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Looking at their forums, it should become apparent that nvidia does not care about problems their customers are having. Therefore, I have to turn to people they might listen to or work with to solve such problems - Windows and Microsoft.
I am running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 (Retail). My video card is a nVidia Geforce 8800 GT.
The issue is that the video is locking up, flickering, freezing, and even sometimes causing the "blue screen of death" - The problem is widely reported, and is also widely misdiagnosed as overheating. The card is not overheating, let me be quite clear on this. The card is also not old and ready to die (Another common misdiagnosis by techs who would brush difficult problems away.)
The issue is: Whatever nVidia has done with their drivers, they do not get along with Windows 7. The issue, if you search the web, is exclusively a Windows 7 problem.
I saw an article earlier regarding something that was implemented in Vista that would detect if the video drivers were crashing, and attempt to close and restart them without rebooting. I can not remember what this feature is called, nor can I find that info again (I found it while at work and did not save the URL sadly) - but it certainly seems like that's what is going on. The video will flicker while I am in a game, the game will freeze, and then after a second, the screen will go black, then the game will come back up, but at lower graphic detail. Evenually, the game will do the same thing again, and go back to full detail.
That's just a theory, though, of course.
I have tried the latest nvidia drivers, as well as the drivers from Windows update. I have not yet tried the nvidia beta drivers, but have read from other users that there was no luck in using them. Some users reported luck when using the default drivers of WIndows 7, or the Windows Update drivers, but I had no luck, and many others also didn't. I may try rolling back to some much older Vista drivers to see what happens.
In any case, my purpose here was less to get an answer, and more to really just spread the word more about this problem. Maybe a Microsoft employee will see this post and report it to someone who can have their people talk to nvidia's people, so to speak, because nvidia people do not frequent their forums. There are threads there with issues unsolved from over 2 years ago, and those are similar to some other issues we still have today with TV-Out. But that's another topic entirely.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Well, no problems so far beyond some flicker. The flicker does make me nervous, but otherwise, no crashes in almost 24 hours. I have been running Folding@Home on it constantly and it doesn't seem to have had any issues with that, either. Folding@Home has it running at 97-98% GPU usage constantly, and it's sitting at 67 degrees Celsius, which is just fine. It is looking more and more like it was my 8800.
But I do still wonder what the ____ could have caused it to act so crazy, hmm...
Seems to me that this thread is TOTALLY off-topic !!
Read the title, for God's sake !!
People are being led here by the subject of the "ZOTAC GT240 ZONE Edition" Graphics Card.
NOT ONE PERSON has mentioned the ZOTAC Fanless 1GB PCIex16, instead they chose to clog up the place with a bunch of stuff that has NOTHING TO DO with the ZOTAC 's features and/or operational characteristics.
Inconsiderate jerks have hijacked (ruined) the whole thread by introducing all sorts of problems that are NOT RELATED IN ANY WAY to the ZOTAC 240 GT ZONE Edition Graphics Card.
That said, let me be the first to comment on the silent speed of the ZOTAC Fanless 1 GB GraphicsCard.
I'm running the Zotac in a DELL Vostro, 2.93 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4 GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 @ 1333Ghz (7-7-7-20 timing), Velociraptor 10,000 rpm HDD, HyperX Memory Cooling Fan, WIN 7 Professional 32-bit -- Cox Cable on Motorola SB6120 DOCSIS3 Cable Modem. D-Link DIR-655 Gigabit "N" Router feeding DWA-552 Gigabit "N" Adapter, with CAT 6 Ethernet cables throughout.
The Zotac 240GT ZONE is a large card, with BIG aluminum fins that actually wrap around the center of the card. It takes up two (2) slots worth of bracket space, with one "bracket" serving as a case vent. A "left-handed" case (opens on left side) will have the card installed "upside-down", with the fins and vent on the "bottom" of the card. In my case, the card fits very well -- with sufficient clearance for the Kingston KHX cooling fan housing, the CPU cooler, and the PCI slots.
Did I mention "SILENT" operation !!??? I'm very impressed with the combination of total silence and the 1GB DDR3 capacity of this gem -- and it runs cool at 30*C at idle, with an under-load temp reaching 44*C. When we consider that most Video Card failures are due to built-in fans that fizzle out prematurely, the ZOTAC's Fanless operation should help to guarantee a long service life without worry about frying the card and/or your mobo, too !!
Video Performance of the ZOTAC is the usual Ge-Force excellence, and the colors seem to "jump right at you" without having to spend hours tweaking on stuff just to get decent video effects.
As with any other addition, it's necessary to go to NVIDIA for the latest driver updates, as WINDOWS 7's sniffer can't find diddley !!! It's freakin' remarkable how Microsoft keeps making their Operating Systems DIFFERENT with making them any BETTER !!! Seems like they didn't learn anything from the Vista fiasco !
All-in-all, the Zotac 240GT ZONE (Fanless) has been great, and it's features have fit my needs perfectly. These cards can be had for less than 100 clams, which makes them an excellent value in today's uncertain economy.
WINDOWS 7, on the other hand, is just another Microsoft Mess. Just my opinion, of course -- your results may vary !!
I have an 8800 GTX as well. Used it omn steam for two years and now I am experiencing problems above. I am not technically as savvy as most on this forum but I did note on Nvidia's site that 8800 GTX does not support Directx 11. The game I am playing (or was playing I should say) now is Civ V. This is the first game I had with directx 11. I think that may be the problem, but I dont know what to do about it.
Matt
Has anyone else tried goldspark's solution of searching services.msc and then going to desktop window manager session manager, then right clicking and selecting stop, etc.? I would like to know if anyone else has tried if before I go into it just in case that wasn't the solution. Thanks.
And on a sidenote, for my 8800 graphics card, are the latest versions of directx compatible with it? Thanks again.
I have just begun having the same issues that a lot of other people on this thread are having. I have the nvidia 8800 ultra graphics card, and I played thousands of hours of steam games on it in the last 3 years with absolutely no problems. I was using windows xp 64 bit the whole time. A couple days ago I played my steam games as normal with no problems. Then I tried to switch over to starcraft II (which I had played several times without any problem) and when I went to start a game it just froze. I got some weird red pixelation all over my screen and ultimately ended up having to restart my computer. The problem only got worse and happened earlier and earlier until I could no longer even start my computer up properly. I uninstalled windows xp and regrettably purchased windows 7 thinking that I had a virus or something. After installing windows 7, reinstalling steam, updating my video drivers, etc., I thought the problem was solved. I played CS:source for about 30 minutes with seemingly no issue, but when I switched over to TF2 there were errors in the server itself, and then my comp crashed into that blue screen. I got that "display driver stopped responding and has recovered" message, and now I cannot get rid of this problem. Since the problem began occuring with windows xp and the nvidia 8800 graphics card, I presume it is not a windows issue, but an nvidia/driver issue. Also, I am still using direct x 9.0, could this be part of the problem? Thanks.
