Nvidia GT335M driver problems  

Hey guys,

I got a Alienware M11X with a GT335M, and all of the sudden it wouldn´t play games.
Now i already tryed Dell´s official website where i put my service tag in, it gave me the drivers i needed.
At least those are the drivers that i should need, now that didn´t work since nothing has changed.
So i went to the official Nvidia website, that has the nice feature of looking up what drivers you need.
Now this is where it gets really strange, the website tells me i dont have a GT335M but this:Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family.
Well i dont know what that is since i have been using driver´s for the GT335M since i got this laptop.
And if i ty to run nvidia config it tells me that i don´t have a nvidia graphics card.
If one of you knows what the problem is please respond because i really don´t know whats going on with my laptop.

Peace, SilentSunday

P.S.: The nvidia website also tells me this:
The manufacturer of this system requires that you download the driver for your GPU from their support site.

The GeForce M series and GeForce Go series notebook GPUs use drivers that have been customized by the notebook manufacturers to support hot key functions, power management functions, lid close and suspend/resume behavior. NVIDIA has worked with some notebook manufacturers to provide notebook-specific driver updates, however, most notebook driver updates must come from the notebook manufacturer. Additionally, the desktop GeForce graphics drivers will not install on Geforce M series and Quadro M series notebook GPU's.

Hello there, here you have the links for the Intel and Nvidia downloads:

Intel 4 Series: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=19470&ProdId=2991〈=eng

NVIDIA DRIVERS 266.58 WHQL

Maybe your Graphics Card is not enable on the BIOS, i think Alienware uses some kind of hybrid, when plugged in or gaming, it uses the Nvidia, when on battery, it uses the Intel to save some power!

Check those out and try to install them :)

SilentSunday, would help to know which of the three possible CPU's that model can come with is in yours. If it is this one,

Intel® Core

then unless Dell/Alienware has done something off with it (power settings, display settings, etc) from the reference Nvidia specs, then the reference Nvidia driver should work.

In your case the fact you say you now have this,

the website tells me i dont have a GT335M but this:Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family.

says to me that you have either of these two CPU's in it,

Intel® Core

Intel® Core

both of which have Intel graphics integrated into the CPU, then the reference Nvidia drivers will not work with it; neither will the reference Intel driver for that matter. If it is either of the above then you can only use the driver (or drivers if they are separate downloads) for both the Intel and Nvidia from Dell/Alienware, as they will have been modded so that both will work together; they will not work as separate or individual GPU's.

They are set up to work as switchable graphics, with the Intel being used for normal low graphics power needs and switching to the Nvidia for high graphics power needs (games, etc).

Wouldn't happen to have Windows Update set to automatically download and install updates would you? Have a feeling that is what happened and an update for the Intel showed up and got installed (have a quick look at the update history in WU), which then killed the Nvidia driver. If it was WU download the necessary driver(s) from Dell, uninstall both the Intel and Nvidia video drivers through Programs and features if present, then install the driver from Dell. That should get both back up and working.

Also if it was WU and it is set to automatically download and install, might be a good idea to change it to download and notify. Then if a video driver update does show up, don't install it.

Hey stormy,
I´m gonna try that out right now =D

SilentSunday - you're out of luck - as i am. your lap has nvidia / intel HD hybrid video using two video cards, one built into the cpu by intel, the other the discrete nVidia one. this is a nice idea attempting to give you more battery life. unfortunately it's only about a year-old technology that does not (yet) work.

currently why you can't play games is because the nVidia drivers have disappeared from the system - likely due to some power saving setting that's trying to dynamically switch between the two video cards. this is happening intermittently in my system as well (vostro 3400). you CAN reinstall the drivers from dell and be good until they next disappear, which is likely tomorrow.

the problem is that a lot of apps (outlook 2003 for one) don't like it when someone changes video-cards on them behind their back.

so we can:
- wait a decade until our apps catch up to what's going on.
- take out every display-related power saving feature and hope for the best.
- get dell to release (or find someone who can hack) a bios with video options so that we can take out the intel HD before the OS boots. at that point we'd be able to use generic nVidia drivers and have a stable system, albeit with a shorter battery life.

what stormy is suggesting about behind-your-back -intel graphics upgrade may be right - you do have to have both the drivers installed from the same package so that they know about each other. currently there's two sources for these drivers - your manufacturer, and, depending on your nVidia flavor, a feller named nautis on laptopvideo2go forums.