Video Card bad in one program - RMA?

[jimmyj68]

I originally posted this problem on the video forum but there is not much help or response. Here's the situation: I've just upgraded to an Intel D945PSN mobo with an 830 Pentium D and 2 gigs of DDR2 memory. The new board required a PCIE video card so I picked up an EVGA 6800GS card. Everything went relatively smoothly with the build and fresh load of winXP Pro. MY one game thing is flight simulator and I was anxious to get the system up and running so I could try the game with the new video card. Everthing seemed OK until i noticed that when taxing to the runway, the grass surrounding the taxiway would switch from green to brown and gray periodically. And then switch back. Once up and flying, the surrounding terrain became blocky and triangulated. Land and water masses switched places or a triangle of land would be out on the water and a body fo water in the middle of town. At one point in the Puget Sound area around Seattle, little groups of buildings appeard all across the otherwise forest covered landscape and some were even in the sound itself.

I've tried everything in the usual bag of trouble shooting tricks but the texture problems remain onlandscape views. The aircraft themselves are perfect in exterior views and conkpit/instrument panel views. But occasionally if you view right or left the interior texture becomes blotchy and miscolored. The card works fine with everything else.

Should I RMA the card? Is it a compatibility problem between the Flight Simulator program and a dual core processor? What's your take on this?

 

[networkman]

Have you patched your software yet?

I'm assuming you're talking about Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000. Linky

 

[2kfire]

Since it's not crashing your system, it's most likely software-related. Networkman suggested game update, that is the best first place to start. Next, check www.nvidia.com for the newest driver, not the one that came on the CD. Try these and let us know if it helps or not.

 

[Ordie]

Do not RMA the card. I had the exact same problem in FS9 with my new 7800 GTX PCI-E card. Every game worked perfectly except FS9. I had to roll back the drivers to 78.01 in order for the swapping texture problem to dissappear. The game runs the way it should now. I know your frustration completely. The fix is to install the older drivers. I don't know if the latest greatest drivers have a problem with FS9 or what but uninstalling the latest drivers and going with the 78.01 drivers fixed the problem on my machine. It drove me nuts.

Best of luck.

 

[jimmyj68]

I've tried the latest greatest drivers and the problem persists. I'll go looking for the 78 drivers.

Something i forgot to mention - every now and then when all FS9 video settings are at default, my aircraft skin will be a hodge podge of different colors and letters and words, except really large letters all perfectly fitted to the shape of the aircraft - cute.

Special thanks to Ordie - new on the forum and already a very welcome contributor. I'm going to visit NVIDIA for the 78.01 drivers.

 

[jimmyj68]

Alas and alack - Nvidia refused to load the 78.01 drivers on my 6800GS card. it wouldn't even accept 81.85 drivers. I get the message Nvidia did not find hardware compatible with these drivers. I guess I'm going to have to wait until microsoft issues the newest rendition of flight simulator which will probably be accepting of 64 bit and dual core processors out of the box. I can wait. Thanks again Ordie - and I'm assuming (bad word), that your 7800GTX swallowed the 78.01 drivers without a hiccup. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

 

[Ordie]

Yes,

The drivers went in fine but.......but, I used a step by step process to remove the old drivers and installed the new/older drivers after all the cleanup steps were finished. The process is actually in the forums over at Flightsim.com. I can't link it due to firewalls at work but you will find a post concerning driver installation with Nvidia cards. I would try those steps out if you haven't already. I am sorry to hear that your having problems with the drivers. I would try the step by step process listed over there at flightsim. It includes going to Add/Remove Programs, rebooting into Safe Mode, using CCleaner, Drivercleaner and then installing the new/older set of drivers. That's not all the details you need but it's in that set of instructions. I am hoping this little annoyance will clear up and you'll be flying again.

Ordie

 

[imported_nocturne]

If it's just the one game then it's almost definately driver or game related. Try checking for a config script in the game directory (most often config.cfg). You might be able to change a few compatibility settings, or change the renderer.

 

[networkman]

So you've already tried the 9.1 update correct?

 

[jimmyj68]

That's a roger!

 

[Ordy]

I am home now so I will post the link to the driver install guide.
http://forums.flightsim.com/dc/dcboard....ub_topic_id=17797&mesg_id=&page=#17800
Try that process to get the latest drivers out and the 78 drivers in.
Please keep me updated on your progress.

Ordie

 

[Ordy]

Just wanted to let you know we're not alone on this.

http://forums.flightsim.com/dc/dcboard....ic_id=18409&mesg_id=18409&page=2#18420

Just ignore all the Nvidia bashing. The earlier drivers worked for me but I read that some cards won't allow anything below 80.## to install. This is bugging me now because I was saved from the FS9 problem. I'll be looking foreward to hearing how your troubleshooting is going. Don't give up!

http://forums.flightsim.com/dc/dcboard....g_id=145805&listing_type=search#145814


Ordie

 

[Ordy]

Are you running Windows XP 64 bit? Wondering if it will have problems with some driver versions? Grasping at straws now I know, but I am dying to know how your progress is going with FS9.

Ordie

 

[jimmyj68]

Well here is the latest - and it is not good news. Carefully followed the procedures outlined inFlightsim.com. Attempted to load 78.01 and Nvidia balked - hardware not compatible with the driver. My EVGA 6800S card apparently wants nothing lower than 81.94. it won't even take 81.85. Maybe the bios EVGA used for the GPU is only forward looking. I don't know what drivers are on the CD that came with the vid card because the CD is screwed and won't work - no autoplay or no D:\setup or anything. I'll try it again and if no luck I'll go to EVGA and see what they have on their site. Antway, I'm running 81.95 now and the anomalies are not too bad (dancing terrain and jumping water - ha!) if i run fs9 with all video parameters maxed. I'll report back this evening - promise.

 

[deathwalker]

the problem i believe may be the fact the the 6800gs card post dates the 78.01 drivers..thus the driver .inf file may not recognize the 6800gs card as a qualified product for the drivers. I dont know this for sure but..it is possible.

 

[jimmyj68]

Well the only thing i found on EVGA's web site was the driver I currently have installed - the latest from NVIDIA. I did post an inquiry on EVGA's support and I'm anxious to see what they will say. Will anyone take responsibility? NVIDIA, the card makers, microsoft?

Reading some NVIDIA "white papers" a similar problem popped up with Flight Simulator and the 7 series of NVIDIA drivers. Supposedly it was fixecd (which is why 78.01 works OK perhaps. My plain 6800 VGA worked OK with the latest drivers - oh well - some one will sort this out fairly soon, maybe it is just a PCI-E snag; though in reading the NVIDIA tech papers they spend a lot of time tweaking for the FPS games. Maybe there just isn't enough of us FS9 folks out here to warrant their full attention.

 

[jimmyj68]

Well EVGA acknowledged that there was a problem and they had heard from others about it. Their suggested cure was to download NVIDIA's 77.77 drivers. I'm going to try that now>

 

[jimmyj68]

Wouldn't you know - my card refused the 77.77 drivers - incompatible hardware.
Out of curiosity, before reloading the 85.95 driver, I tried running FS9 with the generic WINXP vid card drivers. despite a couple of warning boxes that FS9 may not function properly without full hardware drivers - FS9 worked beautifully! The video quality wasn't up to what I would have with the NVIDIA drivers, but otherwise it was perfect - not an anomaly in sight. All the waters of Puget Sound stayed where they were supposed to and didn't decide to overtake Boeing field or other parts of Seattle. Lake washington kept its cool also.

All things considered, The culprit here is NVIDIA's driver. Nvidia needs to produce a fix ---if the FS9 traffic warrants it. But --I fear we haven't the priority of Doom so-and-so or Battlefield whatever - so we will (I will) have to just wait. Either for the new Flight Simulator 2006 or NVIDIA to get around to a fix.

 

[jimmyj68]

I found a place on NVIDIA's web site to ask a question - so i asked - what can you do about the corruption of textures in FS9 with 8 series drivers and the latest GPU's?

I'll wait and see what happens.

 

[jimmyj68]

Wellllllll- haven't heard from NVIDIA but found customer feedback page and they have heard from a bunch of people about the FS9 vs 8 series NViDia drivers. After reading a lot of gripes on a number of different forum sites I've concluded I'll just have to wait for Microsoft to release the new Flight Simulator - what ever it will be called. Here's why>

Nvidia has to keep its drivers in tune with SLI and dual core processors. They would be going backwards to make their latest drivers play nice with a long in the tooth FS9 engine. Microsoft has patched FS9 once cosmetically. The basic engine has been around with a few tweaks since Flight Simulator 2000???? Their hands are tied too. Right now all heads are tuned to getting FS10 or whatever on-line in time for the Christmas Gift rush (I'm guessing, I don't know where Microsoft is with the new FS and they are not talking). So --- I don't think our video Problem is going to get any real attention. WE could all run out and buy an ATI card - I'm sure NVIDIA and the card makers won't blink.

 

[DireFog]

I had the same problem and also posted in your other thread on the topic. It seems that the most recent drivers (81.98) fix that bug. I could take off from Seattle without having liquit mountains, which was an absolute first.