Sony VGN-Z790DND Graphics Glitch Problem w/ speed setting (Nvidia 9300M GS) Fresh Install Win7-64bit

I did a fresh reinstall of Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit on my Sony Vaio VGN-Z790DND laptop. I tried following the guides posted on the forums on what order to install the utilities, etc to get everything working.

So far, I think I got almost everything working except for the "speed" video card. It runs the Nvidia 9300M GS chipset. I downloaded the driver straight from Sony and tried to install it. Once it reboots, the screen gets truncated in half. I tried adjust the resolution to the lowest, which was 800x600 but it wouldn't stretch. I also tried adjusting the monitor refresh settings (which was 59 and 60Hz), but that didn't work either. Windows detects the monitor as a generic PnP monitor.

I can't seem to get the Nvidia drivers to work. Once I uninstall the drivers and use the default VGA ones from Microsoft, the resolution comes out fine. The reason why I want to use the Nvidia ones is that I want to be able to adjust the brightness levels and from what I read, you need to use the Nvidia drivers to do so. Currently, the function keys for the brightness don't work.

Any suggestions on how to fix this? I already tried searching the forums and google for help but there doesn't seem to be anyone else having this problem.

 

Did you update your BIOS?
Which version do you have?

 

I just updated my bios from R4040M3 to R4041M3 and now the funny thing is that when I try to install the Nvidia 9300M GS drivers from Sony, it keeps saying that I need to reboot the computer before I can install any drivers. I already deleted all the temp files under my user account and rebooted 3 times. I noticed that the stamina/speed switch light is on stamina, while the physical switch is set the speed.

 

Why not update to R4044M3?
Try to uninstall all Nvidia driver before reinstalling it

 

Funny, I didn't see it when I selected Windows 7 64-bit Pro on their site, I had to browse around the other OS's before I found the R4044M3. I installed it and finally managed to get the video card installed! I had to run the .exe from Sony and when it started the setup, I went to my temp folder (%temp%) and found the actual .INF files and installed it that way through the device manager. The funny thing is that the brightness buttons still don't work at all!

I at least fixed the video problem, it detects the card and runs at the full resolution, now I have to get the brightness keys to work. One problem after another with these Sonys.