I have that same exact card and I was having a similar issue with a Abit kt7a raid motherboard and I flawed the latest bios and its been perfectly stable ever since

I have already flashed the latest BIOS for my mainboard.

But I'm beginning to think that the card may be tripping the power supply. When the computer is in idle, the power supply is producing a very high pitched noise that is barely audible. It has a sticker listing +5V standby on it and no Off-Button, so that might be the standby mode where it's still delivering power to the USB ports.

As soon as I try to start it up and the fans spin for half a second, that noise is completely gone and the power is cut. Protection circuitry perhaps?

Since it is a very modern power supply with a 24pin plug (I had to get an adapter to make it fit to my 20pin connector on the motherboard) and only 250W, there may not be enough power.

On my FIC PA 2012 (where it works) I only have a Pentium MMX 233 with very low power consumption, so that might explain why the card will work.

I will try to get a better power supply and test it out.

Yeah that power supply is a little weak for that setup try using one of a higher wattage and see what happens. Does your board start up with other ago cards in it?

Yes, it does work with a GeForce 2MX.

I'd bet its a power supply issue the GF 2mx is a much lower power draw card

Just a quick update: I bought another card, a passively cooled GeForce 4 MX 440 and while that one boots up, it displays graphical errors and the power supply produces a very loud humming sound with that card. Guess that solves the mystery without a doubt, then.

My current power supply is rated 16A for the 3,3V and 5V rail, but I think it shares those two, and it has only 10A for the 12V rail.

As soon as my new beQuiet! supply arrives (3,3V: 28A, 5V: 32A, 12V:18A) I will post the results.
As a bonus, the new supply will enable me to use the -5V rail, if I ever want to acquire an ISA card that needs this. 😎

My final update to this thread:

The new power supply has resolved my problems and the GeForce 4 MX460 is working fine.

Though the fan on the MX460 was completely broken. It was slowly turning and making a lot of noise - I replaced it with a passive cooler from an MX440 and the card can handle it without getting extremely hot.

Two lessons I learned:

1. Don't cheap out on the power supply.
2. The GeForce 4 MX460 does not need a fan.