Graphic glitches problems with HP laptop

[Kergelen]

Hi,

It's been a while since I've not been active in the forums. That's mainly because I can't properly play SC4.

I have graphic problems with sc4 on my relatively new laptop. I have an HP, windows 8.1 Home, integrated Intel HD 5500 graphic card, and dedicated Nvidia Geforce 840M.
It have been 3 months since I'm trying to run sc4 properly and trying to find a solution but I don't succes on it.  The problem is that the computer don't use the NVidida Geforce 840M to run SC4, althought I create a Profile on the Nvidia Control Panel trying to force the game to use Nvidia Card. SC4 only use Intel HD 5500 graphic card which give me a lot of graphical gliches. I think the issue is related to the Optimus tecnology that Nvidia uses, but I don't know how to force SC4 to use Nvidia card. It's really frustating and I've tried a lot of things to solve it.

One month ago I reported my problem to this topict at Simtropolis, but although I could solve some problems, the game still don't use Nvidia card.

I can play in Software mode, but I don't want to give up HD content.

Well, I have tried a lot of options and searched in a lot of forums with no results.

Any advice will be appreciate!!

[vortext]

Hm you've already tried the things I was gonna suggest, however, are you sure you've entered the correct strings in the videocard & graphic rule files? I remember trying a couple of variations before the config log showed SC4 was actually using the dedicated GPU.

[mgb204]

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that HP had done some tinkering with how these GPUs operate. Doing some digging I came across this advice:

"For me the solution was to disable the Intel graphics processor.  You can do this by right clicking on your Wallpaper, select the NIVIDIA Control Panel, then select Set Physx Configuration.  You will see a dropdown box labeled Select Physx Processor.  It is set to Auto by default.  This allows the switching I described. Select this dropdown box and select your NIVIDIA processor.  This will prevent the laptop from switching and force it to use your NVIDIA processor exclusively."

Perhaps that's the answer here? On a desktop I'd say disable the Intel GPU (although I use such a setup and it's not really necessary). The problem is that laptops have all sorts of customisations, especially from brands like HP. I'd be very surprised if you could disable the Intel GPU in the bios of an HP laptop. However, if you can, this would be the fool-proof solution.

[Kergelen]

Hm you've already tried the things I was gonna suggest, however, are you sure you've entered the correct strings in the videocard & graphic rule files? I remember trying a couple of variations before the config log showed SC4 was actually using the dedicated GPU.

I try all variations I can imagine:

 
Videocard.sgr

   card 0x1341 "GeForce 840M"
   card 0x1341 "GeForce*840M"
   card 0x1341 "GeForce*840*M"
   card 0x1341 "GeForce 840*M"
   card 0x1341 "GeForce840M"
   card 0x1341 "GeForce840*M"
   card 0x1341 "GeForce 840 M"
   card 0x1341 "GeForce840 M"
   card 0x1341 "Geforce 840M"
   card 0x1341 "Geforce*840M"
   card 0x1341 "Geforce*840*M"
   card 0x1341 "Geforce 840*M"
   card 0x1341 "Geforce840M"
   card 0x1341 "Geforce840*M"
   card 0x1341 "Geforce 840 M"
   card 0x1341 "Geforce840 M"
   card 0x0110 "GeForce2 MX"
   card 0x0111 "GeForce2 MX DDR"
   card 0x0112 "GeForce2 Go"
   card 0x0113 "GeForce2 Quadro"
   card 0x0150 "GeForce2"
   card 0x0151 "GeForce2 Ti"
   card 0x0152 "GeForce2 Ultra"
   card 0x0153 "GeForce2 Quadro"
   card 0x0170 "GeForce4 MX 460"
   card 0x0171 "GeForce4 MX 440"
   card 0x0172 "GeForce4 MX 420"
   card 0x0173 "GeForce4 MX"
   card 0x0174 "GeForce4 Go 440"
   card 0x0175 "GeForce4 Go 420"
   card 0x0176 "GeForce4 Go 420"
   card 0x0178 "GeForce4 Quadro4"
   card 0x0179 "GeForce4 Go 440"
   card 0x017a "GeForce4 Quadro"
   card 0x017b "GeForce4 Quadro"
   card 0x017b "GeForce4 Quadro"
   card 0x01a0 "GeForce2 Crush11"
   card 0x0200 "GeForce3"
   card 0x0201 "GeForce3 Ti200"
   card 0x0202 "GeForce3 Ti500"
   card 0x0203 "GeForce3 Quadro"
   card 0x0250 "GeForce4 Ti4600"
   card 0x0251 "GeForce4 Ti4400"
   card 0x0253 "GeForce4 Ti4200"
   card 0x0258 "GeForce4 Quadro"
   card 0x0259 "GeForce4 Quadro"
   card 0x025b "GeForce4 Quadro"
   card 0x02a0 "GeForce3 XBOX"
   card 0x1341 "GeForce 840M"
   card 0x1341 "GeForce*840M"
   card 0x1341 "GeForce*840*M"
   card 0x1341 "GeForce 840*M"
   card 0x1341 "GeForce840M"
   card 0x1341 "GeForce840*M"
   card 0x1341 "GeForce 840 M"
   card 0x1341 "GeForce840 M"
   card 0x1341 "Geforce 840M"
   card 0x1341 "Geforce*840M"
   card 0x1341 "Geforce*840*M"
   card 0x1341 "Geforce 840*M"
   card 0x1341 "Geforce840M"
   card 0x1341 "Geforce840*M"
   card 0x1341 "Geforce 840 M"
   card 0x1341 "Geforce840 M"


Graphic rules:


partialRule "Fast card" -any
         # We run well on these cards, so up the defaults.
         stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*Geforce*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*Geforce*840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*Geforce 840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*Geforce 840*M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*Geforce*840*M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*Geforce 840 M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*Geforce*840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*Geforce840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidiaGeforce840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidiaGeforce840M"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*GeForce 840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*GeForce*840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*GeForce 840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*GeForce 840*M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*GeForce*840*M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*GeForce 840 M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*GeForce*840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*GeForce840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "Geforce*840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "Geforce 840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "Geforce 840*M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "Geforce*840*M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "Geforce 840 M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "Geforce*840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "Geforce840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "Geforce840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "Geforce840M"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "GeForce 840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "GeForce*840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "GeForce 840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "GeForce 840*M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "GeForce*840*M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "GeForce 840 M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "GeForce*840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "GeForce840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "GeForce840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "GeForce840M"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "GeForce 840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidiaGeForce840M*"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidiaGeForce840M"
    stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*GeForce 840M*"
         stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*Quadro*"
         stringMatch cardIdentity "ATI*9700*"
         stringMatch cardIdentity "ATI*8500*"
         stringMatch cardIdentity "Matrox*Parhelia*"

Perhaps that's the answer here? On a desktop I'd say disable the Intel GPU (although I use such a setup and it's not really necessary). The problem is that laptops have all sorts of customisations, especially from brands like HP. I'd be very surprised if you could disable the Intel GPU in the bios of an HP laptop. However, if you can, this would be the fool-proof solution.

Indeed, it's not possible to disable the Intel GPU in the bios.
I try to Set Physx Configuration seleccting Nvidia 840M GPU but no luck.

[mgb204]

Much as I hate to suggest such things, perhaps the free Windows 10 update would help you here? At least then you should be able to have proper admin access to your PC? If you do go down this route, I'd advise to make sure you have a path back to Win 8 if you are not happy with it. Frankly if you are using 8 anyhow, I doubt Windows 10's UI would bother you.

[Kergelen]

Update to Windows 10 is the last option I had in mind, but I think I will have to do it.

[mgb204]

In theory you can roll-back within a month in case of problems, I wouldn't rely on this though.

Being a laptop, you should be able to do a factory restore from the bios to revert to Win8 later, although that is not ideal for many reasons.

If you know how and have a suitably sized additional HDD for the purpose, ideally you want to image your system before upgrading. That way it would take maybe a couple hours (all automated) to restore back to exactly where you were in the event of problems. Clonezilla used to be my go to choice for this, but recently I've found it unreliable.

[Kergelen]

Finally I upgrade to Windows 10.

And yeah!!!, now sc4 runs without graphic glitches

The Nvidia 840M is still not used, but it seems the game run well with the Intel 5500 HD and Win10.

I play in hardware mode with lots of HD content. Although the game doesn't run very fast, at least it runs not slower than in my old desktop computer.

Now let's see if I can use DAMN Manager, Lot Editor, Reader, and all the other tools.

Thanks for your help!

[vortext]

Glad to hear you can play with HD content again!