Update or Scrap this machine?

koenag

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Nov 3, 2009
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I have an older machine used for gaming in the house that I was planning to replace but it occurred to me that I might start asking questions of experts before simply starting over. I suspect the age of this machine precludes it from being salvaged at the level I want to enjoy, but none the less, here is what I have;

Intel Core i7 CPU
965@3.20GHz
12.0 GB RAM
2XNVIDIA GTX295 (these are not functioning properly as the NVIDIA Control Panel will not load, and any driver update suddenly cannot find the cards and reverts me to 600X800 forcing me to system restore).

I planned to spend up to $2k +/- to get an updated gaming system (machine only, I don't need monitor/keyboard/mice/etc) but if this is something that can be salvaged with new video card etc. I'm all ears.

Thank you, in advance!
 

koenag

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Nov 3, 2009
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Roger that, my son can enjoy Dungeon Defenders in all its glory using this old machine and I'll march onward, towards building new.

Now I have plenty of reading to do, I'm certain there's more than a handful of recent "what to build with 2k budget" threads to learn from.

Thank you for confirmation.
 
Contrary thoughts. ""I suspect the age of this machine precludes it from being salvaged at the level I want " unless this means you have to know your PC is the best at benchmarks you should salvage the PC.

For gaming you cannot tell current best CPU from what you have. The i7 CPU
965@3.20GHz is a monster. The MB is an x58 MB, with a strong memory subsystem. You have tons of memory, and with the cache on the 965, you don't know how good the memory is unless you video edit.

"600X800 forcing me to system restore" Does this mean restoring to your previous (possibly bad) software load, or does it mean a fresh windows install fails? If you haven't done a clean install then try it. Get a new SSD and load to that. Get a second SSD and run them in RAID0 -- that's native on your MB using the Intel RST driver.

IF the 295s are really failing that is is OK. As teh squirrel says, at least oen is still good. Test them one at a time and ebay the one that works. Get a GTX680 or two. Get a multi-monitor setup. Add an SSD or two in raid. But save the $500 or so it will take to match the CPU, MB, Memory you have.

Enjoy. (And if I've just cost your son his only shot at a personal gaming rig please ignore my advice. All my kids are on i7 class HW from that generation.. via refurb HPs, and need them so much they bring their servers home during spring break lol. )

 

koenag

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Nov 3, 2009
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The issue with the video card is as follows; currently they work for most games but a few lock up. It's evident to me that I need to update the driver (haven't for well over a year). Sometime last year I noticed that I can no longer load the NVIDIA Software to change any settings. To further add problems, whenever I update the drivers (to any newer edition, not necessarily the most recent) by the time the computer loads the new driver and boots up, it defaults me to 800X600 and I cannot select any other preference. At that time I notice that the GTX295's are no longer listed as hardware (previous to the driver update they are still listed, though I cannot influence their settings in any way). I've simply assumed they were dying the slow death and so I use system restore to take me back to before the driver update, and most everything works as normal.

Perhaps I'll pickup new video cards first and see how that goes.
 
OK, But first.... that doesn't sound like bad hardware. That sound like bad software.

Get a new disk. Unhook your old disk. Replace with new disk and do a clean windows install. If the gtx295's work, drivers load, etc. then you decide how you want to clean up old system drive or stay with new windows image on new drive. It's going to be something like a bad dotnet update.
 

koenag

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Nov 3, 2009
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I'm unable to update any driver at all. I went back to old drivers and tried, one at a time, various types. They all fail during installation. I'm not sure how I was able to the last time (when 800X600 was the only resolution available after the driver installed) but I'm not able to now.

Also of note, my graphics cards don't show up in Device Manager if I simply go Start>Devices and Printers but if I go to System and then select Device Manager there, I can see GTX295 (4 separate lines oddly) under display adapters. When I right click from there on one of the GTX295's and have them update driver from there, it says I'm up to date.

UPDATE: When right clicking and choosing update driver from display adapters a second time, and choosing find drivers online as opposed to the ones I just downloaded it went out and attempted to update. Again it failed this time stating:

Windows ecnountered a problem installing the driver software etc...
Windows found driver software for your device but encountered a problem attempting to install it.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX295
The required line was not found in the INF.



 

koenag

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Nov 3, 2009
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Thank you all. I used a drive cleaner because the first couple of uninstalls wouldn't take but I was finally able to clear everything out and put a fresh driver in. Computer is running well again. Great stuff.
 

Figantro

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Sep 9, 2012
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What cleaner did you use? I have exactly the same problem with my 9800 gtx + :(