cipher_nemo

I recently upgraded my GTX 295 Co-Op with the GTX 680. My 295 was working just fine along with a 210 for a 2nd and 3rd monitor in the same PC on 295.73 drivers. But the 301.10 drivers don't want anything to do with the 210 card. So here's how I solved it. Hopefully it will help someone else running into the same issue.

Guide to run a GTX 680 with an older NVIDIA card on the same PC

1. Uninstall any 2xx.xx drivers on your system from the Programs control panel applet. It doesn't seem like the entire NVIDIA driver wants to uninstall in one clean sweep, so uninstall one part, reboot when prompted, uninstall the next (eg: PhysX, 3D, or HD Audio), reboot, etc. When you've uninstalled it all, shutdown.
   
   Note: It is important to have the uncompressed driver files from the 2xx.xx package still on your PC. By default this is the following folder --> C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\2xx.xx
2. Install only the GTX 680 at first. If you have an older NVIDIA card inserted into a slot, remove it for now.
3. Boot your PC and install the 301.10 driver package. Reboot when prompted. Confirm that the driver install works for your GTX 680 and that your monitor(s)' native resolution is either selected or available. Confirm that DirectX works (ie: play a game or run a benchmark tool).
4. Shutdown your PC and install the older NVIDIA card.
5. Boot your PC and confirm that new hardware was found and drivers installed. Unfortunately the 301.10 drivers won't like some older cards, so even though the driver is installed, it immediately terminates and uses the standard VGA driver instead. That's fine for now. Reboot your PC and confirm your GTX 680 is still working.
6. In your Device Manager located the older NVIDIA card listed as a standard VGA device. (Right Click "Computer" on the Start area and choose Properties, then Device Manager). Right click on that listing and choose "Update Driver Software". Choose the Browse option, then choose "Let me pick...". Click on "Have Disk" and point it to location of your uncompressed 2xx.xx driver package (as explained in step 1). Drill down in sub-folders until you find one titled Display.Driver or similar name, provided it contains ".inf" files. The hardware driver update wizard should pick up the right inf file to choose. Follow the rest of the wizard and reboot when prompted.
7. Now your system will boot but your GTX 680 will be using standard VGA drivers again. That's fine, because now we've locked in the older drivers for your older card and can proceed to use the installed 301.10 drivers for your GTX 680. Repeat the same process as step 6, except for the GTX 680 and uncompressed 301.10 driver package (eg: C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\301.10). Once you've finished assigning the 301.10 drivers to your GTX 680, reboot when prompted. Viola! Both cards should be working.

If anyone knows of an easier process, please post! I had to experiment tonight to get my 210 working with my GTX 680, and it was no picnic, but I managed to narrow it down to these steps. Good luck!

  Here you go...adding the Device ID to the nv_disp.inf file is a lot simpler and less problematic and will work for any recent GPU and driver combo.
 
First step is to ensure you have a recent driver folder still installed on your system. Typically located at.
C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver
The file you will need to copy entries from is typically located, using the 296.10 as an example, at C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver
\296.10\WinVista_Win7_64\English\Display.Driver. This file can be edited using notepad.
The file you will be using is nv_disp.inf. This is the file that contains the hardware info on which models of GPU's the driver will
install with.
There are two entries we are concerned with. Both contain the hardware ID but are used in two separate sections.
The first thing we will start with is obtaining the Device ID of your GPU. This is fairly simple and GPU-Z is a good program for this
In this example the Device ID is 10DE-1080.
 

 
Using this Device ID, we will be copying the corresponding entries we need to add to the nv_disp.inf file in the driver we are trying
to install. The first of the two entries we are concerned with are located in the
both the [NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.0] section and the [NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.1] section.
These two sections are essentially the same except the 6.0 section is for Vista and the 6.1 section is for Win7
Now we will use the Device ID to locate the entries we need to copy. Scrolling down the file you will come to the entry
%NVIDIA_DEV.1080%           = Section035, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1080
This is the Device ID that matches with that obtained using GPU-Z : 10DE-1080
%NVIDIA_DEV.1080%           = Section035, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1080 is what you will paste into the nv_disp.inf file
of the driver you are trying to install directly into both the  [NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.0] section and the [NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.1] section.

The next entry we will need is located near the very end of the nv_disp.inf file. This section is called [Strings]
As before, using the Device ID, we will find the corresponding entry matching the installed GPU. In this example it is
NVIDIA_DEV.1080 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580"
This is the entry you will paste into the [String] section.
This method will also work to modify Quadro and Tesla drivers to work with GeForce GPU's for those of you interested in testing
those out.