Hi Guys!
I've been trying to set up one of a new Dell 2007FP monitor
the past two days and I keep having big problems. I'll
understand if you don't want to read all the following, but
doing so will let you know all the steps that I've tried.
Basically, my system boots okay into Win2k "VGA Mode"
(640X480, 256 colors, 60 Hz.) but not into regular Win2k.
(VGA mode is like Safe Mode in the boot menu, but it
has more functionality.)
The system is dual PIII-1400, 1GB RAM, running Win2K
SP4 and I'm using an Asus GeForce FX5200 128 MB video card.
(I had been using an older Asus FeForce FX400 with no DVI
out before changing to the flat panel monitor.) I don't
run games, and the motherboard is AGP 2X only.
I installed the 2007FP monitor and FX5200 video card with
a DVI cable and installed the Asus drivers that came in
the box with the video card. After successfully rebooting,
when I attempted changing to 1600X1200 (32 bit color, 60
Hz of course), the monitor screen became horribly corrupted
(only streaks of color side to side across the screen, from
top to bottom) and dropped to power saving mode after about
3 seconds.
I could now only boot into VGA Mode.
I tried changing drivers to the NVidia reference drivers
that came on the CD-Rom, then the FX5200 "enhanced" drivers
from Asus's website, and finally some NVidia drivers that
I had downloaded sometime last year.
I tried changing drivers the Windows way (update drivers
from Device Manager) and when that didn't help, by running
the setup utility on the Asuss CD-Rom.
I always looked for and deleted all video software from
Control Panel's Add/Remove Software and deleted all
graphics cards from the system (including "ghost" devices
after clicking "show all devices") using Control Panel's
Add/Remove Hardware. I'm using the 2007FP driver from
the Dell CD-Rom. (This works fine on my other computer
which has a Dell 2007FP monitor and Asus FX5700 128 MB
video card.)
Over and over I deleted all the utilities that NVidia or
Asus set to run at Startup (NVidia Contol Panel and Taskbar
utilities, and something called NWiz.exe).
Tuesday night I finally got the system to work at 1600X1200
(using the Asus enhanced drivers) in regular mode and ran
the system for an hour, rebooting several times. Then I
powered down for the night. Wednesday night I powered up but
video had become corrupted again. It would work only in VGA mode.
Then I changed from DVI cable to VGA analog cable and
installed NVidia drivers from their website. I finally had
success and the system booted okay and let me change to
1600X1200. The system ran okay for about two hours, during
which time I rebooted several times with no problems.
But the one time I powered down (after Shutdown), the
system wouldn't boot into normal mode when I powered up.
Video was corrupted again, even though the drivers hadn't
been changed and had been working only minutes ago.
Would you say I have something corrupted (drivers?) that
isn't being replaced when I change drivers? Or could it
be a hardware problem (video card or monitor)? Remember
that it always works using the Microsoft VGA driver
(640X480, limited colors) but not with the Asus or Nvidia
driver (even at the same 640X480). When I get it working,
it continues to work after warm reboots but not after
cold reboots.
I've wasted 8 hours on this problem. I don't want to start
switching video cards and monitors until I'm convinced
that it isn't a driver problem. (I don't want to risk
corrupting my main computer.) On the other hand, the
problem may in some way be hardware related since doing
a cold reboot is when the problem resurfaces.
Anyone know of a "driver cleaner program" that works
with NVidia and Win2k drivers? Google only seems to
refer to Win98/ME utilities or links that are dead.
Regards,
Bill
