Possible corrupt driver on Both OSes?

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SamuraiInBlack

Supreme [H]ardness
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Oct 10, 2003
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I'm running two operating systems currently: Windows XP, and Windows 7 RC. Both are fresh installs.

Under both systems when I go to boot up, everything posts okay, everything loads okay. Get to the windows loading splash screen on either, and on first boot it won't load. If I reset my system and let it try again, it loads up just fine.

This was an issue before I added Win7 as an OS as well.

Video card is a Visiontek HD4850 with an Accelero S1 and additional heatsinks. (there weren't enough in the package I had)

The fan I have on the Accelero is still going strong.

One thing I noticed is, with the default driver for XP, the system would load fine. But if I installed the ATI driver direct from AMD's website this problem would occur.

I've tried putting Windows on different hard drives just to be sure it wasn't a hard drive issue, and its not that, since it does it on the new drive as well.

Is it possible I somehow have a corrupt driver for either OS? That's the only conclusion I'm drawing here, unless my video card itself is failing. I don't see how though. I'm not getting any kind of overheat. Temps are within normal range. Any ideas?

Edit: I also thought to add this - I can restart as much as I want and it will load fine afterwards. If I shut down completely, then turn it back on, it has this problem.
 
what could be the problem with the hardware though? that's what i'm trying to figure out.
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How old is the motherboard, or more specifically, how old is the motherboard's CMOS battery? A weak but not entirely failed battery might show odd behavior like this.

What power supply do you have, and how many fans, hard drives, DVD drives, etc do you have hooked up to it? Sometimes a complex setup can result in not being able to deliver enough power to a particular item during bootup (I remember a phrase including the word "chain" in relation to that but I can't bring up the rest of it).
 
psu: Corsair 1000 watt
1 Samsung dvd-rw drive
3 hard drives (all sata)
4 fans - cpu (intel stock hsf), 2x120mm case fans, 1 scythe 120mm fan on the videocard

motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (REV. 2.0)
processor: Intel Q9400 @ 2.66
video card: Visiontek HD4850
sound: Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic

when I first got the video card I never had this problem even when I put on the custom hsf.

only thing I can think of is i've worked the card too [H]ard from Folding 24/7 for long stretches of time since I got it. :D that and the few times i've overclocked it for games.
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it may sound ridiculous, but from the similar problems i have read about, i would try both sticks of ram independent of each other to make sure it's not a ram issue.

i would run memtest86 and maybe reset the ram voltages

then i would disconnect your hdds and optical drive(s) and see if the issue persists. it makes sense to narrow it down to only 1 hdd if possible (disconnect everything but your boot drive). i know you tried them independently so this may be a moot point.

if worse comes to worse, try to swap in some new cables and see what happens.

if this doesn't work then my guess, like yours would be a video card driver problem.

sorry if this wasn't any help...GL!!
 
I guess I'll have to cast my suspicion on the Accelero S1 and Scythe video card fan. I'm thinking something like during a cold boot the fan is pulling power in such a manner that it prevents the video card from starting up properly. Are you powering the Accelero and Scythe on the same set of power cables as the video card, and if so can you move them to their own set of power cables? I know that may not make much sense if you think the PSU is super powerful, but power can get funny about things like that.
 
evilsofa said:
I guess I'll have to cast my suspicion on the Accelero S1 and Scythe video card fan. I'm thinking something like during a cold boot the fan is pulling power in such a manner that it prevents the video card from starting up properly. Are you powering the Accelero and Scythe on the same set of power cables as the video card, and if so can you move them to their own set of power cables? I know that may not make much sense if you think the PSU is super powerful, but power can get funny about things like that.
Click to expand...

Yeah. The PSU is modular, so I've minimized how many cables I'm actually using. The Accelero S1 doesn't have a fan on its own, the Scythe is attached though. All the fans are connected together on their own power cable except the CPU fan, which is plugged directly into the board. I might try separating those out and see what happens. The hard drives are all on their own cable. The video card has its own dedicated PCI-E power cable. No other cards or peripherals attached to that.
 
yeah its definately not your psu.. I think its a driver/windows issue..

so basically you cant cold boot your video card...

I would try another card, like an nvidia.. using drivercleaner of course..

just to see where you stand.
 
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Everything you are indicating about your test show it is a hardware issue. There is no way it would be happening in both versions of windows, with thousand of other people using the drivers, if it was a driver issue. I have seen several times over the years where an Nvidia chipset card will just bite the dust, and it starts with erratic behavior such as this. Other things that come up would be a lockup in a game for no reason, or lurches.

Here is what I would do:

1. If you have any other cards in the system, I would remove them one at a time and see if the problem goes away.

2. I would try checking your bios version, upgrade it to latest, and clear your CMOS and restart from stock settings and see if that clears the issue.

3. Check the heat sync on your video and ensure it is mounted properly. You might even want to re-seat it.

4. I have heard some folks have to actually increase the voltage going to their card on their motherboard settings to get stability.

5. You might check with your manufacturer to see if they followed reference design, if not, yo might have to use drivers from the vid card manufacturer to get it to work right.
 
I had some similar problems and it turned out to be a shorted out mobo

I put it in a new case and screwed everything down really well and haven't had a problem since
 
Update:

It was doing this on an old BIOS. Its doing it on a new BIOS. Stock settings and all, no dice.

Ram tested out fine. Swapped out with new RAM anyway. Problem still exists.

Heatsink has been remounted, problem still exists.

Haven't tried increasing voltage. Will try that soon if a driver reinstall doesn't do it. This thing is pissing me off to no end. I'm still convinced its the driver, as it didn't do it under the default windows driver, but after I install the ATI driver, it begins doing this.
 
Update:
Driver uninstalled and cleaned out four times with both Driver Cleaner and Driver Sweeper. Reinstalled new 9.6 Catalyst drivers from both the official ATI site and from Visiontek's site. No dice for either even after doing uninstalls and cleans/sweeps afterwards and trying again.

Increased voltage in increasing intervals all the way to the most the board can give (+0.3v on the PCI-E) and no dice again.

Conclusion - its the video card or my motherboard at this point. I choose to replace the card, as I really don't want to swap out everything on the motherboard.

Ordered an XFX HD4890 on Wednesday. Got it today. I chose the stock model because I figured I can OC it myself if I'm so inclined, and two, I want to first eliminate OC's out of the equation.

Installed, new drivers put up on XP and Win7. Both working well from bootup. If it makes a difference I went through the CD and got linked through the XFX website, rather than download them off ATI's website.

Only concern? I push the button and my ceiling fan light flickers. :eek: People were not kidding these cards today are power hogs.

So now I have a custom Accelero S1 cooled 4850 I can do nothing with. It works, it OC's pretty decently, it just doesn't seem to like cold boots for anything.

Guess its time to throw this into my mom's PC once I figure out a decent but cheap parts config for it that won't be bottlenecked by it.

Ah well. Time to try out HAWX and see how this thing goes.
 
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