Own an 8800 and hate ntune? Coolbits returns!!

[vrykyl]

First Posted by me here - http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.p...42#post4919942


Ok, first of all MANY MANY Thanks to our very own ViperJohn for bringing this to my attention - you rock :attn:

Right then, iv been reading around online and it seems im not alone in my dislike for the new nvidia 8800 series driver layout (which imo is clunky and akward), which to cap it off wont let you go back to classic mode - AND its stupid insistence that if you want to overclock or monitor your temperatures you have to install ntune...which in itself is another clunky app which installs extra services to run on your pc..... all in all, it feels a bit unneccesary just for temps and a few sliders....

So, the fix, courtesy of ViperJohn, myself and a bit of experimenting with my 8800gts

Firstly - to restore the nvidia drivers to the classic control panel simply:

Open NotePad then copy and paste the following into a text document and then save it with
a "NV Classic CP.reg" file extention. Use the quotes when you save or Notepad will add a
.txt extension onto the file which you do not want.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; NVIDIA Windows 2000/XP Display Coolbits file
; Copyright (c) NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NvCplApi\Policies]
"SedonaDisable"=dword:00000001
"ContextUIPolicy"=dword:00000001
"TaskbarUIPolicy"=dword:00000001
"CplGroupUIPolicy"=dword:00000001

After saving right click the NV Classic CP.reg file you created to merge it into the registry and
bingo you have the good old Classic (and useable) CP back.

Bingo! The classic panel is back with a vengance.

Now this got me thinking, if the classic panel now works again, maybe coolbits will too? So I download coolbits2...install and presto - Nvidia drivers now have FULL temperature monitoring AND the ability to overclock again...complete with coolbits sliders for core and memory

Iv been trying it out and the clocking and temp monitor both work perfectly - no ntune needed and drivers that are easy to navigate!


So there you go 8xxx series users - get the classic control panel back and use coolbits again!

[lanceuppercut]

nice, is this just limited to overclocking in 2k/xp or does it work in vista too?

[chuckskull]

nice, is this just limited to overclocking in 2k/xp or does it work in vista too?

Just tried it on Vista x64 with 101.41 drivers running a 7950GT. The reg stuff here reverts to the classic control panel, temp and overclocking panels appear but are greyed out.

Installing Coolbits afterward just makes the control panel crash on opening.

[Smokey21]

Just use Rivatuner guys, it's what im using. Much better for temp monitoring as well, and way more tweaks if you want them.

[chuckskull]

Just use Rivatuner guys, it's what im using. Much better for temp monitoring as well, and way more tweaks if you want them.

Wont work on vista x64 because of the driver signing thing should work fine in 32bit though.

[rmaciag]

I had nTune on my system before upgrading to 8800 GTS. I tried to use it after the upgrade and got BSOD. I think I read somewhere that nTune does not work with 8800. The outcome of my trial seems to support that claim.

The card : XFX GF 8800 GTS 640MB (not o/c)
The driver : 6.14.10.9792
The nTune : 5.05.25.00_ntune_winxp_international.exe

I will follow the advice from this thread and let's see what happens.

[Agent]

Wont work on vista x64 because of the driver signing thing should work fine in 32bit though.

At command prompt

bcdedit.exe -set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS

Will disable that

Edit - no idea if it will solve it as there might be other things at play.

[chuckskull]

At command prompt

bcdedit.exe -set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS

Will disable that

Edit - no idea if it will solve it as there might be other things at play.

Yup tried that one(and the F8 at boot way and another command prompt one). There seem to be 2 levels of driver signing as fas as I can tell. When I did this I could install unsigned drivers from people like Nvidia, but still not rivatuner etc. x64 has much stricter signing too.

[Agent]

Annoying. You would think they would give you the option, if not atleast well hidden.

I remember reading somthing a while back about them stamping down on it as its an 'ideal' way to pass a large number of the DRM in XP. Wonder if they have hidden motives in what they are doing?

[chuckskull]

Yeah I suspect you're right, as it's been moved in now and in a couple of years when 32bit gets dumped for larger RAM etc, it'll be pretty much forced on everyone. Oddly enough x64 still gives you the same option when you go to install an unsigned driver, but doesn't actually do anything when you click allow.

Oh well the hackers/crackers will just move onto faked the sigs probably, someone always finds a way around these things.

Hidden motives or not it's annoying. I'm actually going to try the reg fix this thread was about seeing as I now have a 8800

EDIT: Nah no dice. Rundll.32 crash. Oh well I think my GTS can last a little longer without being Oc'd

[Wiczy]

Anyone looking for a way to overclock in Vista, look no further that Gainwards XPERTool

ATITool works too but it's very hit and miss, or of course just flash the video card bios

[will101]

I have just been trying to overclock my XFX 320MB GTS.

I have XP x64 and Vista x64 so can switch to XP if the util won't install.

Vista didn't allow Rivatuner and ATITool to install drivers so it was a quick trip to XP to install them there.

Rivatuner I couldn't get my head round and ATITool (.27 Beta) has no fan control settings that I could see. I did get the core from 513 to 680 with no artifacts on one run and the mem from 790 to 1000 (the mem oc ceiling I had set beforehand). All this was on stock cooling and stock fan settings with the temp maxing out at 86degC. Ideally I'd like to OC the streams too but that doesn't seem so straight forward. If I had H2O cooling I'd be happier running at these speeds but that's not on the immediate list yet.

If anyone has any links to a good guide on using either of these utils that would be appreciated.

[will101]

NiBiTor looked to be the favorite in terms of ease of use.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to flash the modified BIOS to the card as I don't have a floppy installed. It really is time the computer industry moved away from relying on old old old hardware for things like installing raid drivers and flashing BIOS.