XPS 8930, a stable NVIDIA graphics driver version

Question

It's usually just transitory when a new version installed goes haywire. I don't update the discrete graphics driver very often.. .last update was years ago. I'm not rolling back . . .the old version is too old

I was wondering whether anyone installed on an XPS 8930 the most recent version available from Dell Support ? The release date shows 2020 for version (27.21.14.5167). The supported graphics cards shown for my service tag are: NVIDIA GeForce GT 730/1030 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050/1060 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650/1660/1650 Super/1660 Super/1660 Ti NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060/2070/2080/2060 Super/2070 Super/2080 Super/2080 Super LC/2080 Ti

If it is a stable driver, could they look up in Control Panel (not Device Manager) to see what version is listed there ? It'll be five digits such as xxx.xx. The version in Control Panel correlates to the versions of graphics drivers on NVIDIA.com

If the problem with the driver stopping occurs again, I can make an informed decision to perform a clean manual uninstall and install if someone can be kind enough to reply. Thx

RoHe · Answer

I'm running NVidia driver 30.0.14.9649 on my XPS 8930 with GTX 1660 Ti GPU. It was installed on 1-25-22 by Windows Update. It's stable and I have no video issues here.

Don't know where you're seeing version "xxx.xx" in Control Panel. The version number I posted above is listed both by Device Manager and by msinfo32.exe.

Anonymous · Answer

That explains why I see the NVIDIA version in Control panel. I circumvented WU from installing updates for the graphics driver three years ago. I manually install the NVIDIA graphics driver from NVIDIA’s site

You have the DCH (Declarative Componentized Hardware) type which is part of the Universal Windows Platform. I have NVIDIA's Standard driver type. Functionally, there's no difference between the two.

I just don’t trust Microsoft as far as I can throw a piano

I'll have to get on NVIIDA's forum to ask about a stable driver version (number)

Tesla1856 · Answer

Maybe if you were to tell us exactly what Nvidia video-card you have, we could recommend a video driver version from nvidia.com .

I agree that if the card is older, then the latest Nvidia driver is not likely to be the best one. Additionally, I would not expect any video-driver that Dell has posted for the (older) XPS-8930 to be very current. Those drivers are really just to initially get the machine running. Then, you move to Windows-Update, nvidia.com and/or amd.com .

The only thing I continue to get from Dell.com is BIOS updates (when I must or really have a reason to) and things like AW-CC (which Alienware develops and distributes).

RoHe · Answer

Don't know what you're expecting, but the driver I got via WU on 1-25-22 is dated internally as being released on 10-20-21. It has been perfectly stable. Not a single crash caused by anything related to NVidia.

I just ran my GPU through NVidia's driver search tool, and it shows a bunch of even newer drivers...

speedstep · Answer

@Anonymous

The version you reference is GeForce 451.67 WHQL

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/game-ready-drivers/

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/results/187098/
Driver Version: 511.79 - WHQL
Release Date: Mon Feb 14, 2022
Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit,
Windows 11
Language: English (US)
File Size: 786.72 MB

Anonymous · Answer

@Tesla1856

lending credence to a few contributors on the NVIDIA forum is that they all sound at ease with installing 472.12. They also at least sound sincere that the nvlddmkm errors that I experienced can be resolved with Wagnardsoft's DDU uninstaller. I know what DDU does.I know the risks that go with using it. I never used it before. And I haven't found a justification to resort to it.

Perhaps the oddest part of all of this is that there are no logs / records in Reliability Monitor / Event Viewer anymore. All 20 critical Windows Hardware errors - Live Kernel Event 141 . . . vanished. gone !

Tesla1856 · Answer

@Anonymous wrote:

@Tesla1856

lending credence to a few contributors on the NVIDIA forum is that they all sound at ease with installing 472.12.

I see you have a GTX-1060 .

The GTX-1070's in both my Auroras are:

Driver Package v457.51-DCH and v456.71-DCH .

Nvidia Control Panel IS installed. Nvidia GeForce Experience IS-NOT installed.

Not sure why it allows you to install a non-DCH driver in recent Windows-10 Pro 64bit.

If your Intel CPU also has a on-board-GPU ... it must be updated as well. Windows-Update usually takes care of that.

Missing Reliability History entries points to a Windows corruption problem or maybe disk failure.

Anonymous · Answer

@Tesla1856

This is bad karma or my suspicion that something was going to happen sooner or later came true

after my last reply, the graphics card lost all communication with applications.

That makes this the second incidence. The first was March 2nd. Installed 472.12 on March 1 [EDIT] : 472.12 was installed around Feb 20th

I checked the graphics card. Its seated. Any GPU test that might be recommend ?

Tesla1856 · Answer

@Anonymous wrote:

I ran the Dell ePSA overnight without shutting down on the day when the critical errors happened. All of the log entries of just those 20 Live Kernel Event 141 had disappeared the next day. II don't know if you meant that I was inferring 'all' entries disappeared.

Just can't think of a normal cause or reason for Event-Log entries to just go missing (other than some problem).

Anonymous · Answer

don't understand what re-seating the card again is for. ePSA is so long.  don't believe there's a way to run just the GPU test in ePSA. Testing the vram with say GPUMemTest was my thought, or else unless some other test would be better

Tesla1856 · Answer

You could try re-seating it and it's PCIe-Power-Cable (if it has one). Be sure to shut-down, un-plug, and dissipate flea-power first. Try to get to BIOS. Then try to get to ePSA, and run it.

RoHe · Answer

@Anonymous - Did your video card fail?

How are you going to test anything if there's nothing on the monitor? Are you sure the monitor is working? Can you test this monitor with same video cable on a different PC or a different monitor with this same video cable on this PC?

Is the power button steady or blinking when the monitor isn't working? If blinking, count the blinks and look up the error code.

You could try moving the video cable to a compatible onboard Intel UHD Graphics port and then boot PC. If that works, it could indicate the problem is the GPU, or maybe BIOS has stopped recognizing the GPU and clearing BIOS might help.

If onboard video doesn't work, physically remove the NVidia card and test with onboard Intel Graphics again. At the least, this should tell you if all the other hardware is working properly.

FWIW, Device Manager on my XPS 8930 lists NVidia driver 30.0.14.9649 with install date of 1-25-22 @ 8:11:55PM. Revo Uninstaller lists it as NVidia driver 496.49 with same install date/time. Been stable on my PC with GTX 1660 Ti.

RoHe · Answer

Have you read this from Microsoft? Their KB article makes it sounds like you might have a Windows problem, rather than an NVidia problem...

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks a lot for that info Ron. I really appreciate that. I'm going take the resolution actions referenced to troubleshoot. A blank screen doesn't occur at startup, but its "random", like when I open Edge, or another application.

Anyway, I did install a different version of a game ready driver. Too early tell since it was just installed. No driver crash reported so far in Event Viewer or any "Windows - Hardware" errors reported in Reliability Monitor.

RoHe · Answer

BTW: Do you have Game Mode on or off in Windows? It's on by default, even if you don't use a game console. Game Mode can cause performance problems in some instances when it's enabled.

Obviously, if you're gaming you might want that mode enabled, but you could test things by disabling it for a while...

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XPS 8930, a stable NVIDIA graphics driver version

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