Nvidia GPU Drivers Wont Update In My Main Vista Boot Only

Ex_Brit

Moderator
Staff member
..my main one on C:. For some reason I'm stuck at 260.99 for my Vista Ultimate SP2 main OS's GTX295 when the latest WHQL is 266.58 and I installed the latter on all my OS's except this one.

Trying to get help from Nvidia or their forums is like looking for hens' teeth as they are obviously swamped by people with this and a myriad other issues.

The drivers install but fail to start Code 43 and I can't open Nvidia CP so I have to keep rolling back.

I've tried disabling A/V, WD, all my ASUS O/C utilities etc. and even returned the BIOS to default settings...just in case. (None of which had to be touched with previous driver installations). Even uninstalled the old drivers, ran Driver Sweeper and still no go.

Have any of you got a notion as to what might by causing this failure? From what I've gleaned from their forums, it is most likely something that has hooks into the GPU in some manner, but I see nothing. I have nothing actively monitoring the GPU and nothing actively using the GPU, grid-computing included.

Unfortunately neither Windows nor the NVIDIA installer keep any records of the failure.
 
Didnt know that about Driver Sweeper. Never really used it much myself.

My process is simple. I reboot into Safe Mode and run Driver Sweeper. I restart and go right back into Safe Mode preventing Windows from auto installing drivers. I then load the latest set. Reboot and it works fine for me.

Granted i have not felt the urge to install the latest nVidia drivers cause the set i am using work and frankly i dont game anymore so i dont need them to be cutting edge on my 8800GTX card.
 
Actually that's a good point. If it works why change things. I'll try to curb my enthusiasm and stick with the drivers I've got.

I tried the Safe Mode method too, no go I'm afraid. Obviously something I have installed in this one OS upsets the driver installer.
 
It isnt so much a "If it works dont change it" mentality for me. I just dont have the time anymore to mess with such things. Sad but true. Heck I dont get on my PC much anymore. I have been using my phone for a lot more surfing now that I got an Android with the WiFi ability. Makes life easier to surf where i want. Hopefully a tablet like the Galaxy Tab or Archos 70 is in my future.

Main thing i look at is the change log. If there is something in there that i know i need or can use, i update. But if the updates are mainly for game glitches and such, then why bother. It doesnt make sense to update to a new version of a driver when i dont play those games and the update doesnt really pertain to me. That is more of what it comes down to. Most driver updates are for things like that now. I dont play the games, i dont get those glitches, why do i need the updated driver? I dont, it isnt a necessity. So i live without it till i find a driver that does something for me.
 
It isnt so much a "If it works dont change it" mentality for me. I just dont have the time anymore to mess with such things. Sad but true. Heck I dont get on my PC much anymore. I have been using my phone for a lot more surfing now that I got an Android with the WiFi ability. Makes life easier to surf where i want. Hopefully a tablet like the Galaxy Tab or Archos 70 is in my future.

Main thing i look at is the change log. If there is something in there that i know i need or can use, i update. But if the updates are mainly for game glitches and such, then why bother. It doesnt make sense to update to a new version of a driver when i dont play those games and the update doesnt really pertain to me. That is more of what it comes down to. Most driver updates are for things like that now. I dont play the games, i dont get those glitches, why do i need the updated driver? I dont, it isnt a necessity. So i live without it till i find a driver that does something for me.

I agree. The reason I had wanted to update was that the version I had wouldn't remember its Control Panel settings at next boot, now it does so will stick with this one. I'm not a gamer so it really doesn't matter.

Peter, I can't find any reference to error 43 in the Windows userland and kernel error list!

System Error Codes (0-499) (Windows)

Anyway, can you try manually deleting the old drivers from their location in system32?

Yes I tried that too. The removal guide mentions deleting a few things including that.
 
Lol. I think that's one of the errors where you know more before you find out what it actually means.
 
Exactly. I mean whoever would dream up the concept of actually having something explain exactly what it's complaining about?
 
Nvidia forums have suggested that my driver stack is fubar and the only solution would be to format & reinstall Windows. I tried a repair installation a while back and it made no difference. All that served to do was to undo all the tweaks I had made over the years. I tried uninstalling the card & doing a driver cleanup and still no joy.

Would you guys go to all that trouble just because a few of the latest graphics drivers wont install? Actually ANY driver after 260.99 wont install and with Nvidia installers not producing any logs and Windows Event Viewer not recording anything unusual in the graphics area, I am left with a mystery.

Nvidia support is well-nigh non-existent so not much hope of ever getting their help even though it is their own card.

Opinions?
 
Last edited:
I wrote some code a while back that would forcibly strip drivers from the system... It was years and years ago though, I'd have to check if it'd work for something like this.
 
Well it might be a good idea for me to format this as, being my default system, is really cluttered and could do with a good clean out.

It will just mean I will have to work from my netbook and/or iPad until I've got it set up again.

Addendum:

Actually I had no trouble getting rid of the drivers Mahmoud and I did use Driver Sweeper in Safe Mode as a precaution (as per the Nvidia Driver Installation guide stickied in the Geforce and ION Drivers section of their forum).

Their opinion is that my Windows drivers stack is screwed up in this particular boot as the drivers installed without effort in the other 3 boots.
 
Last edited:
But you don't have these problems with other drivers, do you?

Do they have any way of enabling logging? That would clear it up pretty quickly.
 
I asked and got no response to that. I don't think they have any way of logging it.

No I haven't had the problem with other drivers. But I have had some problems with programs suddenly closing on me and suspect the registry isn't totally intact, although I haven't used any registry cleaners and I have no malware that I know of, having checked with MBAM as well as McAfee.

I think it's probably for the best, it will clean up this installation anyway as I have a lot of stuff cluttering it up.
 
Last edited:
Well I took the plunge and formatted/reinstalled Vista Main and am still setting it up so will be gone more than I'm here, sorry guys.

Got that miscreant nVidia driver to install first attempt but have a few mysterious drivers yet to find (see below) and a ton of software to install...no doubt time will solve that.

Unfortunately Vista isn't as 'automatic' as Windows 7 in finding drivers nor is Windows Update, not that I use the latter for that purpose usually.

The BT Mini Receiver I know what that is and I have disabled it on purpose as I use another one. The SM Bus Controller and System Interrupt Controllers are still a mystery but no doubt all will be revealed in due course.
 

Attachments

  • Capture.JPG
    Capture.JPG
    23.8 KB · Views: 1
You can fix the SM Bus Controller and others by installing the latest Intel Chipset drivers from Intel.com. You'll need to know which chipset your motherboard runs.

You'll only need them for hardware monitoring apps (such as fan speed modifiers, temp gauges, etc.)
 
Back
Top