Pentium G3258 HD Graphics driver for Windows Vista 64

[Engr62]

The Intel HD Graphics drivers available on Intel's website support only Windows 7/8/8.1 as far as I can tell. If I try to install the driver, it states that "This operating system is not supported."

Is there are work-around for this, or am I stuck with VGA graphics only?

Thanks.

 

[postmortemIA]

I think you're screwed if you have anything newer than ivy bridge

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah. for such a large and powerful company, Intel's driver support sucks.

Then again, AMD doesn't support Vista either, anymore, for their newest video cards too.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Yeah. for such a large and powerful company, Intel's driver support sucks.

Indeed. Don't expect more then 2 years worth of driver updates either.

Then again, AMD doesn't support Vista either, anymore, for their newest video cards too.

I ran into that upgrading an older PC with Vista x64. I was fortunately able to salvage the situation with a spare GT610. I have to give credit to Nvidia, they're actually pretty good at supporting both older OSs and their older hardware. Their newest 347.25 release actually still supports Vista.

 

[mikeymikec]

I had a lot of trouble finding a compatible Intel graphics driver for my Win2008 Server build, and it's not without problems (such as screwing up the resolution if one reboots the server without an active screen). That was for a Celeron G1610.

 

[Qbah]

Did you try manually installing the Windows 7 drivers (extract, go to device manager and point it at the folder via manual install)? Or even just run the installer and see what happens?

 

[mikeymikec]

Did you try manually installing the Windows 7 drivers (extract, go to device manager and point it at the folder via manual install)? Or even just run the installer and see what happens?

If it's anything like what I encountered, it's down to an entry in the INF file for the driver, it's an obfuscated version of "WorksOnVista=0". IIRC the INF file includes different lists for different versions of Windows that are supported, I either had to insert a new section to correspond to Win2k8 or I had to add hardware IDs (e.g. VEN_8086&DEV_1234&blahdeblahdeblah) to the respective OS section that were in the other sections but not for the one I needed.

In such a scenario, a "manual install" on its own would result in "this folder doesn't contain any drivers for your OS" type message.

 

[Engr62]

Did you try manually installing the Windows 7 drivers (extract, go to device manager and point it at the folder via manual install)? Or even just run the installer and see what happens?

Thanks for the suggestions. The regular installation executable gives the message about an unsupported OS. When I try to install manually from the INF, it gives me a message saying that it cannot be installed in this manner (or something similar).

If it's anything like what I encountered, it's down to an entry in the INF file for the driver, it's an obfuscated version of "WorksOnVista=0". IIRC the INF file includes different lists for different versions of Windows that are supported, I either had to insert a new section to correspond to Win2k8 or I had to add hardware IDs (e.g. VEN_8086&DEV_1234&blahdeblahdeblah) to the respective OS section that were in the other sections but not for the one I needed.

In such a scenario, a "manual install" on its own would result in "this folder doesn't contain any drivers for your OS" type message.

Thanks for the suggestions. There is a section called [IntelGfx.NTamd64.6.0] with a commented line that reads "no install on Vista". The Windows 7 install section is titled [IntelGfx.NTamd64.6.1]. I may be able to copy the Windows 7 section into the Windows Vista section and have that work. I'll give it a try today.

 

[Engr62]

Thanks for the suggestions. There is a section called [IntelGfx.NTamd64.6.0] with a commented line that reads "no install on Vista". The Windows 7 install section is titled [IntelGfx.NTamd64.6.1]. I may be able to copy the Windows 7 section into the Windows Vista section and have that work. I'll give it a try today.

Well, I gave this approach a try. I was able to load the Intel HD driver by copying the Windows 7 installation section in the .INF to the Vista section and loading it manually by using the "Have Disk" option during installation. At times, it works perfectly with my display at 1920x1080. However, sometimes on boot up, the display doesn't come up properly, and it goes into safe mode. After rebooting, it will sometimes come up properly.

I guess I'll abandon this. I pieced this build together to act as a home theatre PC. I initially tried using OpenELEC. Everything worked perfectly with this OS except my wireless network was not available (I've got a Rosewill USB 2.0 wireless adapter). So, since I still had an old copy of Vista lying around, I thought I'd use it instead and just install Kodi (XBMC) on top of it. I guess my alternative will be to go back with OpenELEC and get a compatible USB wireless adapter if I can find one.

Thanks for everyone's help.

 

[Spjut]

You could always try the Windows 10 preview for free

Is there any technical reason why drivers support Windows 7 but not Vista? They both have WDDM 1.1

 

[Insert_Nickname]

You could always try the Windows 10 preview for free

No harm in giving it a try, you may actually end up liking it... (like me)

Is there any technical reason why drivers support Windows 7 but not Vista? They both have WDDM 1.1

Vista is WDDM 1.0 only. Even with the platform update. However the WDDM 1.1 driver should always be backwards compatible. This is just Intel artificially cutting Vista support. Just like there are no USB3 Vista drivers for their PCHs.

 

[mikeymikec]

That's a point actually - Vista SP2?

 

[Engr62]

That's a point actually - Vista SP2?

Thanks for the replies. Yes, I was using Vista SP2.

Since I had the issues with the screen coming up black (sometimes unplugging the DVI cable from the PC, then plugging it back up fixed this) when I used the Windows 7 drivers for the Intel HD Graphics with Windows Vista, I assumed that the issues were because of my non-standard use of the drivers (copying the Windows 7 instructions to the Vista section in the INF).

I decided to bite the bullet and purchase a copy of Windows 7 Pro to go on this system (the is a HTPC build). I had previously tried to install OpenELEC on it, and the video worked perfectly on that--but, OpenELEC wouldn't recognize my USB WIFI. Since this HTPC is going in a room without an ethernet connection, I really needed the WIFI to work. I could probably eventually find a USB WIFI device that would work with OpenELEC. However, I figured if I put Windows Vista or Windows 7 on this, I could use the system for internet browsing and such instead of a movie-only box.

Anyway, after install Windows 7, I encountered the same problem (black screen on boot up). This led me to believe that this wasn't a problem that was necessarily related to my trying to use the Windows 7 driver with Vista. After doing a search, I've found that there are many people experiencing this same issue with Windows 7/8 with many threads showing on Intel's message boards. In fact, the posts stretch back all of the way from 2012 to present day! This seems to be related to the lack of communication between the Intel HD Graphics and the monitor--the monitor doesn't detect that there is a video signal after the initial boot-up and blanks when it gets to the log-on screen. I'm amazed that Intel has not figured this out yet.

I guess I'll have to add a low profile PCI-E video card to this system. The money pit (i.e., my HTPC) keeps getting bigger!!!