Newest NVidia drivers (179.24) on D830 with Vista64

I've had the same problem here with the 32Bit Version of Vista and the new official Dell Driver. Also using modded Versions of 178.26, 179.28 and 179.29 doesn't help.

After Driver-deinstallation and going back to 174.31, the 32 Bit Mode is now available :-)

P.S.: Maybe the ServicePack (Build 6002) causes the problem?

I'm not so sure about SP... It seems that this is either bug in bios or bug in nvidia drivers, because modded drivers do not work as well. You've got 1920x1200 (WUXGA) LCD?

My colleage tried to override settings in nvidia control panel and it worked, but not for 1920x1200.. I think that 1680x1050 worked as this is next 16:10 resoultion.

I am having the same issue on Vista 64bit and the A14 version of the bios. I tried installing the older driver, and even though I am now able to select 32 bit color depth, There are issues with moving windows and scrolling... very laggy...

There is an obvious issue here some where.

I used update R205371.EXE.  I had the same problem with 16-bit as my only option. Also, my desktop would lock up and I would have to end explorer.exe. I thought this was due to my dual monitor setup so I uninstalled the driver through Add Remove programs. After the reboot, Vista said there was additional software that needed to be installed and requested another reboot. Now I get 32-bit color but programs like Firefox and various administrative tools are locking up. Just now I right-clicked on the desktop to try to get the exact model of the video card and it is locked up. This is killing my productivity. I have a D830, 4GB RAM, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M with Vista 32-bit SP1.

So? No response from Dell? I've tried contacting TechSupport, but they told me that no such problem exists and i should reinstall my windows :)

I had the exact same issue on Vista 64 bit on a Dell 830 with WUXGA and BIOS A14.

I resolved it by getting the 176.44 drivers from laptops2go .com

hxxp://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=21361

(change http)

Those drivers worked just fine for me and actually seem to work better than any I've used in the past so I'm not even going to bother messing with Dell support over this.

Oh, btw, it seems that the "16 bit problem" is only for the actual laptop display.  A connected external monitor or 2nd external monitor will display in 32 bit mode just fine.

blazeu,

I do have an open case with Dell... I am a Larg Ent customer and I made a big stink about this... they have admitted there is an issue here... no word yet on a fix. However, when I do learn of a fix, I will make sure I post it.

I have the same 16bit color depth issue with this driver under the following OS:

Windows Vista Enterprise SP1 x86
Windows Server 2008 R2 x64
Windows 7 x86

If anyone has a fix, workaround or a better driver, please let us know.

Yanze,

I posted a workaround driver a few posts up.

Yes, I've read that, thanks.

But the driver you're refering to is version 176.44 while the version on Microsoft Update & Dell is version 179.24. Also they call this the "Pre WDM 1.1 Driver" (or something similar) and I don't know if your version complies to that? Right now I'm working fine with version 174.31 (the previous Dell version) so I'll stick to this for the moment.

But I think it's very weird that a driver like this shows up on Dell / Microsoft Update ...

Having same problem. Dell support told me to roll back, reinstall windows and a series of other ridiculous things. When refered them to the forums thread and suggested they remove the driver from the web site and open a software bug they said its was not covered under my hardware contract. It also took me three days to join the forums because their email validation system was down. What in the world is happening to Dell Support? 

I'm having the same problem. I rolled back to the 176.44 that was suggested and that does fix the 32bit color problem but it brings back all the other problems with the display automatically resetting to 800x600. I'm using the Dell docking station with an external monitor which appears to exacerbate the problem. So far I've been really disappointed with all the NVidia drivers for this laptop. There always seems to be something broken.

-mike

i use the D830 with XP x64 which i had to dig for other drivers because Dell doesnt directly support XP x64 on it.  If i do update to this particular version of the (non-Dell) nVidia driver, i may try it and post back.

I've given up on the 179 driver from Dell. Here's what I ended up doing to get a stable display. I'm using Win7 beta but the results should be the same for Vista. I tried various drivers with both the A13 and A14 bios with no difference.

1. Modify the Windows settings to not automatically install drivers in Control Panel->System and Security->System->Advanced System Settings (sidebar)->Hardware->Device Installation Settings. Select No, Never install.

2. Uninstall the drivers from the device manager.

3. Shutdown and reboot into safe mode

4. Run DriveSweeper to remove any driver leftovers (hxxp://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/)

5. Reboot

6. Install the 176.44 driver for Dell from LaptopVideo2Go (link is in previous comments)

7. Reboot

8. Never use the docking station again to avoid resolution resets

9. Re-enable auto driver downloads in the Control Panel

Hope that helps someone and I hope NVidia and Dell sort this out. I have yet to have a fully stable display driver on this machine with the docking station.

-mike