how to fix nvidia's optimus to recognize second life

[laughingman406]

I have a high end laptop with high end specs (xps 15 with 8Gb ram, quad core i7 2.3Gh, and a geforce gt 540M with 2Gb dedicated video ram) that should have no problem running Second life. However the nvidia optimus switch over doesn't recognize second life and so the game tries to run with the intel cpu only and intel hd graffics. This renders the game completely unusable: it takes 10 minutes to load my clothes even and then it plays at less than 1 frame a second. I think that SL recognizes the gpu and so set the game to run at high spec but then the gpu never kicks in so the cpu is slammed and can't handle it. I have selected in the gpu settings that only the gpu is to be used and never intel's hd graphics crap but it will not do so. The gpu never switches on.  How do I fix this? This is so frustrating. I will never be able to play SL unless I can get this to work.

[Nyll Bergbahn]

You're not the only one with this problem as it's come up before including this recent thread http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Technical/Windows-7-64-bit-amp-Nvidia-GeForce-GT-555M-will-only-run-in-low/qaq-p/979409/comment-id/10617

One solution my gf came up with on her Alienware M17X was to remove the battery and this forced the laptop to use the discrete graphics card. If setting an application profile for SL to use the discrete card fails, I'm not sure what else you can do without resorting to a screwdriver but hopefully someone else has resolved this.

[Nyll Bergbahn]

Perhaps a driver update will help.

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/Nvidia-Optimus-settings/td-p/480649

 

[Peggy Paperdoll]

I would think there's a setup for your computer to disable the IGP in the computer.  Check your manual or conntact HP support.

[Warrick Chronowire]

I have a friend that had the same issue with her alienware laptop.  She had to get techsupport to re write the drivers for her graphics card.

[Nyll Bergbahn]

Tech support where..in Dell or the graphics card manufacturer?

[Thomaas Korobase]

So can anyone tell me if the latest Geforce driver fix this?  I wanna get a new notebook (likey a Dell XPS 15) but really worried that it will be a piece of junk when it comes to SL. 

 

Has the issue been resolved or worked around satisfactorily?

 

[Soho SpiritWeaver]

I don't know if this is the solution or not - but my partner has a brand new Dell XPS 17 with the nvidia with Optimus. Evidently there is a control panel in which you can set an application profile to force the graphics card to run instead of the Intel integrated graphics. It is set in the nvidia control panel as follows (both firestorm and phoenix run in low graphics)  When I talk to her later today, I will try this and repost if it helps.

 

NOTE: For more information on the NVIDIA control panel’s options and settings, click Help.

Changing the Application Profile Settings

1. Right‐click the desktop and select NVIDIA Control Panel.

2. In the NVIDIA Control Panel window, click 3D Settings to expand the selection (if not already expanded) and then click Manage 3D Settings.

3. In the Program Settings tab, click Add

and browse to select the application’s executable file (.exe). Once added, you can change the settings for that application.

To change the settings for a specific application, select the application in the Select a program to customize: list and make the desired changes.

[Soho SpiritWeaver]

This is a followup to my earlier post - it didn't work!!! We tried adding Firestorm to the list of Nvidia applications but it still used the Intel Graphics - then we right clicked the desktop icon and chose to run it with the high graphics option - still no go. Does anyone have an idea how to get the graphics card swithed on for Firestorm?

 

[Soho SpiritWeaver]

FINALLY!! Got the Optimus to switch to the Nvidia card after going to the nvidia site and downloading the latest driver - not the Dell driver - her XPS 17 with GeForce 555 is running in high graphics mode in Firestorm and she says it looks awesome. She spent hours on the phone with Dell yesterday, but then ended up going to nvidia and using their driver. All is well!

[Nyll Bergbahn]

That's great Soho. Good to know Nvidia have finally fixed this issue.

[reijndert]

I have an Asus N53S 6Gb / 1080 laptop with 540M and Phoenix failed to detect Nvidia GPU.

My solution: download 540M graphics driver and utilities from nvidia website.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook-win7-winvista-64bit-280.26-whql-driver.html

Then change nvidia setting (control panel) from 'let program decide' to 'always use nvidia' or something like that. I changed nothing in the phoenix preferences.
All works like charm now, no problems anymore.

Hope this helps. Have fun.

 

[XsophiaX Felisimo]

I just purchased a Dell XPS 17 with 8GB RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 550m with Optimum and I had the exact same problem. Second Life would not accept my graphics card.   After much searching and then reading the possible solutions here, I went directly to the NVIDIA website and allowed it to search my computer for the updated driver.   That did the trick!   Second Life is running beautifully now and the graphics are awesome!    It was a very simple fix and I thank the previous writer that suggested it.