162.18 Forceware - missing control panel?

[MichaelD]

I was running the 94.xx drivers for a long time with no issues. I uninstalled them, rebooted, installed the 162.18 WHQL drivers and now I have no control panel.

No matter how I try to get to it, it does not open. I rebooted. Nothing. Uninstalled them, rebooted, reinstalled, rebooted, then tried again. Nothing.

Is this a known issue? Is there a way to kickstart the control panel? The PC is otherwise running perfectly. I'm stumped.

 

[Piuc2020]

I used to get this problem, uninstall your drivers, reboot, reboot into safe mode and run driver sweeper (download from Guru3D.com) and then reboot and install the drivers again.

This tends to happen when drivers are not properly uninstalled.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks, I will give that a shot. This is the first time that NVidia drivers have not properly uninstalled for me when properly uninstalling them. I've had this problem when switching from an NV to an ATI card...but not now. I will try your suggestion. Thanks again.

 

[MichaelD]

I downloader Driver Cleaner Pro from Guru3D. I followed the instructions to the letter and even ran the Cab Cleaner. Same problem. Everything works fine...except the control panel which will not open.

Anyone else have an idea? I'm temped to try some of the other drivers out there, but they're not official drivers and that makes me nervous...

 

[MichaelD]

Bump for the Sunday crowd. Still need some help w/this issue.

 

[Sylvanas]

Is the Nvidia driver/control pannel present in the taskmanager? Other than that I'd suggest trying the latest 163.69 WHQL's.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
Is the Nvidia driver/control pannel present in the taskmanager? Other than that I'd suggest trying the latest 163.69 WHQL's.

I checked Task Mgr but I'm not sure what the "Image Name" is. I'd ask you to run your control panel and see, but you have an ATI card. Would you happen to know what the image is called?

I can tell that it's "trying" to open b/c when I click NVidia Control panel, I get the hourglass icon for a second, CPU usage goes up, then nothing. It's weird.

163.69WHQL's are next if I can't get this thing working really soon.

 

[MichaelD]

All right, this is seriously weird. I uninstalled the 162.18s, ran driver cleaner and installed teh 163.69s. Same damn thing. Everything runs great, except I have no control panel. WTF? Everything was fine with the 94xxs...maybe I'll just go back to them. :|