping out an EVGA GeForce 6800 suspected of hanging the system with with my old trusty ABIT GeForce 4 Ti4200, or run an extra display with a PCI MX440 (my first graphics card actually which I dumped in a HP Pavilion 8750C, that I also put a 1GHZ PIII in to up from its original 667mhz, played DF: Black Hawk Down like a dream!) Anyone else remember the quarterly at best reformat/reinstalls required for windows 98? Oh yes and the days of NF7 series.

I am surprised that the display outputs are all on the intel side, but I suppose if there were to be a failure, it would be on the Nvidia side, because exotic stuff...breaks.

That should lighten the mood a little if my other posts came off angry. I also realize this is a bad little laptop, since it can get away with using the intel chipset with a few games cranked down, that is pretty good. Just wish I could get it working

EDIT: well browsing forums and such it decided to start up for mozilla and internet explorer, go figure.

 

so you have done a custom CLEAN install of the nvidia drivers so it removes all the nvidia drivers reboots then finishes the install. Then you go in the the nvidia control panel set it to prefer max perfomance and single display performance and also set the gpu to prefer the nvidia card and also set physx to gpu from auto, set the intel onboard to it LOWEST settings? just the few things that should be done. just asking to be sure.

 

Green, I think I'm having the exact same problems you are. I too was wondering if the GPU could be physically broken, because it has no activity whatsoever. I'm going to try a clean install of the latest driver and see how that goes. Please let me know if you find a solution!

EDIT: Just did a clean install of the 280.26(?) drivers (I had 275. or 272.xx (I'm really bad at remembering numbers, lol) installed, which caused the original problems for me) and followed HisSvt2's suggestions as best as I could, but I still have the same problems so far. In the case of Shogun 2, it lets me play the game but not select any graphics options above Low, and it only detects the Intel HD graphics. I might need to go back to the 270.xx drivers if this can't be resolved

 

Haven't been that specific with the settings, but I did a clean install of both the intel and nvidia drivers, including driversweeper. Changed the settings like you suggested and still "no dice". Most likely will try one last time switching to the 275.33 driver because I believe that might have been the magical driver for me. Only other thing I could think of is one of the recent windows updates doing something, but those are all windows stuff.

Will do, just a tad bit frustrating is all. Not even sure what I did really to have it stop working, thats why I wonder if it is a hardware failure.

Startcraft was playable at one point, now its 3 fps at 1024x768 in replays.

I downloaded the nvidia inspector, whatever the VPU is, its active a lot, and when I go into Startcraft, it kills all activity to 0%, upon exiting it spikes everything for a moment at 100% then goes idle to off.

 

very strange ive had no such issues with the 280 series drivers, are you guys overclocking gpu or cpu's?

In mine i can oc the cpu to 166 with the I5 but the nvidia gpu did not like ocing at all so i left it along with the settings i mentioned and never had a issue but i also have my windows power profile at high performance also.

 

I usually OC the i7 cpu @ 160, but I don't know how to OC the gpu so presumably it's not. I've tried it without any OC too, doesn't seem to change anything unfortunately. I am in maximum performance mode, and I checked every detail to make sure nothing would be limiting the GPU or anything else. UAC is off, I temporarily disabled my AV (Symantec Endpoint Protection), ran the application as an administrator and using the NVIDIA GPU, and the game still only recognizes the Intel HD processor.

I suspect it might be Shogun 2's fault, as I haven't tested this with other modern games, and they recently added a new step when it launches. Before the game really starts, a window pops up that lets me choose between DX9 and DX10 modes (couldn't run the DX11 mode even in ideal conditions). Neither option changes the issue I'm having, but maybe this 'intermediate' step prevents the GPU from being used for the real application after?

 

all OEM specs on mine, rolling back to the 275.33 via uninstall, driversweep, safemode etc, made Starcraft II playable, it was certainly not using the Nvidia GPU, or at least not to its fullest. All the helpers to tell me that the Nvidia GPU was on/off/idle either side idle for a moment or off.

However with this driver (275.33) the GPU indicator icon in the taskbar blinks on and off activity constantly now, like a beacon, on.off.on.off etc, but shows no programs using it.

If I had a windows 7 disk I would have just "began a new" by now. That will most likely occur when I take leave end of September.

 

Alright, I've gotten it to work with other games: GPU-Z shows it's load and temperature increasing when it should, and the games run great. Shogun 2 is still not working correctly though, so maybe I should just bring this to their forum.

EDIT: I haven't been able to get Shogun 2 to recognize the NVIDIA GPU instead of the Intel HD, but by following the advice here: http://forums.totalwar.com/showthre...Workaround-manually-define-GPU-in-preferences , I've been able to play it at the settings I want anyway. Hope this helps anyone else having the same issue.

 

tried that gpu-z program, locks up when I select the nvidia gpu and try to view other pages in it.

 

Works in starcraft, I think, see attached image. Frames are improved, other games...not so much. Still claims GPU isn't doing anything though.