GeForce 3 Ti200 XP Driver Major Problems

[IanthePez]

I just got a GainWind GeForce 3 Ti200 for Christmas today!! I was very excited unitl I tried to use it. I first installed the default drivers that came on the cd with the board. That went well until I tried to run a game. My monitor went to standby and never came out. Happened on three games: Serious Sam, Worms: Armageddon, and Kings Quest 8, all of which use different video modes to run if I recall. Anyway, they all do the same thing. So, I headed to the nvidia website to get the latest drivers. I download the win2k/xp 23.11 Detonator and install it. After I restart my computer does one of two things. Either it restarts right before the XP menu loads, or if the menu loads and I click on my profile, it freezes as soon as it starts to load. I went back to the last known good config before the new drivers were installed and it worked ok. I tried the new drivers one more time for luck and the same thing happened. I have no idea what drivers to use and I really really would like to be able to do something on my computer again. Any help would be wonderful. Thanks

Edit: I tried to run Serious Sam in safe mode and it still won't start up!! I have no idea what to do.

 

[IanthePez]

I've heard some people have been having trouble with the 23.11 drivers under XP so maybe that has something to do with it. Where can I get older nvidia drivers to test out?

 

[Bovinicus]

Try www.3dchipset.com, they usually have a pretty good selection of drivers. The last official drivers from NVIDIA were the 21.83's I believe. Good luck.

 

[Challenger]

I had the same problem with the same card in my son's system,it seems to me that it was a driver conflict.WHat I mean by that is when I took the 3DFX card out I hadn't completely removed all and I mean all of the files associated with the Voodoo card.You will have to search Windows system file and the registry completely.Hope this helps!

 

[IanthePez]

I did have a Voodoo 3 installed before this card. I thought I had all the files removed but I could be very wrong. Anyone know someone that shows me how to find the files left from it? I got all the obvious ones I believe. Thanks

 

[imgod2u]

It's usually never a good idea to replace one hardware with another without a clean install. However, in safe mode, there may still be ghost drivers. You might wanna remove those and see if they work. My best suggestion is still a clean install, that's always the best option. Partition part of your drive (if you only have one) and put all your backup files there, then format the main and install a clean copy of XP with all your most current hardware. It's just good practice.

 

[BatmanNate]

I had similar problems using the 23.11's, so I reverted to the 21.88's.

 

[Leon]

Unfortunately, I think you bought one of the early batches, the one with refresh rate problem (defauts 5-6Hz higher than it is set). No all monitors support 80 or 90 refresh, which could cause problem. Few other members here confirmed this problem.

Gainward fixed the problem since.

It could also be a problem with the drivers. Try 21.88 reference Detonators, and make sure you completely remove 3dfx from system folder and registry. Also, reinstalling the games might help.

Good luck man

p.s. If all else fails, format time

 

[The Sauce]

I have the Gainward card and had the exact same problem...try the following. Go into the control panel and and choose to reinstall the driver. Select the generic Windows GeForce3 WDM Driver and reboot. See if the problem goes away (it did for me). However, this is a sucky driver so go back and install 23.11 and it should work ok...at least that's what worked for me. I justs went through that last night.

There must be a major problem with the driver that ships with the Gainward boards cause it completely hosed my system, just like yours, until I put in the generic driver and then reinstalled 23.11 over it as above. Give it a try.

 

[Workin']

Uninstall the Gainward Expert Tool if you have that in there. I have had the best luck with nvidia's 22.50 drivers - the 23.xx's ignore your vsync settings for Direct3D, which is not acceptable.

 

[14fritz]

I have this exact same problem! Except I have a Visiontek GF3 Ti 200. I did a clean install with XP and installed the 23.11. They work fine except in NHL 2002, FIFA 2002, and Madden 2002 the menus and sometimes the games the video is all messed up. Images on top of each other, ghosting, random color streaks, etc.
So I uninstalled 23.11 and tried 21.88 and a couple of other Nvidia drivers. All of the other drivers would lock the computer like IanthePez described. So the only way I can actually have a stable system is with the 23.11 but then I have corrupted video in games.

How can I completely remove 23.11 from XP? Or am I stuck until new drivers are released?

 

[murphy55d]

21.83 are by far the best and most stable drivers so far. 2250 and 2311 are both garbage.

I have a Gainward GF3 Ti200 and neither of those sets work, but 21.83 run like a charm .you can get them at Reactor Critical

 

[billyjak]

Yes I found the 21.83's to be the best on my system too, running a visiontek card GF3

 

[Workin']

<< 21.83 are by far the best and most stable drivers so far. 2250 and 2311 are both garbage. >>

funny, 22.50's work lots better than 21.83's for me.

 

[IanthePez]

I tried using default windows driver and then the 21.83's on my system and it almost worked When I run a game the monitor flashes like it's changing video modes a lot and then says it can't find a display mode. Not sure exactly what that means is wrong. Tonight I am simply going to format and go from there. That should get rid of all the old drivers and let me start fresh.

 

[yipperzz]

i had problems with 23.11 drivers on windows 98se. but that was because i had ati drivers left over. i reformatted and still had problems. but once i put in xp, it solved everything. i reformatted everything though.

 

[The Sauce]

Reading through here I decided to try going down to the 22.83's as suggested and my 3dmark 2001 scores dropped about 300 points. Went back to 23.11 - have had no problems with them yet.