5/6/7/8/9/200/400/500/600 Series Trouble Shooting/Updating/Install Guide for Drivers
This works with XP/Vista/Win 7 32/64bit operating systems
Ok first thing is go to Phyxion and get Driver Sweeper
Driver Sweeper from Phyxion.net


Vista and Windows 7
1. Of course download the Latest Drivers for your gpu & get Driver Sweeper
http://www.evga.com/support/download/ or http://www.geforce.com/Drivers

2. You next have three options going into Device Manager->Display Adapters RMB on your video card
and uninstalling Drivers click the box to remove software, or going into Add and Remove Programs / Programs and Features
and uninstalling the driver from there. Or you can run the new installer run a custom setup and make sure you have
Clean Install checked but doing this method can leave things behind in the registry, that may or may not cause issues.

3. In Add and Remove Programs / Programs and Features make sure you uninstall NVIDIA PhyX System Software,
NVIDIA Update, NVIDIA 3D VISION Driver & Software pretty much everything releated to your gpu.

4. Restart your computer after the post screen press F8 and boot into safemode, then run driver sweeper
as admin. Only selection options for nvidia display drivers, physx.

5. Reboot

6. Run the installer for the Drivers for your gpu, I would suggest running a custom installer, checking clean install
Only select drivers your going to use, if you your not using the gpu's audio, its 3d vision, I would not letting those
drivers install and disabling them in the custom install.

7. I would suggest rebooting after this Happy Gaming.

Suggestion, during the driver install going into the device manager and disabling the High Definition Audio
device. This is the cards audio for HDMI, if your not using HDMI for sound disable it. I know on EVGA motherboards with realtek
the two can not get along. Also you may want to reinstall your audio drivers on an evga board after installing/updating/fixing your
drivers.

Never Let Microsoft Windows Update/install drivers on your pc


600 Series Overclocking
Read this Guide from Guru3d GeForce GTX 680 Overclock Guide
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Heat: If your video card is running way too hot you may want to get one of the Utilities below to setup
a custom fan profile or just control your gpus fan manually.

EVGA Precision Get it now
"600 Series Owners"
EVGA Precision X Get it now
EVGA OC Scanner X Get it now
To rev up your fans. Also for Overclocking. For EVGA Customers here is Precision, Great app for those of you who have not used it.

Not an EVGA Customer get RivaTuner or MSI Afterburner

Use fan profiles with Precision This will help keep your cards cool as long as you have good airflow and decent ambient temps.

I suggest trying to keep your gpu under or around 70c at full load. It should give it a longer lifespan.
-------------------------------------GPU STILL HOT? ----------------------------------------------
Make sure you have good airflow/a good airflow case, make sure your hardware is clean and free of dust bunnies, there is an example
below on how a gpu can get clogged
Check out this post
Also See attached image in this post.


TIM aka Thermal Interface Material/Thermal Paste
I have found the folling tims to work at least for me on particular gpus and their heatsinks. Most TIM degrades over time with heat, seen it happen most with factory tim it can wear down in 6-8 months to years depending on temps/factory application of the TIM.
200 series and below Artic Silver 5, MX 2, MX 4,
400 Series: IC Diamond esp on the 480's or MX 2, MX 4,
500 Series: MX 2, MX 4, CM Thermalfusion 400" on the vaporchambers works great." only on smooth surfaces
600 Series: Have not played with yet


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Say No to Ntune knowing is half the battle
If your using an older socket 775 motherboard just dont use it I am sure most are on newer hardware now.

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Something else to try: Check all the connections inside your rig, power cables, hard drive cables you name it, also check to make sure your hardware cpu, ram, video card are seated in correctly. Make sure your NB is not blowing hot air directly into your video card if so find a way to move that hot air out of their fast.
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Helpful Hint on Gaming Slow Downs if Running 2 or more Monitors: If your running any video card that you can plug two monitors into and actually have 2 monitors plugged into one video card. And your games are running slow, or have some lag in them, unplug a monitor! Trust me this will save you a lot of time and effort.


------------------------Cheap Effective GPU Cooler For Any Series of GPU's--------------------------
This is very simple to make it takes a good pci slot fan cooler, some quick steel "at Target Walmart, a hardware store or you can use any type of epoxy putty", a good High powered 120mm fan 90CFM+. The picture is pretty much Self Explanatory on how to construct. I was able to get my 8800 Ultra up to 700 Core clock linked with this. Great little cheap thing to make for someone When you cannot afford a heavy duty aftermarket cooler for their gpus.
This is old and outdated but have used it on 400/500 series cards still works great.


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The Cooler in use, does not look snug due to camera angle of my notebooks built in webcam




This is from my old old setup and is a bit messy but you get the idea

Those of you with a bit more cash on hand want to have something that looks better in their computer but takes up two slots
Lian Li BS-08B PCI Slot Case Cooler or search for stores on a search engine to get it cheaper.

You will need to open it up and flip the fans around you can also change them out fully with some 120mm 90 CFM fans. Also if your doing sli have a big enough case to have two make sure your second card has a backplate so the metal of this does not make contact of the pcb of your second card.



---------GPU Still Will Not Work Your Warranty Out/Don't Have One?---------
This is to be used as a last resort Warning, use at your own risk. With gpus overheating and dieing"happening with the last borked nvidia drivers causing the gpus to cook and die", a lot of times their components are not cooked, its normally the PCB has been warped a connection is not connecting correctly, sometimes causing artifacts aka lines though your screen, your display not coming up at all. I do not recommend this unless your out of options and you know for a fact that its not your power supply, nor any other piece of hardware without a reason beyond a doubt. I would not suggest doing this with the oven you use to cook food.... and the oven is well ventilated/it has a fan built into the oven. Also if your Video Card is under Warranty don't do it at all pretend you didn't even see this part of the post and go RMA your card.

Symptoms:
Powering up your machine everything is loading, your machine even gets to windows but no display or you start getting artifacts on your screen even after you have changed out the TIM cleaned your gpu cooler, your getting bsods, lockups.

If you do this you must be 100% sure its faulty and its not something else. Like you have done everything humanly possible to your machine, including reinstalling windows. You know for a fact that you have no warranty, the gpu vendor will not take your card back no matter how much you ask. Use this at your own risk again, I will nor any other party will be liable for any damages to you or anyone/thing else from you doing this. By doing this you take sole responsibility if anything happens.

Well at this point you are out of options you have ruled out that it is not any other peace of hardware causing the issue and your without a warranty "use at your own risk"
1. Take off your gpu heatsink/shroud
2. Clean The gpu fully of all Thermal compound on gpu chip/shader, the ram, vregs, basically anyplace that had thermal pads or thermal compound. You want it spotless literally
3. You can remove the Backplate some do not, personally if its still screwed in leave it but you also have to keep in mind while baking any extra weight on the gpu is not needed nor do you want it.
4. Get a solid none flimsy cookie sheet, cover it tightly/neatly with aluminum foil
5. make 4 small aluminum balls all must be equal size and shape, you want them to be under your gpu the gpu chip side up, you do not want the balls touching anything that is soldered or exposed on the gpu but try to keep a rectangular configuration to hold up the gpu where the weight is equally balanced between the 4 aluminum foil balls on the cookie sheet.
6. Preheat your oven to 375-385F "DO NOT PUT YOUR GPU IN EARLY AKA YOU BETTER HAVE YOUR OVEN PREHEATED TO TEMP"
7. Let your gpu bake for 10 minutes. Why because less time you didn't accomplish what your trying to fix, and why not too long because you don't want damage any plastic or other heat sensitive parts on your gpu.
8. Once you have baked your gpu for 10 minutes let it sit for a good 25-30 minutes plus out of your oven still on the cookie sheet do not touch it. Keep it steady as you hold the cookie sheet and set it down.
9. For safe measures you can do the baking a one to two more times to make sure its cured and the micro fractures are fully filled and sealed.
10. Once your done put your gpu back together and fire it up.

Here are some reference videos and webpages
Video1/2

Video 2/2

Video 3 <---just don't put your gpu upside down....

Page 1

Page 2

Page3
I have not had to do this for a long time last cards I did it with was my 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500, a geforce 4 series and an ati card I had. But it does work if your issue is a microfracture, or if your gpu was bent by heat, normally leaving the gpu semi warped but not visible to the human eye, or the warping caused micro fractures in your gpu. Things today I have seen cause it, Big Water Blocks in tower computers cause gpus over time to get micro fractures because of the weight, the heatsinks on the higher end 8 series, cards getting too hot due to poor/none nonexistent preventative maintence like stock thermal compound not changed out after six months and it turning into a chalky substance or the fins being clogged inside your gpu by dust bunnies for too long, and our latest problem the nvidia 196.75 drivers overheating cards and the weight of the heatsinks/cards causing micro fractures. Some times shipping the gpu, or you had bad luck and somehow you got a microfracture on your PCB.

But use this at your own risk any damage to yourself, your gpu is totally on you and your responsibility. This is for a last chance/hope only option kind of thing because you simple have no other options available and you want some chance you might save your card. If your card is under warranty don't bake it, use your rma. This should only be used as the last resort when you have nothing to lose if you try. Do more research before you do it, find out what other people have done, also keep in mind baking does not always fix it, because there could be a bad/missing component on your gpu. What this does is fixes micro cracks on the pcb so any broken connections on it are re connected and makes the connections on the PCB to its components connect better by reheating the solder. Also keep in mind if your using an older gpu that has the old big capacitors you have to be careful because they can pop if you do enough research you will see a lot of people insulate their gpus/mobos/xboxes before they put them in to help keep components that can melt/pop safe.

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8800 GTS/GTX bios updates for Apple Cinima Displays" Thanks Jacob"
You can download them here: Wondering if there is an Ultra bios Fix.

8800 GTX

8800 GTS

donta1979

5/6/7/8/9/200 Series Trouble Shooting Guide for Drivers
Great Failsafe way when your Installing/Updating your video drivers 
 This works with XP/Vista/Win 7 32/64bit operating systems
Ok first thing is go to Guru3d and get Driver Sweeper

Driver Sweeper installer
Driver Sweeper no install needed "this is what I use"

First open up your C drive and you should see the NVIDIA Directory "unless you told it to install some place else", now open up the folder named WinVista64 or 32 "depending on your os" and you should see a driver Ver. folder 162.22 for example Leave this window open.

Vista and Windows 7
1. Right click on Computer---->Properties
2. Click on Device Manager
3. Expand Dislpay Adapters
4. Right Mouse Button over the Video card Name
5. Select Uninstall, Click Delete the driver software for this Device
6. Do not reboot
7. Now That Window I told you to leave open with the NVIDIA directory now Delete your Driver Vershion Folder Example 162.22 then empty recycle bin.
7b. Extra step with new drivers now go to the the add/remove programs remove any nvidia software listed
8. REBOOT
9. Restart in Safe mode, Use the F8 key while your rebooting to do so select Safe Mode.
10. Now run Driver Sweeper or Driver Cleaner Pro, "I personally use the Driver Sweeper that you just run no install"  
10b. Driver Sweeper Users: A temp fix for Things that get leftbehind  by theGryphon
11. Make sure you tell it to Remove your NVIDIA Display Drivers, once it is finished
Reboot. once Vista reboots it will just reinstall  a genaric VGA adapter dont worry, at least its not the nvidia one.
12. Now Install the latest Video Drivers for your card. Your safest bet are the ones on the EVGA support Site. "links below"
13. Once it is finished installing REBOOT
14. Happy Gaming

Step 1-5 not needed. Use the correct method of using the driver uninstaller via the control panel.

Step 7. Redundant. You can simply delete the entire C\:nvidia folder at any time before or after uninstalling the driver. It doesn't matter as long as you delete it before rebooting.

Set 7b Correction: Any Nvidia software could include the motherboard drivers. BAD IDEA. This should be step 1 and a note made just to remove the DISPLAY DRIVERS.

The rest is okay.

donta1979

Actually 1-5 is needed it can leave stuff behind that is not needed if you go about it just via the control pannel, As for just removing the directory if the installer put anything in there for the physx&  Stereoscopic  when you go to remove them it can cause an issue. Cutting corners is not a good thing. Like before when I first posted this original guide a long time ago, going though these steps is the sure and failsafe way to make sure you remove everything correctly without running into issues. Yes I updated 7b.... but with windows vista and win 7 the only nvidia software i have seen in the control panel is that for your gpus, unless you install all the extra junk like ntune etc then you run into issues thus my warning in my post if you read down...

Uh no, that isn't the way it works. Running the program uninstaller is the correct way. Your method just adds steps and does not accomplish anything.
No, the directory is not accessed when you remove the drivers. Opening the directory does nothing and adds steps that accomplish nothing.  Essentially all you needed was:

1 Via control panel uninstall PhysX drivers
2 Via control panel uninstall GPU drivers
3. Delete the c:\Nvidia driver folder
4. Reboot into safe mode
5 Run driver sweeper or driver cleaner whichever you prefer.
6 Reboot and install the driver of your choice and set your particular options that apply to your setup.

Simple and concise and accomplishes exactly the same as your method.

This is why it would be nice for nVidia to make a decent uninstaller that actually removes all the files.

I agree SLAYER  it would take the headaches out of installing new drivers ! Just lost sound after install dont know if it was the driver install or update from windows did the downloads @about the same time.

Hi, I hope this is the right place to ask this.
I'm following the uninstall/reinstallinstructions above, and driver sweeper shows Nvidia chipsets drivers along with the display driver
Do I remove those too?

Belarc advisor says i'm running Inrtel chipsets in my MOBO, so I/'m assuming the Nvidia chipset drivers are for the display.
I just don't want to kill my MOBO
in case you need the info I'm running a 9400 on vista 32

no you only remove the nvidia display driver
 
@n9zn-extra
You are over complicating things.... one you purchased an alienware hehehehe I dont buy thier crap pre builts, they are designed to pretty much go out once the warrenty is about done or has expired.... the thing is airflow for thier cases its horrid.... I own an alienware case I got for 180 dollars from alienware off of ebay.... all of the factory fans minus the hard drive one have been ripped out and thrown in the trash. But yeah look at my mod rigs check out the fans im using thermaltake 120mm 93CFM blue led fans, and a silverstone 120mm 115 CFM fan as my side panels intake. I also went as far as to get a pci slot cooler for my GTX 480. But yeah fix your airflow problems fix your tim on your gpus and problem solved.... btw dont tell them you put windows 7 on, thier techs are about as dumb as stumps just make sure you have an extra hard drive that you have win 7 on and keep your alienware hard drive with your alienware os.....  problem solved for when your computer takes a dump like alienware/dell intend.... a 9800x2 is also your problem i refused to touch those gpus with a ten foot pole and skipped the nine series all together waiting for the 200 series and the fermi since my gem 8800 Ultra overclocked and put a wamping on any 9 series card at high resolutions.

It didn't work for me..... tried to uninstall every driver and clean with driversweeper but it didn't work.   each time i try to install the driver i won«,t work.
 
i still get error code 43 in device manager on reboot
 
 
 
Any idea??
thanks!

Thanks you but the card work just fine in vista

EDIT: To begin I want to state no one in this thread gave me any bad information. I removed my prior words of disatisfaction with graphics cards and Alienware in this post when I edited and started all over. This is an accurate description of what happened to my computer. This is a lesson I believe may be more usual than unusual and far to often overlooked as a problem. It is hard for me to describe so please read carefully.
 
I learned something a few weeks ago. I found out my primary problem was a power issue. It seems two power things were going on and both directly affected my GPU's. Blaming Nvidia drivers or Alienware was still not completely out of line, bad drivers are bad drivers, and a PC built to order is expected to be built properly. I removed the prior text so as not to confuse the issue more.
 
Nvidia however recognized the driver issue and fixed it notifying those who used the bad driver to replace it with one behaving properly. Alienware on the other hand never recognized the manufacturing issue they had only to say the PSU I have was sufficient to power 2 9800 GX2 cards and having me reload a new copy of windows because nothing was wrong with the electronics. I have since found another Alienware user with the exact same issue, they sent a PC in for service and it was returned noteing no probelems were found with the computer and the OS was reloaded wipeing everything on the HDD. That PC owner later replaced his PSU with a larger capacity PSU and his problem was solved.
 
I found out the 1000 watt PSU in my machine was underpowering my GPU's which is why the PC seemed no better than the 2.4 gig PC I previously used with an old GPU. First I found I had a bad 6 to 8 pin conversion power cable (loose wires at a pin connection where 2 wires went into one pin) I got rid of the cable but the PC still was not running right using a good connector conversion cable. Thats when I remembered, when I added my second GPU I had to use a PSU cable Alienware had tucked away in the side of the computer case in order to have enough PSU PCIe connectors for two GPU cards.
 
Since I had been having power problems (conversion cable) I had already removed the second GPU. I then tried connecting a lead from each of the two different bundles of PCIe power leads from my PSU to the single GPU card (9800 gx2s have 2 power connectors.) Suddenly everything came to life with enough power and I was off and running correctly for the first time since the PC was built, nearly 3 years later. I went from MS FSX flight sim barely running to running at ultra settings and GPU temps dropped by over 20 degrees centigrade. Even World of Warcraft was hard to run as of the last release Nov. 2010. A PC store technician had previously looked at my PC and removed a killer NIC card ( year and a half ago) saying it was the likely the cause so I lost that for no real good reason and the PC vendor could not find the problem.
 
Alienware had initially only used a single PSU PCIe connector bundle to power the GPU (1 six pin, and 1 six to eight pin conversion cable) while each rail of the PSU was rated at 18 amps. Then I understood that each of those PSU PCIe power bundles of two PCIe connectors were attached to differant rails although they had a total of 4 PCIE connectors combined. Two connectors from the same PSU bundle provided 18 amps of current combined while the GPU required 24 or 28 amps (forgot which one per Nvidia chart). When the GPU had current demand placed on the PSU amperage draw went up and the GPU crashed. That problem is now gone since my GPU is drawing from 2 PSU power bundles (one PCIe connector each bundle), attached to differant rails of the PSU, providing 18 amps / rail for a total of 36 amps available to the GPU. More than enough power to run a single 9800 gx2.
 
Power issues are a mess they can look like almost anything but power was causing the problem and I feel a savy PC technician should have spotted this. This PC is no longer a pile of crap as I previously said, it is running like it should have all along now that it is getting proper power. Where I went wrong was buying this PC, reading things in many forums and assuming those problems were my problems, after all they each had the same symptoms. As of now I am thinking many of those writing what I read may  be having the same probelms I did, a lack of proper current to the GPUs or other component. This is the lesson I refered to at the beginning of this post.
 
Custom PC builders please, PLEASE, make sure the machines you build are providing enough power to the components. LOOKING AT A GPU/PSU WATTAGE CHART IS NOT ENOUGH INFORMATION TO KNOW IF A PSU WILL POWER A SPECIFIC GPU (or other component), CURRENT (amperage) MUST ALSO BE CONSIDERED. Please read that last sentence again, I can not stress how important it is.
 
Although I am not happy this happened I am happy the computer is finally running like it should have all along. I may have missed many, many, months of having a well running PC but thank goodness I didn't throw it in the trash as I did with one laptop I finally gave up on trying to fix. The cost of the desktop was all that saved it from that fate. Now I have an obsolete PC which finally is running correctly, this is an expensive lesson to learn.
 
This computer is still under a 4 year on site warranty which I have tossed in the trash. Make a mistake once I understand but repeate it over and over, then I will accept it as my loss and just move on. It took me 3 years to fix this PC but I fixed it on my own and learned alot. Next time I will build my own PC using EVGA parts and the technical advice on these boards both of which which I love more than ever now.

*

donta1979  
I have read your post at the EVGA Forums titled:
Updating/Installing/Fixing 5/6/7/8/9/200/400/500 Drivers READ (http://forums.evga.com/tm.aspx?m=224312)
 
Your information is no longer up to date. Driver Sweeper has been discontinued. And from the Guru3D forum:
 
 Driver Sweeper 2.6.0 - 10-22-2010, 20:04 | posts: 585 | Location: The Netherlands
Driver Sweeper 2.6.0 is released! 

LINK temporary removed pending investigation.

Update- until further notice we will only host v2.1 as Marcel decided to add annoying ad-ware installers inside the Driver-Sweeper setup, which we are strongly against / oppose to.

[font="'book antiqua', palatino"]

 
May I ask you to post a replacement How-To for installing new EVGA-nVidia drivers?
 


 

After recently updating my nVidia driver to 270.61, I now see Windos update is offering another driver (151.7 meg) and no driver number like 270.61. Also, the windos update offers nVidia nForce Networking Controller (582 kilobytes).
 
For the first time ever, nVidia has put an nVidia icon in the system tray. Right clicking shows "New Updates Available". Does this mean I can update to an (even) newer driver and I will not have to uninstall the "old" 270.61? Is nVidia finally doing it's own uninstall ... I'm confused. I updated to 270.61 about 3 weeks ago.
 
Anybody got a clue?

updated.

Whats the latest PrecisionX I can use with my evga 295GTX? I'm still using 1.91. Please, no giggling hehehehe. And just wondering. I just got my new cables in to use 2-DVI-D and one HDMI-DVI-D cable in to finally give up on the Matrox DTH2go box. Any guidelines to go by to get my 3 LCDS running when I plug them all into the back of the 295? Thanks.