Re: Did you really need to force us into a Nvidia driver update?

@ItzanBattlefield 1, Doom Eternal, Red Dead Redemption 2 to name just a couple. It's not so rare... 😉

Applications (like games) have dependencies related to drivers, so if there is a new dll or something along those lines, the application won't run without it. Not really a big deal. I have been prompted to update Java, .NET, etc and never rage quit Adobe Acrobat because of it.

Requesting to update is one thing, but outright refusing to start is another. It's understandable that using older drivers would lead to degraded performance if the new driver brings something new to the driver profile for the game. But considering i was on 522.30 and the game asked me to upgrade to 525.XX which was released a week later and brought no changes to the driver outside a few game profiles then yeah, I feel that's a bit annoying.

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@Itzan wrote:
@AnaghyaI've played all of those and I usually update my driver once or twice a year if they actually feature a performance increase or a driver for a game I'm playing and I've never had a game arbitrarily refuse to start because of my driver being out of date. Also here we're talking about a game that came out a year and a half ago, not a brand new game requiring a driver that has the game profile in it.

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The driver was out for 3 weeks so this game build more than likely used that driver and there is something in there that was not in the driver you had installed. They can't prevent the game from not launching if you are using old dependencies.  Could they have put something in the patch notes, sure but the only complaint right now that EA and DICE need to see is the lack of a server browser.

@Adamonic Considering people have been asking for a server browser from day one and considering it took them 4 months to add a scoreboard to the game I've given up on them actually adding a server browser at this point.

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@Itzan wrote:

Requesting to update is one thing, but outright refusing to start is another. It's understandable that using older drivers would lead to degraded performance if the new driver brings something new to the driver profile for the game. But considering i was on 522.30 and the game asked me to upgrade to 525.XX which was released a week later and brought no changes to the driver outside a few game profiles then yeah, I feel that's a bit annoying.

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This is quite normal for games & other certain software, that they won't launch if you have outdated drivers or your driver is corrupted.

It doesn't seem to be an issue for many, since this is the only thread so far. But we will monitor it.

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@Itzan wrote:

@Adamonic Considering people have been asking for a server browser from day one and considering it took them 4 months to add a scoreboard to the game I've given up on them actually adding a server browser at this point.

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Well, they are done adding Specialists, there is only one more new map coming, so if the same dev team continues to work on the game thru S5, there is a chance that something like that gets added to the dev queue.

Up to this point, there was no time to add something like that because of the seasonal deployment work and patches. Once that slows down there just might be a chance at seeing one added because right now it is the worst gaming experience ever, which is hard to fathom. I have wasted 20+ minutes (almost daily) joining and quitting the MM queue either because I am waiting for players in Assassin Squad or because the map loading was Hourglass. That is just ridiculous that we have to go thru that process in 2023. My ALT+F4 keys are the most used keys on my keyboard.

@Itzan  I actually remember at least two cases the game refused to start after an update with a similar message even I am keeping drivers fairly up to date. I don't remember which (but one of them was RDR2 mentioned I think).

Well, either way, just update your drivers, what's the problem? You would very likely have them updated sooner or later anyway (as you mention you make the updates once or twice a year).

Just update and play? Whats the problem?

I don't use the very latest drivers because they are never best for previous generation cards (3080). 

By the way, in 28 years of gaming on Windows machines I can count only 1 game that refused to start due to older drivers...so no, this is NOT normal, typical or usual in any way to force a driver update for cards and drivers that are already reasonably updated.

If the game does not start I will be deleting the game, and I will NOT be back. I have simulation software of priority that runs best on certain drivers which makes changing drivers right now an option I cannot even consider for just a game like this.

***Update: sure enough, Steam updated game and it refuses to start because some f*ked up millennial thinks he has the right to force me to use a driver that will hurt my performance with more important software on my system...so now Dice is actually stopping me from playing the game by doing this.

It was bad enough to have to suffer through all year with this title and all the mistakes that were made and having to wait endlessly just to end up with THIS now. WAY too much to ask, seriously...another decades long fan you've utterly and completely lost in your seemingly never-ending ability to make THE most stupid decisions in gaming history.

Forcing a patch that refuses to run on 527.32 drivers, lol...buh bye...this franchise and it's management has turned just too stupid for me at this point.

I have an 2080Ti running DX12.  My problem is that any driver dated from Dec 2022 to present would crash the game when initially loading the screen where you choose your spawn.  I had to work my way back from the latest drivers all the way to 528.02 trying each version.  528.x was the only version to run the game in stable.

So, that was the fix for me until forcing me to use the latest driver.  So, I installed 531.18 and of course, the game crashes with DX errors, however now, I have no option since I'm force to use the latest drivers, game-over, literally.

I see a lot of comments flippantly stating what is the issue, just install latest drivers, done...That's no help, just because it works for you doesn't mean it will for other players.

That said, I believe I have solved my issue and can run the latest driver.  What I did was to delete the files in the documents > Battlefield 2142 > Cache folder.  What I suspect happened is that the manifest file was not updating, the time stamp was earlier than the latest cache files, so what could have been happening is that the base file or some other process was loading the latest cache files (dated today), while the manifest was referring to cache files from 2/28.

The game runs fine now, (fingers crossed for the future), but I wanted to put this out there if helpful to other players who can't run the latest drivers rather than stating non-helpful flippant responses.

Hi @ragnarok013, can you link the video on Youtube, please? I don't find any solution to bypass this. I can't use any driver newer than 512.95 on my RTX 3080, since Destiny 2, a game I play most of the time, has serious texture flickering issues with ANY driver newer than 512.95. I could play BF 2042 without issues a week ago, but all of a sudden, I can't anymore. Thanks!

Hi ragnarok013, Thank you very much for your answer! Unfortunately, this solution only applies to AMD drivers. Since I have Nvidia Geforce drivers, this solution doesn't work. I already tested it. So, another solution is needed, I'm afraid.

As I said before, I could play the game before latest update without any problems, like all my other games I own. None of them forces me to do a driver update. Additionally, I already had two driver crashes with 528.49 in BF2042, but never had one with 512.95. This is also the most stable and performant driver for my RTX 3080. Any help would be much appreciated.

I hate forced driver updates.

Hi all,

We don't really recommend using old, not up-to-date drivers for your GPU or CPU (or any other part of your system), as using outdated drivers may cause compatibility issues in the future.

It is at your own risk to continue using old drivers. If you run into issues because of this, unfortunately, we can't help much.

Keeping drivers up to date is always one of the first steps one should take to ensure that everything works together as well as possible.

Rolling back drivers is only recommended if you run into issues that new drivers have caused, as discussed here for example.

Hi @EA_Leeuw, as I wrote, I have issues with drivers newer than 512.95 on my Asus ROG Strix 3080. Not just with BF 2042, but with other games, too, such as Destiny 2 or Forza Horizon 5. So, forcing us using a driver which has compatibility issues not just with BF 2042, is just unacceptable. Please provide us with a solution or offer a refund for the game we can no longer play properly. Thank you!