*Warning* Nvidia 191.xx /195.xx drivers :

[BrainEater]

Originally Posted by rjbarker

On the Evga Forum the 191.xx Drivers reportedly trashed some Hardware....this was ONLY on a Classified 759 A1 (with NF 200) Mobo....please report the facts correctly.

I'm not reporting facts , I deliberately left out 90% of the 'theories' and all the possible scenarios.

This was a warning of a potential issue.

I did'nt have to come here and post this , so If you don't like how I reported it , thats too bad.


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I actually have one of my own rigs running 191.07's , and it runs fine.

It's only my main rig that won't take em.

rjbarker this isn't an isolated issue to one motherboard... this is happening to a ton of different configurations. Braineater makes 3 of my buddies (people i talk to regularly) who have rma'd their vid cards due to driver updates. One of them doesn't have the nf200 on his mobo the other does. Braineater might but I'm not sure.

Any of those others reporting GPU "issues" are / appear to be your basic "not sure what I'm doing Installing New Driver" scenarios

Nobody should have to know what they are doing when it comes to installing drivers... they should click the EXE and it should do the rest. Period. Nvidia drivers only install detected hardware and they have for as long as I can remember. Drivers shouldn't kill hardware... even IF you installed the wrong drivers. Please get your facts straight.

[Silvgearx]

good heads up brain.

I had heaps of trouble with 191 and i do not want to waste my time with 195 drivers.

below is what my screen looks like when these drivers FAIL.

and it BSOD during video playbacks




And a shot of it crash in a game such as warcraft 3

[somecanadianguy]

I'm using 195.62 on my gtx275.
Only issue I've had that may be related is a BSOD with BCCode 3b.
Really not sure if it's the drivers though.

Bug Check 0x3B: SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION

[rjbarker]

Please get your facts straight.

Straight as an arrow dude!!! I spend heaps of time on the Evga Forum abd the reported "over-volting" causing dying HW was limited to the Classified NF200 Boards...the issues you guys are having with your GPU's are not on the same level as is what I'm speaking of.
Due to the fact that my Primary Rig has the NF200 Board, I'm personally staying away from the 191.xx Drivers.

My other rig is a standard E8400 on a 780i Board with 9800 GTX+'s in SLI...lets see..186.18...190.38, 190.62, 191.07, 195.39, 195.55 and now 195.62....all Drivers performed well throughout Benches such as Fc2 and Vantage...scores were close to the same. The only "issue" was in some cases the Drivers would not allow the GPU's to downclock to 2D mode after exiting 3D Apps....no dead GPU's thoughs or "funky HW issues (GPU HW Gremlins)!

Nobody should have to know what they are doing when it comes to installing drivers... they should click the EXE and it should do the rest. Period. Nvidia drivers only install detected hardware and they have for as long as I can remember. Drivers shouldn't kill hardware... even IF you installed the wrong drivers. Please get your facts straight.

that simply shows how much you don't know when it comes to installing GPU Drivers properly....as in a clean install...go ahead n Google it you may actually learn something!

Once this particular "issue" surfaced on Evga re: the 191.xx Driver killing HW, most peopple weren't thoroughly reading the Threads, if they had, they would have seen that the problems were isolated to the Classified NF200 Boards. In some cases the problems could be resolved by stripping the rigs apart and re-installing Windows, BIOS Flashes etc etc..in some cases this didn't work.
In many cases....as in tons....because of this "issue"..and the fact that folks weren't thoroughly reading the Threads...a "mass hysteria" developed whereby everyone and thier dog that tinkered with thier GPU OC's and Driver installations that fvcked em up, instantly blamed it on the Drivers and "it must be that driver that hooped my GPU"...couldn't be all the unknowledgeable idiot noobs constantly tweaking this and tweaking that , that have no business touching anything in thier BIOS, System Folder or GPU settings........

Thank God the level headed "normals" over at evga are settling some of the Paranoid Noobs down

5IlgARX
Yep..looks the shits man, but likely can be resolved with a different Driver no? In other words is your GPU permanently fvcked..?..likely not.

As I stated, my facts are straight.....hate seeing the paranoid fear mongering that was evident and now dissipating on the Evga Forum migrate here...we're better here then they are over thier..more mature ;)

Originally Posted by 5ILVgeARX

good heads up brain.
I had heaps of trouble with 191 and i do not want to waste my time with 195 drivers.
below is what my screen looks like when these drivers FAIL.
and it BSOD during video playbacks
And a shot of it crash in a game such as warcraft 3

I removed the pics from the quote.. but holy hell that's brutal dude!!!!

barker... the part you seem to be missing is apart from braineater one of my friends doesn't have the n200 on his board and his card died literally hours after he installed the drivers. So no... it is not limited to the Classified NF200 Boards... Even after removing the drivers nothing worked nor did re-installing windows. None of the 3 even OWN that board let alone the chipset on that particular board. Another friend who more than likely has the n200 on his board went through the very same process nearly to the T and had to rma the card as well. He is using an AM3 board btw.

Now.... all of this could have been coincidence but I find that pretty odd considering 2 of these cards died within days of each other and another mate lost his the same way. I know a couple other fellas on a different forum who lost a 275 on the 1st reboot and another who lost his 8800gtx a day or 2 after updating drivers on a system that DEFINITELY doesn't have n200.

If what you are saying is true about the drivers.. explain to me how the 8800 I threw in my machine to test if it worked required nothing more than a reboot to finish installing the drivers after the OS detected it. In both win7 AND XP pro. The card I'm currently running is the 285gtx and those were the drivers that were already installed when i tested the 8800. Upon further testing the GTS worked normally and performed as it should based on previous benchmark scores that I've recorded. I've been playing around with nvidia cards on multiple boards/chipsets for quite some time now dude... I'm not some dumb noob who's never built a computer before. I don't claim to know everything and I do agree when installing a new card in a different era of GPU perhaps a fresh install is the best bet however that being said... Isn't a fresh install always great anyway? If i moved from an 8800gts to an 8800gt or gtx installing new drivers is a mute point. No need to completely format windows and re-install the faster GTX will run just fine even if there was a GTS in there previously.

Nvidia drivers are unified from what I can tell.. no different than intel chipset drivers. If you download the intel chipset drivers that particular download covers more than JUST one chipset. They won't install if they don't work with the hardware... that's not to say all drivers are the same I'm simply referring to 2 drivers I know for fact don't. If you don't believe me about intel try installing the wrong chipset drivers... it won't work. You will be denied.

Here's some food for thought. My HTPC used to run an Asus 7800gt. I bought an ATI 4650 and plugged it in with out re-installing windows. I uninstalled the nvidia drivers plopped in the ati rebooted a couple times and boom... The picture quality was actually better with the ATI and perhaps some reminants of the NVIDIA drivers. I know this because after my roomie got a virus on the HTPC I had to format and of course only installed the ATI and the PQ was pretty good but not AS good. I've gone as far as running windows from a 4 series nvidia chipset to a 7 series chipset with out formatting. The OS detected the changes installed them and ran fine. I did eventually format obviously but for curiosity sake I had to try... believe it or not... my benchmark scores increase by only few hundred points but that could be affected by anything.

If you even read half of this i would be shocked.

[BrainEater]

Whoa , ease down guys.My turn to go off.

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Rjbarker :

You may be correct that the one issue has nothing to do with the other.If you really want to get down to specifics , the NF200 issue only applies to Win7 users from what I've seen.

Mine has nothing to do with win7 , I run XP32 bit , and I don't run nf200.

And please don't suggest I don't know what I'm doing when reinstalling drivers , and/or that I'm fearmongering.

The 190.xx and above drivers completely fuct my rig.

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I can now report a couple things :

The 190.37 CUDA's don't work for me either.

MY 260 is now bricked , Not only does the artifacting appear on bios level bootup , but the card will not allow reversal of drivers , or installation of new ones.

I have put said card into another machine , still DOA .

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It appears the 190.xx drivers alter the VGA bios.I have no proof of this , only that I managed to get the 260 back on 185's twice , everything was fine , upon the third try with the 190.37's this time , I can't get the VGA bios to reset anymore.

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Please don't suggest this issue is in my head , or my fault , or whatever.The @!#%*&^%$ drivers caused this.

I've read a hell of a lot more than just the eVGA forums.I've read thousands of posts , on many different forums.There are issues all over the 'nets.......These drivers have a problem.

I have reproduced this problem twice.

The only thing more annoying than all the "fearmongering" on every forum I've been to , is the guys saying "It's not the drivers , your doing something wrong"



Anyways ....... my magically bricked 260 is going back for IPR again.

If anybody has any input beside "your wrong , I'm right" I'd love to hear it.

I'm uploading a video of what my 260 does now.......I'll edit it in here...

[ayah]

The new drivers work fine for my 7800GTX SLI setup. :P

[BrainEater]

Yep....

I have 191.07's running in a different rig just fine right now.

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Here's what the 260 does now.

Please understand , I've reversed this condition twice by repeated driver installs.

This video is of the 260 in a different rig :

http://braineater.kicks-ass.tv/miscshite/MVI_4111.avi

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Tell me again this is my fault.That's a bios level fault......

[rjbarker]

Brain....was it only after running to 190.xx Drivers or 191.xx Drivers? Is that on the System in your Sig? Was your 260 OC'd (with Precision) when you installed or did you back to the GPU OC to spec prior to installing?
A clean install or install over op of the other Driver?

I apologize if I came off in the wrong way, I just know that on the Evga Forum "everyhing" is now being blamed on Drivers, including improper useage.

Thiers also the possibility its simply (the 260) a lemon .....

Regards