Find Hardware ID in File

Fix Latest nVidia Mobility Driver to Fit Your Notebook

157 Comments / Software, Tech Help / By /

Well you just bought yourself a new notebook with nvidia graphic card and you found out that the driver on the manufacturer’s support/download page (asus, acer, sony, msi, hp..) hasn’t been updated for some time and now you can’t run your newly bought game for your powerful notebook graphic card (gt 460m, gt 540m, gt 550m or gt 550m ..) or your graphic card performance is compromised. Out of desperation you go to the nvidia support page hoping to find the latest nvidia driver for your notebook. You download it and snap! There’s the error: “NVIDIA Installer cannot continue” – “This graphics driver could not find compatible graphic hardware”.

 

Nvidia Installer cannot continue
Nvidia Installer cannot continue

 

Don’t worry there is always a way with drivers, that is if you search long enough :) If you have changed a few notebook generations with nvida mobility graphic card through the years, you already know that nvidia doesn’t care particularly about updating their mobility drivers for specific manufacturers which is kind of frustrating. In fact I don’t know if there was a notebook ever built which the official nvidia mobility drivers do support. I’ll show you how to modify the nvidia mobility drivers to make them support your specific hardware. I have done this the easiest way possible for my Asus K53SV and it worked perfectly. It should work for other manufacturers as well, at least it’s worth a try :) .

 

* If for any reason you cannot do the steps below (lazyness doesn’t count :P ) please just write your notebook model and the Hardware ID from the first step of this guide and I will do my best to modify the driver for you.

** I reserve the right to feel lazy myself :)

 

Things you’ll need:
Reqired:

  • Latest Official nVidia Notebook Drivers from nVidia Support Site (choose your model and operating system)
  • Latest Official nVidia Notebook Drivers from your manufacturers website (Asus, Sony, Acer, HP, Lenovo, Dell, Toshiba) in my case Asus.
  • Winrar – Install this free archiver for extracting the driver files
  • Notepad++ – If you ever edit files for reason other than “post it” notes I recommend this file editing software. This is optional but it’s pretty handy

Ok let’s begin.

 

Step one: Copy Hardware ID

 

Find your hardware ID of your nvidia grahpic card for notebooks. TO do that right click on My Computer select Manage. Next choose Device Manager on the menu on the left. A list of all of your hardware will appear in your right window. Click on the Display adapters and depending on that if you have previously installed your driver you will find either: Standard VGA Graphic Adapter or your nvidia GT XXXM model.

 

Standard VGA Graphic AdapternVidia Hardware ID Copy

 

Whichever it is, right click on it and select Properties, Details from the tabs on top, and finally choose “Hardware Ids” from the Property menu. Now if you look at those phrases it looks like klingon, but it actually is wookiee :). Select the one which ends with the SYBSYS string, something like this:

 

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0DF4&SUBSYS_15E21043.

 

It should be the longest of them all. If there is a longer phrase than that which has another & sign after that SUBSYS string (..&REV_A01) after that something like:

 

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0DF4&SUBSYS_15E21043&REV_A01

 

That’s not it. So right click on the correct hardware ID and select copy. Now it is stored into your clipboard and you can paste it any time. Don’t copy anything until you paste this one!

 

Step two: Extract

 

Extract both of the drivers that you have downloaded. The one from your manufacturer’s website and the latest version from nVidias Download page. I will use as an example the asus nvidia driver for the gt 540m on my Asus K53SV notebook which I downloaded from the Asus Download page. So right click on it and choose: “extract to …” and your driver files will be extracted to a folder where your file resides.

 

Extract nVidia Notebook Driver

 

The same goes for the nvidia mobility driver for notebooks. Right click on the file (probably something like: 271.61-notebook-win7-winvista-64bit-international-whql.exe) and choose: “Extract to 271.61-notebook-win7-winvista-64bit-international-whql.exe\“. You will have two different driver folders correspondingly.

 

Step three: Copy Some Klingon Text

 

Now we will need to open two inf files with identical filenames from both drivers. Go to your newly created folder, the one where the asus driver was extracted, and you will notice more driver folders inside like: Display.Driver, Display.Optimus, Display.Update NV3DVision and some files like setup.exe etc. Navigate to Display.Driver folder and here you have to find out which of the *.inf files (nvaa, nvac, nvam, nvao, nvar..) contains your Hardware ID. You can do that with notepad++. Edit any inf file with it (let’s say nvaa.inf) and press Ctr+Shift+F to Find in Files. Then paste your hardware ID from step one into the “Find what:” and click the … button to navigate to the Display.Driver folder from the asus driver and choose that as a “Directory:” .

 

Edit navm Inf

Find Hardware ID in File

 

You will find a bunch of Klingon there as well, but don’t worry we only need to find and copy a few lines from there. Press Ctrl+F to search for a term, and in the search field Paste(Ctrl+V) the phrase we copied from Step one. If you have downloaded your correct driver you should find two lines(maybe more or less) with that phrase. Now copy the line where your term is contained, it should look something like this:

 

%NVIDIA_DEV.0DF4.01% = Section083, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0DF4&SUBSYS_15E21043

 

and scroll up to the begining of that section to see what section it was copied from. It should be something like:

 

[NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.0]

 

Remember that section name.

 

modify nvidia noteboook driver

 

Step four: Paste Klingon Text

 

Now navigate to the folder where the official nvidia driver was extracted(271.61-notebook-win7-winvista-64bit-international-whql). You will notice the same folders as in the previous driver. Again find the nvam.inf file in the Display.Driver folder and edit it. Now find the section from which you copied your line, add a new line by pressing enter and paste the one you copied from Step three.

 

*If there are more than one lines found containing the PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0DF4&SUBSYS_15E21043 phrase you will have to copy those lines from the Asus nvidia driver in to the latest official nvidia notebook driver which we are modifying by repeating step 3 and step 4 for the other lines as well. In my case the line:

 

%NVIDIA_DEV.0DF4.01% = Section069, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0DF4&SUBSYS_105C1043

from section [NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.1]

 

Step five: Add VGA Name

 

Now after you added those few lines into the corresponding sections in our modified driver, copy the phrase whithin the % sings:

 

NVIDIA_DEV.0DF4.01 from

 

%NVIDIA_DEV.0DF4.01% = Section083, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0DF4&SUBSYS_15E21043

 

and then do again a search in the Asus driver nvam.inf file for that term: NVIDIA_DEV.0DF4. Understandably you will find both of the lines which you already copied into the modified nvidia driver:

 

%NVIDIA_DEV.0DF4.01% = Section083, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0DF4&SUBSYS_15E21043

from section [NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.0]

 

and the

 

%NVIDIA_DEV.0DF4.01% = Section069, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0DF4&SUBSYS_105C1043

 

from section [NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.1]

 

the next find however should look something like this:

 

NVIDIA_DEV.0DF4.01 = “NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M”

 

modify nvidia notebook driver 2

 

Copy this whole line, and then copy it in the same section in the nvidia driver, under [Strings] . If you scroll down a little in that section, you will a list of nvidia graphic card names like:

NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M
NVIDIA GeForce GT 325M
NVIDIA GeForce 310M
NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M
NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M
..

 

And here you can find your graphic card model, and paste the one we copied on a new line, next to the same graphic card name for estetic reasons.

 

Step six: Replace CatalogFile

 

And finally compare the first section in the beginning in both nvam.inf files, [Version]. There is a value in that section called Catalog File and in the original nvidia driver looks like this:

 

CatalogFile = NV_DISP.CAT

 

BUT in the Asus driver in the nvam.inf file we have:

 

CatalogFile = nvam.CAT

 

modify nvidia notebook driver 2

 

If these two values are different as in my case with the asus k53sv nvidia driver, copy the value from your manufacturer driver (asus in my case) into the nvam.inf in the official nvidia driver, the one which we modify. And that’s it.

 

Now beofre you run setup and reward your nvidia notebook graphic card with the latest nvidia notebook driver, uninstall your current nvidia driver (if any) maybe run driversweeper to clean any left overs and restart your machine.

If you have questions or any misunderstandings, you know how to use the comment box below :)

Related Posts

157 thoughts on “Fix Latest nVidia Mobility Driver to Fit Your Notebook”

  1. [email protected]

    Hi,
    Thanks so much for the info. I’m hoping you can also help below:

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-vidock-experiences-354.html

    Hi,
    I’m hoping more users can help test and improve since many newer laptops could be similar to mine.

    History: Got HD5870 working w/ Setup 1.x 3DMark06 = 18024

    Now I’m using only 2GB RAM,
    Device Manager recognizes GTX460 fine but using Nvidia Property says:
    “Nvidia Display settings are not available”
    “You are not currently using a display attached to an NVIDIA GPU”

    W7-64-Ult sometimes can output 1080p from GTX460 but cause BSOD.

    W7-64-Home Prem (shipped w/ system) doesn’t ever output 1080p from GTX460 and no BSOD. However, using new 270.61 from laptop2go Nvidia Property recognizes GTX460 only as PhysX. I tried all 4 previous versions of drivers notebook, desktop, and Nando modded inf. I can use MSI Afterburner to control GTX460 fanspeed.

    We appreciate any ideas.

    Much thanks again.

    Reply
  2. Regina

    Thank you so much for this! Dell removed the 267.?? version of there driver after I had to have the hard drive in my 2 week old computer replaced. the version they had would not run WoW properly. I followed this tutorial and was able to install the 270.61 Version this time without a problem. <3

    Reply
  3. Regina

    Actually…. I take it back… WoW will not even start with this fix. Back to square one trying to figure out what to do.

    Reply
  4. Goce

    @Wicked20 to tell you the truth, I have little experience with ViDock, but sounds like an interesting topic that I might do some experiments in future on, thank you for your comment!

    @Regina I’m really sorry it did not work for you. Could you maybe provide me with some info about your notebook model, the hardware ID of your graphic card and a link to the official driver from Dell you have previously tried? I may investigate this and help you.

    Reply
    1. Goce

      Hello Eric,

      I noticed that there are only drivers available for the 64-bit version of Windows 7/Vista. Maybe you should try to install the 64-bit version, you will get better performance anyway. But if you are still unable to find the drivers, I will try to find them for you and will update you.

      Reply
  6. Fred

    Goce,

    Thanks for giving out a solution to this Nvidia update/non-update issue. Unfortunately, I’m failing to get past the “extraction” phase. There’s been no laziness on my part. I’ve tried and tried with no success.

    Would you be able to modify the driver for me?

    I have a Sony VPCL138FX/B. The link for the original driver installed on my machine is found at the following Sony website:

    https://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VPCL138FXB&upd_id=5657&os_id=45

    The hardware ID (Nvidia GeForce GT 330M) is:

    PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A29&SUBSYS_9060104D

    or?

    PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A29&SUBSYS_9060104D&REV_A2

    I’m running Windows 7 64 bit.

    Thanks in advance.

    Reply
  7. Dima

    Hi. Author please help me. I have notebook ASUS N53SV with nVidia GT 540M 1GB. Can you send me on mail your modify driver? Your ASUS K53SV have same nVidia GT 540M as my ASUS N53SV. Please!

    Reply
  10. Goce

    Hey Fred,

    It seems that Sony makes their drivers as an executable file which is not extractable by winrar. But to run, the driver files must be extracted somewhere on your hard drive.

    If you have currently installed the driver from sony, can you please check if you have a file named nv.disp.inf file in this folder: C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_disp.inf_amd64_neutral… ? If you do you could use that to modify the driver.

    Reply
  11. Goce

    @Dima and @Zhenya I currently don’t have the driver, but I will modify it and publish it to my website for download tomorrow. Regards!

    Reply
  12. Dmitriy

    Write here when driver is ready? OK? Please! And can you modify driver for notebook ASUS N53SV, please. Video card – nVidia GT 540M 1GB
    ID video card:
    PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0DF4&SUBSYS_16421043

    Reply
  14. Fred

    Goce,

    I don’t have the exact folder & file you mentioned. The most similar I have is folder

    C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository/nv_lh.inf_amd64_neutral_bc69f20e3115af59

    with file nv_LH.inf

    Within file nv_LH.inf, I don’t see my hardware ID when I do a notepad++ search.

    What can I do now?

    Reply
  17. Goce

    @Fred

    If it doesn’t contain your hardware ID inside it isn’t. Can you do a “File Search” in the folder C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\ for your hardware ID ? There has to be an INF there from your old driver. You can also do a search inside of multiple files in a given folder with notepad. Just choose Edit -> Search in Files.

    Tell us your result, regards!

    Reply
  18. Дима

    Goce. Can you do driver for ASUS N53SV (nVidia GT 540M) for Windows Vista 64-bit? Please! It is very important for me!

    Reply
  19. Goce

    @Dima have you tried the latest driver from the nvidia website version 270.61 ? It seems that yor hardware ID is already included in the latest driver from nvidia, so just download it and install.

    If not, try the one I just posted in my previous comments, it is modified for every new asus notebook. And please share with us if it did work for you.

    Reply
    1. Goce

      Hey Zhenya, I did a little research about your problem, and it seems that it is caused by old drivers on some notebooks with the optimus technology.
      I didn’t have that problem with the Asus K53SV whatsoever.
      But I believe that the optimus overlay is probably already solved with the latest drivers.

      Is this is what comes up at the top of your screen?

      Optimus Demonstration
      Nvidia Confidential
      not for release or distribution

      Try the following:
      1. Uninstall both intel and nvidia drivers
      2. Restart
      2. Run CCleaner and delete any leftovers (google for ccleaner you’ll find it)
      4. Restart again
      5. Download latest drivers from Intel and nVidia(the latest supports your model without having to be modified)
      6. Install the Intel Driver
      7. Install the NVidia driver

      If that doesn’t help, you can download the Optimus Tools from here:

      http://bit.ly/fWbsnZ

      And try disabling the overlay.

      And please tell us whether any of this helps.

      Reply
  22. Дима

    Goce, how Zhenya can do step 7, if nVidia driver do not install without modify? I can not understand. I also try your reccomendation, but after restart PC i see: Video adapter is disabled because of incompatibility with the driver graphics driver VGA. It is because Intel HD Graphics or no?

    Reply
  24. Zhenya

    Hello, Goce!
    nothing turns out and I am sure that a problem is in the graphic arts of intel.
    After the load of driver of intel “artefakty” appear lagi fiksy.
    Help me.

    Reply
  25. Goce

    @Dima I think the driver from nvidia installs correctly at Zhenya without the need to modify, but she has other problems afterwards which is something that isn’t solved yet for those models, not sure why though.
    Did you try to install the official nvidia driver to get that message? Because if you followed the steps I provided for Zhenya you should install the driver I modified for you instead of the nvidia official.

    @Emilio I’m glad this helped you, can you give some detalis what did you modify and for what model? Thanks!

    @Zhenya Why don’t you write to Asus and nvidia? If your notebook is new I’m sure it is still under warrany, maybe you can change it for some other model? I cannot help you because I don’t own a notebook with that particular issue and I can’t do tests to solve it, sorry :(

    Reply
  28. Goce

    @Dima Give me some details, what exactly is your problem? Does it install correctly, do you have any issues in games?

    By the way, the official driver from nVidia contains your hardware ID and should work for your Asus N53SV. Have you tried the latest version 270.61 ? If yes, please reply what is your problem with it? Remember it is for 64-bit Vista/7.

    Reply
  29. Schatzi

    hi goce, can you help me? i have new asus notebook A43SV with nvdia gt540m, i have download the latest driver, but it’s not work on my notebook with windows 7 32 bit, if i use your tutorial, have my problem clear? and if you have the link for my notebook please share goce..thank you..

    Reply
  30. Haukur

    Hi Goce,

    I’m having a hard time understanding your little thread here but I’ve tried everything I can without any luck.. So I was wondering if you could modify my card for me?

    PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0DF4&SUBSYS_15F21043

    email: [email protected]

    Thank you! :)

    Reply
  32. Joe

    Hey goce,

    I’m using the Asus G53SW-A1, with the GTX 460M.

    I have tried your method VERY carefully, four times, and with still no luck.

    The only driver i was able to install was still the one from Asus…. the Nvidia ones (from BOTH the Nvidia website or laptops2go) still gave me the same message… “This graphics driver could not find compatible graphic hardware.”

    I have even tried different versions of them, namely the 270.61 WHQL and the 275.27 BETA… downloaded both from the Nvidia website. Did the modifications as u described as exactly as u said (im not noob), and still… no luck.

    Any ideas? Or perhaps since u know my Graphics u can mofidy the “nvam.inf” for me and I can try ur file? Though im positive i did it right T_T

    Reply
  33. Haukur

    Hi Goce,

    I downloaded exactly the same drivers as you did in the tutorial and followed your instructions very carefully even though it was a bit difficult since I’m from another country but still it wont install..

    I dont have the previous driver which was included with the installation CD installed, I dont know if that makes a difference though but please, I’m very much in need of your assistance! assist me if you can :)

    Reply
  35. angga

    i have asus a43sv with corei3 & GT540M 1Gb.
    i try to modify with your tips, but it didnt work for win XP
    :((

    Reply
  37. Jordan

    Hello!

    I was able to follow the guide exactly until I was supposed to extract the NVIDIA version of the driver. When I right clicked it, I was only given the options to ‘add to archive’ or ‘compress’ not to
    extract here.

    Help?

    Thanks

    Reply
  38. hernan

    i need help please..
    i have asus a43sv with gt 540m i do have the driver for win 7 64 bit. but i’ am looking driver for windows XP 32 bit, hope that you can help…
    please contact me…

    Reply
  39. stephen

    Hi Goce,

    I think I need your help,

    I have 3 NVIDIA drivers version:
    258.96
    259.57
    275.36

    Last time somehow I can update from 258.96 to 259.57
    Yesterday I wanted to update my NVIDIA driver to 275.36, but I did a mistake and rolled back to the old one (258.96)
    Now I cannot update my driver either to the 259.57 or 275.36

    Now I want to update my driver to the latest one, 275.36.
    I have found the nv_disp.inf (there is only 1 .inf file in the 275.36 display.driver folder)
    But I can’t find the Hardware ID when I search in the inf file.

    Notebook model: Dell Precision M6500
    Video card – nVidia Quadro FX 3800M
    Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_061F&SUBSYS_02EF1028

    Could you please modify the driver for me? Sorry to have bothered you.

    Here is my email:
    [email protected]

    Thank u so much :)

    Reply
  40. Bosty

    freaking amazing. thanks a billion! mine was u41sv with the same graphic. so i was blindly following your guide.

    Your a genius :D:D:D

    Reply
  42. Nicholas

    I cant find my drivers for Toshiba Qosmio F750 1001X , i got the latest from nvidia site but i cant find it on my manufacturers site. It is rather a new model, any help with it ?
    thanks in advance,
    Nic~ =)

    Reply
  44. Jeff

    Hi,

    Thank you for sharing. I just bought a Asus K53SV (same as yours). I followed your instructions, however in the “Advanced Settings” under Display -> Screen Resolution, the Adapter Type is still Intel(R) HD Graphics Family even though I see both the Intel & Nvidia under the Display adapters in Device Manager. Hence, my max resolution is only 1366 x 768.

    How can I set the default display adapter to the Nvidia one? Your help is greatly appreciated.

    Cheers,
    Jeff

    Reply
    1. Alberto Oliveira

      our model (yes i have the same as you) comes with 2 graphic cards for power saving features.
      what you need to do is activate the nvidia control panel and them change the settings to make the default graphics card be the gt 540M hope that helps

      Reply
  45. Marko

    Hi,

    I cant find drivers for Toshiba A660 PSAW3C-135017 NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M. My hardware ID dont match with any .inf files in drivers that I get either from toshiba or nvidia. Please can you help me, I try everthing but nothing works. Here my Id of Nvidia: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A28&SUBSYS_FD311179. Here is my email: [email protected].

    Thank you!,

    Marko.

    Reply
  47. mbamg

    Hi, my brand-new MSI CX640-071US notebook computer also has the same problem with its nvidia graphics – the drivers from the manufacturer’s and nvidia’s website will not install, citing hardware not detected. My computer came with integrated Intel graphics and an Nvidia GT520M graphics card and it runs Windows 7. The strange thing is, when I go into Device Manager I cannot even find the nvidia graphics card (only the Intel), thus I cannot even find the hardware ID. Do you have any idea what possibly may be going on?

    Reply

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