9600 GSO and 7300 GS together

[Emil Alexe]

Hello there !

I am trying to use 3 monitors on my PC. I already had two, and just bought a cheap 7300GS from someone and took a display from one of my friends. I already had Windows 7 installed for like 2 or 3 months, with drivers, software and games, all the stuff working ok, including a web and mysql server.

Then I just turned the computer off, plugged in the 7300GS on the secondary PCI-E graphics slot, booted up my sistem, installed an extra nVidia driver, for 7 series and it was all OK for 2 days,after which the bluescreens started to show up.

It would work just fine, then after restart gave blank-screen on windows logon + BSOD immediately after, and after BSOD's auto-restart, it would let me choose from startup repair and normal startup, where normal had the same BSOD problem. I was forced to run startup repair, after 5 million years of intensive windows-like scanning , it was saying it can't find anything wrong, but it worked again after restart.

Then I could enter Windows quite normally, on 3 monitors again, but after another shutdown the same thing happened all over again and again.

Sooo, in my wisdom, I decided to download the latest available Win7 version (mine was still beta). And I reinstalled Windows 7, but still have problems.

Each graphic card runs perfectly smooth and flawless on its own, no matter which one it is or on which PCI-E port it stands.

I tried this:

1. Start Windows with both cards, let Win 7 download it's own drivers. Restart => BSOD.

2. Start Windows, let it download drivers, then removing them from device manager. Then installed 2 nVidia drivers, one for each graphic card. Restart => BSOD.

3. Same as 2 with only one driver that supports both 7 and 9 series graphic processors (and I tested many versions of these drivers, newer or older, beta or non-beta). Restart => BSOD.

4. Set from GPEDIT.msc so that windows does not auto-install drivers, and installed only the nVidia ones, same problem.

So NOTHING WORKS ! BIOS is set at default factory settings, for being sure there is no problem because of this. All frequencies and voltages are default, no overclocking.

Also to be mentioned that on Windows XP 32-bit it works perfectly fine with solution No. 3 (same driver for both cards). Absolutely no problem !


Is there anything I can do to make it work under Win 7 ? Or do I need another 9 series card ?

 

[thefabe]

Although I have no real solution for your I admire your tenacity. Personaly I would just buy (if your concidering buying another card) one of the ATI 5XXX series cards that support 3 monitors on 1 card. Like this one with DX11,GDDR5,Eyefinity 2 dvi out and 1 HDMI Newegg.com - XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

 

[ultraplanet]

Maybe a power supply problem?? Try unplugging one of your hard drives for a few minutes to test. Just an idea.

 

[thefabe]

Also check out this thread http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/35975-dual-card-trouble-8800gt-5200fx.html If anyone can get your cards to work together it's torrentg. Fabe

 

[Emil Alexe]

Maybe a power supply problem?? Try unplugging one of your hard drives for a few minutes to test. Just an idea.

I said that it is running PERFECTLY in Windows XP !!!

So there is definitely no hardware problem. Just a matter of drivers. I think. And compatibility with the OS.

I would actually consider sticking to Win XP till 7 gets more stable, but I got to tell ya, DirectX10 and mostly the user interface in Win7 are addictive as hell Especially when you do PHP/MySQL and you work with a lot of windows, files and folders, Win 7's interface and features are wonderful !

 

[stormy13]

I said that it is running PERFECTLY in Windows XP !!!

That would be because both cards were using identical drivers. You'll probably find the problem you are running into is that the 9600 can use the WDDM 1.1 driver, while the 7300 is using the WDDM 1.0 version. The problem is that despite the differences between the 1.1 and 1.0, the cards are still trying to use the same driver which aren't really the same (there will be some of the driver files that are the same and some different). Nvidia used to include that info on the download page,

• Installs WDDM v1.1 for GeForce 8, 9, and 200-series DirectX 10 GPUs.
• Installs WDDM v1.0 for GeForce 6 and 7-series DirectX 9 GPUs.

but for whatever reason have removed it.

Be willing to bet that if you could get your hands on a cheap 8400GS or something (even a completely different make of card, ATI), the BSOD's would go away.

 

[thefabe]

Couldn't have been a more polite suggestion, Try and go a little easier on the guy no need to shout. Thanks

 

[Emil Alexe]

Not a shout, just pointing out so that it is clear for everyone.

 

[torrentg]

Upload the .inf you're using to install and attach to a post. I'll look and see if I could get them both to run WDDM 1.1.

Should be able to at least attempt with a few edits. I'll attach to a post. You can replace and then try to update the old card through device manager method.

 

[Emil Alexe]

Don't worry anymore, I gave up. Just gonna buy a series 9 in a few weeks. Not worth the effort. And I will have a somewhat new card, not an old series.

 

[mushroomboy]

Just get a 9 card that has HDMI, really though most cards have 2xDVI and 1 composite or high dev, even svideo. You should be able to get something to work from that? =P

 

[torrentg]

Don't worry anymore, I gave up. Just gonna buy a series 9 in a few weeks. Not worth the effort. And I will have a somewhat new card, not an old series.

Alright, but I would have had it working for you. Especially with some things I learned very recently.

 

[mushroomboy]

Yeah or you could just get the AV cables that come with the card and plug in the RGB? I don't remember the colors, but whatever isn't composite.... =P And you can get up to 1080i resolution I think? Anyways one card can do 3 monitors, 2 cards should be able to do 6! =P

 

[Emil Alexe]

Alright, but I would have had it working for you. Especially with some things I learned very recently.

OK, not hard to upload a file, after all.

Here's the file.

 

[torrentg]

Alright....for the 7300 GS. Right click on it in device manager. Properties. Details tab. Change dropdown to hardware ids. Copy and paste results here.

I am going to make the install use WDDM 1.1 to match other better card. And if it works, they both will use 1.1 driver and be happy. In theory, it is going to work.

We can try.

 

[Emil Alexe]

I removed my main video card, and placed the 7300 on the secondary PCI-E port, where I want it to be. I don't know if this matters, but I didn't want to get wrong results by placing it on the main port

The data :

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01D3&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_A1
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01D3&SUBSYS_00000000
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01D3&REV_A1
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01D3
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01D3&CC_030000
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01D3&CC_0300

The video card is reported by device manager as 7300 SE/7200 GS, not 7300 GS as I said before.

 

[torrentg]

Here ya go. Put both cards in the system. Overwrite NV_DISP.inf with mine at C:\NVIDIA...

Try updating the 7300 by using the device manager. Right click on 7300. Update driver software. Browse. Let me pick. Have disk. Browse. Double click on NV_DISP.inf that I made and you moved to the correct folder inside C:\NVIDIA....

Hit ok (maybe next too) and let it install. Reboot and see if both cards are working well.

This assumes that you already have 9600 working well to start. If not, you can use same process to install driver for that card too.

Let me know how it goes! We had to try, right? (Edit - Download now again. I fixed something as of 11:15 AM est. - Double checked to be good.)

 

[Emil Alexe]

Doesn't work.

It just reboots with blank screen (normal boot screen - then blank and reboot) or with BSOD. The BSOD most oftenly has no info, only general info, unexpected hardware problem or something like that.