KT4AV + Radeon Pro 9600 = Unable to boot

[Richy]

Hi

I am hoping someone out there can help on this one as it is doing my swede
in.

Orginally my system was running with a Geforce MX4000 128mb ram with no
problems what so ever.
Before i say more here are specs of pc

KT4AV m/b
AMD XP 2400
1 Gig DDR
WD 160gb
XP Home SP 2
Radeon 9600 Pro 256mb / Geforce MX4000 128mb

All drivers up to date

To start with, i removed nvidia drivers, shutdown, installed new 9600 pro,
reboot.
Now it is when i reboot i get into all sorts of problems ranging from a
blank screen, partially booting to login screen then freezing, booting to
desktop then freezing. On one blue screen i got a error ati2dvag, i assume
this must be part of windows driver as i have yet to install ATI drivers as
i am unable to boot properly with any stability.

When i revert back to my Geforce system is stable once again.

Hopefully someone out there can get me outta this jam but i be dammed if i
gonna buy ati card again unless of course this is a particular problem for
my config.

 

[de Moni]

Hopefully someone out there can get me outta this jam but i be dammed if i
gonna buy ati card again unless of course this is a particular problem for
my config.

Have u tried switching Fast Writes off/on in BIOS? Lowering AGP speed?

 

[Richy]

Have u tried switching Fast Writes off/on in BIOS? Lowering AGP speed?

Yeah, i have disabled fast writes in BIOS but cannot change agp speed as it
set on auto with no option to change it.
Thanks you though.

Richy

 

[de Moni]

Yeah, i have disabled fast writes in BIOS but cannot change agp speed as it
set on auto with no option to change it.
Thanks you though.

Well sounds a bit tricky then. I don't think 9600pro consumes that much
more power than GF MX4000, so can't be the power supply either... You
sure your ATI ain't faulty?

 

[Richy]

Well sounds a bit tricky then. I don't think 9600pro consumes that much
more power than GF MX4000, so can't be the power supply either... You sure
your ATI ain't faulty?

It did cross my mind but tried it in one of my other pcs and worked like a
dream.
Other PC is lesser spec & different MB. I could rebuild the PC to use the
other mb but that defeats the object and have the hassle associated with it.
The idea was a cheap card to get me up & running with battlefield 2, ah well
sods law!

 

[patrickp]

It did cross my mind but tried it in one of my other pcs and worked like a
dream.
Other PC is lesser spec & different MB. I could rebuild the PC to use the
other mb but that defeats the object and have the hassle associated with it.
The idea was a cheap card to get me up & running with battlefield 2, ah well
sods law!

This is quite a common problem with people who change from NVidea to
ATI, or the other way round, Richy.

Unfortunately, both ATI and NVidia softwares suffer from poor
uninstall routines and, even more unfortunately, they're not very
compatible with each other, either.

Even when you're changing drivers on the same card, it's a good idea
to have a system clean after uninstalling the old ones. When changing
brand, it's a _very_ good idea: in your case, NVidea driver remnants
are almost certainly responsible for your problems.

You need to clean your system with a good driver cleaner: if you check
round the NVidea forums, I understand you can find specific NVidea
driver cleaners, although NVidea themselves don't make one. It would
also be a good idea, when you've done that, to go through your C:
drive removing any NVidea folders and files that might be left.
Fortunately for ATI users and those switching from ATI to NVidea, ATI
do produce their own cleaner - it installs with their drivers as a
separate utility. or you can download it. No good for cleaning NVidea
drivers, though!

You'll need to clean the NVidea drivers off your system properly, then
uninstall and reinstall your ATI drivers. Hopefully that should fix
it. Personally, if I was going to change videocard brand, I'd start
with a fresh OS install.

HTH Patrick

<[email protected]> - take five to email me...

 

[Richy]

This is quite a common problem with people who change from NVidea to
ATI, or the other way round, Richy.

Unfortunately, both ATI and NVidia softwares suffer from poor
uninstall routines and, even more unfortunately, they're not very
compatible with each other, either.

Even when you're changing drivers on the same card, it's a good idea
to have a system clean after uninstalling the old ones. When changing
brand, it's a _very_ good idea: in your case, NVidea driver remnants
are almost certainly responsible for your problems.

You need to clean your system with a good driver cleaner: if you check
round the NVidea forums, I understand you can find specific NVidea
driver cleaners, although NVidea themselves don't make one. It would
also be a good idea, when you've done that, to go through your C:
drive removing any NVidea folders and files that might be left.
Fortunately for ATI users and those switching from ATI to NVidea, ATI
do produce their own cleaner - it installs with their drivers as a
separate utility. or you can download it. No good for cleaning NVidea
drivers, though!

You'll need to clean the NVidea drivers off your system properly, then
uninstall and reinstall your ATI drivers. Hopefully that should fix
it. Personally, if I was going to change videocard brand, I'd start
with a fresh OS install.

HTH Patrick

Cheers Patrick, i had uninstalled nvidia drivers then used registry
mechanic to clean up but i am going to try again but doing a manual clean up
and shift through registry and files for any remmants of nvidia. will also
look out for nvida 3rd party removal tool & will report back , some how i
dont feel hopeful but alas its worth a go

 

[Richy]

Cheers Patrick, i had uninstalled nvidia drivers then used registry
mechanic to clean up but i am going to try again but doing a manual clean
up and shift through registry and files for any remmants of nvidia. will
also look out for nvida 3rd party removal tool & will report back , some
how i dont feel hopeful but alas its worth a go

Used a freeware app called driver cleaner pro from majorgeeks.com but still
getting to stage where i hit enter after putting in password at login screen
then freezes.

 

[de Moni]

Used a freeware app called driver cleaner pro from majorgeeks.com but still
getting to stage where i hit enter after putting in password at login screen
then freezes.

Well I got all kinds of problems too after I switched from ATI 9600pro
to GF6600GT, even if I completely cleaned up previous drivers etc. etc.
Lock-ups, reboots and stuff.

Finally after trying everything I thought that perhaps it's good to do
fresh XP reinstall, because it's getting quite messy anyway. After that
everything seem to have worked like a dream...

 

[Richy]

Just something else i noticed, the xp home pc that the card worked fine on
is using via kt266a northbridge where as my pc that it is having none of it,
is using kt400a northbridge, both are using kt8235 southbridge, also
compared bios settings between both pcs and still no joy, but buggered if i
am going to format and start a fresh installation of xp, not just because of
the hassle but i will explore every option and avenue i can find first,
doing a fresh install of xp seems pretty extreme just to add a new graphics
card. Using all the right tools available in xp and some third party apps i
have yet to ever format a xp hard drive except for one which was formatted
to fat32 when, who ever installed xp home