computer components & hardware - Ti4200 installation problems (solved, but may be interesting).

Some time ago, I ran into a lot of trouble while doing a fresh
installation for someone. The computer was an AMD S754 2800+ on
an Asrock motherboard using a VIA KT800 (?) chipset, AGP, 512MB
and an old MSI GF Ti4200 graphics card.

The problem centred around the gfx card. A straightforward
installation of Win XP (SP2), mobo driver and nVidia driver
didn't work. It was OK for desktop and simple 2D graphics, but
hung or crashed in 3D. It failed DirectX tests, but always at
different points whenever I changed the installation process.

I finally solved the problem after a lot of head scratching.
Here's a list of things that worked and did not work, in case
someone finds them useful or amusing :

1. Part of the problem was that the owner had a custom Win XP
install disk with SP2 and nVidia detonator 77.01. For
diagnosing problematic systems, I have a Ghost of WinXP
installed with SP2, DX9c, nVidia 81.15 and nothing else.
Neither installation worked.

2. Since newer nVidia drivers are not compatible with some
older cards, I went to the MSI website and noted that the
latest driver that works with all MSI cards is 41.07, and that
45.32 is the latest prescribed for their Ti4200 cards. (He
doesn't have the original driver CD).

3. Installing the older drivers over the newer ones and
overwriting newer files didn't work. Not too unusual.

4. Installing older drivers over newer ones and NOT
overwriting newer files still didn't work.

5. Uninstalling the newer drivers, restarting and then
installing an older driver still brings up the option of
overwriting or not overwriting newer files. Choosing to
overwrite newer files does not work.

6. Choosing *not* to overwrite newer files during the above
process worked, but only until the mobo driver is installed,
after which it failed again.

7. It works only if the VIA AGP driver is uninstalled.

8. It does not work if the VIA AGP driver was not installed
along with the rest of the chipset driver. It had to be
installed and then uninstalled.

9. It does not work if the latest VIA unified chipset driver
is installed initially - even if the above processes with AGP
driver is followed. It works only if the chipset driver that
came with the mobo is installed first. No problem if the
updated version is installed later.

10. No problem if the nVidia driver is updated with the latest
driver *if* the other sequences described are followed first.

It took me a long time and a lot of patience to get everything
right. A more experienced person could probably have figured
it out more quickly.