Can't install V770 Ultra under NT

[Danzego]

Having problems installing a Viper 770 Ultra under NT. Everytime the drivers are loaded and Windows restarts, the display type is back to standard VGA. Mobo is a Dual PII Gigabyte board. And for those that ask, there isn't a PCI card in the slot below the AGP. TIA!!

[socalgal]

Have you tried a full shutdown (rather than just restart) after installation?

[BBA]

What is happening is your monitor cant handle the refresh rate the card is at. NT is funny about this, and when you first boot, it will pick the highest refresh rate the card will do, regardless of what monitor is connected. A TNT2U does like 120Hz at 800x600, not many monitors will like that.

What you need to do is try the drivers again, and reboot. Start in VGA mode (The second WINNT choice in the boot menu). Set res to 640x480 or 800x600 32K colors and 60-70 Hz. Then reboot. It will come up like that. Do not change modes without first letting NT test it, or you are asking for monitor blackouts!

If you are lucky, this will work, if not you will have to edit the registry in VGA mode to limit teh refresh rates to a usable value for the available resolutions.

BBA

[Danzego]

Already tried to do a shutdown instead of a restart which didn't work. BBA, it sounds to me as if you're saying the monitor isn't syncing, which isn't the case. It syncs fine, especially since the drivers don't load after restart or reboot. It just returns to standard VGA drivers. Also, already tried to use a different card and both Diamond's drivers and NVidia reference drivers (latest version; Detonator 2.08). OS is NT Server with SP5. Any other suggestions? TIA!!

[toms111]

This is a common problem in NT, it is not unique to your motherboard or your graphics adapter. I fought it hard when I upgraded several boxes with Matrox Millennium G-200's. It seems to have to do with the service packs. If you are running any service pack after sp3, you have to do a clean install. Then install sp3, then your drivers. If you want, you can then install SP4 or sp5.

If you haven't installed any sp's yet, you can now install SP3 and then the driver for your video card should install ok.

Yours is a very frustrating problem but I am confident in this solution.

[Danzego]

Actually, problem has finally been solved. This isn't my computer BTW, but the guy had video shadowing Enabled in BIOS. The other thing, and I'm not sure how this figures into the problem, but he was running dual PII 400's and had MPS 1.4 installed. According to Diamond that should have been fine, but along with disabling the Shadowing, he went to MPS 1.1 and all is good now. To that I say, Whatevah, out of my head. Thanks!

[Danzego]

Actually, problem has finally been solved. This isn't my computer BTW, but the guy had video shadowing Enabled in BIOS. The other thing, and I'm not sure how this figures into the problem, but he was running dual PII 400's and had MPS 1.4 installed. According to Diamond that should have been fine, but along with disabling the Shadowing, he went to MPS 1.1 and all is good now. To that I say, Whatevah, out of my head. Thanks!