Help Needed Trouble Shooting

My daughter has a system, Win98, Geforce 2MX videocard. Suddenly video
card isn't working. It shows up in Device Manager. I can only set it
it to 16 colors 640X480. When I try to install the newest drivers, it
installs ok but when I reboot, as soon as windows starts, I get a
black screen. I have to reboot in safemode and make sure the setting
is 16 colors 640X480. No Nvidia icon is present in the tray. I noticed
the card is set to IRQ 5 if that means anything. Refresh rate is set
to monitor default. Any ideas? Thanks.

did you remove the card and re-seat it yet? first thing i would try

Maybe the monitor has gone bad and cannot handle a higher res/refresh rate
any more. Try another monitor. If it is the card that went bad, ebay is
full of cheapie cards like the GF2mx.

DaveL


"Tarkus" wrote in message
...
My daughter has a system, Win98, Geforce 2MX videocard. Suddenly video
card isn't working. It shows up in Device Manager. I can only set it
it to 16 colors 640X480. When I try to install the newest drivers, it
installs ok but when I reboot, as soon as windows starts, I get a
black screen. I have to reboot in safemode and make sure the setting
is 16 colors 640X480. No Nvidia icon is present in the tray. I noticed
the card is set to IRQ 5 if that means anything. Refresh rate is set
to monitor default. Any ideas? Thanks.

'Tarkus' wrote, in part:
| My daughter has a system, Win98, Geforce 2MX videocard. Suddenly video
| card isn't working.Try older drivers. It may be that the GeForce 2MX is
no longer supported in the newest drivers.
_____

Also, as I remember, you can use the DX diagnostic program dxdiag.exe (it is
likely in your \windows\system32 directory) in Windows98. This Microsoft
diagnostic program will test the function of the video card, as well as DX
sound and other DX components.

After trying the above, consider the following -

If you have access to a known good video card you might try installing in
temporarily in your daughter's system to eliminate the motherboard as the
problem.

If you have access to a known good desktop system, you might try installing
the GeForce 2MX in the known good system to check if it works in another
system.

Some additional information about your system might be helpful, but it could
just be getting old. Windows98 is no longer supported by Microsoft, and the
GeForce 2MX is quite old. The GeForce 2MX should be adequate for anything
except 3D acceleration for first person shooter games BUT the most painless
cure might be to replace it; anything you can buy new will be quite a bit
better, and you should be able to find a number of video cards for under $30
US. Because of the age of the components diagnosis may be a tedious and
time consuming process.

Phil Weldon


"Tarkus" wrote in message
...
My daughter has a system, Win98, Geforce 2MX videocard. Suddenly video
card isn't working. It shows up in Device Manager. I can only set it
it to 16 colors 640X480. When I try to install the newest drivers, it
installs ok but when I reboot, as soon as windows starts, I get a
black screen. I have to reboot in safemode and make sure the setting
is 16 colors 640X480. No Nvidia icon is present in the tray. I noticed
the card is set to IRQ 5 if that means anything. Refresh rate is set
to monitor default. Any ideas? Thanks.

make sure there is only one card listed in device manager when
in safe mode, if so then is it svga or the GF 2 card ? if SVGA then
reload the driver from nVidia or use old driver, if still no go then the
card may not be properly recognized by windows, and cannot load the
driver properly. replace card with another from similar era, newer 1.5v
cards won't work. the old card ID string from the card BIOS may be
corrupt, or it was an OEM card and needs specific driver, but that is
very unlikely. ATI cards were bad for that, but not a GeForce, those
drivers are universal. Does she game at all ? good luck

Tarkus wrote:
My daughter has a system, Win98, Geforce 2MX videocard. Suddenly video
card isn't working. It shows up in Device Manager. I can only set it
it to 16 colors 640X480. When I try to install the newest drivers, it
installs ok but when I reboot, as soon as windows starts, I get a
black screen. I have to reboot in safemode and make sure the setting
is 16 colors 640X480. No Nvidia icon is present in the tray. I noticed
the card is set to IRQ 5 if that means anything. Refresh rate is set
to monitor default. Any ideas? Thanks.