@ all users with a NVIDIA nForce chipset mainboard:
Preliminary notes
- Many users with an nForce chipset mainboard, who are running or going to install Vista, Win7, Win8 or Win10 (32/64bit), are searching for nForce chipset drivers, which are suitable for their special chipset and will give them the best possible performance and stability of their system. NVIDIA itself doesn’t offer them.
- As you probably know, NVIDIA had stopped the development and the production of the nForce chipsets already in springtime 2010. That is why there are no newer nForce chipset driver packs available. Unfortunately many nForce chipset drivers packages, which have been officially released by NVIDIA, have not been optimized for all nForce chipsets they were designed for. Some of them are not even usable with certain nForce chipsets.
That is why I started in January 2008 >this< thread at nForcersHQ Forum, where I was offering some especially optimized nForce driverpacks for Vista (and later for Win7). Since the nForce SATA RAID and -if applicable - the nForce SATA AHCI drivers never have been separately released by NVIDIA and always were part of the nForce chipset driverpacks, I decided to put parts of this nForcersHQ Forum thread into this Forum. -
Question: For whom are these driverpacks suitable?
The installation of my driverpacks makes sense for owners of an nForce chipset mainboard, who ran into problems with NVIDIA’s official packs (for example NF4 users) or who are searching for a driverpack combination, which gives them a better performance (owners of all NF4-7 series chipsets).
Important:- Only my “Actual nForce Driverpacks” are optimized for the advanced AHCI features, which are supported by the latest nForce chipsets from MCP65 up. Users, who want to run their SATA hdd(s) in full “AHCI Mode”, but avoid to install any modified driver, may take NVIDIA’s official driver sets.
- All my packages contain the untouched original NVIDIA drivers (that are the files with the extension “.SYS”). The customization of my “modded” driverpacks concerns just the associated text files (with the extension “.INF”) to make the original drivers compatible with other nForce chipsets and has no negative impact regarding the function of the drivers (= .SYS files).
- If you are running the installer of any nForce driverpack, you must not expect, that all nForce drivers of your OS will be updated by the drivers, which are within the set. Maybe the installer will give you just the option to install 1 or 2 of the set drivers. This is absolutely normal and may have one of the following reasons:
- a) not all nForce chipsets will need all included drivers of the package (example: nForce4 chipsets don’t have any device, which is supported by the SMU driver) or
- b) the installer believes, that the OS has already the “best” driver for the related device (not always the truth, but you can always try a forced manual driver update from within the Device Manager by using the “Have Disk…” option)
- Everything is ok, if you look into the Device Manager and verify, that none of the NVIDIA related devices has a yellow mark.
- You won’t find a NAM folder with NVIDIA’s “Network Management Tools” within my packages, because they are useless for nearly everyone and may cause problems. Big advantage: The download is much quicker due to the small package size.
- Before you are going to install a new nForce Ethernet driver, you should uninstall the previously running one (exception: the in-box drivers cannot be uninstalled).
-
Manual installation of the nForce drivers:
It is no problem to install any special nForce driver, which is part of the related driverpack, manually from within the Device Manager, but
nForce RAID users should pay attention: A successful manual update of an already running nForce RAID driver is not as easy as with other drivers. A step-by-step guide can be found >here<.
Optimized
NVIDIA nForce Driverpacks (32/64bit)
Note: The linked *.RAR archives can be unzipped by using WinRAR from v5.xx up or 7-Zip from v1900 up
Last updated: 12/18/2020)
Changelog:
- Updated:
- “Latest 32/64bit nForce Driverpacks for Win7-10” (now v10.8 with the latest NVIDIA HDAudio drivers, which do support Win7-10)
- “Special 32/64bit nForce RAID Driverpacks for Win7-10” (now v10.8 with the latest NVIDIA HDAudio drivers, which do support Win7-10)
A. WHQL certified nForce Driverpacks
(do not contain any modified drivers)
1. "NForce4 WHQL Driverpacks for Win7"
for nForce4 AMD chipset users, who prefer or need WHQL certified drivers
(especially for/after a fresh OS installation onto an nForce4 RAID system)
Users with an nForce4 RAID system will run into problems, when they try to get any Windows OS from Vista up installed, because neither the in-box nor the latest nForce SataRAID drivers, which were offered by NVIDIA until 2010, do work with “LEGACY” mode RAID configurations (note: “LEGACY” mode RAID systems have the ability to support PataRAID and SataRAID arrays simultaneously).
This is the reason why I still offer these special WHQL signed Vista/Win7/Win8 driverpacks for users with an nForce4 chipset mainboard. They should work with Win10 as well.
Here are the download links to my “NForce4 WHQL Driverpacks” (with multilingual installer):
- >32bit nForce4 WHQL Driverpack v9.0 for Vista/Win7/Win8 x86< (>MIRROR<)
- >64bit nForce4 WHQL Driverpack v9.0 for Vista/Win7/Win8 x64< (>MIRROR<)
These are the components:
- Ethernet Driver (v67.89) WHQL
- SATAIDE Driver (v9.98) WHQL
- SATARAID Driver (v9.98) WHQL
- RAIDTOOL Application (v9.99) "Sedona"
- SMBus Driver (v4.69) WHQL
- Realtek AC’97 Codec Audio Driver (v63.05) WHQL
- Installer (v8.36)
Informations regarding these driverpacks:
-
Compatibility:
- Contrary to NVIDIA’s officially offered nForce chipset driver sets these packs are fully supporting nForce4 AMD RAID systems. Users with such hardware configuration can use the included WHQL certified nForce IDE drivers v9.98 even from scratch by loading them during the Win7/8/10 installation (look >here<). For further details you may look into >this< (for Win7) or >this< (for Vista) installation guide.
- Although these “NForce4 WHQL Driverpacks” will support all RAID and non-RAID systems with an nForce4 AMD (=CK804), nForce 430/410 (=MCP51), nForce 590/570/550/680i/650i/780i/750i (=MCP55) and nForce 430/405/400 (=MCP61) chipset, I only recommend them for users with an nForce4 RAID system, who are going to do a fresh installation of Win7 or Vista or ran into problems with another nForce driver pack.
-
Performance:
- The included nForce IDE drivers v9.98 will give you a stable system, but not the best possible performance. That is why I do not recommend to take the “NF4 RAID WHQL Driverpacks” unless you have an nForce4 AMD system and want to get Win7 or Vista installed onto your nForce4 RAID array.
-
Driver update via Windows Update:
- It is highly recommended to disable the automatic Windows Update option, because otherwise you risk, that you get nForce drivers installed, which are broken or worse than those you had previously installed yourself. If Windows Update is offering any new nForce chipset driver, you should only accept it, if you are sure, that the update is useful and safe.
-
AC’97 Codec Audio driver:
- Since Win7/Vista do not natively support the Realtek AC’97 Codec Audio chips, which are the most common ones on nForce4 mainboards, I have added the actual AC’97 Codec Audio drivers from Realtek to these special nForce4 driverpacks.
The Realtek Audio driver may not be installed automaticly by running the installer of the package. So the users probably have to do a manual driver installation from within the Device Manager.
- Since Win7/Vista do not natively support the Realtek AC’97 Codec Audio chips, which are the most common ones on nForce4 mainboards, I have added the actual AC’97 Codec Audio drivers from Realtek to these special nForce4 driverpacks.
B. Mod+signed nForce Driverpacks
(do contain modified, but digitally signed drivers)
Note: Don’t forget to import the Win-RAID CA Certificate before trying to install them!
Relevance of the driver’s "Digital Signature"
The latest Windows Operating Systems from Win8 up have a feature named “Driver Signature Enforcement”, which does not allow to get any driver installed, which has no valid digital signature. Since any modification of the associated INF file automaticly breaks the digital signature of the driver, there is only one way to get a “modded” driver installed onto Win8/8.1/10 without the need of disabling the automaticly active “Driver Signature Enforcement”: The modded driver has to be digitally signed by a trustworthy person or Company.
Notes:
- All modded drivers, which I am offering here, have been digitally signed by me.
Consequence: It should be possible to get these drivers installed without any problems (no disabling of the “Driver Signature Enforcement” required)! - Nevertheless you may get the message while trying to get any “mod+signed” driver installed, that “the best driver is already running”. This always will happen, when you want to replace
a) a WHQL certified driver or
b) a newer driver by an older one.
Solution: Force the installation of the “mod+signed” drivers by using the “Have Disk” button.
How to benefit from the digital signature of the modded drivers:
To get full benefit from the driver’s digital signature it is necessary to import the always attached Win-RAID CA Certificate, which will give the OS the information, that the signer is trustworthy.
Important: This procedure has to be done only once, but before you are trying to get the first “mod+signed” driver installed.
>Here< you can find all needed informations about how to import the Win-RAID CA certificate.
Note:
Since the digital signature of the modded drivers has not yet been imported at this stage, they cannot be used from scratch. That means, that they are not suitable for the integration into a Win8/10 image and cannot be loaded during the OS installation.
Here are my “mod+signed” nForce driverpacks for Vista/Win7 resp. Win7-10:
1. "Latest nForce Driverpacks for Win7-10"
designed for all nForce chipsets from NF4 up and all AHCI supporting nForce systems from MCP65 up
(newest nForce driver combination with AHCI support)
Here are the download links to these Driverpacks:
- >Latest 32bit nForce Driverpack for Win7-10 x86 v10.8< (>MIRROR<)
- >Latest 64bit nForce Driverpack for Win7-10 x64 v10.8< (>MIRROR<)
These are the components:
- Ethernet Driver (v73.3.5) modified, corrected and digitally signed by me
- SATA_IDE Driver (v11.2.20.9) digitally signed by NVIDIA
- SATARAID Driver (v11.1.0.43) WHQL
- RAIDTOOL Application (v11.1.0.43) "Sedona"
- SMU Driver (v1.71) modified and digitally signed by me
- SMBus Driver (v4.74) modified and digitally signed by me
- Away Mode Driver (v6.0.6000.115) WHQL
- HD Audio Driver (1.3.36.6) WHQL
- Installer (v8.36)
Informations regarding these driverpacks:
-
Compatibility:
The included nForce SATA_IDE drivers v11.2.20.9 are the latest NVIDIA ones and should work fine
a) with all nForce chipset systems from nForce4 up running in IDE mode and
b) with all AHCI supporting nForce chipsets from nForce 560/520 (MCP65) up. -
Performance details:
Since I couldn’t do any benchmark tests with the included SATA (AHCI/IDE/RAID) drivers, I cannot give any information about their performance. The nForce users have to find out themselves, whether the MS in-box SATA drivers are better than the NVIDIA nForce ones, which are within this package. -
Included NVIDIA HDAudio Driver:
The included 32/64bit HDAudio driver v1.3.36.6 WHQL is dated 12/15/2017 and supports all Windows Operating Systems from Win7 up. It has to be installed separately (without using the installer). This driver does not work with Realtek HDAudio and AC’97 Codec audio chips. If you are searching for Realtek Audio drivers, you can use the below offered links. -
Missing Realtek Audio driver:
- Many nForce chipset mainboards have a Realtek HDAudio or AC’97 Codec Audio Chip. Since the suitable drivers are not from NVIDIA and the complete Audio driverpacks have a big size, I didn’t add them to these nForce driverpacks. Users, who want the suitable Realtek HDAudio or AC’97 Codec Audio Driver, can grab them from here:
- >32bit Realtek HDAudio Driver v6.0.1.7904 WHQL for Win7-10 x86< (>MIRROR<)
- >64bit Realtek HDAudio Driver v6.0.1.7904 WHQL for Win7-10 x64< (>MIRROR<)
2. "Special nForce RAID Driverpacks for Win7-10"
recommended for all nForce users from NF4 up, who are running their system in RAID mode, best choice for nForce4 and MCP51/55/61
(probably the nForce RAID driver combination with the best performance)
Here are the download links to these driverpacks:
- >Special 32bit nForce RAID Driverpack for Win7-10 x86 v10.8< (>MIRROR<)
- >Special 64bit nForce RAID Driverpack for Win7-10 x64 v10.8< (>MIRROR<)
These are the components:
- Ethernet Driver (v73.3.5) modified, corrected and digitally signed by me
- SATA_IDE Driver (v9.99.09) modified and digitally signed by me
- SATARAID Driver (v9.99.09) modified and digitally signed by me
- RAIDTOOL Application (v9.99.09) "Sedona"
- SMU Driver (v1.71) modified and digitally signed by me
- SMBus Driver (v4.74) modified and digitally signed by me
- Away Mode Driver (v6.0.6000.115) WHQL
- HD Audio Driver (1.3.36.6) WHQL
- Installer (v8.36)
Informations regarding these driverpacks:
-
Compatibility:
- Since I have added all required HardWareID’s, the included “mod+signed” nForce SATA_IDE and SATARAID drivers should support all nForce chipsets from nForce4 up (except those nForce systems, which are running in AHCI mode).
AFAIK these driverpacks are the best choice for the following nForce chipsets:[ul]
[li]nForce4 AMD (CK8-04) and nForce4 Intel Edition (MCP04) - nForce 430/410 (MCP51)
- nForce 590/570/550 AMD and nForce 680i/650i/790i/780i/750i Intel Edition (MCP55)
- nForce 430/405/400 (MCP61)
- Since I have added all required HardWareID’s, the included “mod+signed” nForce SATA_IDE and SATARAID drivers should support all nForce chipsets from nForce4 up (except those nForce systems, which are running in AHCI mode).
- Contrary to NVIDIA’s later released nForce chipset driver sets these driverpacks can be installed onto nForce4 (inclusive AMD Ultra-D) RAID systems without any problems (thanks to Drago for his reports).
My advice for NF4 RAID users: If you are doing a fresh install of Win7, Win8 or Win10, you should load the WHQL signed nForce IDE drivers v9.98, which are part of my “Special nForce4 WHQL Driverpacks”. Once the OS is up, you can update to the IDE drivers v9.99.09 by using this package. - Attention: Since these nForce SATA and RAID drivers v9.99.09 are not WHQL certified, they may not be usable from scratch, that means while installing Win7, Win8 or Win10.
3. “Special nForce2-4 LEGACY Driverpacks for Win7-10”
(not sure, whether all included drivers will work with all LEGACY mode nForce systems)
designed for LEGACY mode nForce2-4 AMD and Intel Edition chipsets
(with support of PataRAID and SataRAID systems)
Here are the download links to these special LEGACY Driverpacks:
-
>Special 32bit nForce2-4 LEGACY Driverpack for Win7-10 x86 v10.6< (>MIRROR<)
These are the components of the 32bit package:- NVIDIA AC’97 Audio Driver (v4.66) digitally signed by me
- Audio Utility (v4.51)
- Ethernet Driver (v65.65) modified and digitally signed by me
- GART Driver (v4.40) WHQL
- PreNRM Ethernet Driver (v4.36) WHQL
- LEGACY mode SATA/PATA and RAID Driver (v6.99) composed and digitally signed by me
- RAIDTOOL Application (v6.95) "Sedona"
- SMBus Driver (v4.69) modified and digitally signed by me
- Installer (v8.36)
These are the components of the 64bit package:
- REALTEK AC’97 Audio Codec Driver (v63.05) WHQL
- Ethernet Driver (v65.65) modified and digitally signed by me
- GART Driver (v4.3.4) digitally signed by me
- LEGACY mode SATA/PATA and RAID Driver (v6.99) composed and digitally signed by me
- RAIDTOOL Application (v6.95) "Sedona"
- SMBus Driver (v4.69) modified and digitally signed by me
- Installer (v8.36)
Informations regarding these driverpacks:
-
Compatibiliy and Usability:
- The drivers of these packages do support all LEGACY mode nForce2-4 (32bit OS) resp. nForce3-4 (64bit OS) chipsets inclusive PataRAID and SataRAID systems.
- Since the Operating Systems from Win7 up do contain newer and probably better in-box GART and MemCtl drivers, I did not add the old NVIDIA ones to the packages.
- Users with an nForce2-4 chipset mainboard, who want to install Win7, Win8 or Win10 onto a RAID array, should look into the start post of >this< (Vista) resp. >this< (Win7) thread.
-
Included NVIDIA/Realtek Audio Driver:
Since Vista/Win7/Win8 have an in-box AC’97 Audio Codec Driver, users probably will not need the Audio Driver of my Special nForce2-4/3-4 LEGACY Driverpacks. Nevertheless I have added them for users, which are not satified with the Vista/Win7 in-box Audio Driver.
Good luck and much fun with my driverpacks - any feedback is much appreciated!
Regards
Fernando
