Nvidia Control Panel crashes after driver update

[superduffio]

I've updated the drivers for my 8600M GT nvidia gpu, and now every time I open nvidia control panel (to adjust resolution settings, set up multiple displays etc) it crashes ["nvidia control panel application has stopped working" etc etc] after one or two seconds. Very frustrating! There was no restore point saved, unfortunately, (I thought there was, but apparently not) so I can't roll back to the old drivers. I've tried older drivers from the nvidia archive, but I'm getting the same problem with all of them.

I'm using a Dell XPS M1530, running Vista.

All suggestions gratefully received!

Thanks

 

[fimbles]

What OS (32 or 64bit) are you running? and what driver version do you have?

If you can check of course, with nvidia control panel crashing.

Have you tried a manual install and tick the "clean install" box in the nvidia drivers installer?

 

[superduffio]

Hi,

It's the Vista 32 bit OS. I updated to the latest drivers, 285.62, but as I said, I've since tried all the archived drivers that nvidia have available for download, and the control panel still crashes.

I've tried the 'clean install' option too. No success.

It's a real bummer!

ps. I have the correct BIOS version, A12, that nvidia recommend for this Dell/ GPU/ driver configuration.

 

[ron111]

A bit tricky maybe, but you could try to uninstall the video device in the device manager.
Just right-click it and select uninstall in the popup. After that, also select the option "Delete the driver software for this device". That will remove all files, so you can truly try a clean install. I also suggest rebooting after the uninstall. Windows will probaly default back to the std video drivers.