nVidia issues & My not so smooth Window 7 experience.

I'm on day 3 of attempting to upgrade from Vista 32 to Windows 7 64-bit and what was looking to be a pretty positive experience became a messy situation and the main culprit seems to be nVidia, though I've got an issue with HP as well.

I just thought I'd post my experience, or at least the graphics related part.

I was running a GeForce 8600 GT graphics card which ran fine for 2 years on Vista.

The Windows 7 Clean install seemed to go fine and I began moving my files back and reinstalling all my software (MS Office, Quickbooks, Adobe CS3).
After those were installed I started getting the "display driver stopped working and has restarted" error message and the screen would blink a few times and usually end in a Black Screen where it would just hang. Manually powering down the system was the only way out.

I tried updating the BIOS from HP but they do not have any way to update the BIOS in Windows 7, only Vista. I tried their Vista update anyway, but got a message "Your system does not meet the minimum requirements". I contacted HP support and they said because it's a new OS I have to wait a week or so until they come out with support downloads for Windows 7. Shouldn't they work with the Beta like the rest of the world and have this stuff ready for the launch?

I downloaded the latest drivers from nVidia and that didn't help. Seemed to actually get worse, as now the screen was becoming distorted and began flickering. Tried rolling back the drivers too.

Eventually it would just crash to the BSOD and then would not restart anymore. Just a visual mess of distorted pixels on boot and then a Blue screen of death. Couldn't barely boot to safe mode, but still difficult to see the screen. I tried loading an earlier Restore point. no luck. It ran some Startup repair program which didn't help.

So I pulled the card and reverted back to the onboard graphics card which successfully booted and behaved.

Upon inspection of the GeForce 8600GT I noticed that 5 capacitors had their caps blown. I never heard or smelled them pop, but I'm guessing it happened during this and that is why it doesn't work.

So I went to the store and bought PNY GeForce 9800GT XLR8 1GB graphics card that said it was Windows 7 compatible. I put that in and it would not boot. 2 short beeps, 1 long beep, which is a graphics related error code.
I can only hope that I just need a BIOS update to get this thing working.

Any similar experiences out there?
Any advice?
Anyone want to give me a new Mac

SYSTEM:
HP a6152n
Intel 2.4Ghz Quad-core
8GB RAM
IPIBL-LA Motherboard
Antec 550w TruePower power supply
1TB Seagate 7200
400GB Hitachi

Replacing those caps is simple with basic soldering. If you do so, get low esr type of caps.

The failed card is not Microsoft's or Windows 7's fault. It is either due to a failed electrolyte recipe used by maker or overheating of your card.

For the new card 9800GT, did you connect the internal 6 pin PCI-e power connector from the PSU?

I don't think a bios update will change any kind of compatibility with the new card. I'm incorrect on an occasion or two, so it is still worth a try and peace of mind you have latest bios.

The only thing I've ever seen fry capacitors in a flash is huge over-volting, and that is pretty unlikely to have happened in your circumstances. Capacitors will, however, always deteriorate gradually - it just happens you've noticed it now...

I do plan on getting some new caps and soldering them on. These certainly may have blown over the 2 years it's been in use, and it just kept working fine.
It was just strange how it started off working just fine in Windows 7 and then a couple hours into it, the wheels started to fall of the bus and down she went.

There is no 6-pin power connector on the new 9800 GT XLR8 1GB card. I did check.
The card does do a quick power cycle and fan test when I try to start up, but then the 2 short, 1 long beeps come quickly after that.

For now I'm just stuck using the onboard crappy graphics card and 1 monitor.

I am enjoying Windows 7 so far, aside from this issue.

NHDesigner said:

Eventually it would just crash to the BSOD and then would not restart anymore. Just a visual mess of distorted pixels on boot and then a Blue screen of death.

It happened to me too, with a 1-year-old 9800GX2.

I was in the process of adding RAM modules when it happened. I initially put the blame on my incompatible RAM sticks, but when I reverted to my original RAM setup, the problem persisted. It was on W7 RC 64-bit.

Good thing I didn't miss the warranty when it happened (mine was just a day before it expired).

My heaven-sent retailer replaced it with a GTX275 for free. Yay for me. :)

silentcontrol: Interesting about the RAM. I can't see how that could cause these issues, but I also just installed new RAM (8GB Crucial DDR2). That's the only thing hardware related that changed with my system. I put that in right after The Windows 7 install finished.

Did you notice any blown caps or anything on the graphics card?

NH, when I looked up info on your card, it said it needs one supplementary power connector as a minimum system requirement.

Is this page in error?

PNY

Since I don't own PCI-e equipment myself, I can not be sure and I don't know power specs well, but I can not see your card being able to work or being able to be designed without that connector needed. Please have a look again at it.

I'm sure he only needs the extra power if he is running in SLI mode which means he has 2 them mean buggers

torrent: yeah, it looks like that's incorrect info on that page. That sys. requirement is not listed on the box, and there is definately no input on the card itself. Just a small 2 prong spdif socket for audio when used with HDMI.

Update:
I'm giving up on the PNY GeForce XLR8 9800 GT 1GB card and will return that to the store. It seems it's just not compatible with my ASUS IPBL-LA motherboard or is a defective card.

I just ordered the ATI Sapphire HD 5750 1GB, which I'm really hoping works. The triple display support is exciting.

Also, I got around to testing the original, GeForce 8800 GT, that died after my Windows 7 Install in another computer. The same symptoms appeared so I concluded that it's the card and not a driver issues for that one. I think if I replace the capacitors it should work. I wonder if Win7 is too much for this card to handle though. Win7 was clearly the cause of death for this card.


I'll post what happens when I get the Sapphire card.