Fresh windows install, Inserting gfx card cause freeze at login

Hi Everyone,

I have been having a myriad of problems trying to fix my computer and it has now been a solid 16-18hours of reading/clicking/waiting. I am now at a point where my PC will run without my graphics card inserted, but when it is inserted, it will not run in normal mode, but will run in safe mode.

I will try to describe my problem as best I can from when the problem first started, and how I have gotten to the point I am at right now.

My current hardware setup that was working perfectly is as follows:

Windows 7 Home Premium
i5 4690k
Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H Motherboard
8GB Ram Kingston
Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Graphics
x2 120GB SATA RAID 0
X1 500GB HDD

It started with me trying to install some custom windows desktop themes. This required meddling with the system files, and although I made backups of the original files, one thing led to another and I found myself not being able to log back into windows.

I then tried to get into system restore to revert back. When trying to get into BIOS or boot from disc, my screen displayed nothing during POST and only displayed the windows login when it appeared. Thinking that this might be a result of the fast boot option I cleared the CMOS. I later realised that the BIOS and disc boot must have been working but it was always displaying on another monitor that was off. When I finally got to the system restore, there were no saved restore points. I later remembered that I was running RAID and the CMOS clear reset my SATA to AHCI. I reset this back to RAID in BIOS and saw that some how one of my RAID harddrives were not running in RAID anymore with the other. Thinking all was lost, I reset both hard drives into RAID 0 again and did a fresh install of windows.

With a fresh install of windows I encountered numerous problems with the windows updating process. some updates straight up failed and the ones that successfully installed pre-reboot caused my PC to freeze after rebooting during the windows configuring phase (so it ended up failing anyway). This happened numerous times and I did numerous troubleshooting and windows reinstallations. During this time I also figured out that my graphics card was causing my windows 7 to crash during the splash screen so I took it out while I fixed everything else up.

I ended up having to install over 200updates in small batches. If a batch caused a freeze upon reboot, I did a system restore from safe mode then skipped to another batch of updates to install. With the help of System Update Readiness Tool, Windows Update Troubleshooter, latest Windows Update Agent, "sfc /scannow", I have finally gotten to a point where the there is only 1 critical update to install which causes a freeze during the reboot windows configuration. This is the intel Graphics Adapter WDDM 1.1,1.2,1.3 update.

I left that last update alone and tried to deal with my graphics card. I have tried the following:

• Installed the nvidia drivers in safemode
• uninstalled and reinstalled it
• disabled the the integrated graphics driver
• set the BIOS pci-e setting to gen3
• upgrade my BIOS from F8 to F9
• reseated the graphics card firmly with the latch clicking
• replugged the power cables to the card with the latch clicking

No matter what I do, in normal mode and my graphics card inserted, my PC will freeze at either the windows splash screen, or straight up freeze at the windows login. At one point I thought it was fixed because I saw the windows login blinking cursor. I managed to type in the first two letters of my password and sure enough, it froze. With the graphics card inserted, I am able to get into safe mode without problems.



I have scoured the internet for a solution, tried everything suggested in forums, I have spent hours on end encountering problems and now I've finally no idea what to do. Sorry for the long post but I have been running into various problems that may or may not be related to each other so I am trying to create a detailed account of what happened. I hope someone can help!

Maybe your graphics card went bad. Can you get your hands on another to test with?

That GTX970 is a powerful graphics card - do you have a sufficient power supply (like 550W+)?

Can you go to Device Manager in Safe Mode with the card installed and see what it shows under Graphics? Is the card listed, does it have an exclamation mark or other signs that it is having a problem?

Screenshot of Device Management please.

Alright, did you try disabling on-board GPU yet?

GokAy said:

Alright, did you try disabling on-board GPU yet?

yup, still cant get into windows

some additional information,

even when i try to boot from a windows disc, if the graphics card is slotted in, it freezes on the windows splash screen. is my card fried? :s

Is there another PCIe x16 slot you can try it in? Have you added any other cards or moved cards to different slots? I recall having conflicts in the past when I had hardware plugged into shared PCIe slots. I had to rearrange a few cards to get everything working. You may want to remove all the other cards (i.e. an Ethernet card, etc.,, if you have any installed) and just try with the GTX.

You mentioned upgrading the BIOS, but you also said you already upgraded the bIOS once to get this card working. So whatever version you have now should be the same one you had the card working with before.

CountryBumkin said:

Is there another PCIe x16 slot you can try it in? Have you added any other cards or moved cards to different slots? I recall having conflicts in the past when I had hardware plugged into shared PCIe slots. I had to rearrange a few cards to get everything working. You may want to remove all the other cards (i.e. an Ethernet card, etc.,, if you have any installed) and just try with the GTX.

You mentioned upgrading the BIOS, but you also said you already upgraded the bIOS once to get this card working. So whatever version you have now should be the same one you had the card working with before.

i tried the GTX in another PCI-E slot and it didnt work. to rule out RAID as a problem I eventually decided to undo all my hard work and start from scratch again installing windows 7 on a single SSD.

I now seem to be facing the same problem but without my GTX installed.

Windows 7 installed fine, I installed the drivers from the disc provided with my motherboard. upon reboot, my PC freezes on the windows login. the lights on my keyboard and mouse are not on, and there is no blinking cursor so i assume my screen is frozen too.

When i went into device manager in safemode, there appears to be an error with the Intel Management Engine Interface. I remember I also had this problem last install but i managed to fix it with some updates.

Here is a screenshot:

Well at least your making progress. I think this confirms that the Graphics card is not bad (or the cause of the problem).
Personally, I only use the motherboard manufacturer's drivers if I see something in device manager that needs fix'in. The Intel MEI and Chipset are drivers I would install from Gigabytes' website. But most of the others will/should come from Windows installation process.
Perhaps you should run MemTest 86+ now. Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool (not the MemTest86 without the "+", which is a different company).
And set BIOS pages to "safe" rather than "optimum" then reinstall again. Leave everything out (graphics card, etc.) and try to get a good install. If you can't get a good Windows install to start with, then everything after that is going to be mucked up.