Skyl3r

Results: 

Just posting this here for safe keeping... time to reboot. Wish me luck...

Good news! That did the trick!

Thanks a bunch!

On 7/23/2018 at 8:47 AM, Klem said:

On your screenshot i see that you try to flash Clevo's vbios:  https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/167297/clevo-gtx980m-8192-141030

Try to flash attached vbios.

Thanks!

Should I use non modified drivers or should I do the inf mod?

I'll try it as soon as I get home.

Thanks, but unfortunately I'm still getting the same Code 43 error. Just to clarify, I did try other versions of drivers (365.10 and 372.54) with the same results.

This is very strange to me that 352.84 works fine but nothing else does.

Is there any risk involved with flashing a Dell VBIOS?

I'm getting this and it's making me nervous

On 7/22/2018 at 11:32 PM, Klem said:

Try to flash this vbios. Just run command file flash.bat

After you successfully install new vbios, then reinstall original stock Nvidia drivers (without any modifications) with DDU utility.

Thanks Klem.

It seems to have done the exact same thing as before.

What I did exactly (nothing more and nothing less) is:

1. Run backup.bat - got backup.rom file
2. Run flash.bat - got success message saying changes will take effect after reboot
3. I rebooted, then rebooted again into safe mode
4. Ran DDU to remove current drivers and rebooted
5. Installed drivers 398.36 from NVidia with no modifications (I didn't touch the inf file)

I'm still getting the "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)" error

Here's the VBIOS as obtained through GPU-z

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1151CXDkrjitb-h8QU6Mp8gMSryQ0TSrp/view?usp=sharing

Thanks!

9 hours ago, Klem said:

Hi!

Try to flash SVL7 A11 Unlocked BIOS v2 from this thread:  

 

Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately I'm still getting the same results with newer drivers (or seemingly anything other than 352.84)

29 minutes ago, naightmehr said:

Weird, I'm afraid I can't help you any further then, if I had a gtx980m myself I could've tried some things :-/

No worries, thanks for all the help! I at least have a functional graphics card now even if the drivers are old.

I'll keep trying things and if I can make it work I'll post what I did.

30 minutes ago, naightmehr said:

What if you use DDU to uninstall the driver and then right-click on the gtx980m and select update driver and then use the browse driver menu to refer to the nvidia driver?

Not successful. Here's the results:

That's with 398.36 with the INF you provided me.

Unfortunately still the same results

I'll keep testing things out and see if I can figure out what's going on. Thanks again for all your help!

I definitely agree it's weird and could be 100% my fault.

This is where I got it: http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/84891/en-us

Here's my .inf: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zXQ4GZdZVcisrrSyH-QrII0-NQlFDwqD/view?usp=sharing

Also, interesting to note, the newer drivers don't give an incompatible message like the old drivers do.

EDIT:

I'll also mention that I was able to play games on the 980m and they performed pretty much as expected. So it's definitely fully functional. Just need to figure out how to get newer drivers on there now

I'm about to try driver 372.54. I wish there was a convenient way to search old drivers.

EDIT:

No luck. I'm highly suspicious of my inf modding skills.

Well, I decided to just start installing drivers one at a time going backwards and I found success. Driver 352.84 installed fine. I still gotta do some testing, but my next step is gonna be roll forward to current and see if it stays working.

EDIT

Installing current drivers broke it again. Going back to 352.84 for the moment.

I'm following that guide right now, so we'll see the results.

I figured I'd try to flash Dell VBIOS just to see what would happen. I created the DOS bootable flash drive, enabled SG, integrated graphics, switched to legacy mode, tried to run NVFLASH and it says there's no NVIDIA device in the computer. So I'm a little bit confused about what I should to make this work given I have to flash it under Legacy mode and it can't be detected unless it's on UEFI

Should I be running DDU between each attempt at installing drivers?

Ah... Same results with Section 153 and Section 154.

Since this Windows installation was initially done with Intel and NVidia both enabled, I'll try a fresh install with only the 980m enabled to see if it makes any difference.

Also, is there a possibility I would need to flash a new VBios? Or any stock clevo one should work?

I know the seller of the card mentioned something about Premamod, so I'm not sure if the BIOS on this GPU is stock or not.

Installing with testmode yielded the same results. I tried enabling Legacy and hitting reboot, now I get 8 beeps. I'm questioning whether I hit the wrong button on accident...

Gotta throw my old GPU in there and set it back now

This is an indication that I've done it right, correct?

Should I just enabled the Legacy ROM or completely disable UEFI?

Yes, I had it extract to the desktop so I wouldn't run into any write permissions issues.

I checked BIOS and here's where things stand right now. I just reverted everything back to default.

It's still set on UEFI with Legacy disabled and Windows 8 Fast Boot disabled.

Under Video Configuration, Special Features is enabled and primary display is PEG

Under Internal Graphic device I disabled Internal Graphics Device

Under Pci Express Graphic I set Always Enabled PEG to Enabled

Besides that everything else is default.

18 minutes ago, naightmehr said:

And you modified the inf for the lastest drivers which is 398.36?

 

Also try using testmode instead of turning driver enforcement off, driver enforcement turns back on the moment you reboot your system so that's very unreliable

 

And did you modify the correct inf being the nvdmi.inf?

Yes the driver version I have is 398.36

I tried testmode per the link you provided above with the same results.

I modified nvdmi.inf and replaced the lines you mentioned based on the hardware ID I have here:

These are the new lines:

%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.0580.1028% = Section160, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_05801028 

And under [Strings]

NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.0580.1028 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M"

Perhaps it's something incorrect in my BIOS? I'll note my settings in just a minute.

Well, it isn't working yet.

What I did is:

1. Disabled Windows 8 Fast Boot
2. Reboot into Safe mode and run DDU (First time I tried to install drivers I had Switchable Graphics on, I heard that can cause problems)
3. I then modded the INF file according to your (naightmehr) guide and rebooted holding shift, then press 7 for Disabled Windows Digital Signature Enforcement then installed. I saw the screen flash so I was getting hopeful, but unfortunately the results are still: 
4. So, I downloaded the drivers titled: M17xR4_05511028_9xxM_385.41_W10.zip from the Eurocom site and tried to install those. When I run the setup.exe I get the message: "This graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware".
5. I tried 382.05, but it's still the same results as with the new drivers and my modified .inf file.
6. NVidia Control Panel is NOT there.
7. I am still in PEG mode

Thanks! I was definitely doing it wrong before. I'll be able to try this out in about 2 hours.

Wow thanks for going through all that to help me!

That definitely clears it up a lot. Now, I've got just one more question, and sorry if I'm missing something, but I'm trying to make sure I fully understand what's happening. Should I be adding those lines in addition to the existing lines or replacing the existing lines?

IE should the end result be:

Quote

 

%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.0709.1028% = Section160, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_07091028 

%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.0551.1028% = Section160, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_05511028 

 

Or should it be just 

Quote

%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.0551.1028% = Section160, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_05511028 

?

Again thanks a bunch for all the help  you've provided  I'd buy you a beer if I could.

Wow, nice! That is very helpful indeed!

Two things which I didn't find perfectly clear:

Quote

Now to find the correct section is actually quite easy, just use CTRL+F and look for an existing string with 11E1, in the newest drivers you can use section24, this is the existing string  %NVIDIA_DEV.11E1.05A9.1028% = Section024, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_11E1&SUBSYS_05A91028

You said in the newest drivers you can use section24. How would I know what section to use in the drivers for my system? I recall there's about 5 different device ID's that match my GPU code 13D7. I believe each one had a separate section #. Does it matter which one I choose?

The second question is, should I be modifying existing lines in the inf or copying the existing lines then changing the copied line? 

40 minutes ago, naightmehr said:

If you get into Windows with PEG mode then at least it's not a faulty graphics card so that's a good thing, just getting the appropiate drivers installed can be a tedious proces, it took me about 4-5 hours to figure out how to correctly mod the inf for my gtx1070, but now that I know how it works I can mod the newest drivers in less than 5 min.

That certainly is good news  

I tried to follow the null-src guide, which in general is a good guide. It's just when it comes down to formatting the device ID based on an existing device ID in the .inf file, I don't know how to choose which device ID to choose. 

The guide says to choose it based on "Existing device ID from the .inf corresponding to laptop manufacturer which has the same GPU model code as your GPU"

So my hardware ID is (I believe, working from memory):

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_05511028

That means to me I would look for a device ID that contains the laptop manufacturer code 1028 as well as the GPU code 13D7, then replace the rest of the device information in it with the information in the hardware ID, leaving the Section number the same.

I couldn't find any such device ID in the inf, so instead I followed advice from a forum that said find ANY device ID  that contains the same laptop model code as your laptop. Mine was 0551, so I found one with that laptop model code and replaced the rest of the info with the info from my 980m and tried installing.

This is the confusing part to me with the .inf. I don't know which device ID in the inf I should select to modify.

15 minutes ago, naightmehr said:

Geforce experience doesn't really give a good answer to whether the drivers are correctly installed though, if you right click on your desktop and you're able to open the NVIDIA control panel with all the options allowed then it's properly installed.

 

http://downloads.eurocom.com/support/drivers/upgradeyourlaptop/Alienware/ - You can find some older drivers here, they're primarily to test if they install or not since they got the correct modified inf. If they install, then your own modified inf is incorrect. If the older driver does not install then it's a different problem, but I suggest testing an older driver first before we get to that. In case none of the above works I guess you can run your laptop in PEG mode, not sure why you'd run it in optimus anyway considering it means you're going to have to specify for each game when to use the 980m.

Oh okay, I'll test that as soon as I get back to my laptop this afternoon.

Thanks for the link! I'll definitely try that. And just to clarify, I tested the laptop first with Switchable Graphics, and could not get the 980m working, then I switched it to PEG and got pretty much the same results. It boots up fine and I get into windows in PEG mode with integrated disabled. I just can't get the 980m  to function right.

So when I get home, I'll disabled Windows 8 Fast Boot, see if I can get into NVidia control panel and try the eurocom drivers to see if I get any new results.

17 minutes ago, naightmehr said:

 

But have the NVIDIA drivers even installed? When my nvidia installation goes wrong I get no errors the program just closes but nothing has been installed, that's why I'm asking if you see any nvidia programs installed anywhere and what happens when you open those. 

 

Make sure that you disabled the windows driver enforcement and that you modified the nvdia inf properly, if you're unsure whether you modded the inf correctly try downloading an older version of the gtx 980m drivers and see if those work for you.

Oh I see. I saw that GeForce experience was on the desktop but I never tried opening it. I'll see if it works.

I did disable Windows drive enforcement before trying to install the INF modified driver. I should have mentioned that. I am very uncertain if I did the inf mod correctly.

Is there a certain age of driver I should be looking for? And just out of curiosity, why would an older drive work?

16 minutes ago, naightmehr said:

I believe Windows 8 fast boot should be turned off.

 

Are the nvidia drivers correctly installed? Does the nvidia panel work etc?

I'll try disabling it when I get back to my laptop.

Nothing that should use the graphics card seems to detect it properly. The installer went through "Detecting hardware" then said it would install Graphics Driver, 3D Vision, etc. After that it installed and gave no errors; but the GPU still has the yellow exclamation point on it and applications aren't able to use it (IE, I tried to run a 3d benchmark, just to see and it said it failed to initialize the video mode)