Microsoft urges Windows 7 users to uninstall 'Blue Screen of Death' patch

[xxxmikexxx 0]

That's a good way to look at the whole picture. The only things I did to this stock machine were to add a larger PSU, a 1Gb video card & 2gb of RAM. It runs FS 9 at 36 FPS with all of the 'important' sliders to the right. 

 

As long as there still are P4 machines out there, I'll use them!

 

:smile:

These days I don't make any changes to hardware at all beyond keyboard/monitor/mouse. That way my one-year Action Computing warranties remain in force. They will also take back any machine within a 7-day period with no questions asked though what you get is a merchandise credit, not a refund.

 

I've been an on-and-off customer of Action since they opened their first store in a rundown Denver neighborhood in 1988. They've grown to three stores in the Denver Metro area. Whether they've also opened in other cities I cannot say.

 

I spend my computing dollars on stuff other than hot hardware, such as having Symantec (Norton) installed the way IT departments do. I have the full Norton protection suite on all five of our computers including the two Win7 machines.

 

I know this isn't the right forum for this stuff but I'll say in closing that two of the things Norton does right are a) check every URL against a database of known offenders in various categories, and b ) check every DNS resolver IP address against a database of spoof sites.

 

No scheme is bulletproof but since installing Norton on all of our machines last September I've had zero problems, where in the past I cold expect some kind of problem every 1-2 months. (By zero problems I mean that it has headed off trouble for me at least a half dozen times.)

[tunnelcat 1]

Hi, Alan

 

My wife is on Win7 and hates it. Yet every time I offer to have XP SP3 installed on her machine she refuses -- there is just never a convenient time for her. I'd give her my Lenovo to bridge the conversion time gap but that's the laptop of mine that still has Win7 on it.

If she hates Win7, she would just looooooove Win8.....NOT!

 

All you XP users are going to be out of luck come 4/8/2014. Microsoft is ending their support for it next year. And if you want something remotely close in appearance and function, Win7 is still being sold, for now. My husband is still using an XP machine, but he's now thinking of getting a Win7 rig before Microsoft nixxes that deal and forces everyone to Win8.

 

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/end-support-help

 

I also do not allow automatic updates. I still got burned one time because I didn't scan the list of updates very thoroughly before hitting "install" and I didn't notice that Microsoft had put a graphics driver for my Nvidia card in the mix. When that installed, what a mess, since I had PrecisionX running to control my card's fan. Really borked up my system. Had to go do an uninstall Microsoft's video driver, PhysX and PrecisionX, clear out the registry of left over junk, then reinstall the new drivers and software. I was not a happy camper. What's scary is that Microsoft is still sticking video drivers in "Important updates", so watch out. An I uninstalled that update on all of my Win7 rigs. I'll wait for Microsoft to fix the mess.

[Christopher Low 5,393]

I have never had a new Nvidia graphics driver installed by an automatic Windows update :huh:

[aentwis 61]

Christopher,

 

interesting that you have never seen Microsoft pushing graphics drivers as important updates. I see it fairly regularly and managed to stop it on my two home Windows7 boxes before WUAU did its nasty on me.

 

It could be that your update settings are more restrictive... but it does happen and more regularly than is comfortable for me...

 

A

[mosteen 111]

I have never had a new Nvidia graphics driver installed by an automatic Windows update :huh:

 

Neither have I, currently four machines at home with Asus nVidia GPUs and automatic updates enabled, they have never been bumped with new drivers.

[fppilot 4,396]

interesting that you have never seen Microsoft pushing graphics drivers as important updates. I see it fairly regularly and managed to stop it on my two home Windows7 boxes before WUAU did its nasty on me.

 

It could be that your update settings are more restrictive... but it does happen and more regularly than is comfortable for me...

 

I've had Windows Update (Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit) pestering me for about two weeks about an important update to the driver for my nVidia GTX560TI.  Even specific enough to name the card.  I am like Bill.  I let update tell me about proposed updates but I am selective.

 

I had an issue with an nVidia update in January that was not through Windows Update.  It caused issues in FSX so I rolled back to the previous driver.  I have a system that allows me to mount select hard drives into a cradle and then slip/plug into a bay behind a door on the front panel (with system off).  I have spare drives of the same make and model as my primary drive and with the drive maker's software can clone my system drive to those spares, which I can then boot from. Makes a true clone.  On Tuesday of this week I made a clone, then allowed Windows Update to proceed with its nVidia GTX update to my primary drive.  The update failed.  I was unable to roll back successfully.  I rebooted and Windows Update reminded me about the update again.  I proceeded again, it failed again, and then after that I could not even boot to safe mode.  Great!!!

 

I plugged in the clone and cloned it's image back onto my primary drive to restore my system.  No more video updates via Windows Update for me!!!  I also did a Google and learned how to stop the reminders about the GTX560TI driver.  Just right click on the name in the list presented by Windows Update and select to hide it.

 

Previously I had allowed Windows Update to install other updates, including the "blue screen patch" and the fix for it per the update numbers listed by other here.  Both installed on the same date at around the same time and I had no issues with either of those.

[tunnelcat 1]

I'm about 2 driver revs back from the most recent and Microsoft tried to bozo anther one on me this time, AGAIN. I'm "guessing" they want to make things work better for Win8, which I don't have nor do I ever want. I finally got tired of it and "HID" the update. fppilot, what Nvidia driver version did you find worked best for FSX?

 

By the way, to all Nvidia GPU users, Nvidia changed the way they update drivers. Driver updates from the Device Manager no longer work and driver rollbacks no longer work. I really messed up my system doing just that. Here is the "approved" way to either update or go back to an earlier driver. Read this guy's instructions to the letter. Also, MAKE SURE you do a "custom install" so that you can choose the specific items you want. Nvidia loves to install a bunch of crapware most users don't need. And most people only want the graphics driver, and if you have other games, PhsyX. If you ARE NOT using the graphics card's built in sound chip via HDMI, in other words, you have a separate sound card or motherboard-based sound chip, DO NOT INSTALL THE NVIDIA SOUND DRIVER. It will save you an airplane load of headaches and black screens.

 

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?high=&m=1776353&mpage=1#1776353

 

 

 

 

[fppilot 4,396]

 

 

fppilot, what Nvidia driver version did you find worked best for FSX?

 

I am not about to make a blanket statement that it works best for all for FSX.  We each have different systems that certainly can behave differently.   The version I am using is still 306.97.  Windows System Info reports  9.18.13.697.  It is the version that first installed when this GTX card was new in early January.  About two weeks after I installed the card I migrated to 310.90.  That's when I had trouble and rolled back to 306.97.  My system and all applications are happy  with it, and so am I.

[tunnelcat 1]

Hmmmmm. I'm also using 310.90 at the moment. I was going to migrate up to the next WHQL because 310.90 had issues with SLI configurations, which I don't have anyway. I haven't been flying since I installed it on my GTX 680 a few weeks ago. I'll give it a whirl with FSX before I change drivers.

[Christopher Low 5,393]

I don't recall specifically instructing Windows Update not to install new graphics drivers, so I do not know why some of you are getting this. All I know is that my graphics drivers are never touched when automatic updates are made.