AMD System does not want to boot????

[SoLittle]

I have an AMD XP1800 rig running Windows XP Pro. I had two video cards and all was well. Over a short period of time I began having problems with Windows booting up. After a bit of troubleshooting we pulled the AGP video card and the system booted normally. We tested the card on another PC and it was toast. I could, and have been, running the system OK since then using my PCI card.

I bought a new AGP card and installed it assuming all would be well. My system recognized the new card and installed a driver but the system still will not boot with the new card. I have flipped the BIOS to point to the correct card.

Any thoughts as at this point I don't know what to do????

 

[Pudgygiant]

My suggestion is... RUN WITH THE PCI CARD. If it aint broke, don't (try to) fix it.

 

[Ionizer86]

Installing a driver assumes you've booted into Windows? So how far does the boot go with the AGP and PCI cards both plugged in with AGP set as the main card in bios?

 

[Swanny]

Take all the non-essential stuff out of your system (PCI cards, etc.) and then try booting with just the new video card.

 

[sandorski]

Did you switch from one chipset to another(Nvida to ATI for eg)? When you removed the original AGP card, did you remove(Uninstall) it from Windows as well?

You could try a Repair Install of WinXP, you likely have some kind of Driver issue caused by the failure of the old card.

 

[Looney]

I bought a new AGP card and installed it assuming all would be well. My system recognized the new card and installed a driver but the system still will not boot with the new card. I have flipped the BIOS to point to the correct card.

Maybe i'm not reading this right, but if it won't boot wit the new card, how does it get recognize and install the drivers?

 

[SoLittle]

Thanks for the replys - Just got back from Thanksgiving dinner - ate too much. Anyway to respond:

Pudgygiant - Running with only the PCI card is not an option because it will not support MS Flight Simulator.

Ionizer86 - With both the PCI & AGP card plugged in & with the BIOS set to go to the AGP card when you power on, it goes to the first screen where it shows devices & Health status at the bottom - after a short wait it goes to the next screen where it shows where it is going to boot from at the bottom and goes no further. The next screen should be the first screen of the Windows boot sequence where it shows the color bar with the colors running accross but it never gets there. I can then reboot and hit del to go to the BIOS. I change the vga pointer from the AGP to the PCI card in the BIOS, accept and hit f10. I switch the monitor cable to the PCI card and it boots normally. I can go to the device manager and it shows the AGP card as being installed, working OK and a driver being installed.

Swanny - Did that to isolate the problem to the "old" AGP card plus took that card to another PC to confirm that it was the original problem.

sandorski - Hmmmm The old card was a Gf2 Ti - I did not remove any drivers. The new card is a Gf4 Ti 4800. Both are Nvida. I haven't tried the repair install.

Moralpanic - Beats me as I'm not all that technical. I would have thought the same but the new Gf 4 shows in the Device Manager as working OK with a driver. I had intended to update the driver at some point.

New questions -

If I do the Repair Install of Windows do I do it with both the PCI & AGP cards installed? Should I remove either of the drivers and if so which & how (Idon't know how to remove a driver)?

Would the motherboard be part of this puzzle? It is an Epox 8KHA.

Any other thoughts?

 

[Acanthus]

are you trying to run dual displays? why do you need the pci card?

whare are the 2 specific graphics cards you are trying to run?

 

[nick1985]

nice handle

 

[SoLittle]

The background behind this is that I bought the PCI card to set up a dual monitor station which I did by buying a Matrox Mellinnium PCI card off of ebay. My AGP card was a Leadtek Gf 2 Ti. I installed the PCI card, it worked but the wife did not like the second monitor on the desk so I removed the monitor but left the PCI card installed (made the changes in the BIOS pointer).

The system ran fine for a couple of months. Then for a period of a week or so the system had difficulty both starting and shutting down. It would not boot in the morning until you cycled the power switch several times. When it would boot it would run fine all day. At night it would not shut off unless you turned the power off. I then began the saga described above when I tried to install the new replacement Gf 4 Tio 4800 AGP card.

I am running now using the PCI card and have removed the AGP card although the system will boot with the AGP card installed but won't boot when the BIOS points to it as the primary - - When I say it won't boot I don't really know as the monitor is blank.