Annoying Win XP upgrade problem

Undertoad · 03-29-2005, 07:08 PM

I knew I had issues. No matter how well you run a computer, after a while you get issues.

I had two issues. One, my glorious old 21" monitor was dying a horrible death. Two, my video card was locking up my system when under duress.

I figured I would get a new monitor AND video card. And since I'd go VGA monitor, I would also upgrade to XP to get ClearType.

I replaced the monitor. Excellent.

I replaced the video card, being careful to remove the ATI drivers (with driver cleaner) and then installing new nvidia drivers for the new video card. All went well... until the card's software started to say that it had lost power to the card and would have to slow down so as not to burn out the card.

New video card has bad power? WTF? I reinstall the card with a different power cord. Same result.

Oh, now I get it: it must be a bad power supply! The much-vaunted Antec TruePower 430 is not getting it done. This resulted in a system lockup on the old card, but the new card is smart enough to sense it isn't getting enough power to run its fan, and to tell you so.

Change out the power supply with my spare... yes, that was in fact the problem! The new card runs very well in Win2K with the new power supply.

Now, upgrade to WinXP. Hmm, it can't find my video card. Well I'll reinstall the driver. Hmmm, the driver complains that it can't find a card to install to.

Go into Device Manager, and the card is listed with a yellow exclamation point, the universal sign of a bad driver. But the system won't install the driver because it thinks the system doesn't have an Nvidia card! Is it some sort of weird catch-22?

I deleted the display adapter through Device Manager. As it worked, it reminded me that it would be removing the nvidia software... expected, good.

But when the system boots, now Device Manager doesn't even have a Display Adapters section...! Searching for new hardware doesn't find the ATI card... installing the ATI drivers results in a similar complaint to the nvidia error, complaining that there's no card to install drivers for. It suggests that I start by installing the "standard vga driver", without further information. Searching the web for the error message shows a ton of people in forums getting the same error message and never figuring it out. (welcome travelers)

Retrying the XP upgrade did not solve the problem.

So now it's 8 hours into this one, video is basically broken no matter which card goes into this thing.

Undertoad · 03-29-2005, 07:31 PM

20 minutes later, fixed... turned out to be old and/or missing drivers for the motherboard itself.

So both problems I had turned out to really be located in other places in the system! One a hardware problem, the other a software problem.

I'm reading this in ClearType, and it's great!

Carbonated_Brains · 03-30-2005, 10:51 PM

Upgrade the firm---...

Damnit.

03-29-2005, 07:08 PM	#1
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	Annoying Win XP upgrade problem I knew I had issues. No matter how well you run a computer, after a while you get issues. I had two issues. One, my glorious old 21" monitor was dying a horrible death. Two, my video card was locking up my system when under duress. I figured I would get a new monitor AND video card. And since I'd go VGA monitor, I would also upgrade to XP to get ClearType. I replaced the monitor. Excellent. I replaced the video card, being careful to remove the ATI drivers (with driver cleaner) and then installing new nvidia drivers for the new video card. All went well... until the card's software started to say that it had lost power to the card and would have to slow down so as not to burn out the card. New video card has bad power? WTF? I reinstall the card with a different power cord. Same result. Oh, now I get it: it must be a bad power supply! The much-vaunted Antec TruePower 430 is not getting it done. This resulted in a system lockup on the old card, but the new card is smart enough to sense it isn't getting enough power to run its fan, and to tell you so. Change out the power supply with my spare... yes, that was in fact the problem! The new card runs very well in Win2K with the new power supply. Now, upgrade to WinXP. Hmm, it can't find my video card. Well I'll reinstall the driver. Hmmm, the driver complains that it can't find a card to install to. Go into Device Manager, and the card is listed with a yellow exclamation point, the universal sign of a bad driver. But the system won't install the driver because it thinks the system doesn't have an Nvidia card! Is it some sort of weird catch-22? I deleted the display adapter through Device Manager. As it worked, it reminded me that it would be removing the nvidia software... expected, good. But when the system boots, now Device Manager doesn't even have a Display Adapters section...! Searching for new hardware doesn't find the ATI card... installing the ATI drivers results in a similar complaint to the nvidia error, complaining that there's no card to install drivers for. It suggests that I start by installing the "standard vga driver", without further information. Searching the web for the error message shows a ton of people in forums getting the same error message and never figuring it out. (welcome travelers) Retrying the XP upgrade did not solve the problem. So now it's 8 hours into this one, video is basically broken no matter which card goes into this thing.

03-29-2005, 07:31 PM	#2
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	20 minutes later, fixed... turned out to be old and/or missing drivers for the motherboard itself. So both problems I had turned out to really be located in other places in the system! One a hardware problem, the other a software problem. I'm reading this in ClearType, and it's great!

03-30-2005, 10:51 PM	#3
Carbonated_Brains Does it show up here when I type? Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Between the smoky layers of a prosciutto sandwich! Posts: 355	Upgrade the firm---... Damnit.

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