Yet another WindowsXP / Nvidia / VIA / AMD / BSOD question... :-(

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SBDMTD

As the unhappy owners of a WindowsXP / Nvidia video card / VIA
chipset / AMD Athlon CPU system... also known as the "Blue Screen of
Death Machine"... we have yet another question.

We were eventually able to load WindowsXP and SP1 and a bunch of other
Microsoft updates AFTER slowing the video card down from 4X down to
1X/2X in the BIOS. Also had to disable the AGP "Top Performance"
selection in the BIOS for whatever else that does. The BSOD Machine
now runs okay at 1X/2X, but I would like to get it back to 4X someday.

Question: We have updated to the latest Nvidia drivers available
through Microsoft (4.5.2.3), but we noticed that this is 2 or 3
revisions older (and three months older) than what is currently
available at www.nvidia.com. Would we be better off using the latest
drivers direct from the Nvidia website? Or are we better off waiting
for Microsoft to officially bless and release them for XP?

Is there any possible harm in trying out the newer drivers... assuming
we can go backwards if necessary without too much hassle? Has anyone
with a similar XP/Nvidia/VIA/AMD machine tried the newest drivers and
been able to resolve the BSOD menace?

Thanks in advance,
SBD & MTD :-) 8-)
Gigabyte GA7DX Motherboard
AMD Athlon 1400
Nvidia RIVA TNT2 Model 64
 
Previously on microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support, SBDMTD said:

; As the unhappy owners of a WindowsXP / Nvidia video card / VIA
; chipset / AMD Athlon CPU system... also known as the "Blue Screen of
; Death Machine"... we have yet another question.

I don't know for sure, my experience with that exact setup is nil,
however:

My current machine is WinXP on an AthlonXP system with an nVidia AGP 8X
video card, no problem. My chipsets are also nVidia, +not+ VIA. I
chose this motherboard specifically because it doesn't use VIA. My
previous machine (Win98SE, also AthlonXP based) originally had a VIA
Southbridge chipset that was causing all sorts of spurious filesystem
problems resulting in data corruption, lost chains, system instability
and BSODs. Swapped the motherboard out for something without the VIA
chipset and the problems went away.

; We were eventually able to load WindowsXP and SP1 and a bunch of other
; Microsoft updates AFTER slowing the video card down from 4X down to
; 1X/2X in the BIOS. Also had to disable the AGP "Top Performance"
; selection in the BIOS for whatever else that does. The BSOD Machine
; now runs okay at 1X/2X, but I would like to get it back to 4X someday.

My advice is to swap the motherboard out for something without VIA,
even if it does mean running into WinXP's copy protection thing.

; Question: We have updated to the latest Nvidia drivers available
; through Microsoft (4.5.2.3), but we noticed that this is 2 or 3
; revisions older (and three months older) than what is currently
; available at www.nvidia.com. Would we be better off using the latest
; drivers direct from the Nvidia website? Or are we better off waiting
; for Microsoft to officially bless and release them for XP?

I think you're hitting it from the wrong end. It's not the video card
you need to fix, it's the chipset. First choice, as above, is to
change motherboards. If that's not practical, then see if you can hunt
down driver updates for the chipset. http://www.viaarena.com/ is a
good place to start.

--
Jeffrey Kaplan <*> www.gordol.org
The from userid is killfiled <*> Send personal mail to gordol

If I Am Ever the Sidekick... 1. If the hero tells me to stay put while
he goes on ahead, I will do so instead of sneaking around and getting
captured.
 
Hi SBDMTD,

In microsoft.public.windowsxp.general you remarked...

I had similar problems where I had to set everything in the BIOS
back to standard or minimal settings. The problem turned out to
miss-matched sticks of RAM. I had added 128Mb to the original 256Mb
but they where different brands and therefore their timings were
slightly different. Everything was fine with optimal BIOS settings
if I used just one or the other stick.

Just a thought, but I would at least try re-seating your RAM and
graphics card.
 
SBDMTD said:
As the unhappy owners of a WindowsXP / Nvidia video card / VIA
chipset / AMD Athlon CPU system... also known as the "Blue Screen of
Death Machine"... we have yet another question.

We were eventually able to load WindowsXP and SP1 and a bunch of other
Microsoft updates AFTER slowing the video card down from 4X down to
1X/2X in the BIOS. Also had to disable the AGP "Top Performance"
selection in the BIOS for whatever else that does. The BSOD Machine
now runs okay at 1X/2X, but I would like to get it back to 4X someday.

Question: We have updated to the latest Nvidia drivers available
through Microsoft (4.5.2.3), but we noticed that this is 2 or 3
revisions older (and three months older) than what is currently
available at www.nvidia.com. Would we be better off using the latest
drivers direct from the Nvidia website? Or are we better off waiting
for Microsoft to officially bless and release them for XP?

Is there any possible harm in trying out the newer drivers... assuming
we can go backwards if necessary without too much hassle? Has anyone
with a similar XP/Nvidia/VIA/AMD machine tried the newest drivers and
been able to resolve the BSOD menace?

Thanks in advance,
SBD & MTD :-) 8-)
Gigabyte GA7DX Motherboard
AMD Athlon 1400
Nvidia RIVA TNT2 Model 64
Click to expand...

I would always use the Nvidia drivers from their site. Your video card is
many generations old, but still should work fine with that motherboard. Make
sure you have the latest Via chipset (.inf and AGP) drivers from the
Gigabyte site also. I am pretty sure that all of the MB drivers are in the
4-in-1 driver set. The BSOD/Infinite loop problem with Nvidia cards and Via
chipsets was solved quite sometime ago by newer chipset and video drivers.
Your video card might be going south on you too, seeing as it works fine at
2x and not at 4x. I wish you luck.

Ed
 
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