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Dell Precision M90 recently upgraded to x64 Win7 cannot get proper graphics card, stuck with Standard VGA Graphics Adapter

Anonymous
2009-11-17T00:28:07+00:00

I have a Dell Precision M90 laptop and recently upgraded from 32-bit Vista to 64-bit Windows 7.  Everything worked perfectly, except for my display drivers.  Windows 7 installed a driver called Standard VGA Graphics Adapter.  This driver only has very low resolutions, and cannot deal with games or even Aero.

I have had moderate experience with upgrading video drivers with Vista.  My video card is a NVIDIA Quadro FX 2500M.  When I had Vista there was no Vista-compatible driver for this card, so I used the Geforce 7900GTX driver (which the FX 2500M was based on) and it worked fine.  Of course, the Quadro FX 2500M doesn't have a windows 7 compatible driver.

I downloaded the 64-bit Windows 7 Geforce 7 series driver so I could upgrade and use that, however when I used the NVIDIA installer it said that my computer had no compatible hardware for that driver (I tried installing it in Vista compatibility as well).  I tried to force the upgrade by using the 'have disk' option and choosing the .inf file directly.  This still did not work, and said that it couldn't work because 'The driver selected for this device does not support this version of Windows' even though it is the Windows 7 version.

I have also attempted to start my computer in safe mode, uninstall the Standard VGA driver and then install the NVIDIA driver, but this wouldn't work either. 

Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to add as much information as possible to hopefully solve this problem.  Thanks for taking a look, and thanks for any suggestions!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2009-11-17T00:57:48+00:00

Fixed!  Finally!!!!  Dell.com DID have the driver.... but the link they had posted on the Precision M90 page was incorrectly labeled.  I searched another way, found the right driver, and got it working.  Solved days and days of frusturation.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-12-11T05:02:30+00:00

    By far the best solution is to just get it from Microsoft. Yes they really do have it.

    • Go here: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Home.aspx
    • Enter in the Search box eg. Quadro FX 2500M
    • In this case (windows 7) there are four results, the top two are the most recent (2009)
    • Look at the sizes. The larger one is the 64 bit version, smaller is 32 bit
    • Click the Download button on the right for the version you need
    • Its a CAB file. Extract it to a folder with 7Zip or what have you.
    • Run Setup, reboot if required
    • Smile like an idiot

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-12-10T17:38:29+00:00

    The Dell M90 Precision is a well built machine.  Just installed a Crucial CT250BX100SSD1 250 GB solid state drive, and Windows 10 Home.  I went back and forth over 32 bit or 64 bit, trying to figure out video driver.  Our machine has the Quadro FX 2500M card, and it was difficult trying to find drivers on Dell's website or NVIDIA's website.  The default video driver for Windows 10 x64 was working, but didn't look the best.

    Finally, found this info, so I'm posting it here is anyone else is trying to get their Dell M90 with Windows 10 x64 running for another decade.  Lol.  The FX 1500M and FX 3500M cards are also supported with the below driver.

    I extracted all the files from the CAB to a folder, then went to Device Manger, Driver Update, and pointed it at the extracted CAB folder.  Windows 10 recognized the hardware and updated the driver.  It's working!

    http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=327907&highlight=quadro+2500m

    New NVIDIA graphics drivers from Microsoft Update have been posted! These packages include the NV_WHQL.inf file, which includes native support for all desktop and notebook GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, and 400 series GPUs (and the Quadro equivalents).

    *Note: These driver packages do not include an HDMI audio driver, nor do they include PhysX System Software. Use v258.96 WHQL drivers for the latest certified HDMI audio driver and visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx\_system\_software.html for the latest version of the PhysX System Software.*

    Version 259.47 is the first release observed to add support for the mainstream GeForce 400 series!

    Dell M90 Quadro FX 2500M

    Windows Vista / Windows 7 x86 (32-bit): http://download.windowsupdate.com/ms...c43d908c63.cab

    Windows Vista / Windows 7 x64 (64-bit): http://download.windowsupdate.com/ms...acec9c13b7.cab

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-09-02T22:49:24+00:00

    It's not that complicated.  I'm running Win7 64-bit pro on an XPS M1710.  My FX2500M video adapter wasn't showing up at all. I went to device manager, selected "Display adapters", then "Standard VGA adapter", then the "Driver" tab then the "Update Driver" button and (finally) "Search automatically for updated driver software".  One might think that this just updates the "Standard VGA adapter" driver, but no, it actually polled the video card,  installed the proper Nvidia driver, and had my card showing up as "NVIDIA Quadro FX 2500M".

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  4. Anonymous
    2009-12-10T20:36:13+00:00

    FalanaBR,

    Where did you end up finding the driver that works?? I have the exact same system.

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