video card recognition

[slowloadr]

I'm currently on an alienware m15x laptop, with a 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT graphics card. I just installed windows 7 (used to have vista), and now my computer doesn't seem to recognize that I have a video card (PC wizard says "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter". What can I do to fix this?

I also tried installing the driver for the card from nvidia's website, but when I restarted my computer I got the blue screen and had to do a system restore to before I installed it.

 

[bobkn]

It can be best to get the graphics card drivers from the manufacturer's site (support.dell.com). Unfortunately, they don't list drivers for the 8700m for the M15x.

On the other hand, I'd hope that the drivers from nVidia would be OK if they recognized you graphics card at all. (Laptop makers sometimes change the device ID so the standard nVidia installer fails to recognize the graphics adapter.)

For my cheap Compaq notebook, I originally had to install the Vista drivers. Windows Update subsequently updated the drivers, and I've been able to install newer ones from nVidia (over the existing ones). Try the Vista drivers that came with the laptop, if you can.

 

[Faladu]

One website I found, messages from during 7's beta, but recommended going with Vista 182.46 driver for 8700M GT video.

I found 32bit/64bit versions of that driver here:

download from Guru3D.com

IF this or other versions also fail:
Boot into safe mode (hold F8 down when windows starts to boot to get the menu) if the driver doesn't work and uninstall it.

Specific info on uninstalling from nvidia:

Uninstall Graphics Drivers

Good luck!