Proper way of updating driver?

Discussion in 'Videocards - NVIDIA GeForce Drivers Section' started by errorrrr, Jun 10, 2009.

  1. errorrrr

    errorrrr Master Guru

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    I know there is a sticky on the top, but the last edit was 2003... I was wondering what has changed now in 2009 for updating Nvidia cards?
     
  2. mykledw

    mykledw Guest

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    I know that everyone is going to tell you to uninstall and remove all drivers in safe mode......................blah, blah...............

    I have never done that and have never once had an issue of drivers whether WHQL or beta in just installing over what I have...............
     
  3. |WOY|Shotty1993

    |WOY|Shotty1993 Banned

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    lol same xD
     
  4. Cybermancer

    Cybermancer Don Quixote

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    Yes, and in 99% of the cases this is going to work fine, mykledw and |WOY|Shotty1993, but then you encounter strange things like the NCP not working, the right mouse click being slow, a certain game always crashing even with low temperatures, etc., etc.

    Do yourself a favor, errorrrr, and rather be safe than sorry and follow the same old procedure, established in the sticky in 2003:

    1. Uninstall your current driver.
    2. Restart and boot into safe mode (F8).
    3. Run Driver Sweeper and maybe even CCleaner.
    4. Restart and boot to the regular desktop.
    5. Install the new driver.
    6. Restart.

    In case you're getting an error message when you try to install the driver, decompress it with a tool like 7-Zip, delete the PhsyX installer from the folder and just start the setup.exe in the decompressed driver folder...
     

  5. Darren Hodgson

    Darren Hodgson Ancient Guru

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    If you do the uninstall, reboot, safe mode, Driver Sweeper, install, reboot thing then you'll lose all your customised game profiles and the ability to rollback your drivers if they turn out to be buggy so I prefer to install over the top of older drivers and only use the uninstall option if anything goes wrong. Which it rarely does to be honest but I admit that it has happened twice, usually with beta drivers and if I mix US with International drivers or vice versa. Installing International drivers over International drivers though seems to work perfectly as you'd expect.

    The current 186.08 betas I'm using were installed over the top of the 185.85 WHQL ones and I've had no issues at all with them so far. The control panel System Information only shows the current file versions too so it looks like the installer removes all the old drivers correctly before installing the new ones. That's how a good driver set should work IMO. You really should not have to uninstall the old drivers, you don't have to with the ATI/AMD drivers, in fact they suggest you install over the top of older ones.
     
  6. apo-ttcc

    apo-ttcc Master Guru

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    I always use the safe way, like discribed by Cybermancer above, and never had this kind of problem/restriction. The 185.85WHQL for example was causing some serious problems here, so i just went back to 182.50WHQL. This also worked with any other troublemaking drivers in the past.
     
  7. slickric21

    slickric21 Guest

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    +1 for the safe way.

    Best option if you wan't to minimise the risk of any potential problems.
    Since I've done it this way and never had any problems with the CP.

    I have tried the lazy way of installing over the top in the past. I didn't need to think for long why the CP would intermittently crash or have funny quirks after doing it this way.
    If you do it the lazy way and look in the "CP> system info>components" you will often see a mixture of version numbers = Recipe for disaster.
     
  8. Darren Hodgson

    Darren Hodgson Ancient Guru

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    I believe the xxxxxxxR.dll files are rollback versions so they generally show the previous drivers version number.

    Anyway, when I installed over the 185.85 drivers, all the file versions showed as 186.08 so I presume that NVIDIA have finally updated and improved their installer. Certainly I've not had any problems with the control panel or any games so far.

    I know the safe method is tried and tested and guarantees you the most trouble-free graphics driver install but really it should not be necessary in this day and age if the installer is written correctly. What's wrong with making driver installations easier and less hassle, hmmm? The safe method is the equivalent of having to uninstall and reinstall your games every time you apply a new patch to them. Now that would be annoying...
     
  9. slickric21

    slickric21 Guest

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    I hear what your saying mate, it would be nice if we didn't feel we have to do the safe way - but you said it yourself........
    "I know the safe method is tried and tested and guarantees you the most trouble-free graphics driver install"

    For some inc myself i'd rather take the 10 mins or so precautionary measure and do the safe way.

    However I do believe you and others when you say that you just install over the top and have no issues.

    Guess its a matter of opinion and everyone will feel different :)

    So to the OP, choose for yourself and see how you get on !!!!!! If you do the quick 'over the top' and do have problem you can always go back and do the 'safe' method
     
    Last edited: Jun 10, 2009
  10. Flukester

    Flukester Banned

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    imho, the only thing you need to do if you haven't had any problems is to uninstall the old display drivers and PhysX and then install the new drivers. I don't see how installing drivers over top of drivers is a wise or preferred way. By removing the drivers you remove the files, dll's, registry entries etc and then replace it all with new entries with the new install.

    I'd say the safemode way and sweeper would be only if you are having some abnormalities/problems and you feel it's coming from display drivers. I would not recommend that as a every driver install routine.
     

  11. jeffy

    jeffy Active Member

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    Usually, I just uninstall the old driver in control panel and then reboot in normal mode, install the new driver and reboot again. Is that ok?
     
  12. king-dubs

    king-dubs Ancient Guru

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    Personally, I just installed the latest ForceWare drivers over the older one. Worked fine. When it didn't (buggy driver), I uninstalled the driver, rebooted to safe mode, ran Driver Cleaner/Driver Sweeper, reboot to normal, and installed the last working driver. Always worked for me with NVIDIA cards.
     

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