Possibly problem with graphics card / driver - details inside

iLace

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Apr 11, 2008
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Hey everyone, (vista x64)

So about a week ago I downloaded the 197.13 driver for my Geforce 8800 GT (g92).Curiously a few days later while playing a BETA game (APB) I started getting these fuzzy blue blocks around 2mm by 6mm all over my screen, and then it would freeze. When it freezed I couldn't bring up task manager or do anything software wise to hit the off button, then it would load the SO fine then start to happen again (blue bars and crashing) then it worse and worse every restart until it wouldn't load the OS (at the point after the LOAD bars of the OS, but wouldn't open the LOGIN screen just a black screen).

What I have tried:

So I downloaded a new set of nvidia drivers (196.21) and went around installing the new ones:

- I went to device manager, display adaptor and un-installed the drivers there.

- I reset the PC and ran in safe mode.

- I used 'driver cleaner pro' to completely get rid of all remains of the old driver files

- I re-set the PC in safe mode, then installed the new drivers

- Reset again but this time ran it in normal mode

However after I install the new drivers, it will freeze after loading the operating system but before the login screen, and will sometimes crash to blue screen (not the blue screen of death, it had some text).

I tried putting the card into my friends PC, and we installed the new drivers, however when we rebooted, the same problem persisted.

If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate any help. It looks so far to be a hardware problem.

If anyone has any questions or any more info they need feel free to ask as I will be watching the thread.

Thanks for your help



 

RazberyBandit

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Dec 25, 2008
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Having already tried it in another system and the problem reoccurring, I'd bet it's a problem with the card itself, not anything driver-related. But, there was another person with a similar problem with a 8800M GPU in a Clevo notebook, where it would do everything except finally load the OS after installing the drivers, at which point his system would just stall and crash. Sounds kinda fishy considering they're both G92-based...

I'd suggest contacting your video card maker or nVIDIA for support on the matter. Like I said, something just doesn't seem quite right...

Here's his thread for comparison: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/285550-33-graphics-card-freezes-computer-loading
 

iLace

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Apr 11, 2008
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Thank you for the reply!

I am starting to find yes it might be a hardware problem.
I have found an - unorthodox possible solution involving putting the main circuit board of the Card in the oven.

In addition to my problem, could anyone recommend a well balanced graphics card upgrade for my system.

6600 Quad 3.0ghz - 4g ddr2 ram, 520PSU corsair

In my opinion the best balanced gfx card for my system is a 8800 but if anyone has any suggestions that would be appreciated thanks you!
 

RazberyBandit

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If you read into the thread I linked, you'll see that Monchan tried baking his card to no avail.

An ATI 5750 or 5770 would be a worthy replacement card. Either would offer performance improvements over the 8800GT. If you want to stick with nVidia, there are still quite a few GTS 250's available, which would also offer an upgrade in performance. Most of their other offerings have almost completely dried-up.