Dell Drivers vs. nVidia Drivers

gerrtt06 · 01-02-2008, 04:15 AM

Greetings,

I use a nVidia GeForce Go 7900 GS in my Dell inspiron e1705. Dell suggests that I use their drivers, naturally, but I have encountered a problem with them. When I run the Dell drivers the card does not have Hardware Transform and Lighting enabled. When I use the nVidia drivers I have Hardware Transform and Lighting enabled, but my computer tells me that the software is not windows certificate compatible.

Is using the nVidia drivers OK, or am I doomed to never play Warhammer 40k Dawn of War again?

**manic** · 01-02-2008, 04:55 AM

If the drivers are working keep using them. You will always get that
warning, all its saying is that the driver has not been tested by
microsoft, therefore might not work well. There is no way microsoft
can keep up and test all the driver updates that occur on hundreds
if not thousands of devices a month.

gerrtt06 · 01-02-2008, 10:12 AM

OK, I was just curious because I had been using those drivers for a year on the last card I had with no problems but just replaced because of corrupted memory and didn't want to have the same problem, if the drivers were causing it that is.

Thanks.

ebackhus · 01-02-2008, 11:56 AM

Ever since my old Riva 128ZX I've been using drivers provided by the chipmaker rather than the computer manufacturer.

The drivers provided by nVidia and ATi are called reference drivers. Card makers like BFG, Diamond, Monster, and others are allowed to 'customize' these drivers. Often there's no real increase in performance when using the manufacturers drivers and can sometimes even lead to instability. With that in mind I always recommend drivers from the chipmaker expect in special instances sduch as laptops where the reference drivers don't have the necessary modifications to make the chip work right.

**FreoHeaveho** · 01-02-2008, 01:08 PM

Check my link in my sig, for Laptop nVidia drivers. There is a whole community that builds drivers for laptops. The thing is, many laptop manufacturers don't necessarily update their drivers. The only difference generally speaking, is the inf file. Update the inf file in pretty much any nvidia driver, and you're away.

see the link and have a look. Please set a restore point first, and back up critical information. Fair warning, but you shoudln't have any problems.

01-02-2008, 04:15 AM	#1 (permalink)
gerrtt06 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 46 OS: XP Pro SP2	Dell Drivers vs. nVidia Drivers Greetings, I use a nVidia GeForce Go 7900 GS in my Dell inspiron e1705. Dell suggests that I use their drivers, naturally, but I have encountered a problem with them. When I run the Dell drivers the card does not have Hardware Transform and Lighting enabled. When I use the nVidia drivers I have Hardware Transform and Lighting enabled, but my computer tells me that the software is not windows certificate compatible. Is using the nVidia drivers OK, or am I doomed to never play Warhammer 40k Dawn of War again?

01-02-2008, 04:55 AM	#2 (permalink)
manic Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Florida Posts: 5,257 OS: xp	Re: Dell Drivers vs. nVidia Drivers If the drivers are working keep using them. You will always get that warning, all its saying is that the driver has not been tested by microsoft, therefore might not work well. There is no way microsoft can keep up and test all the driver updates that occur on hundreds if not thousands of devices a month. __________________

01-02-2008, 10:12 AM	#3 (permalink)
gerrtt06 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 46 OS: XP Pro SP2	Re: Dell Drivers vs. nVidia Drivers OK, I was just curious because I had been using those drivers for a year on the last card I had with no problems but just replaced because of corrupted memory and didn't want to have the same problem, if the drivers were causing it that is. Thanks.

01-02-2008, 11:56 AM	#4 (permalink)
ebackhus Manager, Design Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: SATX Posts: 14,335 OS: WinXP Pro SP3/Windows 7 RTM My System Blog Entries: 28	Re: Dell Drivers vs. nVidia Drivers Ever since my old Riva 128ZX I've been using drivers provided by the chipmaker rather than the computer manufacturer. The drivers provided by nVidia and ATi are called reference drivers. Card makers like BFG, Diamond, Monster, and others are allowed to 'customize' these drivers. Often there's no real increase in performance when using the manufacturers drivers and can sometimes even lead to instability. With that in mind I always recommend drivers from the chipmaker expect in special instances sduch as laptops where the reference drivers don't have the necessary modifications to make the chip work right. __________________ ----------------------------- There are no dumb questions, unless a customer is asking them. Help in the fight against cancer and other serious illnesses.

01-02-2008, 01:08 PM	#5 (permalink)
FreoHeaveho TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Australia Posts: 3,227 OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64 SP2, Windows XP Professional SP3, Mac OSX Leopard My System	Re: Dell Drivers vs. nVidia Drivers Check my link in my sig, for Laptop nVidia drivers. There is a whole community that builds drivers for laptops. The thing is, many laptop manufacturers don't necessarily update their drivers. The only difference generally speaking, is the inf file. Update the inf file in pretty much any nvidia driver, and you're away. see the link and have a look. Please set a restore point first, and back up critical information. Fair warning, but you shoudln't have any problems. __________________ PC Wizard-VGA 2009 Charts-Power Supply Info-Multi/Single Rail PSU?-Speedfan-Driver Sweeper