2012-03-21, 23:00 | Link #1 |
Goat Herder
Author
Join Date: Jun 2008
Age: 36
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NVIDIA Control Panel issue
So I seem to have lost access to my NVIDIA control panel. Any attempt to access it presents me with the error:
"NVIDIA Display settings are not available. You are not currently using a display attached to an NVIDIA GPU." I have attempted uninstalling the NVIDIA drivers and the device driver and reinstalling with both the latest and the second-latest drivers for my graphics card: (a GeForce GTX 560 Ti) with no change. I only noticed this when I installed Mass Effect 2 on the computer through Steam: Steam warned me that the graphics card was unrecognized or not supported, though that shouldn't present a problem. I had some crashes despite my specs being more than enough for the game, which prompted me to check out the NVIDIA control panel to change some settings for the game, at which point I discovered I could not access it.
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2012-03-22, 00:16 | Link #2 |
blinded by blood
Author
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Boot into safe mode and completely remove the GPU drivers and all their associated registry entries (there are tools that do this, Driver Cleaner being the most prominent). When you finish doing that, reboot into normal Windows and install the latest driver from nvidia's website.
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2012-03-22, 02:06 | Link #3 |
Goat Herder
Author
Join Date: Jun 2008
Age: 36
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Did that and I still had the issue. Finally regained access after disabling the onboard GPU. What I don't understand is why that was the key to accessing it--I'd accessed it plenty of times in the past when the onboard graphics were enabled.
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2012-03-22, 02:43 | Link #4 |
Senior Member
Author
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Philippines
Age: 47
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Wondering if the board's BIOS got updated. Also, I think it would also be necessary to run Memtest and Video Memory Stress Test to check up both system and video memory for any possible damage. Furthermore, have you tried to downgrade your card's Forceware, to see if there are any possible compatibility discrepancies?
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2012-03-22, 04:34 | Link #6 |
Senior Member
Author
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Philippines
Age: 47
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Both Memtest86 and VMST can be burned to a blank disc, then booted up (DVD drive first) to run. Forceware is another name I use to describe nVidia VC drivers. Driver downgrading is usually performed when a game can't work with the latest drivers (for example I had upped the Forceware to the latest (285) for my Geforce 6200A back then, then tried to run my favorite MMO but met a BSOD instead, so I downgraded to version 195 and it worked nicely).
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2012-03-23, 00:45 | Link #9 | |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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The thing that might be happening is that the module crashes very ungracefully if you tried to access a page to a piece of hardware that either doesn't exist or is disabled (like 3d vision). The next time you start the panel it tries to go to the last page you had up and of course, crashes immediately again. The only fix I've found is to rummage deep in the registry and remove the "last page' keys so that the panel will start at the home page again. Then, naturally you have to remember not to click that tab or link again.
To those who have the same problem, here's my understanding to the problem and my solution. Quote:
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2012-04-03, 23:32 | Link #10 |
Goat Herder
Author
Join Date: Jun 2008
Age: 36
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Ended up regaining access only after disabling onboard graphics. However, that disabled the monitor I was using as it could only connect to that monitor from the mobo at the time. Got an adapter to fix that though.
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2012-05-02, 16:26 | Link #14 | |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Quote:
1) its a choice in the menu (r-click on screen) 2) but when pressed nothing happens. 3) Checking the task manager, no sign of the process (even as a zombie) ?
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2012-05-02, 16:29 | Link #15 |
Goat Herder
Author
Join Date: Jun 2008
Age: 36
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There were three NVIDIA-related processes, two of which were duplicates, none of which were the nvtray.exe process for the panel. I reinstalled the driver I was using and it's back, but there's nothing saying whatever happened won't happen again.
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2012-05-02, 16:47 | Link #16 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Yeah, you probably had a "zombie nvidia" lurking, rather like what FireFox and some other applications do once in a while ("I terminated but wait, I'm still alive! but not! Zombie!").
In Firefox's case, it just means everything gets really slow, stupid, failish. In the case of Nvidia, its smart/dumb enough to say, "oh there's already a process named me, I don't need to start". Meanwhile, zombie process says "durrrrr". I call this the Land of Non-Critical Computing, home of Microsoft where everything is solved by rebooting. (Software not suggested for use on deep space probes or cruise missiles)
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2012-05-02, 16:50 | Link #17 |
Goat Herder
Author
Join Date: Jun 2008
Age: 36
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Well, those two identical processes are still there even after the driver reinstall.
nvvsvc.exe, listed as "NVIDIA Driver Helper Service, Version 285.62". One of them is a bigger file size than the other. 3,012 K and 4,844 K.
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2012-05-02, 16:55 | Link #18 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Hmmm, I have
nvtray.exe "Nvidia Settings" nvvsvc.exe "<empty field>" nvxdsync.exe "<empty field>" o.O .... sigh. You might try totally uninstalling the nvidia components and rebooting, then reinstalling them? If you've already done that, then I'm stuck.
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