Problems after reinstallation of XP

Fanny Cradock

Specs:

Chip: AMD 3000+
Mobo: K8V-X
Card: 6600gt 128MB agp
OS: er, XP


OK, for reasons which I am now regretting, I decided to reinstall XP on my system a few hours ago. It seemed like a good idea at the time, especially since the installation seemed to go fine. However, now my graphics card is not being detected by windows. I’ve even removed the card and replaced it in hopes that it would be auto detected, yet this was to no avail. Before the reinstallation it was working perfectly and, as i type, the fan on the card is spinning and it's producing heat. All of which I would take as a sign of its functionality.

I reinstalled over the previous installation of XP because i figured that this was the best way of keeping the info on my HD intact. Possibly this was a mistake.

Currently, I’m getting by with the onboard graphics card, but the simplest of tasks e.g. scrolling up and down a web page takes ****ing ages, so i want to get this sorted ASAP.

I don’t think I can test the card out on any other computer, but I’m really going with my gut that the card is working fine and this is all down to my own stupidity. Any advice?

Thanks in advance!

tman

did you try disabling your onboard graphics card?
go into device manager > display adapters > right click on the onboard one and choose disable.

actually... before you do that, make sure that the nvidia card is also displaying here...
and install some drivers for it if you haven't done so already

PogMoThoin

Does it show up in device manager at all? check the bios, make sure its not disabled there. Maybe clear cmos. Don't know what else to suggest besides try card in another pc.

Fanny Cradock

Thanks for getting back to me.

I've reset the bios to the factory default. I'm not sure what coms is, so I don't think I'd have knowingly messed with it.

I've gone into device manager and, funnily enough, there is no "display driver" option. I've just checked on a laptop running XP home sp2 (same as me) and where "display driver" is listed on the laptop there is nothing on my pc version. it should be there in between disk drives and DVD/CD-ROM drives but it's not. Possibly I am making some uber retarded mistake, but i cant see anything there. I cn post a screen shot if it would be of any help.

At this stage i wonder should i just reinstall again?

:::Edit:::

As the card isn't being detected i cant install any drivers. If I attempt to do so it says something along the lines of "no compatable hardware being detected".

Another strange thing is that i can not go into stand-by mode. i would never have used this option, but for some reason it is now greyed out when i shut down/restart the computer. possibly this is, in a round about way, connected to the card problem.

PogMoThoin

To clear the cmos you have to move a jumper on the mobo. Read the manual & it'll explain where the jumpers are & how to do it. More info here: http://www.cybertechhelp.com/tutorial/article/clear-the-cmos

This will reset everything back to default.

Try disabling the onboard graphics when you know how to clear cmos, that way you can reset after if it doesn't work.

Ruu_Old

What PogMoThoin said or take out the little battery on the motherboard (like a watch battery except bigger and thinner, leave it out for a few hours and pop it back in).

Fanny Cradock

i should also add that my monitor is plugged directly into the card's vga connector. as i'm seeing everything perfectly on screen, it would suggest to me that the card is working ok, and it is a problem is with the reinstallation and not the card. not sure if this is the case though.

Fanny Cradock

i'm just about to head out now, but i'll give it a blast tomorrow and get back to you!

thanks guys. the help is appreciated!

PogMoThoin

Not being able to get in2 stand-by sounds like a corrupt windows install TBH. Sounds odd. Did you pick the repair option or fresh install. The fresh install should be done after re-formatting the hd, you said you didn't re-format. Explain how you re-installed windows.
Maybe you should back-up all your data and do a full install after reformat.

andy1249

Whoa but this rings a bell , The monitor is connected to the graphics card and you have output on the screen yet you see no display adaptor and everything is slow !
Also some standard windows options are greyed out.

First things first , unless the monitor is connected to the onboard display adaptor then you are not using onboard graphics , thats just not possible .

Did you by any chance , put the XP CD into the drive and install from the introduction screen that popped up ? While this seems to install XP over your current install in does not , and will not work correctly. Im just asking because I seen very similar problems before and think this might be the same issue.

Let me know and if so , your only option is to re-install properly , which will be described once you get back with an answer.

irlrobins

Have you the chipset drivers installed?

Anti

just reinstall windows, repair installs always get f(ucked up. format the drive. then install. if i was you id download all the latest drivers ot what you need now and stick them on a usb key or similar. just to makes things quicker

PogMoThoin

anti wrote:

just reinstall windows, repair installs always get f(ucked up. format the drive. then install. if i was you id download all the latest drivers ot what you need now and stick them on a usb key or similar. just to makes things quicker

:rolleyes: I agree with anti. Repairs can cause some serious probs. Would always recommend a fresh install on a clean drive.

Fanny Cradock

andy1249 wrote:

Whoa but this rings a bell , The monitor is connected to the graphics card and you have output on the screen yet you see no display adaptor and everything is slow !
Also some standard windows options are greyed out.

First things first , unless the monitor is connected to the onboard display adaptor then you are not using onboard graphics , thats just not possible .

Did you by any chance , put the XP CD into the drive and install from the introduction screen that popped up ? While this seems to install XP over your current install in does not , and will not work correctly. Im just asking because I seen very similar problems before and think this might be the same issue.

Let me know and if so , your only option is to re-install properly , which will be described once you get back with an answer.

again, thanks for the replies.

andy, you are spot on with the symptoms and how i went about the reinstallation. it's horribly slow now. for instance getting to the bottom of a web page can take as long as 15 seconds.

i'm also not using the onboard display adaptor. the monitor is plugged directly through the card. however, because of the problems i had i uninstalled all display drivers and now cant reinstall the new ones. not sure if there any significance to this.

you are also correct when you surmise my reinstallation. basically i put the cd in the drive while XP was running. it then went through part of the installation process in windows (i chose the update option that wouldn't write over files) and then it automatically restarted windows and continued and completed the process.

fowley

yeah i normally get that when installing, but goes when all the hardware is finally installed after a few starts. id try the chipset drivers aswell, but normally when i do a repair in xp i dont need to actually reinstall drivers as they are already intact on the HD.

but if you do want to avoid all problems id go with the other guys and just reinstall the whole thing, format the HD, the lot. just make sure you got it all backed up tho

Fanny Cradock

can anyone provide links that describe the steps involved in backing up and formatting the HD? even though i built this computer, i'm still new to the game and don't want to mess the process up .... again.

Fanny Cradock

can anyone help me with the back up and reinstall process?

so far my attempts to back up have failed. i don't understand what i'm supposed to do. after installing the backup programme for the XP disk it asks me what i want to back up - i choose everything on the computer and it then asks for a floppy. clearly its not going to fit on a floppy, and my attempts to put the info onto a cd-rom/dvd have failed.

At this stage i think i may just manually put all my files onto a number of dvds and put them onto my system later.

second problem occurs when i have tried to reinstall via the cd. before i did it directly from windows - hence the problems. now, however, i'm booting from the cd. when i try to reinstall windows it cant detect the HD drivers. I assume i have to press f6 during the initail set-up phases and install them from there and then reinstall. i would have assumed that there would be no reason to install the drivers again though and advice i've read on the interweb fails to mention having to do this.

irlrobins

Fanny Cradock wrote:

At this stage i think i may just manually put all my files onto a number of dvds and put them onto my system later.

That's how i'd do it. Ignore MS backup crap. Just copy all the files you want to keep. Remember any email address books, I always forget that one!

Fanny Cradock wrote:

I assume i have to press f6 during the initail set-up phases and install them from there and then reinstall.

Always best to install windows by booting up from CD, not from windows.
If you have SATA hard drives you often have to install drivers for them. To do this you press f6 as you stated. You then insert the floppy with the drivers (usually comes with motherboard). Windows should install as normal from there.

It will prob detect your current install. It will ask if you want to repair or replace. Choose replace and the format the partitions to clear the drive.

Fanny Cradock

not to complicate matters, but are there any free programmes out ther to format RW/DVDs. I've got a bunch lying around but i think they have stuff on them.

irlrobins

http://www.dvdinfopro.com/

90 day trial period but will do what u want it to do

Fanny Cradock

brilliant!

thanks, irlrobin

Fanny Cradock

i'm assuming there is no easy way to back up my music files. i think that the mp3s take up about 15GB and i'm currently compressing them, but this will take an age.

irlrobins

no, just drag and drop to DVD. Wouldn't bothering compressing them, you're not going to gain much by doing that.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Fanny Cradock wrote:

i'm assuming there is no easy way to back up my music files. i think that the mp3s take up about 15GB and i'm currently compressing them, but this will take an age.

Don't compress them, you wont save any space, i would estimate about 1-2% if even. Either stick them on DVD or onto an external hard drive if you have one lying around

Fanny Cradock

hey guys,

just borrowed an external hd off a friend, and i'm going to give this re installation a shot later tonight. i have one question i need answered before i go ahead.

my monitor is connected to my partially functioning craphics card. i'm wondering, under normal circumstances (graphics card working ok) will i still see a display if it's connected to the graphics card after i clear the hard driv, i.e. no graphics drivers installed.

i should know the answer to this as i built the thing in the first place, but i've got a crap memory and i can't remember. i got a new monitor a few months back, and as it stands, the monitor connection wont fit into any of the mobo ports (just the graphics card port). i'm not sure if this is to do with the new monitor (generic dell CRT) or if this is how it was when i originally built the thinig. i hope that makes sense!

basically will my moniitor be able to get a signal for me to proceed with the installation or will i have to get some sort of adaptor for my monotor to connect ot the mobo?

mobo - k8v-x

Anti

simple answer. yes

Blazer

the reason your display is going funny is because reinstalling xp caused it to overwrite the drivers for your video card and instead use the default ms vga drivers..this causes the slow scrolldown in explorer/webpages etc.
update the chipset drivers for your system first and then reinstall the video drivers...you might have to do it manually by pointing to where the nvidia drive is resident.

Fanny Cradock

thanks guys.

i suspected that it may be something to do with that, Mathew Reilly. i may regret it, but i think i'll still proceed with the full reinstall as there were a few issuse with windows prior to this mess.

Fanny Cradock

hopefully this will be the last couple of questions that i'll have to ask on this this mess.


here goes:

i've reinstalled XP from scratch and the problems that i had prior (graphics card and greyed out options) seems to be sorted. the problem now is that i can't connect to the internet. i've tried following the usless IE instructions, but i still cant connect. my knowledge surrounding this type of thing extends to the commands "ipconfig" and "ipconfig/renew", neither of which have helped. how can i sort this?

::edit:: i should have noted that i'm trying to connect to my preexisting broadband connection. the problem arises that there is no LAN or Highspeed Internet listed in network connections and any attempts at creating one, i.e. "create new connection" doesn't seem to work.

the second question regards registeration of XP. when i eventually get the internet connection back up will i be entitled to updates as before, or, because i have used the registeration code before, can i no longer get these updates?

cheers!

Fanny Cradock

i foolishly forgot to install the drivers