Could this be malware?

[+BudMan MVC]

While I am not super up to speed on that specific board... Its all over the specs and info page for that board about its onboard display options, etc.  I did not see any * noting, model XYZ only sort of thing, etc.

 

I am not sure if OP built this himself, had someone build it, bought it from a build to suite site, etc.  But everything I show is that board for sure has onboard.. And also didn't see any mention of lite version or non onboard video version, etc.. Not saying I couldn't miss that - but its more likely they just plugged them up, or not seeing the dvi or vga port OP assumes there is no onboard video..  display port can be a bit misleading to those not familiar with them.. But hdmi is pretty easy to spot.. Pictures I see show the hdmi and display port right next to each.. Maybe mistook for something else?  Or they are plugged up and assumed not there..

[Matthew S.]

6 hours ago, devnulllore said:

Ok so since I have a backup anyway I did yet another clean install, yes CLEAN, no extra drivers software or anything but what Windows does automatically. The first thing I noticed is the system ran quite smoothly until Windows automatically installed the video drivers then the stuttering began. Right now WINVER reports Windows x64 Version 1903 (OS Build 18362.329) so it seems to be  introduced by a Windows update or the video drivers or something to do with both. What now?

That right there is telling me the issue is with the video driver then, which is why I'm suggesting trying the onboard video, if your monitor doesn't support HDMI or DisplayPort than you may want to connect up to a TV but for all intents and purposes if you do in-fact have the TUF Sabretooth Z77 Motherboard than you do in-fact have onboard intel graphics.

[jnelsoninjax]

Grab SDI (Snappy Driver Installer) run it and let it find your drivers, I have used this program for a long time and no issues with it at all!

[+Warwagon MVC]

20 minutes ago, jnelsoninjax said:

Grab SDI (Snappy Driver Installer) run it and let it find your drivers, I have used this program for a long time and no issues with it at all!

All we really care about at the moment is the video card and or the video driver. We know what card he has. He could go straight to NVIDA and grab the latest driver. First I would check the device manager and see which version of the driver windows 10 installed.

[ReAnimation]

As a heads up, Windows 10 1903 has a habit of grabbing DCH drivers for graphics cards - If you then try to download the 'standard' drivers from nVidia and install them - the installer will fall over as the DCH driver windows fetches is incompatible with the standard driver.

 

I had this problem myself when I upgraded graphics card.

 

If Windows has installed a DCH driver, the best course of action is to download the standard driver from nVidia then unplug the ethernet cable from the PC (this will stop windows redownloading the DCH driver whilst you install the standard driver).

 

The next step is to remove the DCH driver (load up Device manager, right click the graphics card, choose 'uninstall device', then when the dialogue appears tick the 'delete the driver software for this device').

 

Once done, reboot your PC, then install the standard nVidia driver.

 

Once this is done, you'll then be fine to plug the ethernet cable back into your PC.

 

nVidia has info on DCH drivers here: https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4777/~/nvidia-dch%2Fstandard-display-drivers-for-windows-10-faq

[devnulllore]

Ok, first if I do have onboard video why don't I see it in the device manager? Second I tried all the instructions to install the standard drivers and nothing worked. No matter what I did I could not get the standard drivers to install it kept failing. I have the latest DCH drivers that Windows installed in there now. Anything else I can try?

[+BudMan MVC]

27 minutes ago, devnulllore said:

why don't I see it in the device manager?

Because most time when a discrete card is added the onboard is disabled.

 

Do you have the ports on the back of the PC?  Then you have it - just pull your discrete boot into the bios and make sure onboard is now enabled.

 

Example - here is mine showing my discrete card, but nothing more - but I for sure have onboard, since was just using it when my old card died

 

 

If you have been messing with it for this long - what would be the big deal to pull the video card and test with just onboard

 

edit:  Here I just did a show hidden and now see my old card, and the onboard.. the highlighted is my old card that died, and the HD is the onboard

 

[Matthew S.]

1 hour ago, devnulllore said:

Ok, first if I do have onboard video why don't I see it in the device manager? Second I tried all the instructions to install the standard drivers and nothing worked. No matter what I did I could not get the standard drivers to install it kept failing. I have the latest DCH drivers that Windows installed in there now. Anything else I can try?

Because when you have a dedicated graphic card most BIOS/Firmware disable the iGPU (unless your motherboard has that weird GPU switching feature that mimic's the MacBook Pro's), 

 

Second stop just relying on just looking at Device Manager when trying to determine your hardware specs, physically look at it and also look at the spec sheets for your specific model.

 

Third when you do test with just the iGPU remember to fully remove the NVidia driver (if you don't do a full clean install again...) since that may be what's causing your issue, where basically trying the same additive approach you did when did the clean install, this time with hardware, also when you do this it may be wise to remove any USB devices sans HID's (Keyboard & Mouse) to rule those out too...

 

1 hour ago, BudMan said:

edit:  Here I just did a show hidden and now see my old card, and the onboard.. the highlighted is my old card that died, and the HD is the onboard

 

Both your old card and iGPU are "HD"s lol 😛 BudMan meant the Intel HD 😛 

[+BudMan MVC]

Yeah the intel is built in one, guess I could of been a bit clearer on that.. But since I called out the highlighted one as old one thought would of been obvious hehehe

[devnulllore]

Ok so I was finally able to get my system out so I could get the video card out and yes there is an HDMI port. I was just going by the device manger. I pulled the video card out and went into the bios but there is no settings for onboard video. When I tried to boot into Windows all I got was no HDMI signal and a black screen. I waited some time to see if maybe windows was going to do something in the background but I get no signal from the onboard video. Any ideas? Should the onboard video just automatically enable itself?

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Onboard video should automatically disable and enable itself if/when a gfx card is pulled or not. Unless you have a really really old computer that can't switch by itself (2003 era)

 

The problem you are probably having is driver conflict. It is looking for your gfx card, and it isn't there.\

 

See if you can get into safe mode.

[devnulllore]

Well I did nothing different but it just decided to work after a couple of reboots. So far all that's installed is the Intel HD driver and I am having no stuttering at all. I will let you know after a few hours of using my system.

[firey]

1 hour ago, devnulllore said:

Well I did nothing different but it just decided to work after a couple of reboots. So far all that's installed is the Intel HD driver and I am having no stuttering at all. I will let you know after a few hours of using my system.

So, just to confirm.. did you install the Nvidia drivers direct from Nvidia? If you had issues did you try using the Geforce Experience?

[+Warwagon MVC]

1 hour ago, devnulllore said:

Well I did nothing different but it just decided to work after a couple of reboots. 

Did you by change give the motherboard caps a once over? Any bulging or leaking? Just wondering seeing how the HDMI didn't work at first then just started spontaneously started working.

[Matthew S.]

@warwagoncould have just been a simple driver conflict as he could access the bios while it was connected to the iGPU's HDMI port.

 

@devnullloreYou got that video card recently correct?  did you also get new drives recently too? if so... what's your PSU's wattage rating?

[+Warwagon MVC]

11 minutes ago, Matthew S. said:

@warwagoncould have just been a simple driver conflict as he could access the bios while it was connected to the iGPU's HDMI port.

AH, great point, didn't catch the part when he went into the bios after pulling the card.

[Matthew S.]

52 minutes ago, Matthew S. said:

@warwagoncould have just been a simple driver conflict as he could access the bios while it was connected to the iGPU's HDMI port.

 

@devnullloreYou got that video card recently correct?  did you also get new drives recently too? if so... what's your PSU's wattage rating?

Just a thought too, when did the issue actually first occur (not counting the clean installs), right after a Windows update or right after a graphics driver update? if the latter try an older version of the driver but follow @ReAnimation's steps to remove the DCH version of the driver..

[devnulllore]

The more I think about it, it seems once I installed the update just prior to 1903 and they were the newest video drivers at that time, 431.36. i have been in contact with Nvidia about any issues with the drivers and they said there was an issue with that revision on and Windows 10. They claim it is an issue with Windows 10 and Microsoft is just releasing a fix this weekend. I don't see it yet but I will keep an eye out for it.

[devnulllore]

Oh also I tried and tried to get the standard driver to install but nothing works. I followed all the instructions mention here and even use the DDU utility but the standard drivers keep failing. What is the difference?

[+BudMan MVC]

431.36 came out July, I show the lastest that are available to download being 436.02, seems the 436.15 were pulled - the link to the download fails.

 

 

[devnulllore]

Right, I guess I am stuck until Microsoft releases the update or Nvidia releases new drivers

[+BudMan MVC]

So your trying which version exactly?  I am running 436.02 on windows 10 1903, 18362.329

[devnulllore]

So after a few hours of no stuttering without the Nvidia card in I reinstalled the Nvidia card and let Windows decide what drivers to install. 436.02 (26.21.14.3615) Winver 1903 v.18362.329) and the stuttering has started again. Should I install Nvidia Experience and see if it updates my drivers? Wait for Windows update?

[+BudMan MVC]

Do you have a different video card you can try, try backing the driver off, or try the latest beta maybe.  I show a 385.12 beta that came out end of july.

[devnulllore]

I have no second video card. I will look into those drivers. I am also working with Nvidia support. They recommend letting Experience install the latest drives and updating Windows when it's available.