Don't trust M$ Update for Nvidia Drivers

So last night I get the bright idea to download updates from Windows Update. After all, they are supposed to be the authority on Windows software. If its part of Windows Update then it must be certified, qualified, scrutenized, and all of that good crap.

Well not so. I downloaded a SATA and Network "update" for Nvidia via Windows update. It said I should. I spent the rest of the night trying to figure out why my NICs quit working and my sound got all fubar.

To fix the nic driver thing, I had to delete the *.sys file for the driver in Windows/System32. (I found the details on this forum.)

The SATA fix was a little easier. I couldn't "uninstall" the update, but I was able to select the SATA driver (not the disk driver) in device manager (and you only need to pick one of them) and roll back the driver to the previous version. Specifically this fixed a problem a lot of people are having with the x-fi chipset.

Good luck,
And may the bits work with you.

Mobo, gxf and sound card drivers are better left to the manufacturer. Once bitten twice shy.

Add printers to the list.

Just wasted a couple of hours getting strange error codes out of windows update - fixed in 10 minutes with a visit to hp.com

I am also experiencing many problems after the network driver was installed. My NIC is an Nvidia nforce networking controller built-in with my Gigabyte M55-SLI-S4 Rev 1.0 Mobo.

Basically, the NIC is only working with every other reboot. If the device is working, and I Hibernate, there are no problems. It's only upon reboot when problems arise. I actually installed this update a few weeks ago, but since I don't restart often (I almost always hibernate) I never really noticed it.

I have tried to roll back the driver to the older version, but it's STILL doing it. To remove the driver, I had to go into Safe Mode, since doing it in normal Windows causes the entire system to freeze.

Unfortunately, I cannot seem to completely uninstall the driver. When I click "Uninstall" it doesn't do anything and the device still appears there with the same driver. I have never encountered a problem like this with drivers before. Whenever I click "Uninstall", it's gone and upon re-detecting the device, it would need to reinstall the drivers.

I don't know what else to do. I'm wondering if I can possibly disable the NIC from the BIOS, if it would allow me to remove it. I would also like to try the method of deleting the .sys file mentioned above. Can you please elaborate and post the link to the thread which discusses it?

If I cannot fix this using these methods, I will have no choice but to do a re-format (which I DON'T want to do).

This is such bull****. This ****in driver sucks a dick. Don't they test the drivers on there before posting them?

Those drivers should be good. I notice you have rev 1.0 mobo, assume you have flashed BIOS to latest version.

You can disable the device in control panel.

I get a lot of NIC problems, especially with Linux. Always good to have a cheap pci card handy. Linksys are good.

you don't say if you're 32 or 64 bit vista, make sure you install matching type drivers.

and always remember, fixing computers is fun.

cheers,
Simon

try downloading the driver from the gigabyte website or if you have a mobo cd do it from there.
Go into device manager and update the driver from there. Follow the onscreen instruction, I will give you more help if needed, but judging from your post you seem to have some knowledge so you will be ok.

I fixed it 2 days ago. Basically, in Device Manager, under one of the tabs for the driver, it lists the files in the System32 directory that make up the driver.

I deleted those files in Safe Mode. Then, when I restarted my system, Windows re-configured the device and used the default driver that shipped with Vista. Surprisingly, this driver is the best one out.

I then later installed the April 07 driver, and I was encountering similar issues as I was before. So, I rolled it back to the original. I am now problem free.

Just a note to everyone: Don't download Nvidia drivers off of Windows Update! (Although, I did install Nforce chipset drivers off of there a while ago and haven't had any issues with those.)

I have 32 bit Vista SP1 BTW.