Driver updates for devices with unknown manufacturer

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime, George.

You are working with old Vista drivers trying to install on W10, so sometimes you run into hiccups.

Do you have the graphics driver installed?

If so, you will see a certain model graphics adapter listed under the Display Adapters device manager category.

If not, you will see a Microsoft Basic Display Adapter listed there.

[George1157]

Hi Paul,

I feel for you on "shelter at home" leave in Illinois.We've been on that for 4 days so far but since many Brits ignored it over the sunny weekend we're about to go into the full Italian lockdown, expected announcement from Prime Minister at 17:00. So be it if it helps save lives, and it does.

Wow, that driver install was easy, and of course cleared Device Manager alert 🙂

I'll try the updates again after a reboot and will report when done. First attempt will be with SD card remod otherwise we won't know if that affected the updates or not.

Cheers.

George

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Good luck with the update, George and please stay well!

Cheers,

Paul

[George1157]

Hi Paul,

Sorry, I missed this reply yesterday 😞

Device Manager's Device Adapters shows Microsoft Basic Display Adapter. Should I seek something more specific and install that? 

Cheers.

George

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi, George:

Yes, you are missing the graphics driver.

You will have to manually install the Vista graphics driver, using the 7-Zip approach again, but this time with a twist.

Download and save, but do not run this graphics.driver.

This package contains the video driver and control panel for ATI graphics in the listed notebook models and operating systems.

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp34501-35000/sp34716.exe

After you have downloaded the graphics driver file, select 7-zip from the list of items on the menu.

Have 7-Zip Extract to: and let it extract the file into its folder name (sp34716).

Once that is completed, go to the device manager.

Click on the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter needing the driver.

Click on the driver tab.  Click on Update driver.

Select the Browse my computer for driver software option, but this time, at the bottom of that window, select the Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.

Click on Have Disk, and browse to the driver folder that 7-Zip created>Packages>Drivers>Display>LH_INF>CL_39487 (setup information file), click Next, and hopefully, the driver will install.

Then restart the PC, and the graphics should be working better.

[George1157]

Hi Paul,

That video driver install worked flawlessly and WOW, what a difference it made instantly. It might just be my failing memory but I've got proper resolution now and can't remember this laptop ever being at this level before.

As mentioned in last message I tried to update again with and without the SD card inserted (after installing the video driver) but both were unfortunately unsuccessful.

Soz for delay in updating you but then had some MS Support assistance spread over the next 10 days (issues with staff becoming unavailable due to Covid-19) to try to nail the failing updates. I think it was worth it because finally the last one of the MS Support staff checked the BIOS for compatibility and confirmed that it will only work with updates up to v1709 and that support for my BIOS version (68DTV ver F11) ended in 2016.

He did say that a more recent BIOS version is still supported by MS but they don't get involved with upgrading BIOSs for Windows users. At least we seem to have a definitive reason why the updates were failing on  your aged laptop and my nw8240. I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to upgrade the BIOS but will start a new post for it if I gain enough courage (or get very bored if the lockdown gets extended).

Hope you're still safe and uninfected at home - the recent daily news from US is quite alarming.

Thanks again for your incredible help and amazing patience with me.

Have a peaceful weekend.

George

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime George;

Glad to have been of assistance.

Happy the video driver installation trick worked for you.

Thanks for letting me know about the reason our old platforms could not be upgraded to the latest version of W10.

If you decide to update the BIOS, you will not be able to use the windows based flash since you are running W10.

There may be a way to update the BIOS in DOS or make a bootable CD to update the BIOS without having to be in Windows.

However, the latest BIOS available for your notebook is F.18, and the release date was Jul 24, 2009, so I don't know where they are getting the 2016 support end date from, unless they mean that the F.18 BIOS revision is only good for Windows 10 versions released in 2016 and earlier.

So far we are doing OK, with the pandemic. None of my family has gotten it, and no one I know of has gotten it.

I hope it stays that way, and I hope it does for your and your family as well!

Best Regards,

Paul