Lost my monitors

[bussgarfield]

Hi all and a belated Happy New Year to you.

Yesterday I encountered a display problem whilst begining a flight in my default 737.
I will explain.
I run FSX with a 3 NVIDIA 9800 GT graphic card set up. Each card is connected to a seperate monitor for the outside cockpit visuals and I have at present another monitor connected to the first card for my MIP instruments.
As I started the taxi the left and right monitors started to flash and left me with just the outside scenery and no window frames of the aircraft.
The flashing got so bad, the screens and system froze. I rebooted and loaded the flight plan again and the same thing happened. I put the computer to bed for the night (not connected to the internet) and downloaded a new driver from NVIDIA from my other computer.
Today I uninstalled the old driver and installed the new one but I could only get one monitor (the top card) working. The MIP monitor is also connected to the top card and works fine. The right and left monitors connected to the lower two cards will not work.
In the NVIDIA control panel, the monitors are shown but when trying to set up multiple monitors, I can't click in the 'select' boxes of the other two monitors to activate them.
I have uninstalled the driver, downloaded it again and re-installed it but the same thing happens.
All monitors work as I have in turn disconnected the cables and connected them to the top card.
This appears to be a software issue. Why am I asking for help here and not NVIDIA ?
NVIDIA or the forums have not got back to me and I am sure you will understand that being without a plane to fly is just not on.

I am running Vista with FSX. If you need more specs then I will run up the sim computer and give them to you.

Thanks in advance.
Gary

[Bob Reed]

What does Windows show for monitors and how does Windows say they are setup?

[bussgarfield]

Hi Bob.

Device manager shows that I have 3 Generic PnP monitors.

[Bob Reed]

Hi Bob.

Device manager shows that I have 3 Generic PnP monitors.

So you have 4 monitors total? If that is the case, sounds like one of the cards is bad.

[Bob Reed]

Do an "identify" and see witch one does not show up.

[bussgarfield]

Sorry Bob,

Just re-checked, 4 momitors, 3 generic and one non generic

[Bob Reed]

Sorry Bob,

Just re-checked, 4 momitors, 3 generic and one non generic

Well that is a good thing... All cards present and accounted for. Try loading the default FSX flight and build a new one with your settings.

[bussgarfield]

Thats the problem. I only have the two monitors on starting windows. Sorry should have made that clear.
Prior to the new driver being installed, I would have 4 monitors alight on windows opening and before loading FSX.

Gary

[Bob Reed]

Hmmm Driver mess. Can you revert back to an older driver in Windows? If not you are going to have to force a compete uninstall of the Nvidia driver and start from scratch.

[bussgarfield]

Thats the problem. It seemed that I was encountering problems so I completely uninstalled the old driver and installing the new one as suggested by NVIDIA which was upgraded in October last year.

The problem is Bob, it's the fact that the 'new driver software' does not allow ne to set up the multi momitor display by going into the NVIDIA control panel.

The first driver I downloaded was of 160mb. The second was 120mb so they are both different in some way but produce the same results.

I have been clicking away and scratching my head all day. I am stumped.

Gary

[Bob Reed]

One of the issues is when you uninstall the driver, it does not remove everything. There is a ton of stuff left in the registry. Been a while since I had to forcefully remove a Nvidia driver maybe there is a utility to help? Someone know on here? I will look as well.

[bussgarfield]

I used a utility called Driver Sweep which removes everything of the old driver from the registry so it was a complete clean install of the new driver.

You can see now why I am puzzled !!!

[Bob Reed]

Well than.. That only leaves 2 other possibilities.... A screwed up install of Windows or bad hardware....

[blueskydriver]

edit

[bussgarfield]

Thanks John.

Just woke up (different time zone) having slept on the matter and that thought had also crossed my mind so when the good lady awakes from her slumber, I will try what you have said.

Stuck down the side of my MIP the interior will be open to all sorts of particles that fly around so it will be an excuse to un-plug everything and have a clean up.

Appreciate the advice and will let you know what happens.

Gary

[Kennair]

Also look at the PC power supply.  With all those cards you would need a beefy supply.  Chances are you have an adequate size of say 800w, but maybe a faulty supply rail?  As already suggested, dust and or temps inside.  Download and run MSI Afterburner which can tell you the temps of your card and also manage fan speeds.  Highly recommended by Nick_N over at Simforums and I've found it mandatory to keep vid cards cool.

Also try unplugging all bar one card and test, if that works add another and test, etc.  Process of elimination if one card is faulty.

Good luck,

Ken.

[bussgarfield]

Thanks John and Ken.

Armed with trusty shovel and broom, I set about dismantling the old beast to give it a good clean out. I was very surprised to actually see very little in the way of dust inside but it had a good clean anyway.

The PSU has ample power by the way but having marked the three GPU's, I removed them and replaced them one at a time and did a test on that card. The first two worked fine but the last one (the lower card) created beeps when the computer started to fire up and the screen remained blank.

I suspect that that card may be faulty but when I installed both the other working cards, I can still only get the top card to work within the sofware when I try to set up multiple monitors.

I have also reinstalled the old driver that came with computer when I bought it 2 years ago just in case the new drivers had a problem.

This is now getting very frustrating. I have still not received any comunication from NVIDIA. I will send them another email and see what happens.

Any further ideas or words of wisdom would be most welcome - and no, I can't afford to buy another machine just yet.

I need it up and running though for when the 737NGX is finally released !!!!!!.

Gary

[Bob Reed]

Have you tried running the computer with the card you suspect bad removed?

[bussgarfield]

Hi again Bob.

Yes. I initially tried them one at a time in the top PCI slot (that I new was good). On getting the beeps from the third card, I installed the two good ones leaving the third out. On firing up the computer, a message came up to tell me to change the second card from the 3rd slot to the second (ie move it down to where the third one use to be) which I did. It fired up ok but the second card and monitor does not seem to be recognised by the software.

A look in Device Manager still shows that I now have 2 GPU's and 2 Generic and one non Generic monitors.
Come to think of it, before I individually tested the cards, Device Manager still told me I had 3 GPU's and no warning triangle, so I would have thought it would have been ok.

The plot thickens although I would still like it to be software and not be a hardware problem.

Gary

[NeoMorph]

I don't suppose you have another PC with similar motherboard do you?

Now I'm not going to say this is what happened to your setup but this is what happened to mine.

I was playing Dawn of war on an SLI setup PC... Screen started flashing and I had a bunch of psychedelic colours appear too. Shut down the machine and let it cool down. Turned it on... nothing.

Removed once gfx card and booted up fine... Plugged in the other card... nothing. Swapped the cards over... Huh... both cards worked in slot 1 but not slot 2.

Turned out something had happened to the motherboard and not the cards themselves.

It definitely sounds like it's hardware and not software in your case. I would suggest the thing that I do when I get a hardware problem and tracking it down becomes a puzzle... take out ALL of the cards in the PC (after logging their location) and plugging in  the graphics cards one at a time in different locations. ie, take a good card and check each slot is still working correctly.

Oh, another thing, if your setup is been sucking dust for a while it might be an idea to vac out the fans on the cards and do the slots in the mobo at the same time.

I hate hardware overheat faults... one of my biggest pet hates regarding PC's.

[bussgarfield]

I shall try putting what appears to be the faulty GPU in another computer today. That will hopefully establish whether it is the GPU or the mobo. The whole interior had a good clean yesterday but with no luck.
The weird thing is, when the problem arose initially, it was the right and left screens that flashed and froze with all the pretty colours. The centre screen which works from the top slot was never effected which is why I have tried the other 2 GPU's in that slot. It was the GPU from the lower slot that gave me the beeps from the 'good' slot.

Like most people I want to try and find a quick but cheap fix for this if I can as the system cost me £1500 just under 2 years ago and should have lasted a bit longer than this.

I will let you know how I get on with putting the GPU into another computer.

Many thanks all for taking the time to read this.

Gary

[NeoMorph]

Oh dear... You just said the nasty words...

The weird thing is, when the problem arose initially, it was the right and left screens that flashed and froze with all the pretty colours.

... because that is 99.9% positive that it is the GPU that fried... As someone who has had GPU's fried in 2 PC's, 1 laptop and an Xbox 360 I can vouch for how damned annoying it is.

Strangely enough, the laptop was pronounced dead and unrepairable because of the multiple colours. Several laptop repair places said "Broke, DEAD!" and I was going to give up... went on ebay and found a replacement chip... turned out it was housed on a plugin module and all I had to do was take out the dead chip and plug in the new one and away I went... Laptop is still working to this day. The graphics cards though got chucked. My old 360 could be fixed but it was easier to buy a new 360.

Now why can't graphics card makers use the same plugin method because it would be a lot cheaper than throwing the whole darned card away.

[bussgarfield]

Hi NeoMorph.

Thanks for the good/bad news. When you said you replaced the chip, I take it was on the mobo as oppsed to the GPU, if so, how did you find out that it had fried and which one. Strange thing is you see, all 3 GPU's came up in the device manager as working with no problems. I thought you normally got the yellow warning triangle if there was a problem.

I will try the 3rd GPU in this computer tomorrow as I am bushed now having just concreted a largish base for my wifes green house.

Thanks again for the info.

Gary

[NeoMorph]

It's strange yet some chips continue showing nothing yet list as working while others list as not working and showing alternate bars on the screen (bright pink and black ones if I recall correctly). My 360 actually plays games but it looks like everything is in The Matrix with all these weird symbols and colours.

But every one has been proceeded by the wierd flashing colours then rebooting and then either stays that way or dies.

Running the cards in another PC will definitely show up the duff card or the motherboard. I did get one mobo go dead on a single slot and then I moved the card into the next slot along and everything was working again. I don't suppose you have another slot free on your board do you?

[bussgarfield]

No, unfortunately all PCI E slots are taken up with the 3 GPU's and with the fans on top of each of them they take up quite a bit of room. Thats the price of progress I suppose.

I will try the GPU in this computer tomorrow as I said as it has a PCI E slot and load on the driver and see how I go.

If it is the mobo, then I had better start saving. How did you establish which chip had burned out by the way.

Gary