Problems with new GeForce GTX-260

gredhead · 01-21-2011, 10:23 AM

I put together a new system with a GeForce GTX 260, and the installation of Win7 froze with a black screen during installation. I put in a GeForce 8400, and did fresh installation to completion of win7.

I put the GTX 260 back in, booted fine, win7 said it had installed drivers for the gtx 260, and a restart was needed. On the restart, got to a black screen again. Its not "no signal" on the monitor, but an actively black screen.

The win7 install with the geforce 8400 was different from the point win7 said something like "optimizing display", so the fail point in the install was also probably related to the installation of the gtx 260 drivers.

Question: Is there possibly a problem with the win7 drivers for the gtx 260, could it be a problem with me not knowing the proper use of dual DVI connectors, or is it a bad gtx 260 card?

The 260 has two DVI's and I connect to the top DVI with a DVI/VGA adapter, then to the monitor. The 8400 has a special high density connector to a dual DVI pigtail, and again, I connect to one of those DVI's with a VGA adapter.

Would next step be to boot with 8400 in, install latest 260 drivers, shut down, install 260?

Also, here is a link to an earlier thread over in operating systems, when the problem first occurred:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthre...8#post31100588

Jaydip · 01-21-2011, 11:48 AM

Have you used the latest driver for your card?i would also suggest to use Driver Sweeper just in case.

bryanW1995 · 01-21-2011, 12:04 PM

He doesn't need driver sweeper, it was a fresh install with generic drivers.

@OP, download gtx 260 drivers from nv website, install the 260, boot into safe mode, install driver, then boot to windows. My gtx 260 works fine with win home premium x64. If that dowdy work test your ram, I've had issues install drivers in the past when I had either bad ram or a conflict Btwn mobo and ram. In fact, try installing the 260 with only one stick of ram, that could very well be your issue.

ValkyrAssassin · 01-21-2011, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bryanW1995

I've had issues install drivers in the past when I had either bad ram or a conflict Btwn mobo and ram. In fact, try installing the 260 with only one stick of ram, that could very well be your issue.

Why would the 8400 work with no problems though? Surely if it was anything else, then the problem would occur regardless.

gredhead · 01-21-2011, 03:09 PM

Ran two passes memory test from restore tools on win7 boot dvd, everything fine.

I downloaded latest driver from nvidia, dated 1/18/11. AND I see that it is the exact same driver file for both the gtx260 and the 8400. Have same situation - 8400 works fine, gtx260 ends up with black screen.

All the mobo express gate and boot spash screens are fine, all graphics fine, but the text screen that says "hit any key to boot from CD" is garbled.

I'm starting to guess the gtx260, although not DOA, was BOA (broken on arrival).

any other suggestions?

bryanW1995 · 01-21-2011, 03:25 PM

sounds like rma time to me.

zagood · 01-21-2011, 04:19 PM

Bad card or PSU.