Windows 7 NVIDIA Driver won't install.

MattTheCat

New Member
I really didn't know what section of this site to post this in, and this is a copy of a thread I posted to another site (NVIDIA Driver won't install. - Windows 7). I am doing this of course to get as much help as possible and not to drive up web traffic. You can also go there (bleepingcomputer) for some extra clarifying comments that I later added by replying.

I have a computer from 1999 that I normally run Windows 2000 with the Black Winged Cat kernel extension, I upgraded the RAM from 300-ish MB to 700-ish MB, I upgrade the Graphics card to a NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS, and used a driver that provided OpenGL 3.2 to Windows 2000, things were great, I could play Minecraft, et cetera. But the problem was the shear amount of games that couldn't run because of requiring a newer operating system such as Windows 7. I have a Pentium III which has no SSE2 support, but that wouldn't be a problem as long as I didn't install updates from 2018. I bought an unopened Windows 7 Professional OEM DVD (with license key) and a 60 GB IDE hard drive, and so I was able to successfully install Windows 7 despite having less than a GB of RAM. I was even able to use my SB Live! and Ethernet card, even though there were no new drivers nd certainly none made for Windows 7. I found an early 2000 driver which was made for Windows XP and under online for the Ethernet card, it actually worked, I encountered some weird things though, some application wouldn't work, such as problems installing driver booster, installing the 2019 VC++ Redist, and so I found a safe portable driver installer (no virus total detections). This driver installer was called "Snappy Driver Installer Origin", and with that I was able to install a driver for my sound card. Now you may be wondering, "why the heck would you use a driver installer!", well, I initially got it because of the



MAIN PROBLEM THAT I AM CREATING THIS THREAD FOR, which is that, despite their being official Windows 7 drivers for the NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS, I was unable to install them. I had tried reinstalling Windows, extracting the NVIDIA driver installer and directly installing from the .inf, which always yielded results such as "Windows encountered a problem installing the driver software for your device... Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it." or in one case saying a line was missing from the .inf. I had also tried installing older Windows 7 NVIDIA drivers made for this model, and I had even tried installing some of the Windows XP drivers such as the one I used on Windows 2000, and some newer one, which after finding that it wont even let me install, I tried extracting and directly installing from an .inf, which it then said this was made for a different version of Windows or something like that.



SO... I need a solution, I know I am using the correct installer, and again even when making sure the installation of Windows was fresh, I still encountered the problem, I know it is using older hardware, but the compatibility definitely checks out, so I believe it is not a hardware problem, and the NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS driver that came with Windows 7 as well as the driver that came with the card on a disc are much too outdated for modern gameplay.



Another thing to mention is that this installation came with service pack 1, and yes I have made sure to get at least some important Windows installations such as the prerequisites for IE 11 and IE 11, Direct X updates, .Net 4.8 (which I had to get an updated certificate for), VC 2015 redist, VC 2017 resist, and even something called the 2016 "Convenience Update".



It really seams impossible to me that it isn't working, because I feel as though I have checked every crevasse of the situation, but surely someone will help me figure out the way to make it possible for me to install the latest NVIDIA driver for the NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope this conundrum is worth the effort for you to solve.
 
I was able to install driver version 295.73,
SO WHAT I WOULD LIKE HELP WITH: I would like you to list all NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS driver versions above 295.73 and below 331.58.
 
Okay, I found a bigger part of the problem, despite driver version 295.73 being installed (from 2012), only OpenGL 1.1 is recognized (and even working) with OpenGL extension viewer, and trying to test OpenGL 2.1 always leads to an error. How do I fix this issue.
Also, all of the direct display features are showing to be "Not Available".
I was able to have all of these features and OpenGL 3.2 when using Windows 2000, what is going on?
 
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Alright, for anyone having the exact same problem as mean (unlikely), the latest NVIDIA driver that will install on my computer is 320.49


BUT, I cannot mark this as solved because I still need to find out how to get this driver to use what I am guessing is OpenGL 3.0+ (possibly OpenGL 4.0). Because as of now it has either no OpenGL or it only tries to use OpenGL 1.1.
 
Of all the sites that I have posted on, this place has shown the most neglect. What if you have good information that could be helpful? If you do, please consider sharing it.
 
You're asking for help to essentially jury-rig unsupported software on an unsupported operating system. Most technicians probably would tell you to just upgrade and so would I. As an FYI Nvidia is dropping all support in October following suit like most companies.
 
Please do not try to tell me the obvious, official support by manufacturers ending doesn't place a ban on people getting help for their problems. If you have some good ideas to solve my issue though, I would seriously love to here. And thank you for your time.
 
There's certainly no ban, but without any vendor support, especially with drivers the likelihood of getting it to work goes down significantly. Drivers operate in kernel mode and trying to hack them is not advisable as you will end up with an unstable system.
 
No the BWC kernel Extention was made specifically for Windows 2000 users to use Windows XP applications. There is also another thing that exists that is called Kernel Ex (no abreviation) which gives some Windows XP application support to Windows 98 and I think me (some people speculate that at one point there was a version that might have also worked on Windows 95), but this is not what I was refering to. Both of these things would not have been ported to Windows 10 becauese that makes no sense and also the creators of these things despise using newer operating systems.

Also the BWC kernel Ext. thing has nothing to do with my referal to drivers, especially when talking about the supported drivers on Windows 7.
I would love to give you more information, should I post links to other sites which have gotten more information over the same initial thread post, they have information that can ensure you don't give me the same unhelpful suggestions.
 
I did a Google search to that BWC thing and found sites apparently unsafe and dangerous and I stayed out.
And sorry, but playing around with all kinds of old hardware mixed with outdated drivers minimizes your changes on success, unless you are doing it for fun and than it does not matter.
I can't think of any advice that may help you, sorry again, I better stay out of this.
 
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Like I said the BWC kernel extention (perfectly safe), is my by a user that goes by BlackWingedCat, they are well known in their community, yes they are Japanese but they make English versions of their Kernel Extention for Windows 2000, so the sites they post their updates and rambles on are not all well known so yeah it isn't crazy that the search engine thinks they are unsafe.

BUT AS I SAID... the BWC kernel extention has nothing to do with my problem and it is not even on my current hard drive (60 GB IDE), it is on my 8 GB hard drive (IDE) on which I duel boot Windows 95 and Windows 2000.

Also, I am not using old drivers, and everything logically makes sense, even before installing older drivers for the ethernet card or anything, the new NVIDIA drivers are for whatever reason not giving the correct version of OpenGL.

Also when I mentioned other sites to give information I ment things like bleeping computer, seven forums, and sysnative, which I have posted the same initial topic on.
 
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You have tried a regular and supported W10, with compatibility mode for the outdated BWC, have not you?
 
I am sorry, I went too fast and it became very unclear.

The question is what happens when you run on a Windows 10 computer 'The Program Compatibility Troubleshooter' - type that in a search box - the BCW software...
 
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