Replaced failed graphics card, now Windows 7 slow (almost unusable)

[Painterh52]

Hello everyone;
I am trying to figure out what to do. My 7 year old homebuilt computer recently had a graphics card failure. My specs are as follows:
MB - Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe (939 platform)
Processor - AMD Opteron 170
Memory - 3 GB Corsair XMS DDR
Power Supply - Antec NeoPower 500 watt
Graphics - (old) Asus Geforce 7600 GS
(new) PNY GT 620
Drives- 1 DVDRW drive
2 Seagate Barricuda 160 GB hard drives: ( Windows 7 Pro 64bit on one Ubuntu 12.04 on the other)

My issues: After installing new card, my system wont boot into Windows 7x64. It will get as far as the animated windows logo but will go no further. When I try 'safe mode', it loads into windows but is so slow to respond to any user input, it is impossible to try to track down the problem. This a dual-boot system, with Windows 7 on one hard drive, and Ubuntu on the other. Ubuntu boots just fine but Windows does not. If anyone has any ideas as to what might have happened, or any suggestions as to what to try, It would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance

 

[Ketchup]

If you haven't done so already, go ahead and replace the video drivers with a newer version.

 

[Painterh52]

If you haven't done so already, go ahead and replace the video drivers with a newer version.

That is a great idea, however, I can't even get windows to run in safe mode. When I bring up task manager (in safe mode), I notice that the CPU is being utilized 100%. It looks like about half is being consumed by windows explorer and the other is being consumed by system.that's why I said it is almost unusable.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

It sounds like something was dislodged or damaged when you replaced the GPU.

 

[Painterh52]

Then why does Ubuntu boot up just fine using the same hardware?

 

[postmortemIA]

Then why does Ubuntu boot up just fine using the same hardware?

great if it does. remove drivers from win 7 partition using ubuntu. you should investigate what constitute drivers (dlls and sys files) then try to boot again. no drivers = windows will use standard vga adapter.

 

[Painterh52]

great if it does. remove drivers from win 7 partition using ubuntu. you should investigate what constitute drivers (dlls and sys files) then try to boot again. no drivers = windows will use standard vga adapter.

I'll try that. When I locate the drivers, what the best method for removing them using Ubuntu?. Windows and Linux sometimes don't play well together. I don't want to be left with some files that windows can't recognize (such as when I just delete them using). Will that be a problem?

 

[postmortemIA]

I'll try that. When I locate the drivers, what the best method for removing them using Ubuntu?. Windows and Linux sometimes don't play well together. I don't want to be left with some files that windows can't recognize (such as when I just delete them using). Will that be a problem?

1. Make backup copy of files, along with their original location
2. Just delete the files once you gain write privileges. Afaik, it shouldn't be many files: inf file and sys file should be enough.

 

[Painterh52]

Hello again;
I got hold of a Hirens boot cd and am booting into Mini XP from that cd. When I browse my Windows 7 hard drive and go to the system 32/driver store folder, I see a lot of folders with rather criptic names (I'm assuming my graphics driver is in one of these folders), how do I know which drivers to delete? Also, what happens if I delete the wrong drivers?

Another question is: could there be a problem with my Windows boot disk, because it seems that even when booted into safe mode, every process takes a very long time to complete. It takes at least ten minutes to boot up into safe mode and see my desktop icons and the windows help and support window. It also seems that task manager is showing 100% cpu utilization even in safe mode, which makes it impossible to accomplish anything in the way of diagnostic or repair.

 

[Steltek]

Hello again;
I got hold of a Hirens boot cd and am booting into Mini XP from that cd. When I browse my Windows 7 hard drive and go to the system 32/driver store folder, I see a lot of folders with rather criptic names (I'm assuming my graphics driver is in one of these folders), how do I know which drivers to delete? Also, what happens if I delete the wrong drivers?

Another question is: could there be a problem with my Windows boot disk, because it seems that even when booted into safe mode, every process takes a very long time to complete. It takes at least ten minutes to boot up into safe mode and see my desktop icons and the windows help and support window. It also seems that task manager is showing 100% cpu utilization even in safe mode, which makes it impossible to accomplish anything in the way of diagnostic or repair.

It would be worth testing the hard drive before you start trying to delete driver files. You can download a diagnostic utility (usually in bootable ISO form) from the hard drive manufacturer website which you can burn to a CD (or use to create a bootable flash drive) to use to boot the machine and test the hard drive status.

If the hard drive checks out OK, I'd do a google search on how to manually remove nVidia drivers. Here is a guide that I had saved at one time, though I don't know if it will work for your situation.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1150443/how-to-remove-your-nvidia-gpu-drivers

 

[Painterh52]

Here's another twist. While browsing with Ubuntu this morning, I got the idea to check the sysinfo that Ubuntu was reporting. Right off the bat I noticed that my 2 ghz Opteron processor was being reported as 1590 megahertz. I don't know if this a processor problem or motherboard. Either way, I'm starting to feel driven to retire this 7 year old hardware, and start buying the parts for a complete upgrade. If anybody has any good ideas of what may have happened, please throw it out there.

 

[Steltek]

Here's another twist. While browsing with Ubuntu this morning, I got the idea to check the sysinfo that Ubuntu was reporting. Right off the bat I noticed that my 2 ghz Opteron processor was being reported as 1590 megahertz. I don't know if this a processor problem or motherboard. Either way, I'm starting to feel driven to retire this 7 year old hardware, and start buying the parts for a complete upgrade. If anybody has any good ideas of what may have happened, please throw it out there.

You definitely could have a motherboard fault, especially with a board that old. Were it me, I'd try that "failed" video card in another system to see if it was truly defective or not. It might also be worth swapping out the power supply in the event the system isn't getting enough juice.

 

[postmortemIA]

open source software with no warranty clause also mean you can't expect it to work right ... always or ever.

And for driver files, nvidia control panel reports them under System Information, Components.

 

[VirtualLarry]

open source software with no warranty clause also mean you can't expect it to work right ... always or ever.

Is that supposed to be some thinly-veiled dig at open source software? You must be trolling, because every commercial software package that I've installed that displays a EULA, Always disclaims every and all warranties.

And unlike commercial software, which is generally designed, not to be bug-free, but simply good enough to extract money from your pocket, open-source software generally is designed to operate correctly, meaning, they listen to and act on bug reports.

 

[postmortemIA]

Is that supposed to be some thinly-veiled dig at open source software? You must be trolling, because every commercial software package that I've installed that displays a EULA, Always disclaims every and all warranties.

And unlike commercial software, which is generally designed, not to be bug-free, but simply good enough to extract money from your pocket, open-source software generally is designed to operate correctly, meaning, they listen to and act on bug reports.

Ideally, yes they fix bugs. But in reality working on the new features is more fun. So many bugs are deemed not important; and never get fixed. I got nothing against open source, just that quality of software in linux distributions isn't the greatest. Just that it is questionable that CPU speed is reported correctly for a fairly old CPU.

 

[Painterh52]

Ok guys, I can see that sometimes you have to just agree to disagree. I feel pretty stupid right now. Apparently, after one of the system crashes, the cmos was reset and when I set up the bios again, I didn't notice that the cpu multiplier was set wrong. Hence the low cpu reading. The multiplier was set on 6 instead of 10 (which is what I had it set on previously). Sorry for the (my) confusion. I set the multiplier back to 10 and at least that issue is gone. They say that there are 3 things that show that you are getting old. First the libido goes, then the memory, and I can't remember the third. LOL

 

[ArmyVet88]

Ok guys, I can see that sometimes you have to just agree to disagree. I feel pretty stupid right now. Apparently, after one of the system crashes, the cmos was reset and when I set up the bios again, I didn't notice that the cpu multiplier was set wrong. Hence the low cpu reading. The multiplier was set on 6 instead of 10 (which is what I had it set on previously). Sorry for the (my) confusion. I set the multiplier back to 10 and at least that issue is gone. They say that there are 3 things that show that you are getting old. First the libido goes, then the memory, and I can't remember the third. LOL

HAHAH to epic man. Glad you found the problem. Gotta love the internet