The thread title is actually a little misleading but let me explain what my problem is and what I would like to do. If you glance at my signature you will see that I have Asus Direct CU 11 GTX 670 and may or may not have a problem with it, or the problem may well be motherboard related as I am also having intermittent sound problems. The niggle with the graphics is on a cold boot ( first thing in the morning), my PC will boot without anything visible during the process on my monitor, I hear all sound and for all intents and purposes the PC has booted. If I then press the reset button the PC will boot as it should with Post screen and to desk top with no further problems for the rest of the day. I have ruled out monitor and cable and would like to see if the fault is the GPU or the mobo. To that end I would like to try the GPU in my secondary rig. Specs P8H61-1/G840/4GB XMS3/HD4870. Is it possible to install the drivers for the 670 so I can test the card without removing the AMD drivers first? As I mentioned earlier it also might well be a mobo problem as I am pretty sure I have a fault with the light green jack as although sound is shown as working in playback devices nothing is heard from the speakers. Play around with the jack and the speakers will work. I have tried the speakers elsewhere and they are fine. So before I RMA anything I am trying to work out which component/s is/are faulty. Sorry for the long post.
Not sure if it will work for you but a friend asked me to test his graphics card which was dx9 ( i think it was a 2600xt from memory) in my rig and it ran on a different version of catalyst control centre and drivers, so although they were both amd cards i had both drivers on the system at once. Not sure if it works across nvidia and amd though
Odd problem.. You could try your other card like yiu said, Just make a system restore point and start your work Why would you want 2 different drivers at the same time though? Installing them doesn't take that long, and the cards should fire up without drivers anyway?
As I said in my OP I want to see if after sticking the GPU in the other PC it boots to the desktop as it should, for this to be effective I need to have the Nvidia driver installed. Yes I can remove the AMD driver install the Nvidia,test the boot, remove the card and driver reinstall AMD card and driver. My question was can I avoid this by installing the Nvidia driver alongside.
I would completely clean the system of all video drivers first. then switch cards. then install the drivers. if you do it any other way you end up adding a possible driver conflict in to the mix. you need to limitvariables like that. Doing a system restore point before anything else is the best way to save time.
Would it be easier to try the working AMD card on the 'possibly' faulty mobo and uninstall the nVidia drivers on that machine? That would at least prove the mobo, wouldnt it. Just a thought
Still don't really see the need for nVidia drivers. Your problem is that nothing appears on screen from a cold-boot. I doubt drivers play any part in stuff coming up on screen that early in the post lifecycle. I'd try what booti suggested anyhow, eliminate the motherboard.
Don't need drivers as your problem is lack of display on post which have nothing to do with a driver at all. Also what port are you using to connect the display with? I noticed one of my card would do exactly this when I connected it to one DVI but not the other, as it seem to assign them as primary/secondary internally. When connected to secondary port it would display nothing until desktop loaded. In theory to do your testing you don't even need the OS disc connected. If you want to do more extended testing inside an OS, you could always use a linux live or similar to avoid any hardware/software conflict on your os install.
Lysol. . I use the Display Port as my connection of choice except the desktop does not show even after loading. I here the usual sounds and now that I should be at the desktop but nothing is seen. But I do take your point about primary ports. But in saying that why have various connections if you cannot use the one you want. As it happens the desktop booted fully without a restart to get to a visible desktop. Which is both odd and typical. As it seems that installing possibly conflicting drivers is not an option. I am going to use my ex GF's PC which is still here and using a spare SSD will do a fresh install of OS with the 670 and see what happens. Thanks all.
Found this: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/peripherals/f/3529/p/19339056/19722024.aspx Thanks to this: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=2846233&postcount=40
