Vista Ultimate 64-bit OEM Install Problem

[Thraxen]

OK, I'm trying to get a new computer up and running. It's got a Q6600 on an ASUS P5E motherboard with an EVGA 8800GT video card. I also have a single stick of 2 GB of RAM currently in the system. I have a second 2 GB stick, but only put one in for now until I got the problems ironed out. The system also has two 500 GB SATA drives installed and a SATA DVD burner.

I went into the BIOS and the motherboard sees all the hardware and temperatures appear to be fine. I set the boot priority for the DVD drive first and the SATA hard drive second. Upon restarting it starts the boots off of the Vista Ultimate disc and I see the "Windows is loading files" progress bar. After a few seconds I then see the little green loading bar. After a few second if the second bar the screen goes black and the monitor gives the message to "Check Signal Cable". That's it. I can't see anything from that point.

I'm wondering if this has to do with the monitor itself? Because I originally had it connected via DVI and couldn't even see the POST. But when I put a VGA adapter on the cable and used the VGA input on the monitor I could then see the video up until the point I just described. I tried switching it back to the DVI input, but I still don't see anything.

Any ideas?

 

[Cutthroat]

I had a similar problem once with a Viewsonic LCD, sometimes after I installed a driver as windows would load the screen would go black. Sometimes it was DVI only, and sometimes DVI and VGA. But it always worked in safe mode, so it was fine with just the VGA driver. I found a solution, this might sound odd but it's easy to try. Just unplug the monitor from the wall and the video card, I left it unplugged for a few minutes. I think in my case the EDID was messed up and that reset it, don't really know but it worked.

 

[Thraxen]

Well, I'm still having issues...

I used an old PCI video card I had laying around and it worked fine. I was able to get Vista installed as well as update the motherboard BIOS to the latest version (for some reason I couldn't see the BIOS flashing utility screen with the EVGA card either).

So I put the EVGA card back in and I can see the POST screen and then the Vista loading screen with the green progress bar, but as soon as Vista attempts to switch to the desktop I lose video. I've tried both the VGA and DVI inputs on my LCD monitor as well as tried a CRT monitor... both monitors lose their video signal at the same point. I also tried the card in both of the PCI-E x16 slots on the motherboard. Nothing works.

And, yes, I have the PCI-E power supply plugged in. I'm using a 620HX Corsair PSU so I should have plenty of juice. I even tried both of the PCI-E power plugs on the PSU.

I simply can't seem to get this card to output any video beyond the initial POST and Windows loading screens and am at a loss on what to do. So it this card DOA or is this some sort of issue with the motherboard?

 

[boomerang]

I had similar issues with an EVGA 7900GT. After some good advice here, I called EVGA and they sent me an RMA replacement. The BIOS upgrade they sent first did not fix the problem.

I find it hard to believe that an 8800GT has Vista problems, but my 7900GT did.

I would call them.

 

[badnewcastle]

Did you check your ram voltages? I had to up mine to get it to boot as I had some other problems but similar to yours where it would hang or take forever... I upped my ram voltages (for some reason if left on auto it was undervolted...). After that it seemed to install ok.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: badnewcastle
Did you check your ram voltages?

I upped my ram voltages (for some reason if left on auto it was undervolted...). After that it seemed to install ok.

I commented on memory settings, in another thread, but might as well do it here too - with a little different twist...

I digress - XP Pro instead of Vista this time:

On the topic of default RAM settings in BIOS, we built a ASUS P5K-E/WiFi-AP machine last weekend, and it wouldn't even boot with OCZ memory sticks. However, it booted with Corsair sticks. We *assumed* the OCZ sticks were bad, but...

It turned out that this ASUS mobo defaulted to 1.8v, but the OCZ memory required 2.1v - a huge difference!

The trick was to install the Corsair memory, specify the correct voltage and timing in BIOS, then reinstall the OCZ.

Anyway, yes, make sure the memory settings in BIOS match the specs of your particular RAM sticks, otherwise you'll experience all sorts of odd behavior...