Dell XPS L502x intell 3000/Nvidia geforce GT 540M driver errors

Since we upgraded to win 10 home /1909 we have had issues with setting up an external monitor. Initially win 10 froze as soon as we attached the hdmi cable, even with the monitor off.

Initially we tried the latest driver from Nvidia, however this isn't compatible. We installed the latest win 8.1/64 drivers from Dell (no specific drivers for win 10). Initially all started well - the Nvidia catalyst dual screen software almost worked - saw some icons starting to appear, but then the monitor reverted to blank, leaving with just the laptop screen Device Manager showed errors for both the Intel & Nvidia drivers. Windows message suggested updating drivers via Windows Update - we did this and the system crashed - blue screen. Startup repair reverted to Microsoft Basic Drivers; Device Manager no longer shows any graphics listed.

Anyone have any suggestions or are these graphics products incompatible?

The laptop uses nVidia Optimus technology. (https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/a...uide_en-us.pdf)

That uses the built-in Intel graphics for low performance applications to save battery power, and switches to the nVidia graphics for high performance.

I have no personal experience with Optimus laptops.

Maybe install the Intel drivers first? Intel's driver support for old graphics chipsets isn't the best. The latest that I spot are the ones at the Microsoft Update catalog (http://www.catalog.update.microsoft....el%20hd%203000)

They are .cab (cabinet) files, so it's a little more work to install one. (Install CAB file in Windows 10)

I hope that some Optimus expert chimes in. I also hope that Dell hasn't used custome deive IDs for the graphics controllers, which could prevent the drivers that come directly from Intel or nVidia from installing.

Thank you, certainly helpful to (i) understand why there are two graphics, and (ii) the sequence best to load drivers, will give this a go...

Further to the above we installed the cab files, improvement (no freezes blue screens) but nevertheless no visuals on the external monitor.

We now get the options in win 10 when pressing fn/f1 the usual options for a second screen. However whichever option we use the external monitor stays blank. In fact when we press 2nd monitor only, it comes back after a few seconds and says there is no 2nd monitor.. The monitor is an AOC 24" HDMI monitor approx 12 months old. Note the Nvidia graphics is not present on the device manager at all - no yellow/red marks either. Funny thing is I think it actually can see the AOC monitor as digging down the hardware I was able by checking the Hardware IDs, there was AOC.

One of this laptops primary functions is for projection, so with issues here - on a laptop sold with Win 7 originally seems strange that Win10 can't cope, or rather intel drivers don't work properly.

Any more advice please?

I have been having similar problems. As soon as I install the Windows8 Nvidia Drivers from Dell (Video_Nvidia_W74_A09_Setup_RRN66_ZPE) the XPS L502X system (which I am actually trying to fix for a friend) starts misbehaving in various ways.

I believe I have finally made it stable with most things working except the duplicate screen function. Extend and Second Screen Only work, but not Duplicate Screen.

I am running the 391.35 Driver Version and recommend that.

I'm not 100% sure how I got there. (As I have been fighting this for a couple of days with multiple system images on different disks while I tried things.) I believe it was the following that finally "worked":
In Settings / Device Manager Uninstall Both Display Adapters and choose "Delete the driver software for this device."
Reboot (repeatedly if necessary) under Windows automatically installs both the HD Graphics 3000 Drivers and the Nvidia Drivers.

Good luck. I hope this helps.

PS I am running Windows 10 Pro. I don't think that matters.