NVIDIA Hybrid SLI not switching modes

No in the balanced power plan it deactivates the dedicated GPU to save power. If you choose the energy saving profile from the energy options, the dedicated graphics card will be deactivated and the fan falls silent within seconds. (this was taken from an article about the studio xps 13's hybrid SLI).

You need to set it to performance mode if you want the dedicated GPU to kick in.

Thanks for the input but I am still confused.

This is taken from the printed manual (setup guide, page 26) that comes with my laptop:

"When your computer is unplugged from the power socket, it turns off the graphics processor to lower the overall graphics power consumption...... When unplugging and connecting your computer to the main power, the following message appears: "Please wait". This means the computer is transitioning between the two modes"

For me, this does not happen.

Furthermore, and perhaps this is the crux of the matter, the nvidia control panel help section refers to a GPU settings category in the advanced power settings of the Windows Vista Power plans. I don't see a GPU settings category in the advanced power settings of any of the Windows Vista Power Plans.

Do you have quickset installed?....

If so open the app.Then click Mobility Center tab on bottom left side.You should now be able to see the battery status indicator.Click the drop down box for this and select performance,or take it out of dell recomended power state.See if this helps.

dgkpcon,

Thank you for the suggestion. I am not sure if I have quickset installed.......

When I try to install quickset downloaded from the drivers and downloads web page for my laptop (quickset v 9.2.13, A05) I do not get the option to install quickset, but rather to modify/repair/remove it, suggesting it is already installed.

If I select modify, the only components listed are keyboard backlighting and radio control options. If I repair the installation nothing changes.

If I open windows mobility centre there are a bunch of options, including two listed under a "modified by dell"  section.... keyboard backlighting and radio control options.

In the battery status section of windows mobility centre (which is not in the modified by dell section) there are 3 power schemes: Balanced, power saver, and high performance. By manually switching power scheme, the graphics mode switches accordingly. This is not the issue.

The issue is that the manual says that when the power scheme is set to balanced the graphics mode should automatically switch dpendent on whether the laptop is connected to the mains or not. This does not happen.

I understand what you are saying now.I know you probably don't want to do this,have you tried calling tech support?...That is the only suggestion i have at this point.

I have called dell technical support. The guy on the line was unable to resolve this issue. He said he would get some advise about it and get back to me. I think he has tried to call back but due to work I have been unable to take the call.

In case anyone else has this issue I will try to remember to update this thread when I am given the solution.

To: Opodder.

I have the same problem as you, well almost anyway... I dont have any settings for sli hybrid, i reformated the laptop like thousand times to see if anything changes, but i notice one thing which is interesting!  Try doing this too and get back to me! When watching a video when the power is plugged in the video playback is good as soon as i plug out the power the video playback becomes more pixelated!!!!  Im guessings thats the sli hybrid working but i dont like the fact that the video playback becomes pixelated and want to find the setting where i can change that, by calling dell thousand times they also dont know how to fix it they tried to see all the power settings, which btw are always set to high performace!   they came to a funny conclusion that i need to replace the processor as it will replace the intergrated video card on it lol...

Im just waiting for better drivers and better bios updates to see if this changes,   by the way im guessing u have the same graphic card as me, the 9400m g series and not the 9500 series, thats the only main difference that some xps 1340's have...... anyway try the video playback thing and get back to me,, i wana see if u experience same pixelated playback when not plugged in, try using at least 2 different video players just to make sure please...

AlexSochi,

I will answer this properly (and check for pixelation) over the weekend when I have more time and have access to the laptop. With regard to my main issue.....in short, I ended up performing a fresh install of vista and now have auto switching working.

AlexSochi,

As I mentioned previously, things seem to be working for me after doing a completely fresh reinstall of vista. This was advised by dell technical support after trying various other things such as fiddling with settings, updating the bios, reinstalling drivers, and reinstalling dell system software. There was no sound reasoning behind the need to reinstal windows, it was basically a what else can we do suggestion.

Prior to reinstalling windows, I there was no there was no GPU settings item under Vista advanced power settings. I guess this was the main issue for me....there was no conduit for Vista power plans needed to interact with GPU settings. Anyway, after reinstalling Vista, GPU settings appeared in the Vista power plans (Power options....Change plan settings....Change advanced power settings.....GPU settings). The installation of Vista that was not working correctly with the GPU was the preinstalled version from when I received the laptop.

Now onto your issue, currently I do not experience any pixelation when the power cord is pulled during video playback (tested with VLC, Quicktime, and Windows Media Player). I'm afraid I don't know if this was an issue for me prior to reinstalling windows.

With regard to my hardware. In device manager, under Display adaptors, there are two entries when I am in boost performance mode:

1. NVIDEA GeForce 9500M (GF 9200MGS + GF 9400MG)

2. NVIDEA GeForce 9500M (GF 9400MG + GF 9200MGS)

When I switch to power saver mode (manually or automatically) entry 1 goes away.

Did anyone encounter this issue on Win 7? I have Win 7 32 RTM installed on my 1340, and face the same issue with the GPU not showing up in the power management control panel...

mkonkolowicz,

I have not tried win 7 so don't have an answer but I am interested as I hope to install it when it comes out on general release.

How did you install win 7? Was it a clean install or an upgrade from windows vista?

Were gpu settings showing up under vista power management?

mkonkolowicz,

Following on.......I have just discovered that if I update my video driver to the current version on the dell website (nvidea 179.82, A06, release date 5/19/2009) the gpu settings under power management get removed, and the laptop no longer automatically switches graphics modes.

When I then use windows system restore to revert back to the state before the driver update, gpu settings come back and auto switching graphics mode works again. The nvidea driver that is working for me is the one I installed from my drivers and utilities disc (nvidea 176.84, dell version A01) (which I don't think is the one that was installed on the original factory image of my machine).

Dell have the following historical versions on the website: A02, A03, and A05: if you don't have A01 it may be worth checking if these work.

That is right, when I updated the nvidia drive, I have lost the GPU settings, and I'm still with this isuue, when I need to boost the performace I choose it manually from the power options.

So I have the same problem on my Windows 7 Install on XPS 1340. But the drivers I've been given are the A9 ones. On my disk and on the website for Windows 7. Does anyone know where I can download the A1 version of the drivers to try and see if I can extract these power plan settings? I'm guessing that's all I need anyway! Or a shortcut key would be nice!!

Stephen

Hello,

After looking into this in great depth, I've found this here under registry (run regedit to change it)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Hybrid

HidePowerSetting 0x00000001 which gives you a vaule of 1.

I set it to a value of 0 (0x00000000), restart the system and it's now working.

Hope this solves this issue for Vista as well, works a dream in Windows 7.

Stephen