Version 196.75 drivers can possibly kill your graphics card.. A statement from nVidia..

“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.”

The problem seems to be with the fan controller which slows the fan down to the point where the video card overheats and can die. Needless to say that nVidia are not offering 196.75 as a downloadable option. Latest version now is 196.21.

This is the kind of event which one never considers happening, but there is a useful utility called Speedfan which warns of issues like the above. You can get it here..

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

I have had issues with all drivers since 191.07 regarding a nasty flicker as the mouse pointer crosses an AJAX based home/start page, and today sent a report to nVidia. I wonder what will come of it..