Drivers for Asus XCC550 Nvidia Gforce720M

[Asus XCC550]

Hello everyone, I'm new to this English-speaking forum and I'm from Spain (that's how far I've traveled in my quest to find a solution to this problem). I'll get straight to the point:

I have a laptop with Windows 8 pre-installed, an Asus XCC550 with an integrated Nvidia GeForce 720 graphics card, and I've decided to install Windows Vista 64-bit on it. The drivers have been a nightmare, but I've more or less managed to get it working and access the internet through an external TP-Link adapter.

The last obstacle, which seems insurmountable, is the graphics driver to enable Aero. When the integrated GeForce detects that the operating system is Windows Vista, it simply refuses to work and instead activates the generic VGA drivers, and there's no way (at least for me) to enable Aero.

Here are the hardware details:

ASUS X550CC Laptop (2013)
· Intel Core i7-3537U (Ivy Bridge) Processor
· Intel HM76 Chipset
· Integrated Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000
· Dedicated Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M (with NVIDIA Optimus technology)
· Wi-Fi: Atheros AR9485 / Realtek (the one we finally got working)
· Audio: Realtek ALC269
· Network: Realtek RTL8168/8111

 

[Vistaar]

Have you tried NVidia driver version 365.19? It was the last to support Vista. Obviously it might be better to use Windows 7 or 8.

It sounds like you do have a working driver for Intel HD Graphics 4000? If not, gfx_win7_64_8.15.10.2761 should work despite “win7.”

 

[Asus XCC550]

Have you tried NVidia driver version 365.19? It was the last to support Vista. Obviously it might be better to use Windows 7 or 8.

It sounds like you do have a working driver for Intel HD Graphics 4000? If not, gfx_win7_64_8.15.10.2761 should work despite “win7.”

I finally managed to get it working thanks to the Windows Server 2008 Extended Kernel and registry modifications.

The downside is that Vista is unable to use the integrated NVIDIA Optimus graphics, and only uses the Intel HD 4000 series, but at least Aero works perfectly.

 

[Vistaar]

I finally managed to get it working thanks to the ...Extended Kernel....The downside is that Vista is unable to use the integrated NVIDIA Optimus graphics, and only uses the Intel HD 4000 series, but at least Aero works perfectly.

I have also read your recent tutorial, Solved - Windows Vista with Aero on Asus X550CC 2013 Solved, which contains much information for those who enjoy doing things the hard way. Microsoft made a much better “extended kernel” after Vista, commonly called Windows 7 or less commonly Windows 6.1. It had Aero, and NVidia’s Optimus graphics would probably work as intended.

It sounds to me like the Intel graphics driver you downloaded from Softpedia does not really support Vista despite the download page listing Vista x64 as a platform, otherwise I don’t see why you would need the extended kernel at all. Websites rarely test anything on Vista! At MSFN there is an old thread by WinClient5270 (a reliable authority who unfortunately is no longer active there), Compatible hardware with Windows Vista that might interest you. Under the heading Supported GPUs: he provided download links for a somewhat older Intel HD 4000 driver that really did support Vista (the version I mentioned before). If I had your laptop and wanted to install Vista on it, I would try that driver and try to avoid the so-called extended kernel.