Best nVidia driver for HEL80

Hi, I want everybody's opinion on this because I'm confused.
What is *THE* latest, greatest, and bestest version of the nVidia drivers for the HEL80?

I'm also looking at the ftp://download.nvidia.com/Windows/ to look for versions.


Let's see, the GPU is a "GeForce Go 7600"
I installed the drivers that came with the machine and they are:
"ForceWare version 83.90"
This version does not appear in the FTP directory listing.


If I go into nVidia's site:
http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

and then I choose:
Graphics Driver --> GeForce Go 7 Series --> Windows XP/2000

they offer me "Version 84.63, Release Date: July 5, 2006"
But looking at the "84.63_ForceWare_Release_Notes.pdf" they don't mention this graphics card (they mention 7800 and 7900 models)

If look in the site somewhere through "Software, ForceWare" they take you to last year's 81.85 as the "latest" version.

The guy from forum thread "Latest drivers for HEL80" ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=84039) says to use "NVIDIA ForceWare 84.74"
This version does not appear in the FTP, either, and I don't know where to get it from (The Bizcom site? they just give you a "HEL80/Driver20060426/VGA.zip" which doens't mention the version and seems to be a little dated, from April).

Looking into the FTP site, there are lots and lots of version after 83.90, up to 96.85. And I can see that nVidia just keeps adding version numbers sequentially but some versions are for Vista, some for 64 bits, some for XP, and any kind of combination without any apparent logic in the versioning that would tell you what they are.

Ok, next in line:
91.28, this is for XP and it mentions the 7600, but not the "Go" option. does it matter? Would it work? What's different in Go, from GS or GT?
CURIOSITY: Version 91.28 is from June 2006, however 84.63 is from June

all the way up to:
92.91 which seems to be the latest version for WinXp/32-bits but it's a "beta'

The latest non-beta I could find seems to be 91.47 (the previous one to 92.1). But I'm confused as to which file I should download:

91.47_forceware_winxp2k_english_whql.exe - 41351 KB
91.47_forceware_winxp2k_english_whql_2.exe - 41361 KB
91.47_forceware_winxp2k_international_whql.exe - 62595 KB


The (official?) nzone.com site, under the BETA Drivers section lists 91.33 as the latest "beta", which is older than 92.91

You can see where this is going... nobody seems to agree on what to use, not even nVidia themselves!

 

You might want to check out laptopvideo2go and their forums. Apparently newer drivers work with the 7600 go, provided you modify the .inf file before trying to install them. They've got benchmarks and things like that as well.

Most people around here will probably tell you that if the stock drivers are working well for you, then stick with them. Unless you're trying to squeeze that last bit of performance out of a particular game that newer drivers are friendly to, there's not really any reason to get rid of the ones that came with the laptop.

 

The main problem I have (sometimes) is the one related to the screen never coming back on after the screen saver turned it off.
Yesterday I discovered that if I have an external monitor plugged in, the external one will come on, but the laptop LCD still won't.
There's a Windows quick fix for that, but i thought that maybe a new driver would fix it as well. And the M$ fix is not readily downloadable from their site (idiots).
I've seen the download file in laptop2go but:
a) I don't know whether to trust files not distributed but the official vendor (is that even legal? does M$ know about it?)

b) It's only for the English version of XP (mine is Spanish). I've had trouble in the past installing the wrong-language versions of Windows files. In fact, in latest distributions, sometimes they won't even install under a different language, even if the file itself would have no "language" features in itself (like a driver quick fix which probably doesn't present any error messages or menus)

anyway.. it's not extremely important, and no, it's not for squeezing an extra FPS as I don't play games.

Ah... another bug I have with this driver is that when I use multi-desktop (nView) mode.. some applications leave a shadow of their balloon pop-ups that never go away. And others (like Trillian) sometimes open windows which don't appear in any of the desktops and you jsut have to kill the app and restart it. I don't know if new drivers would fix all this but what do I lose with trying?

 

1) Feel free to trust them. Many people do (including me). They're just the same drivers as the manufacturer ships with a different configuration file saying "Yes, these drivers can work with this card" to windows. The laptopvideo2go guys also redistribute that fix from Microsoft (and many others) here, as long as you know the MS kb number: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers/ms_kbs/

The problem with laptops is that manufacturers will get one set of drivers, and then NEVER update them, just add to the list of know issues and say "oh well!", because they're busy designing next year's model. Aftermarket drivers are MUCH more important to laptop users.

2) Drivers shouldn't matter too much, especially since you can read English. You may need to install the English language pack for XP, and just not use it though.

What I have noticed is that Windows is fickle about displays, period. It just changes settings randomly, rather than doing what you tell it to do. Rather annoying. And as far as the black screen after a screensaver, I have my lid closing switch set to do nothing under the power options, but if you close the lid and open it again, it'll often "reset" the drivers enough that it comes back up.

 

Funny piece of trivia:

If you plug in a second monitor, then go to the screen properties and enable the external monitor (and move it the LEFT of the laptop, which is the way I like it... with negative coordinates wrt the laptop screen).

a) Press the Apply button, and quite often all your icons will go to the left, to the external monitor, and everything will be screwed up

b) Press the Accept button, and the icons will stay where they always are

(until windows decides to move them around for reasons unrelated to multi-displays, reasons nobody know and that have existed for years and versions, never to be fixed)

 

To fix your problem with your screen not coming back on after turning off..
Go to http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers/ms_kbs/ and then search the page for "windowsxp-kb917332" to download it.

Its a problem with windows, not your video driver. This has been covered in a thread by myself a few weeks ago, as well as another new compal user from maybe a week and a half ago..

 

Wow.. I haven't had that kinda fun since Windows ME..

 

I use an external monitor alongside the LCD at work, and it's situated to the left of the machine because it's just easier that way given the cube layout, and it's just a pain in the rear having to configure it to "yes, make the displays go side-by-side, don't just output the display from the laptop to the monitor" every time.

 

Well the Nvidia divers are sofar the only negative thing about my HEL80...
They don't seem to be able to create a driver version where everything works...

 

This is an excellent point. If it ain't broke...

This particular problem is a Windows issue, not a GPU driver issue.

pyro's located the fix here.

I'm still using the stock drivers and have had no problems to date.

 

I've also got the stock drivers and get >35fps with almost maxed settings in BF2142 running at 1400x1050.