Nvidia 320.18 WHQL Display Driver is Damaging GPUs

[LtMatt]

I have been gaming quite a bit this weekend and not noticed anything unusual in any games I have been using these drivers since release.

My card is at stock so maybe these issues are on clocked cards being pushed too hard ?

Does seem a bit weird tbh and a little bit suspect but you never know.

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...-xx-display-driver-stability-feedback-thread/

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...o-are-the-320-18-drivers-officially-broken-/1

http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4614344&postcount=45

Just the tip of the iceberg. 320.xx are giving a lot of headaches. There are reports of dead cards and many issues across the forums: OCN, Guru3D, Linustechtips, Overclockers.co.uk, etc. So I would avoid this drivers like the plague. For those of you that fell secure and safe cause you have a 6xx/7xx/Titan series, this are ramping up voltage and giving pretty bad voltage spikes, and temps also are way up, so if you overclock you're putting your card in a dangerous situation. Issues with this are BSOD's, system freezes and lock-ups, artifacts due to higher voltage/operational temps, flickering and such until death. If you stay with this release(or any 320.xx release), do it at your own risk.

THIS DRIVERS ARE BORKED. REVERT BACK TO 314.22.

Source
http://www.overclock.net/t/1399104/...lay-driver-is-damaging-gpus/110#post_20152183

 

[Gregster]

My PC setup

1- Asus P8P67
2- I7 2600K
3- Ram G-skill 2*2 GB
4- Power supply Antec 850
5- GTX 480 ( http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3398&dl=1#ov )

so after installing the new driver 320.18 my PC suddenly shut down, I have tried to turn it on again with no use, then I removed the GTX 480 the PC turned on
I used 8800 GT and the PC successfully booted

Now my GTX 480 cannot be detected and it seems that it take no power even the fan is not working

What to do now????????

I did uninstall the driver but is was too late my GTX 480 is dead

I have sent it to maintenance and they will update me in 2 days

I am realy cannot belive it, this is my first problem wit GTX 480 and it seems to be the last as will

I beleave you, the latest driver tried to fry my card, too. As soon as it booted up it had 98% load and got over 90°C.
I just can say that im lucky to have a well cooled pc, i burned my fingers while pulling it out. So hot was the cooling system.

but they must pay for their fail, this card was too expensive (with Egyptian currency 3400 EGP)
and I am stuck with Nvidia because I have 2 3D vision Kits, 3D vision compatible Screen, 3D vision compatible projector and I have no extra money now to buy a new one with same performance

monkeymagoo said:Check the very first thread in this forum. Over 30 pages of other people who have had their cards destroyed or other problems since the driver update. My card is now in the bin...

Check Post 410 page 28, Post 373&371 page 25, Post 351 page 24, Post 345&342&339&332&331 Page 23, Post 330 page 22, Post 306 Page 21, Post 90 page 6, Post 49 page 4, Post 33 page 3

Gigabyte here in egypt told my the card is totaly dead and they cannot do anything to me

I am not sure on Egyptian law but here in the UK, if I sent a card to Gigabyte that was in warranty and broken through normal operation, they would replace it.

If the card was out of warranty, they wouldn't want the card to be returned or just wouldn't accept an RMA.

Something isn't adding up with your story.

Gigabyte here in Egypt is just some kind of re-seller, and they cannot do any hardware maintenance for VGA cards they only replace it if it is in the warranty period, and it is only 2 years and I have my card since 7/2010 so it is out of warranty

they offered to send it back to Gigabyte but it will not come back again and may be (may be) they will send me about 30% from its value now in month or two

This is a user to user forum. Nvidia will never directly reply. Your best bet is to open a ticket with the company you bought the card from.

You will wait forever.

Thanks for your advice, but it seems it will take ages

I think they forced some how voltage increase for older cards, like 400 series, and all the cards, except Kepler run with pretty low voltages, i think the driver increased the volts, and the cards died.

I am trying to find any solution with Gigabyte

they are afraid to say that

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...ivers/my-gtx-480-died-after-install-320-18-/1

Please tell me where that points to the drivers killed/damaged his GPU? That story is all over the place. This was the original story that started this "Nvidia drivers killed my card"

If someone can show me evidence of voltages going higher on older cards, I will be the first to put my hand up and agree with the AMD boys.

 

[humbug]

Thread title My "GTX 480 died after install 320.18" ^^^

edit https://forums.geforce.com/default/...lay-driver-feedback-thread-released-5-23-13-/

read through that, that's the 320.18 driver thread.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18517976

It is the same as this guy going onto an AMD forum and claiming that AMD drivers killed his GPU...

Or this guy saying it was the latest drivers that killed his GPU...

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18518587

The joke of this thread is it took an AMD owner to go onto the Nvidia forums to search for problems. Why would you do this and don't come with that massive "I am only trying to help" crap.

Jokers....

That's a bit rich...

Is this another one of them?

I think this driver has seriously broke something in my pc when I start just before windows I get a red flash then severe graphical corruption then screen goes blank what would happen about an rma ?? As this is nvidia fault ??

whose next? is anyone safe from that sort of accusation?

How do you keep getting away with that sort of stuff, greg?

 

[Gregster]

That's a bit rich...

Is this another one of them?



whose next? is anyone safe from that sort of accusation?

Why is it rich? Please explain.

 

[MOOGLEYS]

My card temps are ok and voltages are solid and good even after hours of gaming. No artifacts or corruption.

If it dies it goes back and gets replaced.

 

[Rroff]

Been having a play with a spare 470 and its not showing as higher voltages to me in i.e. MSI Afterburner but can't discount the possibility its increasing the voltage and still being reported as the old voltage for that bin as I don't understand the lower level workings of that - but atleast as far as Windows diagnostic tools its not showing evidence of increased voltage.

 

[queeg]

I have also been using this driver for a while on a msi 670 pe no problems

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

If I decide to uninstall these drivers (just to be safe) do I need to do anything more than installing the previous drivers and doing a clean install when given the option?
Driver Fusion and CCleaner all seem a bit overkill surely?

 

[opethdisciple]

What have Nvidia said regarding these accusations?

Have they confirmed or denied them?

 

[Neil79]

With all the reports of problems you'd think people would avoid or go back to the previous drivers, even if they work for some. Imagine if a specific make of car had brake issues that are dangerous and likely to fail causing the loss of life. Yet some would say, my car is fine It hasn't happened to me yet so i'll still use it.

Beggers belief


It's not just dead graphics cards that MAY be an issue, but we have a number of other problems which are far more common

BSOD's
FREEZE UPs
GRAPHICAL faults

 

[scooby555t]

using this driver was getting artfaciting in bf3 noticed if i disabled xfire ingame chat fixed it everything else plays fine

 

[tommybhoy]

What have Nvidia said regarding these accusations?

 

[humbug]

And if it was damaged by the driver while out of warranty, thought luck....

If this driver is killing/damaging GPU's Nvidia would be stupid to admit it as that would open them up to claims.

 

[Rusty0611]

There's more posts in this thread from people sticking the boot in than there is people with an issue and/or advice. Quite typical isn't it .

 

[thefogo]

I had problems with artifacts on BF3 and Metro Last Light with these drivers (no damage though). I rolled back and have had no problems since.

 

[murah]

I had massive issues with this driver, I have rolled back to 310.90. It was the most stable for the games I play, and BF3 works beautifully with it

 

[smilertoo]

How do you get older drivers if you don't have a rollback cos you just reinstalled windows? they seem to have removed the older drivers menu.
nm...typing a driver number into search gets you it.

 

[shankly1985]

This isn't the first time Nvidia have meant to have released a driver that damages the GPU.
Take a look of this YouTube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRo-1VFMcbc&list=FLf3qrmLynVBz4OOdzStcwdw&index=2

But AMD have bad drivers

 

[PCZ]

All those screenshots look very much like too high OC's.
Push memory or GPU too far and you get those screens.

I am using 320.18 with my 680's and all is fine.

Most likely scenario here is that the driver has some tweaks to improve performance which the OC'd cards cant handle.

Fault here is end user OC's and factory OC'd cards which haven't been tested properly.

 

[Random Guy]

My 680s are in SLI at stock with these latest Drivers. No issues with BF3 or any other game I have played so far.

Mind you, if anything does happen, I will never buy another Nvidia product again.