Saturday, February 16, 2013

Erroneous device driver update is harmful to your computer

Today, I installed an optional Windows 7 update called "NextWindow - Input - NextWindow Voltron Touch Screen" found in the Windows Update listing. This update is related to my Dell SX2210T touch screen LCD monitor.


After the update, I noticed there was unusual CPU activity causing its temperature shot up to over 70 degree Celcius. All the 4 CPU cores were in high usage.


I checked it up with Task Manager and found out the culprit was a process called TouchScreenTools.exe.


As the CPU usage continuously remained high and the CPU temperature also stayed at high level, I decided to undo this problemistic Windows update.

I opened the Device Manager by right clicking on Computer in the Start Menu and select Properties to bring out the Control Panel, and click on Device Manager in the left menu.


In the Device Manager, I managed to find "NextWindow Voltron Touch Screen" inside Human Interface Devices.


Right click on it and select Properties will bring out its Properties window. There is a "Roll Back Driver" button inside the Driver tab.


After clicking the "Roll Back Driver" button, there is a confirmation window, click "Yes" and restart Windows will roll back the driver to its previously installed version.


After the driver roll back, the CPU is now back to normal, with temperature back to below 50 degree Celcius.

In order to prevent future update of this erroneous driver, I went to Windows Update, right click on "NextWindow - Input - NextWindow Voltron Touch Screen" and hide it out.

If you also have a Dell SX2210T touch screen monitor and see this optional Windows update, remember not to select it. You might also want to hide it out from the Windows update listing.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for posting this. I had the same problem and seem to have fixed it by removing NextWindow from the startup list. It doesn't seem to load when I use the Dell touchscreen application. Any idea what it's for?

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