NVIDIA driver warning

Thanks. Just in time for me (not to install)

 

Lucky you nick! I was not that lucky to see your warning in time,along what it seems some thousands other nvidia people...

I received an e-mail from nvidia updating service alerting me about this new 196.75 update for W7-64 ,an update i had already installed twice in the last two months,and for that reason totally unsuspectfull of things to come....

A little voice was telling me 'dont do it now,with 196.21 you're fine,why risk again?' , but my desire to put the new OS-64 bit in full order betrayed me: 1 minute after the update completion my pc was dead!

It rebooted fine and worked ok for 30 seconds,then a black screen immediately followed by quick a warning about a 'driver recovery' then black screen and immediately a worrying warming up of the vents air,so i switched it off. after a few minutes I tried to revive it with a rescue disk and ,out of desperation,not knowing the exact situation,even with MS windows7 disk,but to no avail.
No response and symptoms inducing to shut it down quick.

I will get back my beloved in 2-3 weeks...

I hope the processor didnt get involved,like it happened to many....
It is a 14 months pc and the video card is still covered and i dont think i'll have to pay for it, but tomorrow I'll check with a lawyer if there's anything I can do to to retrive all other expenses,at least.

I dont think there is any chance,though,as I probably signed a proviso of no responsibility on nvidia part just downloading the software.

I knew i had to fight viruses,i knew i have to guard my XP computer from MS updates,but I couldnt suspect that nVidia people were my worst enemies........what happened is still unbelievable for me....I feel like
I got a terrible punch and it'll take months to get over it.

 

They were for some people

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1028703/nvidia-g84-g86-bad

I know that's an old news, but I had to send my 2 month old laptop for repair because of that. That was really awful experience with Nvidia.

 

Hmm. Yet another reason why I don't normally use the 'latest and greatest' all the time. I often go a year or more wihtout updating things if they are working properly. Often I hear a driver will give X% performance boost, but I rarely see it come to fruition. Normally the driver just uses more RAM.

Sorry to hear of your ill-fortune. If things go as they normally do, the lifecycle of your card is over and you will get an upgrade. That might be nice

Sul.

 

@DarkHanzo, thanks for theinquirer document.It sheds light on some criminal practices I was unsuspectfull of,i mean, in this particular sector....

Now I can safely add another company to the rogue bunch spreading everywhere in all walks of life.Yes,you can safely surmise I'm not a youngster,to put it mildly.

If you read the article, then consider what I experienced or thousands experienced, one can quickly prepare for the worst.

I didnt have the pleasure to speak with any representative of the firm in question,as my pc failure came about on a Friday afternoon,but I hope to be able to speak or contact someone in coming days.

In my case they kindly warned me about the update by direct mail,but completely refrained from warning me again the update had been withdrawn.

Had they done that,I could have still had some respect for them and I would have saved my pc,(I waited a few days before updating) but, in line with the article you provided, they didnt....

@Sully, I NOW agree with your views ENTIRELY!
I appreciated your point of view about the 32bit-64bit thread and I agree with you here.

I always tried to download MS updates with a consistent delay for obvious reasons,but my
recent experience with this Windows7 64 bit computer ,which forced me to hunt for drivers no end for two months, had weakened a bit my 'delaying' resolve...

I mentioned your thread coz the two things could even be related, in that perhaps the intrinsic difficulties of coping with so many variables with a 64 bit Windows OS are now presenting problems to both hardware and software firms which cannot be totally under control as they were with previous 32 bit creations.....

This nVidia 196.75 killer 'update' is emblematic....:

I downloaded a 196.21 in the first days of January when installing Win7-64

I was informed by nVidia there was an update 196.x (dont remember it's in dead pc),which I installed, only to be informed in a few days time that 196.21 was a better driver by nVidia, so I downgraded again to 196.21 in about late Jan,or beginnning of February.
Then, the killer in March,196.75, which was QUICKLY AND SILENTLY WITHDRAWN one or two days after showing up.

Do they know WHAT they are doing or not?

Bad commercial pratices coupled with 'I dont understand a heck about 64 bit'?

PS-I see now thanks to stapp even Linux is hit by the incompetence wave!

 

Informed users have such an advantage over casual users, in so many ways.

I look at it like this, when you order an electronic part, you always take the chance of having a dud. It is a matter of chance. Usually you are ok, but occassionally you find a new part that is just not quite right. I can handle that.

The issue of a driver not allowing fan control, well that is just unacceptable. But again, an informed user might be watching and controlling this temps himself. I do, always have using SpeedFan or RivaTuner. Not everyone wants to go that deep, so there must be some trust in the developers skills. In this case, I would not have thought nVidia would ever had that happen. They have always produced great drivers. ATI on the other hand has the tendency to be a lesson in frustration with its drivers, and has been for a very long time. They are better today, but not on par with nVidia.

If nVidia sets it right by you, what then? I would trust them myself because of thier track record. But like I always do, I wait and see. I have been on the bleeding edge, and don't fear to go there, but sometimes you get the feeling all these claims of "now faster than ever" just don't meet the expectations. Since the 8800 cards and the core2duos came out, I have not seen much technology that makes such a noticable difference in day to day computing. So, these days I tend to wait more than I would have before.

Concering x32 vs. x64 on the hardware side, it will be easier in the long run to just go x64 with everything and drop support for x32. This forces standardization. Look at Windows 7, it has such a strange file structure because instead of just saying "this is how things are now" they have put backwards compatability in, and in doing so have only caused confusion with thier junction points and directories all over that are not really directories. I think people can adapt, but it is best when you change the rules entirely, not just somewhat. Makes learning the new easier because you don't have to juggle the old and the new.

Sul.

 

Wow, this gives a whole new meaning of Nvidia Fan.

SourMilk out

 

@sully, what you say is right, but bear in mind I didnt have any time whatsoever to appreciate a rise in temperature.Even with special progs I could have done nothing:

I installed the update- rebooted- 30 seconds after reboot the screen gets black- after 20 seconds a flickering image states that
'....video is restoring.....' (i could see nothing else)-
black screen comes back suddenly and never goes away....

I immediately heard a tremendous activity in the pc case, be it of fans of nVidia (nice that one sourmilk) or something else,hardware related anyway.

I immediately switched the computer off after,say,1 minute?




In one minute the game was over and pc got unrecoverable.
No time even to watch any temperature inside.

I turned it on after a few minutes to insert a recovery disk,no response ,and, when it didnt react to even MS installing disk, I understood the
video card and possibly something else-perhaps the cpu or processor itself- might have been damaged in an incredible way.


In a week time the computer builder will ascertain what's damaged and what really happened, and i will report it here, just in case anyone
is interested in what damage can be brought about by a software....

 

thanks for the info JRViejo,instead of diminishing as time go b y there's increasingly new evidence everyday of bad or caotic behaviour on nvidia people part......

At this point I assume I will be forced to accept a replacement of my graphic card which should be the same as the damaged one,if available,otherwise a more recent one,but i'd gladly pay a bit more and get a competitor card: my previous computers had ATI cards and i never had any reason to complain. Nvidia makes me sick now.

 

Is there a program out there that will automatically shut down the PC if its overheating?

Nasty situation this, one that is rather nerve racking for sure.

Other than a fan issue like the current one under discussion, is there anything else a software issue can do to damage a PCs hardware to the pint it is not recoverable and is there some way to protect against it automatically?

For some reason I always assumed that hardware, unless it failed on its own, could not be ruined by software. I now understand this is not the case and would prefer to be forewarned.

Thanks

 

A few tips I personally follow:

1. Boot in Windows safe mode or use BartPE or Linux live CD for recovery for trying to get over the issues, if they arise. Image backup before any big change is always a bonus.

2. NEVER install a new driver without waiting at least a month. I have machines running drivers from August 2008. If they work fine, why change it? If there are security issues, but just basic updates, be very careful. A stable environment is a static environment.

Mrk

 

@bgoodman4- I guess they should do that automatically,but ,if there's a factor which TOASTS a main component in 10 seconds perhaps the defenses might not have time to react....just my lyrical interpretation.

Odds it is for me = no bet
Odds Nvidia is making plans to increase their gains by all means= 1/10


@Mrkvonic-

Excepting the use of BartPE (which i have anyway) I did everything you preach, but the pc was COMPLETELY unresponsive in a matter of seconds.

NOW I know and will never forget.

 

How this long story ended:
i brought my pc to Assistance to the shop which had assembled it on March,6th and got it back fixed on March,29th.

Immediately after the 'incident' I had notified by mail nvidia about what had happened.

After two weeks my pc was examined by a tek and declared ok,apart from toasted video card.

Problem was that GT9800 nvidia is not anymore available and if I wanted to replace it with the same one from the factory I had to wait up to a further month or two,they said.

Their proposal was to substitute it with ATI HD 5600, which I quickly accepted,even without having a detailed look at it.

PC was 14 months old,still under warranty,so I paid nil.


I feared there might be hidden failures after what happened,but it seems damage was confined to video card only and the machine works fine like before.

I presume I lost a little bit of quality in the exchange btw GT9800 and ATI HD6500,but the relief of being able to unsign from nvidia update service is great....

A couple of days go I received a letter from nvidia enquiring about what damages I had suffered from, but i didnt proceed further as they had made it clear that if the material was under warranty there would not be anything else to do on their part.

Only left over is that Driver Agent scan finds a nvidia GT6600 audio possible update when obviously I have eradicated all nvidia files, it must be some forgotten file somewhere,hope I will get it sooner or later.

Just to let all friends here know how it went.