Here is a good way for you to get rid of those annoying nvidia sound drivers as they can cause plenty of IRQ faults and conflicts resulting in stuttering, poor frame rates, BSOD's, and lockups/freezeups.  I have helped others remove them and it has fixed 90% of their problems.  I hope this fixes yours.  It is also a good guide on how to properly install/uninstall drivers. TAKE A WORD OF ADVICE,  THESE NVIDIA SOUNDDRIVERS WILL CONFLICT WITH ONBOARD SOUDCARDS AND MAY CAUSE IRQ CONFLICTS. BE SURE TO CREATE A SYSTEM RESTORE POINT FIRST
WHAT I DO IS: 
1. Download Driver Sweeper and driver cleaner and install them.  mainly need driver  google them. also down load the latest audio drivers from evga and the latest Nvidia drivers straight from Nvidia. 
2. boot up GO INTO PROGRAMS AND FEATURES IN CONTROL PANEL. Uninstall Nvidia Physx and Nvidia surround driver.  DO NOT UNINSTALL NVIDIA DRIVERS ON NVIDIA CONTROL PANEL YET.
3. Reboot. Go into safe mode (press F8 repeatedly upon power up)
4. While in SafeMode go into program and features now selected Nvidia Drivers then uninstall them. it will then ask you to reboot the computer DO NOT REBOOT YET SELECT NO. 
5.  While still in safemode open Driversweeper select nvidia display and click analyze. when it is done click on clean.  Then open driver cleaner. click on the box that says "use multiple filters" the select Nvidia, Nvida wdm and nvidia stereo.
6. Once you have finished with driver sweeper and driver cleaner reboot back in to regular mode. open device manager and check to see if your display adapter reads "Generic video adapter" or something along those lines and that it is a microsoft driver.  then check your sound drivers to make sure that All 4 Nvidia soundrivers are uninstalled. Once you have verified that all the nvidia drivers are uninstalled REBOOT INTO SAFEMODE. 
7.  WHILE IN SAFEMODE.  Go into open programs and see if there is anything labeled Realtek audio drivers if there is uninstall that. DO NOT REBOOT YET.  Open device manager and go to sound devices and select any remaining audio devices and uninstall them. then open driver sweeper and clean out the left over files. After using driver sweeper you can now Reboot into regular mode. 
8.  After reboot open up device manager and make sure that all the drivers you uninstalled and cleaned out were replaced by Generic Microsoft Drivers.  Then install The nvidia display drivers and disable windows automatic updates.  Now reboot.
9. after you reboot go into device manager and DISABLE the 4 nvidia sound driver the REBOOT BACK INTO SAFEMODE.  Once you are back in safemode open up device manager and uninstall the Nvidia sound drivers.  if they won't uninstall then make sure they are disabled in safemode.  Reboot
10. Now install your onboard audio drivers then reboot.
 
I hope this helps it should fix your problem.  I have had similar issues but i was gettng BSOD's from the IRQ fault once i was able to disable the driver there was no problem.  but i still have the mocro stutter isuue that everyone is talking about.  NVIDIA SHOULD GIVE YOU THE OPTION WHETHER OR NOT TO INSTALL THOSE SOUND DRIVERS WHEN YOU ARE INSTALING THE DISPLAY DRIVERS BUT INSTEAD THEY FORCE THEM UPON YOU.  Good luck to you and please post your results and post any questions you might have.

Your very welcome.  anything I can do to help. 

helmutcheese

I always stop the Nvidia installer right after it extracts to "C:\Nvidia".

I then enter this folder and DELETE the Audio Driver and 3D Driver.

Then I manually run then SETUP.EXE in that folder to install driver.

This could cause registry errors and other complications (system32/system64 errors). but if it works for you i can't knock it.  and i will give it a try for myself and test it out. 

I wanted to point out that in steps 6-8 that it is important to make sure that when you remove any drivers that they should be replaced by microsoft drivers. if your video card still registers in device manager under display adapter as an "Nvidia GTX 4xx"or something along those lines and the drivers still say they are from nvidia and not microsoft, you have not uninstalled them and cleaned them out successfully.  all drivers should be from microsoft and your display adapter should read "generic display adapter" If this not the case:

BEFORE TRYING THIS CREATE A SYSTEM RESTORE POINT

DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK
while in device manager
1. click on display adapter
2. right click the device then click properties
3. click the driver details tab
4.  take note of any files that are nvidia related and go into windows explorer and manually delete them.
5. Reboot

rjohnson11

OK everyone, I haven't really heard of many problems with 3D or sound drivers but if everyone is that concerned there is a far easier way to do this.

1: Download the latest NVIDIA based drivers which is my case are these:
258.96_desktop_win7_winvista_64bit_english_whql.exe

2: Make an empty folder and copy this file into that folder

3: Download and install winrar

4: Go into the folder and right click the file 258.96_desktop_win7_winvista_64bit_english_whql.exe

Choose Extract Files

5: Choose OK in the winrar box and the files will be extracted to a folder

6: Go into that folder and delete these files:

3DVision_258.96.exe
hdaudio_1.0.15.0_xp_vista_win7.exe

7: Run setup and it will install the drivers without installing HD Audio or 3D Vision

If anyone has any questions please let me know. This procedure is not approved by NVIDIA or EVGA.

won't this still cause registry issues? and not to beat a dead unicorn but THEY SHOULD GIVE YOU AN OPTION TO INSTALL THEM OR NOT WHETHER IT BE A CUSTOM INSTALL OR A CHECK BOX MENU AT THE BEGINNING OF THE INSTALL 

This thread is AWESOME! So much win in it... Love these types of FYI threads... As long as it works

@ SirMaster , the OP does not need or want the Nvidia Sound going by my reading.

I also have ZERO need for it, though currently on a 200 series but same if on 400 series (minus the small SPDIF cable).

I always have and always will have a Dedicated Soundcard.

Why use "winblows" if you feel that way ?

Could use Loonsucks (Linux) or a MAC and do next to nothing on them.

dunkinkid22

my fix is for the 90% of users who have already installed them

The method that I gave makes sure that the sound and 3D are never installed in the first place if that is really what you want to do.

Helmutcheese gave a good method as well but I've seen some people still mess things up when attempting his method because they have problems following those directions.

Whether you decide to follow Helmutcheese's method, the original poster, or my own method one of them should work for you.

Thanks for sharing, i will give this a try on the next nvidia driver release. For now i deactivated all 4 nvidia devices in the devicemanager. I got a creative x-fi titanium and it shares the same irq with my gtx470, maybe that causes some conflicts.

^ CCleaner is great and its free. For registry and cookiecleaning.

I also use uniblue registry booster.

Ill try that one out later, but im pretty sure its the same and reg booster.

Irq conflicts should be a thing of the pass. With a modern OS and computer, it is not only normal, but expected that irq's be shared. They shouldn't have any trouble doing so.

I actually have a soundblaster x-fi, but decided to install the nvidia onboard drivers so I could utilise it to power an ear piece for ventrilo. That way ventrilo chat comes over the headphone jack I have and game sound and microphone are handled by the sound blaster. Works like a charm!