Windows 7 Not registering any graphics card

[MrButte]

I just installed Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) on my laptop (Dell Vostro 1700) and it seems to run excellent with the exception of drivers. Now, as far as I can tell the other drivers aren't a real bother to me since I'm still capable of doing day to day functions. My concern is that I've been working on my laptop for 3 days now and I've tried multiple options, including paying $40 for a driver robot, but nothing seems to be able to find my graphics card. I know I have one, but it's not even showing up under the device manager. As far as what the Dell website says, my laptop has a nVidea GeForce 8600 GT. Which is confusing actually because it shows drivers on the Vostro site that are for the GeForce 8400M GS and the GeForce 8400M.

What I have done so far:
1) I tried to search for drivers through Dell.com (Drivers & Downloads).
2) I have downloaded quite a few drivers from nVidea.com
3) I paid for a program called Driver Robot which has done nothing but waist my money because it found drivers that wont install at all, not to mention it didn't find any graphics drivers which is what I was paying for in the first place.

My questions consist of;
1) Why is my graphics card not showing up at all?
2) How can I get my graphics card to appear?
3) How can I get my graphics card to actually work with windows 7?
4) Do I honestly have to revert back to Windows XP Professional 32-bit?

 

[Duesco]

Download and run a free program called GPU-Z, which will tell you exactly what graphics processor you have. And then download the drivers for that particular GPU.

 

[MrButte]

Download and run a free program called GPU-Z, which will tell you exactly what graphics processor you have. And then download the drivers for that particular GPU.

Just did that and it has GPU: G84m

I'm guessing that it means GeForce 8600M, correct?

 

[Duesco]

There are five chips based on the G84M core, it didn't give you the retail name of the chip?

Or, could you tell me the clock speeds for the core and memory? They should be at the bottom.

 

[MrButte]

At the top it says Name: Standard VGA Graphics Adapter

GPU Clock: 0MHz Memory: 0MHz

Default Clock: 475HMz Memory: 400MHz

 

[Duesco]

The G84M at 475 MHz core clock is marketed as the 8600M GT.

NVIDIA DRIVERS 195.62 WHQL are the specific drivers for that chip.

 

[Agent Zach]

Correct. minus the 8600, it's an 8400.

Attempt to install the Drivers directly FROM the nVidia GeForce website.

Try this one first:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_winvista_win7_x64_195.62_whql.html

& this one second:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_64bit_196.21_whql.html

If neither works, I'd contact nVidia directly via Phone or email support.

 

[Duesco]

Correct. minus the 8600, it's an 8400.

Attempt to install the Drivers directly FROM the nVidia GeForce website.

Try this one first:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_winvista_win7_x64_195.62_whql.html

& this one second:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_64bit_196.21_whql.html

If neither works, I'd contact nVidia directly via Phone or email support.

But the 8400M series is based on the G86M, not the G84M, which is what he has...

Either way, the drivers we both linked will cover either 8M series GPU.

 

[MrButte]

I wasn't paying attention, you had sent me the link to the 32-bit download. I am assuming there is a 64-bit, checking on it now.

 

[Agent Zach]

Both links I provided are for the x64 downloads... not the x86.

 

[MrButte]

As far as I can tell, that worked for me. Thank you both for your time and assistance. I'm glad that you could help me resolve it.

 

[Agent Zach]

You are very welcome.

 

[MrButte]

As far as I can tell it's working now. I used Aero to test it and it's working. Going to test it out on a game now. I want to thank you both for your help and I hope that anyone else who reads this and is having the same problem gets theirs fixed too. Thank you again.

 

[Zomby88]

Wouldn`t downloading the 8 series Nvidia drivers cover all the bases ?(although I`ve done a few Dell`s and you have to use Dells drivers)