In future, you should just use the "check integrity of the game cache" option, I think it checks the hashes of all the files and redownloads any that don't match.
fair enough, never really trusted that function, but i guess it's there for a reason. I suppose i wanted a 'from scratch' install there, for all the good it did
I would definately try updating the drivers on that partition and seeing if a particular driver set bricks the card again, If not then go ahead and do a reinstall of the os on the other partition and you should be good to go.
Few things can cause unstable os's such as a unstable overclock,dodgy driver,failing HDD,Sudden power off such as a power cut etc etc.
i would imagine the problem lies within the driver or the Direct X binaries. You could always also try to locate the cause of the problem. Uninstall all ati drivers, re-update direct x again (even tho you have already done it once)
Possiblity that the starcraft game also included a direct x runtime update that did not apply properly which caused it to fail in which event try restoring your computer to an earlier timeline to see what happens.
Good luck and keep us posted and what you decided to do and what happened
P:S did you find anything on that first picture after my anti virus found something?
Didnt find anything on the picture, so i think that was a false positive. Lost the link to the picture though so cant put it back up
I did as you suggested and installed Cats 10.4-10.7. Formed a little suite of programs to run:
- Crysis Directx 9 benchmark
- A Terran-heavy Starcraft 2 benchmark (seemed to be the race which caused the most graphical problems)
- A lap around the nurburgring in a DBR9 on GRID
All Cats checked out ok, no problems whatsoever. Definitely makes it the OS then
Having had time to think about it, I have an idea of what the problem might be: When I initially installed windows 7 64-bit, I had the problem that upon initially restarting to boot into the ending parts of the installation, the screen would go black. So I had to boot into a 'safe mode' installation and disable the display adapter, which would allow me to avoid the 'black screen of death' installation.
Since then, any time I uninstall drivers, the screen will go black when windows 7 64-bit switches to its own default graphics driver. This means that in order to restart, I had to 'guess' that the uninstallation was complete, then push the power button to shut the computer down. Then I have to boot up in safe mode to disable the adapter before I can actually go back into windows and install the new drivers.
Having uninstalled on 32-bit (where the default driver seems to work
), i think maybe i didnt wait long enough before shutting down, thus screwing up the driver
uninstallation. Only problem is I ran driver sweeper after every uninstall, so that maybe casts doubt on that theory..
After I re-install 64-bit windows, I'll try to write a little program that automatically disables the adapter when the driver uninstalls.
Anyway, long winded post over, I'll get it all re-installed and post back when (if?) it's all working again
