Problems with Dell Inspiron 5160 and Nvidia graphics

I have a 3 years old DELL Inspiron 5160 Notebook computer with the standard integrated Nvidia graphics chip. My operating system is Windows XP / SP2 with the latest updates from Microsoft and the latest drivers fom Dell installed. The computer has 1 GB RAM. For those not familiar with that piece of HW, the Nvidia graphics adapter comes with 64 MB RAM only.

I had no problems running SecondLife until SecondLife Client version 1.19.0(5). However, starting with SecondLife Client version 1.19.1(4) the client crashes within minutes all the time. I was unable to find a setting in the client graphics preferences that solves the problem.

I tried to follow the recommendations to update the drivers to its latest version and tried to install the latest drivers from Nvidia's driver downloads (from the link provided by LL).

However, I'm unable to install these latest drivers. A message appears, telling me that I have to install the drivers from Dell which is more than annoying since the latest available drivers are older than my Notebook.

I'm afraid that I will no longer be able to use SecondLife soon when Linden Lab requires to upgrade to a newer client version. Any useful ideas/suggestions that solves the problem are welcome.

Hello Joyce,

I have had a video crashing problem that started back on July 21, 2008, after the new version. I had no problems with the previous versions. My Vista Dell laptop has the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT card and nothing else I do with my laptop crashes the video, only SL. I can't log on more than a few moments then the video starts flashing and goes black. The error states that the “Display Driver has stopped working and successfully recovered” but SL does not. Dell does not have an updated video driver for my card. NVIDIA does not support the 8600M GT Dell video card. I am at a loss.

Try installing one of the slightly older versions of the Nicholaz viewer available at http://www.blueflash.cc/users/nicholaz/.

In addition to being an excellent build, it should eliminate the forced upgrade of the viewer.

P2

I went back to the previous viewer and have success!!! No crashing!!

Like I said, SecondLife Client version 1.19.0(5) does fine. However, what happens day x, when Linden Lab wants me to update? The days that will happen are counted.

try the drivers here:
http://www.omegadrivers.net/

I'm not sure but I found a solution that fixes the problem. After installation of the tweaked Forceware drivers as described below I installed SecondLife 1.20.15.92456 and right from beginning it worked quite well with the default settings provided at first startup.

When I started the client the first time my avatar could not get back to region where I left last time. But despite of poor performance this was the only real problem I had so far. I've been online for more than 2 hours without a crash.

After installing the drivers, the settings were set for best quality. This setting was unusable at all. Next I configured the drivers for medium quality and performance settings and got somewhat better results.

However, even memory usage is better than ever before the client acts slow most of the time. Sometimes in between it runs smoothly and fine. The lag meter indicates a problem with the frame rate that is too low. I have not yet tested what happens with settings for best performance in advantage over poor quality.

This is what I've done:

From http://laptopvideo2go.com/ I downloaded the 175.32 Forceware drivers and extracted them.

Next, in addition it was most important to not only download the drivers but also Larry's INF file for DELL from http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=7755 and to follow Larry's instructions.

Next, I renamed the actual nv_dispw.inf file in the install directory before I copied Larry's inf file (I used nv4_17640.inf) to nv_dispw.inf in the install directory. Finally I edited the new .inf file and replaced the version section with the version section found in the new drivers original nv_dispw.inf file (the one I just renamed).

Before installation of the new drivers I had to uninstall the old drivers and reboot my computer. If you follow my instructions, make sure to prepare the installation before uninstalling the old drivers, because the pc might crash with a black screen (happened to me) when fiddling around too fast with the intermediate drivers.

After installation I had to reboot again. After reboot and initial configuration everything was slow and I had to configure the drivers for equal quality and performance before it worked well.

Be aware that all this is not supported and you do it at your own risk.