Weird video driver problem in Vista32

[CrashEd]

I'm getting a weird video driver problem in Vista32 and wondered if any of you guys had come across it?

I recently installed a Vista update, and I'm sure it installed a new nVidia driver, or driver component of some sort. Anyway, it screwed up my settings and I decided to uninstall it using driver sweeper and installed the latest Nvidea driver (190.xx). However, after installing the driver I noticed that I couldn't use it with nHancer - I use this to set up my gfx card settings...

So, I rolled back to the last known driver but I still get the problems I had after Vista had screwed everything up! I rolled back to 182.08 fyi.

The problem: Basically, I get a kind of pixelating effect in FSX, which gets worse and worse up until the point a twhich I have to exit. It contiues in Vista and I often have to reboot. See the link below:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...gfx-error2.jpg

Also, sometimes the screen goes black for a second or two and I get an error message saying "Display driver nvlddmkm has stopped working and has sucessfully recovered".

It's all very odd, and it is hampering any hope of flying for more than 10 mins

Can anyone help??

[autocadplease]

Try doing a system restore to a time that you know everything worked?

[CrashEd]

That's not a bad shout, although I'm not sure what else I've changed since the Vista update. Bloddy Vista!!

[Airhogg]

Hey CrashEd,
I had a similar problem, but not sure if it's the same. I noticed grainy graphics and wasn't sure why it had happened all of a sudden, but it turned out my graphics settings (in game) had reverted to 16bit vs 32bit. It's worth a look!

[autocadplease]

Bloddy Vista!!

Windows 7 is only weeks away!

[ak49er]

May have to diasble onboard VGA again?

[CrashEd]

Hey CrashEd,
I had a similar problem, but not sure if it's the same. I noticed grainy graphics and wasn't sure why it had happened all of a sudden, but it turned out my graphics settings (in game) had reverted to 16bit vs 32bit. It's worth a look!

Good shout I checked it but it is still on 32-bit. Worth remembering that thoug for the future!

Bring on Windows 7!! (well, I'll probably wait for SP1 )

May have to diasble onboard VGA again?

Yeah, I'll try that tonight. I'm gonna do two runs of drive sweeper in safe mode and try the driver again too. Fingers crossed.

[CrashEd]

Bizarrely I've found a (unsatisfactory) solution to my problem.

After several re-installs of drivers, changing settings and all manner of things I decided it was hardware related. I downloaded RivaTuner and started messing with fan settings. I found that if I crank the fan setting to >70% then the problem seems to go away. Perhaps my card was getting too hot and crashing?

The weird thing is that it has never done it before. Either:

1, Vista did something stupid that altered the 'auto' fan settings somehow (not impossible)
2, The card is on it's way out

If it is number 2 then I'm tempted to take it back as (I think) it is still under warranty.

Any thoughts?