Boot failure after installing graphics driver

[TheSniperFox]

Hello,

 

something just caused a major boot / graphics problem to my PC. 

I was just browsing through the web and I got a grey / black screen. Fine, I just hit the reset button for reboot, but when Windows wants to boot up, I get a graphic failure and nothing works anymore. So I started Windows in Safe Mode, removed my latest Nvidia graphics driver and it boots just fine. So I installed an older version (from 23.05.2016) which worked just fine. Same boot failure again. Then I tried it with and old driver from last september, when I have built my rig. Same for this one. I cant even get the Intel VGA driver installed. So I am sitting here in without any graphics driver. 

I am running Windows 7 64-bit on a Asus Z170-A, I-7 6700K, Samsung 850 EVO, Kingston Hyper X 2133 16GB and KFA2 (Galax) 980 TI. Everything watercooled.

So changing components sucks even more. 

 

Do you have any ideas? Maybe reinstalling Windows will be the best solution, but actually I do not have interest and time for that. 

 

Thanks for all your help in advance.

[vanished]

Are you sure they were installing correctly?  If it finds a newer version, I believe it will just skip the install by default.  You have to check off "do a clean install".

[Skiiwee29]

Sounds like faulty Memory on the GPU. I had a similar issue early on with my GTX 760 when I first bought it in 2014. RMA time I am afraid if it is still under warranty. 

 

6 minutes ago, TheSniperFox said:

Hello,

 

something just caused a major boot / graphics problem to my PC. 

I was just browsing through the web and I got a grey / black screen. Fine, I just hit the reset button for reboot, but when Windows wants to boot up, I get a graphic failure and nothing works anymore. So I started Windows in Safe Mode, removed my latest Nvidia graphics driver and it boots just fine. So I installed an older version (from 23.05.2016) which worked just fine. Same boot failure again. Then I tried it with and old driver from last september, when I have built my rig. Same for this one. I cant even get the Intel VGA driver installed. So I am sitting here in without any graphics driver. 

I am running Windows 7 64-bit on a Asus Z170-A, I-7 6700K, Samsung 850 EVO, Kingston Hyper X 2133 16GB and KFA2 (Galax) 980 TI. Everything watercooled.

So changing components sucks even more. 

 

Do you have any ideas? Maybe reinstalling Windows will be the best solution, but actually I do not have interest and time for that. 

 

Thanks for all your help in advance.

 

[TheSniperFox]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Are you sure they were installing correctly?  If it finds a newer version, I believe it will just skip the install by default.  You have to check off "do a clean install".

Pretty sure. They all have been installed correctly. Also I have removed the existings ones with DisplayDriverCleaner completly. Even without any driver, there is no chance to set a higher resolution that 1.024 x 768. Then I will get some little blue artifacts (but without crashing) again. So when I try to install any Nvidia driver, Windows is not going to boot since it wants to use the native resolution of 2.560 x 1.440.

The curiosity is also, that I have been playing with the latest driver "Paragon" without any issues. It was right after the next start up, browsing through the web for 2 minutes or so.

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2 minutes ago, TheSniperFox said:

Pretty sure. They all have been installed correctly. Also I have removed the existings ones with DisplayDriverCleaner completly. Even without any driver, there is no chance to set a higher resolution that 1.024 x 768. Then I will get some little blue artifacts (but without crashing) again. So when I try to install any Nvidia driver, Windows is not going to boot since it wants to use the native resolution of 2.560 x 1.440.

The curiosity is also, that I have been playing with the latest driver "Paragon" without any issues. It was right after the next start up, browsing through the web for 2 minutes or so.

Well at this point you could try to RMA the card, or reinstall Windows, whichever you think is easier.  I know I'd try the latter first, but it's up to you.

[TheSniperFox]

4 minutes ago, legacy99 said:

Sounds like faulty Memory on the GPU. I had a similar issue early on with my GTX 760 when I first bought it in 2014. RMA time I am afraid if it is still under warranty. 

This would be the worst case, since I have to open my complete loop. I bought the card at the end of September 2015, so RMA should not be any problem. In Germany is also a 2 year warranty minimum.

But I am a bit afraid of that they will deny the RMA. Because for this version of the KFA2 980 Ti, the cooling block is delivered seperatly and you have to mount it yourself...

[vanished]

2 minutes ago, TheSniperFox said:

This would be the worst case, since I have to open my complete loop. I bought the card at the end of September 2015, so RMA should not be any problem. In Germany is also a 2 year warranty minimum.

But I am a bit afraid of that they will deny the RMA. Because for this version of the KFA2 980 Ti, the cooling block is delivered seperatly and you have to mount it yourself...

Whatever warranty it comes with would take into account how they expect you to use it.  For example, no company would sell a bare card with no heatsink with a warranty that would become void if you attached your own heatsink  

[TheSniperFox]

25 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Whatever warranty it comes with would take into account how they expect you to use it.  For example, no company would sell a bare card with no heatsink with a warranty that would become void if you attached your own heatsink  

Yes that makes sense Hopefully there are not going to be any problems (since it was a 900€ card that time). Could we also exclude other components like the motherboard and a broken PCI slot or something like that?

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4 minutes ago, TheSniperFox said:

Yes that makes sense Hopefully there are not going to be any problems (since it was a 900€ card that time). Could we also exclude other components like the motherboard and a broken PCI slot or something like that?

We could exclude every component if a reinstall fixes it  

[TheSniperFox]

1 hour ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

We could exclude every component if a reinstall fixes it  

Hehe, ok I will reinstall the OS this evening and keep you informed

[TheSniperFox]

9 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

We could exclude every component if a reinstall fixes it

Hey, so I did some testing (without reinstalling the OS) and I am pretty sure it is the GPU. I did Windows RAM test without any failure, did Mem Test twice also without any failure. Then I just wanted to watch temperatures with HW Monitor. And I couldnt find my graphics card. I opened GPU-Z. There it has been detected, but just with 2990 MB instead 6144 MB of memory. So I am pretty sure it is the GPU and not the PCI-Slot or power supply. What do you think?

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2 hours ago, TheSniperFox said:

Hey, so I did some testing (without reinstalling the OS) and I am pretty sure it is the GPU. I did Windows RAM test without any failure, did Mem Test twice also without any failure. Then I just wanted to watch temperatures with HW Monitor. And I couldnt find my graphics card. I opened GPU-Z. There it has been detected, but just with 2990 MB instead 6144 MB of memory. So I am pretty sure it is the GPU and not the PCI-Slot or power supply. What do you think?

It is probable at this point.  Another thing you could try is firing up another OS like Ubuntu off a bootable live USB stick and see how that goes.

[TheSniperFox]

6 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

It is probable at this point.  Another thing you could try is firing up another OS like Ubuntu off a bootable live USB stick and see how that goes.

That is a pretty good idea as well, but I am lacking time to do that. Tomorrow after work, I will take out the 980 Ti of the system and it will go RMA. I will close the loop just for the CPU and put in an old 570 I have found. Then I will be sure that hopefully PCI Slot and PSU are alright and not causing the trouble... 

[TheSniperFox]

On 13.6.2016 at 10:26 PM, Ryan_Vickers said:

It is probable at this point.  Another thing you could try is firing up another OS like Ubuntu off a bootable live USB stick and see how that goes.

Hey Ryan,

 

I just forgot to leave a message last week. It has been the graphics card for sure. I test it with an old GTX 570, which I borrowed from a friend. At the moment I am stuck with Intels integrated graphics 

 

In the meanwhile, I had also sent back the graphics card and it is just trouble as predicted. They sad so me, that they could not find the serial number for identification. Of course not, because they are on the PCB under cooler (which as to mounted by costumers care), since it is a kit. 

So I did this for them at the weekend and hope everything will be fine now. Not that they are telling me, I just broke the card by disassembling the cooler. Then I will run crazy.

 

Nevertheless, I had another issue. I do not know, If my PSU (Corsair H750i) caused this defect on the graphics card memory. Normally it is a high end PSU with a good 12 V rail and voltage output. But it has some slight buzzing, even not under load. May this be also a reason, that the MSI GTX 980, KFA GTX 980 TI and the old Gainward GTX 570 had weird buzzing sounds under load. On a Sapphire R9 Fury Nitro, which I bought for 375€ this weekend, it was extremely loud. 

So I may be pretty sure, that my PSU is causing some trouble here. Or am I just unlucky and getting 4 graphics card, which all have buzzing noise??? 

 

Thanks.     

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11 minutes ago, TheSniperFox said:

*snip*

If the PSU is defective, it could be killing other components, but a bit of whine might not be a sign of anything wrong.  Some power supplies (and graphics cards) have "coil whine" and if that's the case, it's not a sign of anything broken.