EVGA GTX 260 and Windows 7 Problems

[hawaiianjoey]

Hello All,

I am having a rather frustrating video card problem this week. I finally upgraded to Windows 7 after years of skepticism, laziness, and loyalty to XP's "just works" characteristics. After getting over the shock of all the glossy new menus and such, I decided to start installing my games back onto this machine...only to find out that NONE of my games will run properly on the new OS.

The situation is as follows:

1. After entering gameplay (leaving main screens), games immediately start locking-up/black-screening/color-screening/stuttering, etc. (Card doesn't even have time to overheat, and temp hovers around 45C)

2. All games worked FINE on Windows XP.

3. All my drivers are up-to-date. And no problems while watching any HD videos, etc. Just gaming.

4. Games I have tried so far: Crysis, Fallout: NV, Dead Island, Mass Effect 2, and Minecraft (YES, even MC crashes!!!)


I'm just thinking that I'm missing some crucial compatibility issue. Here's what I (think I) know so far...

1. I know the card is DX10/Win7 compatible (although Win7 has DX11 installed), but I don't think this is an issue.

2. Power is not a problem. I have a huge PS.

3. Neither is heat (as explained before)

4. The card has passed several stress-testing utilities (can't remember which ones, sorry). I really don't think it's a hardware issue though, considering my rig was maxing out the games above just a few days ago.

5. I read somewhere that sound cards sometimes are the cause of graphical issues (and ppl misdiagnose these as video card problems since it only happens while gaming). But I disabled my sound hardware, and the problem persists.


Well, I've always had a lot of faith in this community, so here's hoping that somebody out there can think of something that I haven't yet. Cause I'm ready to jump back on the XP train again...

Without further ado:

OS: Windows 7 Pro
MB: EVGA 750i
CPU: Core 2 Duo
RAM: 4GB
Video: EVGA GTX 260 (Core 216)

 

[hawaiianjoey]

Oh, my Windows 7 is 32-bit, btw. And yes, I have tried a few older Nvidia drivers, but they don't really have an effect.

I have also tried lowering the settings on all these games, but still have the same problems. I KNOW though that my comp should be just fine playing the above games maxed out though...

 

[ircreative121212]

This exact same thing has happened to me... Same scenario, same system specs, same problems... Have you figured out the problem? ? I know its not hardware.... ive played all these games just days ago on windows xp.. Thank you!

 

[esrever]

did you do a clean install?

 

[ircreative121212]

did you do a clean install?

Yes. Clean install. Have tried old drivers... new driveres...Preferred drivers... It seems that many people have the same issue all around the web but there is no answer... I know its not hardware because I was able to play games on XP just days ago... Do you think it is a simple setting in the control panel that is bogging it down?

Thank you for the help!

 

[ircreative121212]

One more thing.... The main thing that happens in every game I play..... Every 15-30 seconds, the graphics freeze for about 5 seconds, then it goes back to normal play.... this happened in DOTA 2, TF2, Diablo 3, and SC2... played all these games 2 days ago with perfection in windows XP. .... ..

AGHH, thanks

 

[esrever]

I don't think its a simple control panel setting but anything could be it.

have you tried to check the game's cpu and gpu loads while this is happening?