HOWTO: fix nvidia BSOD during Vista RC1 setup

[Niklas]

Normal Start
-Machine Posts.
-Black Screen.
-Reboot.

Safe Mode
-See all the drivers load upto crcdisk.sys
-when the graphics are about to be initialise (to show the moving green bar and the microsoft text) it black screens and reboots.

This is even with the PCI graphics card in and set to first bios device.
As soon as the 7950 GX2 is removed everything is fine.

I'm using the OEM 7950 GX2 (the 13 inch one) Bios version 5.71.22.15.06

Asus P5W @ bios 1407 (tried 1305 or something also)

I'll send money to the first person to come up with the fix! This is driving me mad

[Niklas]

I've since sound out that even though my card is reported as a 7950 GX2
its one of the early 7900 GTX Duo's.
I don't know if this is the source of my trouble now as others are running fine with 7950GX2s :'(

[charleski]

Sounds like your card is the same as mine (actually a 7900GX2, the original QuadSLI card).

Can you install Vista using your PCI card?
If so, then try deleting the packaged nvidia drivers (location given in the first post, and search the rest to make sure you delete all copies of nvlddkm.sys), turn the machine off and insert the 7900 then try booting to see if it'll go into one of the VGA base modes.

[CKen]

Hey all,

I guess my problem is the same or similar - but I can't quite see how to do the suggested fix. Here is how it happens on my system:

- Booting with the RC2 DVD loaded and select to boot on DVD when prompted.
- "Windows is loading files" for about a minute and a half
- The loading screen with the green scrolling bar at the bottom appears for about 20 seconds
- The crystal screen appears and it is loading from the DVD for nearly 3 minutes.
- Then it seems to getting ready to restart when the following BSoD appears (not my screenshot, but it is the same error message, except it does not start to dump memory)
http ://img218.imageshack.us/img218/1426/bladfl2.jpg

Any suggestions on how to handle this? It seems that mine crashes at a much earlier stage than what I have seen described above, so I don't see where I'd go to do the necessary modifications?

Thanks a lot for any and all suggestions!

PS! Im doing the 32bit install.


Ken

[lrankine]

Looks like I'm in the same boat as others in here. I've tried deleting the recommended file (doing a 64bit install) and after rebooting it tells me the computer restarted unexpectedly.........click ok.....restart the installation.....refrain..... I've downloaded the Nvidia 64 drivers on my other PC (thank God I've got one!) and ran the install to the point where it tells me the OS isn't the same. I've now got the drivers and they appear to be "expanded." Am I able to now copy these drivers over to my soon to be (hopefully) "vista" pc? And if so which ones and where to I put them?

Thanks in advance for any help you folks can provide!

[lrankine]

Ok, forget everything I just posted. Save yourself a LOT of time, trouble and aggravation and go buy/borrow another vid card to replace the 7950 GX2 for installation. I'll be trying to put the 7950 GX2 back in now that I've got it up and running. Wish me Luck!

[Maelgwn87]

if in doubt after this explanation - try going to www . geocities . com / vista_installation_7950gx2 /

This fix works for a normal 7950 GX2 if there are no OTHER complications (incompatible motherboard etc....)

And to niklas:
Id suggest redownloading the installer disk - it might be corrupt...

[Niklas]

Thanks for the tip Maelgwn87 but the install sets fine. It installed all the way with a PCI Mach64
But as soon as I reintroduce the 7950GX2 it wont get past the end of the boot loader

[nemesis2k3]

I have tried to install vista ultimate x86 on my computer and it starts to install and everything seems fine and it reaches certain points in the installation and its as if the graphics card shuts down and I have to restart the computer to get it to try and carry on with the installation and then it just stops with the monitor going into standby as before as if the graphics card shuts down.

My system is as follows:

Q6600 Quad-Core @ 2.4Ghz
4Gb Dragon Memory
500Gb SATA II Hard Drive
Nvidia 8800GTX PCI-E 2.0 OC2

Any ideas would be grateful as other people I have spoken to have tried to install vista but say it won't install on a Q6600 system as even the people where i bought the computer from have tried and can't get it to install!!!

[TAKTAK]

try installing with 1 stick of RAM in the system....


might have been better to start a new thread matey....