Here is a good way for you to get rid of those annoying nvidia sound drivers as they can cause plenty of IRQ faults and conflicts resulting in stuttering, poor frame rates, BSOD's, and lockups/freezeups.  I have helped others remove them and it has fixed 90% of their problems.  I hope this fixes yours.  It is also a good guide on how to properly install/uninstall drivers. TAKE A WORD OF ADVICE,  THESE NVIDIA SOUNDDRIVERS WILL CONFLICT WITH ONBOARD SOUDCARDS AND MAY CAUSE IRQ CONFLICTS. BE SURE TO CREATE A SYSTEM RESTORE POINT FIRST
WHAT I DO IS: 
1. Download Driver Sweeper and driver cleaner and install them.  mainly need driver  google them. also down load the latest audio drivers from evga and the latest Nvidia drivers straight from Nvidia. 
2. boot up GO INTO PROGRAMS AND FEATURES IN CONTROL PANEL. Uninstall Nvidia Physx and Nvidia surround driver.  DO NOT UNINSTALL NVIDIA DRIVERS ON NVIDIA CONTROL PANEL YET.
3. Reboot. Go into safe mode (press F8 repeatedly upon power up)
4. While in SafeMode go into program and features now selected Nvidia Drivers then uninstall them. it will then ask you to reboot the computer DO NOT REBOOT YET SELECT NO. 
5.  While still in safemode open Driversweeper select nvidia display and click analyze. when it is done click on clean.  Then open driver cleaner. click on the box that says "use multiple filters" the select Nvidia, Nvida wdm and nvidia stereo.
6. Once you have finished with driver sweeper and driver cleaner reboot back in to regular mode. open device manager and check to see if your display adapter reads "Generic video adapter" or something along those lines and that it is a microsoft driver.  then check your sound drivers to make sure that All 4 Nvidia soundrivers are uninstalled. Once you have verified that all the nvidia drivers are uninstalled REBOOT INTO SAFEMODE. 
7.  WHILE IN SAFEMODE.  Go into open programs and see if there is anything labeled Realtek audio drivers if there is uninstall that. DO NOT REBOOT YET.  Open device manager and go to sound devices and select any remaining audio devices and uninstall them. then open driver sweeper and clean out the left over files. After using driver sweeper you can now Reboot into regular mode. 
8.  After reboot open up device manager and make sure that all the drivers you uninstalled and cleaned out were replaced by Generic Microsoft Drivers.  Then install The nvidia display drivers and disable windows automatic updates.  Now reboot.
9. after you reboot go into device manager and DISABLE the 4 nvidia sound driver the REBOOT BACK INTO SAFEMODE.  Once you are back in safemode open up device manager and uninstall the Nvidia sound drivers.  if they won't uninstall then make sure they are disabled in safemode.  Reboot
10. Now install your onboard audio drivers then reboot.
 
I hope this helps it should fix your problem.  I have had similar issues but i was gettng BSOD's from the IRQ fault once i was able to disable the driver there was no problem.  but i still have the mocro stutter isuue that everyone is talking about.  NVIDIA SHOULD GIVE YOU THE OPTION WHETHER OR NOT TO INSTALL THOSE SOUND DRIVERS WHEN YOU ARE INSTALING THE DISPLAY DRIVERS BUT INSTEAD THEY FORCE THEM UPON YOU.  Good luck to you and please post your results and post any questions you might have.

Thanks for the post.  Its a shame people have to go through all this...we really should insist that Nvidia do a better job in terms of their drivers. 

Your very welcome.  anything I can do to help. 

I always stop the Nvidia installer right after it extracts to "C:\Nvidia".

I then enter this folder and DELETE the Audio Driver and 3D Driver.

Then I manually run then SETUP.EXE in that folder to install driver.

helmutcheese


I always stop the Nvidia installer right after it extracts to "C:\Nvidia".

I then enter this folder and DELETE the Audio Driver and 3D Driver.

Then I manually run then SETUP.EXE in that folder to install driver.

This could cause registry errors and other complications (system32/system64 errors). but if it works for you i can't knock it.  and i will give it a try for myself and test it out. 

Yeah I have to agree nvidia should give people the choice on installing some of these drivers. Not everyone is using the video cards sound I dont, and the 3d stuff I have 3d vision I have to install the drivers for that anyways. They need to put in a check box for each bit of software they are putting on your machine to give people the choice. Not all boards are user friendly with the audio on the gpu and like the op said it can cause issues but its with some boards.

I wanted to point out that in steps 6-8 that it is important to make sure that when you remove any drivers that they should be replaced by microsoft drivers. if your video card still registers in device manager under display adapter as an "Nvidia GTX 4xx"or something along those lines and the drivers still say they are from nvidia and not microsoft, you have not uninstalled them and cleaned them out successfully.  all drivers should be from microsoft and your display adapter should read "generic display adapter" If this not the case:

BEFORE TRYING THIS CREATE A SYSTEM RESTORE POINT

DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK
while in device manager
1. click on display adapter
2. right click the device then click properties
3. click the driver details tab
4.  take note of any files that are nvidia related and go into windows explorer and manually delete them.
5. Reboot

rjohnson11


OK everyone, I haven't really heard of many problems with 3D or sound drivers but if everyone is that concerned there is a far easier way to do this.

1: Download the latest NVIDIA based drivers which is my case are these:
258.96_desktop_win7_winvista_64bit_english_whql.exe

2: Make an empty folder and copy this file into that folder

3: Download and install winrar

4: Go into the folder and right click the file 258.96_desktop_win7_winvista_64bit_english_whql.exe

Choose Extract Files

5: Choose OK in the winrar box and the files will be extracted to a folder

6: Go into that folder and delete these files:

3DVision_258.96.exe
hdaudio_1.0.15.0_xp_vista_win7.exe

7: Run setup and it will install the drivers without installing HD Audio or 3D Vision

If anyone has any questions please let me know. This procedure is not approved by NVIDIA or EVGA.

won't this still cause registry issues? and not to beat a dead unicorn but THEY SHOULD GIVE YOU AN OPTION TO INSTALL THEM OR NOT WHETHER IT BE A CUSTOM INSTALL OR A CHECK BOX MENU AT THE BEGINNING OF THE INSTALL 

dunkinkid22

helmutcheese


I always stop the Nvidia installer right after it extracts to "C:\Nvidia".

I then enter this folder and DELETE the Audio Driver and 3D Driver.

Then I manually run then SETUP.EXE in that folder to install driver.

This could cause registry errors and other complications (system32/system64 errors). but if it works for you i can't knock it.  and i will give it a try for myself and test it out. 

No issues as the packages are never installed !
 
Do not get why you would even think that, its not as if I have a device missing a driver in the device manager.
 
I have did this since the Nvidia NForce 2 Mobo days as I did not need the SoundStorm packages in the drivers as I always have ran a Dedicated Soundcard since 2001.
 
Your way is too long and too much work so best to simply skip these packages and not install in the 1st place but suppsoe you need do it your way once you have already installed them by error.
 
I use to hang out on the Nforce Forums and some nice peeps made "Remix" driver packages with all the extra bloat removed for peeps who has own Soundcards or NIC's etc.

This thread is AWESOME! So much win in it... Love these types of FYI threads... As long as it works

I use my GTX 480 as my primary sound device as it's better than any sound card (without HDMI) as HDMI is the only way to output digital multichannel lossless audio.

I have never seen any of these problems or anything with using the sound processing on the GTX 480.

And also what's an IRQ fault?  That doesn't really make any sense.  IRQ is short for interrupt request and it's what happens when a thread wants access to some CPU time.  It can't really "fault".  You can have a page fault though if that's what you meant.  A page fault is also a form of interrupt when programs are trying to access invalid forms of memory.  It can be caused by a few different exception cases all related to memory access.


I guess if there is a driver issue with the Nvidia sound device you could be getting page faults but I have been using it since the card came out on several driver revisions and haven't seen a single issue from the audio part of the card.

@ SirMaster , the OP does not need or want the Nvidia Sound going by my reading.

I also have ZERO need for it, though currently on a 200 series but same if on 400 series (minus the small SPDIF cable).

I always have and always will have a Dedicated Soundcard.

thanks for the post after days working on this issue of manu and winblows drivers corrupting boot

agreed should have option but i guess cos using HDMI they load

yeah but i get freezing on w7 64bit after login

with 4 nvidia sound drivers in DM

i just ran winblows repair startup 

been good so far 

Why use "winblows" if you feel that way ?

Could use Loonsucks (Linux) or a MAC and do next to nothing on them.

my fix is for the 90% of users who have already installed them

dunkinkid22


my fix is for the 90% of users who have already installed them

helmutcheese


Why use "winblows" if you feel that way ?

Could use Loonsucks (Linux) or a MAC and do next to nothing on them.

windoze is more like it
 
thanks dunkinkid22  for your work around
 
thing is windoze trys net to load wrong driver....while in safemode net is disabled
 
also start up repair   

the thing to remember also is that windows sometimes throws a tantrum when you try to uninstall something that is in use.  so when you go into safemode none of nvidia's drivers are in use cause in safemode it only uses native microsoft drivers (unless you overwrote them but thats another story for another campfire)   

The method that I gave makes sure that the sound and 3D are never installed in the first place if that is really what you want to do.

Helmutcheese gave a good method as well but I've seen some people still mess things up when attempting his method because they have problems following those directions.

Whether you decide to follow Helmutcheese's method, the original poster, or my own method one of them should work for you.

Yes, I did test my method out several times before posting it.

Thanks for sharing, i will give this a try on the next nvidia driver release. For now i deactivated all 4 nvidia devices in the devicemanager. I got a creative x-fi titanium and it shares the same irq with my gtx470, maybe that causes some conflicts.

If you are worried about registry issues, just use Advanced System Care by Iobit. There is a free version which does the job nicely. It will remove/correct registry entries as well as make a back up all at the same time. I use it once a week and I notice a difference.

http://www.iobit.com/advancedwindowscareper.html

There is also a Pro version, which unlocks additional features. If you want the Pro one, let me know as I can get you a license cheaper than whats on the site.

^ CCleaner is great and its free. For registry and cookiecleaning.

I also use uniblue registry booster.

Ill try that one out later, but im pretty sure its the same and reg booster.

SirMaster


I use my GTX 480 as my primary sound device as it's better than any sound card (without HDMI) as HDMI is the only way to output digital multichannel lossless audio.

I have never seen any of these problems or anything with using the sound processing on the GTX 480.

And also what's an IRQ fault?  That doesn't really make any sense.  IRQ is short for interrupt request and it's what happens when a thread wants access to some CPU time.  It can't really "fault".  You can have a page fault though if that's what you meant.  A page fault is also a form of interrupt when programs are trying to access invalid forms of memory.  It can be caused by a few different exception cases all related to memory access.


I guess if there is a driver issue with the Nvidia sound device you could be getting page faults but I have been using it since the card came out on several driver revisions and haven't seen a single issue from the audio part of the card.

There is a thing called an IRQ conflict. Its when certain hardware are sharing the same IRQ,such as a video card. You can get all kinds of strange things to happen and performance loss when a video card is sharing an IRQ.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRQ_conflict

Irq conflicts should be a thing of the pass. With a modern OS and computer, it is not only normal, but expected that irq's be shared. They shouldn't have any trouble doing so.

I actually have a soundblaster x-fi, but decided to install the nvidia onboard drivers so I could utilise it to power an ear piece for ventrilo. That way ventrilo chat comes over the headphone jack I have and game sound and microphone are handled by the sound blaster. Works like a charm!

Yes IRQ conflict, not IRQ fault...  I've never heard of an IRQ fault before but I guess some people might call it that, no worries.