Dell 7710 with NVIDIA Quadro M4000

[Anonymous]

Please help!  I purchased a Dell 7710 base laptop with a NVIDIA Quadro M4000 graphics card.  While the model wasn't listed in the approved hardware specs, I trusted that Dell's longstanding relationship with Autodesk meant that this was only due to it being the newest model.  The graphics card is listed in the approved hardware.  Upon receiving the laptop, Revit was not functioning because it was defaulting to the internal graphics card.  After several emails, a technician visit and even an entirely new laptop exchange - Dell finally realized that there is an issue with the display graphics on this model that does not allow for an upgraded graphics card to be utilized.  Unfortunately I followed Dell's advice at every turn and these proposed corrections took me beyond the window of opportunity for a refund.  I paid $3364.83 for my laptop and now it appears that I have no avenue for reimbursement.  Supposedly engineers are working on a correction to the issue, but the timeframe is unknown and I purchased this laptop solely for home use to continue operating my business while home with a new baby.  I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau but seem to be hitting roadblocks there as well.  This is not a unique issue and I have to believe that anyone who has purchased this model for use with Revit is experiencing this same problem. 

[DarrenP]

have you tried disabling nvidia optimus in the BIOS?

and then going into device manger in windows and disable the intel card

[Anonymous]

They walked me through a "BIOS fix" where I unchecked "enable switchable
graphics" and when the computer restarted, it now has a totally black
screen. The Dell contact who recommended the fix realized this was not a
good solution. It is an inherent issue with the model that supposedly they
are attempting to create a fix for but at this point I need a working
laptop and am concerned that a refund is not possible. I have wasted so
much time and lost wages!

[Lance.Coffey]

It sounds like the attempts to completely disable the integrated card are failing. Have you tried configuring Optimus to always use the NVIDIA graphics card when working in Revit?

The following article has steps on how to do this for AutoCAD:

AutoCAD crashes when opening or closing drawings on laptops with dual graphic cards

(To use with Revit, on step 4 right click on Revit instead of AutoCAD.)

[Anonymous]

As far as I can tell, it is an issue with the Dell laptop model where the motherboard isn't communicating with the external graphics card at all. For instance when you go to click on the NVIDIA control panel through the windows interface - it won't open anything. So I think it is an issue with the hardware and the DELL engineers are supposedly working to fix it. I am trying to get a refund and also filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau since I was initially told no. I am trying to contact the Autodesk tech staff directly to make them aware of the issue since there is a longstanding relationship with Dell and diligent efforts to ensure users get working hardware configurations when purchasing new machines.

Sent from my iPhone

[Lance.Coffey]

Have you heard if this behavior is specific to your particular laptop (e.g. bad hardware/setup) or all Dell 7710 models with the Quadro M4000 graphics card?

[Anonymous]

It is a problem with all Dell 7710 models with the M4000. I know this because they sent me an entirely new laptop with the same configuration and it has the exact same issue.

I think it is an issue with their motherboard communicating with the external graphics card so I assume that any of the NVIDIA cards would have the same issue. They admit that there is a display issue with the model that they are working on a BIOS update to correct it. In the meantime they are telling me I can't get a refund because their stalling on the issue took me beyond the 30 day window!

Also they have started trying to pass the buck and question whether there is a compatibility issue between Revit and the graphics card with Windows 10. It is a silly accusation but the Autodesk website doesn't yet allow you to select Windows 10 as an option when looking for compatible hardware. I told them that I updated my desktop to Windows 10 with no adverse affects on Revit.

I'd love to have a contact with Autodesk that can help me resolve this issue and hopefully prevent others from having the same problem.

Sent from my iPhone

[Lance.Coffey]

From what you’ve described so far, it sounds like the discrete (NVIDIA) graphics adapter is not working on the system.

When you launch Revit and Optimus (the graphics switcher) tries to switch to using the NVIDIA adapter, it doesn’t respond and Revit doesn’t work.

I can see two ways to resolve this:

• Get the discrete graphic working (by some Bios / driver / hardware update)
• Force the system to only use the integrated graphics when working in Revit. (This will result in reduced performance, but Revit should be able to operate using basic graphics. You may need to disable hardware acceleration.)

The way to force the system to use either the Integrated or Discrete graphics is through the NVIDIA Control Panel.

When you accessed this, did you find that the menus at the top were also not responding (the option to add a context menu is under the Desktop menu)?

If you can’t use the NVIDIA Control Panel to enable the context menu, I found the registry key that controls this (using the MS Process Monitor):

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\CoProcManager\ShowContextMenu (0 for disabled and 1 for enabled)

Note: This option is only available in later driver versions.

[Anonymous]

We had issues with the 7710 the other day during some installations...  

A simple change in the screen resolution made it work.  

[Anonymous]

With what graphics card? And what did you adjust the resolution to? My understanding from DELL is that this is a display driver issue and the motherboard is not recognizing the external graphics card.

Sent from my iPhone

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure which card it was.  It wouldn't surprise me if it was the M4000.  Had another issue when I tried to disable the Intel card through Windows and then the Nvidia card was not found.

Supposedly they just adjust the resolution some.  Guessing that it's a 4k display, the resolution was dumbed down to 2560 x or lower.

[Anonymous]

I had the exact same issue with my new Dell 7710, and I think it has given me a few grey hairs in the process of trying to figure this out.  Follow the Intel Graphics steps in these screen-shots below AFTER you've updated your NVIDIA Quadro M4000 drivers (1st step).  

You might want to setup a RESTORE point first

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

 

Right click on desktop:

[jitu1dange]

Sad to hear this, I was planning to purchase Dell 7710 laptop, but now I think I should wait or look for another option. It's very frustrating when you purchase something brand new and it doesn't work as it was supposed to, feels like all your time and hard earned money has gone waste. I hope your problem is fixed soon. Good Luck!

[DarrenP]

i have the dell 7710 precision with the quardo 5000m

i am able to use this with multiple autodesk products without the need to disable the intel card

[Anonymous]

It's a great workstation for the price. Mine has been working fine after disabling some aspects of the Intel graphics card. It's something to do with having the dual graphics cards (Nvidia and Intel) that cause some Autodesk programs to crash.

For the price, I would purchase this laptop again.

[bmora]

I bought the 7710 in May 2016.  It worked great till September.  I am now in the painful process of trouble shooting this issue with both Dell and Autodesk.  I'm losing production and money daily.  My issue is definitely the graphics card.  I have the NVDIA M3000M.

A specific thing beyond poor performance when using Civil 3d 2017 is whenever I opened a menu that allows me to browse my computer (like importing points or opening a file) if I don't get there quickly the program locks up and crashes.  When I open those menus the mouse cursor flickers like crazy... I've got basically 5-6 seconds to select the right file or it crashes.

Bottom line.  You will regret buying this machine if you want something solid to run CAD.   

[cliffwd · Accepted solution]

I know this is an old thread, but this is what worked for me.

I have a Dell 7710 with an NVIDIA M4000M graphics card on Windows 10.

I use a very old version of Autocad (2005) and have struggled to get the display to work correctly for about a year.

The last windows update changed something and the crosshairs on AutoCAD would only show up if I was in 2D view mode.  Not acceptable.

After trying everything in this thread and many others, I finally made a change to the Bios that has fixed the issue.

In the bios under Video there is an options for Graphic switching (Or something like that).

Under that option I unchecked every box.  In my case there were 3 (2 were checked).

This change will make it so the NVIDIA card will be used exclusively and the on board Intel card will be ignored.  The way I had it before the Intel card was running one of my monitors (non-4k) and the NVIDIA was running the other.  I thought this was good in that they would share the work load.  In the end it seems they were getting confused.

Now I just have the NVIDIA card doing everything and all is well.  When I right click on the desktop I can now only use the NVIDIA control panel to change things.

This is an easy change to try in your BIOS.  If it does not work, you can change it back and everything will be like it was.  I did test that several times.

Good luck!

[jitu1dange]

Thank you so much! It worked for me!