Windows 7 Strange Screen Problem (UAC/Boot Splash)

[johnsag49]

I have a strange screen problem with default UAC settings (and it often appears, to a lesser degree, during boot)

Black (or white) streaks, missing or broken lines when the desktop is dimmed to show a system message. If, in UAC, I choose "Don't Dim Desktop"... the problem goes away when messages appear. The regular desktop is fine. This only happens when the boot screens are shown, and when the UAC is allowed to dim the desktop.

I have an ASRock 4CoreDual SATA2, eVGA 7600GS on AGP (sorry, can't go to PCIe right now,) 2GB of ram. This happened under both the Win 7 Beta and RC1, which I'm running now. Any thoughts?

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[reghakr]

Hello and welcome,

Is this the only time you have these problems with your display?

Were you offered a video driver update from Windows Update when you first installed and activated?

Sorry for all the questions, but........
In order to troubleshoot your problem we need to know more detailed specs of your system hardware.

1. Go to Start > Run, and type msinfo32, look under the Components section for hardware identification
2. Go to Control Panel > Device Manager and look for any entry that has a yellow flag beside it
3. The manufacturer name and model number of your PC, if applicable
4 Please fill out your computers specs in the User Control Panel here on the site as well. It will then appear next to your name. look at my posting and you'll see the drop-down arrow.

The exact make and model of your motherboard and video card would be of great help also.
Are you using the 32-bit or 64-bit version?
Was it a "clean" install or an upgrade?
Are you dual-booting?
Are you suing the official RC directly from Microsoft?
Did this occur immediately after install?
Do you recall installing any software that may have caused the problem?

 

[johnsag49]

Thanks for the speedy replies:

It only happens when I allow the UAC to dim the desktop, and to a much, much lesser extent on just the boot up screen. During normal operation, I have no artifacts whatsoever.

I dual boot, Win XP Pro SP3 and Win 7 (sep hard drives)

I have a beefy (aftermarket) cooler on the graphics card, so I don't know that overheating would be an issue. I cleaned the fins yesterday.

I installed the latest driver for my card available on eVGA's web site.

Here's all the info from "Components:"

Name NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_02E1&SUBSYS_A5423842&REV_A2\4&354AEA31&0&0008
Adapter Type GeForce 7600 GS, NVIDIA compatible
Adapter Description NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS
Adapter RAM 256.00 MB (268,435,456 bytes)
Installed Drivers nvd3dum.dll
Driver Version 8.15.11.8585
INF File oem5.inf (Section001 section)
Color Planes Not Available
Color Table Entries 4294967296
Resolution 1440 x 900 x 59 hertz
Bits/Pixel 32
Memory Address 0xFD000000-0xFDFFFFFF
Memory Address 0xD0000000-0xDFFFFFFF
Memory Address 0xFC000000-0xFEAFFFFF
IRQ Channel IRQ 16
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\nvlddmkm.sys (8.15.11.8585, 9.39 MB (9,850,016 bytes), 4/30/2009 10:02 PM)

My exact motherboard (ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2 LGA 775 VIA PT880 Pro/PT880 Ultra ATX Intel Motherboard)can be seen here:
Newegg.com - ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2 LGA 775 VIA PT880 Pro/PT880 Ultra ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

My exact videocard ( EVGA 256-A8-N542-T2 GeForce 7600GS 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X Video Card ) can be seen here:
Newegg.com - EVGA 256-A8-N542-T2 GeForce 7600GS 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Are you using the 32-bit or 64-bit version? 32-bit
Was it a "clean" install or an upgrade? clean, on separate hard drive
Are you dual-booting? yes, Win XP Pro SP3 is on another HD
Are you suing the official RC directly from Microsoft? yes, official RC 1
Did this occur immediately after install? Yes, on both the RC and the Beta
Do you recall installing any software that may have caused the problem? No, it has happened on both right away (very first boot)

 

[reghakr]

Thank you for providing the excellent information.

That is the very first time someone has taken the time to answer all questions and I appreciate it

Since this only happens at one point in time, I hesitate to give you some advice.

If you would like to try it, you might want to go to Nvidia's site for the latest Windows 7 driver as the EVGA card used the same GPU.

GeForce/ION Driver Release 186 WHQL

Please create a restore point first and uninstall the current driver from Device manager before attempting the new driver install
Also, if you have a good anti-virus program, spyware detector and/or personal firewall, you can set UAC to Never notify.

 

[johnsag49]

I already updated the drivers to the top of the top, I wonder if I should disable Aero? I'm also considering trying an entirely different card to see if it will clear up?

 

[reghakr]

Hey john,

You could disable Aero, but it will look like crap.

Another card may be a good choice since you seem like you have one on hand.

Do some research and make sure to try to locate a Windows 7 driver for it and/or do a Internet search for that particular card and see if others are having problems.

 

[johnsag49]

Interesting.

I completely uninstalled the nvidia drivers... right now I'm running on crappy 1024x768. Under both Aero themes and regular, "classic" themes, no problems at all. No screen artifacts, even on the boot screens. The resolution and colors are a bit off, but there's nothing fragmented or out of place.

What gives??!

 

[reghakr]

Again, I'm taking a guess here, but since the AGP card is an older technology, you might be better of with a PCI card.

Or you could do an Internet search for specials on an ATI or Nvidia card..

In your Windows Experience score how does your graphic card score?

Myself I have an Nvidia 8600GT with 512 MB and my video score is the lowest of them all.

I feel Microsoft should inform people that at least a mid-range or higher end graphic card will give you much better performance and up your index score.

From all the index scores people have posted, it always seems that the graphic card is the worst performer./

 

[johnsag49]

My card gives me about 4.6, which is not great. It's AGP, right. I'm not ready to swap out motherboards and everything yet. I'd rather save up for a brand new system instead of upgrading to mid-range parts right now.

 

[reghakr]

Well, since Windows 7 final is not that far off, that would be a good idea.

You can re-install a previous OS, and still have a working computer.

 

[johnsag49]

Oh even with this minor driver issue, this Win 7 machine runs just fine. I'm on it now. It's just an annoyance that I'm afraid may become a bigger issue when the final version is released. I ordered a Sapphire HD 3650 to see if that will clear up the problem.

 

[reghakr]

Yes,

I just posted a response to another person with problems with an AGP card.

I would think however that this would be corrected by the final release.

Microsoft's minimum requirements for a graphics card is that it has to be a DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver.

But then again, going with the new card will up your index score and provide better performance overall.

I would definitely go with the updated card.

 

[johnsag49]

I would definitely go with the updated card.

Well I picked up a Sapphire HD 3650 AGP card... when I finally found a driver that worked, it cleaned up the problem. So I guess the artifacts were an issue with the Nvidia drivers. Since the AGP bus is a dead interface, I assume no one will try to fix the problem. So this new card will hold me over until I'm ready to upgrade the whole system.

 

[delirium83]

Hey everybody,

I have the Win7 64-bit final version (through MSDNAA) and I get exactly the same glitches described in this thread.

Surprisingly, I have nearly the same components as the thread starter: ASRock 4CoreDual SATA2, Geforce 7800GS on AGP (don't remember the manufacturer right now), 2GB of ram, 320GB sata2 HDD. Basically it seems like this is an issue with the mainboard, combined with a nvidia gpu...

Drivers are all current version. A new graphics card is out of question, as this is only my second computer and thus will not be upgraded any more.

Did anybody find another solution to this problem, yet?

 

[johnsag49]

Sadly, no solution found. It seems to me the drivers just aren't compatible. Will nvidia or, in my case, eVGA, release new drivers to fix the problem? I didn't want to hold my breath so I got ATI 3800 series graphics card and that solved the problem for me.