Hi everyone,
The other week my PC packed up and started crashing regularly on start-up. As well as the PC crashing, if it got as far as windows then sometimes the monitor would just go blank, then come back on with a message the graphics drivers (or card, I can't remember the exact message now) had restarted themselves.. I tried all the usual stuff (system restore etc) and also new gpu drivers. However the new drivers from nvidia said they could not find hardware suitable so didn't install anything (yes, I am sure I downloaded the right ones.) They also wouldn't run any sort of uninstall of the old drivers for the same reason - the uninstaller jsut exited as soon as it couldn't detect an appropriate card. Obviously this suggested there was a problem with the graphics card or the drivers.
Eventually I gave up and re-installed windows (vista, 32 bit.) That stopped it crashing but it would no longer use the full graphics card, only running in 640x480, and had some weird smudged purplish lines across the screen. It was now running on vga graphics drivers only without any nvidia driver, although these were/are still installed within 'windows.old' on the hard drive.
Throughout all of this the monitor has been plugged in in through the gpu, not via a separate integrated port.
I then decided it was time to get a new graphics card. At this point I should explain my system spec:
Dell Studio 540 (about 5 years old)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.3Ghz
3 GB RAM (2x1GB slots, 2x512mb slots)
1 PCIe slot for graphics, 2 PCI slots (1 used by the wireless detector, one empty), 1 AGP slot (I think, without looking now - it's empty)
I have a Dell vga monitor if this makes any difference, I am using a blue/white adaptor to the back of the gpu.
The original/old graphics card was a Geforce 9800GT, 512mb I think. This had one 6-pin power supply (interestingly the spec on the nvidia site now says it should have two 6-pins, but the card I have doesn't even have two slots).
I have replaced it with an AMD radeon HD7570, received the other day.
I went for the 7570 as the tower case is fairly tight (the 9800gt was a jigsaw puzzle to get out) and I was unsure whether another big card would fit without knowing exact dimensions. It also doesn't need an auxiliary power supply, which I thought would be a benefit in case it was the power supply that had broken rather than the gpu. However, this does mean the old 6-pin connector for the 9800gt is now just hanging free inside the box. Whether this is an issue I don't know; I don't see why it should be but power electronics was never my strong point.
Having changed the card, I re-loaded the PC and the weird purpleish lines have now gone, there is no crashing and I could run at a higher res (so it looks like it was the geforce that was actually broken). However, Device manager was not showing the card and I was still in vga mode. I downloaded the right version of the AMD catalyst install manager and ran it. It said it had installed successfully but I believe only installed the install manager itself and the audio drivers. However I know it did detect the card in some fashion from the log, which I've copied at the bottom of this message. The 'Device ID 0x675d' (I think from a quick google) relates to the HD7570.
Device manager hasn't changed. A quick test in something intensive demonstrates that the new card is definitely not running, ie I am still just on the vga driver.
I can't install the drivers manually from Device Manager as if I try to do that (navigating to the correct ATI folder from the device manager menu), device manager still hasn't detected the card and therefore thinks the old vga drivers are still the best/most up to date.
I have tried updating my bios, windows service pack etc to all the latest versions (it had all reverted to factory settings when I reinstalled windows) then reinstalling catalyst, but this has made no difference.
I have tried disabling the vga adaptor, reinstalling catalyst etc with it disabled - no help. Interestingly, disabling/enabling the vga adaptor seems to do nothing at all to anything.
I have tried downloading CCleaner and doing a registry sweep but again, no help. As the old windows version was not physically deleted (still in windows.old) and the nvidia drivers had never been uninstalled prior to windows reinstall, I wondered if they could still somehow be hanging around and stopping things working, but if so I've no idea how to find this out or stop it. They certainly don't show in any processes or tasks that are running.
After doing a bit of research I also had a look in the bios for any relevant options, but the only relevant options were to turn PAVP between 'lite' and 'disabled' and to turn integrated graphics memory allocation between 32/64/128mb. There was no on/off option for PCIe or anything like that, which could have needed fixing.
I have done a diagnostic check from the boot menu which said the 'graphics card' (it didn't say what) passed its test. Ditto everything else passed.
The new card didn't come with any instructions - so if there is anything obvious I might have forgotten to do (ie anything other than just removing the wrap and putting it in the slot) let me know - but I don't think they generally have a physical switch or anything?? I couldn't see any tabs that needed removing or anything. I did open the tower up again and check it was installed properly earlier this evening.
I'm at a complete loss as to why the catalyst driver would detect that the card was there, but not detect it well enough to install the actual drivers, and why device manager / Windows would not detect it at all. Any ideas for what I could do to resolve this?
I'm usually ok at understanding this sort of thing but am definitely no computer expert - most of this has been based on research the last couple of days - so if you suggest anything complex please try to explain in fairly simple terms!
Possible other reasons in my head(?):
- something wrong on the motherboard (hopefully not) - but note that I am still seeing vga graphics through the new card and the obvious problems of purple liens and crashing have gone. Since the changes (windows and the card) I've seen no other symptoms other than the graphics card not working, and everything else (sound, network, printer etc) works as normal.
- lack of RAM - I have 3 GB and the AMD website says this card should have 4 GB...but some research I did suggested this should be ok (ie others had run the card with less than 4 GB). Could this cause this sort of symptom? I don't want to buy more RAM unless there's a good chance of it fixing the problem. It;s DDR2 if that helps.
- something caused by the computer reacting to having an unused 6-pin auxiliary power supply that it thinks should be connected?
-nvidia drivers still being around somewhere? I don't know how to do anything else now to remove anything left over from the previous windows installations (other than just manually delete the whole windows.old folder?)
- I've also read somewhere on the internet that people who had bought some graphics cards through or in a Dell ahd to download the specific Dell drivers rather than the AMD/ATI ones...but Dell only sell this graphics card for Windows 7 and 8 PCs, so they don't do a Dell driver for Vista 32 bit (I could download the Win7 64 bit one and see what happens, in case it is the same..).
Let me know f any more info would help..
Thanks!!
Catalyst log file (not the first - Ive reinstalling tried several times by now):
Catalyst™ Install Manager
Installation Report
10/25/13 21:05:12
Hardware information
Name AMD Radeon Graphics Processor
Manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Device ID 0x675d
Vendor ID 0x1002
Class Code 0x030000
Revision ID 0x00
Subsystem ID 0x2b20
Subsystem vendor ID 0x1028
Other hardware
Existing packagesAMD Catalyst Install Manager
HDMI Audio Driver
Packages for install
AMD Catalyst Install ManagerFinal Status: Success
Version of Item: 8.0.911.0
Size: 20 Mbytes
HDMI Audio DriverFinal Status: Success
Version of Item: 6.58.0.6614
Size: 1 Mbytes
Other detected devices
Manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Device ID 0xaa90
Vendor ID 0x1002
Class Code 0x040300
Revision ID 0x00
Subsystem ID 0xaa90
Subsystem vendor ID 0x1028
Error messages
The other week my PC packed up and started crashing regularly on start-up. As well as the PC crashing, if it got as far as windows then sometimes the monitor would just go blank, then come back on with a message the graphics drivers (or card, I can't remember the exact message now) had restarted themselves.. I tried all the usual stuff (system restore etc) and also new gpu drivers. However the new drivers from nvidia said they could not find hardware suitable so didn't install anything (yes, I am sure I downloaded the right ones.) They also wouldn't run any sort of uninstall of the old drivers for the same reason - the uninstaller jsut exited as soon as it couldn't detect an appropriate card. Obviously this suggested there was a problem with the graphics card or the drivers.
Eventually I gave up and re-installed windows (vista, 32 bit.) That stopped it crashing but it would no longer use the full graphics card, only running in 640x480, and had some weird smudged purplish lines across the screen. It was now running on vga graphics drivers only without any nvidia driver, although these were/are still installed within 'windows.old' on the hard drive.
Throughout all of this the monitor has been plugged in in through the gpu, not via a separate integrated port.
I then decided it was time to get a new graphics card. At this point I should explain my system spec:
Dell Studio 540 (about 5 years old)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.3Ghz
3 GB RAM (2x1GB slots, 2x512mb slots)
1 PCIe slot for graphics, 2 PCI slots (1 used by the wireless detector, one empty), 1 AGP slot (I think, without looking now - it's empty)
I have a Dell vga monitor if this makes any difference, I am using a blue/white adaptor to the back of the gpu.
The original/old graphics card was a Geforce 9800GT, 512mb I think. This had one 6-pin power supply (interestingly the spec on the nvidia site now says it should have two 6-pins, but the card I have doesn't even have two slots).
I have replaced it with an AMD radeon HD7570, received the other day.
I went for the 7570 as the tower case is fairly tight (the 9800gt was a jigsaw puzzle to get out) and I was unsure whether another big card would fit without knowing exact dimensions. It also doesn't need an auxiliary power supply, which I thought would be a benefit in case it was the power supply that had broken rather than the gpu. However, this does mean the old 6-pin connector for the 9800gt is now just hanging free inside the box. Whether this is an issue I don't know; I don't see why it should be but power electronics was never my strong point.
Having changed the card, I re-loaded the PC and the weird purpleish lines have now gone, there is no crashing and I could run at a higher res (so it looks like it was the geforce that was actually broken). However, Device manager was not showing the card and I was still in vga mode. I downloaded the right version of the AMD catalyst install manager and ran it. It said it had installed successfully but I believe only installed the install manager itself and the audio drivers. However I know it did detect the card in some fashion from the log, which I've copied at the bottom of this message. The 'Device ID 0x675d' (I think from a quick google) relates to the HD7570.
Device manager hasn't changed. A quick test in something intensive demonstrates that the new card is definitely not running, ie I am still just on the vga driver.
I can't install the drivers manually from Device Manager as if I try to do that (navigating to the correct ATI folder from the device manager menu), device manager still hasn't detected the card and therefore thinks the old vga drivers are still the best/most up to date.
I have tried updating my bios, windows service pack etc to all the latest versions (it had all reverted to factory settings when I reinstalled windows) then reinstalling catalyst, but this has made no difference.
I have tried disabling the vga adaptor, reinstalling catalyst etc with it disabled - no help. Interestingly, disabling/enabling the vga adaptor seems to do nothing at all to anything.
I have tried downloading CCleaner and doing a registry sweep but again, no help. As the old windows version was not physically deleted (still in windows.old) and the nvidia drivers had never been uninstalled prior to windows reinstall, I wondered if they could still somehow be hanging around and stopping things working, but if so I've no idea how to find this out or stop it. They certainly don't show in any processes or tasks that are running.
After doing a bit of research I also had a look in the bios for any relevant options, but the only relevant options were to turn PAVP between 'lite' and 'disabled' and to turn integrated graphics memory allocation between 32/64/128mb. There was no on/off option for PCIe or anything like that, which could have needed fixing.
I have done a diagnostic check from the boot menu which said the 'graphics card' (it didn't say what) passed its test. Ditto everything else passed.
The new card didn't come with any instructions - so if there is anything obvious I might have forgotten to do (ie anything other than just removing the wrap and putting it in the slot) let me know - but I don't think they generally have a physical switch or anything?? I couldn't see any tabs that needed removing or anything. I did open the tower up again and check it was installed properly earlier this evening.
I'm at a complete loss as to why the catalyst driver would detect that the card was there, but not detect it well enough to install the actual drivers, and why device manager / Windows would not detect it at all. Any ideas for what I could do to resolve this?
I'm usually ok at understanding this sort of thing but am definitely no computer expert - most of this has been based on research the last couple of days - so if you suggest anything complex please try to explain in fairly simple terms!
Possible other reasons in my head(?):
- something wrong on the motherboard (hopefully not) - but note that I am still seeing vga graphics through the new card and the obvious problems of purple liens and crashing have gone. Since the changes (windows and the card) I've seen no other symptoms other than the graphics card not working, and everything else (sound, network, printer etc) works as normal.
- lack of RAM - I have 3 GB and the AMD website says this card should have 4 GB...but some research I did suggested this should be ok (ie others had run the card with less than 4 GB). Could this cause this sort of symptom? I don't want to buy more RAM unless there's a good chance of it fixing the problem. It;s DDR2 if that helps.
- something caused by the computer reacting to having an unused 6-pin auxiliary power supply that it thinks should be connected?
-nvidia drivers still being around somewhere? I don't know how to do anything else now to remove anything left over from the previous windows installations (other than just manually delete the whole windows.old folder?)
- I've also read somewhere on the internet that people who had bought some graphics cards through or in a Dell ahd to download the specific Dell drivers rather than the AMD/ATI ones...but Dell only sell this graphics card for Windows 7 and 8 PCs, so they don't do a Dell driver for Vista 32 bit (I could download the Win7 64 bit one and see what happens, in case it is the same..).
Let me know f any more info would help..
Thanks!!
Catalyst log file (not the first - Ive reinstalling tried several times by now):
Catalyst™ Install Manager
Installation Report
10/25/13 21:05:12
Hardware information
Name AMD Radeon Graphics Processor
Manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Device ID 0x675d
Vendor ID 0x1002
Class Code 0x030000
Revision ID 0x00
Subsystem ID 0x2b20
Subsystem vendor ID 0x1028
Other hardware
Existing packagesAMD Catalyst Install Manager
HDMI Audio Driver
Packages for install
AMD Catalyst Install ManagerFinal Status: Success
Version of Item: 8.0.911.0
Size: 20 Mbytes
HDMI Audio DriverFinal Status: Success
Version of Item: 6.58.0.6614
Size: 1 Mbytes
Other detected devices
Manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Device ID 0xaa90
Vendor ID 0x1002
Class Code 0x040300
Revision ID 0x00
Subsystem ID 0xaa90
Subsystem vendor ID 0x1028
Error messages
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