My shiney new video card is making me crazy

[KellyQ]

I found a good deal on a Nvidia 7600 GT so I ordered it, installed it this past Saturday along with a beefed up PSU and downloaded the newest drivers from the Nvidia site.

Now instead of the BSOD I was getting with my old card (FX5200), my game is alternately freezing up the entire computer or the monitor fades to black and announces it's going to sleep. Either way I have to do a hard reboot and lose all the gameplay I had.

Anyone know what may be causing this and how I might be able to fix it? It is seriously, seriously making me cranky.

[jrd]

Make sure you're using the latest drivers from nvidia.com.

[Strangel]

Newest drivers from nvidia was specificed in the first post, Jordi. 

It sounds like you have the same problem my wife has, we've determined it's her onboard card. The computer is finding itself attempting to use TWO cards for ONE function and alternately giving up or getting confused. Disable your onboard graphics setup.

[jrd]

Nvidia releases new drivers all the time, so I don't take people's word for it they are using the latest drivers. Often people assume the CD drivers are the newest...

Nvidia drivers have had problems with TS2 before, but a recent release should have fixed it. Otherwise try their latest betas.

[KellyQ]

I am using the newest drivers from Nvidia's site (ver. 162.18). The cd that came with the card wouldn't even complete installation and I knew enough to know those wouldn't be the latest drivers anyway.

Strangel, I hate to sound like an idiot but could you give me instructions on how to disable the onboard graphics setup?

[jrd]

Have you tried disabling the shaders?

boolProp useShaders false

If the game runs with this setting, you are running into the bug.

[syberspunk]

Strangel, I hate to sound like an idiot but could you give me instructions on how to disable the onboard graphics setup?

You could probably go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Device Manager -> Display Adapters

If there are any listed as Integrated something or other (that is obviously not your new Nvidia 7600 GT), right click -> Protperties -> Driver tab -> Uninstall.

When you install a new graphics card, there might already be instructions on how to uninstall/disable your existing graphics adapter.  It might be best to uninstall your onboard and your Nvidia.  You could probably uninstall both and reboot.  When your machine reloads, depending on your settings, it may attempt to auto install the graphics card.  Assuming you're running XP, you'll probably get that plug and play adapter thingy that says it found a new hardware device or whatever.  Cancel out of that wizard, and install the latest Nvidia drivers you downloaded.  Reboot again and cross your fingers.


I've been having problems with my machine.  Now and then I get reboots or BSODs.  I tried a buncha stuff and still couldn't figure it out.  It complained about IRQL conflicts, among other things.  I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but as of yet, I am not sure that fixed it.  I've tried almost everything, short of reformating and reinstalling or RMAing the damned grapihcs card (which it might be too late to do ).  I suspect it may be a temperature issue, as my parents had purchased a new A/C for me, and I haven't had a reboot since (my old A/C was weak, it would take forever to get to a moderately cool temp, and it was screwy, because it pretty much only had two temps, despite having a dial - it was either piss poor weak and barely better than a fan, or super freezingly arctic ).  I can't tell if it's the RAM or the graphics card.  But I haven't played Sims in several weeks now (currently obsessed with my PS3).


Ste

[Hegelian]

Strangel, I hate to sound like an idiot but could you give me instructions on how to disable the on-board graphics setup?

If your motherboard has an on-board graphics controller, you need to disable it in the BIOS. You do this by entering Setup as soon as the machine powers up (if Windows begins to load, you've gone too far). Each motherboard vendor uses a different key to get into the BIOS setup, but the common ones are F1, F2, and DEL. The text that appears on the screen when you you first power up tells you what key it is, but on newer machines this can go by pretty fast. (If you are quick, you can use the Pause key to freeze the start-up screen. Press any key to resume.) The user manual for your motherboard should tell you the key, and also show a screen capture of the Setup page where you disable on-board devices like graphics controllers and sound devices. If you don't have the manual, you should be able to download one from the manufacturer's Web site. If you don't know the manufacturer, you can find out using a free tool like CPU-Z.

Typically, the on-board graphics controller is disabled in the BIOS section called Integrated Peripherals or something similar, but you will need to look around your particular BIOS to find the video settings. You navigate the selections with the Up and Down arrow keys, and make your selection with the enter key. To change a value you use the arrow or Page UP/Page Down keys (but you may need to experiment to see how to change setting in your particular BIOS). Escape moves back up through the screens to the top level. After making your changes, be sure to Save Changes and Exit.

If you are using an plug-in sound card like a Sound Blaster, you can disable the onboard audio while you're in there (look for AC97 audio).

You can tell if your motherboard has on-board graphics by looking at the I/O cluster at the back of the case. If there's a video connector there along with the parallel, audio, and USB ports, then you have on-board video that needs to be disabled.

Also, it may be that you need to completely remove the driver files for the FX5200 before installing the drivers for the 7600. The last I checked, nVidia didn't offer a driver-removal tool, but you can get one here. Stray driver files can cause video problems.

[Lorelei]

Laptop or desktop? If the former, you'll have to go to the comp. manufacturer's site to get updated drivers.

I assume it is a desktop, because swapping cards in a laptop tends to be a non-trivial chore.

[KellyQ]

Have you tried disabling the shaders?

boolProp useShaders false

If the game runs with this setting, you are running into the bug.

Well this seems to have done the trick (crossing fingers).  I played for 2 hours last night after adding a userstartup.cheat file to my game with the above command in it and the game didn't freeze or dissolve into a black screen. Just to be on the safe side, I saved every 20 minutes or so because I was tired of Groundhog's Day gameplay.

Lorelei, it's an HP desktop and I am using the latest drivers from Nvidia's site. I wouldn't have a clue on how to even open my laptop and tinker around.

I do have a few more questions though. I followed Hegelian's directions and poked around in the BIOS last night; what I found was puzzling to me. The graphics card is in an AGP slot but the BIOS was marked PCI instead of AGP/Board...I'm guessing had it been marked AGP/Board, then that's what I would have needed to disable? I guess I am confused as to why since it's an AGP slot would it be marked as PCI? That may be a stupid question but I would really like to understand.

Also, when I quit the game, there is quite a bit of time where the screen goes black and it takes several minutes before it slowly starts booting up my regular desktop. Is that normal? It didn't do that with my old card.

I had one more question, regarding disabling the onboard audio as Hegelian suggested, but I'll be darned if I can remember what it was right now. Something to do with the BIOS being set to auto and if that's what I need to disable....I may have to edit this post if I can remember exactly what it was I wanted to ask. 

[Hegelian]

I do have a few more questions though. I followed Hegelian's directions and poked around in the BIOS last night; what I found was puzzling to me. The graphics card is in an AGP slot but the BIOS was marked PCI instead of AGP/Board...I'm guessing had it been marked AGP/Board, then that's what I would have needed to disable? I guess I am confused as to why since it's an AGP slot would it be marked as PCI?

We're assuming you have on-board video, but you may not. The idea is to be sure to disable it if you have it. It should be labeled something like "on-board graphics" or "integrated graphics". I don't have a motherboard here with integrated graphics so I don't have any documentation handy to use as an example. If you tell us the model number of your PC, perhaps we can look in the user manual.

Without getting technical, suffice it to say that your motherboard will want to know whether your video card goes in a PCI slot on an AGP slot. It sounds like you need to change the setting to AGP if you have an AGP board installed. Selecting a current HP model with integrated graphics, I found this screen capture:



Here you can see the entry where you select the type of graphics controller you have. In this example, we know the machine has on-board video because of the entry for Onboard Video Memory Size. The first thing to try would be to change the Primary Video Adapter type to AGP to see if the memory settings go gray (for disabled). If not, we would then check for sections or tabs with labels such as PCI, PCI Devices, or I/O Devices to see if there is a setting specifically for disabling the on-board video.

In this screen we also see the entry for the AC97 on-board audio. If you do not have a separate, plug-in sound card like a Sound Blaster, then you need to keep this enabled, otherwise you can disable it. The Auto setting causes the motherboard to disable the on-board audio automatically if a sound card is detected, but it doesn't hurt to be extra-safe.

[KellyQ]

So I thought that using the userstartup.cheat file with useshaders set to false had solved my problem but, no. So I looked around in the BIOS again and set the video settings to AGP/Board instead of PCI.

Game seemed to be running fine for the last few days, only problems being that when a walkby/NPC/carpool showed up, there was a momentary freeze. Fairly annoying because even my old FX5200 didn't do that but I could live with it since the game doesn't slow up at all when it rains or snows (very much unlike my old card).

Then last night when saving from a lot to the neighborhood screen, the monitor went blank and announced it was going to sleep. I rebooted the computer, started the game, went back to the lot and found I had lost all the gameplay I had for that lot.

This is my computer: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?lc=en&cc=us&docname=bph05529&dlc=en&product=447041&rule=1949&

I've looked through the manuals and FAQ but I'm not finding anything that is useful for me.

Any other ideas or do you think I should return the card and get some kind of ATI card instead?

[jrd]

That BIOS setting (AGP vs PCI) just controls which slot is checked first for a videocard, it doesn't do anything else.

[Stitches]

This may sound silly, but did you make sure you had a sufficiently rated power supply for the card you're using? And cooling?

[Hegelian]

This is my computer: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?lc=en&cc=us&docname=bph05529&dlc=en&product=447041&rule=1949&

According to the motherboard specifications for this model (ASUS A7V8X-LA), your PC has on-board video. Make sure this is disabled. If one of the choices in the Primary Video Adapter setting is "onboard," then choosing AGP will disable the on-board video. If that is not one of the choices, you will need to look elsewhere. You should be able to download the user manual for this motherboard from the ASUS Web site (you may need to use the main Taiwan site rather than the US site); this will have a complete description of all the BIOS settings and where to find them. Note that manufacturers like HP often use custom BIOSes, so your Setup screens may not be exactly the same as those shown in the ASUS manual.

Then open Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel and uninstall any references you see to VIA UniChrome graphics or something similar.

EDIT:  But do not uninstall the VIA chipset drivers!

[B]

Any other ideas or do you think I should return the card and get some kind of ATI card instead?

Two things:

1.  You may have mentioned this already, but did you connect the Molex power pin to your GPU?  Without it, your rig will run but might crash hard when the GPU is getting a workout.
2.  A good proportion of cards are bad right out of the box.  If all else fails, RMA it and try a fresh card. 

[KellyQ]

I will confess I did not install the card or the PSU myself. I figured I could handle replacing the card but the PSU, not so much. So I took it to a tech who did both for me. I am ass-u-m-ing that he did it correctly.

I think I must be insane that a video card is causing me this much stress.

[J. M. Pescado]

Game seemed to be running fine for the last few days, only problems being that when a walkby/NPC/carpool showed up, there was a momentary freeze. Fairly annoying because even my old FX5200 didn't do that but I could live with it since the game doesn't slow up at all when it rains or snows (very much unlike my old card).

This is normal. The momentary freeze is the game loading the target sim's relevant data for the first time. It will become less frequent if that sim is a recurring visitor.