windows xp pro refuses to load normally

[Godswatch]

Hi Daave,
Heres the updates from my attempts this weekend.

Rule out whether or not your motherboard has onboard video.

I cant find any mention of onboard video on the motherboards specs, website
or manual. Nonetheless, over the weekend I went into device manager where
there are 2 devices under "other", a "vga" and "3d video controller." So I
disabled them, erased the drivers and rebooted the computer. Bad idea,
windows would load but my monitor would not show an image. I was navigating
blind through the windows desktop. I used the windows narrator program to
try to reload them but was just not getting it. So I gave up, reformatted my
hard drive, repartitioned it and reinstalled xp fresh.

I installed acronis true image and then the first driver I attempted to
install was the EVGA nvidia driver. I popped in the cd, the installation
began and 1/3 of the way through the screen blacked out and the pc rebooted.
It then entered into the splash screen reboot loop again. I entered safe
mode, couldnt delete the evga drivers from the "add new software" program
(received error about missing files). I tried again to install the drivers
from the EVGA cd and in safe mode was able to complete the entire
installation. Rebooted the computer but was again greeted with splash screen
reboot loop. Went back into safe mode, was able to delete the evga drivers
this time and upon rebooting the computer worked fine.

When did this problem start? Was it perhaps after some kind of upgrade -- hardware or software (e.g., a Windows update).

It could have been. It started over a month ago while my wife was surfing
MSN webpage but I dont remember having performed any driver updates except
for an occasional windows update and definitely no new hardware. I did
upgrade to SP3 but I dont remember if the probs began shortly after. Since
then I have reinstalled windows and kept it at SP2.

Have you ever used Windows Update for drivers? (You're not supposed to.)
No

What Service Pack level are you at?

SP2 with no windows updates (although Ive also tried installing all the
updates except SP3 and I still have the same prob when I attempt to install
the video card drivers).

If you are able to swap the graphics card for a different one, I'd be
curious to know the outcome.

Dont have an extra, thinking of buying a cheapo one just to try.

Here is a list of things that have worked but never permanently. All of
these things have given me a functional pc for a few days tops:
1) virus, malware cleanup way back in the beginning (worked for 5 days)
2) chkdsk f (worked for 5 days) and r - worked for a few minutes

Ive since reformatted the drive, clean installed xp but never been able to
get it back up and running.
Hope this helps you help me. Thanks

 

[Godswatch]

Thanks for the reply.
Card and MB compatible though, they are the original pieces installed when I
bought PC and have been working for 2 years before this happened.
M2N32 SLI Asus MB and EVGA nvidia Geforce 7950 gx2 card.

 

[Godswatch]

Hey Andrew,

You'd be wasting youre time checking out the hd with a 3rd party software
utility,the only software that qualifies is the hd mfg MS-DOS utility

I used a HD utility by Maxtor which is my HD brand.

Also,ever chk youre BIOS for the settings to the video-card

Yes, Im not very BIOS savy though. I believe they are correct. Any
specific settings I should be looking for?

also,get youre drivers/software from nvidia web site

Ive tried the original evga drivers cd that came with the pc and also
downloaded new drivers from the nvidia website, both with same result.

Ever install the chipset utility for the MB.

Yes, installed original chipset drivers from the original CD that came with
MB and also downloaded chipset from Asus website.

thanks

 

[Daave]

Hi Daave,
Heres the updates from my attempts this weekend.



I cant find any mention of onboard video on the motherboards specs,
website or manual.

Is this your manual?:

http://dlsvr02.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socketAM2/M2N32 WS Pro/e2560_m2n32-ws-pro.pdf

If so, on p. 4-30, it looks like your "primary display adapter" is the
PCIEX16-1. Does that look right?

Nonetheless, over the weekend I went into device
manager where there are 2 devices under "other", a "vga" and "3d
video controller." So I disabled them, erased the drivers and
rebooted the computer. Bad idea, windows would load but my monitor
would not show an image. I was navigating blind through the windows
desktop. I used the windows narrator program to try to reload them
but was just not getting it. So I gave up, reformatted my hard
drive, repartitioned it and reinstalled xp fresh.

I installed acronis true image and then the first driver I attempted
to install was the EVGA nvidia driver. I popped in the cd, the
installation began and 1/3 of the way through the screen blacked out
and the pc rebooted. It then entered into the splash screen reboot
loop again. I entered safe mode, couldnt delete the evga drivers
from the "add new software" program (received error about missing
files). I tried again to install the drivers from the EVGA cd and in
safe mode was able to complete the entire installation. Rebooted the
computer but was again greeted with splash screen reboot loop. Went
back into safe mode, was able to delete the evga drivers this time
and upon rebooting the computer worked fine.


It could have been. It started over a month ago while my wife was
surfing MSN webpage but I dont remember having performed any driver
updates except for an occasional windows update and definitely no new
hardware. I did upgrade to SP3 but I dont remember if the probs
began shortly after. Since then I have reinstalled windows and kept
it at SP2.


SP2 with no windows updates (although Ive also tried installing all
the updates except SP3 and I still have the same prob when I attempt
to install the video card drivers).


Dont have an extra, thinking of buying a cheapo one just to try.

Here is a list of things that have worked but never permanently. All
of these things have given me a functional pc for a few days tops:
1) virus, malware cleanup way back in the beginning (worked for 5
days) 2) chkdsk f (worked for 5 days) and r - worked for a few minutes

Ive since reformatted the drive, clean installed xp but never been
able to get it back up and running.
Hope this helps you help me. Thanks

If you use XP's generic graphics driver, do you have problems? If not,
the problem seems to be with the driver. Or perhaps some funky
incompatibility issue is at play. Asus has a forum. So does Nvidia. Have
you tried either one? Also, you might want to try out this newsgroup:

@lt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt

Change the @ to a, of course (I needed to munge that name since
Microsoft filters it for some odd reason!). Also you will need to use
another news server (and news reader) since this is not a Microsoft
newsgroup. (Google Groups, although not really recommended, will also
work: http://groups.google.com/grphp?hl=en&tab=wg ) If you would like
to use an actual newsreader, see this page:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

Motzarella is a decent free news service:

http://news.motzarella.org/

 

[Godswatch]

Hello,

Is this your manual?:
http://dlsvr02.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socketAM2/M2N32 WS Pro/e2560_m2n32-ws-pro.pdf
If so, on p. 4-30, it looks like your "primary display adapter" is the
PCIEX16-1. Does that look right?

No, its not. M2N32 SLI Deluxe, pg 4-29 on manual states "primary display
adapter" is PCI-E slot. The other choice in the Bios is PCI slot.

If you use XP's generic graphics driver, do you have problems? If not,
the problem seems to be with the driver.

I think I am currently running on xp generic drivers, the pc attempts to
autoinstall drivers for a "3d video controller" and a "vga." The driver is
called "vgasave"

Or perhaps some funky incompatibility issue is at play. Asus has a forum. So does Nvidia. Have > you tried either one?

Ive actually tried both. The Asus one wasnt very helpful. The nvidia forum
had lots of posts similiar to mine, but the fixes they suggested did not seem
to work for me except one where they mention plugging in a USB flash drive
prior to bootup. This actually worked once and I reached the xp desktop with
full graphics. Then I rebooted the pc and I was back to the usual reboot
loop. I then plugged all sorts of flash drives in different usb slots with
no result.
Thanks