Y570 - reinstalling Nvidia driver

Update: A solution to my problem is in post #8

I'm thinking that I hosed myself. While attempting to install a new driver for 555m card, I uninstalled the old driver through device manager, which is apparently a bad idea. Now, Windows doesn't detect the card, and different driver installer versions give me the error message: The graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware.

I have tried the driver from Lenovo's site as well as drivers from Nvidia's site. I have tried uninstalling all of the Nvidia software in 'programs and features', cleaning the registry, as well as adding some lines to a couple of files in the Nvidia driver installer folder. Nothing has worked.

The only options that I say are to either reinstall Windows, or physically reinstall the video card, and I'm not looking forward to either of those options. Any ideas?

 

not really, that shouldn't cause you to get such an error

That happens to me when I try to install a wrong driver.
By the way, the best driver for the GT555m is 296.10 not the latest 304 one


nVIDIA Graphics Driver v296.10 WHQL (x64)

For all the latest and updated drivers for the Y570, refer to the Clean install Guide for the Y570 thread

 

I have tried installing 296.10 as well as other driver versions. All of them give the same error message.

 

Wow - the exact same thing happened to me this morning on my y570. I had uninstalled beta 301.24 so that i could install release 301.42. After I uninstalled x.24 - and attempted to install x.42 - it was like the device was no longer installed. I kept getting installation failure. It's like windows doesn't even see the device anymore. I'm stumped as well.

 

You guys do know NV now has a pretty good driver sweeper build into the newer driver installers? Choose custom install and check the clean install option, loving 301.24; BF3 now rocks on here (prefer playing it on my notebook over my desktop). Only issue I'm still having is that Star Trek Online still doesn't play on high when spec wise it should.

 

Thanks RangerXML, I've already tried that. Unfortunately, the driver install drags on for about 30 minutes before I get a timeout message and the installation fails.

Biteater, I was able to get windows to reinstall 296.10 by uninstalling all nVidia products via the Control Panel and then restarting into Safe Mode. Windows will recognize the device and install 296.10. Restart and at least your video card will be functional again - albeit without a new driver.

I'm still working on trying to get the drivers updated but at least I can now play Diablo3 in the meantime.

 

Alright - This is what I did to get 301.42 running on my Y570. Reboot to Safe Mode with Networking (F8 during post), run the 301.42 installer, choose custom, check "Clean Install", restart.

Now, I'm not sure what is keeping the nVidia drivers from installing like they have in the past for me, during a normal windows boot - but for whatever reason - this is all I could get to work.

 

Bcadile, thanks, but that didn't work here. I did find the problem, though. In device manager, 'pci express controller' was showing a problem, as well as a couple of other things in device manager under 'system devices' - 'acpi lid', and 'delayman filter'. I'm guessing that these problems came about when I uninstalled the the Nvidia driver through device manager by right clicking the GT 555M, clicking 'properties', 'driver', 'uninstall', and checking 'delete the driver software for this device'........don't do that....learned the hard way. I'm not sure how uninstalling the Nvidia driver caused the other problems, but the problem with re-installing the Nvidia driver was that the pci express bus wasn't functioning. I fixed it by right clicking 'acpi express bus' in device manager (was showing a problem via the yellow warning triangle), and choosing 'rollback driver'. A dialogue asked if I wanted to allow driver updating via Windows Update, which I allowed. After a restart, the driver was installed, and I was able to re-install the Nvidia driver without any issue. Also, uninstalling the 'pci express bus' driver, instead of rolling back the driver, should work just as well.

I also tried rolling back the other problem drivers, but the only option was for uninstalling, which I did (but not checking to the delete the driver software!). I saw 'acpi lid' re-install after restarting, but I didn't see 'delayman filter' do anything. Also, I'm not seeing 'pci express bus' listed, but I'm assuming that it is under a different name or something.

Update: To turn on notification of switching on the Nvidia card, open the the Nvidia control panel, click 'Desktop', and check 'Display gpu activity icon in notification area'.