Help: XPS 17 L702x – NVIDIA GT 555M Problem

Please can anyone help with my problem, detailed below:

Specs

• Processor: 2nd Gen Intel Core –i7-2670QM (2.20GHz – Turbo Boost 3.10GHz)
• Screen: 44 cm(17.3") HD+ WLED True-Life (1600x900)
• On-board Graphics Card: Intel HD (Driver 8.15.10.2455)
• Dedicated Graphics Card: 3GB NVIDIA® GeForce®  GT 555M (Driver 8.17.12.6959)
• Memory: 6144MB (1x2GB, 1x4GB) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel SDRAM
• Optical Reader: DVD+/-RW (DVD, CD read and write)
• Hard Drive: 1TB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Dual HDD - (2x500GB)
• Power: 9-cell 90Whr Lithium Ion battery (always plugged in when gaming)
• OS: Windows 7 Home Premium SP1
• Anti-Virus: DELL-provided McAfee

Background

• Brand new DELL laptop. Purchased in December 2011, first used 21st December 2011 (3 weeks old at time of writing).
• Purchased as a desktop replacement, and primarily to play games due to the dedicated 3GB graphics card.
• Minimal additional software added in the past 3 weeks except Firefox 9 and installation of TESV: Skyrim (and Steam as a result)

Problem

1 week ago Blue Screen (BSOD) message when trying to play Skyrim. Laptop had only been on for a matter of minutes prior to game launch. No new software had been recently installed. Up until then, game had been running perfectly for the preceding 2 weeks on High settings. Blue screen error number seemed to be code 116 and highlighted nvlddmkm.sys as a problem.

Each time I attempted to launch Skyrim after that resulted in the Blue Screen (BSOD).

Installed Deus Ex Human Revolution as another game to test.

Screen went black for a few seconds, and then returned to the desktop with the pop-up bubble from Windows error tray stating that “Display driver NVIDIA Windows Kernel mode driver version 269.59 stopped responding and has successfully recovered”

When opening the NVIDIA control panel, selecting the Option under 3D Settings; “Adjust image settings with preview” results in the NVIDIA control panel crashing (Not Responding), resulting in the need for a hard reboot, or another blue screen (BSOD).

After a week’s worth of scouring the internet for solutions and uninstalling and re-installing drivers, now the NVIDIA graphics card is not recognised by Skyrim and defaults to detect only the Intel HD Graphics card with no option to select the NVIDIA card.

Have tried:

Suggested fixes from various online forums (seems to be an almost endemic problem)

System Restore – I’ve restored the system to a point in the past when it worked (in case any automatic Windows updates have caused a conflict).

The result: No change in problem.

Installing New Drivers – I initially went to Device Manager, selected my NVIDIA card, and then selected ‘search for updates’. This told me I had the most up-to-date driver. However, NVIDIA site showed more recent versions: Verde, Beta, 285.62 WHQL, 290.36, I have downloaded at least 5 different NVIDIA drivers and have tried to install them. Each time, the NVIDIA installation tells me that no compatible hardware could be found.

Downloaded and used Driver Cleaner to completely remove the NVIDIA driver (not the chipset) and tried a driver reinstall upon reboot. The card was recognised in Device Manager as a ‘Standard VGA card’ and then when I would try to install the new driver, it would give another message that no compatible hardware could be found. I then had to do a System Restore simply to get back to a point where my NVIDIA Graphics card could be recognised.

NVIDIA tech support on their online forum say that some of their drivers are not compatible with DELL other than those that come from the DELL site, which I then downloaded (269.59). This is the most up-to-date on the DELL site and is the original driver version that came with the laptop. Installing this driver does recognise the NVIDIA card, but upon trying a custom, clean install of the driver, gives me an error message that installation has failed:

• HD Audio Driver - Version 1.2.24.0 - tick
• NVIDIA Update Components - Version 1.0.23 - Failed
• Graphics Driver - Version 269.59 - tick
• 3D Vision Driver - Version 269.59 - tick

I then have to exit the installation process as it will not allow me to go to the next step. I cannot see any other way to force the driver installation, or to circumvent the fact that some NVIDIA drivers are incompatible with DELL it seems.

The result: Skyrim now does not recognise the NVIDIA card upon launch, there is no option to select it in the game’s start-up screen. Skyrim’s “auto-detecting video settings” now selects ‘Medium’ and the game performance is considerably jerky compared to before the BSOD problem started. Both Graphics Cards can still be seen in Device Manager and have their original driver versions.

NVIDIA control panel – The NVIDIA control panel allows a manual selection to force the selection of when to use the Intel HD integrated graphics card or the NVIDIA graphics card. I tried selecting to use the NVIDIA card for everything, at which point I received the BSOD, and each time Windows would reboot, it would BSOD each time it got to Windows Desktop. I had to go through Safe Mode to undo this.

I then tried the option of selecting ‘use dedicated graphics card NVIDIA GT 555M’ for specific programs such as Skyrim, Deus Ex HR, and Steam.

The result: This made no change to Skyrim being able to recognise the NVIDIA card upon launch, and there is still no option to select it in the game’s start-up screen. Deus Ex HR still experiences the same black screen problem and returns the same error message. I should also point out that NVIDIA control panel would continually revert to the default ‘auto-select’ option each time the computer reboots.

Manually selecting GPU through game’s desktop icon – Right-clicking on the game’s .exe file provides the option of selecting which graphics processor to use to run this. I tried selecting the NVIDIA card for Skyrim.

The result: Upon launch, it still made no change to Skyrim being able to recognise the NVIDIA card, and there is still no option to select it in the game’s start-up screen.

Disabling the integrated graphics card – In order to force some programs to recognise/prioritise the NVIDIA card, I disabled the integrated Intel graphics card.

The result: Screen goes immediately black, and I have to restore original settings via Safe Mode. No change to problem.

HDMI cable – Some forums have suggested that by hooking up an HDMI cable to a HDTV/Monitor can force the laptop to default to using the NVIDIA GPU. I purchased an HDMI cable and tried this with my separate 24” monitor (Prolite E2409HDS).

The result: The laptop hangs (with a black screen on both screens), OR the BSOD message again on the laptop screen, OR the kernel driver failure message again as is what happens with Deus Ex (with additional pixel discolouration and a screen freeze) on the monitor.

Options untried:

Dust cleaning – The laptop is only 3 weeks old.

Overheating – Laptop is new, and well-ventilated on stand and environment (and if it cannot cope with 2 weeks of intermittent use, then I would rather not have such a product that is not fit for it’s intended purpose)

TDR registry amendments - I’m not sure about what to do with this and have not amended the registry before. I have seen that it can affect my warranty, and that it is also just a workaround (and I want to give myself every chance of returning this straight to DELL if it cannot be remedied with a full refund, rather than having to workaround their defective product when it is only 3 weeks old and could damage my computer in the long run)

Underclocking GPU - Again, this seems to be only a workaround, and puts my computer at risk trying to fix someone else’s defective product.

Complete system reboot/installation to Day 1 – reboot CDs were left in parents’ house after Christmas and are inaccessible for another week. I fear that this may only be a temporary fix as there is nothing to suggest that 2 weeks after reboot, I don’t experience the same problem.

Summary

• Help and suggestions on how to fix this problem are welcome
• Laptop is only 3 weeks old
• Installing new drivers does not seem to work due to DELL/NVIDIA incompatibilities other than approved DELL drivers from their site.
• Problem occurred out of the blue after working perfectly for 3 weeks
• Workaround solutions that could potentially damage my computer are less preferred options if this is does not tackle the root cause and puts my money and product at risk rather than letting DELL/NVIDIA take the hit for me returning the product as well as incurring customer dissatisfaction and reputational damage after receiving a returned product.

Personal Plea

I’m not hugely IT-proficient. I bought this laptop thinking that with a top processor, memory and dedicated Graphics card, it should have been reasonably future-proof and simple ‘plug-n-play’ in terms of playing new games as my old desktop has fallen by the wayside recently in terms of being up to spec with new releases.

If I cannot use the dedicated NVIDIA graphics card properly, then it simply becomes a white elephant. With the same money I could have easily bought a PS3/XBOX and a standard notebook and probably had cash to spare. Instead, I thought my dedication to PC gaming and this nice little bundle would tick a number of boxes and was happy to pay the extra, but now I’m experiencing frustration that it can’t even perform the primary function I bought it for. I’ve wasted a week at least trying to sort this out. Anyone, please help me out here!