Nvidia 8400 GM in a Sony Laptop

[Behemoth]

A few months ago I've had a laptop dropped on my desk by some friends. The story goes that it was working fine a few weeks ago, and then their son started arguing with his Dad and in the heat of the argument it got dropped.

Anyway, after that all it would do was turn on and give lines on the screen. I took it apart cleaned out all the dust on the various parts inside, applied a new layer of thermal compound on the GPU and the CPU, put it all back together and I still got the lines on the screen and then it would just power down and do nothing.

Anyway, I put it to one side and thought today that I'd have one last go before I phoned up my friend to say the prognosis wasn't good and the laptop was dead. To my total suprise it boots up to the Vista loading screen but blue screens before I got to the login screen.

After trying to do a repair using the inbuilt sony recovery software which fails pretty much half way through (I think the file system was corrupt) I use their Windows 7 Home Premium which they bought for it before it all went a bit Pete Tong.

Anyway I've got 7 installed and running, all drivers such as Wifi and sound are working, but can I get the 8400 to work with a driver from nvidia ? Can I heck as like !

I've done a bit of digging about and it appears the only people that make a driver for it are Sony (no surprise there) but there's no 64 bit 7 driver available for it on their website and emailing them just generates a response of "Sorry we won't make a Windows 7 driver for that model of laptop" (VGN-NR32S)

So at the moment am a bit stuck as pretty much the rest of it is working, althogh not sure for how long. All I need is to get the GFX card going and I can give the thing back.

I am surprised that Sony are doing this, I have to say I expected better from them.

Any help offered will be greatly apprciated

[Agent]

Sorry I can't do a more detailed post (just on my way out), but if Sony have changed the model / String number the normal nVidia driver won't install.

If this is all thats causing it, a simple INF edit is all that's needed in most cases. http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/ will have pretty much everything you could ask for

[Rob_B]

I have to say it, apologies....

Install it as 32bit?....

[Behemoth]

Sorry I can't do a more detailed post (just on my way out), but if Sony have changed the model / String number the normal nVidia driver won't install.

If this is all thats causing it, a simple INF edit is all that's needed in most cases. http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/ will have pretty much everything you could ask for

Yup, I found that earlier but all I get is when I try to download "Drivers offline please try out forums"

Can't use a 32 bit driver when I've installed 7 as 64 bit, should have said they got the OEM version.

[Rob_B]

I meant install Win7 as 32bit? A pain but it'll work!

[Behemoth]

I would if they weren't planning on fitting another 2 gig of ram to it in a week or two.

[this_is_gav]

Have you tried modded drivers from here? The only differences so far as I'm aware is that they change the .inf to allow the standard drivers to be installed on laptops whose manufacturers don't allow you to install the standard Nvidia drivers.

Regarding the memory upgrade they're considering, I realise this goes beyond your duty, but depending on the age of the laptop you may want to try persuading against investing more money in a laptop which will have a lower life expectancy than many, given the dodgy 8400 chip and their infamous manufacturing problems.

[jim]

I hate laptop graphics.

I spent about a month trying to get this damn HP 550 to work with a 1920x1080 monitor... ridiculous

[Behemoth]

My HP Laptop with a 9200 in it has given me no issue when it comes to installing any nvidia driver off their site.

Not quite sure how to apply the inf file to these drivers off the site Saracen has linked to, but something for me to have another play around with on Monday.

I phoned them up last night and told them look I don't think we'll get much more than another 4 - 5 months out of this laptop so it would be pointless spending any more money on upgrades for it. After quite a while I got them to see sense and they agreed with me

[Rob_B]

I phoned them up last night and told them look I don't think we'll get much more than another 4 - 5 months out of this laptop so it would be pointless spending any more money on upgrades for it. After quite a while I got them to see sense and they agreed with me

So now install Win7 32bit & the problem magically goes away Might take less time that faffing with .inf files!

[Behemoth]

They didn't buy the retail Windows 7, they got the oem version which means you either buy 64 bit or 32 bit. With the oem version you don't get both DVD's.

[Rob_B]

aaaah, so is a 32bit install totally out of the question with those? is OEM locked to what you get it as or is the license for both its just you only get 1 DVD?

[MaddAussie]

IIRC you just get the one DVD but the key should work for both... although the drivers off of sonys site should work ok

[Behemoth]

The drivers on Sony's website are for 32 Bit Vista, they don't have any for 64 bit 7.

I'm tempted to just drop this thing and finish it off for good, getting a bit cheesed off with it now, none of the drivers from the laptopvideo2go site will download, and if they do the site crashes.