According to media reports, some users have encountered blue screen crashes when attempting to install the latest NVIDIA graphics card drivers on computers with older processors.
Just a few days ago, Microsoft caused widespread blue screen crashes worldwide due to security software issues, affecting many airports and government agencies.
In comparison, the blue screen issues caused by NVIDIA’s drivers are relatively minor. A deep investigation revealed that the root cause lies in NVIDIA’s decision to end support for processors that do not support the POPCNT instruction set starting from driver version 555. POPCNT is a modern processor instruction that efficiently counts the number of 1s in binary numbers, significantly enhancing data processing efficiency.
Unfortunately, some older processors, including the Core 2 Duo series, do not integrate this instruction set. Therefore, NVIDIA’s technical adjustment has posed significant challenges for these users. Specifically, users unknowingly installing version 555 or higher of NVIDIA’s graphics card drivers may encounter a “system thread exception not handled” blue screen error due to incompatibility, preventing normal system startup and impacting daily usage.
It is worth noting that Microsoft has previously announced that Windows 10 and 11 systems will no longer provide official support for processors lacking the POPCNT instruction set, further exacerbating the situation affected by NVIDIA’s driver update policy adjustment. This dual decision from Microsoft and NVIDIA has dealt a double blow to users relying on older processors, intensifying their troubles.
Although the market segment of users combining older processors with high-end NVIDIA graphics cards is relatively small, this change undoubtedly brings considerable inconvenience to those still dependent on such hardware. Many users have expressed frequent blue screen occurrences after updates on forums and social media, severely affecting their work and daily lives.
In light of this, it is strongly recommended that these users take preventive measures to avoid potential risks associated with automatic driver updates. Specifically, they can manually disable driver updates in Windows Update to ensure system stability until suitable alternatives or hardware upgrades are found. Additionally, users should consider regularly backing up important data to prevent data loss caused by system crashes.
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