Latest NVIDIA drivers?

[jugaugh]

I have a problem where my system will freeze after a period of inactivity (My OS is Windows 7 Home Premium x64) and i am pretty sure this is due to the fact that my NVIDIA driver is out of date.

So, i went on nvidia.co.uk to download the latest driver and it came up with the following message...

"The manufacturer of this system requires that you download the driver for your GPU from their support site....

The GeForce M series and GeForce Go series notebook GPUs use drivers that have been customized by the notebook manufacturers to support hot key functions, power management functions, lid close and suspend/resume behavior. NVIDIA has worked with some notebook manufacturers to provide notebook-specific driver updates, however, most notebook driver updates must come from the notebook manufacturer. Additionally, the desktop GeForce graphics drivers will not install on Geforce M series and Quadro M series notebook GPU's."

So, i went on Sony's website but there are no NVIDIA driver updates listed! I am tempted to just download it straight from NVIDIA but want to know if anyone else has done this and had any problems after?

Any help is greatly appreciated because i am now getting very annoyed by the fact i cannot leave my laptop idle for more than 10-15mins without coming back to a freeze then having to wait another 10-15mins for it to reboot.

My model number is VGN-AW41MF

Thanks.

[stephanius]

Hello jugaugh,

if there was an update for the graphics driver available, you'd find it on the support website's download section:

http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computing/vaio/downloads/updates/index.aspx?m=VGN-AW41MF_H&l=en_GB

There is none - so why is that? And further, why does the generic NVIDIA driver apply to the graphics chip in your VAIO?

When the graphics chips are integrated, there are two choices - custom or generic drivers. Most VAIO models have the custom model, which means that the drivers are customized and validated by SONY. Some recent VAIO models use generic drivers instead and can use the universal graphics drivers from the chipset manufacturer.

Now, the generic graphics driver is updated often. Typically every time there is any change or update for any of the chipsets the driver covers, or the coverage of the driver is extended to new chipsets. A custom driver however is only updated when there is a confirmed problem with this specific chipset and the original driver version.

Usually, the request “Upgrade your graphics driver” isn’t constructive, and should be understood as “ensure that you are using the current version of the graphics driver”. It's not like the drivers go bad after x months.

I cannot determine the cause of the problem, or exclude that you have indeed found a graphics driver issue, based on the information in your description. 15 minutes booting time certainly doesn't sound like a system that's running well, and does make me doubt that it's a graphics issue as such.

Can you please provide more details about what happens and why you suspect the graphics drivers as cause?

[jugaugh]

My system is actually running very well apart from when i leave it inactive. Normal booting time is very quick and shut down time is very quick. The only time shut down is slow is when i shut down after a freeze.

Everything seems to be working fine until i leave the computer idle for around 10-15mins regardless of whether programs are open or not. I suspected the NVIDIA driver because i have searched this issue on a lof of forums and a lof of people are having the same problem and the similarity i found is that a lot of them are using NVIDIA drivers.

I have disabled my laptop from entering sleep mode and set the hard drive to never turn off under power option > advanced settings as a lot of people have suggested but this still does not solve the problem.

The only other thing i can think of is maybe its to do with Firefox as some others who use Firefox have the same issue but when the freeze occures i am not running Firefox.

[stephanius]

Interesting. I'd say we need to find out what happens after that amount of idle time on your system!

You said you set the power management to not go to standby. I assume you also disabled dimming the screen brightness and switching off the display? Have you set the screen saver to (None)? You might have a damaged or not properly working screen saver in action. Unplug any external mouse to avoid resetting the idle time by unintentional mouse input.

If you did the above, you should be able to let your system run by itself and see what happens!

To see which software is activated when the system goes unstable, get Process Explorer from Microsoft. It shows all running tasks in a tree and clearly shows what is starting what. Don't mess with any of them, just note what is started when the problem occurs. Searching online for more information on that process should get us closer to the issue.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653

Some further thoguhts:

Does your antivirus become active after several minutes of idle time?

Does the same problem appear if there is no internet connection? Some update tasks may start after idle time and create a problem. Setting the Wireless switch to OFF and disconnecting a network cable if you are using one should put a stop to that.

[jugaugh]

Correct, i have disabled dimming the screen brightness and switching off the display and also deactivated the screen saver.

I too have suspected the anti virus but i have another vaio laptop in the house, which also runs on Windows 7 x64 with the same AV and that one is not affected by this problem.

I agree it does sound as if there is some update task that starts to run after a period of time, which could be causing this problem and this could be Adobe software.

I will try your suggestion and turn wireless off and leave my system idle and see what happens. I suspect the problem will not occur. I will keep you updated!

[jugaugh]

Ok just turned wireless off and left my system idle... The same things happens, it freezes after around 15mins and the hard drive light just stays on. I am now going to turn off my AV and do the same to see if that is the cause.

[stephanius]

Sounds like you are zeroing in on the problem!

If you download and run Process Explorer (see my post above) so you can see which process is being started and how much resources it consumes at a glance.

[jugaugh]

Will do! I'll let you know how i get on...

[jugaugh]

Ok, i have found the problem and it is something to do with the display. On the desktop if i right click > personalize and set the display to Windows Classic the problem does not occur!!

08/07/2011

I have now changed back to Aero and got rid of my personalised desktop background and the issue seems to be fixed. There seems to have been a conflict when using a personalised destop background.

Message was edited by: jugaugh