Gigabyte EX58-UD4P with GeForce 8600 GT, how to upgrade to 9600 GT.

[winhill]

Gigabyte EX58-UD4P with Gigabyte GeForce 8600 GT, running XP, worked perfectly. Wanted to upgrade to GeForce 9600 GT, so started by uninstalling the 8600 driver [was this a mistake?]. Plugged in new 9600GT, but on rebooting, after the VGA-mode Windows start-up splash screen, only a black screen, no signal for my LCD. Window thinks it's booting successfully each try, but no video. Turned off computer during Windows bootup, so it would see a boot failure and offer me Safe Mode on the next bootup. But Safe Mode halts part way along, at MUP.SYS Last resort, booted from Windows install disk, did a Repair install, now I can't even get to Safe Mode anymore. I have a dead boot hard-drive / computer. Help!

[demonsavatar]

Re: Gigabyte EX58-UD4P with GeForce 8600 GT, how to upgrade to 9600 GT.

Eh, sounds like a software problem if the video card is working up until windows start-up splash screen. Uninstalling the drivers wasn't a mistake, but it was also unnecessary, nVidia uses unified drivers to make upgrading easy.

Doing a quick search on google results in a ridiculous number of reasons for hanging on MCP.SYS during a safe-mode start, including but not limited to:

(1) Bad sectors on the hard drive
(2) USB Peripherals plugged in during boot
(3) Faulty ram

Basically MUP.SYS is the last file Windows loads in Safe-mode so it just gets blamed for everything when it's not actually the culprit. Try doing a chkdsk on your hard drive, unplug the USB peripherals and mabye run memTest. But before all that, what happens if you put your Geforce 8600GT back in?

[Psycho101]

Re: Gigabyte EX58-UD4P with GeForce 8600 GT, how to upgrade to 9600 GT.

Unif ied drivers allow a vendor to release a single driver file for several different cards on the same OS. It's not designed to be an east upgrade path if you wish to swap cards. There can be problems changing cards of the same vendor regardless of the driver being unified.

Insert your old GFX card and see if you can get a picture in Windows. If you can, remove any driver it may have auto installed, and do a search in c:\ for any file with NV in the name. There may also be a folder called c:\Nvidia\. Delete this first. Delete the obvious files that are usually left such as nvdisp.dll etc. Before restarting, go to device manager and right click your old card, choosing remove. When it asks you to restart, do so, and when Windows has shut down, cut the power.

Install your new card and boot. If you still don't get any display when windows is loading, boot from your XP CD and do a repair install.

[kick]

Re: Gigabyte EX58-UD4P with GeForce 8600 GT, how to upgrade to 9600 GT.

Im sure this was obvious to you but the 8600GT doesnt need a seperate 6 pin power connector ,the 9600gt does .


load optimum defaults in bios.See if you can get into safe mode again.
Uninstall nvidia drivers completely using a utility such as "driver sweeper".They have a habit of leaving bits behind in sys and the nvidia folder on xp.
Use a line by line check config etc when booting.
Let it boot up as a generic vga card then install the new drivers.
If you cant get in put the old card back in and try a "restore" then make sure the drivers are fully deleted with the above utility or similar.There are certain nvidia files in xp sys folder that reappear every time you reboot but they come with the xp installation so dont worry if you keep seeing them ,they are generic.
Then go back in on vga mode and reinstall the new drivers.
If that isnt happening you may have to do a full xp install..I never had to over 2.5 years with my 8600gt/9600gt on xp but did have to use driver sweeper often .There is /was an article on guru3d.com about removing/reinstalling nvidia drivers .I no longer have the link tho.
Guru3D - Driver Sweeper