Read if you have a NVIDIA graphics card on vista

[Lowndsey]

I have had this issue intermittently for 12 months or so at least no matter what driver I use with my 9800gt. After reboot the monitor switches off and turning it back on does nothing. I have to keep hitting the reset switch until it eventually works. Only happens very ocassionally but is still enough to make you avoid doing reboots. Sometimes it doesn't come back and i have to disconnect monitor and power for 10 mins and then it boots fine. It even used to shut the monitor off a few times while watching a movie and wouldn't switch it back on until reboot. I even did a vista reinstall and loaded the driver on fresh but didn't help. My brother has the same card, monitor and Vista and he has had similar issues.

 

[J03]

I'm on windows 7, but AFAIK, it uses the same drivers (I'm currently on the Pre-release drivers..). I've not got any problems!

 

[boss290]

Hi, I had/have the same trouble. This only started when I installed GTX260 vrom an 8800GT. Before I replaced the hardware, I downloaded the newest driver from nVidia (on both vista O/S I had on 2 separate drives), then uninstalled the nVidia drivers. I then replaced the hardware. Loaded one of the O/S and installed the driver I had downloaded (without connecting to the internet (otherwise Vista likes to install the latest driver it finds automatically, not necessarily the LATEST driver).
After rebooting, I get the same problem with both versions of vista. At first it was intermitant, then became more unreliable. As temporary fixes, I origianally disconnected and reconnected the DVI connector from the back of the graphics card. The blank screen then changed to my normal Desktop. To say that the O/S doesn't load is incorrect. The graphics card just fails to show a picture beyond the progressive green bar. Vista has actually loaded in the background.

After trying many, many different options and scenarios, I have managed to get one version of vista operating very smoothly (with nVidia driver version 182.06). The other one will not load in safe mode, and freezes when trying to find the operating systems during the repair process (even though behind the dialog box, I can see them listed.

Things tried:
Updating BIOS, different drivers, having only one HDD connected, PSU is fine (Earthwatts 500), removing/reinstalling graphics card, molex connectors fitted correctly, card seated correctly, no short circuits found, booting in safe mode to uninstall current graphics driver, repair using install disc.
Changing all BIOS M.I.T settings to default (G/B EP35-DS4) because the system is overclocked. Definitely No temp issues.

Any suggestions? (apart from reinstalling vista because this will take sooo much longer as the o/s which is still stuffed is the everyday use one.).

Another symptom is the graphic card fan going to full speed for the first few seconds on a cold boot (even with the fixed O/S set as the primary booting HDD)