Driver v301.42 Might Want To Stay Away!

Joined
Jul 25, 2012
Messages
903
For almost a damn month I've been trying to narrow down my random lockups and it came down to these v301.42 drivers! I never had lockups during gaming but during either idle or light web browsing it would randomly lockup being able to move the cursor then 5 seconds later no being able to do anything except hard reset and no BSOD or driver errors. Typically 2-3 times a day. I can't believe all the stuff I did trying to figure out what was causing it, I was about ready to buy a new power supply and thinking it was from other causes too. I went to the BETA v304.79 and now no problems. Just a heads up.
 
If your intent is for this post to be useful, then we're going to need a bit more context.

I mean, you have not even told us which card you are using? Current drivers support everything going back to the 6800 Ultra, so...

The problems you describe don't sound typical. It could be something like one of the old driver files got corrupted (due to some other issue in your system) which would explain why installing a new driver would fix the issue.

What other diagnostic steps did you take that leads you to believe this is in-fact a driver issue?
 
Wow, I've been having this same problem for the longest time. I played through Mass Effect 2 and 3 just fine, but when I browse the web the cursor stops moving and the screen is frozen. No BSOD and I have to hold down the power button.
 
I'm on a MSI 560ti Hawk. It couldn't be a driver corruption because I reinstalled my OS and still had the issue.

Things I tried

Reinstalled OS
Extensive memory scans(memtest)
Lower memory speed
Memory in different slots
lower CPU overclock
More CPU voltage
Different HDD
Changed Sata cables
BIOS Update
and MUCH more
 
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My gtx 275 would do this too with the exact same drivers unless I forced it to stay in 3d clocks. It only crashed in 2d clocks.
No such issue with my new gtx 670 however. 2D or 3d clock, everything works.
 
Had my 670 lock up several times during 2D mode with those drivers as well. Upgraded to the current beta drivers and haven't experienced any lockups at all. This was only a Windows 7 machine.
 
I was using 296.10 for the longest time (still have it on a thumb drive). Recently installed 301.42 and haven't seen any issues (dual GTX580's). The only reason I switched to 301.42 is for the ability to maximize an application to a single physical display when in 2D Surround mode

The newest driver isn't always the best. Once I find a driver version that works I stay with it. Only upgrading if there is a feature I want.
 
Haven't had any real issues with 301.42 with my 670.

Nice to see that switching drivers fixed your problems, though.
 
I have two different machines both running a Gigabyte WF3 670 in each of them and both are still using the official WHQL 301.42 drivers since they were made official and I've had no issues with either machine.
 
Is OP overclocking cpu/ram? Did he try stock settings yet?
 
Interesting, I have this problem on my old box with 8800 GTX....

Looks like it wasn't my card that's aging....
 
It wasn't because of any overclocking because I tried to go back to all stock and it still was doing it. Have been on the latest beta's and all is good without no issues for days now
 
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