We're getting reports where users are getting intermittent low FPS after installing these drivers. It seems that it is related to the fan control included in these drivers not working correctly and is causing the video card to overheat on 3D applications. This will affect Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft and StarCraft II Beta. Please revert your drivers to the 196.21 drivers if you're affected by this. More information can be found at http://www.nvidia.com/object/196.75_customer_support.html


Windows XP: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_196.21_whql.html
Windows XP 64-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp64_196.21_whql.html
Windows Vista/7 32-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_32bit_196.21_whql.html
Windows Vista/7 64-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_64bit_196.21_whql.html

This is the wrong place to post that issue. These drivers are new and seemed to have introduced a new issue. Yours predate that and yours is also a laptop; it can't use these drivers without a lot of modifications. A computer shutting down is a response to a hardware error. You need to contact your manufacturer for assistance as laptops can do it for many reasons; can't charge the battery correctly, power management, faulty power brick, and overheating. Your GPU going over 100 C is definitely an issue and should be looked into. Having a portable computer that can boil water isn't good. :)

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Q u o t e:
Can anyone post a link to an older confirmed safe version and how to make sure you revert to that prior driver that would be a life saver because i don't know what to download atm.

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The ones I linked are prior, working versions. In most cases, you can just run the installer and it'll overwrite the newer drivers. You can always go in the Control Panel - Add or Remove Programs / Uninstall and then remove it. Please do not remove the NVIDIA nForce chipset drivers if you have it; you want the video drivers.

Laptops do not have the 196.75 drivers so you're safe from those. The latest drivers you all have are the 12/2009 195.62 drivers.

You need to contact your manufacturer for help with your issue. The issue reported here is new to the 196.75 drivers. These are desktop cards where their fan settings are just pretty much stuck at a speed instead of spinning up to keep the cards cooler.

This issue is specific to these drivers. Please do not post unrelated stuff or I may go thru and delete the posts.

Notebooks are safe unless you run modified drivers (like laptopvideo2go builds off of the 196.75). Desktop ones aren't except the integrated chips / fanless designs that don't have fans, for obvious reasons :)

It seems like the drivers were removed from the NVIDIA site. First post updated.

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Q u o t e:
i did it for windows XP 32 and still my world of warcraft is locking up my whole computer. i believe its do to the last patch on tuesday because my world of warcraft worked fine until that patch

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That patch doesn't touch your game files. It fixes the Repair utility, something that you have to manually run if you ever want to use it :)

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Q u o t e:


I tried downloading the drivers that the post mentioned and it still does not fix my problem.

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This is a very specific issue. I do not understand what you're missing:

1. Games works fine.
2. Update to 196.75
3. Game works fine for a bit, things start dying. Either you'd get a crash, things become slow, you start getting artifacts or so on.

There is no Patch in this equation. If you're having some other issue, you're in the wrong thread.

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Q u o t e:
I have a 9600gt card and have never had any issues with frame rates in 25 man raids until the last patch. i had previously never updated the drivers for my card. After I started having problems with frame rates I updated to the newest available drivers (196.21). No change in my frame rate. Clearly the problem is whatever changes bliz made this past Tuesday. I cant speak for everyone, but my frame rate in 25 man instances has dropped to the point where using the onboard graphics might be an improvement.

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The patch on Tuesday does NOT affect the game in any shape or form. It's a fix for the Repair utility. The game doesn't run or need the repair utility. It's there as a convenience. Your issue lies elsewhere; not with the drivers and not with that patch.

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Q u o t e:
Wow i ve fallowed the direction from all ur post....
Blizzard just does n t get it .............Its a bug and not the driver... Currently windows xp , reinstalled old drive same issues...... What do we have to do to get u morons to fix this issue? This vidio card stuff is getting old and its always blizzard fixing it with a patch....... I'm so sick and tried of trying ur fixes and still same issue.... Please tell me what to do..........I'm very pissed

I still have no reply but to say that my game turns into a screen saver looking thing with varous shapes moving about then later comes the dc plz help

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You're overheating.

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Q u o t e:
Then how can you explain the fact that I have had the same drivers since I bought the card a year ago, have never updated the drivers (until yesterday), and have not had a single issue until the last patch?
*and my card has no issues that i can find

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Age of devices involved, temperature changes (we're all moving away from it being winter), Windows Update day, daily security updates and so on. Many things change per day. If you really want to double-check stuff, go into the World of Warcraft folder and start looking at the modified dates. You'll find three things: Launcher, Repair and Scan.dll were updated. None of those run in any form when you play the game.

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Q u o t e:
Age of devices - HAS NOT CHANGED

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Not possible. The passage of time cannot be stopped, except maybe the Bronze dragons. Only in World of Warcraft.

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Q u o t e:
Temp changes - I don't usually keep my computer outside

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You don't need to keep it outside for it to feel a temperature change. Ambient temperature is where it's at. Your state has been going from the 40s up to the 60s recently.

The point is the game didn't change. :)

Updated first post with new driver release information and the NVIDIA support page for this issue.

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Q u o t e:


I'm starting to become unhappy, these fixes are just making things worse for me. I tried downloading the 197.13 driver, but it said it couldn't locate the driver panel, so it reverted back to the driver I have had until yesterday, 163.71. I have NEVER had 196.75 installed, and only had 196.21 installed yesterday. The problem is the same, to varying degrees, on all of them.

The most annoying part. This morning, before I tried to install 197.13, my FPS was actually stable at about 30, and the temperature was still high at 80, exactly the same it was yesterday when I had 5-15 FPS. Well, after trying to install 197.13, my FPS is now again back down to around 10.

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Unfortunately you need to investigate other areas. This thread is specifically these video cards overheating on 3d applications because the fan control did not work correctly. You have a different issue. Posting yours here will only confuse people since it's unrelated.

80s is still on the high area. You may need to give it a nice, physical check. If you have a shrouded cover, you will want to check underneath it at the actual fan and heatsink.

NVIDIA removed the 197.13. We're back to 196.21

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Q u o t e:
I've done everything!

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23767641059&postId=237651635826&sid=1#0

There has to be a code issue. I have two toons that should be running ICC and at 2 - 3 FPS after a pull, I can't do it.

This really sucks.

Blizzard, please fix this or I just can't play.

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We're not able to reproduce this issue with your specs. With medium settings on a decent monitor, we're seeing upper 30s.

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Q u o t e:
I see the 197.13 drivers, posted on the 17th, up on the site.

should we stay away from even these? and stick with the 196.21 drivers?

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It's back? We only see the 196.21's being available from NVIDIA's site. The 197 drivers used to be there but they got pulled, and it still seems to be missing.