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BSOD on Dell Inspiron 8200/GeForce4 440 Go


uesjd

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I'm trying to help solve a problem with the nVidia drivers on a Dell Inspiron 8200. The graphics card is a GeForce4 440 Go.

The problem was a recurring BSOD pointing to nv4_disp.dll.

The process so far: booting into Safe Mode, uninstalling the graphics card from Device Manager, uninstalling the drivers with Driver Cleaner (there is no nVidia entry in Add/Remove Programs), installing the latest Dell drivers, then rebooting.

Upon reboot, XP detects the graphics card, but doesn''t identify it as an nVidia card. Instead, the entry in Device Manager reads "Dell 8200." I have tried to "install" the card manually from the Add/Remove control panel applet, with no success; when I get to the "Have Disk" stage, the Wizard won't even look for nVidia hardware (just ATI and Intel).

I have gone through this process several times, always with the same result (and the BSOD problem persists).

I have upgraded the Video BIOS with the most recent one available from Dell; that has not helped.

In BIOS Setup, the card is properly detected/identified.

Is the failure to correctly identify the card the result of a problem with WinXP, or with the Drivers, or with the Video BIOS? Will a newer driver from this site solve the problem?

Also -- there is no nVidia Control Panel at all.

Any advice would be welcomed.

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Hope I'm not jumping in out of turn, but here are some thoughts:

If you uninstall the driver and the video card, then reboot and cancel the XP 'new hardware' wizard, XP should install a basic driver with 800x600 resolution. Check that the BSOD problem does not manifest itself under these circumstances. If it does, could be a faulty card rather than a bad driver. Or it could be a different (non-video) driver that is conflicting somehow.

If you have still got the 'drivers & utilities' CD, boot from than and run the Dell diagnostics on the video card. If you haven't got the CD, you can download the diags from Dell.

If the video card is OK but the BSOD still occurs with the raw 800x600 driver, it seems reasonably safe to say that something is wrong elsewhere. Virus / spyware scan. Uninstall other drivers systematically. Etc etc. All very boring.

BUT if the BSOD has gone away, and assuming you have tried installing a freshly-downloaded version of the Dell driver, try a different driver from this site. I'm using the 77.77 driver very happily on the GeForce4 440 Go / I8100. You need to download the driver, download the modded INF file that goes with it, unpack the driver, copy the modded INF into the unpacked driver directory and then run the driver's Setup.exe.

Hope this helps, and sorry if it's a hindrance / all blindingly obvious.

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BUT if the BSOD has gone away, and assuming you have tried installing a freshly-downloaded version of the Dell driver, try a different driver from this site. I'm using the 77.77 driver very happily on the GeForce4 440 Go / I8100. You need to download the driver, download the modded INF file that goes with it, unpack the driver, copy the modded INF into the unpacked driver directory and then run the driver's Setup.exe.

Thanks for responding. I will try the Dell Diags and then the 77.77 driver.

However, Im perplexed as to why the system detects the card as a "Dell 8200" in Device Manager, even when nVidia drivers are installed. Any idea why that would be the case?

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However, Im perplexed as to why the system detects the card as a "Dell 8200" in Device Manager, even when nVidia drivers are installed. Any idea why that would be the case?

Hmmm. If what you're saying is that you installed a non-Dell nVidia driver, and the card still said "Dell 8200", my guess is that the non-Dell driver did not in fact install. You have to use the appropriate modded INF file in order to get a non-Dell-packaged nVidia driver to install properly.

I had a similar experience: the only evidence that the driver had not installed was that I was not prompted to reboot.

Good luck, anyway.

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