Needing help with 7300GT

[Baghr]

Hello all, this is my first posting here, and I'm hoping I can get some ideas on what my problem is.

I added my current system specs in my signature, so no need to go over that info.

The card was replacing an ATI all-in-wonder 9600 series AGP which had been in the system for the last four years, without probs. As I'm trying to breath some life into an older system, I picked up a Nvidia Ge Force 7300GT have run into to problems with it crashing and giving me a scrambled screen on occasion. It will throw an error code "THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER" after it crashes. I tried running the 3DMark 03 where it made it through the first portion of the test, but crashed getting to the second. I get an error message saying "NV4-Display Driver" I need to also point out its a new card which has been installed for about three days. I have never had the card "run right" at this point.

SO, I'm guessing its a driver issue I'm having. But, I've got the latest driver from both EVGA and Nvidia (169.21) loaded, and have had the 169.61 loaded with the same problems. I used Driver Cleaner Pro to get rid of any remnants of the previous driver before adding another one, so I dont think that an issue. I have the latest updates for my OS. Could this be a BIOS issue?

The card runs ok for surfing the web and such, its when I push it with a benchmark or a flight sim I have does it crash or give me a scrambled screen.

Any help getting me going in the right direction would be much appreciated.

 

[daveybrat]

Sounds like the card itself is bad. I used to have a bad FX5900XT that also worked fine in 2D mode but would exhibit horrible lockups and artifacts in 3D or gaming. Return the card.

 

[Baghr]

Thanks for the reply, I thought initially it was a power supply issue, but when replacing the PSU with a quality one I got the same codes. This is my first dealing with a bad vid card and wanted to make sure it was not operator error.

I'll wait a little longer for other replies, but I 'll get it returned if no one else has any ideas.

 

[daveybrat]

I too had thought i needed a better power supply when i had that issue, and replacing it had no effect on the card. Same crashing and artifacts.

The fact that your older 9600pro was working fine until you replaced it is a pretty sure thing that the 7300GT is bad.

 

[tebbybabes]

I don't know if this will help, but I've recently had the very same problem. I went ahead and got myself a 7300GT AGP card for a +4 year old PC I was resurrecting. Got everything put together and anything in 2D worked peachy fine. Unfortunately, anything in 3D caused terrible crashes. At first, I thought it was my PSU as well, but after getting an uprated 550W PSU, I started having my doubts when the crashes wouldn't go away. Searched around the net for 2 whole frustrating days. In the end, stumbled upon the particular solution to my problem in an message board post.

In my case, I had to change my AGP driving strength values. P value was set at 9 and N value was set at 7. Made a heap of difference. I've only been playing around with the setup for a few hours, but, [crossing my fingers here], haven't had a 3D related crash yet.

Just in case this might work for any of you fellows, just thought I'd share.