Do not install Nvidia Forceware ForceWare 171.16 for XP x86!

[Jelle Mees]

Somethimes, when users say that a new driver contains new or special features, important bugfixes or performance improvements, I review the new driver.

This time, I don't have much to report:
DO NO INSTALL THIS DRIVER!

I've been using driver 169.28 for quite some time now. The driver was very stable ( not a single game or computer crash ) and performance was great. My profiles were buggy but I could live with that.

I ran some benchmarks with the driver-settings I always use, uninstalled 169.28, rebooted, ran driversweeper, rebooted, installed 171.16 and rebooted once more.

Now, the first thing I noticed that my 8800GT fan started running 100% while windows was booting ( windows bootscreen after bios-screen ). Normally the fanspeed stays very low untill windows is loaded and when Rivatuner sets the fanspeed higher.

Another thing I noticed, the driver-panel was very buggy. Everytime I changed one or more settings without clicking on "Apply" the panel refreshed all the settigs to default!

Once I got all the settings like they were on my previous driver, I wanted to run some benchmarks again.

When I launched Oblvivion, the game crashed and my desktop looked like this:
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff312/JelleMees/sshot-16-1.jpg

Resolution 640x480, 256 colors and and an error that showed that "nv4_disp" stopped working.

I was already pretty convinced that it was a fucked-up driver but I wanted to be sure.

I rebooted, launched Crysis and Crysis seemed to work fine. The framerate wasn't higher then on 169.28 though...

Then I launched MOH: Airborn and this time I saw a bluescreen and my PC rebooted.

After reboot I viewed my computer logs: ( translated by google )
The driver nv4_disp for displayapparaat \ Device \ Video0 is in an infinite loop ended. This indicates usually a problem with the device itself or on a wrong programming of the device by the driver. Please contact the supplier of the device for any updates to the driver.

See Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp for more information.

That's when I became sure that this driver should be avoided. It doesn't provide higher framerates in the games that can be played without crashes and the panel is buggy like hell.

Just wanted to share this info with you guys...

People who do want this crappy driver can download it here:
http://www.palit.biz/download/driver/nvidia/171.16_Win2KXP_6-7-8series-9600GT.zip

[erocker]

Well that sucks. The 169.28's were giving me crap as well, so I'm using the current WHQL drivers which actually work quite well.

[Jelle Mees]

Well that sucks. The 169.28's were giving me crap as well, so I'm using the current WHQL drivers which actually work quite well.

Only problem I had with 169.28 was that the Nvidia panel was a little buggy ( especially the profiles ). Game stability and performance was very good.

[erocker]

For some reason with the 169.28's I get a steady 10fps drop across the board. Could of just been a bad install, but I'm happy with what I'm using even though it's my backup system.

[keakar]

well was this without rivatuner? im thinking rivatuner might be the cause of this incompatability issue and not the driver itself.

my thought is the driver merely addressed the low fan speed issue but in doing so caused a conflict with rivatuner

[Jelle Mees]

my thought is the driver merely addressed the low fan speed issue but in doing so caused a conflict with rivatuner

Rivatuner loads AFTER windows is booting, becides, I always disable the Rivatuner startup entries when I install a new driver.
With this driver, the fanspeed already jumped to 100% before I saw "Welcome" on my screen...

[Jelle Mees]

Update:
Encountered same instability problems on 174.20...+ this time I noticed that temperature was 2°C higher ( idle ) then with 169.28.

[wolf]

im going great on 171.23 betas, XP 32 ...

[Jelle Mees]

Ok, now I installed 174.16 and again, the same crashes, the same temperature, everything.

BUT, when I use default driver settings, everything works perfectly. So it must be one of the settings I always change when I install a new driver...have to look in to this...

[Black Panther]

Have you tried playing games like Oblivion without Riva?

Personally, I would like to have a driver which takes care of the automatic fan adjustment rather than having to have Riva do the job.

I'm still using 167.26, non-WHQL, which was on the disk I got with my 8800GT.

I've been afraid of testing it, and other drivers, without Rivatuner, just in case my card gets so hot that I kill it.

If I know someone's 8800GT works properly with some driver, then I'd be prepared to risk it.

[Jelle Mees]

I found the setting that causes ALL 17x.xx drivers to crash on my 8800GT.

Currently running tests on many drivers.

I will start a new thread about this where I ask other 8800GT to test if that setting makes game crash at their pc aswell, if that's the case, I will submit a detailed bugreport to Nvidia.

[Paulieg]

I've been using 171.16 and 172.23 betas with my 9600gt without any problems whatsoever. Actually, the new beta gave me another 100 points in 3dmark06.

[Jelle Mees]

I've been using 171.16 and 172.23 betas with my 9600gt without any problems whatsoever. Actually, the new beta gave me another 100 points in 3dmark06.

Like I sad before, one specific setting triggers crashes.

[wolf]

well tell us already! i wanna know what it is...

[Black Panther]

*** suspense ***

[cdawall]

well i will be paying good attention to this hopefully i dont have driver issues with my 8600GTS when i get that rig up and going

[Jelle Mees]

well tell us already! i wanna know what it is...

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=54128

[pagalms]

"Do not" means "You must do" for me, so i will try 174.20 with g80 gts and see what happens.
Bwah it will take abuot one hour to download (speed kills...)