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I'm afraid to update my Geforce driver

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EGDEric

Programmer
Aug 19, 2003
16
CA
For some reason I won't go into, I want to update my Geforce 4 Ti 200 driver. I go to the Nvidia website, and what do I find? Nothing specific to my driver, just a download for something called "forceware". I'm supposed to install it. Simple enough, except for one problem: I'm supposed to uninstall my display driver before installing this. By uninstalling my display driver, I could risk never being able to get it back again for a while, if this "update" isn't what I'm looking for. (well, I still have that disk that came with my comp, but that doesn't work for some games, unless I have the updated version that I have, which I downloaded from Nvidia's site a long time ago - don't remember what the update looked like before, but I don't remember having to uninstall something before updating the driver... I also don't remember being instructed to disable virus protection...
 
You do know this is a Windows XP Pro Thread... Not a hardware thread??????
[surprise]

MoMoZoNe
 
If you don't see a better driver there probably isn't one. Don't update.
 
Good Advice Franklin.... If its not broke dont fix it!

MoMoZoNe
 
You can also follow these steps to check what version driver your video card is using:

1. Go into your Device Manager
2. Select Display Adapters
3. Right-click on your video card listing
4. Select properties
5. Click on the Driver tab and look for driver version.

That should give some insight as to what version driver you have.

Also if you are using Windows XP, you can update your drivers and still have the ability to go back to your current version by using the Driver Rollback feature.

Enkrypted
A+
 
Forceware is an all-inclusive and should install the correct driver for your card. I would recommend downloading and reading the release notes. The video for my FX 5600 was not good (I just updated my driver also), but there was a fix in the release notes. Enkrypted is right. It is very easy to roll back the driver in XP Pro. I did it several times before I found the previously mentioned solution in the release notes.
 
HOW TO: Use the Driver Roll Back Feature to Restore a Previous Version of a Device Driver in Windows XP

There is also System Restore or other Backup solutions.

This is handy to know about. There are utilities to remove all traces of an Nvidia driver install; freeware:
Disabling virus protection before updating is an old philosophy that may not be required nowadays, but (and it is a big but), there are many other security type programs that offer things such as registry protection that may interfere with any installs, so it is a good idea to comply with this instruction, in my opinion, and disable all protection during an install and then after to enable it.


It is also not an unusual instruction to remove Display Drivers before installing new ones.

Forceware is "One driver for all products—the NVIDIA Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)—for rock-solid compatibility, stability, and reliability"

Just make sure you are not downloading anything that is "Beta", and don't get drivers from Windows Updates, always get the from the manufacturer, and you will cut down a lot of the potential hazards.
 
Hola,

to shed some light on this:

Forceware is the newer name of the Detonator drivers...

do check the release notes, if the driver covers your GFX-Card, as the newer ForceWare are for the newer chips in question...

you may also go to the Guru3d Website, there they host the original Detonators and upto the newest Forceware drivers...

see:
have fun...

Ben

If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer...
 
Thank you, good people. My mind is at ease!
 
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