Updating a video driver

[Byrthnoth]

Oooohkaaaaay. So, I got a Dell Vostro laptop back in November (64 bit, Windows 7) with a Nvidia GeForce 310M and found it pre-installed with a driver from May (5/7/10, 8.16.11.8990). Par for the course, right?

Anyway, updating this driver is a total whore and I'm lost. The most recent Dell Video Driver packages (from 1/6/11) just installs NVidia HD Audio (which I didn't need or want) and leaves me with my ancient video driver.

If I download the most recent Nvidia installer (266.58, which claims to support 310M and certainly lists it in nvac.inf), it tells me that "This graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware".

I try to use this website:
http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/top...ia-oem-mobile/
their process doesn't work either and gives me this error:

"Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it.

NVIDIA GeForce 310M

The system cannot find the file specified."

Any idea how to fix this? For some reason I don't feel like my computer should be overheating and lagging running two instances of a 8-7 year old game.

[chiyio]

if that 8-7 year old game is ffxi, it's not using the gfx card very much, but anyway...

you sure you got the exact right driver? http://www.nvidia.com/object/noteboo...ql-driver.html

I'd uninstall the old driver first, reboot into safe mode and run driver sweeper. http://downloads.guru3d.com/Guru3D--...load-1655.html

then reboot again and install the nvidia driver.

there's a note specifically about dell laptops on the nvidia page "If you own a Dell Inspiron 1420, Dell XPS M1330, Dell XPS M1530, or Dell Latitude D630/D630c it is highly recommended that you first install this Dell software update.", but I don't see Vostro there. I'd still go ahead and update your bios before doing all this though since there's a known problem with some dells.

[Byrthnoth]

Okay, so I'm not really sure what worked, but here is what I did:
1) Flashed/updated the BIOS
2) Ran your driver sweeper program in safe mode and used it to "clean up" my NVidia section
3) Logged back in to my account to find the Intel HD Graphics and NVidia display adapter drivers "corrupted."
4) Uninstalled both
5) Installed the Intel drivers from the Dell site
6) Installed the 310M drivers from the link in my above post, using their method

Now I have all the updated drivers!

[chiyio]

well, as long as you got it working good job and congrats