Restart Problem

[Home Built]

After installing my MSI 6600GT everything seemed perfect. Excellent card that's played everything that my kids have thrown at it for the last 4 days. They have played Farcry for up to 4hrs straight at times with out any problems, so I don't think the problem is with the card itself.

What happens is, if I shut down and restart the computer, when it boots up it does so fine until XP just starts to load. All I get is a "very very dim" image of the XP start-up screen then the start-up stalls.

To get around it all I need to do is clear the CMOS then reset the BIOS and it starts and runs perfectly.

Any ideas or solutions?

 

[amdskip]

What are your system specs including your power supply (brand/model)?

 

[Home Built]

Athlon XP 2700 Thoroughbred
Chaintech 7NJL6
PNY PC3200 512MB
MSI 6600 GT
BenQ DVD 2x16x4x16 +/- RW
Toshiba DVD Rom
Sony 3.5 Floppy

The P/S I have in there now is a Powerup 400Watt that has:
+5V 30A
+3.3V 20A
-12V 0.8A
+12 25A
+5Vsb 2A
-5V 0.3A
(+5v & +3.3v total output 230Watts)

I originally had a Enermax 370w (Model EG375p-ve-sfma) but was having the same problem.

 

[Home Built]

Bump to get help

 

[Navid]

How long have you had the motherboard?
You may want to check the CMOS battery. It may need a new battery.

 

[Home Built]

MB is less than a month old. Could this be something conflicting in the Bios Settings. I didn't have any problems until I installed the 6600GT? It's really got me stumped?

 

[Navid]

Can you plug in the previous graphics card and see if the problem goes away?

 

[Home Built]

I could but it would mean tearing apart the machine that I moved it to (the one i'm using right now).

 

[Navid]

What was the previous card?

Did you completely un-install the previous graphics driver?

 

[Home Built]

It was a PNY FX5200. Yes, I did uninstall the original cards drivers.
What an afternoon. Just spent the day trying to do a repair of XP but ended up doing a fresh install. I just finished reinstalling all the new drivers. Everything went perfect until I installed the audio drivers. When it rebooted it gave me the same restart problem. I uninstalled the driver and reinstalled it and it worked OK. I'm now in the process of using the files and transfer wizard to get everything as it should be.
Hopefully this will solve the problem once and for all.

 

[DreamerSpawn]

I would have to agree with Navid....either the CMOS battery, which if it's the 2032 (or something close, but the 2032 IS the most common), can be found at WalMart for $4.99 for a two pack of Energizers. I would lean more towards the video card tho, or even both. Here's my advice:

Go to WalMart and get your battery. Changing a CMOS battery is VERY easy to do. Then, swap your video cards with one you KNOW works. Since you are using XP, most drivers should be auto detected, for the most part. Having experience with an FX5200, you will end up needing to install drivers to get that to work on a more permanent basis (for games and such)....but to test this theory out, just let XP install what drivers it wants to.

Also, could your problem be driver related? I know, I hate that advice too....but I've noticed that with my MSI FX5200, it's better to get the MSI drivers instead of what you would get in windows updates or on the nvidia site. It's always best to stick with the BRAND MAKER of the video card for drivers than windows update or an alternate source. That's just an example. I know you've REPLACED that card, but since you DID choose an MSI card to replace, which is a better way to go than PNY, maybe you should go to the MSI site and download the drivers meant for that exact model card. But again, this is a last step in the solution to your problem. I would still try the first two: (as navid pointed out, CMOS battery and video card swap)...and do the video card swap just to see if it is your video card.

On another note, I've also noticed that SOME monitors can't handle higher powered cards. I've had several systems that, since the monitor couldn't handle the video card, that it just hung on the Windows XP startup screen, or even b4 that. That might be something to check into.


DreamerSpawn