GeForce GT220 with Asus A8N-E on Windows 7

kronflux · 16 May 2010

hey everyone,
this is a problem I'm having with a buddy of mine's computer..
he's got a GeForce GT220(it actually says 216 on the card itself, but I know I searched 220 when I solved the problem previously, and thats the closest driver that seems to be on nvidia's site.. so.)
he's got an Asus A8N-E and windows 7 installed.
basically what happens is windows shows the "starting windows" screen, then goes to a black screen and freezes there.
as I said, I've solved the problem before, I guess it was a problem with the newer drivers or something? after hours of searching, I found someone with the same problem who switched to a previous version of the drivers, in fact, I think the drivers were Windows Vista drivers. after installing those, it worked perfectly.
unfortunately I have no idea where I found out which drivers to use, and am failing to come up with the appropriate search terms in google, so I'm hoping someone here can help out with the problem and save me several hours of searching again!

wullthebull · 16 May 2010

cant you just go to nvidias site and then to drivers and put in your system as vista and it should find the drivers for you

kronflux · 16 May 2010

well I guess the latest drivers, regardless of the system, don't work for this combination of hardware and operating system. so, as much as I'd like for your answer to be the right one, it's not quite that simple :P

thefabe · 16 May 2010

Welcome to Seven Forums. after doing some searching and not knowing if your running 32 or 64 bit Seven. Ausu only offers Vista drivers. I read on another forum about bios updates for some PCI-e cards causing freezing. They reccommend you have the lastest chipset drivers installed then check in on updating the bios as can be found here under expanded bios this is 32 bit Vista ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Support- Hope in some way this can lead you to a fix. Fabe

kronflux · 17 May 2010

sorry. I did forget to mention, it is a 32bit install of windows 7. and the graphics card is a BGF Tech GeForce GT220 1GB DDR2 PCI-E. (BFGEGT2201024D2BE)
after a lot of searching, I've come up with no luck in finding a bios update for this card. the manufacturer's website only offers a link for drivers, and that simply takes you to the nVidia site.
I also looked on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 285 275 260 ATI Radeon HD 4890 4870 4850 4830 :: MVKTech :: On the Edge of Technology but again found nothing.
and I've already updated the motherboard to the latest bios which had no effect whatsoever.
any ideas?

Rik55 · 17 May 2010

It sound like the new drivers are selecting a resolution that your monitor doesn't support.

Try- Boot, Hold F8 - Select Enable Low Resolution mode (640x480). This will enable Windows to load with full driver support at a set resolution of 640x480x32@60Hz. You should then be able to open the nVidia Control Centre and select your monitors native resolution.

kronflux · 17 May 2010

alrighty, I tried that, and it did the same thing. just goes to that blank screen right after the starting windows logo.
I tried safe mode, which worked fine, but unfortunately you can't open nvidia control panel from safe mode. is there some registry key I can change or something that stores the default resolution to boot with?

Rik55 · 18 May 2010

What about trying the other port on the video card (use an adapter if needed). Maybe the driver has changed the order and it now thinks that your monitor is monitor 2 (which by default is off until extended)

kronflux · 18 May 2010

well, I have dual monitors set up, so even if the default was overridden, it would simply switch to the other monitor.

thefabe · 18 May 2010

Sorry the link I provided only shows a bios update to correct PCI-e freezing with 64 bit Vista.