Unable to install dedicated Physx card

[boies00]

I have bought a Zotac Geforce 240 GT card to use as dedicated Physx along an EVGA 260 GTX. When I start my system, it stays a long time on the Windows logo screen before going to a black screen and hang there.

I have a core i7 processor on a MSI Eclipse motherboard, with a 750W corsair power supply.

The 260 GTX works well alone, as do the 240 GT. But they don't seem to be able to work together.


I have tried a 8800 GST I had from another computer, and dedicated Physx works with this card in my system.

Consequenty, I have put the new 240 GT card in the other computer (an Athlon with an ASUS motherboard) in order to keep the 8800 GST in my system, but the other computer crashes everytime on startup with the 240 GT in it.

I previously bought a XFX 240 GT card with which I had the same issues. I returned it because I tought the card was defective. But since it happens with the new card, there surely something wrong with my systems.

I haven't found anybody having problems similat to mine, so any help would be welcome.

 

[borisof007]

"Consequenty, I have put the new 240 GT card in the other computer (an Athlon with an ASUS motherboard) in order to keep the 8800 GST in my system, but the other computer crashes everytime on startup with the 240 GT in it."

I highly doubt that something is wrong with two separate rigs. It's more likely you got ANOTHER bad card, which is super bad luck but it happens.

RMA it again or return it and try for another brand 240 GT imo.

 

[boies00]

"Consequenty, I have put the new 240 GT card in the other computer (an Athlon with an ASUS motherboard) in order to keep the 8800 GST in my system, but the other computer crashes everytime on startup with the 240 GT in it."

I highly doubt that something is wrong with two separate rigs. It's more likely you got ANOTHER bad card, which is super bad luck but it happens.

RMA it again or return it and try for another brand 240 GT imo.

However, when I tried the GT 240 *alone* on my main system it works without any issues. That's why I am not sure I have a bad card.

 

[borisof007]

OH.... hmmm.

So to rehash:

So the combination of the 260 and 240 for physx causes problems.
The single 260 or 240 by itself in your main computer is fine
The 240 by itself in your second computer causes problems.
Your original setup of 260 and the 8800 for physx works fine.

I doubt your PSU is bad and that it's not delivering the required power.
It "could" be a driver issue between the two cards, but it doesn't quite explain why it still doesn't work on your 2nd computer
it's definitely not your motherboard or RAM or an OS issue.

You got yourself quite in a pickle!

 

[jyjjy]

I would just return it to be honest. GPU accelerated Physx is a useful feature in approximately 3 games that I can think of. Not nearly worth the hassle you are going through, the cost and higher power bill to boost the performance of a very small number of games.
If you are intent on having a card for Physx perhaps go for one of the low power 9600GTs instead.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Did you uninstall the drivers before taking out the old card and installing the new ?

Even tho logic dictates that they are all nVidia cards, my assumption is that the reason drivers are so big these days is that they pack some card specific tweaks inside them.

I now always uninstall GFX drivers even when upgrading cards "from the same team" so to speak as doing so has made problems disappear for me. Suggets you try:

1. Uninstall GFX drivers, shutdown.
2. Remove all cards, boot and use registry cleaner (i.e. ccleaner) to remove all things nVidia from registry, reboot.
3. Install latest driver

 

[boies00]

I would just return it to be honest. GPU accelerated Physx is a useful feature in approximately 3 games that I can think of. Not nearly worth the hassle you are going through, the cost and higher power bill to boost the performance of a very small number of games.
If you are intent on having a card for Physx perhaps go for one of the low power 9600GTs instead.

I had decided to go with a GT 240 because I had read that the power consumption was lower than on a 8800, 9600 or 9800 card.

I am also keen on a single slot card because in the future I'd like to buy a secon 260 GTX to put in a SLI setup.

 

[boies00]

Did you uninstall the drivers before taking out the old card and installing the new ?

Even tho logic dictates that they are all nVidia cards, my assumption is that the reason drivers are so big these days is that they pack some card specific tweaks inside them.

I now always uninstall GFX drivers even when upgrading cards "from the same team" so to speak as doing so has made problems disappear for me. Suggets you try:

1. Uninstall GFX drivers, shutdown.
2. Remove all cards, boot and use registry cleaner (i.e. ccleaner) to remove all things nVidia from registry, reboot.
3. Install latest driver

I had tried uninstalling drivers on both systems before adding the new card.

Unfortunately, I don't even reach a step were I am able to install new drivers on any of them

 

[skolpo]

Drivers, drivers, drivers! That's what I'm guessing. Uninstall all drivers and do a clean sweep. Reinstall the latest drivers with the GTX260 alone, disable Physx, shut down, slap in the GT240, and enable Physx (pretty much what jacknaylor said). I'm not sure how decent of a Physx card the GT240 can be anyway. I had a dedicated 8800GTS and still lagged a bit in Mirror's Edge with a GTX285. But then again, my computer has many other problems. Make sure you don't have any ATi drivers lingering around either if you had a previous ATi setup. Last resort, RMA that card again.



EDIT: Read your most recent post. Are you saying that you can't even install the new drivers?

 

[boies00]

EDIT: Read your most recent post. Are you saying that you can't even install the new drivers?

In my main system, when I try to load with both the 260GTX and the 240GT, the sytem hang for minutes on the windows 7 logo, then go to a black screen when I can see the white arrow pointer and it stays there forever. Normally it should then move to the welcome screen but the screen stays black. In a few of my tries I got a 'no DVI Display found' before the monitor shut.

On the Asus system, I have got the card to load a few times but I always get a blue screen within a minute. Afterwards, unless I phisically remove the card and put it back the computer will reboot continually until I am brought to the repair screen because the computer is unable to start.

 

[skolpo]

It's either a broken GT240 or your driver installation is corrupting.

 

[borisof007]

^^ +1

 

[bystander]

What OS are you using? I never saw a mention as to it being vista or win 7.

 

[boies00]

What OS are you using? I never saw a mention as to it being vista or win 7.

On my main system, Win 7 64 bits. On the other one, Win 7 32 bits.

 

[boies00]

I made a last attempt to check if was driver problem.

I disconnected my main computer from the net, uninstalled all NVIDIA software, and ran Guru3D's Driver Sweeeper.

After restarting my computer, I installed X-TremeG lastest drivers since I read they were often more stable.

After shutting down the computer, I installed the 240 GT and turned on the computer.

Unfortunately, the problem was the same. The computer hangs at the black screen, then I loose display.

So, what do you think should be my next move?

1. Return the card to Newegg.ca for a replacement in the hope it was again a bad card, and the next one will work flawlessly.

2.Assume there some incompatibility with my systems and ask for a refund (and get charged a 15% restocking fee)

 

[borisof007]

RMA the card again first. I've seen plenty of times where people have gotten two bad cards in a row.

Also, I'd try using the official Nvidia drivers when troubleshooting. But that's just me.

 

[boies00]

RMA the card again first. I've seen plenty of times where people have gotten two bad cards in a row.

Also, I'd try using the official Nvidia drivers when troubleshooting. But that's just me.

I'd only tried alternate drivers because it was not working with the official ones...

I'll probably give a try to the RMA. Hopefully, I'll be more lucky next time...