Beware of new NVIDIA driver, it might burn your card

[Teemax]

http://starcraft.incgamers.com/blog/...-graphic-cards
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/05/n...-graphics-car/

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.com/object/winxp_196.21_whql.html
Windows XP 64-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp64_196.21_whql.html
Windows Vista/7 32-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_wi...6.21_whql.html
Windows Vista/7 64-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_wi...6.21_whql.html

More information can be found on threads such as these:
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=161525
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=161503

The fan control code might be buggy on the new NVIDIA driver which resulted in a burned card for some users. Proceed with caution.

Probably best to wait for a fix before using the new driver.

[lkiller123]

Only from Blizzard, how about nVidia?

[BulldogPO]

Any experiences or burned cards for sure?

[Teemax]

Here's an update from NVIDIA:
Bryan Del Rizzo, nVidia's PR Manager for GeForce for comment: "We are aware that some customers have reported fan speed issues with the latest 196.75 WHQL drivers on NVIDIA.com. Until we can verify and root cause this issue, we recommend that customers stay with, or return to 196.21 WHQL drivers. Release 196.75 drivers have been temporarily removed from our Web site in the meantime."

From the horse's mouth, you have been warned.

[BulldogPO]

Ok, so it has truth behind it

[Dainas]

Lazy fan syndrome has caused me to manually set (or in the case of ATI cards, reflash) fan parameters to keep them from cooking themselves for a long time. So those morons finally did it to the point where people notice the fan isnt doing a damn thing.

[LiquidReactor]

Bwahahaha....anybody remember the 191 WHQLs?

[joshd]

Ok, so it has truth behind it

would Blizzard lie to you?

[Shadov]

If someone fryed their NV VGA due to drivers would it go under warranty?

[zalbard]

Yeah, definitely IMO.

[Serpentarius]

If someone fryed their NV VGA due to drivers would it go under warranty?

if you can prove it.

burn chips is very hard to RMA, most of us faced Intel and AMD, but not Nvidia yet ... maybe some experienced person may elaborate?

[Katanai]

These drivers seem to be nothing but trouble. I think I'll skip 196.anything for now, until a driver comes out that people confirm to be working properly...

[rado992]

My Nvidia card has no fan control anyway (lazy custom PCB designers ) so if that's the only issue with the 196.75, I think I'll happily stick with them because I quite like the performance bumps here and there. Bad for those cards who actually have fan control though, one might burn their card without even noticing...

[ElSel10]

I have experienced massive frame drops in BF BC2 using the new driver with my GTX280 but I never thought it was the drivers... hmm any fix for this?

[THOMO]

no problems here. I've been using 196.75 for days and haven't encountered a single issue. My gpus fan is at 40% the same as every other nv driver I've used with this card.

[Sly Fox]

TGIW.

AKA 'thank-god-i-watercooled'

[alfaunits]

Man.... my fan sits at 0% all the time How dare it! Broken drivers! Oh wait.. (Yeah I have a fanless card )

[Chrono Detector]

I thought these drivers were a complete disaster, not sure if my fan worked or not, I thought it was buggy and I'm glad I reverted to the previous driver quickly. I would be pissed if these POS drivers killed my card as well.

[railer]

I thought its a common knowledge here that with new drivers there could be fan issues. And usually it will affect card that's overclocked the most. That's why you use RivaTuner or EVGA Precision tool to set your fan speed. I always set my fan speed to 95% when i game. Sure your drivers suck when fan sits there Did you at least checked the temp?

[Shadov]

I wonder how they will treat RMA's of overheated cards due to this accident.

"Sorry warranty dosent cover overclocking of card" and I imagine a lot of NV customers will get pissed...

[Rattle]

the way its meant to be played

[Piotrsama]

Sounds like 191.07 all over again.

If someone fryed their NV VGA due to drivers would it go under warranty?

It should, but what if your warranty expired?
Time to buy a new one, courtesy of nvidia's drivers.

[saaya]

if you can prove it

how?

[Frontl1ne]

And people say ATi drivers are bad...

Sorry, it had to be mentioned

[SKYMTL]

If anything this makes me wonder what the use of the WHQL certificate is....