[Singh]

ok, I just got a new graphics card - an ATI 9200 SE to be precise. The problem right now, however, is that whenever it boots up from the OS selection menu, after the bar reaches full, the display freezes, despite the hard disk clearly showing activity. No matter what I do or how long I wait, the display does not refresh and go into windows xp at all. The card works fine before that.

I heard that installing an Nvidia driver (I had installed one before) sometimes overwrites something in the boot sector, making ATI cards impossible to use, so I simply re-installed a new windows over my old one.




and well, it STILL doesnt work. Going into VGA mode yields the same result, and nothing seems to work. Can anyone help please?? I really want to use the new card!

Thanks

[Kosh]

Reinstalling windows won't wipe out the Nvidia drivers. So let me get this straight, when you try booting to safe mode it still crashes?


But a 9200SE? Can't you do any better than that?

Also consider the possibility that your card might be defective(it happens to every brand sometimes). The best way to determine this is by putting it in another system (to make sure it isn't the Nvidia drivers screwing with it, put it in a different system that already has an ATI card in it).

[Singh]

A Radeon 9200SE was all that we can afford, so don't diss it. It's almost as good as a 9250, which is right now fried.

The card isn't defective - this same thing happened with my 9250 after I tried to switch from a Geforce 2 MX, and it worked. Its just these stupid Nvidia drivers! I can't remember how I managed to fix it up then, and I'm stuck with the same problem again.

[Kosh]

Maybe you deleted the drivers? You could try removing them manually, but I can't remember where they are installed to. In order to do this, you would need to put your old Nvidia card back in.


Reformatting your hard drive would certainly work, but that's sort of the "nuclear option". I wouldn't recommend it.