@mattyb3 I'm tagging you because I've heard you're the best person for this and I can't seem to PM you.

I bought an Alienware M15X with a 970M installed, since this GPU model/ combo never existed, I need to modify the INF file for the driver. After weeks of attempts I have had no luck, the farthest I have gotten is by-passing the hardware incompatibility error by adding my own entries to the nvdmig.inf file.

Driver version: 546.17-notebook-win10-win11-64bit-international-dch-whql

%NVIDIA_DEV.1618.02A2.1028% = Section037, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D8&SUBSYS_02A21028 

NVIDIA_DEV.1618.02A2.1028 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M"

This allowed me to bypass the initial error but about 1/10th of the way through the GPU driver install, the NVIDIA installer fails.

I am not sure why it is not working but one thing I did find out is that my GPU model is actually from MSI and Alienware has never used any of the MSI iterations of the 970m in their products. If I go into the MSI inf (nvmiig.inf) I can find the GPU model 1618, but obviously no manufacturer code for Alienware (1028).

The guide I followed stated that you are supposed to copy a pre-existing data entry that contains the same manufacturer code (1028) and GPU model code (1618).

in the nvmiig.inf I can find the GPU code but not the manufacturer code

in nvdmig.inf I can find the manufacturer code but not the GPU code.

This makes it impossible to appease the requirements of finding both in one entry. The guide also mentions the section number part of the data entry, but I'm not sure which to use as they vary between each inf file.

One interesting thing I have noticed, if I search the Alienware inf for a section number that's exclusive to MSI, I find this line:

[Section026.HW]
AddReg = nv_msiSupport_addreg

I'm by no means an expert on this type of stuff but it seems to be some sort of MSI support included in the Alienware inf file. That section number (026) is the same section number used in the MSI inf file for the GPU model I have.

When I first got this laptop, it had GPU drivers installed for the 970m but after upgrading to windows 10, the drivers were deleted. So, at the very least it should be possible to do.

Specs:

Win 10 Home 22H2

CPU: i7 X940

GPU: MSI Geforce GTX 970m 3gb

RAM: 16GB

If anyone could help me figure it out, I would really appreciate it. I have been battling this issue for a long time now and finding information about this type of stuff is like panning for gold.