ARGHHH! Fix this and I buy you a pint XD

[smirnoff]

Hello everyone, second time on here for me.

 

Thank you for looking at this thread, and even more thank you's for any replies.

 

 

So... I recently was given a spanking brand new Nvidia 9800 GT graphics card for Christmas. Early yes I know, but anyway, I shan't complain. I put it in, downloaded the latest drivers for it, and everything seemed fine.

 

THEN I continued playing MW2 from my last point on my crappy old card (Nvidia 7600) and everything seemed wonderful. That was until I got to this snowmobile mission, where, as soon as I would get on the 'mobile and try to drive, my computer would crash. The screen would freeze, the sound would loop until I had to restart the computer myself.

 

Thinking this was just a one-off, I tried again. Same problem, at the same time in the game. Weird right? So I thought, let's test another game out... the Sims 3 - that's pretty hardware intensive too.

 

I double click the play icon, the screen goes to black (like it always does before the loading screen pops up) next thing I know the monitor switches off (loses any signal I mean) and I have to restart the computer again because it seemed to have crashed. That's when I lost it and here is a long list of everything I tried...

 

1. Roll back the drivers to an earlier version. (Tried but the setup said it couldn't find my graphics card, so then I used the one from the CD that came with the card which was pretty old, still same problem)

2. See if it was a power issue (no, I have 700watt power supply this should be ample!)

3. Run some heat tests to see if it was a heat problem (doesn’t seem like it, as the sims was just *starting* and it crashed when the heat was idle at about 40-50, also the CPU heat went up to 70celcius and the card was about 75 I think during the snowmobile bit on MW2, not too high)

4. Run a memory test (all fine)

5. Run benchmarking to test the card and heat again (no issues benchmark score of 414 or something and heat went up to like almost 80 no problem)

6. Run the game in safe mode (MW2) with all the graphics settings on off. MANAGED to pass the snowmobile bit, but then when I put the settings back to normal, on the next mission, same problem, CRASH.

7. Go onto these forums to try and see what is up, because I couldn’t find this problem elsewhere on the net.

 

I don’t think it could be anything but something with the graphics, as my old card worked fine. I bet it’s something simple (or I am hoping) but I’m really getting angry now at this point XD

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Many thanks!

 

P.S: DXDIAG attached

DxDiag.txt

Edited December 5, 2009 by smirnoff

[RandyL]

Graphics cards installations can be tricky. If it's not too late do a system restore to before you installed the new card. Mind you this is not my field but I'll try to offer some basic advice.

 

Get all the Vista updates first.

 

Get the latest drivers from Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers

 

Remove the card itself.

 

Uninstall any of the cards software from programs and features in control panel.

 

Remove the nvidia graphics card from device manager.

 

Do not reboot unless prompted to do so. If you reboot after removing from device manager Windows might attempt to load the old drivers from the old or new card.

 

Once the old card, new card, software and drivers are removed try loading the new drivers and/or software before putting in the new card.

 

The point is that old drivers and software should be removed first if I'm not mistaken. After that before rebooting install the new drivers. Then install the new card.

 

Even more important is for you to wait for those who know more to post on this.

[Plastic Nev]

Like Randy, graphics is still in the learning curve ha ha, however I see your system is 64 bit, yet the graphics card shows in the DX report as--

 

Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (59Hz)

 

Is this card supposed to be supported on 64 bit? Have you looked at the drivers, are 64 bit drivers available for it?

 

I was a little worried about the ability of the processor till I saw it was 2X dual core so it should be OK, just this 64 bit against the cards 32 bit is perhaps the problem. However I will leave it till one of our graphics guys, or gals, can have a look in.

Nev.

[smirnoff]

Like Randy, graphics is still in the learning curve ha ha, however I see your system is 64 bit, yet the graphics card shows in the DX report as--

 

Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (59Hz)

 

Is this card supposed to be supported on 64 bit? Have you looked at the drivers, are 64 bit drivers available for it?

 

I was a little worried about the ability of the processor till I saw it was 2X dual core so it should be OK, just this 64 bit against the cards 32 bit is perhaps the problem. However I will leave it till one of our graphics guys, or gals, can have a look in.

Nev.

 

Hello all, thanks for the replies.

 

I am going to try and take the card out, put it in again and get rid of all the drivers then install them again. I'll let you know what happens and see if I can get a 64bit one off the net

[smirnoff]

Right so I unistalled the drivers, installed an old one first and will test it now.

 

It said windows 7 64 bit compatible. And I dxdiaged again and it still says:

 

Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (59Hz)

 

But I think I just realised, that 32 bit refers to colour, right? 16bit and 32 bit? So I don't think that is a problem.

 

Going to test the card now...

[smirnoff]

Right so I unistalled the drivers, installed an old one first and will test it now.

 

It said windows 7 64 bit compatible. And I dxdiaged again and it still says:

 

Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (59Hz)

 

But I think I just realised, that 32 bit refers to colour, right? 16bit and 32 bit? So I don't think that is a problem.

 

Going to test the card now...

 

 

 

FAIL.

 

So, I downloaded the latest drivers but have noticed something. I have to unistall the old drivers first, right? When I do that and restart, on the restart windows automaticaly installs the so called "latest driver" but in dxdiag, it is a lower number then the one I downloaded off the nvidia site, so perhaps I have not had the latest one at all.

 

I think I have switched this annoying automatic update thing off now, and will report back on if I can install the drivers myself without windows doing it for me.

[smirnoff]

FAIL.

 

So, I downloaded the latest drivers but have noticed something. I have to unistall the old drivers first, right? When I do that and restart, on the restart windows automaticaly installs the so called "latest driver" but in dxdiag, it is a lower number then the one I downloaded off the nvidia site, so perhaps I have not had the latest one at all.

 

I think I have switched this annoying automatic update thing off now, and will report back on if I can install the drivers myself without windows doing it for me.

 

 

Ok, now I am SERIOUSLY mad.

 

I KEEP TRYING to get windows to stop installing stuff automaticaly when it starts but I can't. I've turned off automatic updates, switched off my wireless and changed the settings for windows automatic device installation - BUT NO GOOD. Every single time without fail as soon as I log in the ******* starts installing what it thinks is best for the computer, so I STILL can't install the latest driver.

 

I just want to turn the PC on and double click the install icon for the latest driver on my desktop but windows beats me to it with its other choice of driver which i don't know where it finds it, but anyway. It pops up saying "WINDOWS DEVICE INSTALLER WMA MONITOR" and stars installing. Each time. And I can't unistall the driver and then install again straight away without restarting. It's a never ending circle of pain :(

 

If anyone can help... please tell me how I can do this x.x

 

P.S: I'm not sure if I can just run the latest driver over the old one without uninstalling the old one, but when I tried that dxdiag still shows it up as the old driver "1.85" or something instead of the 1.95" one i have.

[RandyL]

smirnoff install the drivers by running the exe file before you put the new card in.

 

Windows is probably installing a set of preloaded drivers at startup that it thinks are best suited for your card at startup because the card is physically plugged into your computer.

 

If your computer has onboard graphics which is a chip on your motherboard and not an actuall card you should remove the cards and then remove the device from Device Manager as well as any software from Programs and Features in Control Panel that came with the new card.

 

Install the new cards drivers. Turn off the computer off. Put in the new card.

 

If your computer does not have onboard graphics leave the old card in and uninstall the new card drivers and software. Install the new cards drivers. Turn off the computer off. Put in the new card.

 

If you can't run the exe before rebooting let it load what drivers it finds.

Install the new cards drivers. Turn off the computer off. Put in the new card

[smirnoff]

smirnoff install the drivers by running the exe file before you put the new card in.

 

Windows is probably installing a set of preloaded drivers at startup that it thinks are best suited for your card at startup because the card is physically plugged into your computer.

 

If your computer has onboard graphics which is a chip on your motherboard and not an actuall card you should remove the cards and then remove the device from Device Manager as well as any software from Programs and Features in Control Panel that came with the new card.

 

Install the new cards drivers. Turn off the computer off. Put in the new card.

 

If your computer does not have onboard graphics leave the old card in and uninstall the new card drivers and software. Install the new cards drivers. Turn off the computer off. Put in the new card.

 

If you can't run the exe before rebooting let it load what drivers it finds.

Install the new cards drivers. Turn off the computer off. Put in the new card

 

 

Did all of this still nothing. Put it in the spare slot, worked for a few mins, then same thing.

 

I'm testing it on another computer, but it seems a duff card. Any thoughts? >.<

[Dalo Harkin]

Hi,

 

Go to add/remove programs and remove the NVIDIA graphics driver, then go to C:/ NVIDIA and DELETE all the folders within that folder that have numbered folders such as 192.16 and then restart the PC.

Then install the latest driver which should be NVIDIA DRIVERS 195.62 WHQL

 

If you are using an NVIDIA chipset motherboard be very careful that you only remove the above or the Ethernet and sound drivers could be lost too

[RandyL]

Dalo Harkin would know. Please follow his advice.

[smirnoff]

Just to let you all know, I tried the graphics card on other pcs and it failed. Turned out it was a duff card. How annoying!

 

Thank you all for your help, you're stars!