Windows 7 - NVIDIA Driver - Convert from Desktop to Mobile (Laptop)

Alright ladies and gentleman. I've decided to make a tutorial for getting the latest desktop drivers for NVIDIA laptop models to work well
for you. Here's how to proceed. This is for x86. x64 is slightly more difficult due to driver signing enforcement.
You can try to permanently disable this "feature" of Windows 7 x64 by searching Google. Please do not ask me how as I do not use x64 and
don't know. But there is a way. If you can't find it, for x64, you will have to use f8 or similar key to start the machine each time.


1) Download the latest desktop driver for Win7 and the card that is closest to yours from NVIDIA's website.

2) Extract the installer to C:\NVIDIA - Close installer after extraction. It is not needed now any longer.

3) Find NV_DISP.inf and open it in notepad.

4) Look at the models of cards listed. Choose to edit one that is closest to yours.

5) Open device manager. Right click on standard vga or your video card and choose properties. Details tab. Change drop down to hardware ids. The second line down is of interest here.

6) In the .inf, scroll to the bottom [Strings] section. Again, look for most similar desktop model. Change the beginning part to match what you found in last step 5. For example:

NVIDIA_DEV.0421.01 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT"

and you have 8400M GT, change it to

NVIDIA_DEV.0426.01 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT"

7) Now look up higher in the .inf and search for the number you edited. In this case, "0421" will lead you to this line:

%NVIDIA_DEV.0421.01% = Section010, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0421

8) In this line, edit like this and add your particular string from step 5:

%NVIDIA_DEV.0426.01% = Section010, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&SUBSYS_9016104D

Note the changes made between step 7 and this in red. Do similar for your particular hardware string.

9) Save the .inf (ctrl+s)

10) Right click on standard vga in device manager. Click update driver software. Browse my computer. Let me pick from a list. Have disk. Browse. Find the .inf you just edited and double click on it. Hit ok so it installs.

11) Reboot and rerun the .exe from step 1 until completion, to install the NVIDIA control panel.

If any talented members would like to make this tutorial appear more "professional" with screenshots, please feel free to do so.

Good job.

Ok one question my problem happens between steps 10 and 11, after the reboot I get a black screen with colored bars and have to restore back to before I did all the other steps, so I never get a chance to run setup for the control panel.

Could be your hardware has gone bad. If it can't accept the driver, doesn't look good for you. I've told you this already in another thread. Update your chipset drivers and bios if at all possible, from the manufacturer of laptop.

I think i've followed everything up untill step 10. It says to right click on the Standard VGA in the device manager and go to "browse."

Right clicking on this only gives me the options to:
"update driver software, disable, uninstall,scan for hardware changes, or properties "

torrent tg...Could you please clear this up for me?? What do i do?

Thank you for this. I have corrected the step.

Out of interest, how can you adjust this if you have 2 graphics cards? I have 2 chips - a 9300M GS for speed and and an Intel 4500MHD for stamina - how can this be adapted for two chips? They are switchable via a switch. Sony has only released 1 driver for it when 7 was released, which works, but I don't think I can rely on new drivers from Sony. The original driver was around 14 months old before the new 7 one.

Just do the process for the 9300M GS, update the driver in device manager as it says and leave the driver for 4500MHD alone as is.

Separately? I'll try it today and report back. Lucky I have a system image ready, just in case. Hmm, apparently you can't disable driver enforcement properly. Guess I can't do it then.

No separately. Like I said, leave the Intel device alone. Just update the driver for NVIDIA.

And here is how to disable enforcement permanently.