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Alert - NVIDIA Users: Roll back from 196.75 drivers

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This is a pretty urgent thing to report because it could damage or potentially completely ruin your video card if it's ignored. The latest NVIDIA drivers, 196.75-WHQL released on March 2nd, 2010 are causing issues with the video card fan control while playing Blizzard (and other) games. This is caused by the Automatic Fan Speed feature being broken in the latest drivers.

The games included are: World of Warcraft, StarCraft II Beta and Warcraft III. If you play any of these games (which I'm pretty sure you do if you're reading this website), you'll want to roll your drivers back to earlier versions until this is fixed, unless you want to replace a video card within the next few days.

To find out what version drivers you're using:

- Right-click on your desktop
- Click NVIDIA Control Panel
- When the Control Panel opens, in the bottom left corner there should be a "System Information" link; click this
- Your Driver version should be in the Details portion

Details from Datth:

Quote from: Datth (Source)
We're getting reports where users are getting intermittent low FPS after installing these drivers. It seems that it is related to the fan control included in these drivers not working correctly and is causing the video card to overheat on 3D applications. This will affect Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft and StarCraft 2 Beta. Please uninstall the drivers and revert back to the older ones.

Windows XP: http://www.nvidia.co...96.21_whql.html
Windows XP 64-bit: http://www.nvidia.co...96.21_whql.html
Windows Vista/7 32-bit: http://www.nvidia.co...96.21_whql.html
Windows Vista/7 64-bit: http://www.nvidia.co...96.21_whql.html

More information can be found on threads such as these:
http://forums.nvidia...howtopic=161525
http://forums.nvidia...howtopic=161503

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Comments

  • Posted 3/4/2010 5:37:55 PM #1
    chris82thekid
    chris82thekid's avatar
    • Posts: 1
    nVidia for the win! 1.7% yields, wood screws on their GPUs, Fermi released Q4 2012, Fermi performs slightly better than a 5870 for $600, hardware and BSOD-causing drivers! nVidia forever! The way it's meant to be played!
  • Posted 3/4/2010 8:48:21 PM #2
    Megamanx266
    Megamanx266's avatar
    • Posts: 308
    Someone's been butt-hurt by Nvidia
  • Posted 3/5/2010 5:11:14 AM #3
    airddragon
    airddragon's avatar
    • Posts: 38
    Hey chris82thekid lay off the FUD, it'll melt your brain. You want to start laying down rumors as fact and unknowns as givens go post to semiaccurate, you might find things a bit more receptive there.
  • Posted 3/5/2010 6:37:47 AM #4
    Ladylori
    Ladylori's avatar
    • Posts: 15
    I dont think it has anything to do with as ya'll say hurt by Nvidia , plus he isnt telling you that you have to it is your choice if it does mess up your fan then hey its your fualt not his he just warning . I use Nvidia and i dont have any problems like that but i dont have that latest update either and im not taking a chance husband built my computer for gaming and i dont want to mess it up cuase of a fualty driver update.
  • Posted 3/5/2010 1:05:56 PM #5
    Moncai
    Moncai's avatar
    • Posts: 233
    Thanks for the heads-up. However, since I own a passively cooled 8800GT (In a well vented case ^^) I don't personally see a need to downgrade ;)
  • Posted 3/5/2010 3:55:30 PM #6
    Kody
    Kody's avatar
    • Posts: 1209
    @Moncai: Yeah if you use other tools to control the fan, such as the EVGA Precision tool, that will prevent this from happening as well. But most folks probably don't know about tools like that. ;)
  • Posted 3/9/2010 1:29:56 PM #7
    oopomopoo
    oopomopoo's avatar
    • Posts: 304
    lol@drivers causing BSOD, because you know, its totally the graphics cards fault right?
  • Posted 3/11/2010 10:39:00 AM #8
    Qmal
    Qmal's avatar
    • Posts: 32
    You can just enter the GPU Drivers options and turn off the Automatic mode, set your fan speed to 80 or 100 or w/e you like and play safe.
  • Posted 3/16/2010 10:37:11 PM #9
    stainy
    stainy's avatar
    • Posts: 3
    Eh. I had problems like this for the last 6 months or so since buying a GTX260, googling told me that the nvidia drivers had hard locked the fan to 40% duty cycle.

    Downloaded EVGA precision which allows you to unlock the fan speed and set it to what you like. no problems.

    This was pre 196.75 WHQL
  • Posted 3/27/2010 2:12:12 PM #11
    nykidinaz
    nykidinaz's avatar
    • Posts: 1
    hmm wonder if this is what fried my Graphics card in my new blackbird 002....
    so glad i got extended service protection now
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