Installed 8600GTS - PC won't boot now

[AntiFreze]

My 7600GT died on me 2 weeks ago. So I switched to the cheap onboard video on my ECS motherboard. Once the 8600GTS arived, I plugged it in, reset resolution from 640x480 to my LCD's amx (1620x1250?)

I went and grabbed the newest drivers from nvidia for winXP 64-bit (whatever defaulted, i dont think beta drivers). Installed them, then was prompted for a reboot. After reboot, it wouldnt load.

It will get to the windows loading screen, then flashes a quick 1/2 second blue screen and reboots. This even happens in Safe Mode. I can have the card in, or have the card out with the onboard video hooked up.

Does anyone know how to fix it? My gaming machine is down, and I cant get it to boot anyway now...?

Please help...

 

[BassBomb]

Power supply?

Did you make sure to get the drivers for 8 series? If you are using regular XP, 64 bit drivers will not work. Also you should clean out the old drivers before upgrading

You are saying your onboard does not work with the 8600GTS removed?

 

[vanvock]

Did you plug in the power cable to the card?

 

[AntiFreze]

Yes, I got the 8 series drivers.

I am running WinXP x64, I downloaded the winXP x64 drivers.

I didnt clean out the old drivers, but i cant get back into windows to clean them out now.

The onboard video is now not working with the 8600GTS removed completely.

Yes I had power connected to the video card. It's own rail.

The PC still will not even boot up into safe mode.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

What is your power supply and it's rating? It could have blown when you installed the new card.

 

[AntiFreze]

well, it still is supplying power to start booting. It's a Cooler Master 430w atx12v. The box says it only requires a 350w PSU.

 

[BernardP]

Originally posted by: AntiFreze
My 7600GT died on me 2 weeks ago. So I switched to the cheap onboard video on my ECS motherboard. Once the 8600GTS arived, I plugged it in, reset resolution from 640x480 to my LCD's amx (1620x1250?)

I went and grabbed the newest drivers from nvidia for winXP 64-bit (whatever defaulted, i dont think beta drivers). Installed them, then was prompted for a reboot. After reboot, it wouldnt load.

I suggest youtake the card out and go back to integrated graphics. Find your monitor's true native resolution. It is certainly not 1620x1250. What is your monitor? Set the resolution at native.

Go to the NVidia web site to manually download the video driver:

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Do not use Windows built-in driver update function. Go into safe mode and uninstall the current driver. Reboot and install the new driver. Make sure everything works with onboard graphics.

Then

Go into BIOS and de-activate onboard video and choose discrete videocard (settings may vary, read the mobo manual).

Unplug everything and install the new videocard. Make sure to connect the PCI-E power connector on the card to the available plug from the PS. Your 7600GT didn't need this connector.

Start the computer and tell us how it works.

 

[Lorne]

There is a setting in safemode that will alow you to see and confirm everything that the system will do, Confirm and watch the names (most likely a nv*.dll of sort) When it BSOD.
Try to come up in a Command promp, I dont think safemode supports it anymore but you can do it with your WinXP32/64, Its in the repair section but dont let it do a repair, When you do get to the Command promp hunt that *.DLL down and delete it, Also a NVsvc32/64.exe.
This should let you come up in default gfx.
If this fails you can do the Repair off the WinXP, After the reinstall this will alow you to back things up you missed or Since everything is all still there but just not in the registry you will just have to reinstall your games again but your saves should still be there.

 

[AntiFreze]

With the 8600GTS plugged in the PC will not boot - not even in safe mode.

With the card taken out, and just the onboard video being hooked up the PC will not boot - not even in safe mode.

Both times I get a quick BSOD but too quick for me to read. Even if I set it to confirm each action, the PC acts like a normal safe mode boot with no y/n to each option. I'll try tossing in the WinXP x64 CD and try to get a command prompt to come up. How do I know what .DLL to delete?

The native resolution on the monitor is 1680 x 1050, I just set it to something high (which worked before the drivers were installed) so I could see everything. Is the resolution the problem? Would hooking up a different monitor (22" CRT") remedy the problem?

EDIT:

So I cannot get back into my PC but I think I know what caused this problem. I remember the drivers be 70mbs and I got the newest drivers from the nvidia site. The WinXP x64 drivers are 40MBs checking on the website. The option right underneath that is Windows Server 2003 x64 which is a 70mb download. I think I installed these drivers (stupid, stupid, stupid).

But I still cant get into my PC with the 8600GTS OR onboard video - even in safe mode to do anything about it.

 

[AntiFreze]

Plan when I get home:

Hook my HD up to my other PC as a slave. Hunt down the nv*.dll and NVsvc32/64.exe files and delete them. Remove the 8600gts. Plug HD back in. Try to boot up in WinXP x64. Remove all drivers 7600gt, 8600gt.... reboot....

Then download the correct drivers and see if that works. If not I'll just do a repair/format and start from scratch.

 

[Binky]

A repair/format seems a bit extreme at this point, unless you mean using the WinXP repair function (the second one) on the WinXP CD. Try this repair as the last resort before a reformat. Here's one of many guides on this: http://www.theeldergeek.com/replace_motherboard.htm

Also, I always make an image of the HD before I do something drastic and save this image on a portable HD. I often figure the problem out after i lose patience and wipe everything out. With an image, i can go back and fix the problem later when i figure it out.

 

[AntiFreze]

Originally posted by: Binky
A repair/format seems a bit extreme at this point, unless you mean using the WinXP repair function (the second one) on the WinXP CD. Try this repair as the last resort before a reformat. Here's one of many guides on this: http://www.theeldergeek.com/replace_motherboard.htm

Also, I always make an image of the HD before I do something drastic and save this image on a portable HD. I often figure the problem out after i lose patience and wipe everything out. With an image, i can go back and fix the problem later when i figure it out.

but when my PC won't even boot in safe mode, and I cant get to command prompt. i dont have many options... hopefully I can use my other pc to clean out the files.

 

[Binky]

If it boots at all, you can boot from the CD and do a repair on the windows installation.

 

[BassBomb]

What is the actual model of the psu? Telling us the wattage does not help at all.

I am guessing the power supply is not strong enough, wattage is not a good basis for compatibility

 

[AntiFreze]

do I need to back anything up then? will the repair do any kind of a format?

 

[AntiFreze]

CoolerMaster RS-430-PMSR

I thought that too. but why would the PC not boot with the card unplugged using just onboard video?

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: AntiFreze
CoolerMaster RS-430-PMSR

I thought that too. but why would the PC not boot with the card unplugged using just onboard video?

What motherboard do you have? If it's an nForce chipset board, it's probably trying to load the Windows 2003 Server x64 drivers.

 

[AntiFreze]

I have an ECS K8M890M-M (V1.0A).

So I decided to give up last night and just reformat. I had the card plugged in. I installed WinXP x64, good. I installed the 8600gts drivers via CD an rebooted, good. Installed WoW, good. Tried to install BC expansion - files dont match error. Tried patching WoW - files dont match. Tried installing service pack 2 online - files dont match error. Tried downloading and installed service pack 2 - files dont match error. Rebooted - AND then it went back into the BSOD error not allowing me to get into Windows or even into windows in safe mode.

Is the 8600gts not compatable with WinXP x64?

 

[Tempered81]

sounds like ram or hard disk errors. Try a different HDD, 1 stick of ram, memtest, or a chkdsk scan. Is your memory overclocked, or overvolted? and does your HDD have breathing room?

 

[AntiFreze]

plenty of room on the HDD, only have 1 stick of ram in there, nothing overclocked or overvolted. I dont have another HDD that I could format :/

The PC was running fine - 100% for about a year. 7600GT died so I returned it - ran perfect w/ onboard video for 2 weeks. The day I put the 8600gts in I get these problems. That seems to be the variable, not the HDD or ram

 

[Tempered81]

Originally posted by: AntiFreze
I have an ECS K8M890M-M (V1.0A).

So I decided to give up last night and just reformat. I had the card plugged in. I installed WinXP x64, good. I installed the 8600gts drivers via CD an rebooted, good. Installed WoW, good. Tried to install BC expansion - files dont match error. Tried patching WoW - files dont match. Tried installing service pack 2 online - files dont match error. Tried downloading and installed service pack 2 - files dont match error. Rebooted - AND then it went back into the BSOD error not allowing me to get into Windows or even into windows in safe mode.

Is the 8600gts not compatable with WinXP x64?

doesnt sound like video card to me.

 

[AntiFreze]

Originally posted by: jaredpace

Originally posted by: AntiFreze
I have an ECS K8M890M-M (V1.0A).

So I decided to give up last night and just reformat. I had the card plugged in. I installed WinXP x64, good. I installed the 8600gts drivers via CD an rebooted, good. Installed WoW, good. Tried to install BC expansion - files dont match error. Tried patching WoW - files dont match. Tried installing service pack 2 online - files dont match error. Tried downloading and installed service pack 2 - files dont match error. Rebooted - AND then it went back into the BSOD error not allowing me to get into Windows or even into windows in safe mode.

Is the 8600gts not compatable with WinXP x64?

doesnt sound like video card to me.

when I get home, ill try doing all of it with the onboard video. Then after everything is patched and go to go, I'll install my new video card.

It seems like once the video card is installed problems start popping up.

 

[AntiFreze]

could this be a faulty MB? could be the reason my video card died in under a year.

 

[AntiFreze]

So I formatted again (using the long NTSF one) and had the 8600 GTS in the PC. I got to the desktop after the format and there was an old MP3 in my recycle bin (wtf?). Anyways, I installed the chipset drivers, rebooted, installed video card driver (via CD), rebooted, Patched to service pack 2 (restarted), installed wow -> BC -> Patch -> Patch -> Patch, and was in play wow at 60fps maxed. The computer ran over night with no problems.

I do believe its working 100% now. I'm assuming this problem was my fault for just installing drivers to the 8600gts without taking care of the 7600gt drivers.