Graphics and drivers

[purringcat]

I'm now on my fifth driver for my NVidia GTX 295 card. Most of the software works ok but a few games have broken graphics.

While the game King's Bounty's graphics look ok, I played the game on my laptop (vista) and the graphics looked really great. There were also animation graphics that I've never seen on my desktop. I checked the game settings and they were the same on both pcs. The save game graphic icon looks like this picture on my desktop pc.

So is this another driver issue? I've tried every WIN 7 - NVidia 200 series driver and they all cause problems. Is it a graphics card problem? How do I test the card (don't have a spare) without installing a new one.

[Dags]

Sorry PC I had a spare comp to swap in and out gards.

[Stubbie]

I don't use nVidia cat but the first thing I would do is make sure you don't have corrupted drivers.

While you said you have tried lots of drivers you may not have them installed cleanly.
If you haven't already done this try going to the nVidia site and see if they have detailed instructions on how to completely remove all traces of previous drivers (I know ATI has this information for its drivers). Graphic drivers are notorious for leaving junk behind after removing them which can cause problems when other drivers are installed.

Then I would install the latest known certified nVidea stable drivers (not necessarily the absolute latest) for the GTX 205 in Win7. A bit of googling will probably help.

Then at least we know we have a stable set of drivers.
We can try and do more diagnosing once we have established that.

[purringcat]

I have a post it note on the wall for installing new graphic drivers
.....use add/remove to uninstall current driver
.....reboot in safe mode
.....run Driver Sweeper to remove all traces of old driver
.....reboot
.....install new driver

Is this the correct way to do this?

Edit: SHould have said this is how I currently do/and did every driver upgrade.

ps: that's what I need Dags, a spare computer. A good one with Win XP

[Jetcutter]

If its gonna work, use the sweeper and try it, what are ya out?
Jet

[Stubbie]

Well cat it sounds like you remove and install drivers correctly so I guess the driver is fine.
No doubt you have done a fair bit of googling about your problem. If you cannot find others with your problem then at a guess I would say its not a WIN7 issue either.

Unless someone else has some ideas I will try and help as much as I can, but I am no expert and will need a lot of info.

Most of the software works ok but a few games have broken graphics.

I need specifics on what games work and what have the problem.

While the game King's Bounty's graphics look ok, I played the game on my laptop (vista) and the graphics looked really great.

What graphics card does your laptop have?

There were also animation graphics that I've never seen on my desktop.

What were these exactly. I also have Kings Bounty so I should be able to understand what you are referring to.

The save game graphic icon looks like this picture on my desktop pc.

I dont understand what you mean by "graphic icon".
I think of an icon as a very small image like the "Recycle Bin" on a desktop but you posted a full size picture. Your comment confuses my very limited brain power.

Sorry to have to ask all this stuff but without trying the card in another pc I have to be sure what I am against.

Oh btw, are you able to monitor the cards temperature when playing? I use ATI TrayTools. It would be worth knowing what temperature your card runs at when playing games.
It might be simply a matter of the card getting a bit too hot.

[Peltz]

Well one thing to do is trying to downclock the card to see if it makes a difference. You can do this with ATI tools, Ntune or even EVGA Precision (which i use, even as i type. I actually have ASUS card but Asus tools are utter crap and should be destroyed).

Also there might just be that small error where the automatic fan speed is not working if it is heat related.

Below you will find my EVGA precision in action. Its a very simple utility.

[RPM]

I've had problems with Nvidia drivers since i instaled Windows Vista, lots of blue screens and then i rollback to the oem ones, the ones u can update in windows update, since then dragon age run without blue screens and mass effect 2 until now never crashes i have a 8800GTS, also check the temperature with a program like GPU Caps Viewer 1.8.2 from http://www.ozone3d.net/gpu_caps_viewer/

[Peltz]

Just to add, nTune and i bet ATI tools have temperature reporting built in. I have nTune and Evga and RivaTuner installed and they all report the same stats. Its the backup of the backup

But your best bet is actually read some of posts on evga forums. Atleast thats where i got the most information when i had a faulty 9600GT. That card had massive failures and it spawned a 30 page discussion real quick.

[purringcat]

Originally Posted by Stubbie

Well cat it sounds like you remove and install drivers correctly so I guess the driver is fine.
No doubt you have done a fair bit of googling about your problem. If you cannot find others with your problem then at a guess I would say its not a WIN7 issue either.

Unless someone else has some ideas I will try and help as much as I can, but I am no expert and will need a lot of info.

I need specifics on what games work and what have the problem.

Games that work: Sacred, Dragon Age, Patrician, Civilization IV, 1701 AD ... games that don't work SimCity 4 (that messed up graphic) is a mess and almost unplayable... and King's Bounty.

What graphics card does your laptop have?
GeForce 8400M GS

What were these exactly. I also have Kings Bounty so I should be able to understand what you are referring to.
This forced me to play hours of KB in test mode today In fight scenes, the PC shows a gold ring at the bottom of the active player and shows them hitting the enemy.. period. The laptop shows the gold ring plus spell animation from both the hero and the actual fighter. Not only that, the laptop has sounds with these animations and the pc doesn't.

I dont understand what you mean by "graphic icon".
I think of an icon as a very small image like the "Recycle Bin" on a desktop but you posted a full size picture. Your comment confuses my very limited brain power.

Bad description on my part. When you open a game, there's a small picture by each save. On my pc it's either solid black or black with horizontal lines through the image. On the laptop, it shows a mini-picture of where the save occurred.

Sorry to have to ask all this stuff but without trying the card in another pc I have to be sure what I am against.

I double checked the game options on the two machines. The laptop has much lower graphic levels... no shadows or antialiasing, 2x anisotropic, normal or low graphics otherwise. The pc has everything set to high. Doesn't explain the sound difference.

Oh btw, are you able to monitor the cards temperature when playing? I use ATI TrayTools. It would be worth knowing what temperature your card runs at when playing games.
It might be simply a matter of the card getting a bit too hot.

This graphic's card has apx 3688 MB of memory. There doesn't appear to be a power or cooling issue. EVGA Precision shows GPU temp of 48. I couldn't use the monitor from Ozone's site as it's for a 32 bit system.

And yes, I've been hunting for a solution to BSOD, black screens, crashes and bad graphics since I got this pc in November. There are a LOT of people out there with this card and WIN 7 who are having problems. Keep this in mind Dags when you shop for a new card.

And thanks everyone for your help.