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I've just installed Win2K in my older PC, a C366@550mhz, 128mb PC-100 ram, V3 and it installed and was seemingly done so I thought I'd try to improve my settings on the used monitor I just picked up. After trying for higher res, with more colors, the screen went black and stayed there (instead of switching back like I'll usually see if it doesn't work). I've tryed re-booting and it doesn't fully re-load Win2K now, just hangs. I then tryed safe mode, tryed to lower the res in there but it made no difference trying normal mode, still a no go.
I now can't even get it to go into safe mode. It just hangs at a "starting windows" screen and I hear a HDD trying to do something but nothing's happening.
Short of a format and trying this again, does anyone have any better ideas? Note: It's not loading Windows at all, nada.....

Well it doesn't soudn like it has anything to do with the video settings you changes. If it won't boot into safe mode, something's screwed up.

Are you overclocking? Win2K is more sensitive to overclocking than Win98 - don't ask me why. I can run my clock at 133 with only 98 installed. With Win2K installed, at that speed it won't even boot.

Did you format the drive in FAT32 or NTFS? If it's FAT32 you can boot with a 98 Emergency Floppy and run Scandisk on the drive to see if there's any problems.

If it won't Safe Mode, unless you made a Repair Disk (and I suggest you make one as soon as you install it, and right before you install any new hardware!), there's nothing you can do but format and re-install. Unlike Win98 you can just re-install it to bring it back to life.

Hope this helps...

Unlike Win98 you can just re-install it to bring it back to life.

FP did you mean you can't just re-install ir or you can?
just curious
WW

What chipset on the motherboard and which video card?

I had a dickens of a problem w/the old Ali Aladdin V AGPset (on Asus P5A-B) and ATI Xpert 2000, while trying to install Win2K (Pro + Advance Server). It turns out Win2K will mistake the Xpert 2k for Rage Fury and the drivers that load will kill any video and/or halt the installation. I had to install the OS using separate vid card, change the vid card to standard sgp vid card and then install the proper drivers.

If you can boot into safe mode, instead of selecting the actual video card try selecting the standard/generic compatible vid card and see if it'll boot into the OS.


Also you might want to back down the CPU to it's default speed. I find most OSes get real finicky, no matter how stable most users think their CPU is, when installing/upgrading an operating system.

With Win98/ME you can just install it over itself without formatting and 90% of the time it will fix your problem. This causes Windows to re-install all the DLL files (usually the cause of flaky problems) but retains all your settings and installed apps. I call it a "refresh install".

You can't do that with NT or Win2K - a re-install is ALWAYS a clean install. The only way to rebuild a damaged install of Win2K is to boot using the CD or the installation floppies and use the Repair option (instead of install) when the option comes up. However, this will only work if you made a Repair disk. Also, if the registry needs to be rebuilt (as it usually does) everything will be set back to the way it was when you made the Repair disk so it's a good habit to make one at least once a month. I also like to make one just before installing new hardware. This is the easiest way to backup the registry in Win2K.

OK, I lowered its clock speed to default and it'll boot normally but the video blacks out completely that way. I then can now reboot into safe mode but it seems to be using minimum settings then. If I look into 'display properties/settings', the display in safe mode is (default monitor) on VGA, 16 colors 640x480.
Before I tryed changing the display property settings, this monitor was working with this OS with 16 bit colors and 800x600 res.
It's an Abit BH6 mobo (latest bios), V3 2000 video card and an old IBM G40 digital monitor.
When I look at the Device manager settings for the V3 card, it says that there's no driver selected. When I then try to update its driver, it searches and says I'm already using the best driver for the device?
The only known drivers that Win2K said I need to upgrade is for my NIC and soundcard (shouldn't be a problem) and it said I need to upgrade DirectX8 also. Might that be my present problem?
I'll try changing the video card to standard/generic now and see what happens (as suggesteed above).. but..............???

I don't know how to safely/wisely do that. Should I remove the V3 card from my device manager? I don't see any other obvious options, selections.

I'll play with it later, off to work now.



[Edited by EvilHorace on 02-06-2001 at 08:19 AM]

First off NO you don't need Dx8 - Win2K should not have told you that. I'd avoid Dx8, there's problems (actually they're up to Dx8a now). I'm suspecting that you have a beta driver for the V3 that's Dx8 compatible. That might be the problem.

I would recommend you pull ALL you cards except the vid card and get that working first. This is an old habit for bench techs like me. You should always install a new OS with only the vid card in the system and nothing else, this keeps a LOT of things from going wrong. Then install each remaining card ONE BY ONE oce the system is up and running and stable. Also do not overclock while doing the installation.

Download the latest V3 driver (but not the beta). 3Dfx's FTP site is up again or else you can get them at http://voodoofiles.com

Pull all your cards except the vid card, boot into safe mode.

Go into display properties and change the video card to a Standard VGA.

Reboot and it will HOPEFULLY go into windows.

Install the V3 drivers.

If for some reason this doesn't work, go back to safe mode, do a search for INF files containing "VOODOO" or "3DFX" and delete them.

Go into regedit and delete any references to 3Dfx or Voodoo in \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE.

Remove the display driver from device manager and reboot.

If what I suggested above doesn't work, try deleting all trace of the video drivers that's installed and go throught the reinstall process afterward. (that's if it's able to boot into the OS afterward)

I pretty much agree w/ almost everything (FP) had said in the previous post except the part about pulling out all the other cards (of course minus the vid card or scsi card if you have scsi floppy/LS-120/CD-Rom/DVD-Rom which are your sole bootup option). That was pretty much true in Win3.x, various flavors of Win9x and up to ME (ME was actually little better) but Win2K has better Plug + Pray support. I have done countless install of Win2K (Pro + various Server versions) and to date haven't had a single instance where I had to take out the expansion cards like the previous OSes. Of course it depends on each case but if it was functioning w/an (any?) OS previously then I say it's safe to skip that part.

Let us know how it works out.

It's something to do with that monitor. All I did was switch it with my other old 15" monitor and it works, no video problems. I'd gather that that monitor (the one I just picked up) simply can't run at all at higher resolutions and that it can't be re-adjusted in 'safe-mode' because I tryed that last night.
I am using beta Win98 V3 drivers in that PC so I will upgrade that to Win2K V3 drivers.
That used monitor I picked up does work OK as is on my old P166 but I think it needs better drivers.

Heh, sounds like my first encounter with NT 4.
I did like you, picked a refresh rate & res, hit apply.

BLANK_____________________

I didn't pay any mind to the "test" button. hehe
Haven't played with win2K yet.
Does it have a "test" button ?

Dang, I think one of us should have though of that

Glad you didn't wast e too much time on a red herring.

Damien6: I do a lot of OS installs myself professionally, and while it's gotten better, it's still a safer bet to have minimal hardware installed in either a new OS install or a mobo change.

The install process can be interupted before fully completed because of just one misbehaved app, and then you wind up chasing your tail for hours.

I've run into too many driver hassles. For instance, since most mobos require an AGP driver now (and I've had this happen) you can have a situation where the video card tries to install itself before the AGP driver and then the system crashes before finishing the OS install because the AGP driver wasn't installed yet and the vid card didn't like it.

I always install the minimum of cards and then isntall the video as Standard VGA until Windows installs itself, and all mobo drivers are installed and up to date. Then I install peripherals starting with the proper video driver.

"Damien6: I do a lot of OS installs myself professionally, and while it's gotten better, it's still a safer bet to have minimal hardware installed in either a new OS install or a mobo change."


Like I've said, I never had that problem (ever) but if I did I'd probably take the cards out myself. If it saves me great deal of time, then I go w/ the that worked for me personally.

VonJames, I didn't see a "test button" when I did that as one usually gets in Win95/98. I don't know if they deleted that option or by even testing it it then went blank to no return. In Win95/98 it just does a test for a few seconds and automatically resets to the previous setting unless you hit "accept these changes" but I never saw that, just stayed blank.

NT uses a Test button, Win2K doesn't because, like 98, it's supposed to support PnP monitors.

Like 98 it should have changed back to the original refresh or resolution if you hit escape or didn't click OK after 15 seconds.

Yeah, as I said, I've never gotten to mess with win2k yet, so I didn't know if there was a test button or not.

NT 4, I just pressed on an out went the lights. hehe
Since everyone around me at the office has the same equipment, a monitor switch wouldn't have helped, but I never thought of switching the video drivers to fix it.

Dang it!