Nvidia releases GeForce Hotfix driver 378.72

Martin Brinkmann
Feb 18, 2017
Windows
|
7

Nvidia released a Geforce Hotfix driver recently that addresses two issues in the GeForce Game Reader 378.66 WHQL drivers released on February 14, 2017.

The GeForce Game Reader 378.66 WHQL drivers for Nvidia video cards was released on February 14th, 2017. It added optimizations for the games For Honor, Halo Wars 2, Sniper Elite 4, and Nvidia Ansel for Paragon, new features, and a number of fixes.

Game Ready drivers are designed to improve the experience of players, usually through optimizations for the supported games.

Among the new features are support for high-bit depth decoding (VP9/HEVC), H.264 ME-only mode enhancements, and several fixes for games (Battlefield, Heroes of the Storm), and general video card issues.

Reports about issues with the new GeForce 378.66 driver began to appear shortly after release. One reason why reports started to appear this fast is Nvidia's focus on pushing out drivers via the company's own GeForce Experience software.

nvidia geforce driver 378.66

GeForce Experience gets installed by default alongside other Nvidia drivers and software when a GeForce display driver is installed. The latest versions of GeForce Experience work only if you register an account.

We suggest you select custom installation, to install only the Nvidia drivers you require, as it keeps the system lean.

GeForce Hotfix driver 378.72

Nvidia released the GeForce Hotfix driver 378.72 on February 16th, 2017. It fixes two issues in the WHQL driver the company released two days earlier:

  • Fixed hardware encoding in Steam (In-Home Streaming).
  • Resolved PhysX being forced to CPU when "Optimize for Compute Performance" setting is OFF.

If you have installed the Nvidia WHQL 378.66 driver already, you may want to download and install the hotfix on PCs to fix these issues. It is not necessary to download the hotfix if you don't use the video card for gaming however.

The hotfix is offered for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

Note that you may want to uninstall the old Nvidia driver completely before you install the hotfix.

A thread on Reddit suggests that the two issues are not the only Nvidia GeForce 378.66 issues the driver causes. Several users mention issues in Google's Chrome web browser, among them a crash issue when skipping videos on YouTube. Text may also be bold on Google sites such as YouTube or Google Search after the update.

Not all Google Chrome users appear to run into the crash issue. Those who do may want to try and disable hardware acceleration in the web browser for the time being as it is said to resolve the issue.

You do this by loading chrome://settings/ in the Google Chrome address bar, clicking on "show advanced settings" on the page, and removing the checkmark from "use hardware acceleration when available".

chrome hardware acceleration

Nvidia GeForce driver 378.66 is not the first driver that caused a series of issues in recent time. Both Nvidia GeForce driver 375.57 and driver 375.86 were causing issues as well.

Now Read: Disable Nvidia Telemetry on Windows PCs

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Nvidia releases GeForce Hotfix driver 378.72
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Nvidia releases GeForce Hotfix driver 378.72
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Nvidia released a Geforce Hotfix driver recently that addresses two issues in the GeForce Game Reader 378.66 WHQL drivers released on February 14, 2017.
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Comments

  1. Dan Donx said on January 15, 2023 at 10:29 am
    Reply

    What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?

    Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.

    If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.

  2. Dexter said on January 15, 2023 at 11:14 am
    Reply

    5. Rufus
    6. Ventoy

    PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.

    1. cdr said on January 15, 2023 at 3:32 pm
      Reply

      I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.

  3. sv said on January 15, 2023 at 6:40 pm
    Reply

    bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.

    ps…. time travelling?
    written. Jan 15, 2023
    Updated • Jan 13, 2023

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on January 16, 2023 at 5:49 am
      Reply

      This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.

  4. Anonymous said on January 16, 2023 at 8:24 am
    Reply

    Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.

  5. basingstoke said on January 16, 2023 at 11:18 am
    Reply

    I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:

    1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)

    2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)

    3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””

    4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows

    5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss

    Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:

    6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now

    Have I missed any group off this list?

    1. Heinz Strunk said on September 19, 2023 at 3:57 pm
      Reply

      You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.

      Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.

  6. ilev said on August 24, 2023 at 7:34 pm
    Reply

    Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update

    1. EP said on August 24, 2023 at 9:21 pm
      Reply

      only from windows update though
      KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site

  7. Anonymous said on August 24, 2023 at 11:05 pm
    Reply

    1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.

    2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.

    3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.

    This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
    Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.

    Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.

  8. john said on August 24, 2023 at 11:17 pm
    Reply

    Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.

    1. John G. said on August 25, 2023 at 12:08 pm
      Reply

      Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.

  9. EP said on August 25, 2023 at 3:10 pm
    Reply

    motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
    https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215

  10. EP said on August 29, 2023 at 7:32 pm
    Reply

    check out the following recent articles:

    Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
    https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/

    BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/

  11. Leonard Britvolli said on August 30, 2023 at 10:33 pm
    Reply

    While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.

  12. sembrador said on September 5, 2023 at 9:32 pm
    Reply

    My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.

  13. EP said on September 6, 2023 at 11:55 am
    Reply

    motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):

    https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277

  14. Raphael Benzo said on September 24, 2023 at 9:52 pm
    Reply

    I try to disable the Diagnostics Tracking Service (Connected Devices Platform User Services) but it wont let me disable it, any help will be greatly appreciated.
    Tank you for your help

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