Driver Installation

There are some very important steps you should take when installing the latest Nvidia chipset driver package.  The first thing you want to determine is what video card you have and if you plan on using the onboard soundstorm audio. 

I will go over several different installation options, depending on what hardware your system is using.  If your not going to use hardware that is supported by the Nvidia driver package then we do NOT want to install that portion of the drivers as they can cause serious instabilities and overall poor performance when combined with drivers for the hardware you ARE using.  The only way you can accomplish this is to remove the unwanted drivers from the driver set. 

Usually when you download the Nvidia drivers, they are an EXE file and normally you would just double click it and start installing the drivers.  What we need to do is get inside that EXE file and remove the portions that we do not want installed.  This is an easy task really, all you need is a utility that will extract EXE files, my favorite is WinRar, but I'm sure there are plenty of other utilities out there that will do the job.

***Note*** The latest release of NForce drivers, package 5.10, does NOT have display drivers included.

Install option #1 - Using Onboard Soundstorm and a Nvidia Based Video Card

Even though your using a Nvidia based graphics card, I still suggest you do not install the graphics driver while installing the chipset driver package.  Graphics driver version 52.16 is included with the latest chipset drivers, but a newer version is available, version 53.03.  You might even want to install an earlier version driver as well, so its best not to install the one included in the chipset package at this time.  You should determine what graphics driver you want on your system and install it after installing the chipset driver package.  Below are the instruction for removing the graphics drivers from the chipset driver package.

1.  Use your favorite utility to extract the driver package EXE file.
2.  Locate the folder where you extracted the EXE file to.
3.  Look for the folder called "Display", delete the folder.
4.  Install the driver package at this point, no graphics drivers will be loaded.
5.  Install the Nvidia graphics drivers of your choice.

Install option #2 - Using Onboard Soundstorm and an ATI Video Card

Follow steps 1 through 4 as above, then install your ATI drivers.

Install option #3 - NOT Using Onboard Soundstorm and using an ATI or Nvidia Video Card

1.  Follow steps 1 & 2 from install option #1 above.
2.  Look for the folders called "Display", "AudioDrv", and "AduioUtl".  Delete all three folders.
3.  Install the driver package, no graphics drivers or audio drivers will be installed.
4.  Install Nvidia graphics drivers or the ATI graphics drivers of your choice.
5.  Install the sound card drivers for the sound card your using.

Additional Driver Installation Tips

Whenever updating any drivers, I always suggest removing the old driver first instead of just updating on top of the older version.  This requires a few more steps but it insures a clean install of your drivers and most likely a trouble free upgrade.  This procedure is critical if you are changing a video card from one manufacturer to another, as in Nvidia to ATI for example.  The first step in removing the old drivers is to use the Add/Remove Programs in control panel.  Use the Add/Remove method for uninstalling the drivers your about to upgrade. There is a great utility called "Driver Cleaner" that works real well for removing all files that are left behind by the Add/Remove Programs.  Driver Cleaner is available in the "Utilities" section of this site.  Run Driver Cleaner to insure that ALL the driver files are removed.  Once these steps are completed, go ahead and install your new drivers, you will be glad you took the time to do it this way!