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Graphics problem M90, 3500M

post #1 of 11
5/15/07 at 6:17pm
Thread Starter 
I just found out that I seem to have a graphics problem with my M90, running the NVidia 3500M. I think the problem only comes up in the opening sequences of Oblivion and LotR BfME II: In both cases, after maybe ten seconds or so of perfectly fine video, the image starts to "flicker" (for lack of a better word). It looks like a part of the image is rapidly shifting up and down, accompanied sometimes by near-horizontal thin lines, and sometimes some white dotted diagonal lines. The area showing that kind of video corruption is at first limited to a narrow region at the bottom of the screen, and slowly, within a few seconds, expands upwards until it encompasses all of the screen. It then shrinks back to the bottom, and the cycle repeats.

It seems only a certain type of video is affected: This only happens in the above two games, and only in the intro movies, I think... After those are over, the video is fine. The issue seems to be resistant to driver settings (I am running Dell's 92.77 right now). Anybody have seen/heard of this? Am I in for a graphics card replacement, or could it be a driver issue?

P.S.: Yeah, I'll try a new driver as soon as I get around to it (Dell is now offering a version 94.22), but I'd still appreciate any feedback before I do that.

Oh, and in Quake IV, if I enable the multi-processor option, the video hangs right after the spaceships materialize in the intro movie. Everything is fine if I disable multi-processor support. Sigh...
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post #2 of 11
5/15/07 at 6:56pm
I experienced the same thing on my 2500M with all Dell and non-Dell drivers except the original ones, 84.29 (which will probably not work with 3500M anyway). I've tracked the problem down to PowerMizer. Switch it off, and flickering goes away. Looks like this flickering starts to show when the card reduces core/memory clocks to 2D frequencies. 84.29 drivers have PowerMizer disabled by default (and lack UI to enable it), which explains why they don't exhibit this bug.
For some reason, the very same card reflashed to 7900GTX BIOS doesn't have this problem regardless of PowerMizer settings (I checked with RivaTuner that PowerMizer actually reduced frequencies, but there were still no flicker).
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post #3 of 11
5/15/07 at 8:20pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by danton
I've tracked the problem down to PowerMizer. Switch it off, and flickering goes away.
Wow, this forum still continues to amaze me! Quick question (I don't have the laptop here right now; I'll have to try that tomorrow): How do I switch off powermizer? By setting everything to max performance? P.S.: You were right on target: Disabled PowerMizer, problem solved! Rep happily given...
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post #4 of 11
5/16/07 at 4:11am
Hmm, thats the option in the classic nvidia control panel...in the new control panel, I think there is an option to disable powermizer...Sry, I dont have a 9x.xx series driver to confirm this now though although I believe both of these options exhibit the same effect. It seems that the games opening videos are being interpreted as videos and not actual 3d renders (this makes sense if they're fmv instead of using the game engine). Anyway, I would just deal with this instead of disabling powermizer as a whole. It will save you the trouble of enabling it on battery and disabling it to view the intros to those games.
I guess if you really need the opening ambience you can go through the trouble though
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post #5 of 11
5/16/07 at 2:05pm
Wish I still had XP to look through the options. When I tried to disable Powermizer I think it was either a Registy flag or you had to adjust Nvidia Display Driver Service instead of it being automatic you set it to manual and this prevents Powermizer from taking over. Problem for me was I constantly got nvsvc32.exe related errors.
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post #6 of 11
5/16/07 at 2:14pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DELL-Machina
Wish I still had XP to look through the options. When I tried to disable Powermizer I think it was either a Registy flag or you had to adjust Nvidia Display Driver Service instead of it being automatic you set it to manual and this prevents Powermizer from taking over. Problem for me was I constantly got nvsvc32.exe related errors.
I always disable that service, but I think it is not related to PowerMizer. In fact, I wonder what, if anything, that service might potentially do... Anyway, that PowerMizer solution is kind of surprising. I checked, and it turns out that I had it set to "Maximize Performance" when plugged in, and I was of course plugged in when the issues I described appeared. Apparently, PowerMizer will clock down the card in (certain?) 2D modes no matter what, as long as PowerMizer is active. The new NVidia Control Panel has a specific option to disable PowerMizer. That is what I had to do to solve the problem. This option does not appear if you choose to display the old version of the CP.
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post #7 of 11
5/16/07 at 5:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pirx
Anyway, that PowerMizer solution is kind of surprising. I checked, and it turns out that I had it set to "Maximize Performance" when plugged in, and I was of course plugged in when the issues I described appeared. Apparently, PowerMizer will clock down the card in (certain?) 2D modes no matter what, as long as PowerMizer is active. The new NVidia Control Panel has a specific option to disable PowerMizer. That is what I had to do to solve the problem. This option does not appear if you choose to display the old version of the CP.
Yes, that's what I meant. Sorry for not being more specific from the start. Apparently, the option in the old CP specifies the maximum allowed frequency, while the option in the new CP enables/disables frequency scaling.
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post #8 of 11
5/21/07 at 10:08pm
You can generally disable powermizer from just the driver's inf upon installation. How to do this in the 79xx series I am not sure. Anyway, if the new panel actually disables powermizer as it says I guess that would be cool.
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post #9 of 11
7/5/07 at 7:28am
I'm with on the "flicker" issue man......same happens for Splinter Cell Double Agent also.....do u have DirectX10 or 9.0c? I think that might be the problem if ur having 10..damn mu screen starts flickering if i put it on the "power saver" mode ( this happens when i preview changes in nvidia control panel)....Let me know if there's any breakthrough on the "flickering" parteh?
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post #10 of 11
7/5/07 at 8:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pirx View Post
I just found out that I seem to have a graphics problem with my M90, running the NVidia 3500M. I think the problem only comes up in the opening sequences of Oblivion and LotR BfME II: In both cases, after maybe ten seconds or so of perfectly fine video, the image starts to "flicker" (for lack of a better word). It looks like a part of the image is rapidly shifting up and down, accompanied sometimes by near-horizontal thin lines, and sometimes some white dotted diagonal lines. The area showing that kind of video corruption is at first limited to a narrow region at the bottom of the screen, and slowly, within a few seconds, expands upwards until it encompasses all of the screen. It then shrinks back to the bottom, and the cycle repeats. It seems only a certain type of video is affected: This only happens in the above two games, and only in the intro movies, I think... After those are over, the video is fine. The issue seems to be resistant to driver settings (I am running Dell's 92.77 right now). Anybody have seen/heard of this? Am I in for a graphics card replacement, or could it be a driver issue? P.S.: Yeah, I'll try a new driver as soon as I get around to it (Dell is now offering a version 94.22), but I'd still appreciate any feedback before I do that. Oh, and in Quake IV, if I enable the multi-processor option, the video hangs right after the spaceships materialize in the intro movie. Everything is fine if I disable multi-processor support. Sigh...
ok .... the flicker stopped in some applications after i installed this driver.. http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/...hp?t12239.html if u've already installed it , good but if ur still experiencing problems then we have to wait for more drivers ...
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post #11 of 11
7/6/07 at 12:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pirx View Post
I always disable that service, but I think it is not related to PowerMizer. In fact, I wonder what, if anything, that service might potentially do...
There seems to be no ill effect from stopping that service, I wonder what if anything it does, too. I will try disabling it.
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