M17x R4 - Trying to upgrade with Clevo 980m

[Skyl3r]

Hello all,

 

I purchased a Clevo 980m to upgrade my current system as described below:

• Alienware m17x r4
• 24GB (8+8+4+4)
• i7-3920xm
• GTX 680m
• SVL7 A11v2 Unlocked BIOS
• Windows 10 Professional

 

I was able to install the GPU with no major issues. (Had to remove the clevo backplate, and use the clevo screws instead of the Dell screws).

What I attempted to do to make the GPU work was the following:

1. Before install, I set laptop to UEFI, disabled legacy ROM, enabled Windows 8 Fast Boot. I also left switchable graphics on, because I am fine with Optimus
2. I booted the laptop and did a clean install of Windows 10
3. Windows 10 automagically detected my hardware, including the 980m. So I tried just downloading 980m drivers from NVidia and installing them
4. The 980m does not work. It shows in Device manager with the yellow exclamation point saying "Windows has detected a problem with this device ..."
5. So I tried running DDU, then modifying the INF by following the guide here https://null-src.com/posts/nvidia-notebook-driver-inf-mod/post.php (I searched for a device in the Dell/Alienware .inf that had a PC model code of 0551 which I obtained from the hardware ID of the 980m, then cloned that line, changing the GPU model code to reflect the 980m's GPU model code. Then added an entry into the [Strings] section for it.)
6. I had the same results after installing the drivers with my (perhaps incorrectly?) modified INF. I tried rebooting with PEG only and Integrated disabled, then running DDU and reinstalling using the same modified .INF and had the same results. Windows loads fine, and ONLY shows the 980m in device manager, but still says it has an issue.

 

Above is what I did in the order I did it.

Does anyone have an idea if I did something completely wrong or I missed a step or anything? I heard this was the best place to ask

 

 

 

EDIT:

 

This has been solved now. Thanks much to naightmehr. The solution was a correctly modified .inf file with the right driver version. 

If you find yourself in the same situation try installing some old driver verisons. The one that worked for me was 352.84! Rock on fellas!

Edited July 22, 2018 by Skyl3r

[naightmehr]

I believe Windows 8 fast boot should be turned off.

 

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

[Skyl3r]

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)

[naightmehr]

15 minutes ago, Skyl3r said:

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)

 

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.

[Skyl3r]

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?

Edited July 20, 2018 by Skyl3r

[naightmehr]

17 minutes ago, Skyl3r said:

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 am very uncertain if I did it correctly.

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

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 and in case whether you're uncertain if you properly disabled driver enforcement, you can also turn windows testsigning on

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/install/the-testsigning-boot-configuration-option

 

If testsigning is on it'll show a watermark in the bottom left corner of your screen, that way you'll be 100% sure that the driver will be installed (unless the inf is incorrect)

Edited July 20, 2018 by naightmehr

[Skyl3r]

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.

Edited July 20, 2018 by Skyl3r

[naightmehr]

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.

[Skyl3r]

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.

Edited July 20, 2018 by Skyl3r

[naightmehr]

I thoroughly explained everything you need to know in this post 

 

[Skyl3r]

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? 

[naightmehr]

Section24 applies for the specific guy I responded to, section24 being the gtx765. 

 

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_05511028 if this is your ID then we can split those numbers up into 3 groups

 

GPU CODE

Laptop model code

Laptop manufacturer code

 

Now I just downloaded the latest drivers for the gtx980m to use as an example, if you use CTRL+F you want to look for this string

 

NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.0709.1028 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M" <- this one has the 13D7 ID which is your gpu and it has the 1028 ID which means it's DELL, you only got to change the 0709 to 0551 

 

Now we will use CTRL+F on the code from that string being NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.0709.1028

 

Then we find this section %NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.0709.1028% = Section160, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_07091028 

 

Now we only need to change the laptop model code to yours: 

 

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

 

NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.0551.1028 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M

 

^ these 2 strings are the ones you need to paste in your inf.

 

Keep in mind though every time you download a new version of the nvidia drivers the section changes but once you know the proces it's pretty easy to mod it yourself

[Skyl3r]

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.

[naightmehr]

Replace the existing section 160 line with the modified one, you can't have two section160's

 

And you need to add this line under the "GPU strings" 

NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.0551.1028 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M"

Edited July 20, 2018 by naightmehr

[Skyl3r]

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

[Skyl3r]

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

[naightmehr]

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?

I quickly modified the inf with the correct strings, try if that works https://www79.zippyshare.com/v/NCgbpgSZ/file.html

Edited July 20, 2018 by naightmehr

[Skyl3r]

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.

Edited July 20, 2018 by Skyl3r

[naightmehr]

Did it properly save the strings in the nvdmi? Because by default you can only read it and not save, so be sure to take ownership over the nvdmi.inf

[Skyl3r]

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.

[naightmehr]

Yeah those are the correct BIOS settings, now turn testsigning on using this guide https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/install/the-testsigning-boot-configuration-option

 

And try to install the drivers again

 

Oh a realisation just hit me, the gtx980m might have a legacy vbios since that's the last card which still supports legacy, so if this doesn't work you can try setting the bios to legacy instead of uefi.

Edited July 20, 2018 by naightmehr

[Skyl3r]

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

 

 

 

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

[naightmehr]

Yeah that's correct, try installing the drivers now with testmode on, if that doesn't work with FULL UEFI, try legacy.

[Skyl3r]

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

[naightmehr]

My mistake then, guess the gtx980m has a UEFI vbios. I can't really think of anything right now honestly, the strings look correct, you got testmode on and since you can get into windows the bios settings should be correct so it's not a bios-related issue.

 

I guess you can try to use an other section instead of section160, maybe try section 154. What you might also need to replace is section153 and section154

 

%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.0580.1028% = Section153, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_05801028 

 

%NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.0580.1028% = Section154, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_05801028 

 

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

 

Try using these strings, if that doesn't work then I'm completely out of ideas.