What is the NVIDIA Graphics Driver Registry Patch?

i have the Sony VGN-SZ780 laptop. On its ;ist of drivers, one sees at:

Sony eSupport - VGN-SZ780 - Software Updates & Drivers

a file called "NVIDIA® Graphics Driver Registry Patch"


Does anyone here know what it is, and what it does?

One could assume, hat after installing the Nvidia driver package that hey have there, that one should insall his registry patch, whatever it is.

However, that is a very old driver package for the Nvidia Geforce 8400M GS video card. One can download a much newer driver package from Nvidia, and still newer from laptopvideo2go. (I'm not sure how the latter has newer Nvidia drivers than Nvidia has listed themselves.) In any case, it is certainly possible to install newer drivers for the card, than are present for download on the Sony site.

Therefore, I am wondering, after installing a newer driver package, should one still install the registry patch? Or is that patch only for that driver version?

In any case, what is the purpose of that patch? What does it do?

Thank you.

 

Looks like it changes some display settings, perhaps to better calibrate them for the LCD.

Here is the content of the patch (extracted with Universal Extractor)

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000]
"_OEM_PV1_VAL_Brightness"=dword:FFFFFFDF
"_OEM_PV1_VAL_Contrast"=dword:00000077
"_OEM_PV1_VAL_Hue"=dword:00000000
"_OEM_PV1_VAL_Saturation"=dword:00000095
"_OEM_PV1_VAL_Gamma"=dword:00000064
"_PV1_ENU_VideoColorControlSettings"=hex:00,00,00,00
"_PV1_ENU_VideoColorControl_ColorTempFeature"=hex:00,00,00,00

 

Thank you, Zoink!

Do you think that it should be applied, regardless of which version of the Nvidia drivers one has installed, newer than on the Sony site, etc.?

 

Don't install the registry patch with newer non-Sony drivers. Your fn key brightness control will be broken.

 

That's Mr Zoinks to you, sir

I disagree with coolguy. I say install away. Nothing in the reg file looks function-key related. It is easy enough to remove if I end up being wrong.

It looks like color tweaks, nothing more.

 

Your statement is true only for Sony provided drivers. The newer infs (non-sony) have changed a lot. I have done enough research to know this. The inf (part of) and fn key brightness control (Vaio event service) are related.

 

How do you propose to "remove" the changes if you don't first note what the original values were prior to the patch? Rajesh has been VERY involved in issues with brightness controls, function keys, drivers and updates here for a long time. No offense, but I'd trust his knowledge over your hunch any day.

It might look like color tweaks to you but I'd say this line has a tad to do with brightness (and brightness control is VERY related to function key use):

"_OEM_PV1_VAL_Brightness"=dword:FFFFFFDF"

Gary

 

Brightness in this registry entry is for the brightness ramp, as is the Gamma and contrast. This has nothing to due with the backlight duty cycle/fn-brightness keys.

Zoinks is correct and his point that it's easy enough to remove is correct also.

 

The point is not to install the registry patch, which came with a old Sony provided Nvidia driver with the newer non-Sony Nvidia drivers.
This is because the older and the newer nvidia driver inf's are not the same and vary drastically and the registry patch will most likely break the newer driver's registry entries.
How do you think one can uninstall (no uninstaller or no previous system restore point) the Nvidia registry patch, when it messes up something?

 

Really? I see no instructions from him (or you for that matter) on how to go about removing the patch if it does screw things up. His comment was "I say install away". Nothing about how to prep for the removal if it's needed. Sorry that's just not how things ought to be done here knowing we have lots of uninitiated folks who look to others for advice. You, I and Mr. ZoinksS2k may know how to backup a registry segment ahead of time, but not many folks do.

When a trusted member of our community who has been instrumental in uncovering the intricacies of the relationship between the drivers, auxiliary apps and registry settings has sounded a clear warning to be careful and Mr. ZoinksS2k tells everyone to "just install away" without so much as a single suggestion to prepare for the worst, I find it negligent at best.

Gary

 

Wow guys, it is a registry patch.

I don't really want to argue, so I'll concede. Don't install it.