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

[Silvgearx]

After all those talks it comes back to the thesis

Like brain and hades said, its the drivers, we ain't blaming our cards

And clean install you say? well with 191 drivers, Driversweeper always F up and goes into non responding mode. But you can manually go into the system files and remove all the files starting with NVxxx.dll

After uninstalling 191 and manual removal of NV dll files and install 190.38 and earlier no problem as of now well maybe except when i am playing batman with physx on high. The game would encounter a error and shuts off

But hey, batman is only 1 game i can live with that.

"improper useage" you say? Must be our F@H gpu clients

Ohh yea, i run xp32bit, and no N200 board either, just a cheapo AM2 + DDR2.

[BrainEater]

No worries RJ.

I've seen what people are blaming on the drivers , and yes a lot of the issues could be thier own fault.Lets not count out the drivers tho.

To answer your questions :

Yes it's the rig in my sig.

Driver sets 195.07 , 191.62 and 190.38 all caused the same issue.

My 260 was never OC'd.I don't run OC'd.

Fully clean installs.All 3 times.

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The card is not a lemon.

This issue was 'fixed' 3 times.Once by the tech at MemX and twice by me.The reinstallation of a clean 185.85 driver did the trick apparently , but unfortunately , this is not working anymore.Since the 260 does this in other rigs now , it must be a borked VGA BIOS.

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I really don't care what the issue is.I've done my research and testing , and I know what I'm blaming.

I take that card back to memx and it does what it does in the video , they hand me a new card.Period.

I'll let evga and nvidia fight over who's issue it is.

You can be damn sure those driver sets are not going anywhere near my new 260.

[rjbarker]

^^^ Fair enough Brain....what I would do now that you have a new Card is simply run 186.18 Driver (last known "best" Driver without issues)...use until you get more positive "feedback".....the only problem with this is you'll ALWAYS have negative feedback on every single Driver (Evga Forum)...just pay close attention to whose complaining.
Trust me.....even with all the publicity re: 190.xx Drivers have stuck to 186.18..on my Primary Rig anyhow....if it aint Borked...don't fix it ;)

Glad you're on the path to straightening out the problem!!

[BrainEater]

Do0d , I'm a little gunshy about installing anything but the good ole 185.85's that I know work....it'll be a while before I update drivers again.

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At this point what I'd really like to see is the BIOS on the video card successfully reflashed to a working state , because it would prove the issue.At that point I'd be able to reproduce the issue at will , without bricking hardware.

I can't/won't do it because of warantee etc....I'm going to see if the MemX tech will do it....If he can't /won't , then we'll never know.

I've been installing stuff for more than ten years , I hav'nt seen drivers this brutal since *gasp* Creative soundblaster drivers....

[rjbarker]

^^^ Yeah it sucks...right now with nidia its "cross your fingers"...I personally think part of the problem is the inclusion of 3D Drivers included in the package. I think in the last WHQL Driver release NVidia neglected to include this.......(not sure without checking)...but that is the Driver I'm presently running on my Secondary Rig....

[Dr_BenD_over]

Some really awesome driver sets coming out of both AMD and Nvidia lately

[BrainEater]

oooof..

wee problem there...

For now the problems seems to be a bit random but as you can see barker it isn't JUST the classified setups. It spans multiple OS's and multiple hardware configs... to expand on Braineaters posts. He is THEE most thorough person I've ever met... I won't touch the new drivers until tiger woods confesses to the world about his "transgressions."

[BrainEater]

So it's official.

My 260 is dead as tested by my computer store.

So my brand new 260 GTX is enroute.Day or two mebbie.

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This is the very first time I've had 'non-bios' driver updates kill hardware, and I've installed hundreds of cards.Even soundblaster drivers were not that bad.

Since Nvidia doesn't want to confirm or deny publically , I've put the responsibility into eVGA's hands.I will get my new card , at eVGA's expense.I suggest they send the bill to Nvidia.....Not that I care.


Nice work on those drivers.

Really.

epic fail.