8800gts Drivers

I have noticed that the stock driver on my Gateway p-6831fx is giving me some problems such as causing my screen to go black like its shut off for 5-10 secs while playing WOW and sometimes I see some anomalies (not artifacts but weird colors etc). Once after having to reboot the computer Windows acutally told me it was the graphics driver (I already knew this but was suprised Windows actually reported it).

So my question is to all the 8800gts owners which driver from laptopvideo2go would you recommend. There are hundreds there but almost everyone has at least some people reporting errors, bad performance, downclocking (8800M gtx). I don't care about having the most performance because WOW isnt intensive I just want stability without having to install 10 different drivers and testing each of them.

 

I played around with alot of drivers, the stock were the best and most stable over all, until I tried the 174.70's, they have been excellent, stable and smooth..

 

I have had good luck with the 174.70's also, I play Everquest 2 on High Quility, Bio Shock, Call of Duty 4, and Neverwinter Nights 2

 

Is this finally a good driver to upgrade to from the ever so popular 169.09?

 

I never used the 169.09, but I can say I have had no issues with the 174.70's

 

I'm using the 174.70 too.

 

I'm using the 174.60 at the moment. I haven't tried the new 174.70's yet, but I can say the 174.60 are pretty staple and deliver good performance. My CPU never reaches 60c while gaming so I'm happy. Once I get a new AC Adapter, I hope to overclock. (Not that OCing would probably matter to you)

Games I've been playing as of late:

• World in Conflict
• Call of Duty 4
• Unreal Tournament 3
• Counterstrike: Source
• Prey

 

171.16 has been stable and great for me. From good review of the 174.70 drivers, I may have to try them. The only graphically intense game I play is Call of Duty 4, though.

 

I have found that 174.74 are very stable for me.

I grabbed 174.74 (Vista 32bit) from www.guru3d.com and they installed fine.

You can use either use the latest Nvidia drivers or their beta drivers from graphic sites like guru3d.com. However, if you use one of these drivers, you have to install it through Windows, you can't use the Nvidia install since it will see you are installing the drivers on a mobile product of theirs.

Using Windows to install the driver works fine and gets around the nagging 'you have a mobile version of our product, please contact your OEM...'.

Been doing this since the Geforce2GO days and it still works great!

If you have trouble let me know and I can post the steps.

Cheers!
-K

 

You must mean that you try to play NWN2. The controls require a 3rd hand. I was really looking forward to it.

Is there a trick to it? Maybe I'll give it another chance.

 

I have only played it for 10minjs or so, the graphix look nice. I mainly play "the great time sink" Everquest 2. I have two diffrent fx's and both run everything almost the same, and I say almost just because I really have'nt noticed too much of a diffrence other than load times, and I have 7200rpm vs 5400rpm.

 

I installed 174.74 from laptopvideo2go.com. Have zero complaints. I wonder if there are better drivers though.

 

Can you kindly tell me how did you manage to install this driver on your lappy? I got P171, I was not able to install any driver but the stock driver. Am I missing something? I did use the mod inf file. I was able to install 174.74 on my other labtop with nVidia 7700 without any trouble.

Thanks for any advice

 

I didn't do anything special at all. I uninstalled the stock drivers, restarted, ran DriverSweep, restarted, installed new drivers.

 

I have not tried uninstall the stock and then re-install the new driver. I usually just installed the new one over the old one and it uses to be fine. I will try what you suggested. Thanks,

 

HUGE mistake. That is a really horrible way of doing it. You need to also download driversweeper which removes all remains of the old driver.

 

Thanks for all the input, after several crashes and errors last night (some gpu driver recorveries, some windows explorer crashes, some superfetch crashes, some WOW fatal executions, and IE7 not responding...thats right my computer runs like **** for no reason) I decided on 174.70 from laptopvideo2go. I just started WOW again I don't notice any perfromance differences but maybe it will be more stable. Like I said sometimes my computer has about 20 errors a day and I think it must be SP1 because on my Sony Vista has been running fine for a solid year (havent updated it yet). I also ran 3dmark06 and got 6805 which is bout 300 points lower than with stock drivers but then again it could be that all windows problems lately have slowed it down. I'll report back after some testing on the stability of this driver with FEAR, HL2, Prey, WOW, and COH.

Edit: fixing a gramatical error

 

I am running 174.74 drivers with SP1 with zero errors. When you install anything especially Drivers are you disabling your anti-virus, uninstalling the old driver and rebooting? I have two of this Laptops, no issues.

 

Guess I should have clarified, all the errors occured before I decided to change from the stock driver. I don't have any form anti-virus installed or even on my computer (maybe I have a virus), I unistalled and deleted the old driver, rebooted, then re-installed the new driver. I haven't had any problems since I changed the driver but some of problems I have don't seem to have anyhting to do with the gpu anyway (superfetch...) but I'm hopeful it fixed them also.

 

Just for fun I opened my control panel and looked at all the errors and problems I've had there were 24 just from the last couple of days. So i clicked submit these problems and check for solutions online and this is what Windows found


This problem was caused by a compatibility issue between Age of Empires II Update v2.0a and Windows Vista. Age of Empires II Update v2.0a was created by Microsoft Corporation. An update is available that solves this problem.

Solution

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


To solve this problem, run setup.exe for Age of Empires II Update v2.0a again. If running setup.exe does not solve the problem, contact your computer manufacturer. For more information, go to the Microsoft Corporation website online.

Wow Windows identified the problem and told me how to fix it My only concern with this solution is that the error didn't occur when I was playing Age of Empires 2 in fact I don't even own the game or have it installed on my computer nor has it ever been on it...

 

I cannot get any drivers installed past 169. I've uninstalled them, rebooted, ran driver sweeper and followed all of the instructions as provided on laptopvideo2go and I keep getting the same issue. When installing them from clicking setup, I simply reboot and there is no nvidia control panel and no install driver. Just standard vga graphic controller. When I try and install them through update driver, I always get an error saying the drivers are not vista. The one's I get from laptop video say they are for vista 32x. This is driving me freaking ape****.

 

Nacire - I have the same "Not for Vista" problem you have, and have a custom INF that actually works even with the newest 174.74 drivers. I am at work right now, but I will get the INF online for you (and others) in a new post here; i will be sure to point you to it.

 

yep yep, just like was already stated, when you get that message, means your inf file is wrong, need the modified one, it should have been right there on the site where you got the higher numbered drivers.

 

Check out this link;

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=204425

And this one to download the 174.74 driver

http://www.tweakforce.com/

 

Thanks for the help guys, but I assure you I had the correct inf for each driver set I tried. I would uninstall the driver, reboot in safe mode, use drive sweeper, reboot, then install new drivers and reboot. When just running the setup out of the drivers unzipped folder, it seemed to install. However upon rebooting it's like nothing happened. When I would install them through windows update driver function, I would select the driver via the "Have Disk" option as suggested over at laptopvideo2go, but when it actually got to the part where drivers were installing, it would stop and tell me the drivers were not for vista.

I tried this multiple times to no avail. When I sort via drivers on laptopvideo2go, the latest I can find is 169.09. I have to got to the community forums to find the more recent versions. Why is this? It's strange because every one I tried from the forums failed, but the ones I got from the site listings worked. Go figure. I just went back to 169.09

I really just wanted to see if the newest drivers are supporting overscan compensation. I've been connecting to a 60' widescreen 1080p sony via hdmi, but it's cropping too much of the desktop to really do anything. I can't even see the taskbar for start button. I tried re-scaling the desktop, but it just doesn't take when I hit apply.

*sigh*

 

I finally able to installed 174.74 on my P171 using the method below. I have dual boot Vista and XP. I was not able to install 174.74 on XP, it kept on saying this is not the correct OS just like other people has reported. I was able to install 174.70 on XP. I use the driver from this web site and NOT with the mod .inf file. It only works with original inf file that came with the driver package.

Here is the step I used from the readme.txt file: I know its' for XP but it works for Vista as well.

Installation instructions
-------------------------
1. These drivers must be installed by a user with Windows 2000/XP Administrator
privileges. Please consult your system administrator or Microsoft
Windows 2000/XP User's Manual for more information on Administrator
privileges.

2. Start Microsoft Windows 2000/XP.

3. From the Start menu, select Settings.

4. Select Control Panel.

5. Select System.

6. Select Device Manager.

7. Under Display adapters, select the name of the NVIDIA adapter you have
installed. If you do not see a Display adapters option, or if your NVIDIA
adapter is not listed, under Other Devices, select Video Controller (VGA
Compatible).

8. Select the Driver tab.

9. Select Update Driver.

10. Select Next.

11. Select Next.

12. Verify that "Specify a location" has a check mark next to it. If it does
not, click in the box next to "Specify a location" to place a check mark
in the box. Select Next.

13. Enter the path to the NVIDIA drivers in the "Copy manufacturer's files
from:" dialog. Select OK.

14. If you get a dialog box that states "A suitable driver for this device
is already installed.", click in the box next to "Install one of the
other drivers" to place a check mark in the box, then select Next.

Otherwise, select Next, then proceed to step 16.

15. Select the following driver from the list. NVIDIA RIVA TNT is used an
example; make sure to select your NVIDIA adapter from the list.

Description Provider Manufacturer Location
----------- -------- ------------ --------
NVIDIA RIVA TNT NVIDIA NVIDIA a:\nv4_disp.inf

Select Next.

16. Select Finish.

17. Select Close.

18. Windows 2000/XP will ask if you wish to restart the computer. Select Yes.

Good luck.

 

I went back to stock drivers on a hunch, and the overscan compensation works like a charm. Playing games on the 60 inch Sony as I type! I'd still like to get the newer drivers working and see if the overscan works on them too. For some reason the 169.09 had issues.

 

double07, where did you download that driver?

 

My BAD.. I got the driver form laptopvideo2go.com. For some reason when I post the message last night, I thought I was at the site. Sorry for the confusion.

 

I goto laptopvideo2go.com, I can't find the 174.74 driver? I forgot where I got it in the first placer;(

 

Try this link:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showforum=89

 

Thank you double07

 

Thank you double07