nateman_doo
ok... i totally threw in the towel, but I found out the answer why Riva Tuner was not working... the newest Nvidia drivers block it. I installed older drivers... and I am back at it.
You should be able to force RivaTuner to work with new drivers.
1) Open <Power User> tab -> Press <Open database> button ->
2) Browse for RivaTuner.rtd database file (located in the application root folder) ->
3) Expand <System> node ->
Ensure that <Hexadecimal display> button is NOT pressed (otherwise 18585 will be treated as a hexadecimal value instead of decimal one) ->
4) Double click <ForceDriverVersion> and enter 18585 (or whatever driver you are using)