nForce4 Driver 6.70

[simonk83]

Ok thanks I do have a PCI sound card (Audigy 2) so that's all good. Assuming I don't install the IDE drivers, what will happen with my IDE hard drive (just storage, not boot). Will it just use Windows drivers, and is that good enough? Will there be any degradation of performance or anything?

EDIT: This system contains a LOT of new components and I've heard a few people having problems with the IDE drivers so I just want to rule out anything that can cause problems. Basically because if something does go wrong, I'm going to have a hard time diagnosing it as most of the components are new so it could be any of them I'd rather play it safe at first, then I can install the IDE drivers maybe later on when everything is stable.

 

[ChiPCGuy]

Originally posted by: simonk83
Ok thanks I do have a PCI sound card (Audigy 2) so that's all good. Assuming I don't install the IDE drivers, what will happen with my IDE hard drive (just storage, not boot). Will it just use Windows drivers, and is that good enough? Will there be any degradation of performance or anything?

EDIT: This system contains a LOT of new components and I've heard a few people having problems with the IDE drivers so I just want to rule out anything that can cause problems. Basically because if something does go wrong, I'm going to have a hard time diagnosing it as most of the components are new so it could be any of them I'd rather play it safe at first, then I can install the IDE drivers maybe later on when everything is stable.

Running the Windows default drivers is fine. The vast majority of people do not have trouble with the SW IDE driver. The only reason you see people posting about this is because the ones most likely to post are the 2% having a problem. The other 98% don't post because they don't have a problem.

The SW IDE driver is more than just the IDE driver. It is also the SATA driver. The Windows ones will still work, but I would think a little more slowly. I would seriously load them, and then if you have trouble you can roll back the PATA driver which is what usually causes an issue if someone has an issue at all.

Where I can say with certainty that you WILL have a problem is if you try NAM. At the end of the install of the nForce drivers, it will ask you if you want to install NAM. This installs the nVidia firewall and Active Armor at the same time. Say NO.

 

[simonk83]

I didn't realise it also installed the SATA drivers, and as I'm installing a Raptor I really want it to be as fast as it possibly can be

Ok. So assuming I DO install the SW IDE drivers, and I have problems, how easy is it to remove them? Is it just a case of running the 6.70 install again and this time unchecking the SW IDE drivers? Or can I do it through Add/Remove programs (add are these methods 'thorough' enough. Ie, am I going to have to reformat if it stuffs up)

Ta

 

[ChiPCGuy]

Originally posted by: simonk83
Ok. So assuming I DO install the SW IDE drivers, and I have problems, how easy is it to remove them? Is it just a case of running the 6.70 install again and this time unchecking the SW IDE drivers? Or can I do it through Add/Remove programs.

Ta

You can go under Device Manager and individually roll back the PATA driver. You can leave the SATA driver intact.

 

[simonk83]

But if this is a fresh install, will there be any drivers to roll back to?

 

[ChiPCGuy]

Originally posted by: simonk83
But if this is a fresh install, will there be any drivers to roll back to?

Yes. By default Windows will install drivers for those devices during your fresh install.

 

[simonk83]

Ok excellent, thankyou very much Hopefully that will be the end of my stupid questions for today. (ah, who am I kidding)

 

[ChiPCGuy]

Originally posted by: simonk83
Ok excellent, thankyou very much Hopefully that will be the end of my stupid questions for today. (ah, who am I kidding)

You are welcome, and there are no stupid questions!

 

[Regulator07]

how important or unimportant is the NAM, I have mine on right now but to antihacking only, i know the nvidia firewall just causes problems especially dealing with home networking. But is NAM a useful feature?

 

[RampantAndroid]

It was nice, while I got the use of it....its basically a hardware firewall taken out of a router, along with some program controls and such...too bad nVidia screwed it up.

 

[kamranziadar]

So if i am understanding correctly. We can use these Drivers with any Nforce 4 Motherboard.

 

[Megatomic]

Yes.

 

[Aquila76]

Yay! NAM works again! The 6.66/6.67 release FUBAR'd my system when I upgraded from te original install, but it works again.

I installed this way:
1. Cleanup/defrag/Ghost of system
2. Control Panel->Remove Programs->Uninstall all Nvidia Drivers
3. Reboot into Safe Mode
4. Run Driver Cleaner Pro (removed anything that said "nVidia")
5. Reboot
6. Install new nForce drivers
7. Reboot
8. Install Graphics Driver

EDIT: I installed the 6.70. It looks like the 6.82 is for the dual PCIe 16 lane mobos; only purchasable in Intel flavor for now, AFAIK.

 

[kamranziadar]

Is there is any advantage of these drivers, or should we pass. I have Msi Neo4 platinum SLI what advantage would i get by installing these drivers?

 

[RampantAndroid]

NAM is alone worth it....I guess what I should have done was a clean install....I'll try that again when I install my VF700 on monday and let you know how it goes.

 

[supastar1568]

damn, every time i run driver cleaner and remove the nvidia drivers, i usually end up cleaning the "nforce chipset" by accident. So when i restart the computer i get this blue screen with a bunch of words on it.

Last time I had to reinstall windows, this time i restarted it again and when it gave me the option to boot in safe mode i choose "Boot from when windows last worked properly" . Starts up fine again.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: spyork
The way I look at it....if it ain't broken don't fix it. My computer doesn't have the latest bios or nforce4 drivers, but the thing is rock solid. I refuse to update those drivers until the next format. I've had too many problems with updating nvidia drivers in the past.

Same here. Those things have caused nothing but a bunch of frustration and forcing me to update my BIOS which sometimes aggravates the issues with my DiamondMax 10 drive. Not to mention I had to reinstall a couple times because I tried to update them. Essentially I don't dare install any part of them because a BSOD is right in order. It's a landmine waiting to go off when you press the install button. They are a worthless steaming pile of ****. :|

 

[RampantAndroid]

hmm....with that in mind, I think I'll stick with what works, until I find out either 6.70 increases performance in games by 15+% or I have trouble and need to rebuild windows.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: RampantAndroid
hmm....with that in mind, I think I'll stick with what works, until I find out either 6.70 increases performance in games by 15+% or I have trouble and need to rebuild windows.

That's the best advice.

 

[firewall]

Originally posted by: ChiPCGuy
Where I can say with certainty that you WILL have a problem is if you try NAM. At the end of the install of the nForce drivers, it will ask you if you want to install NAM. This installs the nVidia firewall and Active Armor at the same time. Say NO.

What's the issue with NAM? I got a new MSI K8N Platinum board and will be setting it up today or tomorrow. I would think that the hardware solution for a firewall would work better than say; ZoneAlarm or the like.

Should I use the drivers provided on the cd or should I download the new 6.70 one from the nVidia site? I won't require removing any drivers since this would be my first installation of drivers on it. Any other suggestion?

 

[GadgetBuilder]

The issue with NAM varies from system to system. Most systems work fine (that's how nVidia is able to ignore the problem).

The most common complaint for NF3/NF4 systems is failure to respond when you click while browsing; clicking a second time works. This also manifests as a "No internet connection" message which works when you try a second time. Could be NAM or the NIC driver, hard for a user to tell. P2P problems are probably the second most common reported problem. Distorted jpg files are another common problem, e.g. I captured this:
http://img370.imageshack.us/my.php?image=firefoxdistorted6gh.jpg This happens several times a day on my system.

And my personal favorite is NSVCIP accessing my disk 1 to 3 times per second continuously; this is reported by an even smaller minority of NAM users, I am aware of only 3 complaints so this is likely a permanent feature of my system.

The changes in the 6.70 release seem to be minor and don't affect NAM or the Ethernet driver, apparently, nVidia doesn't see any problems with them in spite of the noise in their forum. The recent uproar caused by the Inquirer picking up on someone's mis-diagnosis of a disk problem as being an NF4 driver problem lets nVidia off the hook for the forseeable future as far as fixing anything...

Visit the nVidia forums and read the most viewed topics to see what people are having trouble with: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?s=f3...ead353326152f9b12af806c46&showforum=34

Your best bet on a new installation is to use the 6.70 release; the installer has been updated again and seems to be working better with each release. (The programmer in charge of the installer needs to be put to work on some of the other problems now that he has gotten the installer fixed.) I simply removed the earlier NAM and all nVidia drivers and ran the 6.70 installer; none of the magic sequences involving Driver Cleaner etc. which were required for 6.53 and earlier releases - YMMV, of course.

HTML destroys the tabs in the following so try looking at the source if you're interested in seeing this in easy to read tabular format - you can see what nVidia is working on here.

nVidia Driver set vs Driver versions - except audio.

Date 03/17/05 06/09/05 06/29/05 07/15/05 10/26/05
Release 6.53 I-B7.12 I-7.13 6.66 6.70
Installer 4.60 4.72 4.78 4.78 4.93
Ethernet 4.75 4.82 4.82 4.82 4.82
NAM 4.75 4.88 4.88 4.88 4.88
SMB 4.45 4.48 4.45 4.45 4.50
IDE 5.18 5.33 5.35 5.34 5.52

 

[firewall]

Originally posted by: GadgetBuilder
nVidia Driver set vs Driver versions - except audio.

Date----------03/17/05--------06/09/05--------06/29/05--------07/15/05--------10/26/05
Release---------6.53------------I-B7.12----------I-7.13------------6.66-------------6.70
Installer--------4.60---------------4.72------------4.78-------------4.78-------------4.93
Ethernet--------4.75---------------4.82------------4.82-------------4.82-------------4.82
NAM-------------4.75--------------4.88------------4.88--------------4.88-------------4.88
SMB------------4.45---------------4.48------------4.45--------------4.45-------------4.50
IDE------------ 5.18---------------5.33------------5.35--------------5.34-------------5.52

I am using MSI's K8N SLI board. The readme file for 6.7 states:

This nForce Win2K/XP driver package contains the below components:

Audio driver version 4.62 (WHQL)
Audio utility version 4.51
Ethernet NRM driver version 4.82 (WHQL)
Network management tools version 4.88
SMBus driver version 4.50 (WHQL)
Installer version 4.93
Win2K IDE PATARAID driver version 5.52
Win2K IDE SATARAID driver version 5.52 (WHQL)
Win2K IDE SATA_IDE driver version 5.52 (WHQL)
Win2K RAIDTOOL application version 5.52
WinXP IDE PATARAID driver version 5.52
WinXP IDE SATARAID driver version 5.52 (WHQL)
WinXP IDE SATA_IDE driver version 5.52 (WHQL)
WinXP RAIDTOOL application version 5.52

Which of these should I install? I am setting up my new system today so an early response would be appreciated.

My mobo uses the creative chip for providing audio. Should I install Nvidia's audio driver too? I don't use RAID so I won't be installing it's drivers. Are the Firewall and other problematic features working fine with 6.70?

BTW, what is SMB? Should I install it's drivers too?

 

[Capt Caveman]

I would load everything but Audio, IDE(only really need them if you're going to do RAID) and Firewall/Active Armor.

 

[firewall]

Doesn't IDE SW replaces windows native SATA drivers? If they are only for RAID, tell me, so I don't install them.

I left Firewall and Active Armor because people were having problem with them. Should I install them? I already have ZoneAlarm Pro. Should I uninstall it?

 

[Capt Caveman]

Yes, IDE SW will replace your native SATA and IDE drivers along with any required NVRaid drivers. I use them but some folks have had issues with them.

I would not recommend installing the Firewall/Active Armor software. About 99% of the folks that install it have issues, major issues. ZoneAlarm Pro will be fine.