On May 10, 10:25*pm, "Mr.E Solved!" wrote:
wrote:
I bought a used 7600GT AGP card (BIG brand) to be used in a second
system thrown together from left-over parts. The config is -

Sempron 64 2500+ S754
Asrock K8Upgrade-VM800 (VIA chipset)
384MB DDR333 (PC2700)
200GB SATA HDD
DVD-R/W
450W PSU - not one of the big-name brands, but it has served me
well with a slightly higher configuration - A64 3000+, 1GB, 7600GT
PCI-E, 3xHDDs, DVD-R/W.
WinXP Pro SP2

The 7600GT AGP card displays normally in Safe Mode and in normal
mode with the basic Windows driver.

Trying to install nVidia driver 81.85 brings up a report that it is
not compatible (same with a 7600GT PCI-E card in another computer).
91.31 and 91.47 invokes the same error report, but work fine with
the PCI-E version.

When I try to install 162.18 or 169.21, it pauses half-way through
(as it normally does with successful installations), but pauses for
a loooong time and the screen then blanks out permanently. The
monitor (CRT) LED stays green and I can't get it to shut down even
with a momentary push of the power button.

On restarting, the Windows logo appears for a few seconds, then the
display corrupts and crashes. The only way get it to boot again is
to go into Safe Mode and uninstall the driver.

I can install 162.18 and 169.21 in Safe Mode, but it behaves the
same way as described in the above para on rebooting.

I tried the card on another machine (Athlon XP 2000+, Biostar
M7NCG-400 mobo) with exactly the same result.

I uninstall the driver in Safe Mode between each attempt. A 6600GT
card works fine with both motherboards.

Unless there's some installation trick that has to be done with
this card, it looks as if it's defective. The previous owner gave
me a 7-day guarantee, but I want to be sure before I send it back.

I once had a lot of problems installing a GF4200 Ti on another VIA
mobo until I figured out the exact installation process needed :
The VIA AGP port driver had to be installed and then uninstalled;
then nVidia driver 41 or earlier had to be installed before
installing a newer version.

I was wondering if there was some similar requirement for this
7600GT AGP card before I conclude definitely that it is defective
and send it back. Any comments or suggestions please ?

That was a thorough report and easy to follow, so the omission of you
re-installing your VIA chipset drivers is notable and would give you the
symptoms you describe.

Also, there might be a PCI-AGP bridge chip on that card, which was done
to simply (!) manufacture. The card could actually be a PCIe card and
the bridge chip translates for the AGP slot and that might have
BIOS/mobo compatibility issues, but re-install those chipset drivers
first especially the GART.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thanks for the response. I'm fairly sure I installed, uninstalled
and re-installed the VIA chipset drivers. But I've tried so many
things that I can't be sure when and in what order (relative to
other things) I did them. I'll try again first chance I get and
report back here.