This is for those with nVidia video cards in their Windows XP PCs. Last month (December 2007) nVidia released a driver set for the GeForce 6, 7 and 8 GPU’s that provides "numerous game and application compatibility fixes". This is ForceWare release 169 (or 169.21 to be precise) and applies from GeForce FX 5100 all the way up to GeForce 8800 Ultra.
If you didn’t download any nVidia drivers during the month of December 2007, your drivers aren’t current.
To identify your nVidia card:
- Go to the Control Panel
- If using Category View, click Performance and Maintenance then click System. If using Classic View, double-click System.
- Click the tab labeled Hardware.
- Click the button labeled Device Manager.
- Expand Display Adapters.
You should see something that looks like this:
As you can see from above, my card is an NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS.
Once you’ve identified your card you can close the Device Manager and Control Panel.
Go to http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
Select options on the form that look similar to this:
Since my video card is a GeForce 7600 GS, I chose GeForce 7 series. Pick the one that applies to your card.
After clicking "Search" on that page you will be presented with this:
As you can see it’s very recent (December 19 2007). Download and install this file.
A few important notes:
- You may have to set your resolution again after the driver is installed. It’s a one-time thing, but you should be aware that you may have to do it.
- If you run dual (or more) monitors, you may have to set your primary monitor again. When I installed ForceWare it put my secondary display screen as primary, so I had to go to Display in the Control Panel to set it back the way it was.
I have no weird/odd errors to report with this latest driver update. The only thing I had to do was set my primary monitor for my dual-screen setup again. Other than that, no problems.
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