Official driver just killed pc

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Rikkitic

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Topic # 242283 19-Oct-2018 16:13

I have an old pc running Win 7. I stuck an old Asus 512MB HDMI card in it. Computer booted fine and display was okay, but I couldn't set correct resolution. So I got the model number off the card, found the correct driver on the Asus site, installed it. Everything seemed fine up to this point. I would like to emphasise that I carefully checked the numbers. I have the correct model number (unless it was printed wrong) and I downloaded the correct driver for that card from Asus.

The installation completed with no problem or error so I rebooted as instructed. And now the system is hosed. With great difficulty and much keyboard hammering, I managed to boot into safe mode a couple times. I uninstalled the driver but that hasn't fixed the problem. It is now almost impossible to start the computer. It just disappears into a black hole somewhere. Thanks a lot, Asus.

I reject your reality and substitute my own. - Adam Savage

wratterus

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Reply # 2111071 19-Oct-2018 16:16

Probably not their fault - the driver could have been way out of date, or the card may have a fault.

Get the latest Win7 driver for the card from either Nvidia's or AMD's website rather than Asus's.

If you are having difficulty locating the correct driver, feel free to post the model of the card and myself or someone will be able to send you a direct link to the correct driver to try.

With Win 7, booting in safe mode is as simple as tapping F8 just after the PC has POSTed. it's a little more tricky in Win8 or 10.

I would download DDU and run that through in safe mode.

wellygary

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Reply # 2111072 19-Oct-2018 16:16

What happens if you take out the card? Will it come up on the internal graphics?

If you can get it up see if you can roll it back to a previous install point?

Linux

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Reply # 2111073 19-Oct-2018 16:17

Just can't blame Asus here as already pointed out I would be checking the hardware is OK

John

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Reply # 2111075 19-Oct-2018 16:19

Asus....HDMI card? Is it a graphics card? If so it should be either nVidia or Ati Radeon in which case you'd get legacy drivers from the respective company websites, not asus.

If it boots occasionally then it probably means the card isn't initialising a display properly. Take it out and use something else for display output.

Hammerer

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Reply # 2111083 19-Oct-2018 16:35

One person supports this post

Rikkitic:

I have an old pc running Win 7. I stuck an old Asus 512MB HDMI card in it.

...

And now the system is hosed.

System is neither killed nor hosed. In the first instance, just remove the video card until you get suitable drivers.

Rikkitic

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Reply # 2111086 19-Oct-2018 16:45

The card is also Asus, or rather, branded as such, but it is in fact an Nvidia 210 and that is the driver from the Asus site. And in fact the (Asus) card is also crap. I removed it and booted the computer with no card and it booted normally. This was easy to determine from the drive light and the drive sounds (older pc, so older drive). I then replaced the card with another and everything worked normally, except now I have to find another driver for the new card because the resolution is still wrong.

Here is the sequence of events: Computer and Asus display worked normally except the Windows default driver didn't have the correct resolution so I downloaded and installed the Asus driver. When I rebooted the computer went berserk. In spite of the above comment, booting in Safe mode was not simple at all. The computer wasn't responding to any commands. By restarting many times and repeatedly hammering the keyboard, I was able to get into the BIOS a couple of times and also the boot menu. For some reason I could only boot from the menu and that only worked about 2 times out of 20. I managed to roll back the driver but then when I rebooted I couldn't get any response at all. Finally I removed the card and the computer booted normally. The card is definitely faulty. I have put in another card and the computer is working properly again but I have to find another driver to get the resolution right.

I guess this is another of those learn from experience episodes. Thanks for the replies.

I reject your reality and substitute my own. - Adam Savage

wratterus

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Reply # 2111087 19-Oct-2018 16:47

As mentioned, get the driver from the Nvidia or AMD site, depending on what the card you are now using is.

Also, it is quite common for a faulty card to work OK when there is only a basic driver installed, or when running at a low resolution as the card is not being stressed at all. Once you have the proper driver on, the issues can become more apparent, which seems to be exactly what has happened here.

https://www.geforce.com/drivers

https://www.amd.com/en/support

Rikkitic

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Reply # 2111117 19-Oct-2018 17:33

Sapphire, all good thanks.

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richms

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Reply # 2111181 19-Oct-2018 19:52

If its not exposing the correct resoultion then its often a problem with the display not being detected properly. Dodgey HDMI cables or a junk adapter can cause that. Also seen it when I tried running thru a home theater amp to a monitor, only TV modes were available not the monitors native resolutions.

Richard rich.ms

Rikkitic

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Reply # 2111190 19-Oct-2018 20:13

I had that in the past with another old PC running XP. It wouldn't read the EDID data for the TV correctly and I had to fake it to get it to work. But that was a long time ago.

I reject your reality and substitute my own. - Adam Savage