Fresh windows install, Inserting gfx card cause freeze at login

gregrocker said:

shN88 said:

Some Updates: i plugged my card into my housemates PC, and his machine boots up fine.

My PC is still having issues even with the harddisks not running on RAID. I am starting to suspect that its my PSU. im going to swap out my housemates PSU with mine next.

Are you saying you unRAIDed your hard drives? Did you then unplug all but the target hard drive to redo your install following Clean Reinstall Windows 7.

Just before doing this reset BIOS to defaults again and confirm SATA is not AHCI.

Standard VGA is a placeholder driver that needs updating via Windows Update. If that Update still fouls out, then import just the Display driver from Intel's Downloads site, without any bloatware.

Once you get a display card driver installed, try disabling the onboard chip graphics in Device Manager or BIOS setup. It may be interfering as evidenced by the problem recurring even when the card isn't plugged in with that WDDM driver installed.

what I did was I used EASEUS Free Partition Master to format partition on another SSD. I then reset my BIOS to default and ran a fresh windows 7 install on the SSD that had just been wiped, without any other drives connected.

all the steps i did are in line with the following link: Clean Install Windows 7

after installing windows i put in the disc that came in with the mobo and installed all drivers without any bloatware, graphic driver, hd audio driver, and an extra driver used for a different ethernet port. the graphic driver seems to make my PC clonk out as well.

my SSD is still reading as SCSI under device manager and Im still facing problems installing any sort of graphic driver.

my PC is running with just x1 ram stick, x1 SDD, x1 Optical Drive.

BIOS SATA Configuration is set to AHCI. are you saying I should put this to IDE?

AHCI is optimal - I'm sorry that voice dictation on my phone is a bit rough right now so I'll need to proofread better.

I'd try the install again if you haven't done it this way yet: After deleting all partitions, create new and install the OS. Install only the network driver to get online then Enable hardware auto-updating via Windows Update (Step 3) and Check for Windows Updates. Install all important and optional Windows Updates saving the Display driver for last. Perhaps a patch you're missing will allow the driver supplied by Windows Update to work correctly.

If display acts up again, try disabling the onboard display chip in Device Manager or BIOS as I suggested earlier.

just some updates.

having found no issues replacing each piece of hardware of my PC, i eventually brought my motherboard back to the shop i purchased it from. turns out I had a bent CPU socket pin. I never removed my CPU/heatsink since this whole issue started so im not sure whether I bent it a while ago or I bent it when disassembling the PC today.

Its at the shop now and they are fixing the pin and running some tests. im hoping that the pin was the issue and they are able to fix it.

it wasnt the bent pins.

i brought the whole system in for them to test and I just got a phone call that they have no idea what specifically is wrong and they are assuming it is the motherboard. its now getting RMA'd and the weeks of wait begins

after further testing, the culprit was the CPU.

good news, they replaced my chip on the spot and i didnt have to pay the shop for testing/fixing my system. WHEW.