Yesterday nVidia released version 4.24 (4.20 for Win9x/Me) of their Forceware driver series. They can be downloaded from nVidia's driver page (platform/ nForce Drivers> Unified Driver> your Windows version).


Installation Notes

Windows XP users must install Service Pack 1 prior to attempting to install this package. Failure to do so will result in the inability to support USB 2.0.
Audio drivers will not install on the following nForce2 products: Chaintech 7NJS. Please use the drivers that come with these products to enable audio functionality.
Installation of DirectX 9.0 or higher is required in order to use NVMixer.

Release Notes:

WHQL certified kit
Unified drivers with support for nForce, nForce2, and nForce3 products. This package does not include support for dual-processor systems.
General compatibility fixes
Audio Driver Improvements
-Introduced NVMixer – replaces SoundStorm Control Panel for all audio configuration tasks. Note that NVMixer operates best when run at 1024x768 16-bit color
-Introduced improved AC ’97 / Soft Audio driver – adds EQ, speaker cloning, and speaker wizard support
-Introduced Speaker Wizard – incorporates all NVSwap features, ensures correct speaker setup on analog or digital speaker systems
-Introduced Cinesurround – virtual 5.1 mixdown to headphones or 2 speakers
-Introduced new Environments – simple, preset driven sound environments
-Enhanced ASIO support and added support for AC ’97 / Soft Audio systems
-Added user adjustable “rear channel creation” support – adds off, clone, reverb and delay
-Added support for Realtek ALC655 codecs, Realtek ALC658 codecs, and 7.1 support for Realtek ALC850 codecs
-Added support for WMV-HD audio streams and WaveFormatExtensible calls
-Improved playback of mono content
-Addressed audio issues in numerous games and applications

Storage Driver Improvements:
-Support for Serial ATA controllers
-Full NVIDIA RAID functionality on supported platforms
-Improved compatibility with 3rd-party drive management, CD ripping and recording software.
-Automatic DMA-mode fall-back when data errors are present due to poor cabling
-Improved handling of various storage devices

Nice, was having so many issues with 5.1 sound it wasnt funny.

I would run into problems where my sound would become full of static and scratchy after a variable amount of time in many games. Is this the same problem many people were having? I thought it was just the age of my 4.1 speaker system. :p

Alright, so I installed this driver. It asked me to restart, I restarted and went away for about 30 minutes. Came back, (on windows 2000) and it was on the login screen. Typed in my password, and it just sat there for at least five minutes before I restarted. Haven't been able to get to the desktop since. It takes about 20 minutes just for it to load to the login screen, and after I login, it'll sit there for a while and then have a lsass.exe error and restart. I'm pretty sure it's not the sasser virus that takes advantage of this lsass.exe, because I have the microsoft security updates, updated nortan virus definitions, and it happened right after I installed these drivers. Any thoughts?

I wouldn't so quickly discount sasser.

This page, half-way down under the recovery section, has information on how to prevent lsass.exe from crashing the system. Then go here and check for infection.

The problem is, I can't log in on the harddrive that is having the problems. I'm on a different harddrive at the moment.

You can plug the hard drive in the setup you're running as a secondary drive and scan it with the clean OS.

That's part of the benefit I found for running multiple OSes and that's how I fix my brother's family's computer when it gets infected since they have kids oblivious to the fact that downloading all sorts of garbage from the internet is not safe. I just plug it into my system as a secondary hard drive then use my OS and anti-virus program to scan their drive (it's easier to take their drive to my place than try to figure out which virus they downloaded and go through the steps).

No infection found. :(

Is there any way I can install drivers on the slave harddrive straight from the master? On the setups I have, it doesn't give an option..

I'm not familar with Win2000's security features, but if lsass.exe is corrupt then logically replacing it with a copy of lsass.exe that is not corrupt may work (or may screw up the entire OS more than it is now; it's up to you whether you think it's worth it). Maybe try searching the problem drive for "lsass"; hopefully you'll find more than one and it'll be in a backup system folder. Copy it and replace the lsass you find in the regular system folder.

Regardless, you might want to copy any files you want to keep onto the drive you're currently using, in case the problem is a bad sector on the problem drive (or other hardware related problem). lsass shouldn't have anything to do with the motherboard drivers though, so I don't really see any link between the two; you may want to fire off an e-mail to nVidia's support asking about any possible problems with installing the drivers on Win2000.

Could I replace the Drivers folder on the problem harddrive with the Drivers folder on the harddrive that works fine? They are both on the same computer and so should have the drivers installed for the same hardware, but the one I'm on now doesn't have the "updated" motherboard drivers.

I honestly don't think the drivers are the problem; they shouldn't care about lsass.exe so they shouldn't have affected it. You seem to be fixated on fixing a symptom when the problem appears to be that lsass.exe is corrupted. Wix seemed to have installed the motherboard drivers just fine, and I haven't read any problems with the driver remotely similar to the one you're having.

But regardless, lsass is an executeable and drivers aren't, so manually removing a driver it a tedious process.

Well both replacing the lsass.exe with a different one and replacing the drivers folder didn't work, so just reformatted. Thanks for the help anyway.