black screen...AGAIN

kpxpanda said:

Original post: "everything was working fine but the only thing that kept bugging me was the fact that I was using my integrated graphics card."

And then: "The laptop only seems to load normally with the integrated graphics card.

These statements are confusing.
If the laptop loads normally with the integrated graphics, then what is the problem? What are you trying to do?

There is only one graphics "card" in that laptop, which is actually an integrated chip, that is described in Sony's specs for your model as:

Graphics Processor: NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400M GT GPU with Total Available Graphics Memory of 1023MB (max.)

Is there another graphics card/chip that we should know about?

When I try to run programs that require higher settings it says it doesn't find a potential graphics card. when I go to devices after I install the drivers it reads as the graphics card, Nvidia geforce 8400m GT. But when I uninstall the driver it reads as Standard VGA Graphics Adapter. I didn't really understand the difference.

------EDIT------
I woke up in the middle of the night and thought I'd try to give this another shot. I don't exactly remember what I did because I was half-asleep but when I boot my computer and after its all done loading, it says it's installing the Geforce 8400M GT driver instead of the Standard VGA, but when I go to device manager it has a yellow sign next to the graphics card. But when I try to update the driver the same problem happens.
Also when I enter Safe Mode, I noticed it started out in a higher resolution instead of 800x600 or whatever it is. It now starts at what I set it to at 1280x800..
When I go into the properties of the GeForce, the device status reads "This device cannot work properly until you restart your computer. (Code 14)

You need to restart your computer before the changes you made to this device will take effect.

Click Restart Computer to restart your computer."

I feel like I'm so close but so far away to fixing this.

OK. When you see "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter", that means that Windows has installed the generic VGA driver to use the 8400GT chip. This is the base OS driver with very limited functionality.

If the "Generic Windows Drivers" were to load, the device would be listed as an 8400GT with a "WDDM1.1 Driver". With this driver you would have normally functionality, but not some of the advanced video functions.

If the nVidia drivers were to take, the device would be listed as an 8400GT with an "nVidia driver" listed.

But the graphics chip/card never "changes". It is just recognized by the OS differently depending on what driver is running it.

If, when directed by the OS, you restarted the computer the OS would have attempted to install the WDDM1.1 driver. Did it?

If you can get onto the desktop with either the VGA driver or the WDDM driver installed you should be able to install then the (most recent) nVidia driver download for the 8400GT. You can use a Vista driver, since the GT chip is not listed as supported for the latest W7 drivers.

I suggest reinstalling the video drivers (again) just like I stated in Post #4 in this thread. It is very important to follow the driver install steps exactly, including restarting the computer only when it says in the post. Do not do the Driversweeper thing again this time. Just completely uninstall and then reinstall everything fresh using Windows.

You can do this over and over, using different nVidia drivers, until you find one that "takes". Just follow the same procedure each time. It won't hurt anything but your brain.

EDIT: If you go to "Remove a Program" and no nVidia programs are listed - then you need to go to the Control Panel, find and select the device listed under Graphics Adapters, and right click and "Uninstall" the device. You will be asked to restart to complete the process. Do so. Let Windows boot to the desktop normally. Let us know what driver it installs before doing anything else.

Jumping to the end - worst case: If the nVidia driver consistently fails to install then that raises the possibility that the graphics chip is defective and the laptop needs repair or replacement. Hopefully it is still under warranty.

To be honest, I really don't know. Those options are unusual and somewhat confusing.

I would assume that you need to load the original chipset drivers first, then the original display drivers next. Then if everything works (after a day or two) you could install the updates, chipset first. But you might be able to just install the updates and skip the originals. You might want to contact Sony Support (Ugh!) for an answer.

If it were me I would want to install the graphics (display) driver directly from nVidia. But you need the correct chipset drivers beforehand regardless. It might take some experimentation.

One other option that may be available to you: after you have uninstalled everything and restarted and arrive on the desktop, (check and see what driver the graphics chip is running on just for info reasons), then check Windows Update. I've done a couple of installs where the chipset and graphics drivers I need are right there under Important Updates.