need help with driver probs..

my brother gave me a sony vaio vgn-f180e laptop. he had it reprogrammed or whatever after some chic spillled wine on it in korea. idk if he bought it in korea, or europe though. he used to play wow on it before he had it reprogrammed.. i downloaded a version of wow, but when i try to load game it says "failed to find a suitable display device. exiting program" i have been reading forums and googling the hell out of drivers, and video cards.. none of the solutions have been working. i dl the right (or so i thought) nvidia driver and it says incompatable setup or something to that effect. im thinking this is why my bro just bought a lenovo.. but i cant afford a new laptop, nor can i afford to spend money on a driver detective type program.. this is an awesome and beautiful sony laptop. wth is wrong with it?? help please? or should i just sell the damn thing?

 

Hi my friend , welcome to MG's :major , have you seen any yellow mark in Device Manager menu ? :wave

 

hi thanks for the reply. i will chaeck now to see if there are any yellow exclamation marks in device manager.. first off when i booted the laptop, it says driver blocked due to incompatibility.. ok, searching the control panel, i didnt find device manager window, just devices and printers.. and no yellow mark. but i may not be looking in the right place.. i am by far computer fluent, lol. barely computer literate.. ok, scratch that lol, found the device manager but, still no yellow marks, so what do i do now?.. looking forward to reply.. ive read about every thread on MGs forums about similar problems people have had. you guys definitely know what youre doing. will be watching my email.

 

What is yous operating system ? 32 bit or 64 bit ? You must give us your laptop's model , take a sharp eyed here !! :wave

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/support-info.pl?info_id=265

 

oh, i thought the vgn f180e was the model number.. lol. ok on the bottom of the laptop service tag *28201030 3008295* C3LPKMTM.. the original sony sticker say model PCG-382L. and idk if its 32 or 64bit. :-o heh..

 

Greetings, m0vng0n, and welcome to MajorGeeks...

Please check this Sony page and verify that this is indeed your machine's driver download page.

Also (to follow falconattack's request) what Windows operating system (XP or Vista) and Service Pack # are you running? You should be able to see the SP # on the System Properties page (Control Panel > System).

Is the WOW/nVidia driver conflict the only symptom the machine is experiencing? And, please clarify the word "reprogrammed" - did your brother reinstall Windows, and if so, do you have a valid Windows disk or Sony recovery disks available?

 

that is the right sony page, operating system is windows 7. as far as it goes i believe this is the only conflict, driver warning when i boot, says its not compatible with this version of windows. as far as what was reprogrammed, idk. laptop was repaired after wine was spilled on it, thats all i know.. im assuming windows was reinstalled, the sticker on bottom says vista. i dont have window disks, or sony recovery disk.. but if there wasnt a suitable display device why does youtube work fine?

 

windows 7 home premium. service pack 1. sorry forgot to add tht to last post.

 

Click the start globe. Right click Computer, select properties. Under System type, it will say if you have 32bit or 64bit.

 

it is 32 bit

 

Check this thread. Be careful, do not download any of the driver links in the thread as they send you to a Uniblue site. You need to modify the inf file of the driver in order for the driver to work correctly on your sony. The info shown is for 64bit but you will have to download the 32 bit drivers and change the inf file accordingly.

http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/58245-nvidia-8400m-gt-windows-7-driver.html

 

You will have to obtain the Device and Vendor ID code for your card from device manager by right clicking your graphics card and looking under the details tab.

 

cant find graphics card in device manager. only display adapter.. and right cicking doesnt give me any choices. just shows it in another little box, with no description or info..

 

i was looking around in the control panel (although i cant find where i was) and ran a program test, it said that the game file was incompatible.. which has to be a load of shyt, i play it on this dinosaur of a compaq presario.. which is about 5 yrs obsolete..

 

On the sony page that Caliban linked to, try to install the Vista Driver.

Under Video, install this one.

File Description UPDATE NVIDIA® Graphics Controller Driver Update Release Date 6/17/2009 Version 7.15.11.6760 File Size 57.63 MB

 

very frustrating. i cant find the vista driver dl on sony page. i contacted sony support, and was told i need to obtain system recovery disks, as there would be no driver dl from sony, because original operating program was deleted along with recovery partition?.. i cant afford to order recovery disks.. how do i get it back to windows vista, from windows 7? im assuming the incompatibility is a 64 to 32 bit issue? wth do i know though? i am ready to throw this computer against the wall, not that it would solve anything..

 

OMG IT WORKED!! the first time i tried to dl the nvidia update it wouldnt work, no supporting setup or something. i recovered system to earliest point i could find and tried the nvidia ugrade again annnd?!

 

IM IN BUISNESS.. THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!!! holy shit what a headache that was! thank you thank you thank you! thank you falconattack! thank you caliban! thank you tgell!! you all kick ***! i will craete a shrine to each of you, and proceed to worship. LMAO! holy shit, you guys are awesome!!! thank you very much for all your time. -sincerely m0vng0n.

 

Here is the Vista Driver. Please verify that you have the VGN-FZ180e. In your post you stated it was a FGN-F180e. This driver is for the VGN-FZ180e.


http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGNFZ180E&upd_id=4725&os_group_id=10

 

it is vgn-fz180e was a typo i think earlier. at any rate, prob solved thanks to you. much appreciated! you have aquired a lifelong fan here. i love you all MGs :major!!! sooo happy now. will donate to your site as soon as finances are in order to repay your time. MajorGeeks are a godsend!

 

Glad it worked out for you and thanks for the feedback.

 

I am glad sorted out your problem my friend , thank you for the feedback !! :wave

 

That should prove interesting...

Good job, everyone! :major