5XX Series Cards refuse to work!

thatprsn

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Aug 20, 2008
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First I bought a GTX 570, returned it and 2 weeks later bought a GTX 560 Ti which I have installed now. The issues between the two cards were identical and I have tried everything that I will explain on both cards.

Specs:
Win 7 64bit
i7 930
EVGA X58 Mobo
6gb DDR3 RAM
550 Watt Corsair power supply (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004)

I replaced two ATI HD4850 cards in CF.



My issue:
Installed card, uninstalled ATI drivers, installed NVIDIA drivers. Reboot machine, gets to welcome screen, BSOD (nvlddmkm.sys 0x00000116 error)(The GTX570 actually just hung at this point).

On occasion if I uninstall all drivers and reinstall just the latest display driver I will be able to get past the welcome screen (!!!) on the first and ONLY first time after the fresh install. However, if I try to play a video, game, or access GPU-Z, the system hangs and BSOD.

My PSU has 2 PCI-E power cables, and the card came with molex converters, I have tried every combination of these to no avail.

Any advice?
 
Take out car,go into BIOS, turn on onboard GPU, leave BIOS, boot to windows, uninstall all drivers Nvidia and ATI, re-install Nvidia drivers, turn off machine, put in Nvidia card, turn off IGP, and reboot. I would try that. BTW, are you using an OCed CPU or RAM?
 

thatprsn

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Will try this tomorrow. Also - no, CPU and RAM are both at stock speeds.
 

thatprsn

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Well I realized I am an idiot and don't have onboard video on this mobo, so sadly that plan is shot...

But I tried once more uninstalling all drivers, using driver sweeper to clear out any ATI or NVIDIA drivers left around until driver sweeper didn't display any files left over. Installed latest 560ti drivers (266.66, if you were curious), and yet the same BSOD happens at welcome screen...

I would like to avoid reinstalling windows if possible, my windows disk is currently 100 miles away so it would be a delayed process, but I suppose I will probably try this out if nothing else works...

Any more ideas?
 

tpi2007

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In my experience there is absolutely no need to reinstall Windows in order to get a graphics card to work.

It's a hugely disproportionate effort for very likely few or no results.

It's really a last resort measure, and before that you should try:

1. Check the site of your motherboard maker for any BIOS updates to your motherboard. Since these cards are new, the Motherboard could need a BIOS update to improve compatibility. Flash to the newer version if needed.

2. To throughly uninstall a graphics driver, check to see if you have a VGA standard driver installed. Go to the device manager and look into the Graphics Card that it lists. If after the Nvidia /ATI driver uninstall it still displays the GPU as being Nvidia or ATI, force the driver to uninstall, and then force the detection of new hardware. Ensure that it installs the standard VGA driver.


3. Put the cards on a different computer (provided that PC gives the cards enough power from the PSU). I'm saying this because both cards have been on the market for little time and you may have gotten bad luck and two faulty cards.

 

thatprsn

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1. Updated the BIOS, also updated the chipset drivers, no effect.

2. Yes, VGA driver is installed each time I remove the NVIDIA drivers.

3. I don't really have access to any other computers at the moment...


I guess reinstalling Windows may be my best bet...
 
Try this, no promises. Put back in your hd4850, install all of the GTX5x0 drivers and then reboot and see what happens. If that doesn't work, I would reinstall the OS. If reinstalling the OS doesn't help, then RMA again. If you bought it from newegg, you could talk to their "EggXpert" team.
 

thatprsn

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Can't install Nvidia drivers without the card in the machine...
 


Boot into Safe mode with networking (this way it uses the windows generic VGA drivers) - remove all drivers (ATI and Nvidia (NOTE : If you have an nvidia chipset MOBO uninstall only the video drivers not the chipset drivers)) --- turn off machine - boot into windows and install the new Nvidia drivers - reboot and see if it works.
 
To have this with two new cards in a row is unusual. Ask a friend if you can barrow his or her card just to see if the same pattern continues. Chances are that there is a defect either in the os or the board. Very doubtful that the psu can be a factor.
 

thatprsn

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Aug 20, 2008
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If anyone was curious: I returned the card.

Side story: My 4850s both had been running really load and hot when I started gaming with them again after a break for awhile. I always remembered them running really hot so I didn't think much of it, but after I had to remove/put them in so much I noticed all the dust stuck in there! After clearing out the inside they run 15C cooler (damn!), they were getting up to about 106-107C under full load so this is a good improvement in sound and heat! haha