Question About Nvidia Card

[hexagram23]

This isn't the typical "the game runs like shit because I have Vista and an Nvidia card". I do have Vista but FFXI runs great on it.

The question is about the card itself. For whatever reason, when I go into the Nvidia Control Panel, and change stuff in Manage 3D Settings, none of the changes I make ever stay. Anything I change in Global Settings or Program Settings goes back to default as soon as I exit out of the window, no matter how many hits I hit Apply.

My card is a Nvidia Ge-Force 8800 GTS 640 MB, and my drivers are 175.16. This problem isn't specifically about FFXI since the settings won't stay at all, in general.

[Cephius]

The Nvidia programs are notoriously shit. I had this same problem before, uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers (I actually updated them, but I always clean out the old drivers first and I'm guessing that's what fixed it. I had updated drivers before without uninstalling first and the 3d settings problem persisted) fixed it.

[hexagram23]

The Nvidia programs are notoriously shit. I had this same problem before, uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers (I actually updated them, but I always clean out the old drivers first and I'm guessing that's what fixed it. I had updated drivers before without uninstalling first and the 3d settings problem persisted) fixed it.

Forgive my ignorance but how does one "clean out the drivers"? I don't know too much about computers unfortunately.

[Cephius]

I posted this in another thread... see if it works for you.

Download Driver Sweeper, and then download the nvidia drivers you use and save to your desktop.

1: Browse to "C:\Nvidia", leave window open
2: Open device manager, and browse to your video card
3: Right click and choose "uninstall"
4: Delete driver software if prompted (your screen might flicker and revert resolution, this is normal), DO NOT REBOOT YET
5. Go back to the C:\Nvidia folder you left open, delete everything inside it
6. Reboot
7. Start in safe mode (tap f8 on boot)
8. Run driver sweeper, choose to delete all nvidia display drivers. Press the broom icon, it might seem like it did nothing but don't worry, it ran.
9. Reboot. Windows will install generic VGA drivers, if it installs a nvidia driver you did something wrong, go back and delete everything. Do NOT let windows update install anything for you.
10. Install display drivers that you saved to your desktop. Once finished reboot

[hexagram23]

I posted this in another thread... see if it works for you.

Download Driver Sweeper, and then download the nvidia drivers you use and save to your desktop.

1: Browse to "C:\Nvidia", leave window open
2: Open device manager, and browse to your video card
3: Right click and choose "uninstall"
4: Delete driver software if prompted (your screen might flicker and revert resolution, this is normal), DO NOT REBOOT YET
5. Go back to the C:\Nvidia folder you left open, delete everything inside it
6. Reboot
7. Start in safe mode (tap f8 on boot)
8. Run driver sweeper, choose to delete all nvidia display drivers. Press the broom icon, it might seem like it did nothing but don't worry, it ran.
9. Reboot. Windows will install generic VGA drivers, if it installs a nvidia driver you did something wrong, go back and delete everything. Do NOT let windows update install anything for you.
10. Install display drivers that you saved to your desktop. Once finished reboot

Thanks a ton, that worked like a charm....although when I rebooted after I erased the Nvidia stuff from the folder, it said something about it couldn't find a Windows file, System 32 or something? Is that normal? After I installed the drivers and rebooted again the error message went away though.

I have another question too. I was looking for the newest drivers for my card, and the drivers I've been using are 175.16 BETA for Vista 32-bit. So I figured the offical 175.16 would be better, but when I went to install it, it said my computer isn't 32 bit....which is retarded because it obviously is.

This was before I uninstalled everything though and did Driver Sweeper, so maybe that was the problem. Is there any harm in using the BETA version of the drivers if they work fine? I'll just stick with those if it's basically the same.

[Cephius]

You got that system32 error message because you deleted the drivers, they still must have been in use in your memory somewhere. No big deal as you were wiping them out anyway.

Not sure why you got the 32-bit error, maybe you tried to download an XP-only drivers? Regardless, beta drivers are fine to use if they work for you. When it comes to Nvidia drivers, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[hexagram23]

Thanks a million man.

There is another thread above, about Windower crashing my computer when I hit ALT+TAB....any idea why that is? It's not the official POL Windower, it's the Windower 3.4 with plug-ins, etc. I did just try it out after I did the uninstall/install like you said and it seemed ok so far....could the drivers I had before cause this problem to happen?

I figured I'd ask you since you seem to know a lot.

[Cephius]

It's possible, I haven't played FFXI (and therefore used Windower) in over a year so I'm not really aware of issues that will cause it to crash. Nvidia cards and FFXI just don't seem to get along well, so placing the blame on it is never a longshot