I can't run any 3D games on my Dell XPS 14z

Question

So I just posted this over at PC Help Forum I figured I might as well post it here too. 'Hi all, So I bought a new laptop last week as my old one needed a rather costly repair. The thing is I can't play any games on this new one even though it's superior to the old one. I believe it's possible for me to play 2D games (I haven't tried, this is based on Football Manager 2012 running fine until the match engine starts) but I can't seem to play any 3D games. So far I've tried Star Wars: The Old Republic, Dragon Age: Origins, Trine and, as mentioned, Football Manager 2012. All seem to have screen tearing, flickering graphics and the 'Display driver stopped responding and recovered successfully'-error. So far I've spent most of a day trying various solutions but to no avail. My laptop is a Dell XPS 14z with the following specs: OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2450M CPU @ 2.50GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.5GHz Memory: 8192MB RAM DirectX Version: DirectX 11 Display: Intel(R) HD Graphics 3000 and 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 520M (Running together using Optimus) I know my Nvidia graphics card isn't that good but it should at the least be able to run a game like Football Manager without too much trouble. Especially considering my old computer (More than 3 years old by the way) managed to do so. I've just used Driver Sweeper to clean out my drivers and reinstalled Nvidia's latest driver for my card (306.97). After that I loaded up Trine just to see if it helped, but it crashed to the desktop almost as soon as I had loaded a save without any error message. At the moment I might need to install some new Intel drivers but Intel's driver update is down right now. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm quite annoyed by having spent ~$1045 on a new computer that can't run 3D applications. PS. I've used Nvidia's GPU State Viewer to check if it does change to the Nvidia GPU when running 3D applications and it supposedly does.'

DELL-Sujatha K · Answer

Hi

I suggest that you update BIOS, Chipset and Video drivers in the order given below:

BIOS: http://dell.to/ZMIwpK

Chipset: http://dell.to/UTyB07

Intel Graphics : http://dell.to/URWO7M

Nvidia: http://dell.to/UeTf86

Please connect the ac adapter while flashing BIOS as this step needs uninterrupted power supply. Do not use the system till it restarts and comes up to the desktop. Restart the system after each driver installation.

Please check after the drivers update and reply to this post for further assistance.

Maagge · Answer

Thank you Sujatha that seems to have helped. I'm able to run Star Wars: The Old Republic now. However Dragon Age doesn't start up because of some error with Nvidia PhysX. "Error initializing PhysX. Please visit http://www.nvidia.com/physx for updated drivers."

I tried updating but it wouldn't let me as the one I downloaded from the above page is supposedly older than what I already have, or something similar. Which is weird seeing as I've just installed and older version of Nvidia's drivers than what I had before getting your help.

Also Trine crashes as soon as a game is loaded (this is not as important, though.)

I haven't tested anything else as of yet.

DELL-Sujatha K · Answer

Hi Maagge,

Generally games will prompt you to keep Video drivers up to date. They will provide the video card manufacturer’s link to update the same. However I recommend you to download the drivers only from the Dell support website.

Once you have tested all the games, please reply to the post.

Maagge · Answer

Alright, I'm back.

After the initial fix I was able to play Football Manager 2013, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Portal 2, Total War: Shogun 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic. As I stated earlier, however, I can't run Trine and Dragon Age: Origins. Since then I've bought Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition and Risen 2 - Dark Waters. These can't be played either. Batman fails to launch because of an Nvidia PhysX error, PhysX fails to initialise (basically the same as DA:O). Risen 2 doesn't start at all (except for the logo displayed across the desktop for a couple of seconds), and a bit of googling the problem suggests it's a PhysX error as well.

I've tried various stuff. Firstly, I tried installing the latest driver for my graphics card, which installed PhysX as well. This resulted in the same problems I had with screen tearing mentioned in my initial post. So I reverted to the drivers posted earlier in the thread. Secondly, I tried installing the latest stand-alone PhysX version. But it couldn't install completely due to an error, code 2738.

Now I've just spend some time googling error 2738 but to no avail. I've tried following the steps posted here: forums.geforce.com/.../i-can-39-t-install-physx-error-2738-

But it doesn't work.

The next thing I have in mind is a complete formatting of my computer, as it would make for a much cleaner installation than what I had after messing about with loads of drivers just after I bought the computer. I'd very much appreciate some input, though.

Best regards,

Maagge.

Locked Topics – Laptops General

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