black screen...AGAIN

[kpxpanda]

Hi I just today installed Windows 7 x32 on my Sony VGN-FZ460E and everything was working fine but the only thing that kept bugging me was the fact that I was using my integrated graphics card. So I spent all day fiddling with it trying to get it to work and I read around on other forums that the Geforce 8400M GT wasn't compatible on Windows 7, but people were still finding ways around it. I have tried every driver I could find with 13 hours of searching, I've tried messing with the NV_DISP, I've tried to disable the signature driver enforcement with Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider and reinstalling the driver for the graphics card but I can't seem to get anything.

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&SUBSYS_9005104D&REV_A1
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&SUBSYS_9005104D
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&CC_030000
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&CC_0300

Those are my hardware ID's. If anyone has found a solution I would greatly appreciate it since I start school in about 11 hours..

 

[LuzTeTT]

Hi I just today installed Windows 7 x32 on my Sony VGN-FZ460E and everything was working fine but the only thing that kept bugging me was the fact that I was using my integrated graphics card. So I spent all day fiddling with it trying to get it to work and I read around on other forums that the Geforce 8400M GT wasn't compatible on Windows 7, but people were still finding ways around it. I have tried every driver I could find with 13 hours of searching, I've tried messing with the NV_DISP, I've tried to disable the signature driver enforcement with Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider and reinstalling the driver for the graphics card but I can't seem to get anything.

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&SUBSYS_9005104D&REV_A1
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&SUBSYS_9005104D
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&CC_030000
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&CC_0300

Those are my hardware ID's. If anyone has found a solution I would greatly appreciate it since I start school in about 11 hours..

Probably not a good idea to mess with things you are unaware of.
Get your system disc and re-install your OS.

 

[yowanvista]

Hi I just today installed Windows 7 x32 on my Sony VGN-FZ460E and everything was working fine but the only thing that kept bugging me was the fact that I was using my integrated graphics card. So I spent all day fiddling with it trying to get it to work and I read around on other forums that the Geforce 8400M GT wasn't compatible on Windows 7, but people were still finding ways around it. I have tried every driver I could find with 13 hours of searching, I've tried messing with the NV_DISP, I've tried to disable the signature driver enforcement with Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider and reinstalling the driver for the graphics card but I can't seem to get anything.

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&SUBSYS_9005104D&REV_A1
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&SUBSYS_9005104D
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&CC_030000
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&CC_0300

Those are my hardware ID's. If anyone has found a solution I would greatly appreciate it since I start school in about 11 hours..

Here is a win7x32 compatible driver for your 8400M GT
Driver version 258.96: http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/t...-7vista-32bit-nvidia-desktop-and-mobile-oem/

 

[TVeblen]

In your case it is very important to properly uninstall all video software and only install the recommended drivers on a cleaned OS. Thrashing about can leave remnants that can cause driver conflicts.

First, go to Start > Control Panel > Remove a Program. Find and uninstall all the nVidia Video Programs listed. Do 3D and PhysX first, then the driver (the control panel will uninstall with the driver). Do not restart (yet).

Go into Windows Explorer/My Computer and look in the C: drive for the nVidia folder. Inside the folder will be driver folders, one for each driver you installed. Delete all the folders. You can leave the main nVidia folder (empty). Your new drivers will be installed here anyway.

At this point you can restart the computer.

Note: It may be necessary, in your case, to use a program like DriverSweeper to clean up your registry before attempting the new drivers. But it may be unnecessary. You could skip this step the first time and see how it all works before doing this. You can always redo these steps a second time to try the DriverSweeper method.
A good tutorial here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/43216-installing-updating-drivers-7-a.html#post414637
​

When the computer restarts it will load to the desktop and Windows will install a generic WDDM 1.1 driver. Let it do this - you need this driver installed before you can install the nVidia drivers. You will be asked to restart again. Do so.

Back at the desktop you should have working video. This would be a good time to test for problems. If you have video problems running the generic driver then you could be dealing with hardware issues.

If everything is working OK then you can install the nVidia drivers. Just run the download like usual.

 

[kpxpanda]

Thanks for all the replies but no solution is to be found.driversweeper actually made my laptop worst.the screen will not turn on now but all the lights indicate that the laptop is on. even when I put in an OS cd nothing happens it's still blank.

 

[Lordbob75]

Can you boot into BIOS at all?

~Lordbob

 

[TVeblen]

I've had this happen once after using DriverSweeper.

When you start the computer, just after the bios finishes, and before windows starts to load, press the F8 key to reach the boot menu.

One of the options is to Start with VGA graphics, or something similar. This will get you to the desktop at low res graphics.

Once on the desktop you can try and install the nVidia drivers.

Alternately, from the boot menu, you could choose Safe Mode. Once on the desktop in Safe Mode you can navigate to the Device Manager and open the properties for the graphics card, and search for drivers. This will normally find the WDDM1.1 Windows driver and install it.

The nVidia drivers will not install until the graphics card is initialized with a generic driver, so don't bother trying to install the nVidia drivers from within Safe Mode.

Hope that helps.

 

[kpxpanda]

Well I came home today to test out my luck and my monitor started to work again, it was strange I didn't know what had changed since I left for class earlier today but I'm not one to complain. But after doing everything all of you guys had suggested nothing seems to work still. After I install the drivers, the laptop reboots and does its normal thing. Windows logo comes up and goes to a blank screen afterwards and then restarts once again..

 

[TVeblen]

Can you get to the desktop in Safe Mode? (w/no video issues other than the butt-ugly graphics)

 

[kpxpanda]

Yea I can get it into safe mode. Thats the only way I can get the laptop to work after I install the Nvidia drivers and the login screen goes blank. I have to manually restart the computer and go into safe mode and uninstall the drivers for it to load normally. The laptop only seems to load normally with the integrated graphics card.

 

[TVeblen]

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?

 

[kpxpanda]

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.

 

[TVeblen]

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.

 

[kpxpanda]

Ok I'll let you know if anything works, but I did have a question before I started this again. On the Sony Site there are 4 options for drivers.
Sony eSupport - VGN-FZ460E - Software Updates & Drivers
Should I be installing all 4?

 

[TVeblen]

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.