How do I upgrade NVidia Graphics Driver on Predator 15

philbast
philbast Member Posts: 6 New User

I want to upgrade to the latest NVidia GeForce graphics driver on my new predator 15 (GTX-970M), but  when I download the latest driver from NVidia and try to install it, the installer says that hardware cannot be found.  GeForce Experience also will not do the upgrade -- it says no upgrades are available.

I saw another post that said that you had to change the BIOS graphics setting to Discrete Only (from switched) in order to do a driver upgrade.  I think this may be my problem, but the Predator BIOS doesn't appear to expose a setting that allows you to force Discrete Only at the BIOS.

Anyone have any suggestions on how I can get a GeForce driver update to work on my new Predator 15?

Answers

  • philbast
    philbast Member Posts: 6 New User

    OK, this is bigger deal than I thought.  I cannot run Star Wars Battlefront because it requires a later video driver than 354.0, which is what is installed by default on the laptop.

     

    Anyone with any ideas would be most appreciated.  Thanks!

  • Vandragorax
    Vandragorax Member Posts: 124 Die Hard WiFi Icon

    Hi philbast,

     

    You should be careful changing the graphics settings between discrete or switched on modern laptops, or installing drivers directly from NVIDIA or AMD because this can sometimes cause problems with the integrated graphics not being detected properly after installation.

     

    Certain laptops just will NOT take the drivers from NVIDIA's site....you MUST use the graphics drivers from the Manufacturers site only.

     

    Now, saying this, I don't have any experience with the Predator 15, and can't find any info online elsewhere to check if it is safe to perform this kind of installation direct from NVIDIA so I would err on the side of caution here and not do it until it is clarified as ok.

     

     

     

    Have you tried downloading the latest drivers from Acer's website and installing those to see if it includes the latest updates?

     

    1. Go here:  http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/drivers
    2. Search by product model and enter "Predator G9-591"
    3. Scroll down and download the 2nd "VGA driver" (when you hover your mouse over the download link, you should see it mention "NVIDIA" in the tooltip).
    4. Install this and check whether it installs a newer version.

    I guess if that doesn't work then you will need to wait for Acer to release an updated driver.

     

     

    As for your claim about Star Wars Battlefront, I don't think this is true.  You should be able to run it just fine on any recent version of NVIDIA drivers, it's just that the very latest cutting edge ones are "game ready" for Battlefront, which means that you "may" get slightly improved performance. It's not a requirement though, have you actually tried running the game yet?

     

    Cheers,

    Vand.

  • philbast
    philbast Member Posts: 6 New User

    Thanks for your reply Vandragorax.   Yes, Star Wars Battlefront will NOT run.  When you try to run it a dialog pops up saying that drivers 358.54 or later are required (current Nvidia driver is 359.00, driver on laptop is 354.00 -- and 354.00 is what Acer shows as their most recent driver for the Predator 15.

    Mind you, the Predator 15 only became available for sale on 11/20, so there aren't many out there yet.  If nothing else, I'm hoping the situation will resolve itself over time as more folks start using the Predator 15 (it's a killer gaming laptop, I love it). It may be that the device is so new that it hasn't made it into NVidia's supported devices list.

  • bjorkelo
    bjorkelo Member Posts: 3 New User

    I'm having the same problems with my Predator G9-591. 

     

    I've tried this solution without any luck,

    http://www.igadgetsworld.com/how-to-nvidia-graphics-driver-can-not-find-compatible-graphics-hardware/

     

    Perhaps someone brighter than me have better luck.

     

    I'm at my wits' end. I bought this expensive hardware believing it was suitable for gaming, but if I can't have updated graphics drivers... I tried contacting Acer support, but to do that I have to enter the serial number, at which point they claim the warranty has run out. Funny, because I received it today, and the sticker also says the manufactury date was 13th of november this year.

     

    I'm not a very happy person right now.

  • philbast
    philbast Member Posts: 6 New User

    I've also reached out to NVidia support.  They initially suggested I try doing the video driver upgrade in Safe mode.  I tried that and instead got an "Unable to install Visual C++ redistributables" instead of the hardware not found.  I'm not sure if this means I got further into the upgrade or not.

    They also had me send them my system info file, so it sounds like they're going to try to support me through this.

     

    My gut says that this issue will get resolved, as it doesn't make much sense to have a gaming laptop that can't upgrade the video drivers as new ones get released.  There's a really small user base currently, because I'm sure a lot of people that bought the Predators so far are giving them as Christmas presents and I expect we'll see the user base jump dramatically after Christmas.

    At THAT point, there will be a major stink raised by a lot of people and it will be publically posted a LOT and will impact sales.  THEN we'll see a quick resolution to the issue, if not hopefully sooner.

    As soon as I get resolution to this, I'll post it here.  Also, if anyone else gets resolution to this issue, please post it here as well.  Thanks!

  • Vandragorax
    Vandragorax Member Posts: 124 Die Hard WiFi Icon

    That sounds pretty bad to be honest.  It's very uncommon for a game to complain about a specific driver version, in fact I've never seen or heard of this before!  But if I was you I'd already be raising a stink to Acer support about this as not being able to update graphics card drivers will lead to all sorts of issues, (one of the first troubleshooting steps whenever there is a problem with games or whatever is usually to make sure the latest graphics drivers are installed.)

     

    I don't think NVIDIA's suggestion to install it in safe mode is particularly helpful as this mode disables a lot of the hardware components within Windows so it won't be able to perform an installation like this properly, but it was a valiant effort to try to resolve the issue for you Smiley Happy

     

    I would pressure Acer support a bit more if I was you, if they say your warranty is not valid then provide them a copy of your receipt or credit card bill etc. to show them when you actually bought the machine.  Keep at them until they recognise that you have a legitimate issue.  If their call centre support team still don't recognise you have an issue, and you've made a good effort to resolve it with them, then you will need to contact your local trading standards agency who will pick up the issue on your behalf and might help to get a resolution.

     

    Of course there's always the possibility that Acer will update the driver package sometime soon, but then you're still likely to see this issue again in the future unless you can actually perform an update yourself.

     

    I'm not sure there's much more I can provide for you here unfortunately, but if I read anything else about this laptop and updating the drivers, I will certainly report back to you, and hopefully someone from Acer might be able to read this and give you a reply too.  Good luck! Smiley Happy

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    Looking at NVIDIA and Acer *inf files, there are some strings missing or added from Acer.

    maybe some notepad editing can let you install it, i don't own the G9-591 so it's  up to you to try it.

    NO WARRANTY IT WILL WORK, DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!

     

    unpack NVIDIA 359.00 mobile drivers (run the exe file but abort the installation, normally you will find a NVIDIA folder on C: ), then search on 359.00 folder for display.driver folder.

    search  nvaci.inf and open it with notepad 

     

    Under

    [NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.10.0]

    add

     

    %NVIDIA_DEV.13D8.1051.1025% = Section027, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D8&SUBSYS_10511025

     

    Under

    [strings]

    add 

    NVIDIA_DEV.13D8.1051.1025 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M"

     

    save the edited nvaci.inf (ACI is Acer/Gateway inf file on official NVIDIA package), run setup.exe from the main folder.

     

    cross you finger.

     

    Note: probably will give an error about uncertified drivers.

     

     

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • bjorkelo
    bjorkelo Member Posts: 3 New User

    Yeah. That's probably the solution unless I manage to be patient enough for NVidia and Acer to talk about actually making the drivers compatible. This is the answer that Acer provides.

     

    http://acer-scandic.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/40381

     

    Which is just wrong.

     

    The line for the GTX 980m on the Predator 15 would probably be more like:

    %NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.1051.1025% = Section027, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_10511025

     

    Right? That's what I've managed to figure out so far.

     

    If this causes an error, I guess I should boot into the menu where I can tell the computer to ignore driver certification. I know there's a way to do this. 

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    oh it's 980m, sorry.

     

    i deleted all the files, so i can't check, by the way remember also to copy the correct string under [strings] as i mentioned; mine was for 970m by mistake.

     

    to disable drivers signature:

    http://www.howtogeek.com/167723/how-to-disable-driver-signature-verification-on-64-bit-windows-8.1-so-that-you-can-install-unsigned-drivers/

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • bjorkelo
    bjorkelo Member Posts: 3 New User

    Good news! On a whim I checked the GeForce-page today, and they've released new drivers (359.06), and they installed just fine. I guess they've added the necessary adress for the new hardware.

     

    I better re-install Battlefront then. Yay!

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer
    Good to hear it!
    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • philbast
    philbast Member Posts: 6 New User

    Woo-hoo!  I'm glad I held off taking any action, I much prefer to let the issue resolve itself over time.  I expected that would happen, and I'm thrilled to have been right.

    BTW, It's actually my son's laptop that I just bought for him.  I would hate to go straight from the awesome dad who bought me a cool laptop for christmas to the horrible dad that broke my new laptop. Smiley Happy.

     

    I'll do one final post when I've confirmed that the new drivers work.

  • philbast
    philbast Member Posts: 6 New User

    New driver installed fine.   Problem solved, as far as I'm concerned.   I'm still curious if GeForce experience will now start seeing driver updates as available.  Before, it didn't see any available updates, including the one I just installed.  It said that nVidia Experience was updated, so hopefully it will wake up to new updates as well.

     

    In any case, I can now play the new Star Wars game on my new laptop, which was mostly the point.

     

    Thanks for all your responses!

    Phil

  • Vandragorax
    Vandragorax Member Posts: 124 Die Hard WiFi Icon

    Awesome Smiley Happy