Where do I extract bios and chipset drivers to?  

Firstly, allow me to list my system specification:

P-7805g Notebook Gateway FX
Windows 7 Premium 64-bit
Intel Core 2 Duo processor P8700 2.53Ghz
4 GB DDR3 RAM
Nvidia GeForce 9800M GTS with 1 GB of DDR 3 discrete video memory

I am trying to update my bios and chipset drivers but a pop up window comes out and says Driver (WDM) Init fail!(0x130)

What on earth does this mean? These come in zip files so where do I extract them?

The reason I am doing this is because I always keep getting an error message display Nvidia Windows kernel mode driver version 257.21 has stooped responding and has successfully recovered, while playing Youtube videos with enabled hardware acceleration as well as Windows Media Player 12. I face no issues when hardware acceleration is unchecked and I play DVDs using other media players.

I took my laptop to a computer repair shop and they told me that this laptop is designed for Windows Vista. I upgraded the OS with a clean reinstall to Windows 7 and they told me that sometimes a laptop hardware is not designed to take in a new OS. Is this true? Their only solution is to revert back my OS to Vista because they told me that there is nothing wrong with my graphics hardware as well as other components of my laptop.

I read somewhere in the web that updating my Bios and chipset drivers would solve this issue so I am trying this method but I can't install the drivers!

Also, I don't want to revert back to Vista so what is the solution? My hardware is working fine and I believe that this could be a driver issue.

Please help! I am a newbie when it comes to computers and I have never in my life tried to update chipset or bios drivers!

For your BIOS you need to update in DOS.

For Graphic card take here:
Latest NVIDIA ForceWare Video Drivers Windows 7

Well, there are no instructions on Gateway Singapore website.....

blanchflower said:

Well, there are no instructions on Gateway Singapore website.....

This is what I found on Gateway Singapore for your model,

Gateway Singapore Official Site: Support - Drivers and Downloads#

Just select, notebook, P series, 7805g and you get this page below.

Is that what you downloaded, the one I highlighted?

The next picture is the download instructions.

The last two are for someone that can explain it better,

contents of the zip and

contents of the text in the zip.

Post back if that's not your model or the download you have.

Well, after checking and rechecking, I realize that my BIOS drivers are up to date after all!

Anyway, thanks for your help! I am happy that I don't have to update my BIOS drivers because it is dangerous for a newbie like me. I have no experience in using DOS at all!

By the way, i use a program called Drive Detective to search for any outdated drivers and the scan showed that I had no outdated drivers.

Also, I want to be sure. Where in the Devise Manager do I check for my BIOS driver version?

Well that's good to hear!

You're welcome!

blanchflower said:

By the way, i use a program called Drive Detective to search for any outdated drivers and the scan showed that I had no outdated drivers.

Also, I want to be sure. Where in the Devise Manager do I check for my BIOS driver version?

Type msinfo32 in start menu search, click on that and you'll get a window like this below.

OK, I got some bad news! This is my current BIOS version!

Phoenix Technologies LTD 9C.17.00 16/12/2008.

The updated version is 9C.20.00 which is dated February 22nd 2010!

I need professional help in updating my BIOS here. I heard this is the most dangerous part in updating your laptop!

Is it really necessary to update BIOS? What would be the risk?

I took my laptop to a PC maintenance shopand they told me that my laptop is designed for Windows Vista. Computer companies generally give upgrade options to upgrade ones OS to boost sales. The laptop was designed specifically for Vista 64-bit usage. By doing a clean installation of Windows 7, potential problems could happen.

Now, when I update my Adobe Flash player to 10.1 and watching Flash videos like Youtube with enabled hardware acceleration ticked, there is an error message which says Nvidia Windows kernel mode driver version 257.21 has stopped responding and has successfully recovered. This same error message appears when I watch DVDs using Windows Media Player 12.

This problem does not occur when I disable hardware acceleration and watch my DVD movies on VLC or Windows Media Player Classic. Also with Flash player 10.0, this problem did not appear when I enabled hardware acceleration.

What should I do now? How on earth am I going to update my BIOS!? I have even recently updated my graphics drivers a few days ago for the first time in my life, so you guys can guess that I am a total newbie when it comes to these things!

The instructions provided by Gateway Singapore is totally insufficient and only an IT software expert can understand!

How do I proceed from here? The PC technician told me that this error message is NOT a result of any hardware failures but software driver issues. My hardware is working perfectly fine by the way.



And I guess the program called Driver detective is not a good one after all!