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Black screen after ForceWare driver installs

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First post, by Traxx999

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Hi all, having a real pill of a time with a recent build. I am using the following:

DFI K6XV3+/66 mainboard
AMD K6-2 450
2x64mb RAM (unbranded, Toshiba chips)
Nvidia TNT 2 Pro 32MB AGP
WD 27GB IDE hard drive Primary
TDK 10/20/40 CD-RW Secondary
CoolerMaster Socket 7 HSF

I was able to install Win98SE and update all my drivers and software without issue. Even played a few games. I installed a set of Voodoo2 cards, no problem. PCI SoundBlaster card, no problem. USB add-in card, no problem. Added an ISA SoundBlaster card, and started getting random crashes and instability. I formatted, re-installed everything and still would have issues. Removed each device one by one until I have just the above listed. I have a problem where after a fresh install (from a cleanly formatted drive) when I go to update the Nvidia ForceWare driver, it will hang after the first reboot after installing. Just a flicker, then a blank screen with a blinking cursor. I was able to do this up until recently (when tinkering around getting things set up) without any trouble. I have tried the following:

Fresh downloads/copies of driver discs
Different versions of ForceWare
Fresh copies of Win98SE
Upgraded/downgraded BIOS versions, tons of CMOS resets and hard power cycles
Updated firmware on TDK
Tried different CD drive
Replaced CMOS battery
New IDE cables
Reseated and cleaned all plug in cards
Cleaned out all fans and removed dust
Ran optical drive cleaner discs on both CD drives
Checked everything for bad caps
Removed all partitions and low level formatted

I tried doing a bootlog.txt but the only failure was loading of fonts. The last entry is "starting unknown enumeration." Temps are fine too, 40C at idle.

I'm at my wits end! All of this worked beautifully a few days ago. Anyone have any suggestions about what to try next?

Reply 1 of 7, by KCompRoom2000

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Traxx999 wrote:

Different versions of ForceWare

Exactly which driver versions have you tried? I know nVidia drivers are usually very picky when it comes to gaming, so using newer drivers isn't always a good idea. Since you have a Riva TNT2, I would suggest trying nVidia drivers that were released in 1999-2001 (A whole bunch of early nVidia drivers can be found at the VOGONS Vintage Driver Library).

Reply 2 of 7, by Radical Vision

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You can try the drivers from the nVIDIA official page, if you did download them from other places...

Mah systems retro, old, newer (Radical stuff)
W3680 4.5/ GA-x58 UD7/ R9 280x
K7 2.6/ NF7-S/ HD3850
IBM x2 P3 933/ GA-6VXD7/ Voodoo V 5.5K
Cmq P2 450/ GA-BX2000/ V2 SLI
IBM PC365
Cmq DeskPRO 486/33
IBM PS/2 Model 56
SPS IntelleXT 8088

Reply 3 of 7, by Traxx999

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Radical Vision wrote:

You can try the drivers from the nVIDIA official page, if you did download them from other places...

I have a disc burned with 71.84, downloaded from nVidia's site, that worked a few days ago. Not sure what happened and why it no longer works. I also tried 66.94.I'll give the Vogons one a shot, thanks.

Reply 4 of 7, by Traxx999

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Tinkered around some more last night and installed XP. Works perfectly fine. So I'm doubting it's a hardware problem. I formatted and installed 98SE again, doing selective boot and it hangs at the msmouse.vxd. I am using a standard PS/2 mouse, the same one I've used the entire time building this system, without any trouble. It hangs regardless of whether I load it or not, then sends me back to safe mode. Any ideas on that one?

Reply 5 of 7, by derSammler

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I have a disc burned with 71.84, downloaded from nVidia's site, that worked a few days ago. Not sure what happened and why it no longer works. I also tried 66.94.I'll give the Vogons one a shot, thanks.

Make sure the graphics card has an IRQ assigned that is also not shared. Installing the Sound Blaster card may have caused an IRQ shift or double-usage due to limited resources. Also reset ESCD data in BIOS.

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