Optimus 2 dedicated graphics card problems

[Bitey]

Hi, just a couple of days ago my optimus laptop has suddenly started failing to switch to the dedicated graphics card (in my case a gt555m) when I try to play games. I've downloaded the latest driver from nvidia but I simply cannot get my system to use the dedicated graphics card now and I have no idea why. Has anyone else experiecend anything similar or know how to solve this issue? I've also tried right clicking games and selecting to run with the dedicated card but it still won't and so I can only have crappy graphics or in some cases not play at all...

Just for reference, the games I tried were napoleon and empire total war, crysis 2 and the witcher, none would use the gt555m. I did have to go through hell and high water a few months ago in trying to get a napoleon total war compatible driver from nvidia but as its a problem affecting all games not just total war titles I don't think its this same problem, though I could be wrong.

someone recommended that I go to the manufacturers online downloads and download the drivers for the laptop as this may help, any idea how i do this?

thanks for any help, Bitey

 

[M3zxu]

Hi mate,

Are you playing those games through steam by any chance? I've read there were some issues with steam games not working properly with optimus. From what I can remember I'd suggest you try running steam as admin and make sure in nvidia control panel that dedicated GPU is selected to be used for it.

 

[El Wayneo]

GOt my optimus 2 yesterday have been playing Napolean total war on latest 296 nvidia drivers with no issues.

 

[Bitey]

Hi mate,

Are you playing those games through steam by any chance? I've read there were some issues with steam games not working properly with optimus. From what I can remember I'd suggest you try running steam as admin and make sure in nvidia control panel that dedicated GPU is selected to be used for it.

Yeah the total war titles are steam only, because of what you said I tried the other games I have on steam (after selecting steam to always run with the dedicated card in nvidia control panel and then running as admin) all were using the integrated intel chipset instead and for Portal, I even got an error message saying that the intel card wasn't recognised. The civilisation 5 demo tantalisingly jumped to the high performance icon for a second or so before reverting to the integrated chip again...

GOt my optimus 2 yesterday have been playing Napolean total war on latest 296 nvidia drivers with no issues.

Yep 296.10 is the driver I have. I got my optimus 2 almost a year ago and it wasn't until the 290.36 beta that nvidia finally released a driver compatible with tw:napoleon, although up till now empire has always run fine for me... I'll try going back to that beta driver again to see if it has magically started working again

 

[M3zxu]

Yeah the total war titles are steam only, because of what you said I tried the other games I have on steam (after selecting steam to always run with the dedicated card in nvidia control panel and then running as admin) all were using the integrated intel chipset instead and for Portal, I even got an error message saying that the intel card wasn't recognised. The civilisation 5 demo tantalisingly jumped to the high performance icon for a second or so before reverting to the integrated chip again...




Yep 296.10 is the driver I have. I got my optimus 2 almost a year ago and it wasn't until the 290.36 beta that nvidia finally released a driver compatible with tw:napoleon, although up till now empire has always run fine for me... I'll try going back to that beta driver again to see if it has magically started working again

Hi mate, the next thing I'd suggest is that you go to nvidia control panel and manually add a profile for each steam game .exe file you have and test if it makes a difference. (ofc set all to be run on discrete gpu)

 

[Bitey]

Right then, sorry been a bit busy over the last few days, anyhow i tried creating individual profiles for the TW games with the high performance nvidia selected but they still only run with integrated, also tried a few of the archived beta drivers which I thought were mean to run napoleon at least when I couldn't before but they're no use either. I've fired off a few whiney emals to steam and nvidia, might get somewhere with that...

 

[Bitey]

After getting nowhere much with nvidia I now have a nagging fear that my gt555m may be buggered rather than it just being a switching issue. After unsuccesfully trying various drives, I tried disabling the integrated card in the device manager so that it had to switch to the dedicated card and the screen just went black forcing me to restart by holding down the power button. The optimus icon did change to the orange highperformance light whilst this happened though...
Is there any way you can tell if a graphics card is still functioning- i think I'm just coming up to the end of my years warranty so it would be a bugger to find I'd have to pay for (presumably expensive) repairs

THe device manager does at least say its still functioning- but I don't exactly trust that and to all practical purposes it might as well be dead...

 

[mev]

Have you tried un-installing the dGPU from device manager ? if not i'd try that but beforehand make sure to have the latest drivers ready to install and disconnect from the internet so windows can't install drivers from windows update, then you'll have to enter driver location manually. Worth a shot before a RMA.

Also i'm not sure this applies to your laptop but on my pc there's an option in bios (asus) for which gpu to use.