Riddle me this. (windows 2k startup problem)

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 2:57 pm

So I buy a new 512mb Geforce 7900GS AGP (best thing that will work with my aging setup - anything more powerful and PCI-e based would practically require a whole new PC which I'm not getting into right now). I'm using Windows 2000.

-I plug the card in, computer boots up fine.

-I proceed to install the drivers. Apparently, it will only let me install the older V93.82 Nvidia driver and not the newest V94.24 one. Weird, but oh well.

-Restart, computer boots up... but hangs at about 2/3rds of the progress bar under the Windows 2000 Professional logo.

-I try safe mode, but I can't find what's wrong.

-Out of desperation, I boot in kernel debug mode. It works, with hardware acceleration and everything! So obviously, the card isn't b0rked. Thank god.

-But here's the weird thing, remember how windows booted fine before I installed the drivers? After I remove the drivers, the logo progress bar freeze problem remains.

-Even weirder, I put my old card back in... and I get the same problem now!

So, what changed, when I installed those drivers and then removed them, that made Windows only work properly in safe mode or debug mode?

Yes, I will reformat my computer sometime soon (and finally cave and install Windows XP while I'm at it) but until then, I'd sure like to have a properly working computer.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 4:33 pm

Before you install the new card, you need to uninstall the old drivers of that card first (which you haven't mentioned what it was yet).

Once in a blue moon, the drivers released could have missing entries for your specific hardware and/or OS. You could try to complain to NVidia or find a modded version that supports them all.

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 5:32 pm

Yeah of course, I forgot to mention that I did uninstall the old drivers first (but perhaps because it seemed obvious).

Well the problem I'm having now has nothing to do with my new card anymore. Like I said, windows won't start up normally anymore even though I reinstalled my old card.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 5:41 pm

You would have to know which driver is failing hard.

Try uninstalling/reinstalling the mobo's AGP driver and see if that helps.

Post by **odditude** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 6:02 pm

What motherboard are you using?

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 6:11 pm

Deathlike2 wrote:You would have to know which driver is failing hard.

Try uninstalling/reinstalling the mobo's AGP driver and see if that helps.

I guess I'll try that later.

odditude wrote:What motherboard are you using?

DFI LanParty NF3-250Gb

Post by **odditude** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 6:18 pm

Try booting in safe mode, setting the display adapter to standard VGA, and reboot into normal mode. If that works, go though msconfig (grab it from an XP machine) or the registry and disable startup programs. Reboot, verify that system is working naked. Install nvidia drivers. Reboot. If working, reenable startup programs one-by-one until it breaks. Disable/uninstall/update suspect program.

Oh, and cross your fingers. Sometimes Windows is just stubborn. Back up important stuff ASAP, in case a simple dump-and-reload is the best solution.

Edit: Update your chipset drivers, too. nForce platform drivers are available on NVIDIA's website. You have an nForce 3 250Gb.

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 12:17 pm

odditude wrote:Edit: Update your chipset drivers, too. nForce platform drivers are available on NVIDIA's website. You have an nForce 3 250Gb.

Ok, I'm not sure if I'm looking at the wrong thing but the nforce drivers available on the Nvidia site seem to only go down to 4. :/

(edit: nevermind, found it under legacy drivers. Man, I had no idea my mobo was that outdated)

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 8:49 pm

blackmyst wrote:
odditude wrote:Edit: Update your chipset drivers, too. nForce platform drivers are available on NVIDIA's website. You have an nForce 3 250Gb.
Ok, I'm not sure if I'm looking at the wrong thing but the nforce drivers available on the Nvidia site seem to only go down to 4. :/

(edit: nevermind, found it under legacy drivers. Man, I had no idea my mobo was that outdated)

ftp://download.nvidia.com/Windows/

Not so useful now that they've put most of their old products on the list, but it served me well for quite a while after they removed TNT support from the drivers(since they kept listing the drivers as for "TNT through GeforceCurrentNumber).