Graphics KFA2 550 Ti White Edition Driver Installation failures

Hokay. So I, literally, just installed my shiny new 550 into my system, replacing that good, but old, 250 I had in there. And now it's failing to recognize the drivers for it. Strange thing is that I can go into Device Manager, tell it to find the drivers, and it'll go "Service Failed to start", which makes me thing that Nvidia may have some kinda restriction on the drivers, or something.

For whatever reason: I currently have a wonderful new GPU that is failing to work.

What confuses me even more is that I know someone else who bought one of these and had the same problem. Seems that it's down to the card design, not the motherboard/particular Graphics card.

Anyway: I know the solution, go to the release drivers for the 550 Ti (266.71), but it means I won't be able to update to the later drivers, so does anyone know of a fix for this? Because I'm eternally stuck on older drivers now.

 

It could be that your graphics card is broken too if you can't update the the newest ones. Have you tried sending an email to the support guys at KFA2?

 

Send a support query to Nvidia, they can be quite good when approached with these issues. If it's a known problem then they will tell you and provide further information on how to address the problem or assure you it will be rectified in a future driver update. That is of course assuming everything is peachy with the hardware itself!

Actually looking in to the details it might be best to contact KFA2 as EzyRyder suggested seeing as it is a UK support system!

 

So far as I can tell: It's something revolving around the setup, as the installer will go "Searching for Compatible Hardware", then fail at that point.

I'll give the email ideas a shot, cheers guys!

EDIT: Okay. I've got a question up on the Nvidia support base, and KFA2's site asks you to be logged in in order to be able to log in (lol), so I guess that idea is somewhat out of reach.

 

Did you uninstall the drivers before re-installing them?

Also the latest Beta's aren't installing on my system, has to be the latest WHQL for me.

 

I was running 270.61 on my GTS 250, I just swapped the cards, and the drivers refused to function with my 550. Had to go to the release drivers to get it to recognize the card as a Nvidia one.

Perhaps it's because the card seems to be a 560Ti, with a 550 GPU stuck in there instead? (Looks virtually the same, to my knowledge)

 

The drivers will configure themselves to work best with whatever card happens to be in the machine at the time they are installed. the 4/5 series' are completely different architecture to the 8/9/250 series' so it stands to reason you'll need a fresh install.

 

Tried that, it just failed at the setup.

Which is a pain in the ass. I Driver Sweeper'd the hell outta the old drivers, tried to reinstall: Same issue, it seems to be down to the identification stage of the setup, where it searches for compatible hardware.

EDIT: Hokay. So I'm in online technical support with a Nvidia representative (Or at least someone in china with a script), currently I've been asked to restart into Safe-mode with Networking and attempt to install the driver there, I'll edit more on as it goes.

DOUBLEEDIT: If someone in the Bit-Tech labs spots this (And if they still have the 550Ti review sample): Could they try sticking it in a machine and updating the drivers? I'm starting to think this isn't an isolated problem.

TRIPLEEDIT: When trying to confirm details of what I'm supposed to do: the Technical support lost connection. I'm not sure if it was a termination or a connection issue, but it's a bit curious after having a script thrown at me.

QUADRUPLE-EDIT (Goddamn this is getting OTT): After booting into safemode and downloading the 275.27 drivers (The ones which ruin Witcher 2 performance, apparently), then Clean Installing those: I managed to update. BUt that's one hell of a hassle just to update drivers, especially on an Operating system where the Graphics Drivers can happily be removed and replaced while it's running (Or at least crash and restart during operation.)

 

Having the same issue with my card. did you ever resolve the issue?

Tony

 

Install the drivers on the CD with the GPU first, then restart into safe-mode, and install the newest drivers there with the "Clean Install" option checked.

If it fails to update; you'll have to RMA the card, as that's actually Corrupted Bios on the card itself. Or find someone with the exact same card to send you working Bios.

Although doesn't just instantly go "Oh god! it's broken!" and send it back. Give the install a few more attempts first, I've generally found that once i've managed to get the driver updated within safemode; I can then just normally install drivers over the top inside windows. So you don't have to do it every time.

 

Thanks for the reply giving it a gi now. Ive put a waterblock on my card to hopefully that wont void my warrenty if i have to rma it. Still have the original cooler etc so should be fine

 

Tried your method 5 times but no luck. Have opend a rma with kfa2

 

Is it the KFA2 550Ti? Because i've got a clean, confirmed working Bios for that, if you want to give that a shot before sending it back. (Also didn't know you can get Waterblocks for these cards, what is it?)

I had to flash my second card because it wouldn't work with anything other than release drivers. Still not quite sure how it happened, but there's good news; You can do it from within windows, and it shouldn't break everything.

I also have the upped-Voltage limit version of the bios to hand, modified from the working one, if you want to just say "Scrap it all" and give that a spin. Just make a backup of your original bios first and you'd be good to go.

 

Is a custom version? have you tried using the one on the CD that came with it?

 

That's the issue; It works with stock drivers off the CD, but absolutely no others. So driver updates are impossible.

 

ahh probably because it's a custom design, can you connect more than 2 monitors to it?.

Are there any updates on KFA2's site?

 

No, it's down to the Bios of the card. It seems to be unrecognized by anything other than the drivers on their CD. I wound up having to flash one of my cards before it would work, the other took a load of work to update properly, then just seemed to work.

 

Yeah its the 550ti white pcb version. I just got a chip only EK water block on it, they only do full block for 560's upwards. If you could send the bios that would be great. I can PM my email.

Tony

 

Okay. This should be it. http://www.mediafire.com/?d9n6as3p23k7n70

http://downloads.guru3d.com/NVFlash-5.95.0.1-download-2590.html

You'll need NVflash, obviously. It's reasonably simple to use, and the latest versions allow you to flash the card within windows. Just make sure to have another GPU handy if it does happen to go wrong and you need to re-flash it. Also; Backup the original Bios first. (Gpu-z will let you do it.)

This tutorial will walk you over the concept; http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=141631 (I know True_Gamer here on B-T did it himself, but I can't find the thread.)

Failing that; this is my confirmed working Voltage-upped Bios. Same stock settings, just the Vcore limit upped to the ungodly 1.123V http://www.mediafire.com/?gd7sl8u2dtvrpaw

 

Thanks for the files, much appriciated.

Just creating dos boot usb stick, it says t copy over the bios rom files, but the files i have recieved from your good self are .bin files

Tony