Nvidia Driver Woes

[Geboran]

I use two Nvidia 8600 GTS 512Mb video cards running Windows Vista Home Premium, and keep getting video driver crashes while playing WoW.

It seems to happen completely at random. The video driver just "stops" running.

What is the best way to completely remove video drivers and reinstall them?

Also... I am using the latest version of the drivers from Nvidia's website (dated December 2007). Are there other versions out there that I should use instead? I know that they likely wouldn't be supported by Nvidia.... I just want it so that the video drivers don't STOP running when I am right in the middle of killing something or just hanging out, waiting for a BG queue to pop.

Greatly appreciated in advance.

Regards.

[Kalos]

Break the SLI and see if it happens still. SLI has been a traditional source of problems for drivers, Nvidia wisely tend to focus on getting the single cards going well, thus it might be an idea to take advantage of this focus and play to that strength.

[Geboran]

I've done both. Broke SLI and played the game. CRASH!

Had SLI enabled and loaded with the default WoW profile to use with SLI. CRASH!

I know that Vista SP1 is going to be released "soon"(tm) to the general public in March 2008 (I'd like to get a hold of it before then somehow; maybe I can get one of the IT guys at work to burn a copy for me on a CD) to see if it helps at all.

I'm guessing that the December 2007 drivers are just "screwy" with Vista, and that some fixes are needed. I'm also willing to wager that there have been some more knowledgeable coding folks out there that have "fixed" these drivers. I just don't know where to look to find out.

It's quite frustrating. :(

[Kalos]

Sounds like Vista's usual track record yes. Sadly if it is hardware instability causing the problem, it's impossible to tell due to the natural state of Vista and it being about as stable as Charles Manson.

[Tetamesh]

i think theres a beta for SP1 if you really want to try it, but i wouldn't considering it's Microsoft. Also, you could downgrade to XP.

[IRID1UM]

How does the driver stop working? Does the game crash? Does the entire PC freeze with no further action other than pressing reset possible? Do you get a bluescreen? Error message?

The SP1 probably won't solve your problem.
Uninstalling the driver in the Control Panel -> Programs and functions (or something alike), then downloading DriverCleaner and removing the rest of the files before re-installing, might help. A good site for drivers is www.tweakforce.com. I'd get a driver of the 169 series, those seem to be the best ones at the moment.
Are you sure your power supply unit is strong enough? Can cause crashes if too weak.

I know that WoW runs fine under Vista with SLi, so it can't be Vista.

[Artad]

What version of the drivers are you using? Are you OC'ing anything? Are you using RivaTuner to speed up fan speeds at all?

I have been using Vista 64 Ultimate for over a year now and I have to say for the last 8 months or so never had an issue with WoW and Nvidia drivers (I am running dual 8800GTX OC2's in SLI). I actually find Vista is now more stable for me than XP Pro is. Admittedly I am an IT Consultant so know my way around the system and as such know how to resolve issues with the OS.

As far as SP1 is concerned, it's not too bad, some things have improved but over all my system was pretty stable anyway.


Oh and I would suggest having a look at www.guru3d.com for drivers and software like Rivatuner (it allows you to do a multiple of different things to the GPU, for me it increases the default fan speed).

[infernoxrocks]

Vista Home (premium or basic) are both less stable than Vista Ultimate - unfortunately comparing the 2 is apples to oranges IMO. My .02 is either downgrade to XP (an upgrade IMO) or upgrade to Ultimate which is all around more stable (it seems they gutted Ultimate and called it Home... sad really) I have little experiance with Business atm so i cannot offer any input on that one. Also the 64-bit version is MUCH more stable than the x86 version if you are able you might try going to that (PC/money willing of course) Also its good to remember x86 can only see 3gb of ram and can actually slow your system if you have higher ram. Hope this helps a bit... Vista is in bad shape - as was XP at launch and many months after (SP2 FTW) Give it time to improve. As for the drivers - Nvidia is usualy good about drivers working at release. And to be honest it might not even be the video at all. Ever track your security/error logs to see what is causing the crash for sure?