GeForce FX go 5600 driver automatic update to wrong driver?

[Superyalda]

This old laptop is the perfect extra system to have around. Great screen, sound and keyboard/touchpad layout, blah blah ... but:

It has a NVidia GeForce FX Go5600 graphics card.

The history is like this:

• Got the laptop from my mother, too heavy for her
• worked great until the power socket burned out
• had it repaired
• the repair guy probably updated my drivers
• after that, the screen started showing blotches of kelly green wherever the screen was black, and on white backgrounds, there are pink-purple lines/areas/waves.
• I thought the screen was toasted because of something to do with the power, so I attached another monitor - worked fine!
• Definitely thought it was toast, but didn't give up
• I went to the HP support site and used their scanning tool. They have two drivers listed for my 5600
• I downloaded and installed the newer of the two. Same problem
• Then I (on a fluke and out of desperation) downloaded and installed the older driver
• Voila!! Magic. It worked. Looks gorgeous.

Now, the problem is that once in a while, every few days, the green and pink areas return. I roll back the driver and it's fine again!

How can I delete the BAD drivers which XP is apparently accessing for automatic updates (or something like that)?

How can I "lock" the good driver so that I dont have to roll back to it every few days?

P.S. In my search for answers about the pink and green, I saw MANY posts in different forums with the same problem. Usually the answers tell the poster that the display is burned out, but now I'm not so sure and if it's just a driver issue, we need to let them know.

 

[luvhuffer]

With an old laptop like that, I'd suggest going to the manufacturers site and download their latest driver for that unit first. It may be dated but that's OK. You'll know that that driver is supposed to work, and you can continue on from there. Uninstall the old drivers from the add remove programs app. Then uninstall the GPU from device manager. Run a program like Guru3D - Driver Sweeper to clean up any orphaned files before installing the new drivers. If there is a better more nVidia specific program for cleaning the drivers hopefully one of the regulars here will post a link to it. That utility works on both nVidia and ATI drivers. If the downloaded drivers work you can let it go or start slowly upgrading to newer drivers till you find one you are happy with. There's not really any way to lock a driver. You might be looking at a dying GPU also so keep that in mind.

One other thing. When you reboot after uninstalling the device and drivers and reboot, keep closing the little "found new hardware" balloons in the lower right corner till you get a message "there was a problem loading drivers for this device". That stops the OS from installing generic drivers.

 

[Superyalda]

Thanks Luvhuffer

I was also wondering if I just delete the "wrong" drivers, that also might work. Would it do the trick?

How can I know which is the good driver (currently in use)? When I roll back the driver, the driver version and date don't change in the Device Manager (?)
Where are the nvidia drivers stored in XP?
What's the file extension for nvidia drivers?
Can I run a c: search for them?

I did a search for *.drv files, but the nvidia didn't show up. To tell you the truth, even if it did, I'm not sure i'd know which one to delete.

I checked out the Driver Sweeper link and it looks like a really good app. I'll try it when I'm back on the HP (I'm on a different laptop now). I don't like to keep that old thing running too long

(I like the tip in your last paragraph)

 

[luvhuffer]

What's the make and model of the laptop?

 

[Superyalda]

HP Pavillion zd7015us
60GB
Intel Pentium4

My mom barely used it and except for the nvidia driver issue, it's working great.

 

[luvhuffer]

Try this driver

 

[Superyalda]

Hey, Luv

That's the driver (which in my original post) I was talking about. That driver doesn't fix the display. The second driver (I tried to put the hyperlink in but I don't have permissions yet sp25163 , the older one, is the one which works (or at least worked one time).

The problem is that I want to keep the older driver sp25163 which is listed in the driver page for this laptop. That's the one that works.

I did my homework before posting here ... hours of internet research, trials and errors. Believe me.

The weird thing is that the first time I downloaded the old driver (like I said, out of sheer desperation) and it worked, and then a few days later, the pink and green came back, I tried to reload the same older driver, but it didn't stick the second time. The only thing that did work was rolling it back.

Tell me that isn't strange?

So how can I keep the current driver and keep it from updating to the newer one? I want to lock it or secure it so that the current driver doesn't change.

How can I do it?

By the way, I really appreciate your help here

 

[luvhuffer]

OK Go to the device manager double click on display adapters then double click on what drops down, go to the driver tab and tell me what it says for Driver Provider and Driver Version.

 

[Superyalda]

OK ... I'll type in all the info i can get from Properties

General tab:
Device type: Display adapters
Manufacurer: NVIDIA
Location: PCI bus 1, device 0, function 0

Driver tab:
Driver provider: NVIDIA
Driver date: 24-Jun-03
Driver version 4.4.8.2
Digital sigher: Microsoft Windows Hardware compatibility Publi,,,
(I think that's what you wanted)

Driver File Details button
C:\WINDOWS\*.* (a whole bunch of hlp, dll, exe, and more)
Provider: unknown
File version: unknown
Copyright: unknown
Digital sigher: Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility

ID looks OK and there are no conflicts

The laptop has been closed for a couple of days and is still holding the driver. Looks OK, so far. Last time it changed drivers was around 2am on Thursday night ... automatic updates have since been disabled (but used to be set to 3am)

Does this help?

(I'd just like to add a note to explain why I won't give up: If I were keeping the laptop at home, I wouldn't be so stressed about locking down the driver since I'm not a wiz kid, but still I manage to maintain all our pc's and laptops inside and out. I have a pretty good understanding of how things work. The thing is that my 21 year old son - who has mild learning disabilities and never really "bonded" with computers - is taking this laptop to the dead sea for 6 months, he got a job there . it's in the middle of the desert, and if you've ever been there you'd know how much he'll need the laptop. He knows how to check FB, listen to music, watch DVD's, etc, but if the bad driver kicks back in again, I won't be able to talk him through rolling back the driver, which is a real shame. He'll only be able to get home about once a month. He's leaving this Monday -- wwaahh)

 

[luvhuffer]

Try this one. It's the latest one for that chip. nvidia 175.19 whql.You may want to learn about Remote Assistance.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457004.aspx

Post back if that driver doesn't work.

 

[Superyalda]

Well, even though the driver release notes didn't mention the 5 series, I tried anyway. This is the message I got after downloading and executing the exe file, setup opened and gave me this message.

X The Nvidia Setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your curent hardware. Setup will now exit.

Please remember that my current driver is a good one. Works great. Right now I'm on the laptop and the screen looks perfect, no green and no purple ... but I want to ensure that it won't automatically update itself.

Is there a way to keep the driver from automatically updating itself?

I know I sound like a broken record, but that really is the issue.

I did a search again in NVidia for 5 series and the site directed me to the same link you sent me. I think it's a misdirected link in their site since the download link clearly says that it's for series 6+. No mention of th 5 series.

Interestingly, when I search for Ver 4.4.8.2 (which we know is a good driver for my HW setup), nothing turns up, which doesn't bother me since I already have it (somewhere on my drive) since the card is definitely working OK.

So my question is not "where can I get a good driver?" (I already have it)
but
"how can I ensure that my current driver is locked down and secure and keep it from updating to the wrong driver again?"

Have you ever had a problem like that? Is there a way to tell the system not to update the current driver?

I really appreciate your time and hope you can help.

I'm going to work now and can't take the laptop with me. I'll check your posts during the day but won't be able to access the laptop for about 12 hours, and then I need to pack it up to go to the desert so I really hope we can find a solution today.

 

[luvhuffer]

The only way for the driver to update is through the Windows. unless there is an update option in the software for the laptop. If the computer is set up for automatic updates it sometimes updates drivers for new cards. If it's windows update updating the driver then you can open update and go to custom mode and if there is a driver update (which I doubt with that old a driver) you can uncheck it and check the "don't show me this again" box under it. Then disable auto updates for the time being.

But there shouldn't be anything auto updating the video card driver. that's what I don't get. Unless something is corrupting the driver making it go bad and needing to be reinstalled. I saw the recommended driver was only for 6000 and up cards but I posted it anyway. The nvidia drivers usually follow the GPU numbering scheme so for your 5600 it should be a 5 series forceware driver. Anyway I'm sorry I couldn't put your mind to rest. But look into the remote assistance thing. You can actually take over your kids computer no matter where it is using yours, and make changes to it, and fix problems with it.I hope your son has a good time and no grief with the video.

 

[Superyalda]

Hi,

I did as you recommended and it's out of our hands now. I hope the driver stays put.

If not, I'll re-post in about a month.

Thanks for your help and patience.

The site is great and I've sent it to our R&D department in case they should need anything