Clone Display Issue on Windows 7 Ultimate

[malania]

Hey guys,

 

I have Dell Insipiron N5110 with Intel HD graphics 3000 and Nvidia 525m as graphics card drivers.

 

I have a Samsung smart TV which is working great however, I am not able to use it as a projector.

 

I just fresh installed Windows 7 again and simply plugged in the HDMI cable. This is what I was displayed:

 

 

On TV:

 

 

 

 

Display on Laptop.

 

 

Here, the clone display WORKED. But with very poor quality on both the displays.

 

 

 

But when I use extended or projector only mode, then I get the below display

 

 

 

After this, I was never able to enable clone display anymore. Forget the bad quality image, the TV wouldn't display anything.

How do I fix this very annoying problem which I'm facing for months?

[Fubar]

Seems like a driver issue, install the proper nvidia graphics drivers from their website

[Aergan]

It's Nvidia Optimus, it's not going to allow you to do a clone mode reliably I'm afraid. My Dell L702X (HD3000 & GT555M 3GB) had the same issue.

 

Effectively, the internal display & display port (if your model has that) are connected to the HD3000. The HDMI port is connected to the Nvidia GPU only.

 

In Optimus mode, the Nvidia GPU is allowed to take over the internal display via the shim driver to display content when requested. Due to this, it can't normally drive an output via HDMI and the laptop integrated display simultaneously without causing what you're seeing.

 

(If applicable to your model) What can happen is you can use the display port to get a cloned display between your laptop's integrated display and your display port output.

 

If you install the latest Intel HD display drivers first, reboot then install the latest Nvidia drivers you might be able to trick it into using cloned output. This will involve booting with the HDMI cable plugged in and the laptop screen down. When you reach your windows desktop, open the lid and you might find that it will go nuts for a bit then give you cloned output via the Nvidia GPU. If you reboot (with the display up), this scenario will drop back to how it behaves normally.

[malania]

Hi Aergan,

 

A lot of that made sense. What didn't is the optimus part.

 

FYI, this is exactly what I bought - http://www.flipkart.com/dell-inspiron-15r-laptop-2nd-gen-ci5-4gb-500gb-dos-1gb-graph/p/itmd7h2hskrrjcbg?pid=COMD7H2HPJGMRKNQ

 

Also I did exactly as mentioned by you already. Installed latest intel HD graphic 3000. Rebooted and then installed Nvidia latest driver. Actually I've done this a lot of times earlier. But nothing came to work.

 

I really tried to google it up but didn't get any good answer. Any good article/already debated stuff I can read elsewhere?

 

Thanks nonetheless

[Aergan]

Hi Aergan,

 

A lot of that made sense. What didn't is the optimus part.

 

FYI, this is exactly what I bought - http://www.flipkart.com/dell-inspiron-15r-laptop-2nd-gen-ci5-4gb-500gb-dos-1gb-graph/p/itmd7h2hskrrjcbg?pid=COMD7H2HPJGMRKNQ

 

Also I did exactly as mentioned by you already. Installed latest intel HD graphic 3000. Rebooted and then installed Nvidia latest driver. Actually I've done this a lot of times earlier. But nothing came to work.

 

I really tried to google it up but didn't get any good answer. Any good article/already debated stuff I can read elsewhere?

 

Thanks nonetheless

 

Nvidia Optimus is where you can switch the GPU between integrated GPU and discrete GPU on-demand to save power / save battery / generate less heat:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Optimus

 

You should be able to find quite a bit of information via google searching for "nvidia optimus".

 

Unfortunately, it's a bit of a mess from a support point of view and will cause you a lot of grief with certain applications, games and hardware scenarios (like what you're experiencing). I would avoid any beta driver updates from Nvidia where possible as Optimus is typically broken / unsupported for these releases and will likely screw up any perception of stability for you.

 

Each vendor has their own interpretations of Nvidia's specification but Dell are pretty consistent; for better or worse you should find what I have posted should apply to your model also (mine was a 2nd-gen i7).