big problems with my NEW laptop

[99GrandAmSE]

so I tried updating my video drivers to increase performance a bit, but now nothing is stable.

Any graphic intensive program generally results in crashing after a few minutes of playing. The game/program will just 'stop responding' and crash to desktop. I don't know what to do....anyone have any ideas??

[mepis]

It's very hard to help diagnose with such little information.

Please give:
hardware specs
laptop make and model
original driver version
new driver version and where you got them


With that being said I can at least help you a little bit. Download Driver Cleaner (http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=745) and run the program. Follow the instructions specifically making sure to boot into safe mode and everything exactly as it says.

After you have run driver cleaner download the appropriate drivers from either ATI or Nvidia and install them. If you are looking for better performance try Omega Drivers (http://www.omegadrivers.net/) for both ATi and Nvidia cards, or the NGO Drivers (http://www.ngohq.com/home.php?page=Latest) for both Ati and Nvidia.

I personally had to switch again to modified drivers to squeeze every bit of performance out of my card since I have a nvidia 6150 and went with NGO. I prefer Omega drivers but NGO offers more compatibility in the way of laptop cards.

[99GrandAmSE]

sorry heres the specs

xps m1530

2.4 Core 2 Duo
256mb 8600m gt
3 gig ram

[hajalie24]

Do a system restore from when you installed the drivers?

[mepis]

Do a system restore from when you installed the drivers?

Did you install drivers from nvidia's website or from Dell's?

If this is the first driver update the nvidia drivers could be causing conflicts with the installed ones from Dell. Without reformatting or doing a system restore I would follow my steps above. Use driver cleaner to wipe the drivers completely off the system then install fresh drivers from nvidia's website.

[99GrandAmSE]

well i got the drivers off of laptopvideo2go.com, where i got all my drivers for my old laptop. and yes, this would be the first update of the drivers since i just go the laptop last week.

I just did a restore and went back to the 174.xx drivers that it came with. I guess I'll stick with that until I can figure out the problem.

Note - Whenever I did the installs i would:

1.) uninstall the drivers from 'add/remove programs'
2.) start in safe mode
3.) run driver sweeper
4.) restart in normal mode and install the new drivers
5.) restart again


now the problem i found is when i went from 1-2, upon restart, the computer reinstalled drivers automatically.


hope that helps guys

[mepis]

driver sweeper is a rather old program and I found problems with this in the past years and years ago to. Go download driver cleaner and use that. That program has a much better history of working properly. As for the steps it sounds like you are doing everything right. You will follow the same steps with driver cleaner more or less.

It does sound like your issue is the mix of drivers. The new drivers do not agree well with Dell's installed drivers. HP and Dell do not use drivers straight from nvidia and ATI. Use driver cleaner and kill your old drivers. I would recommend download the Omega or NGO drivers and install them. I think your problem is as simple as that. Give it another try. It could only waste 10 minutes of your time and that's nothing for a computer enthusiast.