Nvidia GeForce Go 7400 Brightness problem solved

[Pilingo]

Hi guys today I'm writing this guide after a few years (around 3) of looking for a driver for my Nvidia Geforce Go 7400 in my Sony Vaio VGC-LS25ME all-in-one PC, finally I've found a solution for getting brightness control in Windows 7 (x86) to work!!!! I know this have been anoying many of you for a long time specially with sony vaio computers.

I want to clarify that in this case the pictures will be taken with drivers 197.15 and with this specific sony computer and video card. To make this guide compatible to every other video card I will teach you how to get it to work.

IMPORTANT: This guide is for medium to advanced users if you do not know something please make some research.

DISCLAIMER: I take no responsability if you damage or something happens to your computer performing this steps, do it on your own risk, also don't get mad if you follow all this guide and it doesn't work, if that's the case I will suggest that you continue to logically analize the infs you have and figure out a solution for you, ¡this is possible! just keep on trying, the key is in having no duplicates and having EnableBrightnessControl set, as well as brightness entry.

Alright let's do this.

1.- First you have to get your original drivers or you last working brightness drivers, in my case I got them via the sony support webpage, every mancufacturer has it's own. It is obligatory to be an .exe or a compressed file. You can't use the ones from Windows Update, you will see why in the next step.

2.- If your original driver it's an exe file then you will have to extract it in order to get its .inf file, to do this download and install Universal Extractor.

To extract the exe file open Universal Installer and select the exe file you are going to extract, then make a folder in your desktop and select the folder in UI.

You will get something like this:

3.- After UI has extracted files open the folder you created, in my case I got something like this:

If there are no .inf files in there open the folder, there should be only one inf file (the name doesn't matter), in my case it was named nvsz.inf, open the inf file, here comes the hardest part.

4.- As this is a very long process I will tell you what I did and you can deduce how to do it yourself.

a) First you need to find this kind of entry:

[NVIDIA.Mfg.NTx86.6.0]
%NVIDIA_NV44.DEV_0167.4% = nv_NV3x,          PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0167&SUBSYS_81EA104D
%NVIDIA_NV44.DEV_0167.5% = nv_NV3x,          PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0167&SUBSYS_81EB104D
%NVIDIA_NV44.DEV_0168.4% = nv_NV3x,          PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0168&SUBSYS_81EA104D
%NVIDIA_NV44.DEV_0168.5% = nv_NV3x_A,        PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0168&SUBSYS_81EB104D
%NVIDIA_G72.DEV_01D8.2%  = nv_01D8_81E6104D, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01D8&SUBSYS_81E6104D
%NVIDIA_G72.DEV_01D8.3%  = nv_X_81EF104D,    PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01D8&SUBSYS_81EF104D
%NVIDIA_G72.DEV_01D8.4%  = nv_X_81FD104D,    PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01D8&SUBSYS_81FD104D
%NVIDIA_G72.DEV_01D8.5%  = nv_01D8_8205104D, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01D8&SUBSYS_8205104D
%NVIDIA_G72.DEV_01D8.6%  = nv_01D8_820F104D, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01D8&SUBSYS_820F104D
%NVIDIA_G73.DEV_0398.2%  = nv_X_81EF104D,    PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0398&SUBSYS_81EF104D
%NVIDIA_G73.DEV_0398.3%  = nv_X_81FD104D,    PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0398&SUBSYS_81FD104D
%NVIDIA_G73.DEV_0398.4%  = nv_0398_8205104D, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0398&SUBSYS_8205104D
%NVIDIA_G73.DEV_0399.2%  = nv_0399_81FD104D, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0399&SUBSYS_81FD104D

B ) After you find it go to Device Manager and get the Hardware id

c) You'll see that the line after the first comma is your hardware id, well match it and get the name before the comma and after the equal. In my case it was "nv_01D8_8205104D".

d) Next you need to scroll down and find the string we just got between brackets "[]"

you'll see that there are other strings followed by suffixes like "[nv_01D8_8205104D.Services]" don't worry about them we will focus in the one that has nothing.

From now on we will call this the id section.

e) Search for lines after "AddReg = " that have the brightness word in it and write them down, also, write down the line that contains a format like this or the word settings like mine "nv_SoftwareDeviceSettings_8205104D".

From now on we will call this section the "settings section".

f) Now scroll down slowly looking for the lines you just wrote, this will be between brackets "[]". The first line that comes up is the "[nv_SoftwareDeviceSettings_8205104D]" one, take a picture or copy all this section as we will be comparing it to the updated driver one.

g) When you get to the brightness line copy all of it.

h) Now the final step to end with this inf is to search meticulously for EnableBrightnessControl or any brightness word, in my case EBC came up, it will have a line between brackets, look for your paper with the "AddReg" entries and see which one is yours. Example:

nv4_FAEIDS is my section!

You may want to get some coffee as we will spend some other time here...

Without closing your file and losing your last section (nv4_FAEIDS), open your updated driver inf (nv_disp.inf in my case).

Now repeat steps a to e.

After you've done that go to the settings section and in here it's very important that you look for duplicated lines Example:

[nv_commonBase_addreg]
HKLM,"Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Hybrid",AddDeviceSequence,%REG_DWORD%,1
HKLM,"Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Installer",3DVisionInstall,%REG_DWORD%,1
HKLM,"Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Installer",HDAudioInstall,%REG_DWORD%,1
HKLM,"Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Installer",PhysXInstall,%REG_DWORD%,1
HKR,,Acceleration.Level,%REG_DWORD%,0
HKR,,FeatureControl,%REG_DWORD%,4
HKR,,InstalledDisplayDrivers,%REG_MULTI_SZ%,"nvd3dum"
HKR,,InstalledDisplayDrivers,%REG_MULTI_SZ%,"nvd3dum, nv5dxdl, vd7ddd"
HKR,,MultiFunctionSupported,%REG_DWORD%,1
HKR,,RMCacheLoc,%REG_DWORD%,0
HKR,,RMDisableInst2Sys,%REG_DWORD%,1
HKR,, RMMaintainDevs,                %REG_DWORD%,     1
HKR,, RMMaintainTVStandard,          %REG_DWORD%,     1
HKR,, RotateFlag,                    %REG_DWORD%,     1
HKR,, OverlayBrightness,             %REG_DWORD%,     0xffffffd3
HKR,, OverlayContrast,               %REG_DWORD%,     0x00000069
HKR,, OverlayHue,                    %REG_DWORD%,     0x00000000
HKR,, OverlaySaturation,             %REG_DWORD%,     0x00000086
HKR,,UseBestResolution,%REG_DWORD%,1
HKR,,UserModeDriverGUID,%REG_SZ%,"{9A516B97-E7C1-451B-9165-C5035994A3F5}"
HKR,,UserModeDriverName,%REG_MULTI_SZ%,"nvd3dum.dll"

Notice how HKR,, InstalledDisplayDrivers is duplicated though it's different in the last part. Here you want to do one of two things, first compare this to the settings section of your original file and if you find the exact same entry with the same ending "nvd3dum" then remove all of the duplicates except that one. Result:

[nv_commonBase_addreg]
HKLM,"Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Hybrid",AddDeviceSequence,%REG_DWORD%,1
HKLM,"Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Installer",3DVisionInstall,%REG_DWORD%,1
HKLM,"Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Installer",HDAudioInstall,%REG_DWORD%,1
HKLM,"Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Installer",PhysXInstall,%REG_DWORD%,1
HKR,,Acceleration.Level,%REG_DWORD%,0
HKR,,FeatureControl,%REG_DWORD%,4
HKR,,InstalledDisplayDrivers,%REG_MULTI_SZ%,"nvd3dum"
HKR,,MultiFunctionSupported,%REG_DWORD%,1
HKR,,RMCacheLoc,%REG_DWORD%,0
HKR,,RMDisableInst2Sys,%REG_DWORD%,1
HKR,, RMMaintainDevs,                %REG_DWORD%,     1
HKR,, RMMaintainTVStandard,          %REG_DWORD%,     1
HKR,, RotateFlag,                    %REG_DWORD%,     1
HKR,, OverlayBrightness,             %REG_DWORD%,     0xffffffd3
HKR,, OverlayContrast,               %REG_DWORD%,     0x00000069
HKR,, OverlayHue,                    %REG_DWORD%,     0x00000000
HKR,, OverlaySaturation,             %REG_DWORD%,     0x00000086
HKR,,UseBestResolution,%REG_DWORD%,1
HKR,,UserModeDriverGUID,%REG_SZ%,"{9A516B97-E7C1-451B-9165-C5035994A3F5}"
HKR,,UserModeDriverName,%REG_MULTI_SZ%,"nvd3dum.dll"

If this is duplicated in your original inf then remove the entry that has more than one word in the last part.

We are almost there, now go to your id section (we're still in the new inf) and based in your wrote downs from the original inf id section add the brightness and the extra entries after a new "AddReg" Example:

Original:

[section101]
AddReg = nv_commonBase_addreg
AddReg = nv_commonDisplayModes_addreg
AddReg = nv_timingRestrictions_addreg
AddReg = nv_controlPanel_addreg
AddReg = nv_global_addreg
AddReg = nv_miscBase_addreg
AddReg = nv_opengl_addreg
AddReg = Mobile_Tweaks
AddReg = nv_timingRestrictions_addreg
CopyFiles = nv_controlpanel_copyfiles
CopyFiles = nv_sysDrivers_copyfiles
CopyFiles = nv_system32_copyfiles
CopyFiles = nv_uninstall_copyfiles
DelReg = nv_clearRegistrySwitches_delreg
FeatureScore = F6
RegisterDLLs = nv_common_registerdll

Added:

[section101]
AddReg = nv_commonBase_addreg
AddReg = nv_commonDisplayModes_addreg
AddReg = nv_timingRestrictions_addreg
AddReg = nv_controlPanel_addreg
AddReg = nv_global_addreg
AddReg = nv_miscBase_addreg
AddReg = nv_opengl_addreg
AddReg = Mobile_Tweaks
AddReg = nv_timingRestrictions_addreg
[color="#FF0000"]AddReg = Nvif_AddReg_Brightness_B
AddReg = nv4_FAEIDS[/color]
CopyFiles = nv_controlpanel_copyfiles
CopyFiles = nv_sysDrivers_copyfiles
CopyFiles = nv_system32_copyfiles
CopyFiles = nv_uninstall_copyfiles
DelReg = nv_clearRegistrySwitches_delreg
FeatureScore = F6
RegisterDLLs = nv_common_registerdll

And now the last step!!!:

Go to your original inf and copy both the brightness chunk and the extra entries and paste them after the settings section.

DONE!!!! Save your super duper brightness fixed inf and install your driver, remember to uninstall first!!!!!!!

NOTES: It's very late and I'm falling asleep, the guide is complete, though I will improve it tomorrow, to those watching this now please forgive me if you can't understand something.