video behaving oddly at startup, really tricky issue

Please, if I could have some help...
I´ve been experiencing this for some time now, I have an old machine
Pentium III 550MHz
MoBo Soyo SY-6VBA133
Video Geforce 440MX 64MB
RAM 128 MB
Running Win98SP2

When I restart my system the screen gets all mixed up, I mean wrong colors, white vertical lines (kind of if someone had splattered the colors and moved them around) and some other stuff i wouldn´t know how to describe.
Once when running an antivirus in DOS mode (F-Prot) the characters in the screen where shifted (i.e. two vertical lines had switched their position on screen - two is just a matter of speech, actually multiple lines), and then the system freezes.
The problem usually starts at the BIOS Screen -Not the setup, but the bios welcome during POST) and starts getting worse, the DOS text that appears while Windows is loading also have multiple vertical lines switching position.
When this happen the system freezes and windows will not be loaded.
Often after shutting the system down and waiting for a couple of minutes I am able to get into windows, but after some hours of working things go wrong again.
When this happen during POST, I can get into windows in safe mode but the display behaves as oddly as on the DOS stage in the win safe mode.

At first I thought it could be the VGA getting too hot, but i´ve been using it without the side panels and the problem keeps getting worse. I´ve downloaded and installed the latest drivers of everything and nothing (I´ve even flashed the BIOS to the latest version). I´ve run multiple Antivitruses in windows mode and in dos mode, and I´ve formatted the HD and re-installed the OS several times...
... As you can see I´ve run out of Ideas, any kind, resourcefull and imaginative soul out there?

By the way the monitor works out fine with other PC´s, I´ve also tried this.

PLEASE, I NEED SOME HELP

 

Your problem is probably the fact you are using the 'latest' drivers.
If you uninstall the Geforce drivers and find that the basic windows 640x480 screen is solid then it is a driver problem not hardware.
Then try older drivers. Try a post in the drivers section of MG to find the most suitable.
FYI this happens all too often with video cards.

Studio T

 

Thanks, Studio T. I´ll try that soon as I get home from work.
But there´s something still puzzling me... if it´s a driver issue wouldn´t it be solved when I load windows in safe mode? also why would it mess the BIOS welcome message during POST? and moreover why would it happen when running D.O.S.
I´ll still try it, because doing a little chronology, the problem may have started when I re-installed the latest drivers for the VGA card while trying to solve a divx reproduction issue.
Thank you very much...
...but of course all further replies will be more than welcome

 

Could be a bad video card or RAM modules. Most likely the video memory is corrupted. I'd see if you can run some video tests and memory diags. Not too contradict studiot but drivers likely aren't this issue if this happens before Windows loads too.

 

touche, Valhallis.

I just think 64Mb of graphics is a bit much for win98 to bear and wondered if the card could be forced to work without its own drivers . The basic Windows VGA driver is very stable and works with almost every card available. Totally removing the card's drivers would provide a baseline.

To do this, first uninstall any GEforce addon software then delete the device in device manager and restart. Windows will restart with its own VGA driver nut in 640 x 480 x 16 colours only.

Reinstall Geforce driver of choice. Then try reducing the hardware acceleration.

Go to Control Panel
Choose Display
Choose Troubleshooting tab
Reduce the hardware acceleration slider from100% or whatever in steps of 5%.
With luck and a fair breeze you might find a setting that works.

It also occured to me that a 64M card must be imposing a large load on the power supply. Is it a new addition?
I am not familiar with the motherboard.

Studio T

 

studiot, thank you very much for your reply. I haven´t tried your solution yet, I´ve decided to go with valhallis opinion first, i´ve found an old PCI card S3 Virge (325) 4 MB, and it´s working so far.
To answer your questions no, the geforce card is not a new addition and I have a 450W power supply, about the MoBo the only thing I may have missed telling you is that it has AGP 1X/2X port. Then the VGA card is 2X/4X compatible so on that end, it shouln´t give me trouble.
Anyway I´ll use the PC with this configuration for the next couple of days, to discard any further problems and then I´ll try your suggestion and let you know how things worked. Then if the problem is with the card I´ll try to buy a new (old) one.

 

Another quick question, any of you guys know of any way to test a vga card or its components (either electronic-wise or through software).
I ask because if it´s really a VGA card glitch, that´ll lead me to a conclussion way faster than trying to descipher the symptoms I have in my system, and besides if that´s the case, I´m really pissed off.

 

Oh dear!

The AGP 1.0 specification runs on 3.3volts and the AGP 2.0 runs on 3.3 or 1.5 volts. AGP 4 and AGP 8 run on 1.5 volts. Connecting the wrong type can damage graphics card and/or motherboard. Thus the slots are different.

The AGP 1x/2x socket / plug has a keyway offset to back of centre.
The AGP4x has no key and a retention mechanism at rear.
This is done to prevent the wrong sort of AGP card being inserted, but it is possible by force.

There is also a long slot called AGPpro which has 2 keys. It is possible to incorrectly insert a 1x/2x card into these.

Some bios configurations have the option to set the AGP speed.

A 4M card, PCI or AGP sound fine with win 98.

Sorry

Studio T