6800GT or Dual Sata2 mobo problem?

[chriswood_7]

Hey guys

Having a few major problems with my display on my home rig. Completely out of the blue and confusing... It started when I turned my system on and got an error upon loading windows that my graphics card signal was out of range? A bouncing white and blue box around the screen showing vertical and horizontal frequencies of the monitor, and the vertical and horizontal frequencies it was currently set at? Now, this doesnt happen until I install my vNidia drivers, if I used DC3 to uninstall my drivers I can get windows to boot no problem, until I go to install my drivers. Then as soon as the drivers begin to install, half way through when the resolution check occurs, the same error comes up again! Its bloody frustrating and confusing. After many methods last night, I managed to get it to work.. but I can afford to keep formatting and reinstalling windows as I need access regularly to emails etc.

Has this ever occurred with any of you guys, and if so.. what was the problem? If its the graphics card, how does that just happen... (and why is it working ok now?).. and if its the motherboard, could it be just a faulty AGP port/windows related thing? The mobo is a lot newer and cheaper to replace than my 6800GT so I can return that as faulty..

Cheers

Chris

[kalniel]

It sounds like the default options on your drivers are too high. It shouldn't be setting a resolution/refresh rate out of bounds during installation, and if it does it should revert down to a lower resolution when you don't press ok.

But basically it's a problem with your monitor not supporting those refresh rates/resolutions. Try a different driver set and make sure before you install it that you keep the windows resolution low and the refresh rate low (start off at 60hz). Once you've installed the drivers fine at these settings then try upping them and find out what you can manage.

[chriswood_7]

Hi mate

I have a grands worth of HDTV system that goes up to 1900x1080 and its still not picking the signal, so it must be graphics or mobo related... as ive managed to single out any monitor etc

Thanks for the help

Chris

[kalniel]

It doesn't matter what the monitor is if the driver is telling it the wrong refresh rates. HDTV systems (and any LCD displays too) generally just use 60hz and cannot use higher. CRTs generally go up to 75- 85hz so if the driver thinks it is driving a CRT and sets something like 75hz it will be out of range for the display. Can you confirm you get an 'out of range' error rather than a 'no signal' error?

Other things to check are things like whether the driver is doing anything funny with multiple displays and/or digital/analogue outputs.

The reason I suspect driver issues rather than mobo/gfx card is that you are able to work fine on windows drivers, which suggest a signal is being processed and outputed correctly.

[chriswood_7]

Hi mate

Yeah I get an out of range signal on my monitor, and a no signal error on my LCD tv.. so i wonder whether unplugging everything etc might make it work? As soon as I install my gfx card it goes belly up! Might try unplugging my tv for a while, thanks very much for your help..

Chris

[kalniel]

From your symptoms I think you may have two problems.

1) Out of range signal on monitor - this suggests incorrect resolution and/or refresh rate, as stated. Correct by manually setting refresh rate and resolution low *before* driver installation. If driver is always setting too high, don't use those drivers and instead download some other ones from the NVidia website. Maybe try installing the drivers in safe mode, or booting into safe mode after installing them and adjust the settings there.

Another thing to try is installing monitor drivers.

2) No signal on TV - this suggests the TV is not getting the input it requires from the gfx card. Most likely it is looking for a digital input and you are giving it analogue, or vice versa. What outputs do you have from your gfx card? Alternatively you are plugging the TV into your second display output on your card but windows or the drivers have disabled this display (similar thing happens with laptops when you plug them into a projector - you sometimes have to cycle display outputs until you get the combination you want).