I continue to get notices via Windows Update that an important driver update is available for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560TI and Windows Update wants to update the driver through the Windows Update routines. I am using Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.  

 

I keep refusing that update because if you click on the "more information" link for that update it provides generic information about driver updates in general, but provides no details on what version nVidia driver it plans to migrate me to. So I continue to reject it.

Yes, increasingly over the years, except for MS updates for security or stability issues in their OS, I've taken an, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach.

 

I learned this years ago with a Windows-WHQL-approved Marvell LAN card recommended update; it completely killed my ability to get onto the Internet and I was fortunate to have an ancient ASUS mobo install CD to fresh-install the years-old drivers from.

 

Never again.

 

This is also, btw, why I hate laptops as anything but basic utility computers; you're tied to the manufacturer's version of the driver unless you're very lucky, and they almost never update their drivers. Laptops are designed to be frozen in time with no future improvements. Apple MacBooks less so.

I only have broken sound and strange popup F5 screen when I use F10 for scenery without vc cockpit

As a follow up, my FSX is stabilized on NVidia driver 306.97 since April 1. Last week, I finally took the leap to turn on DX10 (after following the excellent forum posts on DX10 pre-requisites) and I am quite pleased with the results.

.. couldn't pass the 306.97 (Very stable), anything higher, & FSX is booommm CTD,  so don't feel bad about it   

 

Yair  

i have a similar problem.  i am new to this, but have been playing fsx for years without problems on a win xp desktop.  about a year and a half ago, i decided to purchase a computer solely for fsx.  i bought an asus i7 machine and upgraded the power supply and video card (gtx 560).  i must say, on my old machine (with win xp), everything worked fine, including a usb attached touch screen throug a virtual graphics card (which i have since removed for my new win 7 computer due to numerous conflicts.  for christmas i received a matrox triple head 2go box to run my three monitors.  i actually have 5 attached right now, 3 for the cockpit view, one to a separate card (gt530) and the touch screen to that card as well.  again, everything seemed to run semi normal, until an automatic update took place a week ago.  matrox power desk kept saying i needed to restart my computer for screen settings to take effect.  no matter what i did, whether i said yes or no, fsx would crash during the launch of the program.  this prompted me to start a forum with ctd.  there i was informed of a technique to install nvidia drivers, and some other suggestions by jim re c++ issues.  the error message i had was fsx.exe Stopped working 4/19/2013 11:54:21 AM fsx 0xc0000005 0x000f651a nvwgf2um.dll 9.18.13.1106 C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\fsx.exe 20,070

i installed the new nvidia driver 314. etc and i can at least fly, but about an hour into the flight, the entire computer crashes and hangs.  no particular error message, the blue screen and something to the effect of "serious error, to protect your computer windows is shutting down".  i am going to test the matrox th2go, by removing it - perhaps it is not fond of the new driver.  otherwise, i will have to roll back.  any ideas?

i also run ifly, airbus x and airbus x extended.  also, my two saitek instrument panels (airspeed and altitude) seem to lock up, one going blank.

pete

I think I've found root cause of my issues with the range of NVidia drivers between 314.07 and higher. 

 

To recap, I had two symptoms at these driver levels,

1) FSX crashed to desktop at startup, and 

2), DWM.exe crashed.

 

 

I neglected to consider that I also have a Targus Display Link USB 2.0 adapter with a third monitor enabled via its video port. 

 

So, I decided to try a test by installing the latest NVidia driver, 320.18, which just released a few days ago. I then noticed that the NVidia control panel was unable to display any monitor information (other than 3d settings) when the monitor attached to the Targus USB Display Link adapter was active. Also, dwm.exe crashed as soon as I tried to run the refresh to update my Windows Experience Index. I then decided to disable the video connected via the Targus Display Link and try again.

 

- The Windows Experience index refresh was then successful - no more dwm.exe crash

- The NVidia control panel was able to display all sections of video information. 

 

- FSX started and ran with no issues on NVidia driver level 320.18.

 

So, I think something may have been fixed in Nvidia driver level 320.18 to allow FSX to startup without crashing. There is still an issue involving video connected via the Targus USB 2.0 and the NVidia levels higher than 314.07.

 

Update: - I no longer experience the DWM.EXE crashes with the Targus video adapter active after upgrading the Targus DisplayLink USB 2.0 drivers to the following levels:

 

- DisplayLink Core Software - version 7.2.47873.0

- DisplayLink Graphics - version 7.0.43577.0

 

 

 

 

 

Hardware: Dell XPS L702X-

Processor: Intel i7-2820QM CPU - 2.3 GHz

Memory: 8GB RAM

 

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate - 64 bit.

 

Video Card:

GT555M with NVidia 3D Vision

 

Targus Display Link USB adapter Model ACP51USZ

Edited May 26, 201313 yr by MDFMike

I am also facing random CTD issues with driver 314.xx as well. I haven't been playing FSX for a long time so I'm not even sure if its those drivers to blame or the one prior to that which I believe was 309? Anyhow I just recently updated to 320.18 but haven't tested it out yet. Hopefully this will fix my CTD issue in FSX.

 

It happens randomly when I had 314 installed. Sometimes in the beginning of flight and other times towards the middle. 

Was fine with my old driver, sorry can't remember the version but recently updated to 320.18 and now I get random CTD.  I am getting a buzzing noise first then CTD.  I am thinking I need to roll back to another stable version of the driver.  At this point what is the last known version that is considered FSX stable ?