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I think my graphics card driver is making my PC freeze. What to do?


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My PC was running fine. I updated the graphics driver & shortly afterwards it began freezing often. I couldn't do anything. Good old faithful Ctrl+Alt+Del didn't do anything. I had to hit reset.

 

I restored & went back to the old driver & everything was fine.

 

FFWD months later & i ended up formatting my HDD (yesterday). I got new downloads for absolutely everything - printer, mouse, keyboard etc etc etc .... and graphics card.

 

I've just been setting the PC back up since yesterday & it's froze twice on me. Just done it now as i was trying to install PowerDVD. I think yesterday it happened just as i was browsing the net.

 

Thing is, 1) i don't remember the driver version that last worked 2) I don't have it on backup.

 

What to do?

 

NVidia GeForce GTX 460 it says under device manager.

 

"331.82-desktop-win8-win7-winvista-64bit-english-whql" is the name of the driver currently installed.

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Hi there people have been having issues with the newer drivers with older hardware for months... The only drivers that seemed to work ok are the 314.22 drivers, direct link to them  http://www.nvidia.co.uk/download/driverResults.aspx/59671/en-uk  I had the same problems and these drivers sorted it out. Make sure before installing these is to uninstall the old ones first.

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Thanks

 

Is there a 'proper' way to uninstall, or do i just go into device manager, click the hardware, right click, go to the driver tab & uninstall driver?

 

Thing is, there's a load of other stuff that gets installed with it too isn't there?

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The Nvidia installer would have given you options to install certain components. I don't believe the Microsoft Update installer asks. Just nuke whatever is from Nvidia (I've got a 3D Vision driver, a Graphics driver, an HD Audio driver, and an Update manager). Then install the non-broken version.

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I believe you can simply uninstall everything from control panel>programs and features

device manager might take longer in some cases, but is more thorough,

 

Also something I've noticed, don't install everything from NVidia, (From personal experience, using the NVidia networking controller and sound controller was more of a headache than using the driver cd that came with my motherboard)

also after the installation of the above linked driver software (using advanced mode, so you can select what specific parts you'd like to install) it might, only might mind you, be better to uninstall the NVidia updater, I only mention this as my windows 7 x64 machine runs better without that, and only the display driver and control panel installed

 

This may not be a problem for you with your machine as it is in all likelihood a new computer (mine's a dinosaur compared to todays machines)

 

I'm just trying to figure out how to send the link for the software I have, via dropbox, as all of my friends, who I have installed the version 301.42 on their computers physically haven't called me to say 'oh this is broken'

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There should be an option to do a "clean install" when you launch the 314.x drivers then select what you want.

 

There's also a chance the HD Audio driver might still be be installed (from the newer drivers) as well after reboot, but just uninstall it from Programs in Control Panel.

 

And finally (this is important) make sure you uncheck Check for updates automatically (and install options) from the Nvidia Control Panel. You may also have to "Hide" any Nvidia driver/software updates that Windows Updates finds as well. I have had to disable automatic installs for updates, because the latest Nvidia driver was being installed (putting me back at square one) lol.

 

Good luck!

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When you go through the install process & you get a list  of (i'm guessing now...) approx 8 things to install, do you install them all or is there stuff you really DON'T need?

 

As for the age of my PC, i built it in 2010. AMD Phenom II X6 1055T, 16.0GB RAM (i know i don't need 16, but it was cheap), SSD drive for OS.

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When you go through the install process & you get a list  of (i'm guessing now...) approx 8 things to install, do you install them all or is there stuff you really DON'T need?

 

As for the age of my PC, i built it in 2010. AMD Phenom II X6 1055T, 16.0GB RAM (i know i don't need 16, but it was cheap), SSD drive for OS.

At first guess I would say no

but it is only a guess

being as it's a 2010 machine I assume you still have all the driver cd's for it's hardware

 

I would personally recommend installing the drivers you need for networking, audio, coprocessor, and such from the mobo cd, and only installing the graphics software from the NVidia installer using advanced mode

personally

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Uncheck the boxes for all but the graphics driver and the HDMI audio driver in the advanced install menu... As you won't be installing PhysX and some games require it, here's the link to the latest version of PhysX http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/physx-9.13.0725-driver-uk.html

 

Also you could check the box that says do clean install as this will remove the other drivers and settings from your PC.

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ok I give up, I've tried several different ways to upload the driver pack I have to dropbox, and it won't let me :(

Sorry dude, I cannot help beyond the advice I have given :(

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Give the latest beta 331.93 driver a try, Nvidia has included the fix for those 460/560 freezing issues and it'll be added in the upcoming WHQL release.

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ok I give up, I've tried several different ways to upload the driver pack I have to dropbox, and it won't let me :(

Sorry dude, I cannot help beyond the advice I have given :(

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/download/driverResults.aspx/45053/en-uk link for 301.42 64bit drivers or http://www.nvidia.co.uk/download/driverResults.aspx/45035/en-uk for 32bit version, not like I'd recommend drivers this old.

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I have no solution to offer, but I do have a suggestion for the future.

 

Don't let Windows Update download drivers on its own.  Download them yourself, and keep copies of the installer.  If Windows Update is the only place you can find a driver, get the full installer from http://catalog.update.microsoft.com instead of letting Windows Update download/install it on the fly.

 

I have a folder called Drivers on my NAS, that in turns contains the names of my computers.  Under each, I have category subfolders (NICs, video cards, printers, etc), and then as many subfolders under each (different versions) as I care to keep around--typically the current one, and 2 older ones.  In-between categories and versions, I might have OS folders, say, if I've used some hardware with different OSes and each requires its own distinct driver (for example, if a machine's gone through XP then 7 through its lifetime).

 

If something goes so wrong that I have to reinstall an OS, I've eliminated the step of hunting down drivers, and I know I always have a functioning driver and know exactly where it is.

 

Disk space being so cheap nowadays, I even hang onto drivers for friends/relatives' systems, so when their machine goes south, I just have to dump their top-most folder on a USB stick and bring that with me.

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