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Windows 7 64bit and nvidia drivers

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Sage Nabooru

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
17
0
I've got Windows 7 32bit running on Bootcamp, just upgraded to Mountain Lion after being on Lion on an early 2012 MBP. I've found out Bootcamp 4.0 only supports Windows 7 64bit. The biggest problem I had with Bootcamp and Windows before is that the Nvidia cards were never recognized by Windows so my gaming experience (which I primarily installed Windows for) didn't always work. Right now I've downloaded Tomb Raider 2013 for Windows, which doesn't work because of the Nvidia problem in Windows 32bit - I can't update the drivers since Windows won't admit I have such a graphics card in the first place.

I've got Windows 7 64bit in my Amazon shopping cart and have put the latest drivers on CD via Bootcamp, but before I purchase the $90 OS I want to ask - does this latest version of Bootcamp solve the nvidia issues? I don't want to spend the money if it makes no difference.
 
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igucl

macrumors 6502a
Oct 11, 2003
569
17
I just want to check if you're aware that Apple supplies all the Windows drivers for the systems that it officially supports under Boot Camp.

The drivers are not, to my knowledge, included in the Boot Camp software itself. The Boot Camp 4.0 software is nothing more than a control panel that installs on your Windows partition. The drivers are sourced separately.

If you're having trouble getting the Nvidia driver, it causes me to wonder if you have any of the other drivers from Apple. For example, do you have the proper driver to make your trackpad work correctly?
 
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Sage Nabooru

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
17
0
Yes, everything else runs in Windows. Trackpad, cd drive, etc. it just doesn't recognize that I have an nvidia card. Initially under device manager Windows said I had a generic VGA card, I downloaded drivers again and installed them, now strangely no graphics card shows up at all. Whenever I try to install Nvidia drivers from Nvidia itself the installer tells me it can find no compatible hardware, and cancels the installation. I want to know if I'll have the same problem with Windows 64bit and Bootcamp 4.
 
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igucl

macrumors 6502a
Oct 11, 2003
569
17
Okay, but please clarify whether you obtained these drivers from Apple through the method they describe in the Boot Camp instructions.

I think this is important. It may be the reason for your trouble.
 
M

monkeybagel

macrumors 65816
Jul 24, 2011
1,141
61
United States
Sage Nabooru said:
I've got Windows 7 32bit running on Bootcamp, just upgraded to Mountain Lion after being on Lion on an early 2012 MBP. I've found out Bootcamp 4.0 only supports Windows 7 64bit. The biggest problem I had with Bootcamp and Windows before is that the Nvidia cards were never recognized by Windows so my gaming experience (which I primarily installed Windows for) didn't always work. Right now I've downloaded Tomb Raider 2013 for Windows, which doesn't work because of the Nvidia problem in Windows 32bit - I can't update the drivers since Windows won't admit I have such a graphics card in the first place.

I've got Windows 7 64bit in my Amazon shopping cart and have put the latest drivers on CD via Bootcamp, but before I purchase the $90 OS I want to ask - does this latest version of Bootcamp solve the nvidia issues? I don't want to spend the money if it makes no difference.
Click to expand...

You could download the ISO from Microsoft and install it and see if you don't mind blowing away your existing 32-bit install.

http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65733/X15-65733.iso

This is Windows 7 Home Premium x64.

Also if you already own the 32-bit version, the product keys are universal. Just download the x64 version and activate it using your key. Either way, you can run it for 30 days without a key to test.
 
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Sage Nabooru

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
17
0
Shoot! I'm near crying. I went through the trouble of upgrading to 64 bit, twice, installed the latest drivers from Bootcamp Assistant......STILL Windows can't find my Nvidia graphics card!! It still thinks I don't have a graphics card at all, just the Intel Graphics Family!

What's strange is that I opened up the Bootcamp CD to figure out what's going on, the Nvidia drivers are there, but when I open them and hit setup.exe, the Nvidia installer starts and then tells me that I don't have any compatible hardware. So it's not that Bootcamp doesn't have the drivers, it's that Windows refuses to accept them since it thinks I have no graphics card. I have no idea how to fix this. I can't be the only person who has had this problem. Please, someone try to help.
 
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DanTesla1

macrumors newbie
Oct 11, 2011
18
0
Why don't you just download the correct driver from the nVidia website? It is most certainly the most updated driver.
 
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Sage Nabooru

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
17
0
Because I've tried that, the nvidia installer won't let me install the drivers since it says I have no compatible hardware.

EDIT: I've downloaded Treexy's Driver Fusion but I can't really figure out how to use it or how it helps.
 
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Sage Nabooru

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
17
0
I used Treexy's Driver Fusion to delete the drivers....now what do I do?

The version I downloaded of driver fusion is the free one, do I need the $60 to make it work?

Also, do I still need to alter the inf? I've gone to laptopvideo2go and it didn't have infs for the latest drivers.
 
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Sage Nabooru

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
17
0
Laptopvideo2go has the inf now for the latest driver. Since I've deleted the previous drivers, should I download the drivers from Nvidia and then apply the modified inf file? If so, how? Sorry I'm just really confused and I don't know what to do.
 
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DanTesla1

macrumors newbie
Oct 11, 2011
18
0
I would try reinstalling Windows. I update my Retina's nVidia driver whenever there is an update. Never had any problems. Are you sure you're downloading the correct file? Give us your specs.
 
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Sage Nabooru

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
17
0
I've already reinstalled Windows since I was having an unrelated problem. I'm using a late 2011 MacBook Pro with OS X Mountain Lion. The graphics card is an Nividia GeForce 650M which I don't know how to access or update in OS X. The Windows version I've installed is Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. I downloaded the latest drivers using Bootcamp, and Windows installed them, but when it came to the Nvidia graphics installer it keeps saying it can find no compatible hardware. I tried Bootcamp 5 just for the hell of it and it doesn't work on my machine. I've deleted the Nvidia drivers which were there initially and didn't work using Driver Fusion, now I don't know where to go from here.

Some proffered solutions I've come across are:

1. Doing something with Driver Fusion. I'm not sure what, it seems unless I shell out $60 all Driver Fusion will do is delete my current drivers and tell me how really, really amazing Driver Fusion Premium is.

2. Go to laptopvideo2go.com and download the latest Nvidia drivers along with a modified INF file. Not sure how to install the file.

Whenever I try to install the drivers where I right now, every time, the Nividia driver installer says it can find no compatible hardware. Even going to Setup in the Nvidia folder on the Bootcamp CD says the same thing. So it seems Bootcamp DID install some Nividia drivers, or at least tried to, but the graphics card isn't recognized by Windows and Nvidia won't let drivers install unless it finds compatible hardware.
 
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Sage Nabooru

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
17
0
Okay, I've gotten a few clues. I opened up the Bootcamp CD and went to open the NVProgessSetup file in the Nvidia drivers folder. That started to install. It then said it was installing the display driver, then, while it tries to install, it says "You are running a 32 bit version of Nvidia uninstaller on a 64 bit system. Wrong version of uninstaller. Uninstaller exits now." It suggests I install manually but I don't know how to do that. I'll be damned if at some point a window popped up with some kind of hardware compatibility issue with a little yellow triangle with an exclamation point inside, but I can't remember how to get that to show up again.

Going to "setup" further down in the Drivers file brings me to another installer that is for the 64 bit version of Windows 7, but that one again says it can find no compatible hardware.
 
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Sage Nabooru

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
17
0
That makes sense, I was going on the specs in Apple's store. Don't know why....

Still, windows still shouldn't be seeing my graphics card as a generic VGA. It's late now so I'll wait until tomorrow, but I should be all good if I download the Radeon drivers?
 
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t-sandwich

macrumors newbie
Sep 7, 2013
2
0
I'm having the same problem. This is a huge pain in the ass. :mad:

I really hope I can fix it, since I was hoping to play some games on this thing...

So, I definitely *do* have the NVIDIA GT 650M as I just bought my Macbook last week (September 2013). But Windows can't see my video card, and my symptoms are pretty much exactly as Sage as described.

Installing the latest drivers from NVIDIA website always fails since it can't find compatible hardware. The drivers in the Bootcamp 5 folder also fail with the "try a manual installation" error (expect that instead of complaining about 32b/64b, as in Sage's case, mine just says that it experienced an error).

I have no idea what to do now.
 
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xcodeSyn

macrumors 6502a
Nov 25, 2012
548
7
t-sandwich said:
So, I definitely *do* have the NVIDIA GT 650M as I just bought my Macbook last week (September 2013). But Windows can't see my video card, and my symptoms are pretty much exactly as Sage as described.
Click to expand...
Hi given what happened to the OP's case, I think we probably need more hard evidence than your claim. When you are in the OS X Finder, click "Go" in the menu, then select "Utilities". In the Utilities window, find the "System information" icon and double click to launch it. Then select "Graphics/Displays" on the left column, it will show you the GPU information. Please report back what you got there, and that's how the system software identifies your graphics chipset. Post a screenshot if possible.
 
M

MJL

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2011
845
1
t-sandwich said:
I'm having the same problem. This is a huge pain in the ass. :mad:

I really hope I can fix it, since I was hoping to play some games on this thing...

So, I definitely *do* have the NVIDIA GT 650M as I just bought my Macbook last week (September 2013). But Windows can't see my video card, and my symptoms are pretty much exactly as Sage as described.

Installing the latest drivers from NVIDIA website always fails since it can't find compatible hardware. The drivers in the Bootcamp 5 folder also fail with the "try a manual installation" error (expect that instead of complaining about 32b/64b, as in Sage's case, mine just says that it experienced an error).

I have no idea what to do now.
Click to expand...

try working it out from the info at this link:

http://features.techworld.com/opera...plete-guide-to-running-windows-on-a-mac/?pn=4

good luck
 
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