Nvidia Geforce Go 7900 GS Windows 10 will not install because of compatibility, what should I do?

[Windows Central Question]

Dell Inspiron E1705 Notebook running WIndows 8.1 Pro with the NVIDIA GeForce GO 7900 GS graphics card

 

[Thomas Bradley]

Hi there,
it worked well before the Windows Update installed Windows 10 Build 1151 (Threshold 2).
Now I get a blue screen (nvlddmkm.sys).
I tried to reinstall the 179.48 but the setup does not finish through compatibility issues.

Does anyone succeed with this configuration?

Insipron 9400 - Nvidia Go 7900 GS and Windows 10 (Build 1151 - Threshold2)

Thank you,
Andi

Hi Andi,
The nvidia "setup" installation for that driver never worked in any edition of Windows 10 and there is no driver setup for your laptop that does but after it fails you should still be able to do an "update driver" from within the properties page of your display adapter in device manager and manually choose the folder where the failed setup unzipped the actual driver files and the windows update driver wizard should install those drivers successfully and get your legacy card working.
I had instances where it acted like it finished but nothing was installed, and other instances where it wouldn't finish, but it never actually worked by just running the nvidia setup installation process in Windows 10.
Once the setup fails you should still be able to use the windows "update driver" wizard, locate and select the folder where the nvidia setup unzipped all the driver files it contains, and the wizard should find all the actual drivers and complete their installation process successfully.

I have not tried that process since "the November Update" of Windows 10 but other posts on the nVidia website seem to indicate that the manual update driver procedure I posted about last summer for these legacy laptop cards still works.

My Inspiron E1705 that I did the free Windows 10 upgrade to from Windows 7 Pro x64 last summer (and the "upgrade" process kept all my files and programs) also installed "the November Update" from Microsoft automatically last fall, has continued to update itself regularly, has gotten all of the latest updates as of about 2 weeks ago, is still working properly in Windows 10 Pro x64 with 1920x1200 resolution on my Inspiron's 17" Ultra-Sharp screen, and is still working properly with that same nVidia 179.48 driver I was able to manually install last summer after the upgrade.

Note that many of those E1705/I-9400 laptops had defective graphics cards that eventually developed thermal problems and bad ram and other issues if the latest bios was never installed on those laptops from the Dell support site. Once those cards started failing they only got worse, usually causing BSOD's although sometimes the also randomly had thin colored lines or segments scattered around the screen at all times too as the video card's memory chips started going bad from overheating. When I bought my E1705 I was playing WoW daily and within the first week I started getting colored lines all over the screen even on the post screen, then by the end of the week it started doing random BSOD's during gaming.
Since this was summer of 2008 and it was only a week old Dell sent someone out and they replaced the graphics card and the problem went away.
A couple years (and lots more long daily WoW and Supreme Commander sessions) later the laptop started feeling really hot and doing random BSOD's even though the fans were working and clean and none of the vents were blocked.
At that point as long as I didn't try to game with it or do too much audio editing it usually worked for a few hours at a time without a BSOD but would still do it occasionally after hours of use.
Then they released a BIOS update, I installed it, and all my problems went away.
My roommate at the time who had the exact same model and options wasn't so lucky. He ended up in the class action lawsuit and eventually got his repaired for free but because mine wasn't acting up I didn't qualify, although that was several years ago and mine still works fine today.

 

[Warren Perkins]

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for your reply. I have just enough knowledge to be dangerous when it comes to computers. I checked the NVIDIA website and it confirmed that I have the latest driver. I appreciate your guidance and I think right now I may try to go the GeForce 8800 route.

Warren

 

[Thomas Bradley]

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for your reply. I have just enough knowledge to be dangerous when it comes to computers. I checked the NVIDIA website and it confirmed that I have the latest driver. I appreciate your guidance and I think right now I may try to go the GeForce 8800 route.

Warren

If you try doing the "update drivers" and "have disk" method to install the newest available drivers for your card (the Windows 7 drivers ought to install and work through that method) and you can't get those drivers to work there is also a "roll back" feature (in the device properties window along with the update driver button) if it doesn't seem to work right and you can still get to a working desktop screen and a "last known good configuration" boot choice if you do manage to do anything that causes windows to not display the desktop properly on your monitor for any reason.
If you're more inclined to learn by doing it is a good learning experience. If you typically click stuff and hope for the best then it's probably not the best thing to try.

I feel that the 210 would probably be a better choice as it's a much newer card priced within a couple of dollars of an 8800 and they seem to have similar power supply demand plus the 8800 is the current oldest card supported which could end any day now whereas the 210 is basically 3 generations newer and should stay supported a good bit longer.
Some people may argue that even though the 210 is much newer there are some versions of the 8800 series that might be higher performing cards than most of the 210 series but unless you're trying to play the latest games on high settings, considering your interest in making your existing 7900 series card work, for more regular day to day computing tasks I'd be more inclined to recommend a newer series card over one that "might" perform better in a more hardcore computing environment but is also guaranteed to become unsupported much sooner, especially for literally the same money...

 

[efrainriver]

After many years of doubt (I am very, very, undecided, I was also satisfied with Windows 7), I decided to try Windows 10 (32 bits) on my old, but beloved Dell XPS M1710, with Nvidia GeForce Go 7900 GS video system.
The installation did not recognize the original video or sound. With the sound (Sigmatel) I had no problems, leaving its three speakers (two upper and the lower one) working perfectly. But with the video I had no luck: you installed the Microsoft basic.
After a thorough Google search I stumbled across this forum. I read all the comments several times, and did many tests, all failed. Either the Nvidia driver was not installed, or it was installed, but Windows was left with instability; particularly a flickering in the search window of the taskbar.
Almost about to give up, it occurred to me to test the 179.48 driver downloaded from the aforementioned link, using the 'compatibility' method. After a couple of tests it was installed without any problem using compatibility with Windows Vista SP2 (I don't remember correctly, and I don't want to repeat the process to make sure, but I think it was with this option)
The case is that the video is perfect, with the optimal screen resolution, and the system is working in a stable way (... so far. I have not tested it exhaustively, because I am getting acquainted with it - very late, ¿ not?)
I hope that this experience, even in the year 2020, will serve someone.
Greetings from Venezuela, South America.