Problems with nVidia 19X.XX WHQL driver. POSSIBLE FIX / WORKAROUND

[PsycoApocalipse]

So I just updated my video drivers today and now the entire UI blinks rapidly while playing in windowed mode.  Fullscreen the UI doesn't blink like crazy.  This is slightly annoying to me since I play multiple accounts on the same computer on multiple displays.  To those that also play like this I suggest you do not update to this driver untill it's listed on the supported drivers page.

Technical Info that might help resolving the issue:

Windows Vista SP2 x64AMD Athlon 5000+BE @3.19ghz8192MB DDR2-1066WD Raptor 150gb (EQ installed on)nVidia GTX 295 1798mb GDDR3 driver version 190.38 WHQL (rolling back to 186.18).

Edit: uploaded a dxdiag here: http://www.mediafire.com/?yetlvzuf44l

(Update)

I Just installed the new 191.07 WHQL driver released by nVidia on 10/5/09 today and haven't had any of my prior issues with the 190.XX drivers.  So go forth and test!

(Update 2/Workaround reposted here for ease of reference)

 Ok I think I found the setting that directly correlates to the UI blinking, I thought the issue had gone away but then it reappeared only in certain places.  So I started messing with each individual setting while I was in one of the areas where my UI would blink.  The setting is Graphics Resolution, right under preformance.  I checked every quality setting and the only thing that effects the blinking is graphics resolution.  (checked as in I went through the predefined preformance settings untill it stopped blinking then messed w/ each option till it started).

Lowering the graphics rez to 0.995 stopped the flickering even on extreme quality settings.  So whatever is added in that 0.005 makes the game flicker like mad.  Hope this helps everyone!

[TSR-DanielH]

Thank you for sharing all of your info about this issue.  I know you have probably reverted to the old driver already, but do you remember if you had AA enabled in the graphics card options?

[PsycoApocalipse]

I don't have AA enabled in the driver panel since I usually play in windowed mode, but a couple other things I noticed is that character names over other people's heads would also flicker just like the UI (and also I'm using profit UI current release) but the rest of the graphics would render properly.  So if i use f10 to cycle through the UI modes, when it goes off there's no flickering.

[Wingrider01]

Meowzah@Oasis wrote:

I don't have AA enabled in the driver panel since I usually play in windowed mode, but a couple other things I noticed is that character names over other people's heads would also flicker just like the UI (and also I'm using profit UI current release) but the rest of the graphics would render properly.  So if i use f10 to cycle through the UI modes, when it goes off there's no flickering.

have seen various reposrts of problems with that driver with other games, might want to back down a revision for right now

[PsycoApocalipse]

Yep, I'm going to take a wild guess the issue is related to the adaptive power management feature thats new in 190 that is supposed to throttle the video card to the demand to decrease power usage.  Granted I have zero knoledge of driver archetecture, but network maintenace at work is enough of a headache, I feel sorry for programmers.

[Hellswrath]

Having this same problem, and I'm running the default UI.

Running an i7 920, but running the same GPU and drivers

I also noticed this seemed to only be happenening when I move the camera viewpoint to an indoors area.

[insomniax]

i had the same proble with the same driver but it is fixed when you go to Display Options -> Display -> Atmospheric Effects -> Heat Shimmer (checked)

Try it lemme know if that fixes yours too

[TSR-DanielH]

insomniax wrote:

i had the same proble with the same driver but it is fixed when you go to Display Options -> Display -> Atmospheric Effects -> Heat Shimmer (checked)

Try it lemme know if that fixes yours too

That's good to know.  I'd like to hear if others having this issue were able to correct it by doing those steps.

Granted, I'd probably just switch driver versions to avoid the issue entirely, but another workaround couldn't hurt.

[PsycoApocalipse]

Can't say I tried that, but if it works it works!

[Forlornaer]

I upgraded to this driver today and wish I hadn't. I dont get the mad flicker you mentioned but do I get (and this is girly tech talk here.....) lots of spikey bits sticking out of things.

I had this problem before after upgrading my drivers and I always went back to an older version to fix it, but that hasn't worked this time. I think the problem is something to do with drawing the polygons but I get long spikey bits running across my screen from objects and its quite wierd to look at.

Is this a known problem with Nvidia (I have a GEForce 7600 GS) and am not technically minded in the slightest as you can gather from this post. I just like to log in and have everything work perfectly - WHY the heck I bought a PC I will never understand.

Any ideas on this? and please dont tell me to go back to sewing and knitting

[Wingrider01]

saphie2610 wrote:

I upgraded to this driver today and wish I hadn't. I dont get the mad flicker you mentioned but do I get (and this is girly tech talk here.....) lots of spikey bits sticking out of things.

I had this problem before after upgrading my drivers and I always went back to an older version to fix it, but that hasn't worked this time. I think the problem is something to do with drawing the polygons but I get long spikey bits running across my screen from objects and its quite wierd to look at.

Is this a known problem with Nvidia (I have a GEForce 7600 GS) and am not technically minded in the slightest as you can gather from this post. I just like to log in and have everything work perfectly - WHY the heck I bought a PC I will never understand.

Any ideas on this? and please dont tell me to go back to sewing and knitting

See the exact same thing, but I put it off to Windows 7 . Using a Nvidia 295 woth these drivers.

[TSR-DanielH]

saphie2610 wrote:

I upgraded to this driver today and wish I hadn't. I dont get the mad flicker you mentioned but do I get (and this is girly tech talk here.....) lots of spikey bits sticking out of things.

I had this problem before after upgrading my drivers and I always went back to an older version to fix it, but that hasn't worked this time. I think the problem is something to do with drawing the polygons but I get long spikey bits running across my screen from objects and its quite wierd to look at.

Is this a known problem with Nvidia (I have a GEForce 7600 GS) and am not technically minded in the slightest as you can gather from this post. I just like to log in and have everything work perfectly - WHY the heck I bought a PC I will never understand.

Any ideas on this? and please dont tell me to go back to sewing and knitting

Have you tried going back to the previous drivers?  Simply go to your add/remove programs list, uninstall the nvidia drivers, then restart and reinstall an earlier version.  Assuming that is the only issue, reverting to the old drivers should correct the problem.

[Forlornaer]

I reverted back to the drivers that came in the box with the graphics card and it is all back to normal now.

It strange that an upgrade to my drivers dont seem to work as well as the older ones. I guess there are lots of differences these days but I would have thought it would have been backward compatible or is that another myth of technology.... and why wont my pc make coffee for me while I play ?

[TSR-DanielH]

When I installed those drivers on my system they caused my entire screen to flicker when running the launchpad.  It didn't effect me in game but running the launchpad made the computer almost completely unusable.  It seems to be different for everyone but I definitely wouldn't recommend using that version of the Nvidia drivers.

[Hellswrath]

Same issue with the new 190.62 drivers.  This issue may not go away without informing Nvidia of the problem.  I don't plan on keeping my computer forever stuck with the 185 era drivers.

Seems to happen with many indoor zones, lavastorm, some instances.  Can't pin down why it happens in some areas and not others.

[Araxes]

I just upgraded to the 190 driver yesterday ... and while I don't have any of the problems mentioned above ... I notice that I can no longer force anti-aliasing on.  I can turn on the settings just fine in the control panel, and the modified .ini file is saved as always ... but the switch is ignored.  (Whether I enter it in the file, or enter it manually in-game, either way it's as if it isn't seen.)  Since I cannot stand to play this game with jagged edges, this is intolerable for me. 

Therefore, reverting to the 18x.xx driver to see if it is in fact an issue with the 190.

EDIT - Yep.  Rolled back to the 186 driver and anti-aliasing works just fine, again.  So, I can't advise using the 190 driver!

[Wingrider01]

Araxes@Antonia Bayle wrote:

I just upgraded to the 190 driver yesterday ... and while I don't have any of the problems mentioned above ... I notice that I can no longer force anti-aliasing on.  I can turn on the settings just fine in the control panel, and the modified .ini file is saved as always ... but the switch is ignored.  (Whether I enter it in the file, or enter it manually in-game, either way it's as if it isn't seen.)  Since I cannot stand to play this game with jagged edges, this is intolerable for me. 

Therefore, reverting to the 18x.xx driver to see if it is in fact an issue with the 190.

EDIT - Yep.  Rolled back to the 186 driver and anti-aliasing works just fine, again.  So, I can't advise using the 190 driver!

Nvidia has really dropped the ball on the 19X series drivers, not sure what is happening here but been a lot of people are having issues outside of eq2 with different display driver related crashes and failures

[Marina]

Wingrider01 wrote:

Araxes@Antonia Bayle wrote:

I just upgraded to the 190 driver yesterday ... and while I don't have any of the problems mentioned above ... I notice that I can no longer force anti-aliasing on.  I can turn on the settings just fine in the control panel, and the modified .ini file is saved as always ... but the switch is ignored.  (Whether I enter it in the file, or enter it manually in-game, either way it's as if it isn't seen.)  Since I cannot stand to play this game with jagged edges, this is intolerable for me. 

Therefore, reverting to the 18x.xx driver to see if it is in fact an issue with the 190.

EDIT - Yep.  Rolled back to the 186 driver and anti-aliasing works just fine, again.  So, I can't advise using the 190 driver!

Nvidia has really dropped the ball on the 19X series drivers, not sure what is happening here but been a lot of people are having issues outside of eq2 with different display driver related crashes and failures

 I had the same problem with AA and 190 drivers , the only thing when AA worked is , when i start Everquest2.exe directly , without the launchpad , it dosnt work with launchpad for some reason , unless u set AA global for all games.

had no problems with ui at all tho

[Hellswrath]

So far the only people having issues with the UI seem to be those running 295s.

[Wingrider01]

Hellswrath@Blackburrow wrote:

So far the only people having issues with the UI seem to be those running 295s.

nope have a 260 and a 280 that are expierenced teh exact same issue.

[Kaco2]

Yeah I have experienced the same issues on both the 190.38 and 190.62 drivers in windowed mode on a 9400gt on 2 seperate computers runnin XP and Windows 7 so it is nothing to do with the OS. I dont always read to the end so wasnt aware of this adaptive power thing. That sounds like a setting that should be available to turn off or on.

[PsycoApocalipse]

It can be turned off in the nvidia control pannel, tried the driver again the other day on my laptop since it was running a way older version.  Still get the same issues on it, running a 9600GS 1gb and a 2.2ghz core2 on vista home w/ 4gb ram.  So I reverted it back to the 185 driver.  Nvidia's been slackin lately, still waiting on them to put out an nforce chipset on the am3/ddr3 platform.

[speedycerv]

TSR-DanielH wrote:

insomniax wrote:

i had the same proble with the same driver but it is fixed when you go to Display Options -> Display -> Atmospheric Effects -> Heat Shimmer (checked)

Try it lemme know if that fixes yours too

That's good to know.  I'd like to hear if others having this issue were able to correct it by doing those steps.

Granted, I'd probably just switch driver versions to avoid the issue entirely, but another workaround couldn't hurt.

I have blinking in my game with only SLI, and on windows 7 only and this fixed my issue sticky that solution!

[speedycerv]

The UI still flickers while in the Ferrott zone on the beach wiether it is on or not In the same zone, it works fine while around the fear gate but ONLY if the heat Shimmer is OFF.

[speedycerv]

Guk:halls of the fallen also

[TSR-DanielH]

Wingrider01 wrote:

Hellswrath@Blackburrow wrote:

So far the only people having issues with the UI seem to be those running 295s.

nope have a 260 and a 280 that are expierenced teh exact same issue.

Confirmed with my 280 as well.

[asdfasdf]

so when will we have a fix? I dont want to downgrade for eq2 right now, hope to fix it soon. thx

[TSR-DanielH]

asdfasdf wrote:

so when will we have a fix? I dont want to downgrade for eq2 right now, hope to fix it soon. thx

I'm pretty sure this isn't an issue with the game.  I experience similar issues in several other games that I play.  Even some basic java applications are causing this kind of thing to pop up with the 190.38 drivers.

[Wingrider01]

TSR-DanielH wrote:

asdfasdf wrote:

so when will we have a fix? I dont want to downgrade for eq2 right now, hope to fix it soon. thx

I'm pretty sure this isn't an issue with the game.  I experience similar issues in several other games that I play.  Even some basic java applications are causing this kind of thing to pop up with the 190.38 drivers.

190.62 is out, the problem with eq2 and other games is reduced, but it still does occur

[LordNoslen]

I installed 190.62 on a fresh windows install today and Im not having this issue anymore