Pc Experts And Techie Peeps Plz Help!
<div class="IPBDescription">Run out of ideas to fix PC :(</div> Dunno where to begin with this it's been going on so long.
Anyway here goes... The basic problem in as few words as possable is, I can't get my PC to work with windows XP Pro.
Now as far as I can see there is no logical reason for it not to work I have exausted all possable reasons that I can see and drawn up a blank asking here and badgering the ASUS tech support is my last resort before telling them it's broke an demanding a different motherboard or a refund.
It all started last xmas when my old mobo and Epox 8KTA3 went bang an died after a good innings
PC spec at time of PC Mobo going bang was:
Motherboard: Epox 8KTA3
CPU: Athlon XP 2200
RAM: 768MB SDRAM PC133
GFX: ASUS Geforce 4 Ti4200 128MB
Sound: 16bit sound blaster by creative
HD: 19Gig
OS: Windows XP Professional with SP1
I decided to invest in a DDR motherboard with socket A to minimise the cost of the upgrade as much as I could knowing from my friends that ASUS was reliable and that my gfx card bing made by ASUS was quite smart an had done me proud I went an got an ASUS motherboard the, ASUS A7N8X-X and 256MB of DDR400 PC3200 RAM.
So my new PC spec after the Epox going bang was:
Motherboard: ASUS A7N8X-X
CPU: Athlon XP 2200
RAM: 256MB DDR400 PC3200
GFX: ASUS Geforce 4 Ti4200 128MB
Sound: Onboard Sound provided by the NForce 2 chipset
HD: 19Gig
OS:<!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->?
Here's where the problem started; first attempts to install Windows XP Pro went okay it was when I tried to install both the Nforce and the Geforce drivers the pc would just refuse to boot up after the second one had gone on and I had rebooted.
I could have one or the other but not both. which ever went on first out of the Geforce or the Nforce drivers the other wouldn't stay on cos XP would hang on the load up screen until the monitor just went black then into sleep mode.
Repeated attempts at trying to get it to work failed and in the end I got cheesed off an tried windows 98, which to my suprise worked fine with both the Nforce an Geforce drivers installed. I then tried windows ME which also worked fine so I reluctantly decided to settle with ME for the time being an try to tackle the XP problem later because this convinced me at the time that perhaps I had a setting wrong in the bios or maybe I didn't have enough RAM to run the new mobo on XP.
Fast forward to about a month ago when I had a brain storm, I wanted to try an eliminate the cause of the problem if I could so I borrowed my brothers KYRO gfx card to remove the need for me to have to install Geforce drivers. Sadly even using the KYRO card I still encountered the exact same problem of the PC hanging on boot up so it wasn't the Geforce drivers.
Next I tried using the old creative 16bit sound card so get sound without having to install the NForce drivers but I still got the same problem after putting the Geforce drivers on.......
Fast forward to the present and my next attempt at eliminating the cause of the problem I wondered if a lack of RAM was the reason so I bought another 1Gig of PC3200 along with a bigger HD and did a clean install.
Current PC spec:
Motherboard: ASUS A7N8X-X
CPU: Athlon XP 2200
RAM: 1.25Gig DDR400 PC3200
GFX: ASUS Geforce 4 Ti4200 128MB
Sound: Onboard sound from NForce 2 Chipset
HD: 160Gig
OS:<!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Clean install of XP Pro and guess what the EXACT same problem as before.... all I can think of now is it's gotta be either the Nforce drivers or the motherboard is just not compatable with Windows XP Pro.
I've asked a lot of my friends who own PCs and all they have suggested is not so install the IDE drivers that come with the NForce drivers cos they are atill beta and unstable. I have tried this and it's had no effect.
Anyway here goes... The basic problem in as few words as possable is, I can't get my PC to work with windows XP Pro.
Now as far as I can see there is no logical reason for it not to work I have exausted all possable reasons that I can see and drawn up a blank asking here and badgering the ASUS tech support is my last resort before telling them it's broke an demanding a different motherboard or a refund.
It all started last xmas when my old mobo and Epox 8KTA3 went bang an died after a good innings
PC spec at time of PC Mobo going bang was:
Motherboard: Epox 8KTA3
CPU: Athlon XP 2200
RAM: 768MB SDRAM PC133
GFX: ASUS Geforce 4 Ti4200 128MB
Sound: 16bit sound blaster by creative
HD: 19Gig
OS: Windows XP Professional with SP1
I decided to invest in a DDR motherboard with socket A to minimise the cost of the upgrade as much as I could knowing from my friends that ASUS was reliable and that my gfx card bing made by ASUS was quite smart an had done me proud I went an got an ASUS motherboard the, ASUS A7N8X-X and 256MB of DDR400 PC3200 RAM.
So my new PC spec after the Epox going bang was:
Motherboard: ASUS A7N8X-X
CPU: Athlon XP 2200
RAM: 256MB DDR400 PC3200
GFX: ASUS Geforce 4 Ti4200 128MB
Sound: Onboard Sound provided by the NForce 2 chipset
HD: 19Gig
OS:<!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->?
Here's where the problem started; first attempts to install Windows XP Pro went okay it was when I tried to install both the Nforce and the Geforce drivers the pc would just refuse to boot up after the second one had gone on and I had rebooted.
I could have one or the other but not both. which ever went on first out of the Geforce or the Nforce drivers the other wouldn't stay on cos XP would hang on the load up screen until the monitor just went black then into sleep mode.
Repeated attempts at trying to get it to work failed and in the end I got cheesed off an tried windows 98, which to my suprise worked fine with both the Nforce an Geforce drivers installed. I then tried windows ME which also worked fine so I reluctantly decided to settle with ME for the time being an try to tackle the XP problem later because this convinced me at the time that perhaps I had a setting wrong in the bios or maybe I didn't have enough RAM to run the new mobo on XP.
Fast forward to about a month ago when I had a brain storm, I wanted to try an eliminate the cause of the problem if I could so I borrowed my brothers KYRO gfx card to remove the need for me to have to install Geforce drivers. Sadly even using the KYRO card I still encountered the exact same problem of the PC hanging on boot up so it wasn't the Geforce drivers.
Next I tried using the old creative 16bit sound card so get sound without having to install the NForce drivers but I still got the same problem after putting the Geforce drivers on.......
Fast forward to the present and my next attempt at eliminating the cause of the problem I wondered if a lack of RAM was the reason so I bought another 1Gig of PC3200 along with a bigger HD and did a clean install.
Current PC spec:
Motherboard: ASUS A7N8X-X
CPU: Athlon XP 2200
RAM: 1.25Gig DDR400 PC3200
GFX: ASUS Geforce 4 Ti4200 128MB
Sound: Onboard sound from NForce 2 Chipset
HD: 160Gig
OS:<!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Clean install of XP Pro and guess what the EXACT same problem as before.... all I can think of now is it's gotta be either the Nforce drivers or the motherboard is just not compatable with Windows XP Pro.
I've asked a lot of my friends who own PCs and all they have suggested is not so install the IDE drivers that come with the NForce drivers cos they are atill beta and unstable. I have tried this and it's had no effect.
Comments
Thanks for the reply dude, only thing I haven't tried is updating the bios mainly cos they just added support for the AMD Semperon really. Other than that I'm outa ideas. Win ME sucks and I didn't buy this mobo to downgrade drom XP Pro to Win ME.
Mobo is still under it's 3 year warrenty so I'll be claiming on that shortly it seems.
Here's <a href='http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=83826&highlight=nforce+driver' target='_blank'>another possiblity.</a>
Already established that it's not the card tho and it still doesn't explain why it all works under windows ME but not windows XP. besides I'm reluctant to shell out a lot of money on a new gfx card with no guarantee that it will solve the problem. I would rather shell out a fraction of that on a new mobo which I know would fix the problem.
Did you even have the exact same motherboard as me?
Tried that and the PC wouldn't boot up at all, with or without the drivers installed. <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Also tried putting the latest bios version on and had no joy, that was really the very very last thing I could try <!--emo&:angry:--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/mad-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='mad-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> It would appear that the root of the problem from what i have read on the links provided by Spooge (thanks btw) is the NForce 2 chipset.
Time to go claim on the warrenty me thinks
it would help if you could more precisely say what "doesnt work with the drivers" means.how far does it get on boot? does safemode work? is the chipset heatsink on tight ?
it would help if you could more precisely say what "doesnt work with the drivers" means.how far does it get on boot? does safemode work? is the chipset heatsink on tight ? <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Safe mode works but it's no different to if I just selected "Use last known good configuration setting" really.
Heat sink seems fine and on tight.
As for how far it gets to boot, well just after the "Windows XP Pro" bit with the little blue slider that goes along from left to right. After that dissapears the screen goes black then a few seconds later the monitor switches off an the pc just sits there an hums doing bugger all.
Made the PC do an error check on the hard drive after I put the geforce drivers on just because you have to reboot for that and it starts the check just after that "Win XP Pro" screen I just mentioned. Anyway it started an finished the error check then the screen just went all smeared like it had crashed then the monitor switched off.
As for what doesn't work with the drivers I don't know as I said in the original post which you probably didn't read or just skimmed <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> This only happens with XP if I knew what didn't work then I would know why this was happening and would have solved it already.
Reading up on that site spooge gave me has lead me to a few other sites an it seems that the Nforce 2 chipet is a big steaming pile of shite that is full of bugs and compatability issues a few are common and people have been able to get round them using nforce drivers that people have edited but there are many problems like mine that seem to be unique.
GG Nvidia tbh
Yes but everything is all choppy eg when I drag a window across the screen.
In device manager the gfx card is not listed and just has a yellow question mark next to "video controller (vga compatable)"
Under "display properties/settings" it's listed as default monitor.
Also, it seems odd that XP doesn't seem to recognize your card. Have you tried running the new hardware wizard to force XP to recognize it?
Also, it seems odd that XP doesn't seem to recognize your card. Have you tried running the new hardware wizard to force XP to recognize it? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Tried the harware wizard all it comes back with is code 28 "The drivers for this device are not installed"
Also tried the drivers from the ASUS site and had still got the same result. Every time new nforce/geforce drivers came out since lats christmas I would install xp just to see if the new drivers would have any effect <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Have you tried 3rd party drivers or even non XP drivers (98/ME based)? Because if it works in other OS's fine then I see little point in shelling out for new hardware...
Have you tried 3rd party drivers or even non XP drivers (98/ME based)? Because if it works in other OS's fine then I see little point in shelling out for new hardware... <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Nah I'm not gonna pay out for new hardware I'm gonna claim under the warrenty or get a part exchange kinda where I get me money for it back in a way but they put it towards another slightly more expensive mobo then I pay the difference which will work out at around £10.
Already established that it's not the card tho and it still doesn't explain why it all works under windows ME but not windows XP. besides I'm reluctant to shell out a lot of money on a new gfx card with no guarantee that it will solve the problem. I would rather shell out a fraction of that on a new mobo which I know would fix the problem.
Did you even have the exact same motherboard as me? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well you are using the same type and 3d card and I can't remember which motherboard I had back then.
Already established that it's not the card tho and it still doesn't explain why it all works under windows ME but not windows XP. besides I'm reluctant to shell out a lot of money on a new gfx card with no guarantee that it will solve the problem. I would rather shell out a fraction of that on a new mobo which I know would fix the problem.
Did you even have the exact same motherboard as me? <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well you are using the same type and 3d card and I can't remember which motherboard I had back then. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Doesn't really help lol my gfx card has been in my old mobo and in my brothers pc for a week when I swaped for his Kyro (was **** to get back cos he likes having sweet gfx on UT200sommit) and worked fine.
If we had the exact same setups same model mobos and gfx cards then I would be kinda convinced that a new more up to date gfx card would solve the problem.