Problems with the NVS 5200m Discrete Graphics on T430s

[wdjan]

Hey all,

I just received my T430s in the mail this last weekend, and I've been having some trouble with the Blue Screen of Death. It has happened twice so far, and both times the graphics card is unrecognized after the reboot. The first time it happened, I tried to do a system restore, but that didn't do anything. I reinstalled the operating system back to factory settings using the recovery partitiion, and that did the trick.

The Blue Screen of Death just happened again, and the exact same problem cropped up again. After rebooting, the system no longer recognizes that it has a discrete graphics card. When I try to start up the Nvidia control panel, it tells me that it can't detect a discrete graphics card in the system.

I did a quick search of the forum, and I can't find any thread with a similar problem. I found this in Lenovo's support area, but it's not relevant to my hardware <http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/diagnose-and-fix/detail.page?DocID=HT052544>

On the NVIDIA website, I can only find "Beta" drivers for the NVS 5200M <http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook-win8-win7-winvista-64bit-304.79-beta-driver.html>. After downloading the driver and attempting to install, the system gives me the same error, that it can't find any compatible graphics hardware.

Here is my hardware configuration:

Thinkpad T430s

i5 3320M 2.60GHz

NViDIA NVS 5200m

4 GB RAM (stock)

360 GB HDD (stock)

[wdjan]

After rebooting a couple of times, the graphics card came back online. I'll be keeping my eye on this problem and will post again if it gives me more trouble.

-Dean

[nibs Guru]

Is your BIOS set to Optimus, Discrete Only, or Integrated only? 

[wdjan · Accepted solution]

It is set to Optimus. I don't think there is a discrete only.

I called the Lenovo support center and found out there was a new graphics driver. Haven't had a problem with the blue screen of death since. Looks like that was the problem.

Once again, if it recurs, I will be sure to post here.

-Dean

[paky]

I am considering the T430s. It comes with the Nvidia NVS 5200M Graphics w/ 1G VRAM...it's a card for drawing CAD...

1. my question is sometimes I will play game like PES Winning 2012, would this graphic card capable to play it in high quality?? the recommended system requirements are as below:

• Windows XP SP3, Vista SP2, 7
• Processor Intel Core2 Duo 2.0GHz or equivalent
• 2 GB of RAM or better
• DirectX 9.0c compatible video card with Pixel shader 3.0 512MB RAM (AMD ATI Radeon HD2600 or NVidia GeForce 7900 or better)

2.  And also regarding the displayport, is it true that only i7 model come with the thunderbolt??

3.  I am not sure if I should choose the i5 or i7 as they are quite similiar in terms of speed. Any comment??

I am new in here. Thank you for your attention!

[paky]

I am considering the T430s. It comes with the Nvidia NVS 5200M Graphics w/ 1G VRAM...it's a card for drawing CAD...

1. my question is sometimes I will play game like PES Winning 2012, would this graphic card capable to play it in high quality?? the recommended system requirements are as below:

• Windows XP SP3, Vista SP2, 7
• Processor Intel Core2 Duo 2.0GHz or equivalent
• 2 GB of RAM or better
• DirectX 9.0c compatible video card with Pixel shader 3.0 512MB RAM (AMD ATI Radeon HD2600 or NVidia GeForce 7900 or better)

2.  And also regarding the displayport, is it true that only i7 model come with the thunderbolt??

3.  I am not sure if I should choose the i5 or i7 as they are quite similiar in terms of speed. Any comment??

I am new in here. Thank you for your attention!

[wdjan]

If these are recommended specs (i.e., not minimum specs), I don't think you should have any problem. The processors that are available for the T430s easily outclass the Core 2 Duo, and the HD 2600 is a discrete graphics card that is already 5 generations old. The NVS 5200M should be quite a bit better than that old thing.

With my computer I can easily play Starcraft II. The graphics settings are set from mid to high, and there's no stutter or anything like that. Definitley playable.

-Dean