Thinkpads Forum

Need feedback on experiences using a more recent video driver than the one on the Lenovo website for OpenGL rendering on a W700ds. Mine has an NVIDIA Quadro Fx 3700M video card.

I use a contouring software that uses the video card for OpenGl rendering. Yesterday I had two crashes of the software which sent crash messages to the vendor and they said it was the video card driver.

The installed driver was a 2013 vintage (didn't note which one) but the one on the Lenovo site is from 2009. I reinstalled the 2009 driver and will see how that works but has anyone had a similar problems with OpenGL rendering using later model video drivers than are available from Lenovo on the W700ds?

I also downloaded the latest driver from NVIDIA but haven't tried it yet. Thought I'd see how the 2009 version works first.

From reading posts I see that there is a somewhat active W700ds group out there and that is good to see. I've had mine since just before they brought out the W701 which is also not long before Lenovo stopped production on the 17" wonders altogether:(

Any information will be appreciated.

I haven't updated my driver since using Lenovo's installer- I was having problems with drivers from the NVIDIA site too. DXDIAG says my driver version is 8.16.11.8825.

When I used NVIDIA latest drivers, my card would artifact playing Minecraft, and playing some games, (such as Racedriver GRID) the card would run outrageously hot, probably about 90-100C on average. I think I even needed to reseat the video card after getting the one long-two short beep sequence on boot.

If you're having problems with a particular suite of software, and you think the later drivers might be the problem, it's wise to switch back to the drivers Lenovo provided and use those. The FX 3700M is a powerful, but volatile card in the configuration it uses in the W700. If one thing is off- it'll bite you in the butt.

Really cool to hear you're still putting your W700ds through the trials, and you haven't fallen for the bandwagon of getting a Fangbook or Razer Blade Pro. And yeah- there's a couple of us on here who actively post who have W700ds laptops, so feel free to shout up if you're having any trouble.

Thanks for the good feedback.

I have the same driver version now (again)- 8.16.11.8825

No crashes since reverting to it yesterday.

Good to hear you've actually got results in your trial & error.

Sounds like you'll have to run with the old drivers, and "play it safe". If anything, you can do some experimenting with different versions of drivers to see what effect it has on your software... but if the crashes frustrate you or are a major inconvenience, then maybe not.

It is a little painful to have it crash. There is always some creative work lost and if you're like me you can't always remember exactly what you did:)

I think I'll stay with the old version unless it starts to crash.