Standard VGA graphics adapter

[palaarsuaq]

Hi

I have an Acer Aspire 8930G. It's GFx card died a year or so ago, and I just bought a new one, a NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT DDR3 MXM II, from eBay.
When my laptop worked, it had Vista installed. So naturally I upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate.

Now windows 7 has been installed, all updates been installed. All but one. the nVidia driver.

I can't seem to install it. I have searched the net for solutions. Found some, but couldn't go on.
Fx. tried to add some lines in the drivers .inf files. Put a line with my hardwares ID, but my hardware lacked some digits.

Anyways... I'm stuck with standard VGA graphics adapter. Today's the sixth day on trying to find a solution, and I'm about ready to boil my balls just to feel anything else but frustration.

Can anyone please help me?

 

[Sardonicus]

You may want to try using the driver from the Acer site.
Download

 

[palaarsuaq]

Thanks for your reply

I have tried. Even in the Acer driver's .inf file, my hardware ID is in it, and should be compatible, but it still won't install.
I've also tried to remove the standard.... driver in safe mode. It still don't want to install.

 

[stevepoolstock]

Your best bet would be to reinstall Windows 7 and at the first boot, immediatly install the Nvidia driver from Nvidia.com. After another reboot you will be free to update as you wish.

 

[palaarsuaq]

Hmm... Alright Robin

I'l try your suggestion.

You wouldn't have a plan B if this doesn't work?

 

[gregrocker]

Is the new display card detected correctly in BIOS setup? Make sure it's not defaulting to onboard mobo display chip.

You are using a new display adapter card which obviously will not use the display driver provided in Acer downloads for the laptop model. Nor can you insert a display adapter driver during install as this is only for missing SATA drivers which render the HD undetected.

What happens when you try to install the (preferred) optional Windows Update driver?

Try the NVidia Support Downloads webpage, using their tool to autodetect the device to provide a download to install as Administrator. http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Scan.aspx

If this fails to provide the correct driver, when manually searching on the Nivida site for 9M laptop drivers in 64 bit it provides this download: http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook-win7-winvista-64bit-301.42-whql-driver.html.

So it should be one or the other, providing your video card is detected correctly in BIOS.

 

[palaarsuaq]

My BIOS information does not mention anything about wether it is installed or not or anything of the sorts. Or perhaps I am looking at the wrong thing??

The preferred windows update driver tried to install, but then nvidia says that it cannot continue, can't find compatible hardware. A little later windows notifies me, that there is an driver that needs to be installed, so I have to restart.
When I do that it freezes after I log in.

Edit: My BIOS does not recognize my new GFx card.

It says VGA BIOS Version: 62.94.1F.00.27

2nd edit: Nvidia can't find my hardware, and using manual search, the newest driver does not work either. Same message as before.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Very very few laptops have upgradeable graphics cards. That being said, even if your does allow it, are you absolutely sure it can take a 9600 GT?

 

[palaarsuaq]

The original card was Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT 1GB DDR2 MXM II, the one I bought was the Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT 512MB DDR3 MXM II. It's not more of an upgrade than it is an spare part. Mine broke down, so I bought the same, just a wee better (I thought).

I noticed, that CPUZ does not see my card but a program called HWiNFO64 can see it. It says, that my card needs an update but forwards me to one of those driver scan / driver agent sites that needs payment to update.
Otherwize the program's pretty good.

But still... same situation as before. Only possible thing I can do is reinstall windows and install the nvidia driver as the first thing as suggested by RobinSchouten

 

[stormy13]

You tried any of the drivers from here?

LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers

Should already be pre-modded to work with just about any Nvidia laptop GPU.

Speaking of the "new" GPU you bought, using the bios string you posted it looks like it was originally out of a laptop from MSI,

[ubuntu] 11.10 GUI freeze - "run out of options" - Ubuntu Forums

 

[palaarsuaq]

Hey Stormy

I tried a few drivers yes. Two drivers had the same message.
But enlighten me about your thought. What is the situation if it is an MSI?

 

[palaarsuaq]

Hey Stormy

I've tried a couple of drivers from Lv2go, they all had the same message.

What if it was from MSI? Then what?

 

[palaarsuaq]

Any idea of if it could a problem of updating the gfx cards BIOS?

 

[stormy13]

Any idea of if it could a problem of updating the gfx cards BIOS?

No, but there could be something in the DveID from MSI that is stopping the Nvidia driver and any from LaptopVideo2go to install. These,

%NVIDIA_G96.DEV_0649.4%  = nv_G8x_HD, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0649&SUBSYS_43271462
%NVIDIA_G96.DEV_0649.5%  = nv_G8x_HD, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0649&SUBSYS_43271462
%NVIDIA_G96.DEV_0649.6%  = nv_G8x_HD, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0649&SUBSYS_65201462
%NVIDIA_G96.DEV_0649.7%  = nv_G8x_HD,     PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0649&SUBSYS_72201462
%NVIDIA_G96.DEV_0649.8%  = nv_G8x_HD,     PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0649&SUBSYS_65101462
%NVIDIA_G96.DEV_0649.9%  = nv_G8x_HD, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0649&SUBSYS_43501462

are the DevID's for all 9600M GT's from the last MSI Vista driver (only one they have available). Maybe try adding all 5 lines to the INF you have and see if it will then install.

 

[palaarsuaq]

Well thanks for the effort Stormy

Could you walk me through?

The INF file I have from lv2g doesn't have the ... = nv_G8x_HD, ...

 

[stormy13]

Just add the five from above to the bottom of the list in the INF you have.

 

[palaarsuaq]

"the NVIDIA Setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware."

That has kept telling me the past six days now.

EDIT: The time difference, I'm 7 hours ahead. Hope to have some answers tomorrow

 

[palaarsuaq]

Hi again

Please excuse my absence. Needed some days of from this problem.

I think I finally managed to install a driver from laptopvideo2go.com, driver v: v. 259.47

The device manager finally recognizes my card, though driver detail says v: 8.17.12 5947

When I try to reboot, it freezes at the windows logo prior to log in.

The windows repair option just freezes during the procedure.

At the moment I'm going to try to install the latest driver from nvidia and see if that works.
And somewhere I read, that the startup problem could be because of the CMOS battery might be out, but I have no idea whether that's the problem or not.

To anybody who has the same problem as me; download the drivers from laptopvideo2go.com WITH the modded INF-file (that was my mistake).
OR
Goto blog.komeil.com/2010/04/nvidia-driver-windows-7-notebook-laptop.html

Jonas

 

[gregrocker]

Does this freeze occur with the Standard VGA driver? If not I'd find a better driver. Try Nvidia.

If freeze is not necessarily traceable to the card, then test your RAM - Test with Memtest86+
and run HD maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan.

Then work through these other Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7

 

[palaarsuaq]

Thanks for the suggestions gregrocker

The memtest went fine, no errors. Couldn't get the HD Diagnostics to work.

I've reinstalled windows, and tried to install the video driver as the first thing. That wasn't possible.

I then used a program called drivermax, and downloaded the newest Standard VGA Graphics Adapter driver v. 8.17.13.142. Now it recognizes my card.

Next I installed the driver from laptopvideo2go.com with the modded file, then the newest driver, the v. 301.42 WHQL driver, from blog.komeil.com/2010/04/nvidia-driver-windows-7-notebook-laptop.html

It installed the driver!! And asked me if I wanted to restart. So I did, and still it freezes on startup!

It's a fresh OS installation. The memtest still doesn't show any errors. The video drivers are now installed, but it still won't work! O.O

Any ideas??