Problems installing GeForce 2 Card

[Finder]

Here's some background info about my box:

Pentium III 450 O/Ced to 548 (around there, I forget the exact number and I don't feel like rebooting right now)
Soyo SY-BAIII+ Mobo
384 MB PC133 RAM
Win98

I'm replacing my old Maxtrox G200/Pure 3D II (real old, I know) combo with a Hercules 3D Prophet GTS Pro 64MB card. I got it new on Ebay and I'm poor, so I don't mind slightly older technology. The G200 was getting a little too old for my tastes, however.

On to my problem:
The new video card changes my CAS RAM latency time from 2 to 3 (why it does this I have no idea), but
it prevents me from loading Windows. Windows boots the first time with the
Plug and Pray dialog box coming up and asking for drivers. I point it to the
CDROM drive and it apparently installs the drivers without any trouble
before asking to be rebooted. So I reboot the computer and immediately
following the Win98 splash my monitor goes into sleep mode and I'm stuck on
a blank screen, althought I believe the computer itself is frozen as well.

I've removed every possible instance of the old hardware short of editing
the registry and nothing seems to work. I contacted Hercules tech support
and got a reply saying that they didn't think I had the old Matrox drivers
completely removed. But that's bullshit, that stuff shouldn't matter anyway.

Any ideas? I'm stumped and starting to get pissed that I'm not able to use this video card. Thanks in advance.

 

[tm37]

Try dropping your CPU back to default.

 

[tm37]

Also is your MB a BX ?

I had a BX and It wouldn't work with the Gforce due to It not feeding the Vid Card enough voltage!

 

[Finder]

I tried lowering the CPU speed...same result. The board is BX, however, so I suppose there may be a voltage problem.

Is there any way to get around this limitation or am I just going to have to wait to upgrade my mainboard along with a new processor, et cetera?

 

[ConFuseMe]

<< But that's bullshit, that stuff shouldn't matter anyway. >>


Well it shouldn't matter but it does. If not all the old drivers are removed, even the registry entrys, it can cause problems.

Can you still get into safe mode Finder or does it go to sleep mode there too?
My idea I'm going to say isn't conventional but it's worth a try seeing since your running low on options.

For some reason with my old GF2 MX, the display got messed up sometimes when installing new drivers.
I had the same problem like you, where it would go to sleep before entering windows. What I had to do was switch monitors. When deleting old drivers and installing new ones my 17" monitors resolution got set back to 640x480 16 bit colors or what I think might have been a lower resolution. The card and monitor didn't work together correctly to display that so it got confused and went to sleep. I plugged in an old 15" Packard Bell monitor and it was able to work correctly to view the display. I was then able to change the settings up to 800x600 16 bit color. After that I plugged the 17" monitor back in again and it worked!

So if you have another preferably smaller monitor then hook that up to your machine and try to get into windows then.
If you make it in, turn up the resolution, and then switch back to your original monitor like I did.
It might work.

 

[Finder]

I can get into safe mode just fine...I think I may just download all the usual utilities, driver updates, et cetera, burn them and do a complete reinstall. I'm a bit overdue for one anyway...Might as well start with a new video card as well. :/

Thanks for the possible solution, but unfortunately, I don't have a spare monitor.

 

[FPSguy]

I had a similar problem when upgrading from a TNT2 Ultra to a GEForce2. The problem turned out to be due to incomplete removal of older video card drivers. You might see if there are some utilities out there that will remove all remnants of the older driver, including registry entries.

 

[Finder]

Ok, after a complete format/reinstall I'm running XP. The problem has turned slightly unusual...As XP starts to load-- the "select user" screen is displayed, and after a few seconds the screen goes blank and the monitor goes into sleep mode.

I thought it was because my power supply wasn't putting out enough power so I tried a 350W supply to no avail. I have no idea what the problem may be other than the BX thing as stated above. Is there any way to increase the voltage to the AGP slot alone?

Befuddled,
Finder