XFX 790I Ultra... Which Nforce Drivers?

[mremulator]

Hi,

Have not built a rig in a few years, so a dumb question probably...

Which Nforce drivers (not version) do I have to install (if any) for this motherboard?

Are these actually required/necessary?

Vista 64 by the way.

Thanks in advance.

[XFX Tech]

These are the Vista x64 chipset drivers and you do need them. :icon_tiphat:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_vista64_15.17.html

[mremulator]

These are the Vista x64 chipset drivers and you do need them. :icon_tiphat:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_vista64_15.17.html

Thanks very much, however, I already installed these and afterwards Vista boot manager reported that a System.32 DLL (can't remember which one) had been corrupted or was missing??

Also, do I install all of them, as I already installed RAID drivers from a floppy during Windows installation in order for my HDD's to be recognized in RAID0.

Thanks for your help ny the way! :icon_tiphat:

[XFX Tech]

Vista doesn't need the raid drivers set up during the install process. It already has nForce class RAID drivers. Are you manually setting your memory timings and voltage? Not doing that can cause data corruption if the timings the manufacturer intended are far off from what is stored on the SPD for the sticks. Have you updated to the latest BIOS for the 790i as well?

[mremulator]

Vista doesn't need the raid drivers set up during the install process. It already has nForce class RAID drivers. Are you manually setting your memory timings and voltage? Not doing that can cause data corruption if the timings the manufacturer intended are far off from what is stored on the SPD for the sticks. Have you updated to the latest BIOS for the 790i as well?

I must admit, I noticed that my OCZ DDR3 1333 Reaper was set to 1T in the bios? Since changing it to 2T has improved things. However, I have not installed the drivers again just incase there was a problem.

So which ones do I install please?

Cheers

[XFX Tech]

I am sure the 1T was the issue. 1T is very aggressive for memory and most will not do it. The drivers I posted earlier for the chipset will have everything you need for the motherboard. Did you check the voltage too?

[mremulator]

I am sure the 1T was the issue. 1T is very aggressive for memory and most will not do it. The drivers I posted earlier for the chipset will have everything you need for the motherboard. Did you check the voltage too?

Yep, as I'm going to OC my E8500, I changed the VCORE to 1.3875v, the NB to 1.30v & RAM to 1.85v.

When I ask which Nforce drivers I mean which drivers to install, not which version you understand. :smile:

So all of em?

[mremulator]

Still having problems... upon installing the Nforce drivers again, I immediately start getting critical RAID errors in the Nvidia control panel? After a reboot Vista starts checking my HDD's for consistency?

I do not have any problems until I install the Nforce drivers by the way.

My 2x WD Velociraptors are currently in SATA ports 5&6, would it make any difference if I installed them in ports 1&2 for example?

This board is driving me insane!!!!!!!!!!!!

**Update**

Definitely the 3x RAID drivers in the nforce_winvista64_15.17_international package. If I don't install them everything seems fine (Prime95, SuperPI, 3DMark Vantage etc.) However install them and I get a corrupted version of Vista that is unable to start or VERY unstable at best...WTF?

Is there a way to simply stick with the Windows drivers, but be able to use the Nvidia RAID Service monitor application as I still don't know for 100% certain if I have a flaky Velociraptor?

[Hapatingjaky]

Flash too the latest bios the P05V2 that was just released. I find the only way to get the latest Nforce Drivers running stable is with this bios. Last night I was getting massive raid errors using anytype of driver except for the one that comes with Windows Vista...

I flashed to the latest bios last night using the Nvidia Software tool, haven't had an issue since. Actually the latest bios looks to have solved my weird lockup issue aswell. Been running since last night without any lockups or raid errors.

[mremulator]

Flash too the latest bios the P05V2 that was just released. I find the only way to get the latest Nforce Drivers running stable is with this bios. Last night I was getting massive raid errors using anytype of driver except for the one that comes with Windows Vista...

I flashed to the latest bios last night using the Nvidia Software tool, haven't had an issue since. Actually the latest bios looks to have solved my weird lockup issue aswell. Been running since last night without any lockups or raid errors.

I am running that BIOS! :help:

[XFX Tech]

Download Data Lifeguard (http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp) from Western Digital and check all three of your drives. I haven't seen anyone having a problem with the RAID drivers like you are describing but we don't have many customers running Velociraptors yet so I can't speak for sure. Run the DOS based test on all of your drives. To the best of my knowledge you can't run any of the NV RAID services or software without the nForce RAID drivers.

[mremulator]

Download Data Lifeguard (http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp) from Western Digital and check all three of your drives. I haven't seen anyone having a problem with the RAID drivers like you are describing but we don't have many customers running Velociraptors yet so I can't speak for sure. Run the DOS based test on all of your drives. To the best of my knowledge you can't run any of the NV RAID services or software without the nForce RAID drivers.


OK... I've made the floppy, however, I can't see any option to test my 2 drives? In addition, Windows is installed and the drives are striped. I don't want to format them again, as the machine is stable at the moment.

Definitely the Nforce RAID drivers by the way, however, would still be nice to double check the drives.

Please advise.

**EDIT**

Doh! Downloaded wrong program... testing now.

[mremulator]

Just tested both drives... NO ERRORS.

Nforce RAID drivers are evil! :devildance:

[XFX Tech]

Let me see if I can get more information. :smile:

Can you give me a full system spec run down?

[mremulator]

Let me see if I can get more information. :smile:

Can you give me a full system spec run down?

Yes, I'd be interested to find out myself after spending the past week banging my head against a brick wall!! :-D

System:

XFX 790i Ultra, Intel E8500 (stock), 1X Samsung F1 1TB HDD (SATA 4), 2X WD Velociraptors (SATA 5 & 6), 1X LG 20X DVD ROM optical drive (SATA 3), 1X LG SuperBlue SATA optical drive (SATA 2), Lian Li ESATA port (SATA 1), 2X XFX GTX 280 GPU's, 4GB OCZ (2X 2GB) 1333MHz Reaper (stock/1.9V), Asus Xonar DX sound card (middle PCI-E X16 slot), Thermaltake ToughPower 1200w PSU & Vista 64 Ultimate.

Another quick question... what happens if I were to put a PCI-E 1X soundcard in one of the PCI-E 16X GPU slots?

[XFX Tech]

You can run an x1, x4, x8, or x16 card in an x16 slot. You are making sure that RAID is only enabled on 5 and 6 right? Have you tried removing the eSATA and DVD burners?

[mremulator]

You can run an x1, x4, x8, or x16 card in an x16 slot. You are making sure that RAID is only enabled on 5 and 6 right? Have you tried removing the eSATA and DVD burners?

Yes and yes.

What have Nvidia had to say about this issue with their drivers and Velociraptors?

[XFX Tech]

I guess the only thing left to do, if you haven't already, is to remove everything from the system except those two drives. Remove all SATA devices except those two drives, remove one of the GTX 280s, remove the Xonar card. Leave your PSU, CPU, memory, one video card, and those two drives. If it fixes it than add components in one at a time. If it does the same thing than make a ticket at http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/Help/Support.aspx and PM me the ticket number.

[mremulator]

Done and done.

[mremulator]

Bump. any news on this problem?

[tekk]

I guess the only thing left to do, if you haven't already, is to remove everything from the system except those two drives. Remove all SATA devices except those two drives, remove one of the GTX 280s, remove the Xonar card. Leave your PSU, CPU, memory, one video card, and those two drives. If it fixes it than add components in one at a time. If it does the same thing than make a ticket at http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/Help/Support.aspx and PM me the ticket number.

Not trying to steal this topic in any way, but the P06 BIOS topic is being completely ignored by the XFX tech's.

I opened a ticket 3 days ago, telling you guys that the P06 .ISO on the xfx support site is not working. The .ISO does not even contain the .BIN file needed to flash the bios, it still is available on the Support site. I cant believe that not-working file is still there, is it that hard to post the working .BIN file ?

[Blacklash]

My guess would be the BIOS issue will be taken care of after the holiday weekend Monday.