New challenge: Nvidia Optimus driving me crazy

babum

Hey guys I come to you asking for help and offering you a challenge. my alienware m14x is supposed to come with two cards, an intel and a nvidia 555 with nvidia optimus making the switch between them. the problem?
Im dividing it into three parts as to what I know:

1-whenever I try to play a really demanding game (crysis 2, prototype 2, etc) It doesn't open, the screen goes black for a second and the app closes. with prototype 2 it gives me an error: "couldn't initialize direct3d".

2-now If I go to device manager and disable the nvidia card from the list and try to open the game it runs (of course very badly). however, If I try to run the game on the intel without disabling the nvidia card it gives me the same error.

3- If I leave the nvidia card enabled, connect the laptop via hdmi to a tv and play the games they run flawlessly.

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I'm assuming that the HDMI port is connected directly to the nvidia card and if it plays it means that the card is physically okay. could it be the resolution the problem? the screen?

az09za90za

1-whenever I try to play a really demanding game (crysis 2, prototype 2, etc) It doesn't open, the screen goes black for a second and the app closes. with prototype 2 it gives me an error: "couldn't initialize direct3d".

that's because the Nvidia card didn't start..the intel card is the game using it..

2-now If I go to device manager and disable the nvidia card from the list and try to open the game it runs (of course very badly). however, If I try to run the game on the intel without disabling the nvidia card it gives me the same error.

the same here..the intel card is the one getting in work..

3- If I leave the nvidia card enabled, connect the laptop via hdmi to a tv and play the games they run flawlessly.

I'm assuming that the HDMI port is connected directly to the nvidia card

its not a problem in the card..that's the way optimus work..the change between intel and nvidia is automatic..
to fix this u can do 2 tricks.
1.right click on the application (game,..) choose 'run with the graphics processor' then 'High-performance NVIDIA processor'
2.Extend you're screen resolution...right click desktop...go to screen resolution...press detect ..and configure the virtual screen...

hope this help..

babum

hey man, thanks for the help.

step 1 I have tried it before but doesn't work, though I was checking and games such as bf3, rise of nations, slendergame all run fine on the nvidia card perfectly normal. Im trying to reinstall crysis 2 to check if I can fix the issue, so far the problem still persists with prototype 2.

For step 2 do you mind explaining more? cause I did detect, it gave me two more screen, an intel and the nvidia. I did Nvidia force VGA and accept. then if I want to put it in extend mode it doesn't allow me to. says unable to save.

thunderman

I believe its a driver related problem,
could you please tell us what drivers are you using for both the 555M and the intel HD ?
are you running win7 x64 ?

babum

yep I'm running win7 x64. the intel drivers I have 8.15.10.2696 (or so says device manager) and for Nvidia I got 304.79 (Just updated it trying to solve the problem).

az09za90za

babum wroteFor step 2 do you mind explaining more? cause I did detect, it gave me two more screen, an intel and the nvidia. I did Nvidia force VGA and accept. then if I want to put it in extend mode it doesn't allow me to. says unable to save.

try to duplicate..i never faced this problem..

babum

nope nothing. it only shows extend, show desktop in screen # and other two options about disconnecting the screen

AvoK95

As thunderman said, it's most probably a driver issue.
Download Driver Sweeper and "sweep" your drivers, now from the manufacture's website download the graphic card drivers , now update your Nvidia drivers by manually downloading them from Nvidia's website to have the latest version for games.

thunderman

Should you wish to try a modded driver i suggest the below driver from laptopvideo2go

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/29712-geforce-30568-modded-optimus-support/

but as AvoK95 said fully clean your current drivers by using driver sweeper before installing those

az09za90za

i disagree with you guys..its not a driver problem..when i first got my laptop with optimus technology , i had these problems.and more. i even mailed the support. i cant find their response right now, but they said that these 'games' (was the gta IV and another one..) are not supported, i searched the internet a lot , I've found these 2 fixes above , and some creepy game patches and custom drivers, the 2nd solution worked for me..so i don't think their is a real fix, u just need to get the nvidia card online , wish is impossible because of the automatic switch between the Nvidia card andthe intel card....

babum

well it's a bit late for me to try sweeping the drivers but I will do that tomorrow. as for az09za90za, I know what you mean but I have seen other people with same laptop being able to play prototype 2 (for example) though it could also be that being a steam game the system is different?

anyhow that fix you are telling about is not working for me yet :S wonder if by sweeping the drivers I could fix it

babum

So good news guys it's working now! what I did:

- uninstall nvidia drivers completely as well as the intel ones.
- go into safe mode and use driver sweeper to eliminate all Nvidia
- make sure that no other nvidia program is installed in control panel
- reinstall Intel drivers and restart
- reinstall nvidia drivers and restart
-check if everything works or repeat process.

thank you all for the help

EDIT: apparently what could have caused the problems in the first place was using combofix. some people are relating it to problems with nvidia optimus