Solved Nvidia GeForce 8400M GT not found after Windows 7 64bit install

[conorgreen]

Hi all.

I recently had problems with the factory installed Vista 32bit on my Sony Vaio VGN-AR51E.

I decided to install Windows 7 64bit and since then my laptop has not found my graphics card Nvidia GeForce 8400M GT.

On device manager, display adapters are shown only as Standard VGA Graphics Adapter but on Vista my graphics card was also shown.

I have tried downloading all relevant drivers etc but the Nvidia installer says no graphics hardware can be found.

I am half decent with computers but have no idea when it comes to editing the .nfi (or whatever its called) files that I have seen other posters suggest.

Can someone please confirm if my card is even compatible with my OS and what is the best route to take.

Also, I only found out that my graphics card was not in use whilst trying to play Rome Total War, and the game would not start as it said DirectX 9 is not installed (I am currently using DirectX 11). I have tried all the downloads for DirectX 9 with no avail so im focusing on the graphics card issue.

Other games, such as SimCity 4, work fine with the standard vga graphics adapter though.

For any more info required, just ask.

Much appreciated

 

[TwoCables]

The 8400M GT is currently being driven by the generic Microsoft driver.

Is this the driver you tried? http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/314.22/314.22-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international-whql.exe

Here's the full text of the address to the driver minus the "http://" so that it's not automatically 'linked' and automatically truncated: us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/314.22/314.22-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international-whql.exe

 

[conorgreen]

Yes thats the exact driver I tried.

It is shown now in: C: - Nvidia - DisplayDriver- 314.22 but when I try to run any setup or installers it says that no hardware compatible is found.

I have been trying various drivers from non Nvidia sites too but the 314.22 is the most recent so are the older drivers deemed not needed?

 

[TwoCables]

Yes thats the exact driver I tried.

It is shown now in: C: - Nvidia - DisplayDriver- 314.22 but when I try to run any setup or installers it says that no hardware compatible is found.

I have been trying various drivers from non Nvidia sites too but the 314.22 is the most recent so are the older drivers deemed not needed?

So, you are specifically trying the one that is intended for notebooks? I mean, is the downloaded file's name 314.22-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international-whql.exe? I apologize for asking, but I have to be 100% sure.

 

[conorgreen]

Yes I tried the one for notebooks. on the Nvidia drivers page i searched for drivers specifically for the 8400m GT.

I have tried disabling the standard vga in device manager but nothing noticable happened except a change in resolution.

To help me understand, is the problem that my graphics card is not being detected? or is it being detected as the Standard VGA thing and just needs the relevant drivers?

 

[TwoCables]

I think that it just needs the correct driver because this is what happens on a fresh install of Windows.

I suddenly remembered someone saying here on SevenForums that this latest driver needs a special way to install it. I'm not really interested in looking that up because it could consume more time than this is worth because it's a very old GPU. Therefore, I recommend trying older drivers. Here's the oldest one I can find on NVIDIA's website:

NVIDIA DRIVERS 296.10WHQL

"Agree & Download" button: http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windo...ok-win7-winvista-64bit-international-whql.exe

 

[conorgreen]

Okay thank you i wil try that immediately.

So the 314.22 folder in C: - Nvidia is not actually installed? its just sitting there kind of thing?.

 

[TwoCables]

Okay thank you i wil try that immediately.

So the 314.22 folder in C: - Nvidia is not actually installed? its just sitting there kind of thing?.

Nope. That's just what was extracted from the downloaded file. They don't tell us that it's a self-extracting zip-like archive.

 

[conorgreen]

That makes sense now. Am I safe to delete that folder? or should I just leave it there for if/when I would need to update it to that specific driver?.

I will post my results after the drivers you have suggested have been downloaded and installed etc.

 

[TwoCables]

That makes sense now. Am I safe to delete that folder? or should I just leave it there for if/when I would need to update it to that specific driver?.

I will post my results after the drivers you have suggested have been downloaded and installed etc.

It's very safe to delete. It's just there so that the installer in that folder can work because it uses those files.

 

[stormy13]

Reference Nvidia drivers will never install on a Sony laptop without modifying the INF first. You can do it yourself by adding the DevID and ProdID string to the INF from the reference driver, or you can go here,

LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers

and get it already modified.

 

[TwoCables]

Reference Nvidia drivers will never install on a Sony laptop without modifying the INF first. You can do it yourself by adding the DevID and ProdID string to the INF from the reference driver, or you can go here,

LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers

and get it already modified.

Oh wow. Thank you for coming to the rescue!

 

[conorgreen]

The 296.10 driver extracted fine into C: - Nvidia - DisplayDriver

Yet again though, the installer failed when doing the 'system check' and showed the error:

Nvidia installer cannot continue.
The graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware.

and the only option was to close the installer.

Do you think its possible that there is something I have to do before installing the driver?.

Thank you for bearing with me by the way, much appreciated.

 

[conorgreen]

Just read the post about the INF file.

I used the link and entered in the search part the relevant information from clicking on Device Manager > Display Adapters > (right click for properties) Standard VGA Graphics Adapter > Details > Hardware Ids (from the dropdown menu)

I also filtered for only Windows 7 64bit files, so should i choose the most recent one or the oldest? I will need help with the INF part so please bare with me.

 

[conorgreen]

Right, after looking into the INF file stuff, I have got rid of the previous Nvidia driver folders to try a fresh download of one of the drivers from the site listed earlier.

The first driver I tried did not show a INF file in the relevant folder so I could not overwrite it with the relevant modded INF file.

I am trying a different driver from the website to see if the INF file appears, if it doesnt then I may try other drivers on the site, if it does appear, I will overwrite the INF file with the modded one and then run the setup installer and see what happens.

If nothing works from there, can i assume my graphics card is dead?

 

[TwoCables]

Right, after looking into the INF file stuff, I have got rid of the previous Nvidia driver folders to try a fresh download of one of the drivers from the site listed earlier.

The first driver I tried did not show a INF file in the relevant folder so I could not overwrite it with the relevant modded INF file.

I am trying a different driver from the website to see if the INF file appears, if it doesnt then I may try other drivers on the site, if it does appear, I will overwrite the INF file with the modded one and then run the setup installer and see what happens.

If nothing works from there, can i assume my graphics card is dead?

You have to attempt the installation first because it will generate the .INF file.

 

[conorgreen]

Oh i see, wow that makes sense now.

Im not THAT great with computers but i can get my way around the general things so this might take some figuring out.

Right now im extracting one of the downloaded drivers, then i will attempt an install which will generate the INF file.

I will post with results ASAP.

 

[TwoCables]

Cool. I hope this works!

 

[conorgreen]

Right I have attempted the install, which obviously failed.

The INF file was called NVDM which i saved a copy to my desktop and then copied over the modded file info into that and saved it. then I dragged and dropped that file into the relevant folder so replaced the original NVDM file with the modded one.

What now? do i rerun the installer? or would this just overwrite the NVDM file?

For reference, I downloaded driver 302.77 from the website you suggested.

 

[conorgreen]

I just went ahead to re run the installer but the same error message appears:

Nvidia installer cannot continue.
The graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware.

Am i at a dead end?