Visat 256Mb Video Card Recommendation

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dave
  • Start date Start date
D

Dave

Can anyone recommend a 256MB video card fro 32-bit Vista that does not
completely freeze up occasionally. I have a GeForce 7900 card that randomly
locks up. Only a power off-on will get it going.

I am not into gaming so a low to medium performance card is all I need. No
overcloking needed.
 
Dave,

A GeForce 7900 256 MB card is a perfectly good card that should be able to
work properly in Vista. Perhaps you have a driver issue. Have you tried the
most recent Vista compatible drivers from the manufacturers website? If not,
try that before discarding the card in favor of something else.

For best results, it's best to remove the previous video card drivers before
installing the updated drivers. The drivers should be listed in Control
Panel > Add/Remove Programs. Find them and delete them before installing the
new ones. You also can download DriverCleaner, a free utility that can
remove the drivers for you. Use google to find them. The latest version is
Vista compatible.

In addition, follow the manufacturers instructions exactly for installing
any updated drivers. You should be able to find the instructions on the
website that has the drivers available for download.
 
freddy said:
Dave,

A GeForce 7900 256 MB card is a perfectly good card that should be able to
work properly in Vista. Perhaps you have a driver issue. Have you tried
the
most recent Vista compatible drivers from the manufacturers website? If
not,
try that before discarding the card in favor of something else.

For best results, it's best to remove the previous video card drivers
before
installing the updated drivers. The drivers should be listed in Control
Panel > Add/Remove Programs. Find them and delete them before installing
the
new ones. You also can download DriverCleaner, a free utility that can
remove the drivers for you. Use google to find them. The latest version
is
Vista compatible.

In addition, follow the manufacturers instructions exactly for installing
any updated drivers. You should be able to find the instructions on the
website that has the drivers available for download.
Click to expand...
I have tried the new drivers from the Nvidia site but it still locks up.

I didn't unload any previous drivers so I will give that a try.
 
Dave,

Another poster said that the latest nVidea driver installer provide the
option to uninstall the previous drivers. I wouldn't know, but just a heads
up in case you see this option. It still doesn't hurt to uninstall the old
drivers by other means.

freddy
 
freddy said:
Dave,

Another poster said that the latest nVidea driver installer provide the
option to uninstall the previous drivers. I wouldn't know, but just a
heads
up in case you see this option. It still doesn't hurt to uninstall the
old
drivers by other means.

freddy
Click to expand...

I did get the driver yesterday from the nVidia site. I just remember what I
did though in terms of the nVidia update options.

In any case I will try it again when I get home.
 
freddy said:
Dave,

Another poster said that the latest nVidea driver installer provide the
option to uninstall the previous drivers. I wouldn't know, but just a heads
up in case you see this option. It still doesn't hurt to uninstall the old
drivers by other means.

freddy
Click to expand...
I uninstall ed the old drivers and used the nVidia drivers for my
GeForce 7900GS

Driver Date: 4/17/2007
7.15.11.5818

I still get the occasional lockup. CTL-ALT-DEl is to no avail. Must do
power off-power on to get it up again.
 
David said:
I uninstall ed the old drivers and used the nVidia drivers for my GeForce
7900GS

Driver Date: 4/17/2007
7.15.11.5818

I still get the occasional lockup. CTL-ALT-DEl is to no avail. Must do
power off-power on to get it up again.
Click to expand...

Once in awhile I get a message that the video driver caused an error but
that Vista recovered from the error.
 
Dave,

Ha, your comments indicate that you have the old VPU Recovery problem. VPU
recovery is a technology included in Vista, but was developed by ATI. The
technology is intended to recover from a graphics issue without crashing the
computer.

So, instead of crashing the system, and thus having to reboot, the
technology just crashes the graphics function and then recovers. It doesn't
always work that way, but that's the idea. Sometimes you still crash the
system. It depends on how serious the problem is.

VPU recovery issues oftentimes are caused by some hardware conflict, but it
can be difficult in finding the problem and eliminating it. Some of the
things that can cause the problem is outdated or buggy chipset drivers,
improper RAM or processor, timings (overclocking), or some other incompatible
hardware lurking in the background.

To learn more use google to get information and to find steps to take to
resolve the issue. Post back so that we can learn, tool.
 
freddy said:
Dave,

Ha, your comments indicate that you have the old VPU Recovery problem. VPU
recovery is a technology included in Vista, but was developed by ATI. The
technology is intended to recover from a graphics issue without crashing the
computer.

So, instead of crashing the system, and thus having to reboot, the
technology just crashes the graphics function and then recovers. It doesn't
always work that way, but that's the idea. Sometimes you still crash the
system. It depends on how serious the problem is.

VPU recovery issues oftentimes are caused by some hardware conflict, but it
can be difficult in finding the problem and eliminating it. Some of the
things that can cause the problem is outdated or buggy chipset drivers,
improper RAM or processor, timings (overclocking), or some other incompatible
hardware lurking in the background.

To learn more use google to get information and to find steps to take to
resolve the issue. Post back so that we can learn, tool.
Click to expand...


Well no overclocking here. Control panel shows everything is OK but then
it may not catch everything.

Lockups sometimes happen when I use Thunderbird and scroll up and down
in a newsgroup. But then it happens elsewhere too.
 
David,

You're best bet is to take troubleshooting steps one at a time. For
example, you can start by installing the latest chipset drivers, if you
haven't already done so. I suppose you know what those are. You get them
from the website of the manufacturer of your motherboard. If you have a VIA
based motherboard, those drivers would be the 4-in-1 drivers. Each
manufacturer has its own unique drivers, so be sure to get the right ones,
goes without saying. If that doesn't correct the issue, then move on to the
next step. The best way to approach this is to find a website that lists
troubleshooting steps for VPU Recovery problems, and then just use those as
your guide. I'll look to try to find such a site and post it here. Check
back.
 
David,

I found something right away. This will get you started:

http://www.foxpop.com/imre/2005/vpurecover/vpurecover.html

This site addresses ATI cards because that technology first came out on
their cards, since they developed it. Now that Microsoft is using the same
technology, the issues and troubleshooting steps should be similar. Take a
look and get started. This the best I can do.

I had this problem once, and the cause turned out to be an incompatibility
between my processor and the motherboard chipset. I installed an earlier
processor, and the problem was solved. This problem showed up no where and
only manifested itself by producing a VPU Recovery error. Tough.
 
David,

Here is a post that could apply to you. Take a look at your BIOS, quote:

I am an amateur but I found this solution to the hang problem that was
plagueing my system.

In the Award BIOS advance CPU setting I disabled the Intel timing control
and the CIE. I found this suggestion on an overclocking site.

This seems to have cured the hang problem completely and has allowed the
system to sync at a higher speed. Vista would not run well even under the
stock and recommended settings in the BIOS. I had not attended closely to
these settings previously. The same system, the same settings, worked
flawlessly in XP 32 and XP 64. Not in Vista. Your Display module seems very
sensitive to this issue and would freeze when the system lagged, worse at
higher bus settings. Memory diagnostics did not detect the problem.

Just thought I would past that on. The world is good now. No more screen
freeze.

Unquote

You never know where the problem could be, so check it out.
 
freddy said:
David,

Here is a post that could apply to you. Take a look at your BIOS, quote:

I am an amateur but I found this solution to the hang problem that was
plagueing my system.

In the Award BIOS advance CPU setting I disabled the Intel timing control
and the CIE. I found this suggestion on an overclocking site.

This seems to have cured the hang problem completely and has allowed the
system to sync at a higher speed. Vista would not run well even under the
stock and recommended settings in the BIOS. I had not attended closely to
these settings previously. The same system, the same settings, worked
flawlessly in XP 32 and XP 64. Not in Vista. Your Display module seems very
sensitive to this issue and would freeze when the system lagged, worse at
higher bus settings. Memory diagnostics did not detect the problem.

Just thought I would past that on. The world is good now. No more screen
freeze.

Unquote

You never know where the problem could be, so check it out.
Click to expand...

I will put that one in the things to try notes. BTW the MB is
ELITEGROUP P4M800PRO-M with a 2.66MHz P4 and 1GB


Thanks.. Dave
 
David said:
I will put that one in the things to try notes. BTW the MB is
ELITEGROUP P4M800PRO-M with a 2.66MHz P4 and 1GB


Thanks.. Dave
Click to expand...

I mean it is an Abit IP-95 with a P4!!
 
David,

Too bad. I mean, you could have fixed the issue right then. Keep looking.
It's there somewhere.
 
David,

I neglected to also say that you should check a Vista report for possible
specific
errors and corrective measures to take: Click on Start (icon) and select All
Programs. Then, select Maintenance > Problem Reports and Solutions. When
that report opens, select from among the Tasks on the left margin. Here you
may (hopefully) see specific information about what caused your problem.
Take a look to see what information might be there. You might get lucky.
 
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