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Installing NVIDIA drivers on Windows 7

August 10, 2009, 8:48 pm

I’ve recently installed the latest operating system from the good minds at Redmond, Windows 7 Ultimate, on my Lenovo Thinkpad T61.  The only problem that showed up after the installation (which I should add was the fastest and easiest installation of Windows so far) was that my video card’s drivers, a NVidia 140m card, wouldn’t install successfully from NVIDIA’s Windows 7 drivers download page.  This meant that I couldn’t support neither the native resolution (1680×1050), nor dual monitors on the dock station.

As a matter of fact, I would get the following error message when launching the drivers setup file (186.03_notebook_win7_32bit_international_whql.exe).

image

Therefore, I had to get my little act together and manually install the drivers.  The following instructions should help you install your NVIDIA’s video card drivers on Windows 7 if the setup file won’t do it for you…for some reason.

  1. Go to NVIDIA’s Windows 7 drivers download page and download the drivers specific to your video card.
  2. Run the downloaded executable which should extract the files in a directory (by default C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\###\International, where ### corresponds to the version of the setup file.  Mine was 186.03, therefore the directory was C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\186.03\International).
  3. Browse to that directory (C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\###\International) and in the Display folder, open the ListDevices.txt file with your favorite text editor.
  4. At this time, you’re looking for the specific INF file which holds the drivers information for your card. This step should be easy if you know the model of your video card (check your PC manufacturer’s website if you have no clue what is the model of your video card). For example, my video card is a NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M. Therefore, I would either search for “NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M” precisely or simply “140M”.  The search result tells me that the INF file I should be interested in is NVDM.INF (the one in a red square in the following screenshot).

image

  1. Now that we know which file holds the drivers information, we should locate it without problem. In my case its path is C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\186.03\International\Display\NVDM.INF.
  2. Now open your display settings (Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Display\Screen Resolution) and click on the “Advanced settings” link.

image

  1. On the Advanced Settings window, click on the Adapter tab, then on the Properties button.
  2. From the adapter properties window, click on the Driver tab, then on the Update Driver… button.
  3. On the “How do you want to search for updated driver software?” window, click on the “Browse my computer for driver software” button.
  4. On the “Browse for driver software on your computer” window, click on the “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer” button.
  5. On the “Select the device driver you want to install for this hardware” window, click on the Have Disk… button.
  6. On the “Copy manufacturer’s files from:” text box, simply specify the INF file path from step 5 or simply browse for it, and press the OK button when done with this step.
  7. Now simply select your NVIDIA video card model from the list and click on the Next button (click on YES if you get a warning from updating the driver). Windows 7 should now be installing the drivers for your video card.
  8. Restart your computer to apply the new video settings.

I hope this post helped you to install your NVIDIA video card drivers on Windows 7. Feel free to post you question or comments.

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27 Comments

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    August 10, 2009, 9:08 pm

  2. Chris:

    I got the same error you got but upon following your directions I get another error.

    “Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it. NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M. The driver selected for this device does not support this version of Windows.”
    I am running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 (RTM from TechNet) on a Lenovo T61 with the NVS 140M.

    Thoughts?

    August 11, 2009, 12:30 pm

  3. Brian Di Croce:

    @Chris: The are two things I could point out:

    1) You should download the “Windows 7 64-bit” version of the drivers in the download page. It’s just under the “Windows 7 32-bit”. Try that and let me know if it works.
    2) Does your T61 supports 64-bit? Mine doesn’t. Perhaps you (somewhow) installed Windows 7 64-bit on a 32-bit machine? (Is that even possible?)

    August 11, 2009, 2:56 pm

  4. Chris:

    Yes I did grab the 64-bit version, actually it was the default when I was looking to download. It downloads from Nvidia as 186.03_notebook_win7_64bit_international_whql.exe

    The T61 does support 64-bit, and I would venture to say yours should. Most newer chips include the Intel 64-bit extensions, but the Merom chips were the first. I have a Core 2 Duo T7800 Merom 2.6GHz chip.

    August 11, 2009, 7:28 pm

  5. Brian Di Croce:

    @Chris: Ok, thanks for the heads up on the 64-bit support. I had no idea about that on the T61. I was thinking of something else coming back from work…what if you try the 32-bit version? Perhaps it’s “backward compatible” between 64/32-bit? Check out the following link as they seem to have the 64-bit version for the 140m on Windows 7. Let me know the outcome! I’m checking your replies every day. http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/24673-v19040-windows-7vista-64bit-nvidia-oem/

    August 11, 2009, 8:21 pm

  6. Chris:

    Brian, thanks for the idea. I went ahead and looked around the LV2G website and found a few Win7/x64 versions that included the 140M. Unfortunately none of them worked out, same errors as before. Ultimately I went to Lenovo’s forums and found that the Vista/x64 driver might work. I grabbed that and it appears to work pretty well.
    http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-67939

    Version: 7.15.11.7693
    Release Date: 2009/01/13

    August 12, 2009, 10:38 am

  8. Dave Sargent:

    Sweet! Thanks, this worked great for me. nVidia needs to fix their drivers for the Quaddros and Windows 7 ASAP. L000000zers.

    August 18, 2009, 11:01 am

  9. Brian Di Croce:

    @Dave: LOL. Right on.

    August 18, 2009, 11:08 am

  10. notime:

    This worked out very good. I spent a lot of time trying to figure this out before I found your posting.
    T60 Nvidia 140M Windows 7 RTM

    Thanks again!

    August 21, 2009, 12:39 pm

  11. Steve:

    This worked for me as I had the same problem with Thinkpad T61p with Quadro FX 570m. Do you know of any way to also get the NVIDIA Control Panel working properly (If you open the PhysX properties it goes to the Control Panel and crashes.)

    August 24, 2009, 8:52 am

  12. Ben:

    Thanks for the write-up. Worked well for me on W7, build 7100. I used the driver install file “186.03_notebook_win7_32bit_international_whql.exe”

    August 25, 2009, 9:38 am

  13. Sam:

    Thanks Brian. I tried your method but I got the same error as Chris. I have a T61 (Core 2 Duo T9300).Previously, when I installed Windows 7 beta, windows update found a prerelease version of nVidia quadro nvs 140m driver which worked very nice. There is no such driver available now. I am running windows vista x64 driver on W7 RTM, which works fine but seems a bit choppy compared to the prerelease version during w7 beta. Hopefully there is a “Lenovo” version of driver being released soon!

    August 25, 2009, 11:08 pm

  14. Steven:

    Brian. what if i cant find my graphic card on the notepad. I have a NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 8400M GT graphics card. but looking at the list on direction 4. I could not find it. there was NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 8400M G and NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 8400M GS. This is a great thing your doing BTW I have been working on my problem for days now and i think you have the solution. Please help

    October 11, 2009, 7:45 pm

  15. Brian Di Croce:

    @Steven: You seem to be more lucky than us. NVIDIA has the driver for the GeForce 8M series video cards compatible with Windows 7.

    Here’s the link for Win7/32bits: http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_winvista_win7_186.81_whql.html.

    And here’s the link for Win7/64bits: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_64bit_191.07_whql.html

    October 12, 2009, 7:45 am

  16. yoghibubu:

    Thank you worked for me on GeForce 8600 on sony vgn-ar51su

    October 30, 2009, 7:10 am

  17. Will:

    @ yoghibubu how did you install the driver? when I try to install the http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_winvista_win7_186.81_whql.html driver it pops up an error; I tryed looking into the ListDevices.txt but I could not find my device which is PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0407&SUBSYS_9016104D (VAIO AR41S)

    Please HELP.

    November 5, 2009, 11:41 am

  18. Pvf:

    I really cant install it Sony Vaio VGN-FE31H GeForce 7400 :(

    November 29, 2009, 3:56 pm

  19. Frank:

    I tried to install GF7400 Go on my VAIO SZ220, but there were a bunch of 7400 in the ListDevice.txt. Anybody know which one should be valid?

    December 9, 2009, 3:25 am

  20. Dustin:

    Thank you for this tutorial! true life saver! i upgraded to windows 7 from vista on my vaio sz433 and resolution had been stuck at a max of 1024×768… this was the only good advice and working tutorial around on resolving the problem!

    and @Frank; i just used the first Go 7400 file and that worked fine for me.

    December 12, 2009, 5:07 am

  21. Alex:

    I love you!!! It worked. I spent 2 hours searching and didn’t find a solution and already thought I need to go back to Vista or XP. You made my day or should I say night??? THANK YOU SO MUCH

    December 17, 2009, 4:53 pm

  22. Dave:

    Your blog is the most encouraging news I’ve found, but I’m still not able to get my nVidia drivers installed, maybe you have some insight.

    I am moving from an old desktop with a nVidia Quadro (I can’t tell from any of the markings on it but I believe it’s either an NVS 420 or 450). It’s been driving my four monitor set up.

    So I got a new computer, with Windows 7/ 64 bit. Moved the card over, and am having the same symptoms you describe here.

    However, I do not have a ListDevices.txt file. There is only one .inf file (NV_DISP.INF) in the stuff that got extracted so I tried that with your procedure.
    When I attempt to update the driver it tells me that the driver does not support this version of windows.

    Any insight (including how to get a hold of someone at nVidia) would be appreciated.

    December 20, 2009, 6:02 pm

  23. Mike:

    @dave I used older version divers (179.48) for GeForce GO 7400. I did like in the instucion BUT I have list of drivers for my 7400 and I chosed last one. Also You should turn off campatibly.

    December 24, 2009, 6:46 pm

  24. Michel:

    I used the 195.62 version, i also selected all the drivers in the list for my 9800m GTS but it didn’t works ….. does anybody got the same message ? (“Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it. NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS. The driver selected for this device does not support this version of Windows.”) … on windows 7 x64 …. with the x64 driver

    December 26, 2009, 5:22 pm

  25. Mitchell Dickun:

    I needed to thanks for this great scan!! I m little doubt appreciate every little little bit of it Smile I’ve got you bookmarked for me to check out every new stuff you post easier to try to made certain I will not miss it.

    February 24, 2010, 9:51 pm

  26. Andy:

    Brian,
    My Vaio VGN-SZ 791n uses a GeForce 8400M GS.
    That particular driver is found on many of the .inf files. Which one should I choose? I tried all of them and none of them worked. In each of the .inf files I did chose, there were multiple GeForce 8400GS which one do I chose then.. do I need to go through them all? Each time the error message state that there were not compatible with my version of Windows. I am running Window 7 Professional 64 (bit). The NVIDIA file I downloaded was 195.62

    March 2, 2010, 1:34 am

  27. superzgred:

    I did as you told, but still windows sends me a massage that driver version is wrong, but i have good version.
    geforce 6800 GS. Do you have any idea how to install it?

    March 11, 2010, 4:31 pm

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