Why cant gainward/nVidia cards use nVIdia drivers?

[undertheradar]

Quick Q first: Is there some reason that Gainward GeForce Cards wont work with nVidia ref. drivers? I recently sent in my GF4 Ti4600 cuz the fan stopped working (ouch). Nothing new, as every summer with this series card I seem to have some problem develop. The first card right out of the box had bad RAM, something that this series of golden sample was known for. Then, the next summer the card went plinko again, in a big way...it had issues for a while with stray pixels, then blocks of code came through, then the boot screen went crazy, then plinko...the card didnt even show a picture. Pretty much the same series of events as the first time with bad RAM. This summer the card started lagging up on games, and then seizing up all together. It turns out that the fan had stopped and the card fried.

So I sent it in. Heard nothing for a week or so and so I called them up. Talked with the same person every time (Shawn/Sean). He said that they didnt have any Ti4600s, and so I would have to wait for a replacement (next month!). I asked if they had any substitution products that they could give me. He said I could have the FX5600XT w/256MB ram. I took it at the time thinking it would prolly be a faster card anyways (sheah, right!).

I received it last week friday, missing any documentation or manual (Shawn said he would send a full history and receipt in case I had any more problems). Now, I have always been using the detonator drivers off nVidia's website...never had a problem before. I loaded the fx5600 in the AGP slot, turned on the computer, and it loaded. Then I started playing a game (BFVietnam). It worked ok for a while (my Ti4600 was faster), but then the computer screen went black. I restarted the computer. Everything seemed fine, but when the desktop came up it blanked out like 6 times before I could use it. Then, after a few minuted of use, the screen froze. Pretty much every time I use this card I end up with a frozen screen, or it just goes black.

I called Gainward this morning. I kept getting a voicemail for RMA. I havent heard a response. In fact, one time I called, someone picked up the phone...I asked for Shawn in RMAs...and I was hung up on after being put on hold for a minute. That ticked me off more than getting another voicemessage, so I called back and decided to press 2 for sales, figuring they can ignore RMA all day, but not SALES, right? Someone picked up right away. I asked for Shawn, but the person insisted maybe they could help me.

Without even knowing I was sent a different card than I had, the guy said I had to reformat my HD and install the gainward driver...that using the nVidia ref. drivers was the source of my problem and Gainward cards were incompatible. Does this make sense to anyone? I have always been able to use my Chaintech and Asus cards with the detonator drivers...and always been able to so so in the past with Gainward cards...was this guy feeding me a line? Or do I have another broken card?

Just for kicks, I wont refoemat my whole drive, but I will uninstall the nVidia drivers and put in the Gainward ones. We'll see.

 

[OriginalReaper]

Read the FAQ sticky. It has instructions on installing drivers. You shouldn't have a problem installing nVidia.com's drivers. Just use Driver Cleaner.

 

[undertheradar]

Well, I used the control panel to delete the drivers. I have never had a problem with this method when switching out cards, even swapping between ATI and nVidia. Then I restarted the computer...so it would default to the Windows drivers. No problem.

Then I powered down. I put in the FX5600XT. I powered up. At this point I would assume the situation to be the same as if I were to have a fresh installation). The screen blinked on and off a few times when getting to the desktop (usually once is all, but this thing does it a few times). Then, after it recognized the hardware and I tried to install the gainward drivers (tried because the farthest they got was to unpack...then nothing...as if it didnt even recognize the card), the screen went fuzzy...rainbows of colors. As I moved my mouse, the screen under it became distorted permanently, like a blend option in a photo program. I powered down.

Boot again. Same result. Rainbows and distortions. Figured I would put my backup card back in. I powered down. I grab the gainward card. OUCH!!! The thing was blazing hot and gave me a blister...on the backside of the processor!!!

Called gainward. Now they think that I might have gotten a bad card. AGAIN (what is this, like the 4th or 5th time I have had to RTV with them?). I was thinking of getting their new 6800U...but not now...that ASUS V9999 deluxe looks better.