Strange problem with dual monitors

[StealthNet]

Hi All,

I've been facing a weird problem with my system. I have an Athlon XP 2100+, MSI KT3 Ultra, MSI GeForce 4 MX440, Matrox MGA Millennium PCI.

The system does work for a while (days), and, suddenly, when I boot it for any reason (let's say I just installed a software that required booting), the system won't recognize the GeForce 4 anymore.

To tell you the truth, it is recognized, but the system won't initialize it.

Man I tried every single trick I know, from reseting the BIOS to reinstalling the driver (reinstalling via 4in1 drivers, changing bios settings etc). None worked.

Only ONE thing use to work: reinstalling Windows XP Pro.

When I do it, the system boots and comes up with the secondary monitor. Then I install the via drivers (AGP) and the GF4 is recognized and installed on the fly.

Some days later, the same thing happens.

Another weird thing: I have another WXP Pro installation on the same PC. I can boot it and both monitors work.

Right now, I installed a new Creative WebCam III USB driver. Needed a boot. What happened ? Guess what.

I'm planning to get rid of the Matrox video card, and change the GF4 MX440 for a Ti4xxx with builtin dual monitor support. I think it will solve the problem, but until that happens, I need a workaround, or at least something that would activate the gf4 mx440 without having to reinstall XP. It's really annoying to wait 30 ~ 60 minutes to setup everything again each time this problem occurs.

Any ideas / comments / suggestions ?

[AllGamer]

Well to me it seems like XP is loosing the configuration after a while, as you pointed out

but have you traced it to where is the origin?

when that doesn't work

check in DEVICE MANAGER and look for any Yellow sign

also in Event Viewer

another thing to check is the NVIEW and the nVidia Drivers

try the new drivers
http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=winxp-2k_40.71

that should help
:t

[StealthNet]

Hi,

The GeForce 4 MX440 has a yellow sign, because Windows could not load the drivers.

I have tried the 40.xx drivers, and they seem to solve the problem, but they also create some others. I tried 40.41 and .52, and both rendered my ICQ (!! Yes, ICQ) unusable (it would not load, and it hangs the entire PC).

Unfortunately, I have not traced back the problem to it's origin, simply because I could not find it. I didn't try the 40.71 driver because I didn't know it was available :D

But I'll try it asap.

Thanks!

[StealthNet]

Update:

Installed Detonator 40.71 drivers.

Now the secondary monitor won't turn on (Matrox MGA Millennium PCI).

:(

ICQ is hanging the PC everytime I try to load it.

But I've found something. Pressed the power button on the PC, and the system tried to shutdown. since everything was freezed up, Windows tried o close every app. Then finally it told me to close nVidia Twinview Window. When I closed it, the system came back to life and shutdown.

There is a kind of conflict between ICQ and this TwinView app / window.

I'll try to get the secondary monitor on now.

[StealthNet]

Man, we never think that this kind of thing would happen to us.

I tweak PCs since 1994, and never had a single problem with BIOS shadowing. Yes, it was the problem. Disabled it, and the secondary monitor turned on.

Amazing isn't it ?

And I also solved the ICQ problem. Apparently, the nView desktop manager (dualhead support from nVidia drivers) in the 40.xx detonator versions doesn't like video cards from other vendors. It used to work in the past, but not anymore.

Disabling the "feature" solved the problem.

Nice indeed, now I can use my PC with det. 40.71.

:D

[AllGamer]

Yup!

all that you have done

i've summarized it on my original reply

:p

the only thing i did not know is that your 2nd Video card was a Matrox :rolleyes: , no wonder you had trouble

not Matrox fault but the NVIEW, as usual

if you search in google, there are soooo much problems with the nview being reported.

and yes you should never use Video Shadowing in NT/2k/XP, SPECIALLY when Dual video is involved

ATI instructions are very clear, they do specifically tell you not to use that when using Dual video cards :t