New graphics card freezes systen when capturing or playing video

[Theresa]

Hello all--
I just upgraded to an NVidia G Force 6600, 256 MB card. I have an 430 watt output power source. I have been successfully capturing DV signal with my old Hercules card with Premiere Elements 2.0 but when I click 'Capture' the entire program, computer, everything freezes and I have to reboot. I have downloaded the latest drivers for the card. My son's large games, such as Civilization IV will play, but not any video's, and I can't capture or play video with any program--WinDV, ScenalyzerLive, Windows Movie Maker, Realplayer, Nero--nothing works--they all freeze up. The screen will blink to black then back while I'm waiting for the program I'm using to become responsive again--so I just reboot. I also added an external hard drive, a 320 GB Western Digital My Book at the same time I installed the graphics card--it doesn't draw any power from the computer--it's plugged into the wall. I have defragged all hard drives and scanned for viruses. I have uninstalled and reinstalled my primary video editing program. I am noticing the computer just running slower--it takes longer for programs to pull up and longer for pages to load on the Internet. Any ideas?
Thanks so much
Theresa

[harley2ride]

Which processor do you have? How much memory?

[edDV]

Which model of GForce 6600 captures video?

[Des]

Sounds like an IRQ issue. If you have any cards in the PCI slots try uninstalling them and removing them, then uninstall the NVidia card. Shut down, re-boot and then reinstall the video card. Shut down and reboot again, then see if it still crashes. If all is well then replace and reinstall the PCI cards (preferably in different slots than before) and continue the process.
Of course since Windows XP assigns the IRqs on it's own this may not help at all, in which case there are a few other options, but one thing at a time...

--dES

[Theresa]

Thanks so much for posting, you all!! I'm at my sits end!!
harley2ride, I have an Athlon 64 Processor, 3700+, 2.45 Ghz, 1.00 GB of RAM. I am running three hard drives, two with 120 GB and one external with 320--for storage. Both internal have plenty of room to work in. All are recently defragged. I have a 430 watt power supply.
edDV, I'm capturing with a Canopus ADVC 110 via Firewire. My old video card did fine--I don't know what the problem is here. I have flashed the BIOS, updated the chipset of my motherboard, downloaded the latest driver for the new card--I don't know what else to do. The manufacturer of the card said now I should reformat and reinstall everything. *sigh* But that's interesting that you should say that. Was this the wrong card to get?? I'm all for getting a different one!!!
Des, that sounds like a plan. Much better than reformatting at the moment. Not after all this tweaking.
Thank you all so much for jumping in. This has been a long two days.
Theresa

[Theresa]

Oh, I should add that I can't play any video with any program--what so ever. I have to reboot everytime.

Thanks

Theresa

[Des]

I was thinking some more about your problem. I have a Thinkpad that had a similar problem when I installed a wireless mini-pci card. Here is what I did, you may want to try this first:

Uninstall the drivers for the NVidia card and reboot but don't let the drivers install.

Make a back up of your boot.ini file then insert this at the end of the last string: /pcilock
include the slash. This will prevent windows from reassigning the IRQs when you install a new device.
Save this new boot.ini file and reboot. Allow windows to set up the drivers and configure the card.

Cross you fingers.

To find the boot.ini you may have to open a folder, go to the tools menu->Floder Options->view tab then uncheck the 'hide protected operating system files' and check the 'show hidden files and folders'. The boot.ini file is in the root C drive and can be opened with notepad.

For more info on /pcilock and other boot options here is a link:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/information/bootini.mspx

The reason NVidia is telling you to re-install (clean re-install) is that this should force the OS to reconfigure the IRQs without a conflict. This boot command may save you the headache.

Good Luck.

--dES

[edDV]

If you can't play video probably the overlay is trashed.

You need to pretend you have an ATI card.
- uninstall Nvidia everything.
- this includes removing any reference in the registry
- also remove anything left from the old Hercules card

Then reinstall from scratch.

[Theresa]

You guys are great. Thanks so much. But I will need some hand-holding here. I'll level with you; I'm a 41 yr. old mom who has taken on a project I really had no business doing--converting all my precious VHS-C tapes to DVD's. It's taken me two years to get this far. Still want to help??
Des, I will follow your instructions and hope I don't screw it up. Could I post back questions if I run into trouble?
edDV--As you see, I'm obviously computer-illiterate to a certain extent. Could you give me some advice about removing these things from the registry? I'm SO afraid of touching that!
I hope you two aren't slapping your foreheads now in irritation. I am forseeing an end to this project if I can't iron this out. You don't know how much your help means.

Thank you
Theresa

[Des]

Hi Theresa,

Feel free to contact me off of list via email (I think it's in my profile...)

I know you have money invested in equipment and certainly copying tapes to the computer gives you the most flexability, however there is an easier way and that would be to purchase a stand-alone DVD recorder (works like a VCR) and hook a VCR up to it and make your copies that way (good run-on sentence

In any event don't let this daunt you, like I tell my clients: 'We didn't have these problems before computers' and 'it's no problem money can't fix.'

--dES

[edDV]

Make sure you download the latest driver from NVidia or the display card manufacturer

Go to add and remove programs
start-settings-control panel-add and remove programs

Let it populate.

Then remove anything Nvidia or Hercules

Reboot to safe mode, usually F8

Install the new driver, adjust screen size in display properties.

Reboot

I don't have an Nvidia card here now so others can help with settings.

If the problem is still there, it may be necessary to make changes to the registry. Probably a job for a computer shop.

[Scorpion King]

Driver Cleaner 3 will remove all that nVidia stuff in a few simple clicks. I use it when removing all my ATI leftover files and registry entries. Here a link for your convienence. http://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Secure-cleaning/Driver-Cleaner.shtml

I would use Control Panel ADD/Remove to uninstall all nVidia drivers and software. Reboot when prompted. When XP starts you need to "Cancel" the New Hardware Found popup boxes (do not let XP search for drivers). Then run Driver Cleaner 3 - select the entries for nVidia - then click on 'Clean'. Then reinstall your nVidia display drivers and software as instructed in your manual.

Good luck.

[Theresa]

You know, I forgot to mention what is probably an important point: My son's games will play--Civilization IV, 3-D plays fine. Isn't that kinda of strange??

Theresa

[Theresa]

Thank you, edDV and Scorpion King. I'm printing your recommendations out right now . . . my kids aren't going to see me all night! I'll be working on this project.

Thanks so much
Theresa

[Theresa]

You guys are awesome!! Everything is working--and all it took was just the preliminary steps of removing all NVidia software, running Driver Cleaner 3, reinstalling the newest driver downloaded from NVidia, and things work wonderful. Thanks again for the thoughts you put into this.

Theresa

[Scorpion King]

[edDV]

It still seems true that ATI and NVidea drivers are shy about installing correctly.