DELL XPS M1730

SLI Graphic Issues

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Radot
view post Posted on 19/2/2008, 13:59




Hi all,

I am the prowd owner of a new Dell XPS 1730 specced up with 2.4G Core2 Processors, Ageis Graphic accelerator, 4Gb RAM & 2 x 7200rpm 200Gb Hardrives, it came with the Nvidia 8700 GT. I could not expect any less then a laptop that would just "scream" through any graphic torture... ;)

I have been using it for 2 months and play well known MMO World of Warcraft. Graphics are superb not to say unbelievable compared to what I was getting with my previous Dell inspiron 8500 with P3-2.2Gb, 64Mb graphics card & 512Mb RAM. That is.... when it works! Grrrrrrrrrr.... Paid $4500 for a laptop (was tossing between my XPS and a Suzuki Bandit 1200cc...) it wasn't to go through all the following probs:

It appears that when i try to enable SLI from the NVidia UI, the trouble starts... I did after finding that maybe after all i wasn't getting enough performance in game... the Core2 processors just load and jam on 100% and everything falls apart... following that attempt, nothing reverts back to normal again. I did communicate with Dell Support which made me re-install BIOS update and video drivers which appeared to have fixed the problem... that's until i realised that i was not making any use of the SLI technology! The BIOS update had simply reset the lot back to NOT using SLI when in fact, the NVidia UI recommend to enable it specifically for gaming... Grrrrrr again, back to square one from a month ago!

Has any XPS owner gone through similar problems and is there a known fix to this issue? I yet have to communicate =again= with Dell but i am curious to find out if anyone has similar probs.

Thank you for your answers/help if any...

Radot
 
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Petengy
view post Posted on 19/2/2008, 20:12




Hi Radot
Before to buy my Dell I saw around the web about people that had some SLI problems with xps laptops, so the first thing I done was to download from NVIDIA the latest beta forceware drivers for GeForce 8700M GPU.
Inside NVIDIA download area these driver are described for Alienware Area-51 m9750 and Dell XPS M1730.
Maybe for these reasons I don't have problems whit my SLI configuration, but after reading your post I make an experiment turning off SLI conf and trying to play crisiys... and the difference was enormous.
I only could suggest you to download latest beta drivers version number 167.51.
I found them choosing GEFORCE M/GO as product (inside driver donwload window) GeForce 8M series as Product Series andGeForce 8700M GT as Product. I really hope that will solve everthing.
I post the pictures of NVIDIA driver download area.

[IMG]image[/IMG]
 
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Radot
view post Posted on 19/2/2008, 21:03




Thank you for the info Pete, i will try 2today and let you know in a post :-)(I did update some drivers on Dell's advice 1st time i contacted them but they may be different to the ones you tried...

Radot
 
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Radot
view post Posted on 20/2/2008, 05:59




OK... I have updated the NVidia drivers as suggested and that did improve something but there are still problems. The only difference that i have noticed is that i can now actually enable the "use SLI" function which all works except that it has not resolved the processors overload... system starts ok and so does the game but after a short while, it freezes again.

I have also applied a BIOS update that was available from Dell (version 06) and one other windows update that applied to Vista w/SLI (KB945149).

The same probleem is still there and the only way that i can have the computer running correctly is by cancelling the SLI option. Any other idea on what to do next?

Radot
 
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pirulotto
view post Posted on 20/2/2008, 08:56




Dear Radot

All this strange freezing problems, at this point, strongly sounds to me as GPU “overheating” problems.
I hope I’m wronging but in my experience I strongly suggest you to check temperatures of the system (mainly graphic cards) during a deep SLI test…… it could be possible there’s a freezed fan….
Tell me…

…. I really hope you’ll solve everything..

Good Luck !!!!
 
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Petengy
view post Posted on 20/2/2008, 21:39




hi redot

so.... that's could be strange for you... but... I contacted Dell for a big problem I have with their silly Del Media Direct (and their more silly "home" button to boot it) and they answer me with a solution to solve SLI problems.... I don't have any SLI problem....

I post you their solution, maybe there's a possibility it could be useful for you, so here the guide (from dell):

# Open Command Windows (DOS promt).
# In DOS command window, type Regedit and press Enter.
# When User Account Control message pops-up, click Continue.
# Click arrow next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
# Click arrow next to SYSTEM.
# Click arrow next to CurrentControlSet.
# Click arrow next to Control.
# Click arrow next to GraphicsDrivers.
# Click Scheduler listed below GraphicsDrivers.

Here you should found en item named "EnablePreemption", double click on it and set the value to zero (0) having 0x00000000 as result...

If you don't have "EnablePreemption", create it:
Right-click Scheduler, select NEW and click DWORD (32 BIT) Value.
Label the DWORD entry EnablePreemption.
then set the value to 0.

If you don't have Scheduler then create it :

o Click the word GraphicsDrivers.
o Right-click and select NEW.
o Click KEY, type Scheduler and press Enter.

then create "EnablePreemption" as descibed upper and set it to 0

I really don't know what reg key do, I searched around the web and I didn't found anything... so it's up to you ....

In my case I already have this reg key, with 0 as value... Dell didn't help me...I'm very happy.

Hope help you :)
 
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Radot
view post Posted on 20/2/2008, 21:51




Hey guys, Thank you all for trying to help :)

I performed the tests included in the Nvidia control panel addon last night (nforce) and the system passed the tests in no SLI config & SLI config although that was only the 10mins test. I checked the GPUs temp this morning after sleep mode and it is 45C, during the test last nite it was about 51C and i noticed a bit later that it was 57C. I dont know what the running temp should be but no alerts came up and the Bus speeds stayed green all along. The interface doesnt seem to interact with the hard drives atm, SMART fails. Is there anything i can do to get that info working?

In summary, i still havent found an answer to my problem, if any of you have an idea to try i am happy to give it a go...

Bfn
Radot

image

QUOTE
Here you should found en item named "EnablePreemption",

Hello Pete,

Just checked that and it's all there & set properly, was worth looking though :-)
 
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Petengy
view post Posted on 22/2/2008, 23:03




Dear Radot

I hope you'll solve your problem, I have not more ideas.... but really good luck :)

When you will have your XPS working perfectly (I have no dubt you'll solve everything) please post me .....

pet
 
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7 replies since 19/2/2008, 13:59   237 views
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