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

[BrainEater]

I just spent a few hours reading up on the issue I recently had with my 260 GTX.

There are apparently some issues with 191.xx and 195.xx drivers.Both the 191.07 and 195.62 drivers caused my 260 to fail . There was no permanent damage to my hardware , but some users are reporting complete hardware death when using these drivers.

The best explanation I have seen suggests the drivers can overvolt the cards slightly ....this can kill things if you run OC'd/overvolted.

There are also reports of the drivers 'just shutting off' the fan.

Some users have no issues at all.

Use these drivers at your own risk.

[Arinoth]

Like i posted in the other thread, this is why i used whatever drivers CUDA has approved, which happen to be the 190 drivers. I have had no issues with them whatsoever (folding OC or gaming OC) and i recommend people stick with those.

[Inik]

I guess I'm lucky! I'm using the 191.07 drivers without any issues (Gaming/folding)

EDIT : What problems did you have?

[Raserei408]

I'm using the latest drivers (195.62) and have yet to encounter an issue. I tend to trust WHQL-certified drivers. Hell, I even take the betas.

[geokilla]

Using the latest and everything's fine for me. Temperatures are the same too and I fold on my 9600GT.

[Perineum]

Anyone playing L4D2 needs to be running the 190.62 drivers or they'll get vicious lockups.

[Deviant]

Yup...reported widely at Hardforum and eVGA forums as well ever since 191.xx first came out. It seems to be some weird problem that doesn't go away even after reinstalling different drivers with Driver cleaner. Seems like something isn't getting removed. Some reported that problems continued even after a reformat...but that seems to be a bit of a stretch to me though...but still plausible.

Originally Posted by Deviant

Yup...reported widely at Hardforum and eVGA forums as well ever since 191.xx first came out. It seems to be some weird problem that doesn't go away even after reinstalling different drivers with Driver cleaner. Seems like something isn't getting removed. Some reported that problems continued even after a reformat...but that seems to be a bit of a stretch to me though...but still plausible.

the bios on the card might be getting tweaked. Rebooting a computer would allow a bios upgrade on the card.

[jcmaz]

The 196.XX Beta were horrible. I couldn't play any newly installed games. WTF!!!

[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.

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

I've been running the latest 195.xx Driver on my 2nd Rig (SLI 2 x 9800 GTX+) with no real issues...notice the Core Speeds jump up n down a little though when surfing the Net.

My Primary Rig is still running good old 186.18.....best Driver for this rig to date for me.