Just about had it with nvidia drivers.

Currently using 260.63 verde. I've gotten 2 BSOD's so far, but they are less frequent then this other serious problem. The driver failing. If I have a Java applet opened in another window (Which I do alot) and im browsing chrome in another, or watching a youtube video, chances are the driver will fail and the screen flashes grey and the sound goes BZZZZZ.

The previous driver I was using was 258.96. It gave me driver failures CONSTANTLY. The current one, not so much. But its still extremely annoying.

The past 4 drivers have all given me problems such as sli not working and game performance dropping. And I've lost track of which ones I've used so far..

So what do I do about this annoying driver failure problem?

 

Where are you getting your drivers from? I used to get mine from laptopvid2go and loved them.

Drivers | drivers for mobile cards and laptops | laptopvideo2go.com

 

That's where I used to get drivers for my 7950GTX as well. Never had issues. Funny, there's a guy in a similar thread saying that ATI drivers are garbage.

 

Straight from the nvidia download page. And of course 10 minutes after posting this I got another failure. Would be good to know which one is the best, most flawless driver out there...

Edit: It keeps saying this "Driver details are temporarily down until a fix is provided. Please use the forums to find the driver details for now." for every single driver..

 

You really should try some of the drivers from laptopvideo2go.com. They're modified for mobile performance and thoroughly tested. I never got drivers from Nvidia's site. Give it a try.

 

I guess ill try some. Just getting really tired of the whole uninstall - install process..

But it gives me a warning that says "Driver details are temporarily down until a fix is provided. Please use the forums to find the driver details for now.". Then theres 2 links at the bottom, do I click download requested driver?

 

Yes. All that is saying is that driver details are not up at the moment. Still download the driver and the .inf file.

 

And what do I do with the .inf file?

 

How to use the modded INF - LaptopVideo2Go Forums

 

So its telling me to download the driver, dont install yet, download .inf file, replace it with current .inf file, then install?

(do I remove my current driver first?)

 

Acquire and install Driver Sweeper.
Uninstall your cards and driver through the Control Panel.
Boot in Safe Mode (F8) and run Driver Sweeper, getting rid of all Nvidia graphics drivers.
Boot normally and install the new driver.

You can install the new one directly over the old one, but since you're already having issues, I wouldn't risk it.

 

And do the .inf file thing right?

I'd still like to know whats the best driver out there, if there even is one...

 

Its hard to say really chiefs. Depending on the games or things you want to run. Then also some people find running the newest latest drivers works great everytime however others encounter endless problems. Its really a mixed bag.

I would just suggest trying the newest drivers from nvidia and dell. Then work your way back from there to older drivers and see which one works stable and best for you.

Then when a new future driver comes out you can either go ahead and install try it out or wait a few days for others to give it a go 1st and report back.

Also yeh just make sure you do a clean uninstall of the old drivers always before installing newer versions.

Cheers.

 

Considering trying laptopvideo2go's version of 260.63 (my current)

 

Ah yup. Kool kool.

Yeh I used to use that site heaps. Before dell and Nvidia started releasing drivers on a more regular basis. Now I don't bother with them anymore. I also find that Latopvideo2go drivers are better for single GPU solutions. They do work with our SLi however the dell and Nvidia variants are already there and are pretty much the same. Most of the time the laptopvideo2go drivers are just making drivers support our GPUs and therefore allowing us to install them.

Other drivers are given added tweaks and what not. Also there are a lot of random OEM drivers from all sorts of manufacturers that always pop up on that site. So a heap of drivers to choose from if your willing to give them a go or are in need because the other dell or Nvidia drivers are giving you endless problems.

Cheers.

 

In some of the forums in laptopvid2go, some people posted the results of their installed drivers, just read some of their comments to see what they say and you should get an idea of what their like. That's how I used to do it. In fact, I wish I was using their drivers instead of Dells right now

 

Don't waste your time with any VERDE (2xx.xx) NVIDIA drivers. they just don't work with M17x R1. I guess the 2xx.xx drivers were created because fermi cards.

 

I wouldn't be so categorical about that, it's just not true. I can't be the only one not having problems with 2xx.xx. However I see a lot people complaining about them in the forums, but thats what this place is for.

On another hand, I think if my machine was having so many problems with all 2xx.xx drivers I would be bi***ing to support. Because it is just not normal, nvidia drivers should work on a machine with an nvidia chipset and gpus, no excuse.

 

I had the same problems whit 260.63! driver will fail and the screen flashes grey and the screen goes black. Are back to 197.16 no problems after installing the old driver! I am sooo tired of new drivers from Nvidia!!!!!!

 

Just a thought but... any of you guys having issues with 2xx.xx on Vista?

 

I started trying to figure out what the big issue with the 2xx.xx Verde drivers is, to be honest, the issue went away using ThrottleStop to lock my CPU clocks in and lower the VID. I was having a crashing issue with WoW, but running that in DX11 mode now and no crashes yet (knock on wood).

ThrottleStop settings I'm using are Clock Modulation @ 100%, VID @ 1.05, Set Multiplier @ 11, and Disabled Turbo. No random video crashes outside games, only crashes I'm seeing are known issues in Civ 5 and WoW (but again, running WoW in DX11 got rid of those).

Could of sworn I had a thread about this around here somewhere.

EDIT: In response to the Vista question, a HUGE yes. The issue with BSoD during normal activity was just as prevalent (to test, I swapped back to my old HD which was wiped, installed Vista w drivers then updated to 260... within a few minutes was BSoD).