Warning: latest nVidia drivers look bad...and installs adware?

[Slugbait]

So I wanted to rebuild my machine in order to configure it for my latest videocard (a vanilla 6800) and do a few other permanent settings. I dropped an image of a known clean system, and went to nVidia's website for the latest drivers.

What luck! New drivers released just the day before! (June 22, and WHQL, too!)

Then I rebooted. Upon logon, MS anti-spyware immediately informed me with a big, red box that an application was trying to install AdHelper. Drat! I thought for certain this was a totally clean image! Curses!

So I ran a full system scan with anti-spyware, plus thorough spybot and eTrust for good measure.

Then I wanted to watch an AVI in WMP. It looks like crap: has a thick, white film overlaying the top of picture. Tried again with a WMV...same problem. Tried BSPlayer...same result. But when I tried viewing either video in PowerDVD, they looked perfect.

So I dropped that previous image again and booted several times. No alerts about adware. Played the videos in various players...no problem. Upgraded to nVidia's WHQL 77.72 drivers and repro'd both problems immediately.

So, I dropped the image again, and downloaded the 71.89 drivers. No problems with these drivers.

Just wanted to give you folks a headz up.

 

[Wisp]

Likely Solution

No adware involved

Edit: Wrong html thing

 

[mechBgon]

FYI, MS AntiSpyware sometimes has false positives. The likelihood of nVidia packing their drivers with adware is not very high. If MS AntiSpyware blocked parts of the driver installation, then it seems quite logical that there will be problems with the driver performance/quality afterwards.

 

[Slugbait]

Crap! You have to save the profile or the problem keeps coming back??? How many people are going to figure that out, much less figure out the initial solution in the first place?

Otherwise, thanks for pointing out the solution for video.

However, I'm still a little concerned that they tried to install AdHelper...I'm aware the likelihood was low, which is why I ran the repro scenario with just their drivers to confirm. MS anti-spyware was pulling out what correctly appeared to be adhelper DLLs upon cleansing, so...

 

[IEC]

Wow, this puts a damper on my view of nVidia as having superior drivers - possible adware-like activity and screwy video playback shouldn't happen in a NEW release. Thanks for the info guys (mechBgon and Slugbait) - I'll make sure to remember it when I buy a 6800 series gfx card

 

[mechBgon]

For nVidia to team up with an adware outfit would be suicidial. Unless their EULA states that there's adware included, they'd be wide-open to lawsuits as well as facing the wrath of millions of enthusiasts. They're not going to make back their losses by means of adware. It is not logical, Captain.

Try this again in about 3-4 days after updating your MS AntiSpyware definitions and I'll bet it doesn't do that anymore. I've had MSAS freak at other stuff that wasn't really there either, it's not perfect. Or try the same routine, but this time uninstall MS AS and replace it with a 30-day trial of Webroot Spysweeper, another legit high-rated AS application.

If an nVidia driver package really does have spyware/adware in it, then the thought that comes to mind is DNS cache poisoning.

 

[Slugbait]

Originally posted by: ariafrost
I'll make sure to remember it when I buy a 6800 series gfx card

These are actually unified drivers that work with most GeForce cards and all Quadro cards (not TNT or select Geforce cards. See supported list). Most nVidia customers will hit this issue after they install 77.72.

Mech, whereas this could very-well be a false positive, I'm still steaming about the amount of time I wasted trying to figure out what went fubar with video playback. Besides, the latest drivers are primarily for support of the 6200 AGP and the 7800 GTX, improved SLI and some HDTV stuff. Other than a few other improved stuff, most people won't need these drivers.

 

[docbrown3805]

i'm having the same issues with the video playback. everything else works but that

 

[r55741]

same problem here i'm rolling back the driver maybe that will help

 

[mechBgon]

Thanks for the heads-up about the video-playback problem, I'll watch for it when I do my revamp of my rigs in the next month or so.

 

[cubby1223]

I've always wondered if MS would ever do something to get at the companies who don't pay them to certify the drivers...

Anyways, I've got a 6600GT with the 77.72 drivers direct off nVidia's website, didn't have the video playback issue, and Ad-Aware finds no traces of any spy-ware/ad-ware/etc on my computer.

 

[Cid]

Theres a fix for the video playback issues. If you're experiecing white out playback, just go to your nvidia display properties and on the left pane(tree), click on Color Correction. Then under Color Profile choose advanced mode. Finally at the top, under Apply color changes to: select ALL from the drop down box. Click Apply. Worked for me.

 

[r55741]

Originally posted by: Cid
Theres a fix for the video playback issues. If you're experiecing white out playback, just go to your nvidia display properties and on the left pane(tree), click on Color Correction. Then under Color Profile choose advanced mode. Finally at the top, under Apply color changes to: select ALL from the drop down box. Click Apply. Worked for me.

thanks that worked for me too

 

[d2arcturus]

Originally posted by: Cid
Theres a fix for the video playback issues. If you're experiecing white out playback, just go to your nvidia display properties and on the left pane(tree), click on Color Correction. Then under Color Profile choose advanced mode. Finally at the top, under Apply color changes to: select ALL from the drop down box. Click Apply. Worked for me.

Thanks, works here.