Have an NVIDIA card in your XPS? Latest Dec. 30th V572.16 Nvidia driver causing a lot of problems.

My is doing this too its on the welcome screen then after a while it grays out can u help me fix it

@Edy27​

My is doing this too its on the welcome screen then after a while it grays out can u help me fix it

Second post on this, one would have been enough.

How about some more info?

First one said this, ==> "How do I fix it I'm constantly getting locked up"

Two different postings but are they the same?

For starters, what is you H/W?

• Video card and driver used
• What PC model and BIOS installed?
• Windows Version and Release?
• When did this start?
• Any errors shown or in your Event Viewer around the same time?
• What 'fixes' did you try?

Yeah sorry

My video card is a rtx 1050 ti

And the pc model is a xps 8920

Windows 10

This started about 3 days ago when it told me that my PC was restarting in one minute

I tried to do what customer support told me to do restart the bios settings, run diagnostics, I can't manage to open up safe mode, I hard restarted my computer

@Edy27​ 

It seems all the Nvidia related problems are on 8940's, so I'd think the Nvidia card is not the problem.

The 'restart' notification normally comes from MS Update.

Not sure why you can't start in Safe Mode? Usually off of the F12 menu at boot time under change booting options?

Another way to start Windows 10 in safe mode, hold down the Shift key while clicking Restart from the power menu, then navigate to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart; once your computer restarts, select option 4 or F4 to boot into Safe Mode. 

I don't know what you expect to be able to do in Safe Mode, but if it WAS an MS Update that caused the reboot, you can look in the History and see what was installed? Possible a Capsule Update for BIOS or a Driver occurred, and you might be able to back it out.

No real issues on my 8950 w/3060 TI using the nVidia app although I did get some 'errors' at the end of the driver install which seem to be harmless but obviously needs to be fixed.

Only this latest driver install has had this.

Still running Win11 23H2.

@Element115s4​ 

It, the V517.16 is still causing a LOT of problems, check the Nvidia forum for GEFORCE... and they just RELEASED a HOTFIX for that driver no less, see --> https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/game-ready-drivers/13/556792/announcing-geforce-hotfix-driver-57224-released-23/ for details and link to get it. It does seem to be for 2 games though.

@Edy27  When was last time you replaced the motherboard battery in this XPS 8920?

A weak/dead battery can cause all kinds of strange problems...

@ispalten​ 

Not seeing any here but maybe I don't run a game/program where that surfaces.

The nVidia app is not seeing any driver update so I suppose hotfixes are not looked at or at least not yet.

@Element115s4​ 

No, Hotfixes I've NEVER seen automatically d/l'ed nor a notification one is available. GeForce Experience still shows the original file available and had d/l'ed it if I want to install it.

I was NOT seeing problems running a game, just normal usage, desktop icon spacing changed, desktop icon locations possible did NOT extend to the right of the screen off by one column, a freeze/lock-up, and some odd window initial displays.

Not everyone will see any/all of these, and maybe it is only related to the Game Ready Drivers, but I suggest you check the Nvidia GeForce forum. A lot of activity over there from users of all cards.

Again, the problems are not restricted to game usage, although some do have only a specific game problem (which possibly is what the HotFix was for but it specifically listed 2 games).

@ispalten​ 

I don't doubt the nVidia app doesn't see those fixes currently and GF Experience does but GFE is replaced by the app.

The app is so new and maybe it soon will see all the options.

As I said, I have seen several Dell 8960, 8950 and even an 8940 not having any issues that you mention so go figure.

@Element115s4​ 

My 'bad', yes, it is the Nvidia App... and it doesn't appear that much different from the old GeForce visual display.

Just like Dell Updates, there are databases that need to be updated for the web based programs to see it. Seems it wasn't done, OR it is possible one needs to contact support with a problem that the Hotfix would solve. Quite similar to an Nvidia problem I had back when I first got the 8940, and contacted Dell. Was given access to a 'new' beta to test.

Hotfixes are usually to fix a specific problem and would be included in later releases (assuming they do fix a problem). Note that the readme for the Hotfix only listed 2 programs I recall?

I did have problems though. Some were visual, like the desktop. Showed as normal background picture I use, but Icon placement was not over the full desktop, that is I had a blank icon row on the right side. I could NOT move an icon into that area. Going back to the prior driver, no problem.

Opening FireFox, I'd get a black box, about 20% square on the upper right of the web page which lasted for only a few seconds as the page loaded. Long enough to me to see it. Edge worked fine? Gone with the prior driver.

Could be related only to my card model or some other specific ones. Possible even a Control Panel setting was changed (like my Power Setting going back to Default).

The problems are real, even if you don't see it with the driver. Quite possibly only some % of the people see the problems, but there are enough reports on it. With the number of reports and a Hotfix already, the problems are real.

@ispalten​ 

I do think this latest driver has issues just going by the harmless install errors at the very end of the install. My 8950 NEVER has had that ever.

I also think the 8940 overall has issues of its own that make it worse (not all of them, of course).

Yet, I had no such errors installing on a Dell Precision workstation running W11 24H2 which I was thinking would be the first place to encounter that.

I plan to do a clean Win11 24H2 install once that RTX5070FE finds its way into my XPS8950 at some point (step aside scalpers..lol).

I did a test on an older PC (Intel i7 2600K) w/ an Intel MB and a GTX970FE with a fresh install of Win11 24H2 and the v572.16 driver and not one error on install.

Maybe there are issues but not seeing them atm. 

Nvidia HAS released another Driver after the HotFix, V572.42.

I am NOT installing it. Here is the listed fixes and not fixed items according to https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/game-ready-drivers/13/557200/geforce-grd-57242-feedback-thread-released-21325/, which is the Forum from Nvidia for the Geforce drivers.

=============

Fixed Gaming Bugs:

• [VALORANT] Game may crash when starting game [4951583]
• [Final Fantasy XVI] PC may freeze when exiting game [5083532]
• [Delta Force] Some PC configurations may experience performance regression when Resizable BAR is enabled [5083758]
• [DLSS4] Resolved a compatibility issue caused by version mismatches between current and updated dynamic link library files [5081921] -> Requires selecting "Custom (Advanced)" -> "Perfor a clean installation" during the driver installation process

Fixed General Bugs:

• [3DMark DXR Feature Test] Unusually low score for Blackwell GPUs [5062329]

Open Issues:

• Changing state of "Display GPU Activity Icon in Notification Area" does not take effect until PC is rebooted [4995658]
• [VRay 6] Unexpected Low Performance on CUDA Vpath Tests for Blackwell GPUs [4915763]
• Adobe Substance 3D Painter texture corruption in baking results from GPU raytracing [5091781]
• After letting display go to sleep for an extended period, driver may crash when waking up monitor [5089560]
• [SteamVR] Some apps may display stutter on GeForce RTX 50 series [5088118]
• [Vulkan/DirectX] Some apps may display slight image corruption on pixelated 2D patterns [5071565]
• PC may bugcheck IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL 0xa during gameplay with HDR enabled [5091576]
• [Blackwell] Audio may stop working when GPU is connected via DisplayPort 1.4 w/ DSC at very high refresh rates [5104848]

=============

Mainly due to the ones in BOLD above and I know I've had 5089560 happen. The other, 5081921, I've always used 'Clean Install', but for it to be called out, makes me wonder if using DDU would be a better option?

@ispalten​ 

Yeah, best to skip that questionable driver and go to the latest.

I still have not suffered any ramifications but when an install has even minor errors, I don't trust it.

I'm updating it today.

Let's see if it has install issues and I also choose the fresh clean install option most of the time.