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Help, I can't install Nvidia drivers :(

Mark A

Mark A

Mark A

Soldato
Joined
19 May 2005
Posts
18,203
Location
Lancashire
Hi,

I just tried to update my drivers for my GTX280 and it keeps saying the system has not been modified. Ive tried the newest driver and also the one i was using before i tried to update with no luck.

Got a feeling Ive messed something up. I uninstalled the driver using add and remove then ran drive sweeper then rebooted and installed the new driver but it keeps giving me that message.

Now the card isn't even appearing in device manager :(. Well it is but it says this:

Image-0418.jpg


Any help appreciated, really wanted to play L4D2.
 
System restore to a point before you ran driver sweeper, I don't know why people keep using it. You don't need to uninstall any drivers these day, just overwrite them with the newer ones.

Location: Rossendale - Local to me then! In Haslingden myself.
 
Thanks, I'll give that a try. I did try and restore it earlier but it only gave 5 restore points and they were all from today, so wasn't sure if they would take it back far enough as Ive tried installing this driver a few times now.

It seems strange that its not even recognising the card in device manager, Ive never had this happen before. Ive installed drivers this way many times before.

Some more details in case they can help:

Asus P5Q-E
Vista 64

Just backing up my steam folder before i do anything else, if i need to do a fresh windows install i don't fancy downloading 70gb of games again.

Haslingden is very close to where i live, I'm near to Rawtenstall. Small world :).
 
LoadsaMoney said:
Theres yer problem :)
Click to expand...

:confused: I was told by a mate it was decent. I did use Driver cleaner 3 before it. So the best thing to do in future is just click install on the new driver and not do anything with the old one?

So now i just need to try and sort out how to fix this. I'll try what Wilderbeast suggested when this transfer has completed but I'm not holding much hope as i don't think the restore times go back far enough.

Any idea what the problem is and how i can fix it? I'm a total n00b when it comes to PCs. I can build them but when they go wrong I'm screwed lol.
 
Driver sweeper has probably removed something it shouldn't have and by doing so has stopped the OS from seeing the card for what it is. If you haven't got a decent restore point, use vista's file and settings transfer wizard and collect your data then do a reformat and then simply import all your files and settings. Takes a little longer than doing it manually, but tbh it's a hell of a lot easier.
 
Why do people uninstall old nvidia drivers before they update to newer ones???

I have NEVER needed to do this when updating drivers, just install them over the top of the previous ones, it doesn't do any harm at all, or at least I haven't had a single issue with this in all the years I have used nvidia graphics cards..
 
Ive not been in the hardware section for a couple of years, since i was searching for information on building this PC but back then this was what most people recommended me to do. In fact in most threads on the subject people recommended this approach as it removes files left behind after the uninstall.

From now on I'll just install the new driver over the top. It did seem a bit strange having to run a cleaning app, when i don't do that for any other drivers and have never had a problem.

Still waiting for these steam files to transfer, its going unbelievably slow for some reason, 3.79MB/s :(. As soon as its done I'll see if i can restore it, if not i guess its fresh install time.

Thanks for the help :).
 
You shouldn't need to do a fresh install to fix this mate, that would be a lot of hassle for nothing..

What happens when you power up the system?

Doesn't it detect the card at all?
 
It boots up normally but the res is set to 800 x 600. The first time i booted up after removing the old driver I got an error message, saying there was a missing Nvidia file but i thought nothing of it.

When i try to install the driver it all seems to go fine, it extracts the files but it says the files already exist and asks if i want to overwrite (despite the driver being removed in add and remove and using driver sweep). Then it gets to the screen where it should start installing the driver and says the system hasn't been modified and i can install at another time (or something similar).

When i try to install the driver via the 'unknown device' box in device manager it says it cannot find the device to install driver. Also windows has found an update for the gfx card but that fails to install.

Could it be something to do with the driver for the pci express bus?
 
Just tried a system restore and no luck.

Bios detects the card so i don't think its a hardware fault?

Guess I'll just have to do a fresh install and see if that fixes it. Unless anyone has any other suggestions?

I'll leave if for now anyway, i cba messing with it any more.
 
Have you tried pressing F8 then pick "last known good configuration"
or in device manager uninstall the GPU and restart or pick your own drivers then pick generic VGA from the MS list
then after a reboot re-install NV drivers and if it asks you if you want to replace the folders and what not on C: say yes to all.

Worth a shot.
 
I had this same problem after running bloody Driver Sweeper. Will never use it again! I system restored back to an earlier point, and it fixed it for me.
 
Mr Paul said:
Tut tut nVidia drivers ;)
Click to expand...

omg! really?

If you can't restore to a working point with system restore then I'd say all is lost :( I trust you are competent enough with device manager to install your own drivers and its either failed or simply refused? If so it'll be quicker and less frustrating to just do a file and settings transfer and reformat reformat. "Last known good config" boot is no good either as it will just load the last config that actually completed boot time tasks. As said previously driver sweeper has screwed it here, as it has for a lot of people.

As far as I know there is no need for it with either ATi or Nvidia drivers anymore, I think everyone just installs over the top of their current drivers.
 
Last edited:
Wilderbeast said:
omg! really?

If you can't restore to a working point with system restore then I'd say all is lost :( I trust you are competent enough with device manager to install your own drivers and its either failed or simply refused? If so it'll be quicker and less frustrating to just do a file and settings transfer and reformat reformat. "Last known good config" boot is no good either as it will just load the last config that actually completed boot time tasks. As said previously driver sweeper has screwed it here, as it has for a lot of people.

As far as I know there is no need for it with either ATi or Nvidia drivers anymore, I think everyone just installs over the top of their current drivers.
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm just taking the micky mate as nVidiots are always slagging off ATI's driver sets ;)

But driver sweeper is a bad idea now days!
 
I had issues updating to 195.55 drivers this morning. Eventually got things fixed by running DriverSweeper in safe mode, rebooting and then unusually,installing the drivers in safe mode.
 
UTmaniac said:
I had issues updating to 195.55 drivers this morning. Eventually got things fixed by running DriverSweeper in safe mode, rebooting and then unusually,installing the drivers in safe mode.
Click to expand...

Same as the problem I'm having? The driver I'm trying to install is 191.07, the latest WHQL driver from the nvidia site. Ive never had a problem with Nvidia drivers, they have always handled any game Ive played. The only game Ive had crashes with is L4D, but that is a problem with the game and loads of people get the odd crash.

I'll try system restore again but it only offers me 5 restore points and all were from yesterday and the earliest one didn't take it back far enough. When i had XP it had loads of restore points going back weeks IIRC. Then try and install it in safe mode.

If all else fails I'll do a fresh install of windows. Its been running a bit slow lately anyway. Thanks again and at least i know never to use drive sweeper again.
 
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