Hi guys,
I bought a VGN-FE31Z containing an nVidia GeForce Go 7600 almost 3 years ago and recently decided to do a system restore as it was full of crap and got a bit clunky and slow. I followed the instructions on the recovery threads and everything went well. I now have my old notebook back to how it used to be except for one annoying little thing.
I tried to install the latest version of Google Earth the other day (5.0). The install went fine until the end when I tried to launch the programme. The notebook thought about it for a litle while then beeped once and froze solid. Brilliant! I re-booted thinking that it was just a one off but no...it did it everytime.
I thought it might be an issue with Google Earth so I unitstalled 5.0 and found an earlier veriosn (4.3). The exact same thing happended when I installed this version.
I've had a look around the internet and a few forums suggested it might be a graphics card issue. I found the latest notebook version of the drivers for the card and installed them. The drivers went on fine until the end when the notebook beeped at me and locked up again.
So i rebooted and tried Google Earth again...just in case. No dice! It still crashed every time I tried to load Google Earth. I noticed a little nVidia icon had appeared on my task bar after the new drivers went on. I tried to click on it to see if everything was setup correctly...guess what!?! It thought about it, beeped and froze solid.
I also updated to the latest version of DirectX but this made no differecne either.
After failing with all the above I thought I'd get back to basics and completely uninstall the card. I uninstalled everything nVidia from the 'add/remove programmes' tool then went in to the device manager, right clicked on the card and selected uninstall. The notebook did a few things and then asked me to restart. I did this and the after booting up the 'found new hardware' notification appeared and it did it's stuff...up to a certain point, right at the end of the process, when it beeped and froze solid again.
So i re-booted again...I'm now back to my usual display settings, no little nvidia icon, the orignal drivers for the card (8.4.7.3 dated 08/05/2006) and I'm no closer to getting Google Earth to work....any ideas?
Help me....this is driving me mad!
Thanks guys
