Formatting and installing drivers

[Pedro-NF]

This is common with motherboards, too. Often one revision will have different components than other revisions of the same motherboard. I've just purchased this motherboard for a new build and you'll notice that my revision (3.0) has a VIA HD audio chipset (check the Specifications tab), while revisions 1.0 and 1.1 have a Realtek HD audio chipset (there's a link to the various revisions under the motherboard's model name on the top right of the page).

Dell (* * * pause to puke * * *) should have a page with the specific drivers for your specific laptop model and revision. I'd open a support ticket with them (though probably some Indian or Chinese moron is gonna answer it) asking for it. If you can't find that, just download all drivers for all revisions of your laptop model and let Windows choose the right one like the lazy sheep you are, or do the right thing: download a hardware information program and write down all models of all components.

HWiNFO/32/64 Tools

Also, I almost never use the drivers from the motherboard manufacturer's site, because they're almost always outdated - I get them from the sites of the manufacturer of each component (Realtek, VIA, NVIDIA, etc.). But then again, I'm T.S.E.

By the way, your link doesn't work. (EDIT: I've fixed it. Fucking nab).

To all you faggot laptop/notebook/shitpad/etcpad. owners:

[Pedro-NF]

Yes.

[Pedro-NF]

I've noticed that both the CPU and the GPU clocks are being throttled. That means some kind of automatic clock control is going on. That is EXTREMELY BAD for games. You want a steady clock for both the CPU and the GPU when playing. For the CPU, setting the power management profile to Always On (XP) or High Performance (7Garbage) turns AMD's Cool'N'Quiet and Intel's SpeedStep off. If that doesn't work, you can turn SpeedStep off in the BIOS (not advisable when running the laptop on battery). For the NVIDIA GPU, get EVGA's Precision and create 2 profiles, one with the standard clocks, which will allow the drivers to downclock the GPU when you're in 2D mode, and another one slightly above the default clocks, which will stop the drivers from messing with the clocks. An increment of 1 over the default NON-THROTTLED clocks will do. Check the Sensors tab in HWiNFO to find out what those clocks are (on the maximum clocks column). You're gonna use the second profile when gaming, and switch to the first profile for normal desktop use. You can even try overclocking the GPU a little when defining the second profile. Try 5% or 10% and see if artifacts occur in games. If that happens, turn down the clocks. Keep an eye on the temperatures too. Of course you don't wanna do any of that when running on battery because it's going to use much more power than with the automatic clock control active.

[Pedro-NF]

I really don't think I should be doing this for free.