Yes! Thanks to all the assistance here, I have been able to update my primary motherboard drivers, and subsequently fully format my new WD Black 1.5 TB drive. Finally.

However, I was unable to uninstall one pesky part of the overall nForce package, the fabulous and unnecessary infamous nForce Network Access Manager. Windows Add/Drop Programs returns an error message when attempting to uninstall the NAM. It isn't apparently critical to get rid of this, it has interfered with just one program in the past, TAW. But I would really like to be able to use MP for TAW, and NAM blocks MP with gusto. Error:

"Error reading setup initialization file"

Any ideas on how to eliminate this software firewall on the motherboard? Only concern is that I want to be careful not to mess up the newly updated drivers after all the issues in recovering from the first, failed driver upgrade.

System Restore back to before you updated, then re-update and uncheck Network Access Manager.

I had FITS Uninstalling this when i accidently installed it on XP.

Thanks Skate, although that's basically what I did. There was no choice for the new driver set for the NAM. I had tried to uninstall it from Windows Add/Remove prior to the new driver update, which is when I got the error message when attempting to get rid of it (from whenever back in the mists of time I last updated the drivers). I also ran Driver Sweeper in Safe mode two or three times after uninstalling what I could, prior to updating.

One of four Chipset entries in Driver Sweeper kept showing up after the first sweep - remained. So I would check it and delete again, reboot to Safe Mode, run Sweeper and there it would be again. I suspect that entry might be the NAM?

If I knew precisely what the registry entries were, exclusively, for the NAM I could try deleting them after making a restore point. Can't think of any other approach.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=3455

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=138669

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft...c52028db3?pli=1

http://www.overclock.net/networking-security/17683-how-can-i-get-rid-network.html


Google Top Results

Thanks, Skate - checking.

Skate, almost all of these I have looked at already or today - they mostly suggest using Windows uninstaller - and then the respondent saying, like me, that that program fails to uninstall the NAM. As does Driver Cleaner/Sweeper. One Windows MS utility to use when Office won't uninstall (or any program, MS says) has been removed by MS. Another post referenced "Revo Uninstaller Pro", which has a thirty day trial. Triued it, and it also returns the identical Windows Add/Remove message, "Error reading setup initialization file", after a very impressive prep routine of backing up the rgistry and making a System Restore point.
The force uninstall option also looks impressive but says the "network resource" for this is unavailable.

I can see why the majority of the posts about this !#@$#$!^ "program" are extremely frustrated.

One thing the Revo program did do is to scan for remaining elements of the program after the "uninstall" (which it could not do). The info returned is an impressively long and detailed list within the registry. However so many registry elements are listed (I have to page down many times to get through the entire set of listings) that I am not comfortable essentially blindly deleting them all. I wish the reported location of the program itself, Program Files\Nvidia Corporation\Network Access Manager, actually showed up in Explorer so I could delete it, then do a registry scan using CCCleaner. It hasn't ever deleted anything other than leftovers, so far as I know from using itfor years.

Well, I just googled my old post from when I had this issue,

seems I was able to just remove using uninstall, wipe with driver cleaner and re-install older drivers to remove NAM.


Curiousity,
Run Uninstall again,

Then open the event veiwer and see if there are any errors, might be a clue..


have you tried installing/repairing, reboot, then remove, reboot to safe mode, driver sweeep remove nvidia,

if nothing works then your gonna have to load windows fresh.

I think what I am going to try is the Revo uninstaller registry deletion route. The new driver package did not offer to install the NAM, either because it doesn't have it or it thinks I have an up to date version, or? But I don't like the idea of installing more Nforce items, especially that one! So will do the system restore point and then bite the bullet on what Revo finds in the registry for the NAM. After that, I guess I will live with it if it is still around. The only real impacy I can see is the barring of MP in TAW. That's a shame, but it isn't terminal.

Thanks Skate - I appreciate all your searching and thinking on this.

PS If you see a gamma flash in the North West, you'll know it didn't work

Well, the Apocalypse does not appear to have erupted once I deleted the detected registry entries for Network Access Manager.
Didn't help TAW any, but what the heck.