Novatech GTX 275 Problems

[shuurajou]

Hi All,

Picked up a Novatech GTX 275 today.

It is replacing 2 Leadtek 8800 GTXs which were running in SLI.

This on an ASUS P5N-T motherboard (780i nForce).

Processor is a wofldale E8400.

8gb of OCZ DDR2 PC2-8500 REAPER HPC running at 1066mhz.

My system has been stable and fine until I installed the GTX 275 today. Currently, games will boot and then freeze and often produce BSOD.

If I try to run a windows experience assessment it hangs and then cancelled itself as it says it took too long.

I'm running the latest 190.62 WHQL drivers.

The only error that seems to coincide with the stalls in my event viewer is..

A request to the device has been cancelled.

Device: \Device\RaidPort0

Log Name: System
System: nvstor64
Event ID: 8
Level: Warning

I have been able to get into a game once or twice. The only game I could do that with is in Arma 2 but in the background the textures were very blank and the polygons seemed half generated - it then froze almost immediately. I know Arma 2 has bugs however I've had no issues until now.

All nForce & GeForce drivers have been uninstalled and wiped with driver cleaner in safe mode.

What can I do?

[scrivz69]

Did you uninstall the previous drivers before you intalled the new card.Nvidia driver are so hit and miss at the moment on the 200 cards.

[cje]

Did you uninstall the previous drivers before you intalled the new card.Nvidia driver are so hit and miss at the moment on the 200 cards.

Agree. I had big problems with 190.38 drivers with my 2 cards. Not a fault of the cards, just bad drivers, because they both are fine on 182.50's now. Try 186.xx or 185 drivers. Go to beta and archived drivers on the nvidia site. Try those out and let us know mate.

[shuurajou]

Honestly, I just pulled out the cards and put the new one in thinking it'd auto-install as the right drivers were already there. Where do you suggest I go from here?

Edit: Hi cje, thanks for your input, that's really valueable information. I'll see if I can make that work now. Will get hold of the older drivers.

[scrivz69]

http://downloads.guru3d.com/

Hope it helps you out.

[cje]

Honestly, I just pulled out the cards and put the new one in thinking it'd auto-install as the right drivers were already there. Where do you suggest I go from here?

Edit: Hi cje, thanks for your input, that's really valueable information. I'll see if I can make that work now. Will get hold of the older drivers.

Sounds like the problem might be that then.

I would suggest you put the 275 back in, then:

-Boot into normal mode. Control Panel > Add/remove programs > Uninstall nvidia display driver.
-Reboot (when it tells you). Windows will automatically install generic display drivers. Don't worry, let it go through it's motions.
-Download driver sweeper from http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/
-Download older drivers, I think 185's were fine with the GTX 275. http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-uk (OR, you can use the link scrivz gave you and find them yourself).
-Install Driver Sweeper.
-Reboot into safe mode.
-Run driver sweeper as admin and clean nvidia display files. (Some people do not think this step is neccesary, but myself I think it does do SOME good at least).
-Reboot into normal mode.
-Install nvidia Display drivers (you downloaded them earlier. Some people suggest also disabling any anti virus programs here, but myself I don't bother with Kaspersky).

NOTE: I am assuming you have vista, if you have XP I'm sure you'll know what instructions to vary a bit.

I hope this helps you.

[shuurajou]

Hmmm - uninstalled the 190's and installed the 186's, tried to run the windows experience tester and got BSOD

STOP: 0x000000F4.

I did also get this experience (ho ho) with the 190 drivers (again, not with the 8800s). I'll see if I can reinstall my nForce drivers.

It's almost as if this GFX card is conflicting with the SATA drivers on the system.

[scrivz69]

It will help to post your system hardware mate.It will the clever guys on here to hopefully sort this out,and what version of windows your running.

[shuurajou]

Specs are...

GFX: Novatech (Palit) GeForce GTX 275 (was 2x Leadtek 8800 GTX in SLI)
Sound: X-Fi Fatal1ty
Mobo: ASUS P5N-T Deluxe (BIOS 1303)
CPU: Woldfale E8400 Intel Core 2 Duo
Cooler: Tuniq Tower 120 (on the CPU)
Case: Cosmos S
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural 4000
Mouse: Razer Diamondback
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit RC Build 7100
RAM: OCZ Reaper HPC 8GB (4x2GB) DDR2 PC-8500C5 @ 1066MHz
Display: Dell 2005FPW
PSU: Hiper Type M 880W

Everything is stock speeds.

Unfortunately DX Diag is too big to paste here.

Ok so steps followed this time around...

>In normal mode... uninstalled all drivers for, GeForce, nForce & PhysX via the nVidia software.
>Rebooted into safe mode. Cleaned chipset, physx & display drivers in driver cleaner.
>Rebooted into normal mode.
>Installed nForce 15.35 WHQL. Selected SMU, Ethernet & Storage drivers.
>Rebooted (normal).
>Installed GeForce 186.18 WHQL.
>Rebooted (normal).

I've reseated the card several times and tried all possible power cables from the PSU available.

Sadly still not working. My system has been stable and without issue before the 275.

I have also cleared my CMOS FYI.

Update: Formatted my computer and installed the release version of Windows 7 ultimate from technet - it won't get past the 'testing video performance' part of the setup and then hangs. So my PC is now a doorstop for the time being. I've done everything I can think of. Seems the card is either faulty or incompatible.

[cje]

Sounds like a problem with the storage drivers mate. Are you using a RAID array? Was the windows 7 a clean install?

I re-read your first post and read the bit "nvstor64". This is a storage driver. The problem doesn't seem related to your new GTX 275.

[Andrew Moore]

remove all drivers and install 186.25. Its in the archive! The new 190 drivers are horrendous! Just think youself lucky you arnt running sli with that card, the 190 drivers are system killers if your unlucky enough to have all the correct variables to cause issues (which by the counds of it you do).

Andy

[shuurajou]

Hi,

I also thought it sounded like an issue with the storage drivers but never had any issues with my 8800 GTXs in SLI.

I'm not using a RAID array - there is only one HDD in at the moment.

My original windows 7 RC install was pretty much fresh I'd only installed a few games and messed with nothing else.

Last night I formatted and started from scratch with a Windows 7 ultimate final build (not RC) and it won't get past the 'testing video performance' part of the installation. I'd guess that this part of the installation is similar to the first step in the 'windows experience assessment' done in Vista & Windows 7, and on my system won't even get past the first step (direct 3d aero test) without blue screening. Hence, during a fresh initial installation, it freezes when doing the same kind of assessment.

When I did get one game to load up before crashing almost instantly (read: 2-3 seconds) the graphics were really odd, see the screenshot below.

So I wasn't able to get it working without BSOD with 190.56, 190.36, 186.18 & now I've formatted so can't get it to run at all as it won't complete the installation. I'll reinstall my 8800 GTXs and I suspect, that they'll work just fine again...

http://www.kirkwatts.com/photos/627208845_BCG9C-L.jpg

[shuurajou]

As expected. I reinserted my my 2 880GTXs and now have no issues.

I think the card is either faulty or incompatible - I guess I'll try and contact Novatech tomorrow.

[UKGouki]

sounds like a faulty card stop code is linked to video memory error did you also get "page file not in paged area" or "device stuck in infinite loop" ?

in your bios set Plug"n"play OS to yes and PCi video to PCI:E double check both 6pin PCI:E power connectors are in correctly and your hdd is in sata port 0 if you still cant get the card to work or any of the above notice's came up in the bsod the latter one means teh card is completly faulty and will need replacing as the vram is corrupted or video bios is conflicting with the op systems IRQ set..

[cje]

When you do get the faulty card replaced, remeber to install it with 186 drivvers straight off. Do not bother with any of the later ones. Hope it'll turn out ok for you.

[shuurajou]

Thanks all. At the moment I'm running with my 8800 GTXs in SLI again just so I can install Windows and have my computer up and running. I'll contact Novatech tomorrow and see if they'll let me come by for a swap out (I live in Bristol and their Portishead store is 30 minutes away so I'll just drive out there).

Considering asking for the BFG version though as I know Palit have done their own version of the stock GTX 275 which may be a potential reason for incompatibility.

[cje]

Different manufacturers should not cause incompatability. It doesn't matter who makes the card, the bottom line is, it should work. I can reccomend BFG over Palit for one sole reason though, and that is warranty RMA. If a BFG card does break, they have an excellent RMA service, very quick.

Let us know how you get on mate.

[shuurajou]

Well, I called up technical support at Novatech and explained the steps I've went through. The chap was very knowledgeable and understood everything I was relaying. His view was that the card is faulty and has arranged for me to be able to return it to the store in Bristol.

I've also ordered a BFG 285 OCX GTX. I hear BFG cards are very stable, and as pointed out in this thread, have a good RMA process if things go wrong. This also gives me a better chance to avoid compatability issues if these happened to be the root cause.

My only little concern is my PSU. It's been running two Leadtek 8800 GTXs on SLI without issues so I'm hoping that it should be able to power one 285 OCX GTX from BFG.

The PSU is a Hiper Type M 880W.

Do you guys think it'll be OK?

A guru3d article advised that the BFG GTX 285 OCX idle WATT is 212 & peak WATT is 394.

[scrivz69]

Psu will be fine.

[shuurajou]

Thanks for your help all. Picked up my GTX 285 this lunch time. Refund went fine. I'll let you know how the GTX 285 goes when I try to install it later tonight!

[cje]

Looking forward mate. That is a stonkingly good card.

[UKGouki]

Thanks for your help all. Picked up my GTX 285 this lunch time. Refund went fine. I'll let you know how the GTX 285 goes when I try to install it later tonight!

nice once you get it all up and running do a few benchmarks like 3dmark 06 or 3dmark vantage 285's are awesome cards :D

[shuurajou]

Hurray! GTX 285 installed without issue! Thank you all very much for all your help :). Can't wait to get stuck in! I'll see if I can get some benchmarks done soon.

[cje]

Woohoo! Glad to hear that mate. Enjoy it now!