Computer Hope
Hardware => Drivers => Topic started by: bullwinkle on April 18, 2008, 09:07:14 PM
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Hi,
My old video card was nVidia 7800GTX in SLI.
I bought two nVidia 8800GT to replace them.
After installation, I loaded the CD. The update said that the old drivers were newer than those on the CD. I said to go ahead anyway.
There were a couple of windows asking if I wanted to continue since these drivers may not be for Win XP (I'm sure they were). But this option was forewarned in the nVidia setup guide.
After the install the refresh rate was low and the screen crawled when scrolling. I went to properties to adjust the refresh rate but there was no tab to do that. Just 4 tabs on the Advanced option. Everything is on default mode.
So I downloaded & installed the latest drivers (169.44) from EVGA, the card's manufacturer. Same problem.
So I downloaded & installed the latest drivers (1.69.21) from nVidia. Same problem.
Windows says that the drivers were not properly installed. And gives me an Install New Hardware prompt each time I boot up. If I try to use it, it looks in my CD-ROM drive but can't find the drivers there.
What should I do? (aside from going back to my 7800's)
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium mb
Win XP Pro sp2
OCZ GameXStream 700W PSU
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Re-install the drivers that shipped with the card,,,you may have to do them one at a time and then enable SLI mode...
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Thanks. I've already tried that but even with one card the drivers won't load.
I'm thinking something's corrupted in the mb.
Perhaps I should reinstall those drivers.
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Well, I've done that too but I still can't load the drivers for the 8800gt.
Any other ideas? Reinstall XP???
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Reinstalling XP is actually not a bad idea when switching hardware. I would do it if it was my computer.
Are you familiar with the procedure?
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Actually I'm not confident about going through that. I've done it before several years ago.
Is there any help or advice you could offer?
Thanks!
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Sure.
First of all, do you have a Microsoft Windows XP installation CD or one or more system recovery discs/recovery partition?
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No, all I have is the original XP disk.
There is only one partition on the hard drive.
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So I guess you have a XP installation disc then...
If you only have one hard drive and one partition you need to backup anything you don't want to loose to something external. Like another computer, CDs, DVDs, etc.
after that you can follow this guide to installing XP.
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000647.htm
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Maybe you need to uninstall the nVidia drivers that you were using with the 7800GTX and then after inserting your card then installing the latest nVidia drivers tat that time?
Just wondering if you could just get rid of all the drivers so that you start with nothing and then supposedly you get the standard m'soft default drivers that you can then go install the nVidia drivers over?
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In regard to installing the drivers, I did an add/remove of nVidia drivers and then followed up with Driver Cleaner.
From that reboot it doesn't matter if I try to do an install with the EVGA boot disk or use the ASUS mb disk or the latest drivers from the nVidia website. None of that works and I still get an Found New Hardware window when rebooting Windows.
Thus the problem may be in the OS.
I do have a 2nd HD but I've been reticent to use Ghost on it because if for any reason I screw it up, I've lost my business! What worries me is that when I set up Ghost it shows the C drive as nr. 2 and the D drive as nr. 1.
I also have a Maxtor One Step external drive but it doesn't back up the entire HD, only select files. Maxtor said I could use Ghost on that to back up the entire drive, but it hasn't as yet worked.
One ?...after reinstalling Windows will I have to reinstall all of my software too?
One more ?...having just looked at the document for installing XP, why would I have to format the C drive? I think you can reinstall without having to do that.
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Formatting it is the only way to make absolutely sure the drivers are gone.
But you can try a repair install if you don't want to format.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
If you choose to format you will need to reinstall all your software.
If you choose to do a repair install I would still strongly recommend you backup anything you can't afford to loose. Like anything else a repair install can go wrong although it shouldn't if you follow the guide to the letter.
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OK - I think I'll try the repair install first. Makes sense since I can always go the drastic route should it fail.
Now to get that data backed up...........
Thanks for your help.
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You're welcome. :) Be sure to keep us updated, we love hearing how it ends. :)
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I have a question.
If I use disk imaging software to backup, won't that image contain the same problems as the drive has now?
If I use backup software, I can't be sure that I'm copying all of the data that I need - email files, lotus files (yes, I still use lotus), etc. I have a Maxtor One Step backup drive but it won't accept the Documents & Settings directory, so what good is it?
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if you have second drive, couldn't you just dump everything there so you have it and pick them up later when you get your first drive loaded and just reinstall all the programs you need?
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Well, that's what I'm worried about.
I can't just copy everything to the D drive, there are too many programs that won't copy because they're being "used" regardless of what programs are or are not running.
So I can't be sure of having all my files protected.
Plus I don't know where my email files are kept.
The answer is to use a utility to copy them. I have Ghost (2003) but it won't work. I'm currently looking to pick up a software program to do that (Paragon is currently looking the best).
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oooh. i had the same problem
2 8800Gt's and the same error message
I reformatted after i burnt all my music and movies to dvds (15 dvd's in total*)
I then flashed my bios and updated it.
Everyting worked fine
Use flashing your bios as a last resort*** It viods your warranty on your mobo and cpu.***
I am still getting an "IRQL uneven flow" error or something like that when i am playing cod4 or wc3 which displays on a blue screen but i just reset and load back in...
I cant seem to resolve this problem??????????????
Any suggestions??
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,55237.0.html (http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,55237.0.html)
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Do you have a reference to flash the bios?
I don't have a clue how to do that - if indeed it would be necessary.
Sorry I can't help you in your situation. Did you format the C drive and reinstall everything?
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i reformated and lost everthing. Put it all on disc tho and i am still putting it all back on :(
But windows generally is very good at picking up new hardware and did your GT's come with a black and white disc with your drivers?
I am using the drivers that came on that disc and havnt updated at all.
Runs all the games i play on full gfx (crysis i had to lower the screen res) and i get wierd black spots on the terrain when i play battlefield 2
Back up reformat and install the stock drivers.
tell us how you go.
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Yes, my EVGA CD is black & white but does not install anything. I get:
AN ERROR OCCURRED DURING INSTALLATION OF THE DEVICE. THE SYSTEM CANNOT FIND THE FILE SPECIFIED (no file is specified)
If I try to load the drivers from nVidia I get:
THE SYSTEM HAS NOT BEEN MODIFIED
No further explanation.
And every few seconds my mouse freezes up. That's been going on for weeks and it's getting worse.
Right now I'm waiting for Paragon Backup Software 8.5 to arrive. My Norton Ghost doesn't work - although it used to.
Just hoping that my system can load and run new programs. Not sure.
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Oh, the pain in my head...
Well, I got the disk copy software. When I ran it it suggested that I make a recovery disk. When I attempted to do that, it would write to the disk but never complete the writing. It would just hang.
So I rebooted and tried a disk copy. Sure enough, as soon as it was ready to do something, it hung.
So maybe the best thing is to start with a new disk - I could use my old Maxtor 250GB IDE, but I think I'll buy a new 750GB Seagate with 32MB cache because after all this grief and pain I deserve it.
Think that's the best answer?
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Try download omega drivers for your 8800GT
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Where can I find them?
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I found the omega drivers. I removed anything nVidia, used Clean Sweep and then rebooted and loaded Omega.
No Go. Still got the New Hardware msgs.
When trying to remove them I got an message that said "Invalid uninstall control file" and the location of the file Omega Uninstall.xml
So I guess I can't remove them. They're not listed in Clean Sweep.
And then my mouse keeps locking up every few seconds to make my day more interesting still.
Any ideas anyone???
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use system restore to undo your omega drivers installation.
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why?
But i think its time to buy some dvd's and get backing up.
reformatting is your next step.
im sorry my other suggestions didnt work for you.
i had to reformat but my computer was very new and didnt have much on it.
Reformat after u back up and play a game and see if your gfx drivers are cooperating b4 u dump everything else back on ;)
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Here's some more info that may help.
When booting up, not only do I get New Hardware Found for the video driver, but also for SB Controller, PCI Bridge, and PCI Memory Controller.
I've reloaded the drivers for the ASUS mb, but no difference.
Can this be related to the video problem?
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I went to Device Manager and removed the ? items mentioned in my last post. Then rebooted with the mb CD and loaded these drivers. Everything seems OK.
However I'm still perplexed by the video driver. When I went to install that, it went through the motions and then said that that there was an error so it wasn't installed properly.
Back to Square One.
About to try an XP repair unless anyone has a better idea.
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yeah try that.
better than reformatting.
you can also do a more in depth repair by going thru like you are going to reformat and then divert off to another repair option near the end.
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UPDATE!!
I managed to load the 8800 drivers (somehow) without any repair to XP.
Thank you everyone for your input.
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UPDATE!!
I managed to load the 8800 drivers (somehow) without any repair to XP.
Thank you everyone for your input.
that is good ;D
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yes but how?
Any probs with games??
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Sorry for the delay.
Don't know how. Just loaded them and they took.
Games don't work. Probably because I don't have a C drive. My former C drive is now a D drive and I can't change it back.
Don't ask how that happened. I don't know.
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ive got a program that you can use to change it.
if you install your games again they should work.
go into custom installation if is does not allow you to change the directory first.
I think you can change the name of your harddrive with your windows CD