nvidia driver certification meaningless?

[keepitsimpleengr]

From Nvidia Release Notes for 180.48 WHQL:
"GeForce 8800 GTX: DreamScene–running the application results in a “Display
driver has stopped responding†error message. [295017]
"This is an issue with the OS."

I can confirm that running DreamScene on Vista Ult 64 SP1 with this driver
in SLI and another user application causes a hard crash (not even a blue
screen).

If this is a OS issue, why is the driver labeled WHQL?

 

[Dan]

From Nvidia Release Notes for 180.48 WHQL:
"GeForce 8800 GTX: DreamScene–running the application results in a
“Display
driver has stopped responding†error message. [295017]
"This is an issue with the OS."

I can confirm that running DreamScene on Vista Ult 64 SP1 with this driver
in SLI and another user application causes a hard crash (not even a blue
screen).

If this is a OS issue, why is the driver labeled WHQL?

I had file system corruption that was likely attributable to 64-bit 178.24
WHQL drivers that I downloaded from the nVIDIA website. 64-bit Vista lost
functionality over two days and became useless even though it still boots
after disk check. Disk check says it found a lot of lost files and placed
them in a found folder but I have not found the found folder. I made the
mistake of going for the latest driver set for my hardware but it might be
still beta (on my hardware). I have resolved to not make that mistake again
and to wait for Windows update to install nVIDIA drivers that work. I have
never had an argument with Windows update services. I am about to reinstall
64-bit Vista. I lost about one man week of labor because of my own stupidity
and recklessness.

 

[fjk]

I recently updated the NVidia driver for GeForce_8800GTX to version 180.48
(along with updating DirectX10, misc windows update, SP1) After discovering
nTune was the program to view GPU temperature on the video card, it was clear
that dreamscene was broken and aborting explorer.exe with the data execution
protection.

Even after uninstalling the NVida drivers and re-installing version 175.16
dreamscene remained broken. I had also added the StarDock player for .dream
files. It has been uninstalled, along with re-installing dreamscene with no
correction.

Reverting the driver restored system stability (long shutdown time, I
suspect a memory leak in the driver) but not dreamscene. Consider avoiding
NVida updates if youre not into a long troubleshooting session.

I think DEP kept things pretty well in order for this problem. There was a
recent install of Micrsoft Search wich was interfering quite heavily during
this troubleshooting session.

 

[fjk]

I can confirm that even rolling back (as well as uninstall/install version
175.16) after 180.48 was updated for the NVidaGeForce_8800GTX.

DEP seemed to keep the system from massive corruption due to what I suspect
a memory leak.

Even after uninstalling-reinstalling dreamscene, the problem remained. I
also updated DirectX10, installed (and subsequently disabled) nTune at this
time (remove/install did also not help.)

The latest NVida driver seems wise to avoid.

 

[fjk]

When data execution protection is enabled, explorer.exe is
suspended/restarted due to update from version 175.16 to 180.48. (also nTune,
DirectX10 installed.) Uninstalling the old driver, and reinstalling the new
seemed to eliminate a strange memory leak.

During this update some manner of microsoft search kept kicking off,
bringing the system to a standstill during reboots.

Quite a mess actually. I have had quite a bit of trouble with various
NVIdia products and the Vista/Xp platform over the years (remember the SATA
fiasco of a few years ago?)