A brief warning to fellow nVidia users and the WHQL 320.18 driver

[Aldora]

A couple of users who've installed this driver had their card die. So far there's 2 accounts of a 560 TI and a case of a 480 that have died after having this driver installed.

That's rather odd, since a driver does not directly effect a device like a Graphics card directly. The only reason i can think of is that due to changes made to the instructions pack, the work load on the card became significantly higher then before. Due to this, the cards temperature would increase well above the 100 degrees Celsius range. That would be disastrous on the long run, not almost immediately after installing the driver. Personally i would wonder if the card actually died.

Quick check: When you turn on your PC, you will see some images and/or text fly by before Windows is being loaded (showing you the Windows Logo). This is the "Power-on-self-test" (POST) and the boot procedure of the computer. If you see those images or text pop up on your screen and it's readable, your graphics card is fine. At that time, you can assume the driver is not working properly.

If you don't see anything, or the image and text in the POST and boot procedure is scrambled, the card is broken.

However, to my knowledge and i'm choosing my words carefully here since i'm not a driver and hardware expert, a driver should not be able to brick a card.

Very stupid question but I wanted to see what driver I was using and I don't have that much knowledge in it I saw that I am using driver version 9.18.13.1407 Which doesn't look anything like what you are talking about. after doing like 5 seconds of research on Google i found out that that means i'm still using 314.07? Which means there is new drivers for my 680? cause I told it to go online and look for new drivers but it keeps saying that my GPU has the most up to date drivers out there. But after seeing all this do i want to upgrade to what you are saying 314.22 which would be version 9.18.13.1422?

Just asking cause i was really thrown when i saw you talking about 314.22 driver and i saw mine was 9.18.13.1407, which is a completely different format than the 314.XX something, why do they do that?

Edit ----------------
hmm musta done something lol, before i was running on maximum and getting around 5.7k know on max i get around 6.2k

If you want to verify which driver version you use for a NVIDIA Graphics card, you can either right-click on your Desktop and click on the "NVIDIA Control Panel"-option or go to the NVIDIA Website and have the Driver page detect the version you are using.

http://www.geforce.com/drivers

Context Menu Example:



NVIDIA Control Panel:

[Mjollnir]

As a user of a 560Ti, thanks very much for the heads up Dhalmel!

[Eekiki]

I have a GTX670 and have had zero problems with the newest drivers.

I wonder if those people that have had cards "die" are using cards that they overclocked.

[finiteHP]

Don't know about the people who had their cards die, but the new drivers definitely affected my benchmark scores. With my 680 I got 8000-8100 on maximum on tests done before updating. When I updated after getting my computer back from Asus I got 7500-7600. Until I saw the thread I thought Asus may have messed up my computer when they "fixed it". Downgraded to the March drivers and got the 8100s again.

[Alhanelem]

A couple of users who've installed this driver had their card die. So far there's 2 accounts of a 560 TI and a case of a 480 that have died after having this driver installed.

That doesn't necessarily mean the drivers were the direct or indirect cause.

[Dhalmel]

That doesn't necessarily mean the drivers were the direct or indirect cause.

It's already a known fact that nvidia has the ability to change the voltage profile with cards in their drivers. One smalll error with this and it can kill your card. OH how about that one driver (196.75) that caused fans to turn off and fry several individuals gpus?


Was this 320.18 driver the direct cause of these cards to die? We don't know, but it doesn't mean it's not possible.

Update:



It seems the driver's voltage profile update in the driver is one of the cause for some people's cards. With Factory OC and user oc being the primary ones being effected.

But there are plenty of people on stock full size and mobile gpus having stability issues also.

Just visit the geforce forums and take a look at the mess.

[Aldora]

It's already a known fact that nvidia has the ability to change the voltage profile with cards in their drivers. One smalll error with this and it can kill your card. OH how about that one driver (196.75) that caused fans to turn off and fry several individuals gpus?

Scary stuff... That's all i can say about it.

[Mjollnir]

As a user of a 560Ti, thanks very much for the heads up Dhalmel!

I had to try them to fix an issue with a different game, bearing in mind what you've said. I ran the benchmark just before updating the drivers and scored the same as I ever did. Upgraded and then ran it again landed me a 10% increase in the Benchmark score. So I guess as long as my GPU doesn't burst into flames in the next couple of weeks...

[Dhalmel]

I had to try them to fix an issue with a different game, bearing in mind what you've said. I ran the benchmark just before updating the drivers and scored the same as I ever did. Upgraded and then ran it again landed me a 10% increase in the Benchmark score. So I guess as long as my GPU doesn't burst into flames in the next couple of weeks...

I would avoid doing any voltage adjustments if you're going to use it. OCing with default voltage might be ok but yadda yadda risks yadda yadda not supported.

[Mjollnir]

I would avoid doing any voltage adjustments if you're going to use it. OCing with default voltage might be ok but yadda yadda risks yadda yadda not supported.

Understood. I don't OC or adjust stuff, so *fingers crossed*. Having said that, as soon as it assplodes, I'll update my post^^