Vista graphic drivers for Intel® 945GM Chipset

Question

Hi, I own a Inspiron E1405 w/ the Intel 945GM Chipset w/ Vista installed. I checked the Dell driver support website and saw that graphics driver for Vista section isn't up to date (drivers from 1/23/2007) while the Intel website is (drivers released 7/2/2007). That being the case I download the drivers for the 945 from Intel but when went to install it it gave me an error of driver not being validated for my laptop. What's the deal with this? Is there any to keep my graphic card up to date without going to Dell because its obvious they haven't been updating their driver section for vista. Vincent

mombodog · Answer

Try this, extract the Intel exe file to an empty folder using winrar, winzip or other tool.   Open device manager and expand the Display adapters to show the Intel adapter, right click on it and choose 'update driver' then choose, 'browse computer for driver software' Navigate to the folder where you extracted to and go to the 'Graphics' folder, highlight the Graphics folder and hit OK, then next, see if it will install this way.

Mary G · Answer

No it won't. Intel says it can never support the 915M chipset because of its design that is incompatible with vista. From the Intel web site: "Q5: Why doesn’t the Intel 915 Express chipset family support Windows Vista Aero? A5: The overall graphics architecture and design of the 915 Express chipset family (with Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 900 graphics engine) was finalized prior to Microsoft releasing details and specifications around the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver. Given this, there are hardware limitations in the 915 Express chipset architecture that would limit graphics performance and memory capabilities when attempting to run WDDM on Vista." You can install Vista, but Aero will never work. I have the same chipset on my I6000 and now after using vista for a while, I'm glad it has Windows XP! Read more here: http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-023606.htm#3

Message Edited by Mary G on 09-05-2007 05:56 PM

nupe25 · Answer

would this work for the 915gm chipset as well? i'm dying for aero (not to mention smaller icons) on my xps 140!

mombodog · Answer

Mary, the OP did not say anything about Aero, just wanted the latest driver, the Readme in the Vista driver from Intel clearly states it does support the 945GM chipset which the OP stated as having, but the OP also said it would not install, makes you pull your hair out.

"* 1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
************************************************************

1. The system must contain one of the following Intel
Chipsets:

         Mobile Intel(R) 940GML Express Chipset
         Mobile Intel(R) 943GML Express Chipset
         Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset
         Mobile Intel(R) 945GME Express Chipset
         Mobile Intel(R) 945GMS Express Chipset
         Mobile Intel(R) GL960 Express Chipset
         Mobile Intel(R) GM965 Express Chipset
         Mobile Intel(R) GME965 Express Chipset

2. The software should be installed on systems with at
least 1GB of system memory.

3. There should be sufficient hard disk space in the
directory on the system in order to install this
software.

    The drivers included with this distribution package are
    designed to function with all released 32-bit versions of
    Microsoft Windows Vista* operating system."

Also the document you point to says this

"A3: Intel will provide support for WDDM drivers beginning with the Intel® 945 Express chipset family and beyond"

So, Did the OP miss-state the chipset they have for that model???

Message Edited by mombodog on 09-05-2007 06:48 PM

mombodog · Answer

Try a reboot to see if the version changes.   I'm still at a loss why the Intel driver installer failed, are you sure you downloaded the correct one for the 945GM?

gobeav3rs297 · Answer

Hey mombodog, thanks for the quick reply. I did as you mentioned and extracted the file and going through the manual path of updating the drivers for the my 945GM mobile chipset. However the driver for the graphic card is still not updated, its still at 7.14.10.1147, it should be at 7.14.10.1295. I find it interesting that Dell keeps the Winxp driver section pretty up to date while slacking on the Vista section even though all their product line comes preinstalled with Vista. -Vincent

gobeav3rs297 · Answer

mombodog,

No changes even after the restart. Yea, i was confused as to why the installer from Intel didn't work either. I'm 100% sure i downloaded the right package, Vista Home Premium 32-bit verson, which is Vista i've running on my laptop. I've have downloaded/ran it a couple of time but after the installer extract the content and begins to run setup it gives me this error message: "the driver being installed is not validated for this computer. Please obtain the appropriate driver from the computer's manufacturer. Setup will exit." Very weird!!!!

This graphic update thing started because for the past few weeks i've been having a problem w/ vista in that sometime after login the screen will go to a black screen with just the mouse and nothing else, the desktop doesn't appear. I thought it might be caused by the intel graphic card that came on the laptop.

-Vincent

mombodog · Answer

Check Windows update, they released some reliability updates for Vista a few days ago.   Yes Intel has moved away from INF style drivers and moved to setup type, makes me mad, you could modify the inf to get around these types of issues.   What you might try is download the entire chipset driver package from Intel, instead of just the graphics driver. See if it installs. Then check to see if the video driver gets upgraded.

Hydralisk00222 · Answer

mombodog wrote:

Mary, the OP did not say anything about Aero, just wanted the latest driver, the Readme in the Vista driver from Intel clearly states it does support the 945GM chipset which the OP stated as having, but the OP also said it would not install, makes you pull your hair out.

"* 1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
************************************************************

1. The system must contain one of the following Intel
    Chipsets:

         Mobile Intel(R) 940GML Express Chipset
         Mobile Intel(R) 943GML Express Chipset
         Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset
         Mobile Intel(R) 945GME Express Chipset
         Mobile Intel(R) 945GMS Express Chipset
         Mobile Intel(R) GL960 Express Chipset
         Mobile Intel(R) GM965 Express Chipset
         Mobile Intel(R) GME965 Express Chipset


2. The software should be installed on systems with at
    least 1GB of system memory.

3. There should be sufficient hard disk space in the
    directory on the system in order to install this
    software.

    The drivers included with this distribution package are
    designed to function with all released 32-bit versions of
    Microsoft Windows Vista* operating system."

Also the document you point to says this

"A3: Intel will provide support for WDDM drivers beginning with the Intel® 945 Express chipset family and beyond"

So, Did the OP miss-state the chipset they have for that model???

Message Edited by mombodog on 09-05-2007 06:48 PM

a newbie popped in the middle of the thread asking about 915 + aero... that's why ...

gobeav3rs297 · Answer

Finally!!!!

got it to work, i had to go and uninstall the driver from the card completely and then ran the setup file within the graphic driver package that i extracted from Intel and then it finally ran through and did its thing. I got the same message if I just ran it from the installation file so i'm guessing that it does some kind of checks after its extracts the file???? Who knows.

Such a hassle for something that should be routine. Anyway thanks for everyone's help, especially mombodog, props :-).

-Vincent

mombodog · Answer

Thanks for posting the work around. 'Remove old driver first'  Doh! :smileywink:

Windows General

Vista graphic drivers for Intel® 945GM Chipset

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