PCTech Forums

I've just replace my graphics card with an MSI NVidia 5900 and, although it seems to be working fine, I've noticed strange behaviour when the PC starts up.

For the first 30 seconds or so the screen is filled with random flashing boxes/lights! After that, it displays the blue screen with the 'Windows 2000 starting up window and is fine.

Does anyone recognise what I am describing and/or knows what the hell is going on?????

Thanks

Make sure you have the latest drivers available for your video card.

MSI
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/d ... 458&kind=2

nVidia
http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

Make sure any old Video card drivers have been removed,overlapped nVidia drivers can cause problems.

Cactus

Oh dear, things have gone very wrong indeed!!!!!!!!!

I downloaded the MSI drivers and, before, loading them, removed the old drivers (using Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs). This then said it required to reboot the PC to finish.

When the PC started up again, it ran INCREDIBLY slowly and looking at the Task Manager it seems that services.exe is taking 95-99% of the cpu.

I have managed to get it to start in SAFE mode (only took 15 minutes to boot!) and I've tried to go in the Hardware Wizard to disable the graphics card but it says that there is already an installation underway!

I tried to install the new drivers but it gets stuck on 46%. I left it for an hour or so without it making more progress.

Anyone know what on earth is going on or how to get back to a 'stable' system?

Hey MysteryMan

Make sure any "Download Accelerator" utilities are disabled when downloading any drivers.
Do not run your anti-virus protection software in the background while installing the drivers. This prevents the driver from configuring itself properly.

Have you tried physically removing the card, reseating and try rebooting to let Windows reconize the new hardware?

When in safe mode you can use system restore to roll back your system to a working state, then try to uninstall/reinstall again

Right, now I've got my system back running again (it took a couple of Windows Repairs from the CD to do it, plus a lot of fiddling to get IE and Outlook Express working!)

In the process, I removed the new FX5900 graphics card and have the old MX card in (this was detected and drivers installed)

So, I would like to install the new one with the latest drivers, which I have downloaded from the MSI site. Where it went wrong last time was when I removed the old drivers. Can anyone give me a blow-by-blow account of the steps I need to take to avoid problems again, please?

Thanks!

Personally I would uninstall the drivers through control panel, add/remove programs. You will probably have to reboot, after which windows will probably re-detect your current graphics card & reinstall the same driver

In device manager, go to your graphics card properties and on the 'driver' page you can select 'update driver.' Click on that, and set the driver to something generic.

Is this similar to what you did last time?

Well, sort of!

I did the Control Panel, add/remove programs and uninstalled the drivers. It then re-booted the PC at which point it went daft and this is when I ran into the problem with services.exe nabbing all the cpu!!!!!!

At the moment I have got in my old Nvidia GeForce2 MX 400 card and this is working fine.

I would like to replace this with the NVidia FX5900 and I have 2 possible drivers (one from NVidia and one from MSI) downloaded onto my hard drive.

Suggestions for step-by-step approach would be gratefully received!

Hello MysteryMan

First go into Add/Remove Programs and uninstall drivers from Nvidia GeForce2 MX 400
Next go into Device Manager and remove your display adapter.
Shut down your machine.
Open your case and replace your Nvidia GeForce2 MX 400 video card with the NVidia FX5900
Boot your pc, Windows will reconize new hardware
When asked to install drivers tell it "have disk"
Insert disc let it install
I would install the drivers that came with your card, after you get them installed you can then look for an updated driver.

After installation, go to Device manager and make sure there is no beside display adapter

Oh no, this just gets worse!

I did Add/Remove Software and uninstalled the NVidia drivers.
There was no 'Display Adapter' in the Device Manager
Then I shut down, took out the old card, put in the new one and switched on.

Now, I get very strange behaviour.....

- Blank screen (not quite black but very close) and then, nothing happens
- If I do Ctrl-Alt-Del, the following happens
- Screen goes black
- Displays the 'Entering Sleep Mode' screen
- A brief display (<1 second) where I can see text that looks like the initial boot screen overwritten by a series of vertical coloured lines about 1cm wide and 5-6 apart
- Blank screen and then, nothing happens

So, now, I cannot boot the PC or get into the BIOS menu or anything!

Anyone recognise these symptoms and/or have any idea where I go from here?

Thanks!

P.S. I've got the old card back in!

this probably sounds dumb... but if u use your old card and you cannot get any type of screen disply .. it is still booting in the backround ... login blindly (wait about 2 minutes hit alt + ctrl+ del then type your user name tab then password for windows 2000 for windows xp if u have welcome screen type user name tab then password if you dont , you need to know where your user name icon is .... which could get relly tricky , but if u can get it to make noise ... the windows login that is.. ) if u can hit windwos it might autofind your driver and get u back in shape to atleast be running on your old hardware.
(if that is what you mean)

btw i had a very similar problem when i installed my geforce fx5200.
i could still run on my old hardware though. what i did was get rid of all the software took the card out , reinstalled the directX drivers and the software for the nvidia and i was fine... nemore developments plz post them

NOTE: if you were going ot try the blind logon add the step of hitting enter before trying you user name if u have a legalnoticetxt setup (a dialog box giving you a statement you must agree to before you log on)