NVIDIA Graphics Driver BSOD

Hi All.

I am trying to install an NVIDIA graphics driver after having recently loaded Windows 7 on some old hardware.

Specifications:

Sony VAIO - VGN-FE17NP
Original OS - Windows XP Pro
New OS - Windows 7 Pro
512 MB RAM

I understand that the minimum system requirements for Windows 7 is 1GB of RAM however I thought I would give it a go and see what the performance is like with half of that, I guess half out of curiousity. I am wondering if simply upgrading the RAM may fix the issue perhaps but I will continue with my question
in the meantime.

The processor is capable being an Intel Centrino Duo at 1.83GHz.

I guess I could be cut short on my question here and told to upgrade the RAM which may well be the solution to my problem, however I will be swapping over the RAM from another old laptop very shortly (I am not at home at the moment) and was wondering if anyone could advise as to whether this would be the only issue I am facing here.

Here is an outline of what I have been trying to get both the original NVIDIA XP driver and a Windows 7 driver to function properly and the results I have come across......

Ran scan at NVIDIA HERE: NVIDIA Driver Downloads - Automatically Detect NVIDIA Products

Scan indicated that I am using the latest driver for GeForce Go 7400 graphics card and no update is
required but the Device Manager indicates that I am using the Standard Windows Graphics driver.

After doing a search here: Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers

I found a Windows 7 driver and after checking the supported products list on this page downloaded this
driver:

NVIDIA DRIVERS GeForce Release 179 for Notebooks

The Windows 7 driver will extract to the default created folder in C: DRIVE but will not install with the error I am receiving being:

"The NVIDIA setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware. Setup will now exit."

I have also tried to update install through Device manager allowing Windows connection to the internet but the Standard Windows graphics driver is reported to be the best available driver for the system.

The most success I have had is to install the original XP driver.

Downloaded original XP DRIVER from here: Support for VGN-FE17NP : FE Series : VAIO? Notebook & Computer : Sony Middle East & Africa

Unfortunately, I have tested this driver in compatabilty mode for Windows XP SP3 and SP2 and all looks and functions well until I try to open a program, for example Firefox. I then get a BSOD.

Please find the zipped dump file created using the SF Diagnostic Tool noting that this dump was created after having installed the XP driver in XP SP2 compatabilty mode with Privilege level "Run this program as administrator" set.

Edit: Dump files removed now :)

I have currently un-installed the NVIDIA driver and am running the Standard graphics driver so as to be able to open Firefox and post here.

Please advise if this is not worth the time considering the fact that at present I am only using 512MB of RAM - I will understand if no assistance can be provided until an upgrade takes place.

Any help would be truly appreciated.

Thanking you - Shelly.

Hi Shelly1234.

You tried a lot. Very exhaustive lot. But, it is unfortunate that there is no driver available that NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 GPU (c:\windows\system32\drivers\nv4_mini.sys) that is compatible with windows 7.

Though nvidia says that your GPU is compatible with Windows 7. And as per them, the latest available driver version is 179.48 (Released on February 11 2009 whereas windows 7 released on October 22, 2009. I doubt the compatibility for this reason). It is unfortunate that you cannot install it.

Nothing else is left in nvidia's part to try.

But, as they say that the GPU is compatible, you may take a last chance. Make your installation driver complete itself, and let it obtain the appropriate driver itself.
Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7
If the situation remains the same even after doing such a clean install, either not use windows 7 with that laptop (8 years old I guess?) or change the GPU to something newer.
______________________________________________________________________________________

Code:

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 50, {fdbbe578, 0, 8c04ce18, 2}

Unable to load image \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\nv4_mini.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for nv4_mini.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for nv4_mini.sys

Could not read faulting driver name
Probably caused by : nv4_mini.sys ( nv4_mini+1be18 )

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

0: kd> !analyze -v
*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA (50)
Invalid system memory was referenced.  This cannot be protected by try-except,
it must be protected by a Probe.  Typically the address is just plain bad or it
is pointing at freed memory.
Arguments:
Arg1: fdbbe578, memory referenced.
Arg2: 00000000, value 0 = read operation, 1 = write operation.
Arg3: 8c04ce18, If non-zero, the instruction address which referenced the bad memory
    address.
Arg4: 00000002, (reserved)

Debugging Details:
------------------


Could not read faulting driver name

READ_ADDRESS: GetPointerFromAddress: unable to read from 8298684c
Unable to read MiSystemVaType memory at 82965e20
 fdbbe578 

FAULTING_IP: 
nv4_mini+1be18
8c04ce18 8b4628          mov     eax,dword ptr [esi+28h]

MM_INTERNAL_CODE:  2

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT:  1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  WIN7_DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR:  0x50

PROCESS_NAME:  System

CURRENT_IRQL:  0

ANALYSIS_VERSION: 6.3.9600.16384 (debuggers(dbg).130821-1623) amd64fre

TRAP_FRAME:  98f83cc4 -- (.trap 0xffffffff98f83cc4)
ErrCode = 00000000
eax=00000003 ebx=00000000 ecx=83dadcbc edx=00000000 esi=fdbbe550 edi=00000000
eip=8c04ce18 esp=98f83d38 ebp=98f83d90 iopl=0         nv up ei ng nz ac pe nc
cs=0008  ss=0010  ds=0023  es=0023  fs=0030  gs=0000             efl=00010296
nv4_mini+0x1be18:
8c04ce18 8b4628          mov     eax,dword ptr [esi+28h] ds:0023:fdbbe578=????????
Resetting default scope

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER:  from 8285daa8 to 828aa879

STACK_TEXT:  
98f83cac 8285daa8 00000000 fdbbe578 00000000 nt!MmAccessFault+0x104
98f83cac 8c04ce18 00000000 fdbbe578 00000000 nt!KiTrap0E+0xdc
WARNING: Stack unwind information not available. Following frames may be wrong.
98f83d90 828cd559 8c04ce10 fdbbe550 00000000 nv4_mini+0x1be18
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 nt!KiThreadStartup+0x19


STACK_COMMAND:  kb

FOLLOWUP_IP: 
nv4_mini+1be18
8c04ce18 8b4628          mov     eax,dword ptr [esi+28h]

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX:  2

SYMBOL_NAME:  nv4_mini+1be18

FOLLOWUP_NAME:  MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: nv4_mini

IMAGE_NAME:  nv4_mini.sys

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP:  4393a477

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  0x50_nv4_mini+1be18

BUCKET_ID:  0x50_nv4_mini+1be18

ANALYSIS_SOURCE:  KM

FAILURE_ID_HASH_STRING:  km:0x50_nv4_mini+1be18

FAILURE_ID_HASH:  {0f514ce9-caab-d743-3061-8e0a3cbee8f0}

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

0: kd> lmvm nv4_mini
start    end        module name
8c031000 8c3a14a0   nv4_mini T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: nv4_mini.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\nv4_mini.sys
    Image name: nv4_mini.sys
    Timestamp:        Mon Dec 05 07:52:47 2005 (4393A477)
    CheckSum:         00372E70
    ImageSize:        003704A0
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4
0: kd> !sysinfo machineid
Machine ID Information [From Smbios 2.40, DMIVersion 0, Size=1054]

Thank you for taking the time to reply @Arc.

Yes - I did try the 179.48 driver without success.

Also - the install is a fresh OEM install and Windows 7 fails to automatically detect a driver besides the Standard one hence the original problem.

If I had have read further down the page for the Windows 7 download I would have noticed that the driver is compatible for the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 graphics card however it is NOT compatible with Sony notebooks.

After a lot of searching though, I managed to follow a couple of links at notebookreview.com and found a thread where someone had success with an alternate NVIDIA driver, namely NVIDIA GeForce/Quadro v186.91 WHQL.

I downloaded the driver as a .cab file, extracted and installed and can confirm that is is working.

Firefox was instantaneously BSOD'ing the system when opened previous to this installation however with this driver I have not yet had a system crash.

Although the system is extremely slow which is understandable due to the whole 512MB of RAM currently installed :) I have rebooted several times and opened several different applications without issue - extremely promising.

I hope that this is not breaking any forum rules, and if so please advise and edit this post as required, but for anyone with the same older hardware as me the driver can be found here:

NVIDIA GeForce/Quadro v186.91 WHQL Released! (ALL CURRENT NOTEBOOKS + 300M SUPPORT)

There are x86 AND x64 bit download links in the first post provided by justinkw1.

I should also mention that I have run scans with MSE and MalwareBytes which both turned out zero infection results from the file download after installation. I will also be running extra scans with eset online scanner and TDSS killer as some extra precautions.

I appreciate everyone who took their own time out to try to assist me with this issue and apologize if I have managed to waste some of it. Thanks again.

Its OK :)
Good to know that you managed your issue to a solution :)