440BX boards generally have no issues with those Nvidia chips.

Three points spring to mind.
a) Capacitor issues on BX6 2.0 board . Any bulged/leaky capacitors on visual inspection ?
b) PSU issues . Brand and model ?
c) bad RAM . Does memtest run OK ?

darry wrote on 2020-06-05, 05:35:

440BX boards generally have no issues with those Nvidia chips. […]
Show full quote

440BX boards generally have no issues with those Nvidia chips.

Three points spring to mind.
a) Capacitor issues on BX6 2.0 board . Any bulged/leaky capacitors on visual inspection ?
b) PSU issues . Brand and model ?
c) bad RAM . Does memtest run OK ?

Thanks for the info. I'll go ahead and check out the items here. The PSU shouldn't be a problem, it's a modern Thermaltake with enough volts to the proper rails. One thing I do notice is that the memory test on boot loops 3-4 times each boot, maybe that's a sign of bad ram.

nwsw wrote on 2020-06-05, 06:42:

darry wrote on 2020-06-05, 05:35:

440BX boards generally have no issues with those Nvidia chips. […]
Show full quote

440BX boards generally have no issues with those Nvidia chips.

Three points spring to mind.
a) Capacitor issues on BX6 2.0 board . Any bulged/leaky capacitors on visual inspection ?
b) PSU issues . Brand and model ?
c) bad RAM . Does memtest run OK ?

Thanks for the info. I'll go ahead and check out the items here. The PSU shouldn't be a problem, it's a modern Thermaltake with enough volts to the proper rails. One thing I do notice is that the memory test on boot loops 3-4 times each boot, maybe that's a sign of bad ram.

If the option for quick power on self-test is not enabled in BIOS, the RAM test couly behave like that . This is not an issue .

darry wrote on 2020-06-05, 11:16:

nwsw wrote on 2020-06-05, 06:42:

darry wrote on 2020-06-05, 05:35:

440BX boards generally have no issues with those Nvidia chips. […]
Show full quote

440BX boards generally have no issues with those Nvidia chips.

Three points spring to mind.
a) Capacitor issues on BX6 2.0 board . Any bulged/leaky capacitors on visual inspection ?
b) PSU issues . Brand and model ?
c) bad RAM . Does memtest run OK ?

Thanks for the info. I'll go ahead and check out the items here. The PSU shouldn't be a problem, it's a modern Thermaltake with enough volts to the proper rails. One thing I do notice is that the memory test on boot loops 3-4 times each boot, maybe that's a sign of bad ram.

If the option for quick power on self-test is not enabled in BIOS, the RAM test couly behave like that . This is not an issue .

Update:
1. Ran memtest86 for 4 hours, no errors.
2. Board is mint, there are no leaky caps
3. PSU is modern Thermaltake 500W, has been used in other PCs with no issues and enough juice to the rails.

Still booting to Windows 98 loading screen, doing some loading, and then rebooting. I'll keep working to try to eliminate startup items but I'm quite sure it's the video card drivers.

Update: I've tried every single driver possible for the TNT2 card, they all are not working (reset, hang, or "not compatible"). I'm going to try with the MX400 AGP once more with all of the drivers. I've also ordered a MX400 PCI to see if my AGP slot might be the culprit.

Question: Do I need a specific monitor driver to get anything above 16 colors/640x480? Also, do I need DirectX installed before/after my GPU to have it work correctly? These are the only other avenues I can think of.

Are you running the latest BIOS ?
04/26/2000-i440BX-W977-2A69KA1JC-QR

EDIT : Here is the changelog : https://web.archive.org/web/20020311104419/ht … /bios/bx620.htm

darry wrote on 2020-06-06, 02:54:

Are you running the latest BIOS ? 04/26/2000-i440BX-W977-2A69KA1JC-QR bxrqr.exe […]
Show full quote

Are you running the latest BIOS ?
04/26/2000-i440BX-W977-2A69KA1JC-QR
bxrqr.exe

EDIT : Here is the changelog : https://web.archive.org/web/20020311104419/ht … /bios/bx620.htm

Thanks darry,
I think this might be a different motherboard. From what I gather, this is an OEM board with little drivers/manuals. The model on the mobo is "BX-20". The current ID from the boot screen is :
07/18/1998-i440BX-w83977-2A69KA1NC-ER

But I think you might be on the right track. I swapped SD cards and installed Windows 95 and ran into the exact same issues.

nwsw wrote on 2020-06-06, 06:13:

Thanks darry, I think this might be a different motherboard. From what I gather, this is an OEM board with little drivers/manual […]
Show full quote

darry wrote on 2020-06-06, 02:54:

Are you running the latest BIOS ? 04/26/2000-i440BX-W977-2A69KA1JC-QR bxrqr.exe […]
Show full quote

Are you running the latest BIOS ?
04/26/2000-i440BX-W977-2A69KA1JC-QR
bxrqr.exe

EDIT : Here is the changelog : https://web.archive.org/web/20020311104419/ht … /bios/bx620.htm

Thanks darry,
I think this might be a different motherboard. From what I gather, this is an OEM board with little drivers/manuals. The model on the mobo is "BX-20". The current ID from the boot screen is :
07/18/1998-i440BX-w83977-2A69KA1NC-ER

But I think you might be on the right track. I swapped SD cards and installed Windows 95 and ran into the exact same issues.

That is strange . Are you sure about the NC part ? The 2A69KA1 part identifies it as an Abit 440BX board, but I cannot find any reference to 2A69KA1NC on google .
Additionally that BIOS date pre-dates all released BX6 2.0 BIOSes .

darry wrote on 2020-06-06, 06:24:

nwsw wrote on 2020-06-06, 06:13:

Thanks darry, I think this might be a different motherboard. From what I gather, this is an OEM board with little drivers/manual […]
Show full quote

darry wrote on 2020-06-06, 02:54:

Are you running the latest BIOS ? 04/26/2000-i440BX-W977-2A69KA1JC-QR bxrqr.exe […]
Show full quote

Are you running the latest BIOS ?
04/26/2000-i440BX-W977-2A69KA1JC-QR
bxrqr.exe

EDIT : Here is the changelog : https://web.archive.org/web/20020311104419/ht … /bios/bx620.htm

Thanks darry,
I think this might be a different motherboard. From what I gather, this is an OEM board with little drivers/manuals. The model on the mobo is "BX-20". The current ID from the boot screen is :
07/18/1998-i440BX-w83977-2A69KA1NC-ER

But I think you might be on the right track. I swapped SD cards and installed Windows 95 and ran into the exact same issues.

That is strange . Are you sure about the NC part ? The 2A69KA1 part identifies it as an Abit 440BX board, but I cannot find any reference to 2A69KA1NC on google .
Additionally, that BIOS date pre-dates all released BX6 2.0 BIOSes and most BX6 v 1.0 ones .

I could be wrong but my intuition tells me this might actually be an Abit BX6 version 1.0 with a custom OEM BIOS .
The BIOS string for the latest BX6 version 1.0 BIOS is 02/21/2000-i440BX-W83977-2A69KA1AC-00 .

Before going any further, could you please
a) post a detailed photo of your board so it can be compared to the layout of other Abit 440BX boards ?
b) dump the BIOS using awdflash.exe or another utility (e.g. uniflash) and post it here ?
c) confirm whether you have the means to recover from a bad BIOS flash (access to an external flasher or ability to hotflash using another board or BIOS chip) ?

darry wrote on 2020-06-06, 06:35:

I could be wrong but my intuition tells me this might actually be an Abit BX6 version 1.0 with a custom OEM BIOS . The BIOS stri […]
Show full quote

darry wrote on 2020-06-06, 06:24:

nwsw wrote on 2020-06-06, 06:13:

Thanks darry, I think this might be a different motherboard. From what I gather, this is an OEM board with little drivers/manual […]
Show full quote

Thanks darry,
I think this might be a different motherboard. From what I gather, this is an OEM board with little drivers/manuals. The model on the mobo is "BX-20". The current ID from the boot screen is :
07/18/1998-i440BX-w83977-2A69KA1NC-ER

But I think you might be on the right track. I swapped SD cards and installed Windows 95 and ran into the exact same issues.

That is strange . Are you sure about the NC part ? The 2A69KA1 part identifies it as an Abit 440BX board, but I cannot find any reference to 2A69KA1NC on google .
Additionally, that BIOS date pre-dates all released BX6 2.0 BIOSes and most BX6 v 1.0 ones .

I could be wrong but my intuition tells me this might actually be an Abit BX6 version 1.0 with a custom OEM BIOS .
The BIOS string for the latest BX6 version 1.0 BIOS is 02/21/2000-i440BX-W83977-2A69KA1AC-00 .

Before going any further, could you please
a) post a detailed photo of your board so it can be compared to the layout of other Abit 440BX boards ?
b) dump the BIOS using awdflash.exe or another utility (e.g. uniflash) and post it here ?
c) confirm whether you have the means to recover from a bad BIOS flash (access to an external flasher or ability to hotflash using another board or BIOS chip) ?

darry, you are my savior! Using the website provided, I was able to find the latest drivers for my BX-20. It's now working perfectly and I am rocking out to some classic Quake 2! Thanks for helping me to recreate my classic childhood PC. 😀

nwsw wrote on 2020-06-06, 08:30:

darry wrote on 2020-06-06, 06:35:

I could be wrong but my intuition tells me this might actually be an Abit BX6 version 1.0 with a custom OEM BIOS . The BIOS stri […]
Show full quote

darry wrote on 2020-06-06, 06:24:

That is strange . Are you sure about the NC part ? The 2A69KA1 part identifies it as an Abit 440BX board, but I cannot find any reference to 2A69KA1NC on google .
Additionally, that BIOS date pre-dates all released BX6 2.0 BIOSes and most BX6 v 1.0 ones .

I could be wrong but my intuition tells me this might actually be an Abit BX6 version 1.0 with a custom OEM BIOS .
The BIOS string for the latest BX6 version 1.0 BIOS is 02/21/2000-i440BX-W83977-2A69KA1AC-00 .

Before going any further, could you please
a) post a detailed photo of your board so it can be compared to the layout of other Abit 440BX boards ?
b) dump the BIOS using awdflash.exe or another utility (e.g. uniflash) and post it here ?
c) confirm whether you have the means to recover from a bad BIOS flash (access to an external flasher or ability to hotflash using another board or BIOS chip) ?

darry, you are my savior! Using the website provided, I was able to find the latest drivers for my BX-20. It's now working perfectly and I am rocking out to some classic Quake 2! Thanks for helping me to recreate my classic childhood PC. 😀

Happy to help, but do explain what you mean. Are you referring to the chipset or other drivers or did you flash the BIOS ?

darry wrote on 2020-06-06, 13:56:

nwsw wrote on 2020-06-06, 08:30:

darry wrote on 2020-06-06, 06:35:

I could be wrong but my intuition tells me this might actually be an Abit BX6 version 1.0 with a custom OEM BIOS . The BIOS stri […]
Show full quote

I could be wrong but my intuition tells me this might actually be an Abit BX6 version 1.0 with a custom OEM BIOS .
The BIOS string for the latest BX6 version 1.0 BIOS is 02/21/2000-i440BX-W83977-2A69KA1AC-00 .

Before going any further, could you please
a) post a detailed photo of your board so it can be compared to the layout of other Abit 440BX boards ?
b) dump the BIOS using awdflash.exe or another utility (e.g. uniflash) and post it here ?
c) confirm whether you have the means to recover from a bad BIOS flash (access to an external flasher or ability to hotflash using another board or BIOS chip) ?

darry, you are my savior! Using the website provided, I was able to find the latest drivers for my BX-20. It's now working perfectly and I am rocking out to some classic Quake 2! Thanks for helping me to recreate my classic childhood PC. 😀

Happy to help, but do explain what you mean. Are you referring to the chipset or other drivers or did you flash the BIOS ?

No problem. I flashed the BIOS with the latest BX-20 version that I found on the Abit site using the Wayback machine link you provided. Once I updated the BIOS, I was able to install the latest Forceware driver (83.00 I think) and my MX400 booted right up and was recognized by Win98.

nwsw wrote on 2020-06-06, 18:23:

darry wrote on 2020-06-06, 13:56:

nwsw wrote on 2020-06-06, 08:30:

darry, you are my savior! Using the website provided, I was able to find the latest drivers for my BX-20. It's now working perfectly and I am rocking out to some classic Quake 2! Thanks for helping me to recreate my classic childhood PC. 😀

Happy to help, but do explain what you mean. Are you referring to the chipset or other drivers or did you flash the BIOS ?

No problem. I flashed the BIOS with the latest BX-20 version that I found on the Abit site using the Wayback machine link you provided. Once I updated the BIOS, I was able to install the latest Forceware driver (83.00 I think) and my MX400 booted right up and was recognized by Win98.

Glad that worked out for you . Thanks for the details .

Thanks darry! I put some pics/specs of the final version in the System Specs area with a shout out. 😀