Upgraded to Quadro 6000, problems galore!

[MartyJB]

I recently upgraded from a Quadro FX 3800 to a Quadro 6000 (got a very sweet deal I couldn't refuse) and since installing the 6000 I'm having a few problems, most with an initial reformat and reinstallation of Windows, and certain Windows updates.

When I first got the new card, I decided to start fresh, and so decided to reformat my hard drive, and install a fresh copy of Windows (Windows 7 x64).

First thing I noticed was that the initial install was VERY, very slow. It took about 20 minutes to get to the main Windows install section (where it asks if you want to do a standard install of custom/format drives etc.). Usually I can get to this stage after about 1 minute.

After the Windows install taking nearly three times longer than it has ever done before, I of course went straight to do the Windows update.

As expected on a fresh install of Windows, there were a lot of updates waiting (about 125). The PC seemed to sail through most of them, installing them at an expected rate, but when it got to about 95% of the update installation, it hung there for well over 90 minutes (before I gave up and pulled the plug).

During this time, I could use the PC with no problems. The computer seemed to be functioning perfectly, but the Windows update was just not going to install. That or it was installing VERY slowly.

I've also had several random crashes since installing the card, most of which are preceded by random small squares of different colours dotted around my screen. Most of the time, Windows can recover, telling me there was a problem with the display driver, but every now and then I get a BSOD.

I'm running the latest Quadro Driver (320.39).

I'm wondering if either the card is faulty (It works perfectly fine in most other respects) or I need some special BIOS/system settings.

Please help!

Marty.


My system specs:

Intel i7 975 3.33ghz
P6TD Deluxe motherboard (flashed to latest BIOS)
12 GB DDR3 1600 mhz RAM
SB Xi-Fi Extreme Audio sound card
Windows 7 Home Premium x64

 

[COLGeek]

You shouldn't have to mess with the BIOS for the 6000 to work properly.

Couple things though. First, never "pull the plug" while Windows is updating. That is a good way to corrupt Windows and force you to reinstall the OS again.

Second, what make/model of power supply are you using? That GPU (very nice BTW) requires 225w all by itself.

 

[MartyJB]

Sorry, "pull the plug" was just a turn of phrase. I didn't actually turn off the PC, I just hit the cancel button in the update page.

My PSU is a 750 watt PSU, a Corsair HX750.

 

[COLGeek]

Power should be fine. Are your chipset drivers (from Intel) up to date?

 

[MartyJB]

Power should be fine. Are your chipset drivers (from Intel) up to date?

Yep. All the latest drivers up to date.

Windows has generated a .DMP file after my BSODs but I'm not sure how to read them or even if I would be able to understand them. If it might help I'll be happy to upload it.

 

[COLGeek]

Any overclocking (CPU, GPU, memory)?

 

[MartyJB]

Any overclocking (CPU, GPU, memory)?

Nope. No overclocking of any components. Just a vanilla setup. I suspect some clues reside in the .DMP file which is generated after each BSOD, but I haven't a clue how to read (or probably understand!) them.

Just a couple of notes: I managed to get a glimpse of a couple of messages that came on the BSOD screens before the computer resets. One was 'IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL' and another 'PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONE_PAGED_AREA'.

It's getting very late here so I'm going to sleep on it. I think tomorrow I'll try removing everything except the GFX card and a single drive from the PC. I'll also remove as much memory as I can and try swapping it around.

Thanks for your efforts to help so far. I appreciate it.

 

[COLGeek]

Those errors are most often associated with a driver conflict. Will the system boot into safe mode? This will isolate the Quadro driver as the likely culprit as safe mode uses a standard VGA driver.

Also, when Windows was updating, did all of the .Net framework updates get applied? The Quadro driver could be looking for updates that may not be present yet.

 

[MartyJB]

Those errors are most often associated with a driver conflict. Will the system boot into safe mode? This will isolate the Quadro driver as the likely culprit as safe mode uses a standard VGA driver.

Also, when Windows was updating, did all of the .Net framework updates get applied? The Quadro driver could be looking for updates that may not be present yet.

All .Net framework updates appear to be present.

Just a small update: I got an email from a friend last night and he told me to check out the solution shown in this YouTube video: How to fix it (display driver stopped responding and has recovered)

After trying out the solution, so far (touch wood!) I haven't had any crashes after about 6 hours use. Of course, this doesn't really answer the question as to what exactly might be causing the problem, but at least it's enabling me to get some work done for the moment.

***UPDATE***

TYPICAL! Just minutes after posting the above message, I get a "Display driver has stopped working" message! This time it's slightly different though as rather than Windows reporting the problem, it's an alert from the Nvidia software itself. Here's the message:

---------------------------
NVIDIA OpenGL Driver
---------------------------
The NVIDIA OpenGL driver detected a problem with the display
driver and is unable to continue. The application must close.

Error code: 3
--------------------------

I'll try you safe mode suggestion later this evening.

 

[COLGeek]

That is a tweak that resets a timing value. If the driver is working properly, that fix should not be required. It really just changes the frequency of when the error will occur (whatever the underlying issue is still exists).

Do you have access to another system that you could try the 6000 in to isolate if it is the problem?