nVidia driver failure from Windows Update! HELP!

jrfrazier1 · 14 Jun 2011

As an addendum, the problem is with Nvidia 275.xx drivers. Rolling back to a previous driver and turning off any automatic windows updates will usually fix the issue. Of course, you also need to tell the user not to update anything from Nvidia or else they'll end up with the faulty driver series again...

Nvidia forums indicate they recognize the problem, but whether they will do much about it... who knows.

Fumz · 14 Jun 2011

jrfrazier1 said:

The above comments may be true, but the vast majority of Windows users defer to Microsoft default settings, which for updates is the "Automatic" setting. This means every day end users (most of the people running Windows) will get corrupted software pushes automatically from Microsoft from time to time. Maybe Nvidia should work better with the MS people, but the latest Windows 7 64 bit "critical" update ruined a large number of computers here in our offices and in the surrounding area. We've spent significant resources now to go in and fix the systems one by one, in some cases having to ultimately do fresh windows 7 installs to correct the problems, as simple driver updates or cleaning/replacement seems not to work well for some reason.

I would just like to see MS take a little more responsibility for their updates, especially those which they push in an automatic fashion to regular end users who are not working in IT. If the vendors who make products used in windows machines are not responsible enought to keep their driver databases updated with MS, then Microsoft has a responsibility to recognize this problem and not include those drivers in updates... or at a minimum, check that the driver databases are up to date and not corrupted. I know the usual Microsoft MO is to push out things and let IT deparatments fix them, but this one in on Microsoft, not NVidia.

It's not that the comments "may" be true; it's how Windows Update works... and yes, every day people get out-dated and sometimes corrupted drivers. Microsoft isn't responsible for every vendor under the sun, they can't be... Microsoft can only be responsible for Microsoft. I'm no MS fanboy, but this criticism is really unfair.

Nobody's perfect... and with such a wide variety of platforms, from time to time things are going to mess up; this is reality, and it's unavoidable.

Instead of having the unrealistic expectation that Microsoft be responsible for every non-Microsoft part we put in our systems, it's up to users to be responsible for their own machines; it's up to us to put a modicum of effort into knowing how the machines we rely on operate... instead of laying blame everywhere else but us when things don't go right.