I recently upgraded my PC to Win2K and since then, the OS refuses to recognize any video cards. I have tried three different cards, in every conceivable combination of PCI slots, and no matter what this is what happens:
The PC either completey refuses as soon as Windows loads, or else the screen goes utterly black.
If the same card is removed and put into another slot, Windows will load but with only 16 color graphics. Any attempt to change this setting immediately causes the screen to flicker and go black.
When the above happens, I reboot the machine. This always takes me back to step one…i.e., the PC either locks up or the screen goes black as soon as the Windows screen comes up.
I have a Diamond GL 1000 card, an ATI Rage XL and a Cirrus Logic card. I have tried getting the newest drivers for each, but when I try to install them Windows invariably tells me that either :
(a) the selected location does not contain info about my hardware, or more commonly,
(b) this device is not installed on my PC, i.e. Windows not only can not load the correct driver for any of these cards, it can not evenly correctly identify them.
This may or may not work. I recently upgraded a machine at work from Windows 98 to 2000 and had a similar problem. The machine was permanently in 640x480 resolution in 16 colors. No amount of video card swapping or driver installation would fix it. After talking with three different people from Dell I was told that once in a great while when going from 98 to 2k you will have to update your chipset drivers before the drivers for your video card can be properly utilized by the system.
This may or may not work. The problem sounds almost exactly like what I encountered but given the vast variety of hardware out there your mileage will most definitely vary.
Video cards work best if they are in the first PCI slot. The first PCI cannot be empty, nor should their be any empty slots between slots.
Also, you have to let the bios know you put in a new card, it has memory to know what’s in the computer & probably thinks the original card is there. See, some boards have a NVRAM setting that you must clear to let it know you put in a new card.
Please correct me if I’m wrong. The “first” slot on a PC is usually the one closest to the main poarts of the MB. IOW, in a tower the uppermost, in a desktop model the leftmost if you have the back of the casing facing you. that’s just a general rule of thumb though…it might be easier given the vast variety of hardware (I have seen “backwards” motherboards before) to say the first slot is the one closest to the general “guts” of the board.
What type of MOBO are you using? When you have older hardware (just an assumption since you’re trying to use a PCI video card) there’s always a chance that Win2K isn’t fully compatible with the MOBO’s chipset. As Meros suggested, flashing your BIOS to the latest available firmware from the MOBO’s manufacturer may be required. Or it may require newer hardware in total.
Lobsang, my computer was doing something similar & I took it to the computer store that I bought that board from & the guy opened it up took the pci video card which I had put in the second slot (left the first one open) & put it in the first slot & the computer worked fine. He told me not to have any empty slots between cards on that board.
I haven’t seen a board that doesn’t label it’s slots yet.
OK, so I’ve tried yet another video card, in every single possible slot from the first on down, and the same thing…the new card at least appears to install, then tells me I need to reboot to finish installing, which I do. Upon start up, Windows begins to load (with much better color this time, so it looks like the card took). Then the PC freezes up. If I reboot at this point, the screen will flash brightly very quickly and then immediately go black.
So is this a BIOS problem? Award does not have an update available on their website…they ask you to fill out a form with your current BIOS info and someone will e-mail you within 48 hours.
Anyone got an idea how to get around this?