GeForce 210 Crashes (Only with Drivers)

[dasshu]

Hello,

I have an NVIDIA GeForce 210 that I have recently bought with a 500W power supply for my Dell Inspiron 530 system. With the default VGA drivers, Windows 7 booted up fine and I could download the drivers from NVIDIA's site. However, when I rebooted after installing the drivers, I was stuck in a boot loop. There didn't appear to be any blue screens; the system just rebooted as soon as it got to the boot splash. I wouldn't think that this would be a power problem, but even trading out for a new card of the same type didn't change anything. Would this be a problem of the computer, or am I installing something incorrectly?

EDIT: Looking through event viewer (I'm using my integrated card), I see several bugchecks with error 0x00000116. I'm assuming this would point to the problem, although I'm not sure how this can be fixed.

EDIT2: I get the feeling this isn't a problem with error 0x00000116, because I can't even press F8 to get into the boot menu without the system rebooting. Part of me still feels like this isn't the system, but I don't know what else it could be.

 

[Saurabh A]

Hi dasshu,

Since you are facing issues after the installation of GeForce 210 display adapter & the power supply, we may be looking at various possible points of failure.

It appears that the physical connections of the display are in place (connected to the discrete graphics adapter on the PC); therefore getting display. Though unlikely, but would recommend you to ensure that the 'power supply cable' is properly connected to the 'graphics card'.

I suspect an issue with the 'display drivers'. Please verify if the 'display drivers' are installed correctly; you may check that in 'Device Manager' under 'Display Adapters' category. You may also perform the following steps to see if they help:

- Start the system in 'Safe Mode' > Open 'Device Manager' > Expand 'Display Adapters' and Right click and uninstall 'nVidia drivers if listed (you may also see a yellow mark besides it) > Allow the system, to power off and restart, when prompted
- Remove any 3rd party peripherals and power cord from the PC > Press & hold the power button for 15-20 seconds to discharge any static current > Connect the power supply, keyboard, mouse and display back > Reboot the system and see if the system starts
- Download and install the 'Display drivers' from 'nVidia website'. you may find the following links useful:

For Windows 7 64 bit: Drivers | GeForce
For Windows 7 32 bit: Drivers | GeForce

If the issue persists, please observe the monitor to find when exactly does the system restart. Does that happen immediately after the 'Dell Logo' or after the 'Windows Logo'.

Do reply with the findings; would be glad to assist.

 

[dasshu]

Thanks for the response!

I removed the nvidia drivers (this was accomplished using the integrated graphics to uninstall the nvidia drivers from Programs and Features, as I couldn't even access the Safe Mode menu), and reinstalled them, but I was stuck in the boot loop as soon as I rebooted from installing them again.

Going with the method of shutting down the system, holding the power button and booting back up had resulted in the system freezing at the Windows splash screen, but turning off and on the system had continued the same boot loop before.

The system appears to restart before the splash screen can even be shown, right after the Dell logo.

 

[Saurabh A]

Hi dasshu,

Thank you for the reply.

Since the system boots up with the 'Integrated display', it appears that the 'Hard Drive' is working optimally. It indicates that the 'nVidia graphics card' is not effectively communicating with the system-board; likely that either the 'nVidia display card' is not properly seated on the 'expansion slot'; the 'power connection' is loose/broken; or there is a possible issue with the 'expansion card slot' in use.

Please try re-seating the 'nVidia Card' and re-check all physical connections; and recheck results.

Hope this helps. Do reply with the findings.