Itegrated video works, ATI and Nvidia cards don't. Why?

[lib319]

I got an Asus P5KPL-AM with an Intel E5200, 2 gig of OCZ ram and XP pro. The motherboard has integrated graphics which works as it is supposed too. The other day I thought I would put in an Nvidia 8400 GS card as a step up from the integrated Intel G31 video.

Desktop and Windows Explorer use were fine but whenever I tried to watch TV or play video the computer would hang ending up in me having to reboot, (sometimes other software triggers off this fault but it is guaranteed to happen when opening up the TV card software or trying to run video playback.)

I thought this might be a problem with the card so I changed it to an ATI 4670. This results in the same problem.

The Asus board chooses whichever is set in the bios ie initiate PCI express or integrated or old style PCI so this motherboard appears to not need a specific ‘disable onboard video’ command but will switch between whatever video is set to boot first.

All the drivers seem to be installed ok and device manager sees no conflicts. The ATI card works as it should up to a point. It managed a 3Dmark06 score of over 8000 and works as it should with games.

Switching back to the onboard Intel G31 graphics adaptor will enable me to run video and watch TV and works perfectly.

I thought this was a conflict between the integrated and the installed card but now I’m not sure what it could be. Perhaps the power draw for video or TV is too much for my 450W PSU (although I would have thought 3D Mark would use a lot more juice)

Any ideas? I’m stumped.

[jlreich]

Are you uninstalling old drivers, reboot, install new card, then install the new drivers for the card you are putting in?

[lib319]

Are you uninstalling old drivers, reboot, install new card, then install the new drivers for the card you are putting in?

Yep I've done it that way, I've also tried a fresh install of XP with the new card installed.

[lib319]

Did dxdiag and it reported a Direct Show problem. Put the slider for hardware acceleration to the middle position for disabling direct draw and direct 3d and the card will now play video files.

Whats going on?

[mjc]

Looks like you need to reinstall DirectX...

You will probably need to to the whole round of driver updates...

This would be a bit easier if you can create a 'restore' image based on a 'base' Windows install.

You need to pick one of the cards, then start with the motherboard drivers, video and audio...latest versions. Then update DirectX.

[lib319]

"You will probably need to to the whole round of driver updates...
"

I'm installing Directx 9c november release from this file on this page

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/Browse.aspx?displaylang=en&categoryid=2#

Is this correct dx 9 file to install or do you mean something else by driver updates?

I'm using an image of XP fully installed with all m'board drivers etc. All I have to do is install the ATI drivers along with my ATI card. When I do I get the video playback problem.

ALso, when accessing the catalyst graphics control program the PC freezes too. This also happened with the Nvidia card's nview application.

[mjc]

Yeah, that should be the DX9 update you need...

But with your image do you have the latest motherboard, sound and network drivers? If not, then update them too...

Also, while the power supply is not the 'best' it should handle at least the 46xx card...but make sure any/all auxiliary power connections are connected. You may want to leave the side off the case an point a small household fan at it...you could be having heat related problems, too...

The not crashing during 3DMark is odd...

[lib319]

I have all the motherboard drivers installed. I don't think power supply or heat is the problem.

The hardware acceleration slider is set to disable direct draw and direct 3d which has 'sorted' the problem. Although this isn't really a solution as such more an indication that something is wrong with drivers(?), possibly video codecs?

"The not crashing during 3DMark is odd..."

I thought so too, is there something that controls video rendering that could be going wrong yet not affecting the 3d rendering used when running 3DMark?

Another odd thing is that when trying to access the ATI Catalyst software it locks up the PC also. When I tried the initial Nvidia card this was also a symptom when trying to get into the Nview (or whatever its called) utility.

[jlreich]

Another odd thing is that when trying to access the ATI Catalyst software it locks up the PC also. When I tried the initial Nvidia card this was also a symptom when trying to get into the Nview (or whatever its called) utility.
CCC uses the .net framework. Is .net up to date? Windows update will provide the latest updates and patches for .net.

[lib319]

I hope this is the problem jlrich, I saw from I have .net 2 installed but noticed today on windows update that there is a 20mb update ready to download.

I hope this is the problem.

[jlreich]

We are on version 3 with several updates for that, so hopefully it will take care of it. :)

[lib319]

Reinstalled XP with ACPI rather than 'standard computer' selected during setup. Seems to have fixed the problem.