missing PCI Simple Comm. Controller Driver -GPU dead

As described in two threads here, the W10 March 2023 update crashed my PC.. Could not repair and in the end after several BSoD had to do a complete clean install without GPU Card installed

Once running and updated, Device Manager warned that "PCI Simple Communication Controller" was not installed, no driver.

I also checked my Device Manager System to see if there was any mention of a MEI at all, also not.
Could not find a driver for that PCI controller, probably because I am running a i7 2600K from 2011.

Whatever. I tried to put back the GPU (ASUS Nvidia GTX 570), but the PC would not start or was running with a blocked display, because I only had a black screen. Switching from GPU to integrated graphics also did not work.

Until the March 2023 update, this rig was running perfectly and still very quick. The GPU was never under heavy load, at least not for long, no gaming and only occasionally video editing at 1080p max. After W7 I did a clean reinstall to W10. This rig worked perfect and never had problems with updates.

Now it looks I might end up having to buy at least a new GPU, maybe a complete new rig.

Some questions:

• Can the missing driver stop the GPU from being installed or accessed?
• Would a clean install using a very early Windows 10 version maybe solve the PCI driver problem?
• Can the repeated hard reboots during the initial crash finish off (killl) my GPU?

Any idea how to solve this? This PC was running more than enough for my needs at this moment, but this is really upsetting.


Some additional details:
PC home-buildt 2011.
Motherboard Asus P8Z68-V Pro gen 3 ; CPU i7-2600k; 16 GB Kingston RAM (4 sticks), ASUS-NVIDIA GTX 570 integrated graphics HD3600. I plundered some old pc's and laptops recently, and bought something new, so now I have a 240 GB SSD as OS, 250 GB SSD for video editing, and 1 TB SSD for daily data work and pictures. And 2 HDDs (1TB+2TB) as data and media backup.

- - - Updated - - -

OK, my local PC seller-repair shop told me to download the W8.1 Management Engine Interface driver from the Asus website.

Installed that and device manager no longer shows the warning triangle anywhere, so all drivers are OK now.

- - - Updated - - -

Using another empty SSD just installed W7 on this rig. No problem, fully updated. GPU: Windows stopped it, error 43.

Now I had another old GEFORCE 8800 GT laying around, presumably still good. Windows gave the same error code.

So either I have two dead graphic cards or?

I checked, the fans on my 570 are running and the 850 W PSU gives 12 volts over the 6-pins.

Check the other things as well but its a a bit difficult in the weekend.

From non-profit project work I still have the old PCs (old as in 2000-2008), some functional, some with one component broken. I made three or more less working PCs out of it (one Windows 2000, one XP, the second XP is being constructed). The XPs are very interesting for us because we have old equipment running only or mainly on XP, and XP has the best search system ever, being able to easily search for words inside documents.

However, these OEM machines do not have PSU with a 6-pin connector, so I must buy a 2xMolex to 6-pin adapter. That rig pules 270 watt with the 8800 GT (110 watt), and the PSU has 350 watt, so it would work.

So keep coming with suggestions, and I will keep updating my results.

I know its not the best (or even a very stupid) solution but this is the only way to quickly test if that 8800 is good or not. To be sure, this is only for a few days just testing if it works. I am not going to do any serious graphic work on it. If it manage to show the normal windows screen and open explorer etc is alive. If its dead on this machine as well, the card is dead. If it works here, maybe the 570 is not dead either. In that case, I have another problem on the W10=W7 machine.

Maybe another crazy idea only for a quick test. Start up my now Windows 7 PC, standing it literally next to the 350 W powered XP machine. Then 8800 in the motherboard of the the XP machine but get external power from the 850 W W7 PSU, so from an external source not connected to the motherboard. Since that 850 W PSU does not need to power the GEFORCE 570 or any graphic card it is running on less than 50%. This is only to see if the GPU works. IF yes, I might buy a new PSU for that XP rig. If not, I will continue with the old graphic card it had and the 350 W PSU.

As to power supply. Originally, this XP machine only had a 300 Watt PSU with a graphic card (Radeon X700 256 Mb) powered through the board, and that was then considered enough power to spare and run it easy at 80%; I always like to have 20% spare). Therefore, for a short try I thought a 350 Watt PSU with the 8800 pulling max 110 watts should be possible for a short time.

Before anybody asks, after 2 years of Covid and then the Ukraine war, our non-profit had serious losses due to low visitor numbers; we also run a museum and a historic blacksmith workshop. In the last four months we already had to replace two smartphones and one laptop, so we just don't have the funds to buy a new PC or even components when its not absolutely necessary.

OK, for this and other thread on this forum the same conclusion.

For the full details and to avoid double posting: see this thread

Any idea how I can complain to MS for messing up my system?

The complete reinstall and repair also messed up my LAN. I am now looking for threads on how to get this $%^#$%@ LAN working again.