black screen

Rraurgrimm · December 30th, 2006, 08:48 PM

Well, Hello

This being the first post I hope someone will be willing enough to read through the lot of it and mayhaps one has the solution for my problem. At least I still dare to hope...

I purchased a new video card in November: a MSI NX 7950GT - VT2D512EZ-HD (passive cooling). Yes, I know these things get very hot but I think my case is cold enough. It certainly was a big move from my old ASUS EN 6600 GT - a Nvidia-card, too but quite old by now.

My current system:
AMD Athlon 64 3.700+ San Diego E4-Stepping with processor driver 1.3.2.16
ASUS A8V-E deluxe Mainboard with VIA K8T890 chipset (yes, bad, I know that now) and newest BIOS (1012) and VIA-chipset drivers (Hyperion 5.10a)
2*512 MB DDR2 RAM 400 MHz (DualChannel)
2 Harddrives (IDE, 160GB und 6.4 GB), floppy disk
DVD-burner, CD-ROM
soundcard (onboard deactivated in the BIOS) Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS with newest drivers (2.09.00016)
Windows XP professional SP2 with current updates
DirectX 9c October 2006

My system worked fine with the old ASUS EN 6600 GT for about a year, I used standard 84.21 drivers. The decision to use a new psu and video card proved fateful so far, mayhaps I should have stayed content with what I had and never changed a running system. I did.

Deinstalled the old Nvidia-drivers in Secure Mode, rebooted and shut down the system. Removed the old card, put in the new one and attached the PCI-E cable correctly (yes, I even tried using a different cable lateron). Reboot, Secure Mode, the new card is recognized by Windows and exspects the installation of new drivers.

1. attempt: the included MSI drivers v91.47. The installation finishes and exspects a reboot. The system boots, BIOS starts, Windows-loading screen - and then the screen goes black just when I should have been able to select the user (I think the system starts to use the specific drivers then). The system is still active and it is possible to reboot the system manually - but the screen stays black every time I should be able to select the user. I waited several minutes - nothing happens. Reboot, Secure Mode - the standard VGA drivers work and I am able to uninstall the drivers.

2. attempt: this time I change the screen frequency to 60Hz in directX, I used 85 MHz before which my monitor was able to use easily. Installed the drivers (this time as a simple user) - black screen. Deinstalled, reboot, DirectX to default, installed drivers - no change.

3., 4. and 5. attempt: downloaded the current driver from MSI (91.47 but with special functions), the newest from Nvidia (93.71) and the 92.91 - installed, tried as before - no change.

When I use the Secure Mode (as I am currently) I can see a hardware conflict:

E/A 03B0 - 03BB in use by:
VIA PCI to PCI Bridge Controller
E/A 03C0 - 03DF in use by:
VIA PCI to PCI Bridge Controller
memory 000A0000 - 000BFFFF in use by:
VIA PCI to PCI Bridge Controller

I really do not know if that is the correct translation (the ranges are correct though) and I know even less what it means and what I should do about it. I have been told that I should change my system to 'standard-PC' in System-Hardware-device manager-computer from 'ACPI-uniprocessor-PC'. I tried but my system won't recognize any USB ports/devices afterwards. A setting in the BIOS mentions ACPI APIC support - but when I disable that option the system won't go beyond the loading screen without going black as before, just a DOS-prompt keeps blinking.
System shows an 'unknown PCI device' which I deaktivated. Apart from the PCI-E card and the soundcard there are no PCI devices installed (onboard network card?).

I reinstalled Windows, set the BIOS settings to default, installed the chipset drivers and SP2 - then I installed the MSI 91.47 drivers - still black screen every time I should get the login screen.

I tried deactivating 'Hardwareacceleration' and 'write combining'. Nothing.

I tried the NGO 93.81 drivers in compatibility mode - still nothing.

The system works with the old card - without any problems. The new card only allows standard-VGA drivers AND it worked in other PCs (so no defunct hardware I think). I still don't know what to do and I think I tried everything I know.

gen.Rage1991hrv · December 30th, 2006, 09:44 PM

dont know what to say
did you tryd with other psu???

Rraurgrimm · December 30th, 2006, 09:53 PM

Only in different systems, I don't have many psus here except for my old one which is probably too weak.

The Enermax Liberty 500 should provide 22A at 12V (bottom of the page) which should be more than enough for the system.

gen.Rage1991hrv · December 30th, 2006, 09:57 PM

try to run pc with old psu or ask your friend his psu so you can test it

>GSXR<mrbusa · December 31st, 2006, 01:06 AM

When you say " secure mode " do you mean you booted to safe mode and uninstalled the drivers only with the standard uninstall utility or that you uninstalled the drivers from add and remove and then booted into safe mode, " F8" at boot, and ran dh driver cleaner pro?

You have to eliminate every reference to the old card and drivers from your system before installing the new card.

Rraurgrimm · December 31st, 2006, 02:23 PM

Your second variant: I booted in safe/secure Mode, uninstalled the drivers in Add/Remove Software, rebooted, hit F8, chose Secure/Safe Mode and ran Driver Cleaner to get rid of the rest. Then I rebooted, put the new card in and tried to install the new drivers as Admin.

>GSXR<mrbusa · December 31st, 2006, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rraurgrimm

Your second variant: I booted in safe/secure Mode, uninstalled the drivers in Add/Remove Software, rebooted, hit F8, chose Secure/Safe Mode and ran Driver Cleaner to get rid of the rest. Then I rebooted, put the new card in and tried to install the new drivers as Admin.

You performed one of the steps wrong.
When you uninstall the drivers for the first time you need to do it from add and remove programs or the driver uninstall utility included with whatever driver you are using from your running OS and not safe or secure mode. Then you boot to F8 safemode and run driver cleaner. Then you do a manual search with a registry cleaner with a search function and delete anything left behind that is in reference to your old card and old drivers. After you install the new card and before you install the new drivers it is a good idea to install reinstall your chipset drivers also. If your monitor is using drivers other than standard windows drivers then once the card is in it is a good idea to reinstall them also.

Rraurgrimm · January 1st, 2007, 04:16 PM

Excuse me, but why exactly?

I did even reinstall Windoows XP professional - with the new card installed. A new, clean Windows without any registry entries with a BIOS in default setting. Then I installed the chipset drivers and SP2 - and then I tried the new grapic card drivers. There could not have been any old registry entries for it was a new installation with the new card installed from the beginning.

So the problem does not seem to be one of old registry entries but a different one - some kind of compatibility problem or a different system setting or BIOS setting or driver conflict - I don't know.

>GSXR<mrbusa · January 1st, 2007, 04:48 PM

Ya, Sry
I missed that part of your post.
Double check all your Bios settings and if any setting is set to auto and you know what the correct value is then set them manually. Turn off all unused onboard peripherals. Because you are on a fresh install of windows narrows it down to either a system driver conflict or setting , a bios setting, or the card. I doubt it is actually an incompatibility between the mobo and the card because if it was there would be people all over the net complaining about it.

xiaomhome · January 1st, 2007, 07:09 PM

Try to find help with MSI, or RMA your card before its too late, you can try to test your card in another computer too. I dont think is a PSU related problem. If your unsure about irq conflicts just look in Start -> Right Click on my computer -> "Device Manager" -> doble Click on your graphic card device -> Check for irq conflicts.