Game Crashing

My old video card died, so I replaced it with a brand new Nvidia GForce 5950 with 256megs. Problem is, now when playing SL the game freezes, then the comp reboots. Windows XP says the drivers for the 5950 are probably causing the instability, which makes sense since I didn't have this problem before. However, the drivers I am using are the latest drivers. How do I fix this?

Devlin,

Don't all the NVidia cards use the same drivers now?

Not all, but a lot do.

Devlin, from your crash reports, it looks like you may not have updated any of the drivers for your motherboard recently(it looks like you're running on an nForce2?)

You can probably get updated drivers off of nVidia's site.

If things still persist after that, maybe you have some power issues?

- Doug

Grr, now I am pissed. I specifically asked the techs at the shop i had my card installed at to upgrade those very drivers, cause I don't know how to do it.

lol its not that hard. Just go here, dl and run the exe

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_56.64

Thx, Tommy. But that is for the graphics card drivers. The motherboard drivers are different. Also 3 of 4 different drivers are involved, including the BIOS.

Devlin, post which motherboard you have and I'll tell you what files you need to download and install.

You definitely want to get the following:
nForce Drivers (v3.13)

I have the K7N2 Delta motherboard. I don't know how to tell what version drivers I have for the motherboard itself, or the graphics, agp, and audio drivers, or for the BIOS. And even if I find them and save them to my system, I don't know how to actually update them.

Okay, just download that file from Nvidia's site (this one) and then the BIOS update.

For the BIOS, you need to figure out if you have the K7N2 Delta-ILSR or the K7N2 Delta-L. The Delta-ILSR is the one with IEEE 1394 Firewire and Serial ATA RAID, the Delta-L is the one without it.

Now, it's going to be the BIOS upgrade that fixes your problem. This page reads, "Fixed Nvidia FX5900 Ultra compatibility issue", which indicates to me that this POSSIBLY could be where the problem is.

Thx for the help Catherine. I am trying to upgrade those drivers now. Just did the BIOS, but it gave me no indication if the upgrade was succesful or not.

Heh, if you can post to the forums from the computer with the BIOS update, chances are your BIOS update was successful. Usually, when something goes wrong during a BIOS update, the computer will refuse to boot.

==Chris

If you followed the instructions included with the BIOS updater, you'll be able to tell if it worked, as Chris says, by turning it on and having it boot up. Also, you shouldn't have any more problems with your video card.

Well, guess what. After all that, I am STILL having the same problem. Game freezes, then reboots the comp. Windows xp comes up with an error report saying it is The Nvidia graphic drivers. Dunno if that means for the graphics card, or the drivers on the chip on the motherboard.

Are you sure you updated the BIOS successfully?

Devlin, according to the crash report, it still appears that you're running using old AGP drivers - specifically, your nv_agp.sys file is timestamped from 2002.

Did you grab the Forceware drivers from nVidia yet? I've got an nForce2, and the latest AGP drivers from their website are date stamped from 3/19/2003. Catherine posted a link to it up above.

If this fixes it, let me know. I haven't gotten around to putting any nVidia motherboard drivers into the autodetect list, mostly because I didn't have any indications of them crashing, but if this fixes it, then I guess I will.

- Doug

And make sure you actually installed the BIOS update, rather than just downloading it, or just downloading and decompressing it. Did you follow the instructions that came with it?

The BIOS update specifically says that GeForce 5900 cards WILL NOT WORK properly without it.

Thats my problem, I can't tell if I am just downloading this stuff or actually upgrading the drivers. I don't even know how to see what the drivers I am using are for the motherboard. The drivers for the graphics card itself should be the latest.

Wow, in that case, maybe you should consider taking it back to the store and making THEM do it.

If you download a program, you actually have to run it -- just downloading it won't work. In the case of the BIOS upgrade, you might want to sit that one out and have someone more experienced do it for you. Your system definitely won't work correctly without it, and if you had the card installed at a shop, they didn't finish the job.

Thx for all the help guys. I won't be in SL much for a while until I find someone who can help me here at home, or until I get over this depression I have been in and can face the jerks at the shop. I asked them 3 seperate times when I took the comp in to make sure they upgrade the BIOS and ALL the drivers on my motherboard. The guy even told me he did it when I picked it up. Obviously tho he figured the problem was the video card that failed. and didn't really bother to check. Some of these techs are worse than car mechanics now-a-days.