How to get Stereo Drivers to work on a NV GeForce Go driven laptop?

[studio3d]

Have a Dell Inspiron with GeForce Go 6800 that won't accept the stereo drivers 77.77 or 78.01 (says stuff like "unable to determine if this is an NVIDIA card" and always defaults to driver 7.8.11).

I had a Sony Vaio (don't remember which NVIDIA card!) and I had no trouble loading the stereo driver. Now I'm reading that I have to change the .ini file to make the stereo driver work... if that's what I need to do, fine- but I don't know how~!

Please point me in the right direction... thanks.

Edited February 14, 2006 by ®®®

[Bill]

Where does a topic/site mention changing the .ini file?

I haven't heard of this problem yet.

If you link the page(s) I could check it out for you. (mod the required files for you)

Last time I tried the stereo drivers (don't remember which version) it worked just fine.

Edited December 15, 2005 by Bill

[studio3d]

I read somewhere in this forum that "desktop" drivers don't work in laptops unless you modify the .ini files... I tried several times to load the stereo drivers/forceware on the 6800, but it wouldn't "take" (Forceware setup gave the "NVIDIA setup program could not locate any drivers..." error.

THANKS for your guidance- what do I do? I need to run stereo 3D on this laptop.

[Bill]

Seems your getting your .ini files and your INF files mixed up, we mod INFs here, and last I checked, the ini files in the driver really don't do much. (I think, can't remember :) )

Anyway you need to read this. (about INFs)

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index.php?showtopic=8128

and then read this page too. (how to install drivers, at the top is a divx vid on the have disk method, which I would recomend)

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index.php?showtopic=33

next go here and get the 78.01 32 bit xp driver and the regular moddified INF for it. (first one listed in the download section of the bottem of the first post)

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index.php?showtopic=7701

After that is all installed properly, go to this page.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/3dstereo_78.01.html

And then install the stereo driver, and read the manual if you want.

I would recomend that you uninstall whatever drivers you have first, especially since they might be newer.

In fact you said you have a newer driver, so before you actually install the 78.01, please go to the add/remove programs thing and uninstall it, it should be listed as xp/2k display drivers or nvidia or something.(depends on driver version)

If you don't uninstall first, you might have problems getting your laptop to boot if you downgrade. (black screen)

Now that is easily fixeable, windows should let you boot to the last working configeration, or you can use safe mode, if it doesn't boot after installing a driver, just uninstall in safe mode or from regular windows.

I hope I have answered your questions.

Edit: People have just discovered that you can mod the 9300 to an IXPS Gen2 M170 and use the graphics cards from that, like the 7800gtx go and the 6800 go ultra. Might want to look into that sometime.

Edited December 16, 2005 by Bill

[studio3d]

DUH!

Sorry, I did get ini and inf mixed up... inf is a new concept for me.

Will follow your directions! I SO APPRECIATE it!

Will report back success or failure

(btw, I did uninstall the nvidia stereo driver via control panel, but it seems plug and play finds the card and assigns the default driver)

THANKS, Bill!

[Bill]

No problem!

Heck we do so much with INFs here that I sometimes get my .INIs mixed up as well.

Just remember, a long time ago (in a galaxy far far away...? :) ) I was a noob at this place, and even too scared to use drivers cause of all the warners for Dell users. (just so you know, that was an issue with certain screens[not mine], and we have know for a while about how to fix it using an EDID override, but it is easier said than done)

Honestly no reason to be scared though, only one driver didn't work (out of like 70+) and that was because I downgraded and didn't uninstall first because I was lazy, once I uninstalled the newer driver and then installed the older one it worked fine.

Always nice of you to report back to us, might help somebody else down the road. :)

[studio3d]

It was hairy, but it finally WORKED! I was so happy that I found you guys and you made this work I donated $50 to the site. THANK YOU!

But I do have some questions, if you don't mind!

The "7801" zipped file I downloaded... I thought that was the driver... but after I loaded it and did the whole INF "have disk" thing, the driver seemed to be 78.01. BUT there was no STEREO settings~! I had to install the driver from the nvidia website as well (as you said... but it's just not clear to me).

The nVidia page says "78.01 3D Stereo drivers require 78.01 ForceWare Graphics drivers to run. Please download those here:"... but when I tried to install I got the error: Nvidia setup could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware". However, it seems I really don't need it- the stereo is working FINE now. (thanks again). What is Forceware... is it necessary (in nvidia window it said "Forceware version 78.01" before I ever tried to load it...???)

I have a webpage that explains how to setup this stereo driver (which obviously didn't work this time around) for use with a stereo projector I sell. I would like to update to include the new information... should I just copy the info you gave me with links to the LAPTOP VIDEO 2 GO drivers INF files??

Thanks again, Bill and Pieter!

Edited December 20, 2005 by studio3d

[Bill]

The stereo drivers are separate, the ones we carry do not really have any stereo support, by request, nvidia themselves have to make a special stereo driver that you install ontop of another driver.

There are very few different stereo drivers, they only exist for the drivers nvidia chooses to make them for.

Basically, there are the regular forceware drivers, those are just your standard "what you need to run your card and games/videos" drivers.

What you are interested in are the stereo drivers, Nvidia makes those, and they have to be installed ontop of the corresting forceware drivers, like there is the 78.01 driver, and its 78.01 3D stereo driver.

You cannot install the 78.01 stereo driver on any other version of forceware, unless the drivers are very similar it probably would not work, or it would screw something up.

Basically, if you want stereo, you only have a few driver options because as of right now nvidia does not make stereo drivers for every driver version.

The simplest way to setup stereo on say, one of the new Quadro (or GeForce) desktop cards is to first install the 78.01 driver, and then once that is properly installed, install the 78.01 3D stereo driver, and then your set.

Now laptops are harder, because nvidia's drivers on their site don't support laptops as of right now.

That is where we come in, Pieter makes the mod INFs here, you replace the INF in the foreware driver with Pieter's and it lets you install the driver on a laptop, so you would get teh 78.01 driver, replace the INF, and then install on your laptop, then once that is installed you can install the 3D stereo drivers.

The INFs in the driver tell it how to install on each graphics card, Pieter's INFs support all current GeForce and Quadro cards, and even some not yet released :P , nvidia's standard INFs dont support laptop cards as of this time.

Even if Nvidia's INFs did start supporting laptops, Pieter's INFs will still have all the features enabled, which nvidia's won't have. :)

As for your site, using Stereo drivers should be the same on laptops, except you need the moddified INF.

For all the visitors to your site that want to read what an INF is, Pieter's topic probably tells it best.

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index.php?showtopic=8128

For install instructions you could link here.

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index.php?showtopic=33

Pieter said you could copy the instructions and pics on your site if you want, so feel free to use the resources.

I think its time for me to stop blabbering, I might confuse somebody, and its not good to blabber when I'm not fully awake. :)

[studio3d]

Bill, you totally ROCK!

I don't know where else I could get such detailed, clear answers to what is otherwise pretty confusing! And you helped quickly which is so appreciated. Please let me know if there's ever anything you need to know about stereo 3D!

[Bill]

What are some good shutter glasses? (and where to buy)

And/Or what other equipment stuff do I need? Or what would you recomend for gaming in 3D?

I tried stereo a few times a while back with some red/blue analygraph glasses or whatever they are called, worked fine in the stereo drivers, (could see the 3D) but not in UT2004.

I am sure the answers to my above questions are on your site though, need to go read through it.

[studio3d]

Actually, my website needs some updating as far as shutter glasses- edimensional.com has a good deal for wired glasses and emitter for $69, or wireless for $99 ALL you need are STEREO DRIVERS :) and a CRT! (LCDs don't refresh fast enough... edimensional claims LCDs work, but I haven't seen it!)... Just crank up your refresh rate to at least 100, and you're good to go.

As far as GAMES- I'm not a gamer so I can't give you much help there. My brother lent me HALF LIFE months ago and I haven't even tried it out yet (I want to, but busy with other stuff).

Anaglyph is nothing compared to shutter glasses... hope you get a chance to try it. Then you can let ME know what games are good!