An error with a notification that during installation the Nvidia driver did not find compatible graphics hardware, the owners of graphics adapters of this manufacturer are literally on the heels when they try to install new or update old drivers on their computers and laptops. The card seems to be there, but the installer completely refuses to install the control software.
Many users note that this problem most often manifests itself in the seventh modification of Windows. What was not undertaken to eliminate this problem! It even came to a complete reinstallation of the entire system, and the result still turned out to be zero. Nevertheless, ordinary users can offer some simple steps that will get rid of this problem. If they do not work, the most complex version of actions will be considered as a cardinal solution, which, as it is believed, will give a 100% guaranteed result.
The error "This graphics driver did not detect compatible hardware": what is the reason?
First of all, let's find out the reason for this behavior of the installer. A typical mistake of many users is that they try to install a 64-bit driver in a 32-bit system. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you download installation files packed in archives exclusively from the official NVIDIA resource, paying particular attention to the bit depth of your own OS and the exact nomenclature name of the video card model.
On the other hand, the occurrence of the error “This graphic driver did not detect compatible hardware” during the installation process can very often be due to the fact that NVIDIA is in no hurry to release updated versions of the management software exclusively for certain laptop models (most often Acer, Lenovo, Asus and some others) that use outdated video chips.
Sometimes the problem may be the lack of important updates for the kernel of the installed OS. Partially, the error "This graphic driver did not detect compatible hardware" may result in incorrect settings of the primary BIOS systems, in which the use of only one universal controller is set by default. Finally, there are cases where driver installation is resisted by Windows itself, which has been hacked or activated by utilities like KMSpico or KMSAuto Net. And the most commonplace reason is that the user is trying to install the drivers for the NVIDIA graphics card, and it is simply missing or inoperative on a computer or laptop.
Quick driver updates
So, for starters, let's try to eliminate the error "This graphic driver did not detect compatible hardware" in Windows 7, although the proposed method can be used in all known modifications that have this problem in the simplest way.
It is about installing programs on your computer or laptop to automatically search for and update drivers for absolutely all devices like DriverPack Solution Online or Driver Booster.
At startup, such applications will perform a full scan of all the hardware, and then they will independently find and install missing or updated hardware drivers by downloading them from the official Internet resources of manufacturers or software developers (the first program can also install the necessary software from its own database).
Troubleshooting "NVIDIA Driver Did Not Detect Compatible Graphics Hardware" via BIOS Settings
However, the methodology described above may not give the result only because the default settings in the primary system are incorrect. There are two options.
In the first case, try switching from an integrated adapter to a discrete one or vice versa (if you have two of them installed), setting the priority one for which it is not possible to install drivers.
In the second case, look in the BIOS for the Advanced settings section (Advanced BIOS Features or something similar), and then for the initial display item (Init display First) set the value to PCI Slot or PCIE, and then save the settings on exit (F10 + Y).
Downloading original drivers and updating them with system tools
If the reason for the installer error “This graphic driver did not detect compatible hardware” is not in the BIOS parameters, download the original drivers exclusively for the model of your video card from the NVIDIA website, save the archive and unzip it to any place.
Now call the standard “Device Manager” (devmgmt.msc), remove the old driver using the properties section, update the hardware configuration, and after that, when either an unidentified device or a standard VGA adapter appears in the list, activate the driver update via PCM, but As an action, use either automatic driver search on the local computer, or specify the location of the directory with the downloaded drivers manually using the browse button.
Actions with INI files
If none of the above helps, use the most complex and cardinal technique, which is mostly aimed at laptop owners.
First you need to download the driver package for your laptop from the manufacturer’s website and download the set of graphics drivers from the NVIDIA website. In the folders of the software for the video card, the same Display.Driver directories will be presented.
In the “Device Manager”, call the video card properties section, go to the details tab, select the ID display from the list and copy the line with the vendor (VEN) and device (DEV) identifiers, noting the longest combination (usually it will be the first in the list).
Now attention !!! In the directory with drivers for the laptop, find the above folder and use Notepad to open the nvaci.ini file from it.
Using the combination Ctrl + F, call the search tool, paste the copied string with identifiers into the field, copy all the found section and subsection names to a separate text file.
Now open the same file in the directory of downloaded NVIDIA drivers, find the copied sections by the names and for each of them replace the contents of the corresponding lines with the one that was installed for them in the file for the laptop. Save your changes.
Similar actions may need to be performed in the nvami.ini file.
Sometimes the problem is fixed by inserting in the nvaa.ini file a line with identifiers one line below the section name (immediately before its contents). Again, save the changes, and then run the installer from the directory with the drivers downloaded from the NVIDIA website.
Additional measures
If the error "This graphic driver did not detect compatible hardware" in Windows 10 does not resolve any of these methods, either reset the system to its initial state using the recovery section in the options menu or run a system reinstall through the Setup.exe file. Mounting the image in a virtual drive or writing it to removable media. This option looks much better in that the installation can be launched directly in a running OS, and during the reinstallation process it will be possible to save all your files and previously installed programs. At the end of the rollback, try installing the drivers again.