Vista - RC1 Build 5600 & XFX 6800XT Driver options

I have build 5600 (RC1) with RC1 update installed on my machine and am having
trouble using any video drivers besides the windows VGA drivers.

The card is a PCI-E 6800XT w/ 128mb of ram sourced from XFX. The motherboard
is an MSI SLI-FI board with SLI disabled via hardware and only one PCI-E card
in PCI-E slot 0. The BIOS is the latest edition and the machine has 1GB of
667mhz DDR2 in dual channel formation. The keyboard is PS2 and the mouse is
USB. The hard drives are (0) - 250gb Sata and (1) - IDE 80gb

ACPI is enabled in Bios, and APIC is turned on. MPS table is 1.1. All IRQ
and DMA settings are on Auto.

All windows system drivers fail when attempted and give me a corrupt screen
output.
All Nvidia Beta drivers give me a different type of corrupt video output,
but they at least get to the loading windows page and are corrupt at the
login page.
With MS drivers, I cannot see past the first windows splash page with the
green status bar on standard startup.

I have tried Forceware version 97.46 which is supposed to only be for vista
release RTM 6000
I have also tried release 96.33 which is for build 5600.16384.060829-2230
which is what I understand is on the DVD after you run windows update on
install.
I even tried version 88.61 that is meant for vista Beta 2 and is mostly
proof of concept. All produce the same screen curruption of a black screen
after spash page with pixel scatter accross the screen from time to time

MS certified drivers for the 6800xt produce lines accross the screen
regardless of version.

I am going to attempt the following:

1. Try using XP driver and forceware instaed of Vista drivers. If that
produces the same result, or Aero cannot be enabled,

2. Replace the PS2 keyboard with a USB keyboard to free up and ISA reserved
IRQ try the MS certified drivers again.

When I boot up normally, and look at the logs, I am seeing APIC assignment
problems where empty PCI slots produce warnings of not being able to be
assigned IRQ's. This should not happen since the slots are empty. This is
fueling my attempt to free up an IRQ by pulling out the PS2 keyboard. The
card is being assigned IRQ 10 with no conflicts according to windows.

If anyone has suggestions besides comments on Nvidias lack of support, or
general complaints, I would love to hear them. This problem is happening to
people regardless of Vista build, so please no "Just upgrade to RTM.."
comments.

Has anything worked for you that might be worth sharing?

The NVIDIA drivers that were only for Vista RC1 and which may have been on
the RC1 DVD or may have been downlaoded during the install process may not
work with a recent BIOS update since the BIOS update may be only for drivers
for RC2 and later. You may just have to wait till next week when you can get
the RTM release.


"Bryce" <Bryce@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:155E23B0-0022-4F83-A1F1-4FD56C475259@microsoft.com...
>I have build 5600 (RC1) with RC1 update installed on my machine and am
>having
> trouble using any video drivers besides the windows VGA drivers.
>
> The card is a PCI-E 6800XT w/ 128mb of ram sourced from XFX. The
> motherboard
> is an MSI SLI-FI board with SLI disabled via hardware and only one PCI-E
> card
> in PCI-E slot 0. The BIOS is the latest edition and the machine has 1GB of
> 667mhz DDR2 in dual channel formation. The keyboard is PS2 and the mouse
> is
> USB. The hard drives are (0) - 250gb Sata and (1) - IDE 80gb
>
> ACPI is enabled in Bios, and APIC is turned on. MPS table is 1.1. All IRQ
> and DMA settings are on Auto.
>
> All windows system drivers fail when attempted and give me a corrupt
> screen
> output.
> All Nvidia Beta drivers give me a different type of corrupt video output,
> but they at least get to the loading windows page and are corrupt at the
> login page.
> With MS drivers, I cannot see past the first windows splash page with the
> green status bar on standard startup.
>
> I have tried Forceware version 97.46 which is supposed to only be for
> vista
> release RTM 6000
> I have also tried release 96.33 which is for build 5600.16384.060829-2230
> which is what I understand is on the DVD after you run windows update on
> install.
> I even tried version 88.61 that is meant for vista Beta 2 and is mostly
> proof of concept. All produce the same screen curruption of a black screen
> after spash page with pixel scatter accross the screen from time to time
>
> MS certified drivers for the 6800xt produce lines accross the screen
> regardless of version.
>
> I am going to attempt the following:
>
> 1. Try using XP driver and forceware instaed of Vista drivers. If that
> produces the same result, or Aero cannot be enabled,
>
> 2. Replace the PS2 keyboard with a USB keyboard to free up and ISA
> reserved
> IRQ try the MS certified drivers again.
>
> When I boot up normally, and look at the logs, I am seeing APIC assignment
> problems where empty PCI slots produce warnings of not being able to be
> assigned IRQ's. This should not happen since the slots are empty. This is
> fueling my attempt to free up an IRQ by pulling out the PS2 keyboard. The
> card is being assigned IRQ 10 with no conflicts according to windows.
>
> If anyone has suggestions besides comments on Nvidias lack of support, or
> general complaints, I would love to hear them. This problem is happening
> to
> people regardless of Vista build, so please no "Just upgrade to RTM.."
> comments.
>
> Has anything worked for you that might be worth sharing?

I updated the MB Bios, not the vid card Bios.
That Motherboard Bios was released in August, so we should not have any
conflicts there.

I have previously gotten this system to boot to Vista using the MS 6800xt
drivers by manually assigning the IRQ's and canceling all updates so as to
use the driver on the DVD.

Do you know where on the DVD the drivers are located?

"JW" wrote:

> The NVIDIA drivers that were only for Vista RC1 and which may have been on
> the RC1 DVD or may have been downlaoded during the install process may not
> work with a recent BIOS update since the BIOS update may be only for drivers
> for RC2 and later. You may just have to wait till next week when you can get
> the RTM release.
>

Sorry, I can't help finding drivers on the DVD. If you know the release
number you can get them at the NVIDIA Website.
What resolution are you trying to use over what interface? Can you operate
in Safe Mode?

"Bryce" <Bryce@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:ED64A054-1EEC-4809-BE75-4B0712E5E924@microsoft.com...
>I updated the MB Bios, not the vid card Bios.
> That Motherboard Bios was released in August, so we should not have any
> conflicts there.
>
> I have previously gotten this system to boot to Vista using the MS 6800xt
> drivers by manually assigning the IRQ's and canceling all updates so as to
> use the driver on the DVD.
>
> Do you know where on the DVD the drivers are located?
>
> "JW" wrote:
>
>> The NVIDIA drivers that were only for Vista RC1 and which may have been
>> on
>> the RC1 DVD or may have been downlaoded during the install process may
>> not
>> work with a recent BIOS update since the BIOS update may be only for
>> drivers
>> for RC2 and later. You may just have to wait till next week when you can
>> get
>> the RTM release.
>>
>

Don't count on an August driver being up to date. Most of the BIOS updates
show up in the first few months after a board releases and there are usually
several.

"Bryce" <Bryce@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:ED64A054-1EEC-4809-BE75-4B0712E5E924@microsoft.com...
>I updated the MB Bios, not the vid card Bios.
> That Motherboard Bios was released in August, so we should not have any
> conflicts there.
>
> I have previously gotten this system to boot to Vista using the MS 6800xt
> drivers by manually assigning the IRQ's and canceling all updates so as to
> use the driver on the DVD.
>
> Do you know where on the DVD the drivers are located?
>
> "JW" wrote:
>
>> The NVIDIA drivers that were only for Vista RC1 and which may have been
>> on
>> the RC1 DVD or may have been downlaoded during the install process may
>> not
>> work with a recent BIOS update since the BIOS update may be only for
>> drivers
>> for RC2 and later. You may just have to wait till next week when you can
>> get
>> the RTM release.
>>
>