eVGA 8800GT + Forceware + Vista 64-bit Home Premium

[MoreCowBell]

After much testing and reinstalling, i narrowed the problem i have down to the Forceware drivers.

In short, i upgraded from an 8600GTS (running on 158 forceware drivers) to an 8800GT just last week. When i upgraded the drivers to 169.25, anytime i played music, movies or a game the sound would slowdown and almost stop, as if it was running in slowmotion and it would skip horribly. 3dmark06 would also run slower (by at least 10fps) then my 8600GTS did.

After much headache and puzzle solving, i reinstalled Vista.
Upon reinstall, i only left my Video Card plugged in (took out the audio card) and installed just the forceware drivers. Upon reboot, the problem was still happen.
So i uninstalled the Forceware drivers and used Windows generic VGA driver. Music and Movies worked great (cant run 3dmark06 though, ad the generic drivers arent 3d capable).

I then installed my audio card and updated every other drivers, except the video card. I also updated the mobo and video card BIOS.
Still didnt have a problem.
I then downloaded newer forceware drivers from eVGA's website (169.32) and upon install, the problem came back.
Uninstalled the drivers and the problem was gone.


At this point i am p*ssed off.
So i uninstalled the 8800GT and reinstalled the 8600GTS. Installed the newest 8600GTS drivers (169.25) and rebooted.......AND THE PROBLEM STILL HAPPENED.
So it is not a graphics card problem.


The point i am at now is i reinstalled my 8800GT and installed the newest eVGA/Nvidia drivers, 169.32.
The problem is still apparent, but i figure ill keep trying at a solution.


If it is of relevance, i was playing around in RivaTuner and the Nvidia Control Panel, and everytime i try to change 'Digital Vibrance' the settings change for 1 second then go back to default. All the other color settings work fine, but 'Digital Vibrance' will only work for 1 second then revert to default.



Does anyone have any insight?
I posted on the Nvidia forums, but no one there is helping me.
Please, help!

 

[Apocalypse23]

Try doing an uninstall of all your video card drivers and do a fresh install of the new ones. Is your psu's additional pci e connector plugged in the vid card properly? What are your system specs?

 

[vanvock]

Run driver cleaner & try the whql set, the 21's I think.

 

[MoreCowBell]

System Specs:

Core 2 Duo 6750
Gigabyte GA965P DS3
8GB PC6400 DDR2 RAM
eVGA 8800GT
HT Striker 7.1 Sound Card
Seagate 320GB STAT2 Hard Drive
Seasonic 550w S-12 PSU

Yes, the PCI-e power connector is plugged in.


Yes, i have already installed and uninstalled (using driver cleaner for every uninstall) every driver i can find.
The last drivers i ever used before i got this 8800GT were the Forceware 158's. Those worked great with Vista 64-bit. Nothing else seems to be working so far.

 

[vanvock]

Are you sure you're getting the correct version, not XP 64?

 

[MoreCowBell]

Yes. Positive.

Besides, i even tried downloading the XP64 version (because im that desperate) and it doesnt even install because its for XP and im running Vista.
So i know thats not the case

 

[MoreCowBell]

Hahaha......found yet another clue.

Get this......if i go to Appearance Settings and set it to Vista Classic and then play music, the problem stays the same.
But if i set it to Windows Aero and play music, it still skips but not as badly (whereas before it would slowdown to the point of almost stopping)

Am i getting somewhere?


Also, in RivaTuner Diagnostics it says my card is running at a PCI Bus Width of 1x out of 16x.
Could this be the problem?
How do i fix it (there is no option to change it that i know of in my BIOS)?

 

[vanvock]

Look in motherboard forum, I've seen posts regarding that prob but don't recall the fix, sorry

 

[MoreCowBell]

I FIXED IT!!!

O MY GOSH, I FIXED IT!!

It was because the PCI Bus Width was running at 1x.
Went into my BIOS, turned the Graphics Booster up to Turbo setting (which opens up the bus width) and voila....runs at 16x and no more sound skipping.
Going to run 3dmark06 and confirm.

YES!!!!

 

[vanvock]

Good job!

 

[Puffnstuff]

If you're interested evga has released new bioses for their g92 cards.

 

[vanvock]

I bumped up to the 62.92.24, is that the one you're refering to?

 

[taltamir]

mmm, that is interesting effect to occur. the only reason the video card PCIe slot will be running in 1x is due to bug in the motherboard bios.

http://tw.giga-byte.com/Suppor...el.aspx?ProductID=2314
Notice version five of your motherbaord's bios:
1. Fix Memory compatibility issues
2. Fix some GFX card compatibility issues

There you have it, you must have a bios prior to v5. By manually settings the pcie bandwidth you have worked around this bug, I would still highly recommend you update to the latest bios for your mobo.
And while you are at it, the latest bios for the video card as well (mobo first though!)

Also make sure you have the latest mobo drivers as well.

PS. Mobo = motherboard

 

[MoreCowBell]

Originally posted by: taltamir
mmm, that is interesting effect to occur. the only reason the video card PCIe slot will be running in 1x is due to bug in the motherboard bios.

http://tw.giga-byte.com/Suppor...el.aspx?ProductID=2314
Notice version five of your motherbaord's bios:
1. Fix Memory compatibility issues
2. Fix some GFX card compatibility issues

There you have it, you must have a bios prior to v5. By manually settings the pcie bandwidth you have worked around this bug, I would still highly recommend you update to the latest bios for your mobo.
And while you are at it, the latest bios for the video card as well (mobo first though!)

Also make sure you have the latest mobo drivers as well.

PS. Mobo = motherboard

Not to bring back a dead topic but my Mobo and Video Card BIOS are/were both up to date when this problem happened, so updating them to the current ones wouldnt help, as i am running the current ones for each.

From reading around, it appears that the problem came about because, even though PCI-E 2.0 cards work on 1.0 PCI-E slots, they can still have problems.
And since my mobo is PCI-E 1.0 and the card is 2.0, i ended up having a problem.

The solution that i used to solve the problem is a solution that others have used as well.

 

[taltamir]

I see, they specifically said they fixed a similar problem that was in earlier bios, so i assumed it was that.
I still stand by my claim that this is a bios issue.
They could make a newer bios that fixes this issue by making their mobo play nice with pcie2 cards. But they probably never will since its an older product. So using a workaround to solve the problem (by setting it manually) works best.