UNSOLVED
NVIDIA graphics card drivers
I am a bit frustrated with Dell support. I bought my laptop so that I could play pcvr games through my Qwest headset. But I keep getting an error, "Your NVIDIA graphics driver has a known bug which causes Meta Horizon Link to freeze-up during gameplay. Please rollback to version 591.86 or earlier." I have reached out to support and they tell me that the problem is beyond my scope for support. I have researched the issue and it is a known issue with the newer versions of the driver. I can not use the NVIDIA driver from their web page because it does not meet the specifics of Dell/Alienware. Is there any engineer at Dell/Alienware working on this issue? Is there plan to resolve this issue? Or did I just waste $2000 on a laptop. Can anyone give me an answer to this?
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Posted October 15th, 2026 11:02
Well you can try the following:
Try disabling sliced encoding
Ask Dell for an escalated driver review
Consider an alternative PCVR connection6
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Posted October 15th, 2026 19:25
@anne_droid Thank you. I have tried most all of those. The Oculus-diagnostics helped the most but the display still locks up. I would love to down load the NVIDIA 591.86 firmware, but because it is a laptop Dell/Alienware have their own proprietary versions so I have to get the firmware from Dell's support pages, and their firmware does not go back to that version. I am hoping that they are working on a new version. That is why I posted here, the support for this issue has been verrrrrrry thin.
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Posted October 15th, 2026 19:56
The archived 591.86 notebook package is listed by NVIDIA as:
591.86-notebook-win10-win11-64bit-international-dch-whql.exestation-driversA direct official NVIDIA archive link pattern is:
Kind Regards
anne_droid
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Posted October 16th, 2026 20:57
But is that coming from Dell or NVIDIA? Because if it is coming from NVIDIA it is not compatible with the Dell/Alienware systems. I did actually do the NVIDIA driver and had other issues, don't remember what they were, it was a couple of months ago, but I did have to revert back to the Dell/Alienware drivers, which do not go back that far. The 591.86 driver is from April 2025.
anne_droid
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Posted October 15th, 2026 10:25
Hi
The internet offers very little that you wont already have tried I suspect....
Download the correct driver first
Laptop NVIDIA GPU: NVIDIA driver 591.86 — https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/details/263200/
Desktop NVIDIA GPU: use Meta’s desktop-GPU link on its support page — https://www.meta.com/help/quest/294035639100350/
Save the installer locally before uninstalling anything.
Download Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU)
Get it from the official Wagnardsoft site
(Warning Will Robinson, it is reported as a 'safe' site, but still proceed with caution).
Extract it, but do not run it yet.
Disconnect from the internet temporarily
Unplug Ethernet or disable Wi-Fi. This prevents Windows Update from automatically reinstalling a newer NVIDIA driver mid-process.
Boot into Safe Mode
Windows 11: Settings → System → Recovery → Advanced startup → Restart now
Then: Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Settings → Restart → press 4 for Safe Mode.
Run DDU
Run
Display Driver Uninstaller.exeas Administrator.Select GPU → NVIDIA.
Choose Clean and restart.
Let the PC reboot normally.
Install 591.86
Run the NVIDIA installer you downloaded.
Choose Custom (Advanced).
Tick Perform a clean installation.
Install only the Graphics Driver and PhysX; you can skip GeForce Experience if you do not use it.
Reboot.
Re-enable networking and test Meta Horizon Link
Reconnect Wi-Fi/Ethernet.
Open the Meta Horizon Link app and check that the red driver warning has gone.
Play for at least 15–20 minutes to confirm the freeze is gone.
A commonly reported workaround is to change Meta’s encoder settings:
Open Oculus Debug Tool, normally under:
C:\Program Files\Meta\Horizon\support\oculus-diagnostics\Run it as Administrator.
Set Video Codec from
DefaultorH.264to H.265.Restart the PC and headset.
If you get colour banding/artefacts, turn Sliced Encoding off in the same tool.
Some users also report that disabling sliced encoding avoids the freeze, though it can reduce image quality or cap the usable bitrate.
Confirm whether your GPU is a laptop or desktop GPU before downloading; installing the wrong package can fail or install the wrong driver branch.
After rollback, pause/defer NVIDIA driver updates until Meta or NVIDIA publishes an official fix; do not let GeForce Experience or Windows Update silently upgrade you again.
If the warning remains after a verified clean install of 591.86, fully close the Meta Horizon Link app from the system tray, reboot, and reopen it—Meta’s compatibility check may be caching the old driver version.
Kind Regards
anne_droid