Installing multiple NVIDIA cards causes lockup...

[FrankSchwab]

OK, don't laugh...

At work, I have this nice little Dell 2.0GHz P4 running Win2K SP4, which came with an NVidia Quadro 2 FX AGP video card. Works fine at 1600x1200 for all the code hacking I get to do.

From home, I brought a older GeForce2 MX PCI card with TwinView to install as a secondary monitor driver. I've ended up with a couple of 15" LCD panels from failed projects, and I thought it'd be kinda cool to flank my 21" main monitor with the LCDs.

After installing the GeForce2, Windows would no longer boot. I'd get the Windows 2000 splash screen, and the machine would lock hard halfway through the boot process. I installed the latest NVidia driver - same thing. I pulled the GeForce2, and booted to make sure the drivers were correctly installed - The quadro came up and ran perfectly. Shut down, pulled the Quadro and installed the Geforce2 - it came up and ran perfectly. Installed both cards, hard lockup again.

Anybody have any suggestions as to how to make these two cards play nicely together?

/frank

 

[MercenaryForHire]

I'll mull it over. I know that sometimes a combination of different brand AGP/PCI cards can cause meltdown, but not the same.

For the moment, try moving the slot that the gF2 PCI is in and fire it up again. Or completely blank out the driver set and try again with both cards in from the start.

- M4H

 

[FrankSchwab]

Hey, thanks for anything you can come up with, M4H. As soon as I get a chance today, I'll try the flush cycle suggestion.

/frank

 

[FrankSchwab]

Oh, well, it didn't help. Uninstalled the NVidia drivers, rebooted, came back in VGA mode (every seen 640x480 @ 60 Hz on a 21" monitor? It's kinda painful). "found new hardware" wizard popped up for both cards - so they're at least physically capable of coexisting in the same machine. Reinstalled the latest drivers, and everything fails at the same point.

Sigh. These computer thingys - they'll never catch on. They just don't work well enough.

/frank

 

[sparkz]

When you say the computer locks up with both cards, do you have both monitors connected as well? Or only a single monitor?

 

[Zephyr106]

You didn't specifically say if you'd moved the PCI card to a different slot, so I'll reiterate what MercenaryForHire said. Don't install the 2nd card in the PCI slot next to the AGP slot, because IIRC it shares some resources or something with the AGP slot.

Zephyr

 

[FrankSchwab]

Everytime I've tried it, it's been with two monitors connected. I'll give it a try with just the main monitor attached.

I've tried three different PCI slots by now. Pretty much the same results each time.

/frank

 

[nick1985]

apart from M4H, this thread attracts lots of new fish :beer: