GeForce 4 Ti 4200 Problems

[jayupst8]

System:

Abit BH6 Motherboard, Intel 440BX Chipset
384 Mb SDRAM Memory
Intel Pentium III Processor 1Ghz
Windows XP Professional OS

I recently purchased a Chaintech GeForce 4 Ti4200 video card. I am having trouble getting this card to work with my system. I have obtained the latest Nvidia drivers and after I install the drivers and restart my system I get a black screen when Windows loads. The black screen occurs after I see the Windows XP Professional screen. It seems like when the drivers are trying to run when windows starts, the system just freezes up. Has anyone had similar problems? I have updated the BIOS with the latest update available from ABIT which was released around July 2000. Are there any specific BIOS settings that may need to be changed to allow this card to run properly. Any suggestions??

 

[AnAndAustin]

Oh dear, I hope you are considering a CPU and mobo upgrade in the very near future. It's VERY likely your mobo can't handle any relatively modern gfx cards, AGP cards with more than 16MB RAM are likely to cause probs, plus your PSU AND mobo are unlikely to be able to supply the juice needed, and that's if your case has adequate airflow and ventilation. At 1ghz there's little perf diff between GF4TI and GF3/Rad8500 as you CPU is by far the limiting factor, there is perf to gain from GF4TI esp with AA and Aniso ... but then you need to get it working first.

You can try entering BIOS and making a few changes but be sure to keep notes of what you change, the only ones likely to make any diff are:

IRQ for AGP/VGA = Enabled
AGP Aperture Size = 64MB
AGP4x = Disabled (or select AGP2x or 1x)

Other than that you could try a new PSU or possibly case, it really would be a good idea to upgrade the CPU and mobo. Durons and AthlonXP are very powerful and pretty damn cheap as are SktA mobos, plus you should be able to use your current RAM if cash is very tight as there are SktA mobos which allow SDR (PC100 for Duron and PC133 for AthlonXP) and some also have DDR slots when you come to upgrade. You'd get a LOT more out of your 4200 with a decent config behind it.