Vista - 9800gtx+ driver problem

Had my new card for a few days now, or the moon with it.
Installed it with the drivers that came with it. 178.
Downloaded the 181 drivers.
Removed the 178 restarted and installed 181.
Locks up in games have to hard reset.
Removed 182 and installed 181, the same problem.
Gone back to 178 all is fine.

Any ideas !!!
Thanks.
Brian.

Are you using driver sweeper after uninstalling previous drivers?

You can sometimes not have any problems if you install a driver which is the same series, such as a 18x.xx driver to another 18x.xx driver, but if you go from 17x.xx to a 18x.xx, it's a good idea to properly remove drivers.

I just updated my drivers to 181 - no problems as of yet on my 9800GTX+. I also had the 180 drivers which ran fine.

Everlong18, no I just uninstalled from add remove programs.
I will have to get driver sweeper and try that.
That makes sense 178 -180 is a big jump.
Many thanks.
Brian

Also, make sure you uninstall the PhysX drivers after uninstalling the regular 178 drivers, then run the sweeper, then reboot. Even if Vista install the std vga drivers after booting, you will have a clean install with the 181.

Just make sure you run the install as Administrator and not just double clicking on the .exe file.

Thanks for the extra info AstaLaVista.

NO problem, do comeback to tell us if this works though as it may help others as well. Believe you me, if it wasn't for the nice folks here at Vista forums, I would be lost as a goat.

Im having some same problems with my 9800GTX+ when i try and install the newest driver my screen goes to black screen like if its installing but then freezes i tried both the nvidia driver and the XFX driver they both have the same problem but when i installed the 178.X driver everything worked fine - but i did notice vista freezing on my when doing things

OK, I have uninstalled drivers and physics also run driver sweeper.
Installed 181 drivers and get lockups in UT3.
Removed 181 and installed 180, run all games OK .
Been using EVGA precision to monitor GPU temps.
On 178 drivers the temps are 52-54 running games.
180 temps 57-59.
181 temps before lockups 59-62.
On 178 I can hear the fan speed speedup.
On 181 does not, confirmed with EVGA precision.
On 180 does.
When run on 180 with fan set to 100 temp is 41.

So I think I will let that do.
Thanks for everyone's help.
Brian.