The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    stock drivers? (please help me)

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by ElementalGT, Aug 9, 2007.

  1. ElementalGT

    ElementalGT Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    65
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    How can I tell which driver version is on my laptop?

    I have and Inspiron 1520 (32-bit Vista) with Geforce 8600GT and want to know which drivers it is using (I have not updated them at all).


    Also, which driver is the best for the 8600 (remember its in a laptop) and can I use the drivers from nVidia's website?

    Thanks.
     
    ElementalGT, Aug 9, 2007
    #1
  2. Wu Jen

    Wu Jen Some old nobody

    Reputations:
    1,409
    Messages:
    1,438
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Go to MyComputer, right click, select properties at the bottom. Then System Properties shows up. Click the Hardware Tab and then select Device manager. When the Device Manager window pops up find the Display Adapter and open it up. It will list your display adapter..ie. a Intel Q965...Radeon X400 etc. Right Click on it and then select properties. Now the hardware details box pops up. Select Driver and it will tell you the driver #. Usually also the driver number is the last few digits. I.e. 6.14.10.4704 The driver would be a 47.04 etc.

    You should be able to go to Dell's website and click support and then enter your express code tag (and register) to see what is in your machine. You can also download the latest Dell drivers this way for your machine.

    You can not use any Drivers from Nvidia's website. They are ONLY for desktops. You can use drivers from www.laptopvideo2go.com website. But you will have to change the moddified .inf file to allow you to do so. See the site and you should find a guide there on how to use their files.

    Using a new driver is not always the best solution, sometimes the original driver is best. You can try it out but be sure to rememer if it hoses up to reboot into safe mode (F8) and uninstall the driver and reinstall the new one.

    Look around there are a few good guides on uninstalling and reinstalling video drivers.

    Hope that helps you. :)
     
    Wu Jen, Aug 9, 2007
    #2