nvidia tnt2 m64 problems - low resolution

Hello all.

I found this forum yesterday as I searched for clues to get my display back
to what it once was. I hope someone here can offer me some good advice.
Its a long story, are you ready for it?

For the past several months my computer suffered from the green line of
death; a green line that appeared on the top of the screen at the same
moment that the system froze, the only recourse was to restart with the
"emergency" button on the CPU.

One day, I must not have had enough to do, because I thought I should
investigate and fix the green line syndrome. I did some searching on the
internet and rightly or wrongly decided it was the display adapter to blame.
Feeling brave, perhaps I was just niave or even stupid, I decided to update
the driver for the video card, an nvidia tnt m64. (its a PIII with an Aopen
board, OS win98SE) As you may be able to guess, this is when my problems
really began, about a week ago.

I got a new driver from nvidia, I now know my system cannot support these
newer drivers, but the damage is done. I uninstalled the old driver and the
antivirus, disconnected the internet and restarted in safe mode. Installed
the standard VGA and then went through the device manager to update the
driver. When the computer restarted what we got was a black screen with a
blinking white cursor at the top left of the screen. Emergency reboot,
unistall everything, decided to install the old driver which came with the
computer originally as I have the disk. Started again with the standard
VGA, then the driver from the disk. The problem now is we are stuck in a
very low resolution with 256 or 16bit colour.

I have unistalled and reinstalled an uncountable number of times in the last
week. I have downloaded older versions of drivers and tried them. I have
tried DriverCleaner. We miss our lost resolution so much, my family may
soon revolt. On the up side, the green line of death has not been seen
since this fiasco began, confirming my suspicion that it was the display
adapter.

What advice can anyone offer to me? Is the videocard hooped? Some conflict
somewhere else? I am considering a reformat so we can truly get a clean
install, as I have read that may help. I have reformatted before and used
the disk of drivers in my possession without problems, but it would sure be
annoying if I went through all that and still had this problem along with
the possibility of some new ones. I seem to be losing my optimism quickly,
and really need some good advice. Okay, I'm ready to hear what you have to
say.

Thanks for listening,
Rachel

What advice can anyone offer to me? Is the videocard hooped? Some conflict
somewhere else? I am considering a reformat so we can truly get a clean
install, as I have read that may help. I have reformatted before and used
the disk of drivers in my possession without problems, but it would sure be
annoying if I went through all that and still had this problem along with
the possibility of some new ones. I seem to be losing my optimism quickly,
and really need some good advice. Okay, I'm ready to hear what you have to
say.

Thanks for listening,
Rachel



Myself, I'd just do a format, and fresh install of the OS. The
TNT2 M6 is an old card, but the newer drivers should still work. What
I'd do is:
1. format HDD
2. install OS
3. setup internet connection
4. Update Win98 from Microsoft update site (don't let it install their
own device drivers)
5. install mainboard's chipset drivers
6. install your device drivers (graphics card, sound card, etc...)

This usally works for me when things get really messed up.

It sounds like your video card was failing, and installing unstable drivers
didn't help. Might I suggest considering a reasonably priced new video card
for your ystem. I think you would notice the difference over the poor card
that you had in it.

--
DaveW



"Rubbermaid" wrote in message
news:5jrtc.569574$Pk3.546349@pd7tw1no...

Hello all.

I found this forum yesterday as I searched for clues to get my display
back
to what it once was. I hope someone here can offer me some good advice.
Its a long story, are you ready for it?

For the past several months my computer suffered from the green line of
death; a green line that appeared on the top of the screen at the same
moment that the system froze, the only recourse was to restart with the
"emergency" button on the CPU.

One day, I must not have had enough to do, because I thought I should
investigate and fix the green line syndrome. I did some searching on the
internet and rightly or wrongly decided it was the display adapter to
blame.
Feeling brave, perhaps I was just niave or even stupid, I decided to
update
the driver for the video card, an nvidia tnt m64. (its a PIII with an
Aopen
board, OS win98SE) As you may be able to guess, this is when my problems
really began, about a week ago.

I got a new driver from nvidia, I now know my system cannot support these
newer drivers, but the damage is done. I uninstalled the old driver and
the
antivirus, disconnected the internet and restarted in safe mode.
Installed
the standard VGA and then went through the device manager to update the
driver. When the computer restarted what we got was a black screen with a
blinking white cursor at the top left of the screen. Emergency reboot,
unistall everything, decided to install the old driver which came with the
computer originally as I have the disk. Started again with the standard
VGA, then the driver from the disk. The problem now is we are stuck in a
very low resolution with 256 or 16bit colour.

I have unistalled and reinstalled an uncountable number of times in the
last
week. I have downloaded older versions of drivers and tried them. I have
tried DriverCleaner. We miss our lost resolution so much, my family may
soon revolt. On the up side, the green line of death has not been seen
since this fiasco began, confirming my suspicion that it was the display
adapter.

What advice can anyone offer to me? Is the videocard hooped? Some
conflict
somewhere else? I am considering a reformat so we can truly get a clean
install, as I have read that may help. I have reformatted before and used
the disk of drivers in my possession without problems, but it would sure
be
annoying if I went through all that and still had this problem along with
the possibility of some new ones. I seem to be losing my optimism
quickly,
and really need some good advice. Okay, I'm ready to hear what you have
to
say.

Thanks for listening,
Rachel

Hello again.

Thank you Larry & Dave for your replies.

I'm working myself up for a reformat as things have gotten junky in the
system anyways, but I half expect the display problem to remain and have
already looked at new videocards.

My local computer shop has suggested a GeForce with 64 MB for $79 cdn, or
another GeForce with 128MB for $99 cdn, as these two cards should fit into
the board easily. Does that sound right? I didn't record the complete
title for each of these cards. Am I right in believing that the tnt2 we're
considering abandoning has 32MB? I'm obviously videocard naive; what does
anyone think of these two cards? Any other suggestions?

Thanks for your help.
Rachel


"DaveW" wrote in message news:EDutc.1034$IB.78@attbi_s04...
It sounds like your video card was failing, and installing unstable
drivers
didn't help. Might I suggest considering a reasonably priced new video
card
for your ystem. I think you would notice the difference over the poor
card
that you had in it.

--
DaveW



"Rubbermaid" wrote in message
news:5jrtc.569574$Pk3.546349@pd7tw1no...

Hello all.

I found this forum yesterday as I searched for clues to get my display
back
to what it once was. I hope someone here can offer me some good advice.
Its a long story, are you ready for it?

For the past several months my computer suffered from the green line of
death; a green line that appeared on the top of the screen at the same
moment that the system froze, the only recourse was to restart with the
"emergency" button on the CPU.

One day, I must not have had enough to do, because I thought I should
investigate and fix the green line syndrome. I did some searching on
the
internet and rightly or wrongly decided it was the display adapter to
blame.
Feeling brave, perhaps I was just niave or even stupid, I decided to
update
the driver for the video card, an nvidia tnt m64. (its a PIII with an
Aopen
board, OS win98SE) As you may be able to guess, this is when my
problems
really began, about a week ago.

I got a new driver from nvidia, I now know my system cannot support
these
newer drivers, but the damage is done. I uninstalled the old driver and
the
antivirus, disconnected the internet and restarted in safe mode.
Installed
the standard VGA and then went through the device manager to update the
driver. When the computer restarted what we got was a black screen with
a
blinking white cursor at the top left of the screen. Emergency reboot,
unistall everything, decided to install the old driver which came with
the
computer originally as I have the disk. Started again with the standard
VGA, then the driver from the disk. The problem now is we are stuck in
a
very low resolution with 256 or 16bit colour.

I have unistalled and reinstalled an uncountable number of times in the
last
week. I have downloaded older versions of drivers and tried them. I
have
tried DriverCleaner. We miss our lost resolution so much, my family may
soon revolt. On the up side, the green line of death has not been seen
since this fiasco began, confirming my suspicion that it was the display
adapter.

What advice can anyone offer to me? Is the videocard hooped? Some
conflict
somewhere else? I am considering a reformat so we can truly get a clean
install, as I have read that may help. I have reformatted before and
used
the disk of drivers in my possession without problems, but it would sure
be
annoying if I went through all that and still had this problem along
with
the possibility of some new ones. I seem to be losing my optimism
quickly,
and really need some good advice. Okay, I'm ready to hear what you have
to
say.

Thanks for listening,
Rachel