NVIDIA Geforce Drivers 196.75 WHQL Revoked by NVidia

[Inklin]

One of the discussions that arise anytime we bring up a new graphics card from ATI or NVIDIA is about which company has the better drivers. Well, this should help sway the argument a little bit. It would seem StarCraft II Beta players were among the first to notice low frame rates while using the latest drivers from NVIDIA, and further digging has uncovered that the automated fan-controlling part of said firmware was failing to act as intended. The result? Overheated chips, diminished performance, and in some extreme cases, death (of the GPU, we think the users will be okay). The totality of it is that you should avoid the 196.75 iteration like the plague, and NVIDIA has temporarily yanked the update while investigating the reported issues. Shame that the company hasn't got any warnings up on its site to tell those who've installed the update but haven't yet nuked their graphics card to roll back their drivers, but that's what you've got us for, right?

Source: Engadget

Oops.; seems more stable for me, but uninstalling it to be on the safe side.

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

This should be on the front page.

[HoochieMamma]

This reminds me of that driver for the FX series ages ago that did the same thing.

[SuperKid]

Glad i didn't install these yet, kind of a bad mistake.

[Sethos]

This should be on the front page.

I agree, this is really bad - Glad I'm running ATi these days.

[bjoswald]

I just installed the tweaked version from TweakForce.com on my GF's machine for her Sims 3! Hope this doesn't cause any problems for her GPU!

[tsupersonic]

Yeah, I was affected by this. Usually my graphics card idles at 37c - 39c idle. When I resumed from standby, the temps were like 50c+, which is insane for idle. I've been temporarily shutting my computer down to prevent any sort of temperature damage.

[ahhell]

I agree, this is really bad - Glad I'm running ATi these days.

:rolleyes:

Like ATI has NEVER released a bad set of drivers.

[FloatingFatMan]

This sort of thing is why I never install new drivers until they've been out for at least two weeks.... Allows time for any problems like this to become apparent!

[Yochanan]

I agree, this is really bad - Glad I'm running ATi these days.

Thank you, ATI Companion! Apparently ATI doesn't make mistakes like the rest of us so we should all ditch our NVIDIA cards.

In other news, I'm having no issues at all except GPU Observer telling me that my VRAM is at 100% after playing Divinity II: Ego Draconis. Though I suspect it's not reporting correctly and if I reboot it will be back to normal. By the way, it's not a bad game, it just takes awhile to decide it's worth playing.

[Sethos]

Thank you, ATI Companion! Apparently ATI doesn't make mistakes like the rest of us so we should all ditch our NVIDIA cards.

Who said that? Oh, you're just butthurt :happy:

:rolleyes:

Like ATI has NEVER released a bad set of drivers.

Again, I never claimed that, did I :rolleyes: People are so on edge around here - I am no hardware fanboy, I purchase whatever I can afford and offers me the best performance in

games I play. So the last time I decided to go with an ATi card, unlike my previous 3 cards which were from nVidia. And had I picked an nVidia could it would have been a GX2 / SLi

combination and that would have hit me hard with poor performance in BC2 and headaches about bad drivers.

So yes, how dare I be happy at this moment that i chose to go with ATi so I didn't have to suffer with these problems :rolleyes:

[Tekkerson]

Oh crap... looks like I'm uninstalling this then :(

I wish I knew what's up with the fan boys about "x company is better than x" everyone makes mistakes, chill out.

[carmatic]

well its not just nvidia's driver that's getting a bad rep from this, the WHQL certificate is suddenly abit suspect now...?

[franzon]

my 2 years old NVIDIA graphics card is inexplicably dead just the last month ago :angry:

[protocol7]

well its not just nvidia's driver that's getting a bad rep from this, the WHQL certificate is suddenly abit suspect now...?

There's been enough buggy drivers from big-name vendors over the years to show that WHQL is a joke. But destroying cards takes it to another level. I'm always wary about updating nvidia drivers so I dodged this bullet. Gonna sit tight when the next ones come out and see if they're ok. Apparently they did bring noticable speed gains over the earlier 19x drivers.

[FloatingFatMan]

well its not just nvidia's driver that's getting a bad rep from this, the WHQL certificate is suddenly abit suspect now...?

You raise a good point there... How could a such a major fault pass WHQL certification as well as Nvidia's internal beta testing process?

Either the testing and certification folks aren't doing their jobs OR something else is causing the fan problem...

[DavidM]

Who said that? Oh, you're just butthurt :happy:

I think that was sarcasm.

I'm running my BFG8800GT on them and haven't "noticed" any problems, but I haven't been playing very much. I'll remove them just to be safe.

[Sethos]

I think that was sarcasm.

Yes, it was sarcasm but meant negatively.

[Konstanov]

Explains why my 295 up and died on me randomly....

[SkyyPunk Veteran]

Figures :p I haven't upgraded my drivers in months since most everything was working fine...but had some odd graphics glitches a few days back, figured might as well update, so I updated on the 3rd with these >.< So far haven't noticed issues like mentioned...but I suppose it's a good time to change to a different version...just in case

[Guest xiphi]

I don't appear to be having the problems described, but I'll definitely keep an eye on it.

[Jon]

I have a dead XFX 9800GT after installing these drivers, it fried (bad smell + loud crack). Evidently I experienced the fan control bug!

I'm really hoping we see some program of replacement or compensation. I don't overclock or mess with anything related to my hardware or its drivers. You couldn't get a more out-of-the-box setup. Card in slot, install drivers, job done. Yet still it fails. Many people on the Nvidia forums are trying to blame us, the users. Very frustrating.

Please put this on the front page - we need some publicity to help ensure we are suitably compensated.

[CrossCheck]

I have a dead XFX 9800GT after installing these drivers, it fried (bad smell + loud crack). Evidently I experienced the fan control bug!

I'm really hoping we see some program of replacement or compensation. I don't overclock or mess with anything related to my hardware or its drivers. You couldn't get a more out-of-the-box setup. Card in slot, install drivers, job done. Yet still it fails. Many people on the Nvidia forums are trying to blame us, the users. Very frustrating.

Please put this on the front page - we need some publicity to help ensure we are suitably compensated.

well if you registered your product with XFX. i think your card is under lifetime warranty with them. send it back to them

[Jon]

Yeah the card is registered and the support ticket is awaiting technician response. I couldn't find any info about the length of the warranty, so I really hope you are right! :)

Edit: actually XFX have responded, and said I just need to take it back to the reseller. Which is a real pain, given it's 14months old and I'm not sure I have the receipt... also what are the chances of the person in the shop actually believing this issue (unless they happen to be on the ball). Not impressed!

[CrossCheck]

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