Random freezing/crashing with Nvidia GeForce GT 220

distribute · 11 Sep 2010

MRPOKERDUDE said:

I had the exact same issues for a few months. Dell could never find the problem. I hunted forums like this and found it to be a big problem for a lot of people. I phoned Dell again and set up sharing so i could show them pictures i took of BSOD and also this forum. They sent an engineer out the next day with a replacement Graphics Card (the same one - Nvidia gt220) and the problem has been solved! Thankfully!

Yes, even after trying so many different things to fix this, including updating the driver and whatnot, having Dell replace the card with the same one was ultimately the way I solved the problem. Strange. Well at least I didn't have to buy a new graphics card.

TVeblen · 12 Sep 2010

There were a rash of video cards put out by ATI and nVidia, right around the time of the nVidia GTX 220-240-260's, that were failing at alarming numbers. I believe that there was some hardware design flaw that ran smack up against the release of W7, the new intel motherboard designs (most notably the elimination of the Northbridge), 64 bit OS, and new, video intensive software. Consider that while ATI and nVidia make the GPU, the actual video card is made by the individual Vendors (XFX, EVGA, etc).

It was rumored that most Vendors redesigned the cards to correct the issues and replaced them on an as needed basis in a "silent recall".

If that is to be believed then it is not a stretch to imagine that a company like Dell got a trailer load of bad cards on a bargain and has been trying to dig out at their customers' inconvenience. We see an awful lot of Dells with video issues that have graphics of that era, both here at SF and on computer builder newsgroups.

It may not be so strange after all.

PaulSh · 18 Sep 2010

This is one of those times when you wish you'd thoroughly Googled before buying something...

I have a GT 240 that's unstable in Win7-64 with Aero. I've only just moved from XP to 7, but the card arrived before 7 did so I was running under XP for a few days. In XP, "normal" desktop performance was solid, but anything that used CUDA crashed after a few seconds. In Win7, it's more stable with CUDA, but less stable with the desktop. I don't really want to disable Aero if all that's doing is masking an underlying issue. I'm using the latest drivers and BIOS, with nothing exotic in the BIOS settings

I'm a bit short on choice for graphics cards. I need a Win7 compatible card that supports CUDA because I have software that needs it, and is fanless because it's in a low-noise PC for my home music studio (I did check the GPU temperature - it never gets above 70C even after an hour of 95%+ GPU usage). Are there really any alternatives to the 220/240? Well, apart from water cooling, I suppose.

terrorjoekel · 03 Oct 2010

oke i bought a pc with windows 7 and the nvidia geforce gt220 wich is the perfect card for me.
but when i bought bfbc2 the "old driver" problem occured, so i decided to update it.
this is when the shit begins. my pc started to do the same things a your pc is doing now.
so maybe you can better go back to the driver that was on the pc when you bought it.
a downgrade didnt solved the problem the only thing i could do is a systemrestore.

well good luck with it

terrorjoekel · 03 Oct 2010

ow and next time you buy a video card choose an ati theye are much more steady

LiquidSnak · 03 Oct 2010

I have been baffled by this problem since I built this computer and tried to install windows7. I have replaced every component except my CD drives to try and solve this issue, except for a brand new motherboard and a brand new graphics card, which I had RMA'd. I recently tried running the system with the onboard radeon 4200, and bam, problem gone. I am about to try the new driver from NVIDIA, and I hope it works, because this has been the most frustrating thing I have ever encountered.

Update: With the Nvidia GT220, and the new drivers posted by Nvidia, the freezing issue still occurs. Took the card back out, and it's working fine again.

dzodzu · 30 Oct 2010

I have a gt240 with the freezing and bsods issues on windows 7 x64. Tried every possible drivers, but seems like there is no hope actually, these 2xx models are just really badly manufactured. Looks like Nvidia just doesn't give a sh*t to solve it, and they want to completely abandon 2xx series. Anyone found a solution for that? You said before actually that turning off aero helps... but without aero video performance is a sh*t, what should I do?

I will try windows Vista.. at least Vista is working good enough without aero.

dzodzu · 30 Oct 2010

Anyone want to buy a 240gt 1gb ddr3? :P

TVeblen · 31 Oct 2010

No.

Hang it on your wall. Make a little shrine out of it. Give it offerings of spare change daily. That should appease the computer gods and protect you from future visitations of the hardware gremlins!

dzodzu · 31 Oct 2010

Ha haha, lol'd hard :) But seriously: DO NOT BUY gt/gtx 2xx series!!!! I heard somewhere that NVidia is selling the 4xx at a half price now (or soon) o_O Don't get deceived guys, there must be a reason for that too!