Win-7 Support for Intel 865G Graphics (HP D530 SFF)

[PhilBene]

I recently upgraded my HP/Compaq model D530 SFF (small form factor) Pc from XP-PRO to Win-7.  The upgrade was very easy and went smoothly.  Windows update automatically upgraded the ADI AC97 Integratd Digital Audio driver to Ver. 5.12.1.5410 and the Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet driver to Ver. 10.100.0.0., both of which are listed by HP as Win-Vista certified.

Unfortunately, it didn't automatically update the driver for the Intel 865G motherboard graphics hardware.  Instead, it installed a "generic" Microsoft VGA set of drivers.  My particular D530 SFF is a 2.8ghz hyperthreaded P4, but according to the HP "Drivers WEB site" (for XP), ALL versions of the HP D530 have the same graphics hardware; so, my exact sub-model shouldn't really matter.

Windows 7 runs robustly (at least as well as XP) on this nice little PC.  In three days it has generated NO "system" or "application" log errors.  The Win-7 notification center, however, annoyingly informs me every time that I open a Win-7 specific graphics program (even the Solitaire game) that my video card is running in "software rendering" mode with NO hardware acceleration.  Even the Solitaire game runs very S-L-O-W-L-Y, but it runs without error.  The Microsoft "DirectX Diagnostic Utility" indicates that DirectX 11 is running successfully on my PC and that it finds NO errors.  It indicates (as I already knew) that hardware acceleration has been turned off.

I've tried to run HP's softpac "sp31335.exe" to load the version "6.14.10.4396 A" graphics drivers that ran on this PC, when XP was installed.  The softpac terminates before doing anything with a message that says "OS NOT supported."  Because the softpac graphic drivers are supposedly "XPDM" compliant, I suspect that they will probably work with Win-7 (even though they are NOT supported by HP and may have some minor issues).  Anyway, I would like to set a "restore point" and give it a whirl.  What have I got to loose, since there is NO data or programs installed on this PC (clean install).  In the worst case, I would just have to reload Win-7.

My problem:  I can't get at the version "6.14.10.4396 A" graphics drivers because of the softpac installer program (i.e. "sp31335.exe").  Is there any way that I can bypass the "OS NOT supported" message and get the graphics drivers to install anyway?

[Vidya]

Here are the Windows 7 Compatible drivers for your model:

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/18052/a08/infinst911_autol.exe

[PhilBene]

Thank you for your very prompt response.  I downloaded and ran the executable specified in your WEB link.  It opened a window that was entitled, "Intel Package Manager" and started extracting a number of files, but then terminated with the following message:  "ERROR -- This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing the software.  Setup will exit."  The Intel program cleaned up after itself; so, NO files were actually extracted and stored on my PC.  Pretty much what happened, when I tried running the HP softpac program.

Any additional thoughts on how to get to the 865G graphic driver files?

[Vidya]

I am not sure whether the system is with Intel 865 video chipset or not. I would suggest try installing nVidia diagnostics...

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Under Option 2: Automatically find drivers for my NVIDIA products., Click Graphic Drivers and then follow on screen instructions to detect the chipset and install the drivers.

[PhilBene]

My particular HP D530 SFF does NOT have any of the HP optional DVI ADD cards or nVidia AGP cards installed.  It is using only the native motherboard graphics support [i.e. Intel Extreme Graphics 2 (integrated with Intel 865G chipset)], which is common to ALL HP D530 computers.  Please refer to the following HP specifications page:

http://h18002.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11632_div/11632_div.HTML

The Windows XP "device manager" utility reports that "Intel Extreme Graphics 2 (integrated with Intel 865G chipset)" hardware is present on all of the seven (7) other identical D530 PCs that I own.  The Windows 7 "device manager" (of course) reports that a Microsoft "Standard VGA Graphics Adaptor" is installed because Windows 7 has loaded its own driver, which does NOT support hardware acceleration.

As you can tell, the HP D530 system that I have been talking about is one of eight (8) itdentical sisters and that I have loaded Windows 7 on this particular machine to test whether I should do so for the other seven.

[Vidya]

Thank you for the explanation. I am sorry, I got confused when I saw even nVidia drivers listed for this model on hp support & drivers page.

I suggest you try the following set of Intel drivers:

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/18223/a08/win7_1512754.exe

[PhilBene]

Thanks again for your prompt reply.  I have downloaded and investigated the "win7_1512754.exe" download that you recommended.  The following Intel WEB link/URL pertains:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18223&lang=eng

According to the above WEB page, this download clearly does NOT support the Intel 865G chipset.

I did, however, find the following Intel WEB page that specifically addresses my 82865G Graphics Controller:

http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-029325.htm

It sounds to me like Intel has tossed the ball back to HP (and the other OEMs), when it comes to the 865G family of graphics controllers.  Maybe, you can read the above referenced page and tell me, if my interpretation is correct?

Sounds to me like Intel provided XPDM support for the 865G so that Windows Vista could be run on these machines.  In fact (to quote Intel) "Intel has tested XPDM graphics drivers on Windows Vista only on the following integrated graphics controllers: Intel 82865 Graphics Controller, Intel 82915G/82910GL Express Chipset Family, and the Mobile Intel 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express Chipset Family."  Perhaps this is why the HP D530 doesn't have any problems with Windows Vista (using the "written for XP" drivers).  Seems like Windows 7 has either "fallen through the crack" or nobody wants the HP D530 PC to optimally run Windows 7.

Actually, my D530 PC runs Windows 7 very well, except that any 3D graphic operation is painfully S-L-O-W due to the lack of hardware acceleration that was present in both XP and Vista.  I still think that, if I can get to the drivers, within the HP "sp31335.exe" softpac, that everything will work.  Maybe somebody at HP could change the unconditional softpac termination due to "Unsupported OS" to a conditional warning that asks "do you want to continue anyway"?

HP sold an awful lot of the D530 series machines.  The Windows 7 graphics support issue is subject of literally thousands of WEB posts.  I just happened upon this forum and thought that I'd give it a chance.

[Vidya]

I would suggest you try installing it. If it does not work, either it will not install or you can uninstall later. However, I feel it is worth a try.

[PhilBene]

The Intel installer refused to install because my 865G chipset is NOT supported.

Any additional thoughts?

[Vidya]

I would suggest you to try Driver Update through Windows Update...from Device Manager through Web