9600 GT + Nvidia Drivers = freeze

Gnu314

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 12, 2004
Messages
343
I'm having a serious problem here.

I just put together my new rig last week and finally got around to installing everything on Sunday.

I'm running Windows XP Pro on a Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale, gygabyte GA-EP43-DS3L, with the PNY 9600GT that was at CC two weeks ago for $99. My mobo has the most current bios. Edit: Also running 4 gigs of OCZ PC 800 ddr2 ram, temps are stable and quite cool, voltages are stock but solid. The card is hooked up with the PCI-E connector from my Corsair VX 450 PSU. Nothing is OC'ed and there shouldn't be an issue with wattage (the whole thing is probably less than 300 W)

I installed the latest Nvidia drivers and when I went to restart the computer, it froze on shut down. So I restart and it freezes again. I restarted again and went to uninstall the drivers and it froze again.

At this point I thought maybe the drivers were corrupt so I installed an older version, I couldn't uninstall the newest version till there was a working version.

Still freezing, I booted up into safe mode and uninstalled the divers there. No problems. Load back up into Windows and install the older drivers again... and it starts freezing. Uninstall, run driver cleaner in safe mode a few times, reinstall... still freezing. So... I patched full up to SP3, all updates, and then decided to try again. Still freezes.

When there is no driver installed, I have no problems. No crashing, windows runs ok (not great obviously). When the drivers are installed.... random lock ups between 1-5 minutes after boot, hard restart required.

I figure its gotta be a driver/something compatibility issue, and probably fixable with a bios setting or a chipset update (which I haven't tried yet). I just need help finding out what the solution is.

I'm at work so I can't try anything till I get home.
 
So the freezes still occured when you were in SP2 with the drivers installed? Did you install all the latest motherboard drivers as well?

And to just rule this out:
Download Memtest+ V.170, unzip it, burn the ISO file to a CD, and then boot from it, just like you would do with the XP install CD. Let Memtest+ run for at least three hours on each stick of RAM separately. Go for a full 24 hours if you want to be completely sure that the RAM is not a problem. If you start seeing errors, than your RAM is bad.
 
I have the latest motherboard bios installed, it was the first thing that I updated.

I didn't have any time last night but I'm going to try to update the chipset when I get home tonight.

To be clear, I get freezes ONLY when Nvidia drivers are installed. This has happened with SP1, SP2, and SP3. When I'm using the default windows VGA driver I have no problems. Even in 1680x1050 (it runs slow, but I would expect it to).
 
Bump and update

I tried a different bios version (rev 4 vs the most recent rev 6) and updated the chipset drivers (again, I found out I had updated them once but the version was old.) Still getting the same result. I could try other bios versions but I doubt that is going to make a difference at this point.

Next step will be mem-test. I'm doubting that will be the problem but its worth trying. I'll also be trying a low-level format and installing the drivers from the CD right off the bat after re-install.

At this point I'm considering just taking it back to CC and picking up an HD 4850 for like 50 bucks more.

If anyone has any more suggestions, I'ed love to hear them.
 
Do you have another video card you could try, just to rule out your 9600 as faulty or working?
 
No, the card I have is PCI-E x16. Theres no AGP slots on that board for me to try my, now ancient, 6800 NU.
 
Sounds like you might simply have a bum card, or that particular 9600GT is incompatible with your particular mobo. I would take it back for and exchange and try another one just in case it's a bad card. I was one of the ones that got in on the $99.00 CC deal and mine works perfectly well.
 
What mobo/chipset are you running?

I'm gonna check the ram tonight, but I'm really starting to think(hope) its a bum card.
 
the 9600 is an average card anyways. id take it back and get the (cough) 4850 sorry i prefer nvidia lol. although unless you can get a gtx260 id look at getting an 8800gt or gts. they beat out a 9600 gt without question.

i have an 8800gt in my system and 3 9600gt cards (2 kids sytems and 1 htpc) so i do know about the 9600gt.(its ok but my card is better)
 
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