Nvidia 9800gx2 card dead or Driver issue?

[Jock]

Hi Peeps, looking for some advice

 

To cut a long story short I updated my OS from Vista x64 to Win7 x64

Everything went smoothly Got Win7 up to date, then installed the Latest Driver for the 9800GX2, thats when things went pear shaped :S

PC would boot normally but when it got to the Starting Windows screen it would hang after 10 seconds http://codinghorror.typepad.com/.a/6a0120a85dcdae970b012877708f66970c-pi

and there it would stay, I could start in safe mode no Problem, but as soon as I updated the GFX driver, back to square one

I have tried every driver under the sun even the 304.79 BETA which claims " Fixed an issue that led to a black screen after driver installation. "

 

I have posted this question on another forum, but it kinda ended with advise on how Baking the card would fix it, now I have searched google, and indeed there are quite a lot of posts

concerning the baking of video cards to bring them back to life ( kinda does make sense ) But I am still not convinced, the card was working fine up untill changing the OS and installing

the new drivers, I still feel it is a driver issue, I then installed a GT430 into the same rig and that works fine apart from high end gaming is outta the window, I don't know anyone who

would willingly let me rip their system up, just so I can check the card in there

 

The stage I am at just now tho is that after 9 fekin days trying to remedy the problem, I took the card out and i dismantled it in a fit of Rage D:

She is now ready for Baking, but I am still dubious : S

what would you do??

 

To cook or not to cook, that is the question

 

or just reassemble the card and try again??

 

Cheers for any replys

Jock

[Waco]

Did you try using the older driver you were running before?

[Jock]

Did you try using the older driver you were running before?

 

 

Yes, still have the driver disc and tried them too, Basically went back and tried every driver i could find from the Nvidia website

I have also tried installing them after using Driver Sweeper for a clean install

 

forgot to add none of the capacitors look blown

Edited July 12, 2012 by Jock

[Waco]

It'd be odd for it to just die from an upgrade to 7...

 

Do you have your old install of Vista still or did you wipe out your drive to install 7? I just can't imagine it dying from a software upgrade especially if you didn't ever touch it physically.

[90sgamer]

I've been running a 9800 GTX on one of my older rigs, and haven't had any problems. I've never had an issue with any recent drivers, including the latest WHQL 301.42 on Windows 7 X64. Granted, its not a GX2, but I would bet I would have a problem too if it was a bug in the latest drivers. If the card were going bad, I'd expect you would have been experiencing artifacting in games and even the windows aero desktop before it just fails to boot.

 

At this point, I really don't have any other recommendations. I've never baked a card before, but some other people here have. Be careful if you do try it. Might end up fixed, might be bricked, but at this point that might be your only option apart from getting a new card.

Edited July 12, 2012 by 90sgamer

[Jock]

It'd be odd for it to just die from an upgrade to 7...

 

Do you have your old install of Vista still or did you wipe out your drive to install 7? I just can't imagine it dying from a software upgrade especially if you didn't ever touch it physically.

 

 

Yes Waco, I wiped the drive clean for installing win7, but then after this problem materialised, I also installed Vista onto another HDD and swapped Hard Drives from rig to try and rule out

Win7, same happened again well it wouldn't boot desktop, after starting windows, it would hang on a blank / black screen

Like I said, the PC boot's normally ( no beep warnings - nothing )but then just hangs at the point where the Log in or desktop would show

 

and yes your right, up until this point, the card had not physically been touched, I only removed it later to try the GT430

Edited July 12, 2012 by Jock

[Waco]

If it does it in Vista now too I'd suspect maybe something else is up...did you install your motherboard drivers the same as before?

[Jock]

Hi 90sGamer, yup, thats the confusing part, the card was working perfectly, never missed a beat, and there was definitely no artifacting on the screen,

 

Yeah, Waco, everything on the PC was updated to latest, I also cleared the CMOS

 

another thing I just remembered, the 9800gx2 showed up in Device manager, but checking with DirectX, it would not ?? safe mode

Edited July 12, 2012 by Jock

[Waco]

Hmm. I wouldn't bake it unless you're absolutely sure it's dead from overheating (which is pretty much the only thing that the oven trick will fix) and it's your last resort. I'd try to find a friend's machine to toss it into to see if it works.

 

 

Prior to installing the nVidia driver does the default Windows 7 driver work well? IE: 3D acceleration, aero, etc?

[Jock]

Hmm. I wouldn't bake it unless you're absolutely sure it's dead from overheating (which is pretty much the only thing that the oven trick will fix) and it's your last resort. I'd try to find a friend's machine to toss it into to see if it works.

 

 

Prior to installing the nVidia driver does the default Windows 7 driver work well? IE: 3D acceleration, aero, etc?

 

I'm can't quite remember now cause at this point my Brain was fried, I think Win7 standard VGA drivers were ok But settings were limited

and I'm sure vista device manager said there was a problem and Needed to update the Drivers

 

Basically with Windows drivers, yes, the screen was fine but I do a lot of online gaming and these drivers are no use for that,

 

It's an old card, Yes, but it's a Good card and took everything I threw at it, initially came on here for someone to tell me " DON'T do it !! "

Like you say, cooking the card is a last resort

Kinda wish I never dismantled it now :S

 

Well, I think I will give her one last try,

Right, screwdrivers, thermal paste, hmmm now where did I put the screw's ??

 

[IVIYTH0S]

Idk, I had a 9800GX2 a while ago and had nothing but driver issues and immediately switched to a 4870 512MB which had none. I'm not sure if I was running Win 7 yet or not (since it came out after the 4870) but I know I almost never buy cards when they are very new so there's a chance I was at least running the beta/RC if it was out by then since I started using it the second it was leaked. Then again I may have still had Vista too, but it just seems to be a chance that Win 7 just doesn't like it lol, though I never see people with 9800GT's and 9800GTX's in SLI having any issues (and 250GTS SLI by extension) with Win 7 so I'm not sure.

 

Best bet, if baking doesn't work, would be to run a small partition of Vista and see how it runs or improves

[Jock]

Cheers for that IVIYTHOS

 

but things have changed a bit now :S

this s doing my head in LOL

 

OK re-assembled the card and lo and behold it was still working but then we started running into problems again and I was getting a blue screen flashing up before rebooting

far too quick for me too read :S sitting here looking at the card in the tower, I then noticed that the rear, side and front fans of the Case were not working??

I shut down, double checked all connections, all were fine, I then changed out the card and inserted the GT430 expecting it to start normally

But it didn't I got the same 2 second flash of the blue screen again ( Unfortunately I have never been a fast reader ) this time i was prepared tho, and filmed it

 

sooo new question, 9800gx2 lights up the way it should etc, picture fine on screen while booting same with the GT430

now with the failure of three of the internal fans ( sure they were working when this all began)

 

could these be the symtoms of a failing PSU ???

 

here is the screen that kept flashing up