Hardware & Technical Upgrade suggestions needed

[Matt168]

Thank you all for persisting with me here.

I swapped over to the PSU adapter in the card's box. Booting up the machine with the case open, I get a (stunning) MSI logo illuminated on the end of the card and can see fans rotate, so there is power. It lights up, moves and displays these words as I type them, so does that leave me looking at a software problem now?

I have run DDU and reinstalled the drivers - I am a little suspicious that the installer thought the drivers were already present, but still continued to install.

Finally, I also found an unknown device in the Device Manager. I told the PC it was a display adapter (see the next line about it being in a PCI slot - there is only card in my machine) but so far it was only interested in giving it generic VGA drivers. Windows knows the device is located in PCI bus 1, with device and function shown as 0. I ought to check the BIOS to be sure it's configured the right way, but I don't think I had an issue with the original card so can't think that it would have changed.

Is my first Windows reinstall looming?

 

[Matt168]

Oh, and I'm DLing the last version of the drivers from the manufacturer's site... any more straws I can clutch at?

 

[Matt168]

Forgive my doubt, but the BIOS was indeed not right. It still won't attach the new drivers to the device though - installation fails, with no further detail given why. The card is now an unknown device again, but at least it's location is recorded as "on Intel(R) processor PCI Express Root Port 1 - D138" which seems closer to what it should be.

Seems like someone else had a comparable issue and ended up reinstalling Windows... http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2485239/gtx-970-detected-windows-card-put.html

Funny how you can have such a love-hate relationship with your PC.

 

[Porina]

Just to make sure something else hasn't happened, have you tried putting your old card back in and making sure that still works?

 

[GuruNot]

Have you tried resetting your CMOS ? I have had issues in the past with MBs passing stale data to the OS and not detecting a change .... Clearing the CMOS , forces it to rescan everything.

Make note of any adjusted settings first, XMP Memory profiles / AHCI / boot order etc.

 

[Matt168]

Finally up and running. I think I had tried this last night, though perhaps not before I'd looked at the BIOS settings, but what I ended up doing was pointing the unknown video device to the folder where the Nvidia drivers were installed. At last they went in properly.

ED is a pretty consistent 60 FPS now and I never realised how smooth the headlook was. It has vastly increased my appreciation of the EDtracker, not that I could tolerate playing without it within a week of building one. Have also had a quick blast on F1 2015 which looks beautiful now. When the kids are in bed I will see how GTA V runs too.

Thank you again for everyone's help on this. You kept me on a rational path without trying anything reckless. Mind you, that Windows reinstall can only be a few weeks away. Losing five years of clutter is very appealing and the Windows Update isn't working properly. Am going to enjoy some smoother gaming for a while before I start the torture again though.

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

Glad you got it sorted.

Mind you, that Windows reinstall can only be a few weeks away. Losing five years of clutter is very appealing and the Windows Update isn't working properly.

Not sure which version of Windows you have but make sure the Windows Module Installer service is set to Automatic start. I was having issues with Windows Update and found it was because I had disabled this service during one of my "let's optimize" sessions doh!

 

[Matt168]

Googling the update error led me to a Microsoft utility that pretty much fixed Updates too. It has even let me register for Win10 now, ready for a new round of everything breaking in a few weeks time.