Nvidia 6600GT and WindowsXP MCE (Code 10)

[tyriker]

Hi everyone,

I have an XFX GeForce 6600GT graphic card that I cannot get
successfully installed on WindowsXP MCE 2005. When Windows starts up,
the graphic card drivers fail to load, and the vgasafe default driver
loads instead. Device manager tells me no errors other than "Device
failed to start. (Code 10)."

Here's my setup:

Athlon XP 2500+
1 GB RAM
Chaintech 7NIL1 mobo (nForce 2 chipset)
XFX GeForce 6600GT (AGP)
Linksys Wireless G PCI card (PCI 1)
Creative Soundblaster 5.1 Live card (PCI 2)
ATI HDTV Wonder card (PCI 3)
Plenty of Hard Drive space
WindowsXP Pro MCE 2005

I had this same setup with WindowsXP Pro, and had no problems. I wiped
the drive and installed a clean WindowsXP Pro MCE 2005. I haven't
gotten the graphic card to work yet.

I've tried everything I can think of. I've tried the latest Nvidia
drivers (81.x and 91.x beta), I've uninstalled other devices, disabled
devices, completely removed the PCI cards, wiped all drivers with
DriverCleaner Pro, and installed just the motherboard drivers and
graphic card drivers. I've tried using Windows drivers, and the latest
drivers for each piece of hardware.

I've also updated the BIOS for my motherboard (7/21/2004), and have
tried various different BIOS settings. I've reset ALL settings in the
BIOS, I've tried assigning specific IRQs to the PCI slots, I've
reserved various IRQs (just to try), tried turning off ACPI (Windows
failed to boot), and shadowed BIOS and VGA BIOS. One thing I can't
check is "Assign IRQ to AGP" because the option isn't available in the
BIOS.

I've also tried disabling prefetching in Windows, installing in
safemode, installing drivers manually (through the add hardware
wizard.) The one thing that really puzzles me is when I install the
graphic drivers (without rebooting), the card works fine with the
drivers. Upon reboot, the "device fails to start. (code 10)."

Does anyone have any more ideas I can try out? Thanks in advance.

Tyler

 

[David Vair]

Are you using the MCE driver for the card?

 

[tyriker]

Yes, the MCE driver from Nvidia. (Graphics Driver > GeForce and TNT2 >
Windows XP Media Center Edition)

I've tried using the Nvidia installer, and pointing device manager to
the extracted files (in C:\NVIDIA\...)

Tyler

 

[Glen]

You haven't installed the chipset driver for the motherboard yet. Either go
to the computer manufaturers web site and follow the trail till you get the
chipset driver or go to the motherboard maker and follow the trail till you
get to the chipset driver. The graphic card driver will then install and
work.

If that fails to make the card work and assuming you were using the right
driver then the card is faulty.
--
Please repost if you find the fault

Glen P
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yes, the MCE driver from Nvidia. (Graphics Driver > GeForce and TNT2 >
Windows XP Media Center Edition)

I've tried using the Nvidia installer, and pointing device manager to
the extracted files (in C:\NVIDIA\...)

Tyler

 

[tyriker]

I've installed the chipset drivers for my motherboard. I got them from
the Nvidia site, the latest drivers for nForce 1/2.

At one point, I uninstalled all my PCI cards (drivers), all Nvidia
drivers (through add/remove programs, both display and mobo drivers),
shutdown my pc, removed all the PCI cards, booted in to safe mode,
canceled "Found new hardware" wizard, ran Driver Cleaner Pro and
"cleaned out" all drivers for Nvidia and for my PCI cards, rebooted
into Windows, canceled "found new hardware," installed mobo drivers
from Nvidia, rebooted, canceled "found new hardware" (for my graphic
card), installed graphic card drivers from Nvidia, rebooted, and
problem still existed.

I don't think the card is faulty because I can install/update the
drivers after Windows starts, and it works. But upon reboot, the
graphic card "fails to start (code 10)" when Windows starts up. It also
worked prior to updating to MCE, and no hardware changes were made
before updating. But anything is possible.

I've considered reformating and trying again from a clean install, or
re-installing XP to make sure the card is okay. I feel like I'm about
out of options, so that may be my next step?

Tyler

You haven't installed the chipset driver for the motherboard yet. Either go
to the computer manufaturers web site and follow the trail till you get the
chipset driver or go to the motherboard maker and follow the trail till you
get to the chipset driver. The graphic card driver will then install and
work.

If that fails to make the card work and assuming you were using the right
driver then the card is faulty.