Author: Roy Eassa
Date: 09:48:33 10/09/02
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On October 09, 2002 at 12:36:48, Peter Skinner wrote: >On October 09, 2002 at 09:27:43, Roy Eassa wrote: > >>Off topic, but I really need assistance: >> >>Microsoft tech support has been trying unsuccessfully for 3+ weeks to solve a >>seemingly simple problem on my WinXP Pro system. I bet somebody here has >>insight that Microsoft lacks. >> >>Simply put, every time I reboot I must install video drivers. >> >>It's an Athlon system with a GeForce2 MX400 card and 1 GB RAM. It worked fine >>for nearly 1.5 years before the problem suddenly appeared. >> >>After each reboot, Device Manager shows a problem with the video card. There is >>only a generic VGA driver with 60 Hz refresh. Loading any compatible driver >>(Microsoft's, nVidia's, Asus's...) solves the problem until the next reboot, >>when the same issue occurs. >> >>Microsoft can't figure it out. It's hard to formulate a useful search via >>Google for this issue -- I've found cures for similar-sounding issues but they >>don't work for this seemingly unique problem. >> >>Any ideas? >> >>Thanks in advance!! >> >> -Roy. > >This is a problem I had when I first installed Windows XP on my new Athlon >system. > >The problem was the sharing of an irq. Windows XP for some reason kicks one >device off the irq which IT deems less needed. So for instance if you have an >ethernet card installed and it shares the same irq as the video card it will >boot the video card thus you having to reinstall it several times. > >What I did was this: > >1. I moved all the cards in my pci slots around, leaving the slot right next to >my agp slot free. > >2. Due to downloading so many drivers for my card I have to look in the "inf" >folder and delete all the drivers related to the actual video card. The easiest >way to do this is to boot to safe mode, go into the C:\Windows\inf folder and >delete anything to dowith my current video card. You might have to "unhide" >system files to see the folder. > >3. Remove all video devices from the hardware manager, including monitors. > >4. Reboot into normal Windows and let it "re-discover" your hardware. You will >have to reboot. > >5. Once you reboot it will look as if you are in safe mode again but that is a >result of you deleteing any driver that would suit the card. Just download the >latest driver from the Nvidia site. Install it, reboot. > >6. Once Windows finishes loading, reboot again. You will see your problem is >gone. > >That is the only way I could get rid of the problem. I didn't have an Nvidia >card at the time.I had a 3DLabs WildCat 6110. It was a great card but due to >lack of support with DirectX8 I wasn't able to cleanly use it in Windows XP. You >would figure a video card with 208megs of ddrram powering it would have the kind >of support that developers need. > >I went to the Quadro 900XGL that uses an Nvidia NV25 core. It doesn't have the >massive amount of memory that the Wildcat did but I also have much fewer >problems. > >If that doesn't work I have a few other tricks up my sleeve that might. Just >email me. > >Peter I think you might have it! A couple weeks before the problem began, I installed both a USB 2.0 card and a FireWire card. The Microsoft guy suggested they might be conflicting (and in fact both of them and the video were all using IRQ 5), so I removed them and they are still out. But removing them did not solve the problem and I completely (but probably erroneously) dropped the idea of an IRQ conflict. By the way, the PCI slot closest to the AGP is currently empty, yet I still think you're in the ballpark. Thank you for your post and your kind offer! I'll let you know what happens as I pursue this line of reasoning. (I am feeling optimisic for the first time in weeks.)
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