Maximum PC

This is my thread I started on the Nvidia site:
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=180091

This is a thread I joined on the EVGA site:
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?&m=551946&mpage=1


If you google it, there are dozens and dozens of threads on different sites all dealing with the exact same problem. It "might" appear that AMD chipsets (especially those that are a couple years older) are incompatible with the new Geforce 4 series cards. I've been stuck using a standard VGA driver for the last week now and my Geforce 460 is sitting like a brick inside my computer.

Anyway, a lot of angry people out there (myself included) who are wondering when Nvidia is going to fix this. I've been in contact with the driver developer at Nvidia (he posts on their site) and he is unaware of the problem although he's looking into it now. This means that it'll probably be awhile before any fix comes out. Until then, it's computer lock-up at the welcome screen or very soon after entering Windows unless in safe mode or running a standard VGA driver. This happened 28 days after I bought my card and by the time I figured out what was going on, it was too late to send it back to Newegg for a refund. Now I'm stuck waiting and hoping that something is fixed.

I know there are a lot of tech professionals here so I thought I'd put a thread up so people can either offer advice on possible fixes or just be aware of the problem so they can possibly prevent others from buying these cards until the issue is worked out. I've probably spent 5-6 hours messing with every setting I can find on my computer trying to get this to work. Ugh, what a mess.

I've build a AMD rig a few weeks ago,
It's got a Phenom II X6
Asus motherboard with a AMD chipset
A EVGA GTX470 (ref. clock version)

I have no problems at all including installing the latest drivers.

You can do is change to another card.
Instead of getting a factory OC clock, use a standard version or a different brand.

You might want to change the title and edit your 1st post to reflect the real name: Geforce GT/GTX 400 series. Geforce 4 totally threw me off, lol, made me think of the old-ass AGP 8x Geforce 4 I put in my mom's pc years ago, lol.

Well, according to the threads on the Nvidia site, it doesn't really matter what brand or type of GTX 4 series cards are used. It's 460/470/480 and all sorts of different clocked ones thrown in. Something horribly wrong is going on here.

Good call, I made an edit. I remember those cards too. I was always jealous as I was rolling a Geforce 3 while my friends had the 4 series.

This may sound stupid but have you try a different OS or use only a single stick of RAM?

This member from EVGA forums


What does it mean by "before hitting windows"?
Is it right after POST and before the animated logo starts?
After the welcome screen and before he hits the desktop?

Hope you can get your problem fix ASAP.

^^^^

I can't comment for sure about his specific problem but I know some people had so many freezes and restarts that it eventually corrupted their windows files and they couldn't even get to the load screen for Windows.

It isn't isolated to the GTX4 series. I've actually had the same problem with both my 460's and a 9800gx2, ever since I upgraded drivers to the newer version. 260.xx, I think?

I'm going to try rolling back to an older driver tonight.

For me, I get to the point of being able to enter my windows password. In Win7, then the little animation of the spinning ring starts, gets about 3 revolutions and freezes. Just to be sure, I left it going all day, and when I came back from work it was still sitting there.

I have experienced the problem with both 32bit XP and 64bit Win7. So it doesn't appear to be OS related.
I have tried it on an ASUS Striker II formula (780i chipset) with DDR2 Ram, and on an XFX 790i ultra mobo with DDR3.

I can start up in "safe mode". Also after deleting the Nvidia driver, I am able to boot into full windows with a generic VGA driver.

I have now tried Nvidia driver versions 258.96, 260.89. and 260.99 - none of which will work. Anything earlier than that probably won't work, because 258.96 added the 460 into the supported devices.

If your motherboard has on-board ATi graphics, it should be turned off in the BIOS and/or disabled in the device manager, then uninstall the support files for the on-board GFX only and reboot. Install the nVidia drivers you get off their website because they are the best. Microsoft update has been sending out a lot of flawed driver "updates" for nVidia cards of late, so be sure to check the vendor of the driver file you have and are using. if it is a Microsoft driver, roll it back to the previous driver then delete the driver file for Microsoft's "fix" off the hard disk. then make sure you choose the "Do not remind me about this update" option in the windows update page that opens when you either launch Microsoft update in internet explorer or in the Security Center version of it.

Edit: You may have to check the Automatic Updates logfile to see if the nVidia update has been performed. Sometimes the updated files will integrate with the nVidia ones and not report the correct vendor in the graphics card properties or device manager.

Another note: Microsoft's driver files seem to make the cards from nVidia run hotter as well. I have had a few older and newer ones come to early deaths at the hands of poorly designed drivers. (and no, I do not overclock those cards - at least not without proper cooling).

Best of luck!



Edit: on the topic of failures to start, if in XP, you can run system recovery or in safe mode and open the command prompt. Then get your XP cd and put it into the drive. Go back to the command prompt and type in this:

/sfc scannow

This will scan for corrupted windows files and then extract what files it can find to replace them from the XP cd. Once finished, reboot. Not sure if this trick will work in Vista or 7. I suppose it is worth a try as a last ditch effort to stave off the reformat gremlin. Of corpse, you may also want to run a full scandisk (or equivalent) to try and recover bad sectors on the hard disk.

Funny thought this, I feel like I'm walking through a cemetery in this thread, lol, but on Halloween...

Say hi to the grim reaper for me if you see him.
DeAd ThReAd.

...because dead spirits forbid that I use a thread that is related to my problem, in hopes that the OP has found a solution?

I guess some people would prefer to have a quarter to half of the posts on the first page be about the exact same problem?

At least then, it becomes your thread and doesn't follow the misleading title. Sound good?

Well then you're still doing good.