We all love new drivers to make sure that those sweet new games run at their best with our graphics cards. However, sometimes NVIDIA and AMD slip up and we are left with more issues than fixes.
This is exactly what has happened with NVIDIA’s latest Game Ready driver package. Released on 25 April, version 397.31 was meant to optimize your GPU for BattleTech and for Frostpunk, however it seems to have caused issues for some users. Users have reported that the new driver package has caused an installation loop whereby the drivers fail and prompt the user to reinstall the drivers after their PC is restarted.
Luckily this glitch doesn’t affect all GTX cards, though that being said, the loop error has affected one of the biggest sellers for NVIDIA, the GTX 1060. Almost all users that have found themselves at the mercy of the installation loop error are using some form of this GPU, it seems to have affected both the 3GB and 6GB version, along with the laptop version too. There was even one user with a GTX 1080 who found himself in the same boat as those 1060 users.
NVIDIA’s Game Ready 397.31 driver was offered through GeForce Experience, meaning you would expect it to have been tested by NVIDIA, but this glitch seems to have passed by the guys at NVIDIA, to the frustration of many mid-range gamers.
I installed the latest drivers on my laptop which has a GTX 1060 and I was lucky to not have run into the issue. Though some users have also mentioned that rolling back to a previous driver doesn’t always work. Users have even commented on the fact that uninstalling the new driver and trying to install an older version doesn’t seem to work either. The one solution that you can try is to use DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) which is a free software tool from Wagnardsoft which should completely remove any display drivers that have been installed on your PC. It’s recommended that you run Windows in Safe Mode and then installing 391.35 afterwards, which would sort out the issue. Honestly, NVIDIA should spend a bit more time testing their drivers as these issues are a massive downer for gamers. But fear not, a quick cleanup and roll back of your drivers will have you gaming in no time at all.
