Nvidia 169.28 beta drivers are THE fix for 8800GT GPU owners running Vista 32bit

[Ikaros]

As far as video driver installation goes, whatever works for you is what matters.

You can install one driver over another without un-installing first. But I recommend if you do, then don't do the "restart now" option at the end. I've found sometimes Murphy's law will hit you there and the PC may lockup after this kind of overwrite install, probably because the old driver is still loaded? Instead, exit when it is done and then do a manual Windows restart and all should be fine. [EDIT] But if it does screw up remove the driver and redo as a clean driver install. Get a removal tool to help if all else fails...

If you have the patience the "safest way" is to uninstall old driver, restart, and cancel the plug and play detect driver prompt when Windows comes up. Then do a clean driver install and restart when prompted at the end. What does it hurt to be safe, just some idle time?

Either way should work fine.

AnubanUT2 - I think you are helping the community by making fellow UT3 gamers aware of the issue and the beta fix. I think sometimes typed words are easily given an undesired interpretation when read by different people.

We gotta all remember this isn't any contest or anything to be fighting over. That's not the point. It misses the point actually. It's all about helping the UT3 gaming community - each other!

[AnubanUT2]

As far as video driver installation goes, whatever works for you is what matters.

You can install one driver over another without un-installing first. But I recommend if you do, then don't do the "restart now" option at the end. I've found sometimes Murphy's law will hit you there and the PC may lockup after this kind of overwrite install, probably because the old driver is still loaded? Instead, exit when it is done and then do a manual Windows restart and all should be fine.

If you have the patience the safest way is to uninstall old driver, restart, and cancel the plug and play detect driver prompt when Windows comes up. Then do a clean driver install and restart when prompted at the end.

Either way should work fine.

AnubanUT2 - I think you are helping the community by making fellow UT3 gamers aware of the issue and the beta fix. I think sometimes typed words are easily given an undesired interpretation when read by different people.

We gotta all remember this isn't any contest or anything to be fighting over. That's not the point. It misses the point actually. It's all about helping the UT3 gaming community - each other!

I don't have a clue what you are saying ... obviously I am not fighting over anything ... but rather trying to make certain that fights don't occur on this thread. The driver installation means nothing to me ... I already said that as long as it works for you do whatever makes you comfortable. Thanks for the comments ... if you wish to talk more about what you said to me then please pm me and we can discuss that offline. Thanks.

Edit: BTW I have been installing graphic drivers the same way for 5 years now at least and never had an issue ... so make of that what you will.

[xi0s]

Well that doesn't matter ... what matter is what works and this is not a big enough issue for me to debate .. if you feel comfortable doing it that way then go right ahead. I was merely informing you it is not necessary at all. Most of us know this and I was trying to give you a heads up. Do what you will though.

I think youre giving unsafe advice in the first place because you're basically saying its ok to allow corrupt drivers or allow graphics-related issues to take place. There are lots of conflicts that can take place between outdated drivers, and not uninstalling is one of the most basic mistakes you can make.

[AnubanUT2]

I think youre giving unsafe advice in the first place because you're basically saying its ok to allow corrupt drivers or allow graphics-related issues to take place. There are lots of conflicts that can take place between outdated drivers, and not uninstalling is one of the most basic mistakes you can make.

please stop ... I already addressed this issue and now the thread is veering away from the main issue. How people install these drivers is not my responsibility. If a person doesn't know how to install drivers in a way that works for them then they don't need to be on these boards doing advanced gaming. Thanks.

[AnubanUT2]

This really needs to stay on the front page. Can we please get a sticky for this please since it is the REAL solution to the problem and many people need to know about this so they don't get all upset and get on this forum and start up with the Epic sucks and the game is bad talk. Help me out here one of you admins please.

[xi0s]

please stop ... I already addressed this issue and now the thread is veering away from the main issue. How people install these drivers is not my responsibility. If a person doesn't know how to install drivers in a way that works for them then they don't need to be on these boards doing advanced gaming. Thanks.

Sorry dude, its not my fault you dish out bad advice and can't take criticism for it in return. You should've just not insisted on how people go about installing their drivers if it was never your responsibility to begin with, as you have so mentioned.

This really needs to stay on the front page. Can we please get a sticky for this please since it is the REAL solution to the problem and many people need to know about this so they don't get all upset and get on this forum and start up with the Epic sucks and the game is bad talk. Help me out here one of you admins please.

Are you kidding yourself? It seriously wouldn't hurt to wait until a bunch of users with that specific card come forward and say it works, and its a proven fix for those 8800 GT users on Vista before going forth all gung ho and proclaiming it official.

I'm sure Epic stays in touch with Nvidia enough that they can determine if its worth stickying in the troubleshooting faq's thread, especially since its still a beta release.

[incubus]

Done diddly squat to fix anything for me, as far as I can see it just made the card run noticeably hotter. Already gone back to my previous driver. I also have 2 mates that have tried these drivers, and no joy for them either.

and start up with the Epic sucks and the game is bad talk

You got to be kidding right? I can assure you, there are plenty of other reasons, besides this issue with the 8800GT, for people to get upset and start up with the "Epic sucks and the game is bad talk"

[msny]

If you read my OP I did say that there was a great chance it would fix the issue because this card is also based on the new G92 architecture but I didn't want to say definitely because I hadn't been able to test it myself. Thanks for verifying that it does indeed work.

And you do NOT have to uninstall the old drivers first ... that is the computer graphics world's biggest myth. I never do that and have NEVER had a problem because of that reason ... just run the install program and the drivers get overwritten. There is no reason to waste time doing an extra unnecessary step.

Well it is no myth. I've been using ATI and nvida cards for years.
A clean install is the BEST install. Wipe out the old driver set completly.

Until I did this the hitching continued, so this is the procedure that
fixed my setup....the second time I did it cleanly.

[AnubanUT2]

Sorry dude, its not my fault you dish out bad advice and can't take criticism for it in return. You should've just not insisted on how people go about installing their drivers if it was never your responsibility to begin with, as you have so mentioned.



Are you kidding yourself? It seriously wouldn't hurt to wait until a bunch of users with that specific card come forward and say it works, and its a proven fix for those 8800 GT users on Vista before going forth all gung ho and proclaiming it official.

I'm sure Epic stays in touch with Nvidia enough that they can determine if its worth stickying in the troubleshooting faq's thread, especially since its still a beta release.

Bad advice? ... I don't do that man ... been part of this community too long to give bad advice and also I have done real concrete work for this community (see sig) so I would never do anything to screw anyone that is part of this community. If someone wants to install drivers a specific way that is their choice ... I know what works for me and has always worked for me for over 5 years. If it doesn't work for someone else of course they should follow the mfgs installation instructions. Only an idiot wouldn't do that anyway if they had any doubts whatsoever. And as far as taking criticism please man ... I did HaloUT and we had four major content releases along with patches so I think I am pretty good at handling criticism.

Again I am just attempting to assist a very particular segment of UT3 gamers ... if this can help others that is great but I can only speak for what the thread title says and I know this fix will work for at least 90% of the Vista/8800GT gamers that have the freezing issue. As I said the easy way to check and see if you have the bug THIS DRIVER will fix is to play the maps DM-Gateway and any of the Torlan maps as I said earlier. If you have a freeze that last longer than 5 seconds you have this bug and this will fix it. You may also have other bugs though that this doesn't address ... I cannot speak to those.

People who have tried this on the Guru3d and Gamespot forums have said that this worked for them on threads I started and only one or two people who have this configuration have reported that the driver did not address their issue, however they never clarified if they had this specific bug.

Edit: Folks follow the manufacturers advice about how to install video drivers unless you have been doing this stuff for a while and feel comfortable just doing your own thing and taking your own risks. To be certain though you should go ahead and install drivers on a clean system. This way you will be able to eliminate the older drivers as possible culprits completely in the event you don't obtain the desired results. Be aware that some people have gone so far as to completely reformat their hard drives before installing vid drivers. I have never had to do that though and usually from all the threads I have read on all the forums I have been on this doesn't have any impact but a placebo one. Still do what makes you feel the most comfortable.

[Teddie]

Thanks AnubanUT2.

I'll try these out. I get little pauses on Torlan (just tested) with the latest official ones.

[Phoenix86]

It's all about helping the UT3 gaming community - each other!

omfg <3

[AnubanUT2]

Thanks AnubanUT2.

I'll try these out. I get little pauses on Torlan (just tested) with the latest official ones.

Well Teddie do me a favor after you have installed them and no matter what the results are please post back to this thread. And I do hope and totally believe these will alleviate your problem if your system meets the specs I said.

[Sincreator]

My bro is using these drivers right now and he says there the best available for UT3, but they dont do anything to help performance with crysis.(Still crawls in places, and sometimes locks up altogether. By the way he has sli gtx's. If all your looking for is a fix for unreal, these are your drivers. If you want overall performance increases wait for the WHQL certified driver that will probaly be released very shortly. Oh and anuban flame me again PLEASE!!!

[Harmatia]

Just because I saw a lot of confrontation about this, I figured I'd post my method (commonly considered the best method) of doing driver installations.

1. Uninstall old drivers
2. Boot into Safe Mode
3. Run driver cleaner (downloadable from guru3d... removes all references to old drivers. If not in safe mode windows will use some of them, and thus they can't be erased).
4. (possible another reboot into normal mode, I don't bother) Install new drivers.
5. You're all done. I didn't do it for a long time without any issue, but once I started experiencing problems I tried it out and it often solves everything. Now, with the frequent release of buggy beta drivers, I always follows these steps so that I'm sure my installation isn't the problem.

[Syl]

I get some BSoD with these drivers and I don't know why
BSoD happens when I exit UT3 or sometimes when I try to shutdown/reboot my rig.
I didn't have BSoD with the latest WHQL.
I have a 8800GTX with Vista 64.

edit I'll try the clean install Harmatia mentioned...