Nvidia problem

Nvidia Geforce4 420 mx (PCI)
P4 1.6 ghz cpu
512 ram
Windows XP pro
No onboard video on motherboard

I'm thinking this is a driver problem, but I tried re-downloading and installing the latest drivers (and the ones that worked for me last) and it didn't work. I get video, just not Geforce quality. In T1, I get about 3 fps in 1024x768 opengl, and I'm getting about 20 fps in 1024x768 software.

It used to work for me, but then a few months later it started doing this so I took it out and began using the onboard video on my old mobo. But now I have a new computer with no onboard video so I put the old geforce back in.

It shows up in my device manager as Video Controller (vga compatible). When I install the Nvidia drivers from my CD that came with it, I restart and after the windows boot screen, it freezes and goes completely black. So I downloaded the newer drivers and installed, those didn't work either.

Any suggestions?

Did you delete the old drivers?

Make sure you delete the old ones before you install the latest.

Can you verify that in the motherboard bios you have assigned an IRQ to VGA, and it isn't shared with anything?

Yes, I deleted old drivers.

There's an option in my bios to automatically assign an irq to vga, I'm not sure if it's shared. I messed around with the bios some more and it still wouldn't boot.

Sounds like a cooling issue. Humor me for a second... Open the case and point a table fan on high at the CPU.

Originally posted by Data
Sounds like a cooling issue. Humor me for a second... Open the case and point a table fan on high at the CPU.
I set it up and ran the fan on high with the power off for a few minutes to get rid of any heat that may have had a chance to build up. Then I started it, same problem. It gets through the boot screen, and before it can load the login screen it goes black (not off, just black pixels) for about 30-45 seconds before rebooting itself.

It may be a problem with the graphics card itself, but like I said before, the computer runs fine when I don't install nvidia drivers. It uses windows VGA drivers and it works, just not like an geforce should and did before. :razz:

Wow that's strange. What kind of motherboard is this? Some mobos have known issues with nVidia cards (but I think its more of an AGP issue with those).

Soyo P4VSA... if Nvidia's are a problem with them, it doesn't matter much because I've made up my mind to get the new Radeon this weekend :P

Interesting. Anything on Soyo's site about compatibility issues? I haven't looked.