NVIDIA Control Panel Settings Reset After Reboot
What is this error?
NVIDIA Control Panel settings (power management, texture filtering, V-Sync, etc.) reset to defaults after every reboot or driver update, undoing performance optimizations.
Common causes
- NVIDIA driver not saving profile to correct registry location
- Windows Fast Startup preventing full driver initialization on boot
- corrupted NVIDIA profile database
- driver install not using 'clean install' option
- antivirus or system cleaner deleting NVIDIA profile files
How to fix it
- Disable Fast Startup
- perform clean driver install with DDU
- check for profile corruption
- stop antivirus from cleaning NVIDIA folders
Too many steps? Crashless can diagnose this automatically — checks your drivers, temps, VRAM, and 400+ known error patterns.
Get free AI diagnosis Detailed analysis
You carefully set up your NVIDIA Control Panel — power management to maximum performance, texture filtering optimized, V-Sync off — and after a reboot it is all back to defaults. This is infuriating and more common than it should be. First, check if Windows Fast Startup is the cause: open Control Panel > Power Options > Choose what the power buttons do > Change settings that are currently unavailable. If 'Turn on fast startup' is checked, uncheck it and save. Fast Startup does a partial hibernation that can prevent NVIDIA drivers from properly loading your saved profile. Restart and check if your settings stick. If that does not fix it, the NVIDIA profile database might be corrupted. Use DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) to completely remove your NVIDIA driver: download DDU, boot into Safe Mode, run DDU and select 'Clean and restart', then install a fresh NVIDIA driver. During install, check 'Perform a clean installation'. After the fresh install, set your NVIDIA Control Panel preferences and reboot to verify they persist. Also check if any 'PC cleaning' software (CCleaner, etc.) or your antivirus is deleting files from the NVIDIA profile folder located at C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation\Drs. Add an exclusion for that folder. If you use GeForce Experience, its 'Optimal Settings' feature can override your manual NVIDIA Control Panel settings per-game — disable automatic optimization in GeForce Experience if you prefer manual control.
When to seek help
If this error keeps happening after trying the fixes above, it may point to a deeper hardware or system issue. Consider professional help if:
- The crash occurs across multiple games or applications
- You see the same error after a clean Windows install
- Your PC is less than a year old (could be a warranty issue)
- You smell burning or hear unusual sounds from your PC
Or let Crashless do the deep analysis for you -- our AI checks drivers, temps, event logs, and 400+ known patterns automatically.
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