Installing Drivers = no signal @ XP Boot Screen

When I don't have any drivers installed (like right now as I rock 640x480)I can boot up no problem. When I install drivers (have tried old/new/beta drivers, reseating card, etc....) I lose monitor signal between the transition of the Windows XP boot screen and "Choose your account" screen.

Specs:
Windows XP SP3 (updated)
GeForce 8800GT (have tried stable AND beta drivers)

 

First off, it does sound like you have a software driver problem. Re-installing the drivers should have fixed the problem. Have you tried a chkdsk yet?

 

Haven't tried a chkdsk yet. I'll do that on my next restart thanks

 

It appears chkdsk didn't find any errors.

 

Possibly after you install drivers and reboot, the resolution is higher than your monitor can handle, or the settings after installation are not compatible with your monitor. After driver install boot into safe mode (tap F8 key while booting) and check out a right click on your desktop, properties, settings. Safe Mode would be the next step I would imagine...

 

I have since formatted and updated completely and the problem is still there.

Unfortunately that makes me think its a hardware problem. I still can't say for sure though since I'm not an expert.

I'll try doing what you said about installing them and then trying to set things in safe mode.

 

I just installed and went into safemode.

In 2.jpg you'll see the nVidia ctrl panel. When I install drivers and go into safe mode I click that but nothing happens.

In 3.jpg thats what I see w/ drivers uninstalled. I installed drivers and then went back into safe mode and I still saw the same thing as you do in 3.jpg

I don't know what that means but I know its not good if it isn't changing w/ driver installs.

 

So I booted w/ "Enable VGA Mode" and everything looks good, but when I change my resolution to anything it loses signal again.

It is now recognizing the drivers are installed.

Heres a pic of the quality in VGA mode

http://i33.tinypic.com/xf3law.jpg

Its obviously not displaying in the mode listed there. As soon as I click ok it will change back to a low low low resolution w/ 4bit color as stated.

 

could you give us a pick of your device manager and the general driver details for NVidia?

 

I can't boot when drivers are installed. It gets to the XP boot screen and then loses signal.

 

I thought this boot was with the drivers installed, but starting in VGA mode.

 

Yeah I could get in before but for some reason now I can't. The one big differences I've noticed is that 1.) when drivers are installed the monitor still doesn't have refresh rate options, it just says use hardware settings. And 2.) when xp finds the video card it can never find drivers on it's own. Might I try finding the latest bios update for my card and flash it ?

 

OK I made it back into VGA mode w/ drivers installed. Here is what I see (note there is no nvidia ctrl panel for some reason)

 

I can't seem to open the nVidia ctrl panel (nor is it visible in that screenshot)

Wouldn't that mean that the drivers aren't installing properly? I mean technically if I can install drivers and then get back into Windows, shouldn't I be able to at least OPEN or SEE the Nvidia control panel?

 

flashing your video card may be a viable option. You may also check NVidia's site to see if there are any known issues for this (I may try later if I have time).

with the VGA mode w/ drivers, what resolutions are available in display properties? If you have the full range of resolutions, that means your driver is working. If not, the driver is not working.

Are the resource settings the same as what is in attachment.php? If so, you have multiple resource conflicts. Specifically with your PCI bridge.

 

The resources are fine too. Says No Conflicts Found.

I tried flashing the gpu bios, updating the mobo bios and chipset, and I'm going to install drivers again and see what happens.

 

I'm in VGA mode w/ drivers right now and I can't change resolutions.

Heres a picture of the display settings.

 

Well see what happens after the GPU flash and driver re-install. You may have mentioned this, but where did you get the drivers from? This is where you should be getting it from: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_180.48_whql.html

edit: I may be able to help you more when I get home. I have an 8800 GTS in my computer

 

Yeah those are the drivers I tried. I've tried beta ones and the ones on EVGA.com

Its way beyond little things like that I think. The big thing that is a key identifier in the problem is that after installing drivers I am ABLE to get into XP in VGA mode. When I try to open the nvidia control panel its not there. There is something called Nvidia Desktop Manager and that doesn't even open when I click on it. It seems like the drivers are not getting installed properly.

Should I try to switch hard drives? I really would not want to do that since it would require swapping a lot of files over and it would be ignoring some sort of issue. I just want to make sure all ideas are on the table

 

I just ran Everest (free edition) and under multimonitor it says this:

Device ID Primary Upper Left Corner Bottom Right Corner
\\.\DISPLAY2 Yes (0,0) (640,480)

http://i41.tinypic.com/2utnllv.jpg

I don't know what this means but it looks wrong... Why does it detect something under MULTI monitors? And why is DISPLAY2 set to my primary? I don't know what it means completely but it screams wrong.

 

I booted my computer up that has the 8800 GTS in VGA mode and my screenshots match yours almost. What kind of monitor do you have?

About the multimonitor thing, I ran everest and my display was under multimonitor also. Probably because our cards can display to two monitors and you probably have your display plugged into port 2 on the graphics card. It may not make a difference, but try plugging your monitor into the other port on your graphics card.

Do you have on-board video? have you tried it?

I'll try to think of some more options while I wait for your answers.

 

I have tried switching the ports on the card with no luck. I do not have an onboard video card.

My monitor is an Acer 22 inch (AL2216W)

 

I would not worry about the multimonitor thing, my computer does the same thing on Everest. You may want to try plugging your display into the other port on your graphics card to switch it to display 1.

You never did mention what kind of monitor you are using.

Have you tried your on-board video to see if that works normally?

 

Uh what else do you want to know about it? If you mean LCD/CRT, its an LCD.

http://reviews.cnet.com/lcd-monitors/acer-al2216wbd/4505-3174_7-32082877.html

Its that one.

Like I said, no onboard.

Maybe you missed my last post lol.

 

sorry, I didn't realize I posted twice.

 

Do you have access to a cheap video card you can try?

 

No, I don't unfortunately.

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Installing-drivers-No-signal-after-XP-boot-t220878.html

That was a topic I made alongside this one to try to figure it out. As you can see we've tried everything under the sun.

I'm posting this hoping theres not some politics involved in linking to other support sites.

 

have you tried using this card with a different computer+

 

I haven't just because there are no other computers I could try it with. I'm doubting a hardware issue right now.

 

You have already wiped and reloaded windows right? If it was a software problem, reloading windows should have solved it.

 

HOLY BALGONA I FIXED IT!

I KNEW it had something to do with the monitor stuff. I went into device manager and was looking at Monitor and noticed it was called Default Monitor. I never remembered it being called that but I ignored it through all of this. I finally said to myself, "you know what, I'm pretty sure that was called something else..." so I right click Default Monitor, did Uninstall, and then rescanned and it found something new "Plug and Play Monitor" and so I reinstalled drivers, restarted, and now am @ 1680x1050 smile.gif

I also changed the spot where my monitor's power was plugged into just in case because I read another post somewhere where a guy was having some problems, moved his computer back home from college, and all of the sudden it worked again so it sounded plausible.

So it was either removing monitor from Device Manager and rescanning or plugging the monitor into a different power port. Or both.