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Point of View 8800GTS

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jonemac

jonemac

jonemac

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Point of View 8800GTS - please help...

Hi all,

Am just building a machine for my father and I'm having dreadful graphics-related issues. Wondering if anyone here has any ideas?

The machine is based around an Asus P5 LD2 SE motherboard, with 2Gb of Kingston memory dual channelled and an Intel Core2Duo E6420 at 2.13Ghz. I'm not overclocking it at all, and Memtest has given the memory a clean bill of health. The graphics card is a Point of View 8800GTS 320Mb PCI-E.

When I install Vista (64-bit or 32-bit, it makes no difference) and allow Microsoft updates etc, it spots the 8800GTS and downloads new drivers from nVidia. (I have also tried to solve the following problem by installing the latest drivers from nVidia's website, incidentally).

However, it gives the machine a graphics rating of 1.0, thereby preventing any Aero niceties. Then when I go into the System Assessor, it recognises that the hardware has changed and offers to update. I say yes, but as soon as it starts to look at the system,, it gets to 'Aero Assessment' and dumps to a reboot.

The same thing happens when I try to run anything like 3DMark.

Now I know the P5LD2 is not the latest motherboard, but the processor seems happy enough, the memory is fine...

I've checked the advanced graphics card properties and when I do, it says the 320Mb Point of View has 256Mb of dedicated video memory and that it is sharing 766Mb of system memory, giving a total available graphics memory of 1022Mb! This seems a little strange to me - has anyone any ideas?

All suggestions gratefully received - I'm stumped and more than a little frustrated!

Jonemac
 
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That doesn't sound right at all. My X1900XT got a grade of over 5.0 IIRC.

Have you tried installing the graphics drivers FIRST after reformatting, and I'm sure you're installing the correct ones?
 
Boot in safe mode and use a driver cleaner to get rid of the old driver then reinstall the latest forceware drivers from Nvidia. My guess is there are driver conflicts.
 
Thanks. I am using the latest BIOS which claims to support the E6420 (even though it's one of Asus's older P5 boards). The drivers thing could be the best bet - nVidia's installer says it finds drivers and wants to remove them, then reboot and continue installation. And all of that seems to work fine. But perhaps there's some residual nonsense there that's clashing.

It does point to driver issues, not hardware issues, because the thing will sit there idling quite happily (case temp 36 degrees, processor 47-50 degrees) and stably. Until I try to do anything in 3D...
 
Okay, so last night I did a fresh install of Vista, not attached to the Internet so no automatic driver downloads. Vista sees the card as 'standard VGA graphics adapter', and the Aero Assessor - the whole System Assessor - runs fine.

Then I install the latest stable nVidia drivers from memory stick. Machine doesn't report any previous drivers, installs the new ones correctly, reboots to a higher resolution automatically. I hit the System Assessor again and it does exactly the same as before - gets to Aero Assessor and resets.

Has anyone any further ideas on this? My next line of attack is to install my old ATI graphics card in the machine and try the Aero Assessor, in an attempt to prove it's the 8800 GTS and not my motherboard. Does that make sense?

John
 
I don't suppose it could be the power supply unit by any chance? Is there enough output current on the +12V rail? I think the 8800 GTS requires a +12V rating of 26A.
 
That possibility did cross my mind. But how would I find out how many amps the gfx card is getting? And if it wasn't getting enough, would it still 'idle' and run the basic Windows stuff okay?

It's a Coolermaster Extreme Power 550W unit - should be enough, I'd have thought.

Thanks for the advice and any further help you can give!

John
 
if this was me i would first ,dont be connected to the net,then turn off user accounts/turn off vista malware
reboot after doing both,when vista restarts press F8,then chose
where it says something about unasigned drivers.
highlight that press enter.

reinstall the drivers(i am using 162 beta)

post back( sorry i am at work ant got vista in front of me)
 
jonemac said:
How do I turn off user accounts/vista malware?
Click to expand...

User Acount Protection?

Open start bar, type user account into search, click on "Turn User Account Control On or Off"
 
Thank you to all for your continued advice (and patience!). I remain convinced it's a driver thing. The only other real possibilities are that a) the motherboard just isn't Vista compatible enough b) the motherboard and the graphics card just won't get on or c) the graphics card has a hardware fault.

John
 
soz to here its still not working...

you could try xp just to see if its the card or not ?

or uninstall ya drivers ...reboot..install the drivers then reboot
only this time press F8 go into safe to let the drivers finish installin.
then reboot back to vista...

let us know what happens,so we can try and work this out..
 
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