Sony Vaio + NVIDIA + Windows 7 = Problem | NotebookReview

Blues003 Newbie

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Hey there!

I'm posting on the forums because I'm having a problem - apparently - with my Graphics card.

I own a Sony Vaio Laptop, VGN-FZ21M. This laptop comes with a NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT GPU Graphics card.
Originally, the laptop came with Windows Vista. I had no problems there. Once Windows 7 came out, I upgraded. Problems started there, with Windows not recognizing my video card correctly. It was displayed not as NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT, but as a Standard VGA Graphic Adapter.

At the time, the problem was more or less easily solved. I downloaded the drivers from NVIDIA, but I wasn't able to do a direct install (an error would occur). So I updated the Graphic card manually, by browsing the disk and chosing the nvmt.inf file that came within the drivers given by NVIDIA on their website, as the file to update my Graphic card with.

This worked out perfectly. My Graphic card was updated and working as great as ever.

However, more recently, I decided to format my laptop, and give it a clean Windows 7 install. I did this because my laptop was giving some graphical weirdies. I thought a format would solve it. It didn't.

Now, my graphic card is again recognized as Standard VGA Graphic Adapter. And while I can again change it to NVIDIA 8400M GT, there are some things to note this time:

- Firstly, when running the User Experience Index, the laptop will ALWAYS crash.

- Secondly, the laptop just randomly crashed once, while watching an youtube vid (it was set to NVIDIA 8400M GT at the time - I reverted it to VGA and have been having no crashes since)

- Thirdly, after hibernating, the computer gets an all-buggy "VAIO" screen, and sometimes the blackscreens that preceed the Windows loading screen are also all buggy, with green-ish dots all over the place.

I have googled for an answer, but to no avail. Any chance one of you can help me?

Thanks a ton.

Blues