- May 8, 2017
- 3
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Greetings!
I've been building a PC out of secondhand parts. Risky, I know (I'm on my second mobo after the first lasted about 5 minutes), but I'm trying to pull everything together. I'm building it to be compatible with a GTX 980 Ti manufactured by Evga, and although the PC now boots just fine, it hiccups every time I try to install the NVidia drivers from Evga.
The main issue I'm getting is a System Service Exception relating to the file nvlddmkm.sys.
I am fully aware that there are many, many posts related to this specific issue! But my thread is a different question, I promise.
First of all, PC specs:
650W evga power supply
1tb HDD
MSI H61M P31 (G3) motherboard (with a BIOS dating back to 2012)
Intel core i5 3330
Evga NVidia GTX 980 Ti
Windows 8/10 (both attempted, but only generic, unactivated versions)
The 980 Ti outputted display just fine during the five minutes that the first motherboard worked. In addition, with the current MSI mobo, when I attempt to install its driver from EVGA's site, the card is recognized, and Device Manager shows it to be a GTX 980 Ti. BIOS also shows voltage for the GPU (fluctuates around 40v, if I remember correctly).
Although I'm open to the possibility of the card being defective, I have reason to believe it's first and foremost a driver issue, and for now, I'll assume as much.
My research shows that my motherboard should be compatible with the 980 Ti. Also, when I tried running Windows Update on the unactivated OSes, it came up empty (which I assume is normal). Several regular, non-NVidia display drivers in the Device Manager also show up as defective even though Windows Update has nothing for me. Therefore, here come the questions: should the 980 Ti still be working despite the un-updated, unactivated versions of Windows that I've been testing it with? Or does it make sense that I get these errors for now, until I activate Windows?
Also, if I do need to get Windows, I'll probably get a legit copy of Windows 7 (two reasons: low price, and that it's closer to the age of most of my hardware).
So for you GTX 980 Ti users out there, what driver version do you "guarantee" to work with Windows 7? I ask because I also read reports of different driver versions working better than others. I've heard good things about 358.50, for example. Are there any drivers that, in your experience, are more stable on specs similar to mine? I want to try and do as few system restores as possible assuming that the lack of activation is the reason I can't get updates or get past the System Service Exception.
I'm also aware that my BIOS could use an update. I want to try everything else first before I attempt a flash. This is my second mobo, I'm not throwing caution to the winds that easily! 😉
There we go...sorry for the long post, but I think that's everything. For those of you with a 980 Ti (or similar card) and Windows 7, what do you think?
I've been building a PC out of secondhand parts. Risky, I know (I'm on my second mobo after the first lasted about 5 minutes), but I'm trying to pull everything together. I'm building it to be compatible with a GTX 980 Ti manufactured by Evga, and although the PC now boots just fine, it hiccups every time I try to install the NVidia drivers from Evga.
The main issue I'm getting is a System Service Exception relating to the file nvlddmkm.sys.
I am fully aware that there are many, many posts related to this specific issue! But my thread is a different question, I promise.
First of all, PC specs:
650W evga power supply
1tb HDD
MSI H61M P31 (G3) motherboard (with a BIOS dating back to 2012)
Intel core i5 3330
Evga NVidia GTX 980 Ti
Windows 8/10 (both attempted, but only generic, unactivated versions)
The 980 Ti outputted display just fine during the five minutes that the first motherboard worked. In addition, with the current MSI mobo, when I attempt to install its driver from EVGA's site, the card is recognized, and Device Manager shows it to be a GTX 980 Ti. BIOS also shows voltage for the GPU (fluctuates around 40v, if I remember correctly).
Although I'm open to the possibility of the card being defective, I have reason to believe it's first and foremost a driver issue, and for now, I'll assume as much.
My research shows that my motherboard should be compatible with the 980 Ti. Also, when I tried running Windows Update on the unactivated OSes, it came up empty (which I assume is normal). Several regular, non-NVidia display drivers in the Device Manager also show up as defective even though Windows Update has nothing for me. Therefore, here come the questions: should the 980 Ti still be working despite the un-updated, unactivated versions of Windows that I've been testing it with? Or does it make sense that I get these errors for now, until I activate Windows?
Also, if I do need to get Windows, I'll probably get a legit copy of Windows 7 (two reasons: low price, and that it's closer to the age of most of my hardware).
So for you GTX 980 Ti users out there, what driver version do you "guarantee" to work with Windows 7? I ask because I also read reports of different driver versions working better than others. I've heard good things about 358.50, for example. Are there any drivers that, in your experience, are more stable on specs similar to mine? I want to try and do as few system restores as possible assuming that the lack of activation is the reason I can't get updates or get past the System Service Exception.
I'm also aware that my BIOS could use an update. I want to try everything else first before I attempt a flash. This is my second mobo, I'm not throwing caution to the winds that easily! 😉
There we go...sorry for the long post, but I think that's everything. For those of you with a 980 Ti (or similar card) and Windows 7, what do you think?
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