nVidia Driver Issues

Started by _AH_Olds, September 25, 2011, 05:58:17 PM

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_AH_Olds

Hello everyone,

As many of you know, I have had some serious graphics issues, one of which will be resolved when this problem is fixed  :help-sos-sos-29402: . I have an EVGA GTX 260 card from Lippy, which works just fine. Here's the problem:

When I try to install the driver for the card, it won't install or recognize the card (says VGA controller in Device Manager). I have another OS on a different drive (separate from this, and not RAID), and I found when I went into the drive, that it did recognized the drive, and it installed the driver I had had previously. BBQ and I spent several hours working on this issue Tuesday night, and realized that when the installer runs, it quits partway through the process. I've tried older drivers, newer drivers, but no luck. I posted in the nVidia forums, which has many instances of the same problem. In order to shorten the post, here's a link that describes the things I've tried: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=211008

In short, I've tried about everything suggested, short of killing the process during setup. Some of the files appear to be missing from the system 32 folder, and it will try to install a driver, then quit, when I try an older driver, but nothing at all with a new one. This is either a system problem, or some strange nvidia glitch, or both. I know that others have had the same problem, and nvidia has not provided a solution to this problem. Looks like when I uninstalled the other driver, it removed them completely, and the install can't put them back.

To top it off, I backed up the system to try a repair, or eventual reinstall, but now my OS disk for XP Pro has disappeared. I put it somewhere when I moved everything around, and have not found it yet. My choice at this point is limited: fix the problem, or wait to find the OS or get another one. I have about had it.  :unhappy-059:

Many thanks to Lippy for sending the card, and for the help from BBQ trying to trace the issue down. I've been working on this all week...I sit down to work on it, then get tired, crash for a bit, then try it again. That's why I haven't been on. Can't seem to get on when everyone else is on. Hope to be on later this afternoon, and make the meeting tonight, whether I can fly or not.

Edit: If I go into the Add Hardware Wizard, I find where the INF file is, and it sees that there is an nVidia GTX 260 there, and tries to install the driver. It fails, and says "The parameter is incorrect."  :thinking-008: What parameter?  :surprised-041: I keep looking for a solution, but nothing yet. Maybe there is one driver out there that might work.

Thanks, and S!

_AH_Olds
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference". - Harry S. Truman

_AH_taldrg

I love my country..It's the government I'm afraid of.

_AH_Olds

No, I hadn't, but I'll look at it. Thanks, TD!

S!

Olds
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference". - Harry S. Truman

_AH_Prop

#3
Did you download and install DriverCleaner, reboot in safe mode and run DC to clean out anything to do with your previous drivers from your old card?

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Secure-cleaning/Driver-Cleaner.shtml
____________________________________
Landing is a controlled collision with a planet

_AH_Olds

Yes, I did, many times. Use it every time I install drivers. Not sure why, but think something got uninstalled. Going to try some different drivers. Might try some from Guru3D...stock, but maybe they might work, who knows?
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference". - Harry S. Truman

_AH_Nimble

Darn Olds... wish i had the expertise to help you my friend.....I know just enough to get into trouble....and you dont need anymore of that.....good luck... miss ya.....hope you find a solution to this dealima. (wavey)

_AH_Lippy

Olds do you want me to send the driver disk to ya.

_AH_BBQhead

S~

Came across something that might help, Olds..

Go into your services, and make sure the User mode Driver Framework service is enabled.


At that awkward age where your brain has gone from " Probably shouldn't say that" to
"What the hell, let's see what happens"?  Me too.

HA_50

i am using  EVGA 280.26-win7-winvista-64bit-english-whql

_AH_Olds

#9
Ok, looked at that, and here's what I found:

It is listed as Windows Driver Foundation - User mode Driver Framework. It wasn't turned on, so I set it to automatic, then tried to start it. When I do that, it comes up with "Could not start...Error 31: A device attached to the system is not functioning".

I also found a service called nvidia Display Driver Service. It was set on Auto, but stopped. Tried to start it, but it said it couldn't, because the device had nothing to do.

I checked the dependencies, and for the driver framework, it says it depends on Plug and Play, which is on auto and started.

Looks like these two need to be running, but I'm not sure how to get them to do that. We might be on to something here.

Thanks for the tip, BBQ. Hope this is the right path.

Lippy, I'll get with you on that if I need it...hope we can get it fixed. I have the install disk here,  just got to find it. I'll keep you posted. Will be back on afterwhile...got to take the boys to Scouts.

Olds
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference". - Harry S. Truman

_AH_Lippy

I know BB is against this but reformat and u could be flyin with us now. Maybe hehe :i-m-with-stupid-0101:

_AH_BBQhead

S~

I'm not wholly against reformatting.  I just don't like to do it when it isn't necessary.

Once you get to a point where you aren't able to get services to start, that's about the time when I start thinking a reformat and re install might be worthwhile. 

At that awkward age where your brain has gone from " Probably shouldn't say that" to
"What the hell, let's see what happens"?  Me too.

_AH_Duff4r

#12
I'm going to "shotgun" this!

Let's assume the last card was truly bad...

Here's what should have happened:

==> Place the .exe to you NEW card drivers on the desktop.

==> Insure you have Driver Cleaner installed and updated.

1. Select control panel, System, Device manager, Display Adapter and uninstall your card. DON"T Reboot.
2. Uninstall the drivers to the bad card using add remove programs
3. Reboot to Safe mode by pressing the F8 key repeatedly during boot.
4. Start Driver Cleaner select Multiple cleaning filters; nvidia PhysX and nvidia add them to the right side and tick, advanced cleaning.. Now run it.
5. Shut down and replace your old card with your new one
6. Reboot normally

NOW*****

Remove Unused Devices

This shouldn't be too difficult or dangerous if you follow the instructions here. If you have had several driver versions installed on your system in the past, or even an ATI graphics card installed previously on the same Windows install, not to mention any other previous items of hardware which you no longer use, then this tip lets you remove them from the registry.

To view unused devices in Device Manager, do the following:

1. Open a Command Prompt by going to Start>Run and typing "cmd" (without quotes). Once the MS DOS prompt is open, type the following lines, pressing return after each:

Set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

Devmgmt.msc

In the GUI that opens, up at the top find "View". In the drop down menu select "Show Hidden Devices". I'm betting that under "Display Adapter" you will see numerous old installs ghosted (faded). Right click on each one of these and uninstall them..Fear Not! Close the GUI.

Install your new drivers from your desktop and reboot as required.

I'm assuming you haven't changed monitor drivers, monitors, profiles, etc.

Good luck Olds!

S!

_AH_Olds

Thanks for the help, Duff4r! I can report that I have found a way to get the driver installed. I had been reading a guide on installing the drivers, and just saw your post just after I got the driver to install (been at this for about 3 hours tonight...about an hour or so of reading the guide). Unfortunately, it still doesn't recognize the card,but at least the driver is in. I found a guide in an EVGA forum that had some good stuff in it, including some things I hadn't realized had changed. One of them is that, from the release notes from nVidia, is that drivers from version 260 on up will conflict with 256 on down if the drivers are not completely uninstalled. That being said, here is a link to it. I'll let you read this, and make your own judgment: http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?&m=1174372&high=nvidia+display+driver+service&mpage=1

At any rate, I did as you were saying, Duff4r, and downloaded the file to the desktop. Ran updates from MS, shut down all unnecessary programs, and went into the nVidia folder and removed several numbered entries from the Display Drivers folder. I left the folder empty, and left the rest of the nvidia folder there. I removed the nvidia corp. folder in Program Files, and went to Add/Remove programs. Now, before I go further, in the past I would go into Revo, uninstall, then boot into Safe mode, and run DC Pro. I did not do that this time, as was suggested in the guide (maybe it was removing more than it should have). I removed an old driver that was in the list (it was a failed installation, but it still put one in there). Rebooted, shut down the other programs, and ran the installer (installed 258.96 driver). This time it finished the install. Rebooted. It still does not detect the card, but maybe I need to re-seat the card. At least it finally finished installing the driver, because the folders for the drivers are in the nVidia corporation folder. I did not get any warnings or pop ups about a VGA controller, or it asking me to run the Add Hardware Wizard. At least there has been some progress. If I can't get the card to work this way, may have to put the old card in and try your method.

Maybe between what you've written, Duff4r, BBQ's help, and these posts, it might save somebody some trouble in the future, so they don't have to go through this.

I will work on this more tomorrow...getting late.

Thanks, and S!

Olds
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference". - Harry S. Truman

_AH_Duff4r

Glad to be of some help!

I have used the above method to clean up left over installs on keyboards, mice, and monitors. Clean is good.

Personally, I wouldn't mess to much more before trying the reformat option. I am like BBQ and hate that option but sometimes...what's a gamer to do ;-)

My Best,
Duff