Massive driver issues - need help

So, this all started when I installed the last Nvidia driver update. I found myself unable to plug in an external monitor without receiving massive performance drops, something which never happened before.

Now, all 3 of the last games I downloaded won't let me change their resolution. They all crash if I attempt to do so (Papo & Yo, Dishonored and 1 other that I forget). I can change any other graphic setting, but if I mess with the res, I get an instant crash.

Clearly something is very wrong. I did a clean install of a different driver and no luck.

I then tried to manually remove every piece of Nvidia software but I can't. I used the control panel to remove all visible Nvidia software and the control panel was still functioning but no Nvidia software was listed. I was unable to delete the Nvidia Corporation folder because "some files were still open in another program" so I couldn't completely wipe the drivers from my system.

I don't want to do a fresh install of Windows to solve these issues and I was having no problems until a few weeks ago.

 

follow the walkthrough in safe mode in my sig below.

manual safemode post updated with nvidia uk as usa page has a glitch at the moment.

 

Trying that now. I read a bunch of stuff online about people avoiding driver cleaner programs as they could cause headaches but I'm at the point of desperation right now.

Followed your instructions, am installing the latest drivers now. Hopefully it works. I have an easy test though I hook up my second monitor via HDMI and play a video in VLC media player - if there's any micro-stutter, I'll know it's still broken....

EDIT: And nope, still broken

 

Did you double check your NVidia control panel settings? Everything still set for "performance"? Did you try a system restore point?

 

only other suggestion is a modified inf from laptopvideo2go which ive never used myself but hundreds on here swear by them.

 

Which version are we talking about? We can't mind read you have to tell us which version you had before the update and which is your current one installed. That would be a good start so other would know which version your referring to.

Have you tried to boot in Safe mode with Networking and see what if any Nvidia drivers you can see or uninstall? And did you look for the Nvidia folder and see if you can find a Uninstall that is present in the folder?

 

your best bet might be trying to cleanly removing all nVidia related file. Un-install the graphic device (driver) within Devices Manager, then use this ...

nVidia - Nasty File Remover download from Guru3D.com

and see if you can remove all traces. Reboot and let Windows picking up the device and go from there. Good luck

cheers ...

 

I'll try this program but I already used other clean install methods with no luck.

I'm having the weirdest v-sync issues though. If a game is running at 60FPS on my external monitor, it'll constantly drop down to 30 before shooting back up again once every few seconds. Even If I'm standing in the same spot, or looking at a 2D menu, it still does this so it's not a performance thing.

This just doesn't happen when a game is capped at 30 though or if it's just running on my laptop screen. It's super weird.

I'm pretty close to formatting my 2 drives and doing a completely fresh install but I'd like to avoid that.

EDIT: Followed your instructions and NFR can only find a single file. It then proceeds to no delete it despite being told to.

EDIT: Reverted to 306.97 and nothing. Will re-install the latest one but something about V-sync is totally broken right now. I can even see the performance on the desktop get affected (the smoothness of the scrolling when going through my Steam library) and it has the same issues - performance halving for no reason. As soon as I plug in the HDMI, something breaks.

EDIT: OK, finally removed stuff in safe mode so I didn't have 'Nvidia Control Panel' when I right clicked on the desktop. However, video playback was still choppy when I hooked up my second monitor (similar issue of smooth playback for a few seconds followed by jerkiness and then a return to normality). This might not be an Nvidia issue. No idea what's going on now. Can I download drivers for my HDMI port/monitor? So confused.

 

Not specifically. Those are handled by the Intel chip, so you'd be updating your chipset driver and/or your Intel HD graphics driver for that.

 

Sounds like an intel driver + KB 2670838 problem. ..could be, at least.

If it is that, just install a newer intel driver.. and enable aero. You don't actually need all the desktop effects, and you can turn all of them off. But the rendering path relies on the composite manager being active. Else sync issues and weird context shift errors and serious page faults start to happen.