Udating NVIDIA driver a good idea?

[atomich63]

in re: HP Envy DV6-7214NR laptop

I am not getting any error messages but there have been a few BSODs, which I have read are often caused by conflicts with  video drivers.  My current driver for the NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M display adapter is dated 6/24/2018 and is listed as version: 24.21.13.9836 that was implemented during the Windows 10 installation.

NVIDIA has an updated driver for this card dated around 4/2019 if memory serves me correctly.

Since I have such a clean installation going right now with this iteration, I thought it best to ask for opinions.

Should I update the driver to 425.31?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

It depends on what the BSOD messages are at the bottom of the screen.

Have you confirmed that it is a video driver conflict?

I suppose that you have nothing to lose by trying the updated driver.

The other thing you can try would be to install the W8 Nvidia graphics driver from your notebook's support page.

It's way out of date but it may be more compatible with W10 than the newer drivers are.

HP ENVY dv6-7214nr Notebook PC Software and Driver Details

[atomich63]

The BSOD messages were very vague along the lines of:

Stopcode 

System Service Exception.

There were no numbers with either of them. There may have been another word with the Stop Code one.  At one time, I had four devices listed that had no drivers, so those could have been the source of the problem.  I don't know if it is a video driver conflict at all.  It has happened repeatedly when I open Task Manager and click on the performance tab. It doesn't do it every time.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Have all the drivers been installed?

No unknown devices, etc?

If so, run the PC for a couple of days and if you get another BSOD, go ahead and install the driver from Nvidia.

[atomich63]

Yes, all the drivers have been installed and there are no yellow triangles left.  I believe that 425.31 updated driver installs something that had a missing driver.  I installed it a few days ago but have since done a fresh, clean install of W10.  Just now, when I tested the Performance tab in Task Manager, there was no crash or BSOD.  Keeping my fingers crossed.  I am tired of rebooting and re-installing.

Your suggestion sounds reasonable so that is what I will do.  Thanks again for your help in my recent matters. I've got all my drivers saved in a "gooddriversforW10" folder. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

[atomich63]

Update:

The BSOD problem kept happening with accessing the Performance tab in Task Manager with a bit of a twist. The problem seemed to only occur if clicking on Performance within a couple of seconds of the Task Manager window opening. If I waited 10-15 seconds, it would proceed without a BSOD.  Weird.  There are a couple of threads on the Windows forum about similar things linked to the NVIDIA driver.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/windows-crashing-after-clicking-performance-ta...

Updating to the 425.31 driver available for the GT 650M display adapter on NVIDIA's website solved the problem.

To avoid a suspected  problem the package may have created for my system, I installed it in  slightly different way. If you run the NVIDIA package, it copies the files to your hard drive.  At this point I abandoned the NVIDIA package installation process and used Device Manager telling it where to find the files.  It found them with no problem and updated.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Glad to know that updating the Nvidia graphics driver to the latest version resolved the problem.