Reinstalling Windows 7 - Nvidia drivers cannot find compatabile hardware

For 3 days I've been attempting to get the video drivers working on my Alienware m15x. I've called tech support at least 10 times, I've put in about 8 hours of time trying to get this issue resolved. ONE DRIVER is all I need to fix, and I just can't seem to figure it out.

What do I do? I use my laptop to perform (live musician) and have a big show this weekend! I reinstalled Windows because my DAW (digital audio workplace) was running really choppy and slow. Didn't think it would be such an issue to get the damn Nvidia drivers working again!

Dell is gonna charge me over $100 to fix what seems like the simplest of issues. Can you guys help? I'll remain logged in and on this thread for advice and tips. Thanks in advance!

Have followed the thread on this very forum on the order to install. Tried drivers from Dell Support, the resource CD that came with the computer, the drivers on the Alienware site, and drivers from Nvidia. Completely stumped here. Have tried the majority of methods found on the first two pages of Google. This is really driving me crazy, it seems like such a simple issue.

Should I start again from scratch? Please, give me any kind of information to help resolve this issue. Not only do I need to install Windows 7 properly before tomorrow night, I need to stock the computer with dozens of musical programs so I will be able to perform my set. Please help!

Edit: I've been browsing / lurking through this forum a lot the last few days, and could not find any solutions, but am continuing to do so while I patiently await a response. Seems like this is a very common issue when people try to reinstall Windows 7 64 bit on their m15x laptops, surprised a universal solution hasn't been found yet.

 

You usually get such an error when your graphic card Hardware ID does not match any found in the Nvidia Drivers installation / inf files.

This can happen due to you having a newer ID / GPU or Nvidia have not caught up but that's weird since you had them working before. I could be wrong because I am not familiar with Dell laptops.

Tell me what GPU model you have.

Click on Start, Control Panel, type in Device and then click on 'Device Manager', under 'Display Adapters', right click on the graphics card that is there and then click 'Properties', then click on 'Details'.

Where it says 'Device description' click on that and select 'Hardware ID's. Copy and paste the information in the second box so I can take a quick look.

 

Display adapter is coming up as:
ATI Mobilitiy Radeon HD 5850

Hardware ID's:
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A1&SUBSYS_02A21028&REV_00
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A1&SUBSYS_02A21028
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A1&CC_030000
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A1&CC_0300


(Thanks for the timely response! Much appreciated!)


EDIT: I'm now looking, once again, through the video drivers over at Dell Support. Trying to see if any apply to this ATI Mobilitiy Radeon HD 5850. I wish I was more computer literate. Gonna google it too, just to see what I can find.

EDIT 2: So I downloaded the drivers that apply to this other card from DELL, and still am getting a conflict message. "No ATI graphics driver is installed or the ATI driver is not functioning properly. Please install the ATI driver appropriate for your ATI hardware."

This laptop has rejected every driver on the DELL site for video, all 9 of them. Originally only some "VGA adapter" was the only thing I saw in my Device manager.

 

You need AMD Drivers, not Nvidia ones. I have no experieince with AMD Drivers though.


The first thing you should try is the official site here, you will need to enter your Service tag code.

You can also try these and this one too.

Look here or ask in the forums.

If you get any to work, later on you can go back to make sure you have the newest ones.

Edit: You said all Dell ones had failed so far but that could be linked to matching up the Service Tag code, if not then the other links may work. If none of that works then maybe the order of everything installed from fresh really does make a difference.

 

Thanks! It's strange, the last time I got this fixed, the tech replaced the harddrive completely. While he was working on my computer he was telling me about the Nvidia drivers I had in my laptop, it's kind of funny I had it in my head I had a Nvidia card and the entire time, it was a completely different company that necessitated completely different drivers. All those hours wasted! But I'm relieved I asked here, otherwise I wouldn't have noticed the cards name at all. I'm going to try those links you suggested right now, will update as soon as I do.

EDIT: So the applicable drivers from the Dell site didn't work, got this message again:

"No ATI graphics driver is installed or the ATI driver is not functioning properly. Please install the ATI driver appropriate for your ATI hardware."

Gonna try the other two you posted, will report back again shortly.

ALSO wanted to note that I literally installed dozens of variants of Nvidia. At THAT point, the display driver was showing "VGA Adapter" or something along those lines, I only disabled it recently and then when you asked me to go into the Device Manager that new card had showed up.

Perhaps my system is clogged with half installed drivers? Maybe I should use a CC cleaner or something similar

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 Driver Download for VISTA,WIN7/64bits

This link ended up working! Ran CC Cleaner and used that link, and it worked for me. Thanks very much! Can't believe this entire time I've had the laptop I thought it was Nvidia cards

 

That link should have worked even without running CC Cleaner because those Drivers have your specific hardware ID included in the installation files (that's why the Dell ones failed). Running CC Cleaner is sometimes a good idea though.

Also, those failed installs of the Nvidia Drivers are unlikely to have caused any problems in my opinion, because they would have stopped working before anything was able to install. All you would have had were extracted files in a Nvidia Directory.

What you mentioned about the "VGA adapter", that is what all systems show when they have the default screen without its specific Drivers installed.


Interesting that Dell were going to charge you $100, surely they knew that your M15x did not have a Nvidia card (assuming they didn't mention this).


Glad you got it working!

 

Thanks so much! Despite all the time I put into this issue, I can't help but laugh at this careless, careless mistake. I've literally had this laptop for a year and a month and have thought the entire time I had Nvidia drivers every time I fresh-installed Windows. I ran into the same problem every time, and always ended up having tech support fix it, too. They just never ended up telling me it wasn't Nvidia that my laptop had.

Seriously, for a year and a month I've cursed the Nvidia name because I could never get their drivers to work. This revelation can only be described this way...