TqM

Sorry, I figured someone else with more hands on knowledge with the 2015 AW15 would reply.

No, your current power supply is plenty for overclocking what you have in there.

If you research complete benchmarks for people using any rig with a 980m, even AW laptops (17 included), nobody ever needs more than between 150 and 190W total with their machine. The 980 and 970 are both very power efficient, you'll likely create heat damage on your board before you top out your power supply.

Hi J95,

The driver install keeps failing with the new modded INFs. I'm installing for a 970m, win7, m15x.

Not sure why it's failing.

EDIT: Tried a DDU before hand too. Still getting a fail on the install status.

EDIT 2: From my setupapi.dev log:

"

{DRIVERSTORE_IMPORT_NOTIFY_VALIDATE} 20:55:39.376!!! sto: INF hash is not present in the catalog. Driver package appears to be tampered. Filename = C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\Temp\{50db7426-51c3-168f-cdfa-d5682d36ca0f}\nv_dispi.inf, Error = 0xE000024B

! sto: Driver package appears to be tampered but user wants to install it anyway.

"

EDIT 3: Has anyone had a successful 970m install with the new .inf(s) for 358.50?

I solved my own problem by just copy & pasting the manufacturer hardware strings from one of the older nv_dispi.inf's into J95's new one.

Quote

• Extract driver using 7-Zip
• Display.Driver folder -> copy/overwrite the proper .inf file
• Extracted driver package -> run setup.exe

nv_dispi.inf (copy nvdmi.inf too) PEG/Dedicated All Models: M15x, M17x, AW17 R1, M18x, AW18 R1 (including Optimus/M17xR4) excluding AW 2015 - GTX 980M , 970M , 965M , 880M , 870M , 860M , 780M , 770M , 765M , 680M , 675MX , 670MX

nvcvi.inf: Optimus Alienware 17 / 05AA (only) GTX 980M - 970M - 965M

GeForce 358.50 WHQL

2. I still have CPU TDP throttle... What settings should I set in the BIOS to prevent this? I have BD PRODCT disabled along with MSR... Maybe @Mr. Fox can also help?

Download ThrottleStop.

http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware/9548-alienware-15-17-r2-2015-vbios-mod.html

Go to url follow Prema's links.

Why is no one responding to this? Where are the modders???? please help with this

Nobody is responding because with the slightest research you can find regularly updated sources for both of these things.

It is a Dell 240W FWCRC with its middle pin intact. Most of the time it won't get recognized by the BIOS. Same behavior in my AW17 as well. Showing up as unknown whereas it should show as a 240W. I found a picture on T|I that shows 240W in a M15x if connected to a 240W adapter. I wonder if it is totally dead or just the ID chip that is acting up.

Yeah, that happens. The definite cause is beyond anyone. Some people seem to solve it by pulling the middle pin, for others that doesn't fix it.

I personally had this issue with my original 150 PSU and I continued to have it with my 240 PSU which makes me believe in my case it is not the PSU that is acting up.

I've resigned to simply pressing the F1 prompt every time I boot up, because it takes less time to do that 1-second long action over the remaining lifetime of your computer than it does trying to find a solution to the issue. I guess it all depends on how much it annoys you.

Thank you @J95.

Thank you for your reply. My brain is overheating after reading all pages of this thread and I just need a working driver, which to install and what file to use to overwrite and do i need to flash ? for the 970m on A 18xR2

First post of this thread covers the install process. Link to the most recent AW INF is usually posted in J95's signature. This is currently v350.12.

Although with the universe hopefully on our lazyside, @J95 is already working on 352.86. (Insert insurmountable gratitude for J95 here)

You'll need 5 hopefully decent posts before you can DL anything from TechInferno.

Information on flashing vbios can be found in the General Notebook Discussion.

Seems like Geforce 352.86 WHQL drivers are out today in anticipation of The Witcher 3.

Hi, im new to the site i know this is not a reply but anyway heres whats up i have an alienware m15x i want to upgrade the gpu to gtx 970m i found but its for a clevo laptop i dont know if its compadible. and if i upgrade will i need to upgrade my ac power adapter ? its a 150W.

If it is the 970m 6gb for clevo from rjtech, yes it is compatible. Yes you should probably upgrade your power block to a 240W.

This is why I'm currently upgrading my M15x. It'll be dust before I move onto an MXM based unit.

Thinking about upgrading my memory as well as going to an SSD. Is CL9 that much better in speed (especially for gaming) than CL11 memory?

You probably wouldn't notice the difference yourself but you would see it if you benchmarked.

My rule with ram is to buy the biggest, fastest, best RAM I can afford (<<<keyword) that will still run in my machine. If my machine ever dies and I buy a new one, chances are i can then buy a machine without upgraded ram and switch in my old ram.

Use the Nvidia Drivers. OEM drivers are often behind and eventually they'll stop certifying the drivers for your device.

The only downside is that some features within OEM drivers might not be available in Nvidia Drivers. An example of this is on my M15x. OEM and older Nvidia drivers allowed audio-out via display port, newer Nvidia drivers have that specific audio-out via displayport on my card disabled.

However i can always use the regular headphone jack for audio out.

The upside is that the drivers are optimized for new release games and other graphical needs.

Whichever way you go, Dell will eventually stop releasing drivers for whatever card you have and you'll have to start using Nvidia drivers if you want to stay with the times.

If anything ever goes wrong, you can always roll-back to an older driver.

It might be due to Windows 8.

Are you sure you don't have another system setting overriding the performance state? Windows 8 has a few extra power management (and other setting) convolutions than Win 7 did.

Do you have CC installed? Do you have AlienFusion active?

Have you monitored the temperature of the GPU while under stress?

Indeed.

In all honest anyone who is looking to overclock a notebook GPU will find a way around not being able to do so via Nvidia's native drivers.

If someone trying to overclock doesnt have the forethought to seek out the many brilliant people online who have figured out how to do such, then perhaps they shouldnt be overclocking anything.

Ok i went with a i7-720qm and a AMD firepro M5950 same as the 6770m(I could not pass up the deal $29.99 free shipping). I read it will be a little slower in games but from what i seen no more then 5 fps nothing a slight OC wont fix. But i cant see dropping $400 plus on a GPU. When i could get a second GTX 970 for my desktop for cheaper then that not to mention i have 2 other gaming laptops.... this was more of a tinker toy then a dedicated gaming machine. Ill keep you guys posted when the parts get here. And i get them installed. Also i should not have to get another PSU/power brick seeing on how this will only pull like 17 watt more then the current set up! Thats not to say i would not upgrade the GPU later on just cant see the reason to now.

A 210w or 240w brick wouldn't hurt by why bother unless you really need it.

Yeah the GTX 970m is very pricey right now, but it wouldnt surprise me if along with the GTX 980m that they become some of the last new GPUs to fit in a stock M15x. Although there are always surprises waiting around the corner. Really the only reason to upgrade the GPU to a 970m is if that m15x is your primary gaming machine and you want the portability.

I'll be buying a 970m soon simply because i'll get more out of my m15x than I could on a comparably priced Desktop built from scratch. It is my high end gaming machine so it makes sense. But as you have 2 other gaming laptops you should really just treat this like a good midrange refurb job unless you want to sink money into it.

One could also do a extreem mod like this.....

[ATTACH=CONFIG]14271[/ATTACH]

I like the way Mike thinks.