Nvidia 196.75 Graphics Drivers Pulled

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If you’ve downloaded Nvidia’s 196.75 WHQL drivers you need to heed a warning from Nvidia themselves who have now officially stated that you should install their 196.21 drivers instead for now as they investigate widespread reports that their 196.75 WHQL drivers are causing graphics cards to overheat and, in some instances, fail.

The first reports of there being issues with the drivers seemingly came from several StarCraft II beta testers who reported that their video cards had died after installing Nvidia’s 196.75 WHQL drivers and, initially, a number of users blamed Blizzard Entertainment, and specifically the StarCraft II Beta client’s latest patch. But Blizzard Entertainment were quick to confirm that the overheating issues being experienced were in fact caused by the 196.75 WHQL drivers (the specific issue being with the cards fans post driver installation) and advised that users uninstall the drivers asap.

Now Nvidia have confirmed that the issue is of enough concern to act to pull their 196.75 WHQL drivers and have offered the following statement:

We are aware that some customers have reported fan speed issues with the latest 196.75 WHQL drivers on NVIDIA.com. Until we can verify and root cause this issue, we recommend that customers stay with, or return to 196.21 WHQL drivers. Release 196.75 drivers have been temporarily removed from our Web site in the meantime.

If you have these drivers presently installed you should act to remove them pronto and if you have these drivers installed and you’re seeing sluggish frame rates you should remove them doubly pronto until Nvidia fix the fan control issue and release a fixed version.

You’ve been warned. Act now or run the risk of frying your card.

[Image Credit: Engadget]