loss of video when Windows starts

Nope!! Same thing with any power supply. I cleared the cmos again just for the heck of it(by pulling the battery for about ten minutes). I by-passed the dvd rom drives and connected a cd rom. I tried it with the ide cable for roms removed just booting from floppy. Still the same. I ran Active@Killdisk to completly overwrite the H/D,Fdisk,new partition,format and install Windows. Everything is fine untill the first time it needs to restart the machine. I'm begining to intertain the thought of using this board for target practice.
Oh,George, It will stay up in dos as long as I need or want it to.

 

Jay,

The Reset button is a momentary contact switch & goes to an open collect type transistor or evivalent type circuit. When you hit the reset, it pulls down the 5 Vdc "Power Good" line that goes to the Reset line on various chips. Once this goes below the logic "1" level, it triggers those chips to reset and the main chip is the CPU.

The power switch on today's PCs is also a momentary contact switch. The BIOS on some PCs allows you to wait 4 secon ds or so before powering off and so you need to hold the power on/off switch in for 4 seconds for it to turn off.

Blufx,

Since you know the PC is working correctly as long as you do not go into Windoze, I am inclinded to believe it is purely some sort of Windoze driver problem. The fact that you can go straight to DOS and not have any issues with video, tells me that your system is basically functioning properly.

Have you tried to install another hard drive and install a clean version of Windoze on it? This will confirm any issues with Windozes. Also check your MB maker's web site and see if there are any issues with your BIOS and any video cards.

George

 

Thanks for the idea George. I suspected from the start it was a Windows driver problem. But that dont seem to be the case here. I just put a H/D in from a HP pavilion with XP installed on it. The same thing happens. Anybody got anymore ideas? I'm running out of things try. Changing out the motherboard would prove the power supply,roms,video card and hard drive are working,but it wouldn't narrow down the problem. It looks like the motherboard is gone south. I'll post back later if I decide to do that.
Mark

 

I just wiped the h/d again and formatted to fat32 then installed win98. The install went by without a problem. The system restarted two times during the installation process,after the third and final restart,that *&%# orange lite came back on.

 

Blufx,

Here is a link to ALL the problems that some people are having (students).

"Most of you probably have the right NVidia drivers for the MSI video card which was supplied and you should have an "NVIDIA Settings" icon in the system tray; but, just in case, the latest version can be downloaded here. "
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_53.03

http://www.computer-help.net/Syntax-SystemBoard-SV266a-Bios-Upgrade.htm

http://www.computer-help.net/Syntax-SystemBoard-SV266a-Notes.htm

You might want to also get a BIOS update.

George

 

Put the drive into another computer as slave or secondary master and check it with up-to-date antivirus in case the boot sector has a virus.

I would install Windows with a different graphics card installed, in case Windows is installing the wrong drivers (although you should still be able to boot into Safe Mode). Anyway, this should rule out a graphics card problem. Hardly likely, but inspect the Windows CD for marks or scratches, it could be loading corrupt graphics drivers.

As mentioned, RAM could be a cause. You could run the diagnostics in my signature.

Matt

 

Somewhat speculative, but after looking back through this thread I too would advise trying a different video card. I've run into numerous problems with older S3 and Riva cards although both will usually load following a clean install. At first blush, it sounds like (you can run in DOS) this problem occurs when windows is trying to load drivers although the "can't boot in safe mode either" situation signals that it is more likely the card itself.

Curiosity question - after you pulled the battery to clear CMOS, what was the system's date?

 

Mattman, iclarius,and Rockster2u, This thread has gotten so long now some of the first info has been overlooked. Here is a recap:


In my first post I stated I had tried another video card with the same results.
I cleared the cmos memory....no good.
I found the latest bios file and flashed the bios....nothing
I have used two different Windows disk to install with the same results.
I have used three different power supplies.
I have bypassed the two dvd roms and used a plain cd rom.
The machine has been stripped down to just a power supply,floppy,cd rom,video card,and one stick of 128mb sdram.
As soon as Windows kicks in,I lose video,keyboard,mouse(I guess),and the reset button wont work at this point.

Mattman, I'm going to try installing the drive in another machine although when I ran Active@killdisk,the boot sector too was overwritten.

Rockster2u, After I pulled the battery the date was 1/1/2000.This was the latest bios from the Micronpc web site for this mobo.

George, The Invidia video card on my sigature does not apply to the machine I'm working on. But thanks for taking the time to try to help.

Mark

 

OK, I installed the drive in another computer as a slave and took it to Trend Micros House Call for a virus scan with the newest scan engine. It found nothing.

 

Blufx, the point about the video card was to try a different card during the installation of Windows. Maybe this was what you did.
You have covered just about everything that I could think of. If you have not tried the RAM in different slots, check that. Look for bent or damaged connector pins. Check that there could not be something shorting the motherboard to earth (a loose bolt or an unused stand-off pin), even try removing the motherboard from the case and running it on a sheet of cardboard. See if there is a temperature readout in the BIOS, maybe it is shutting down due to high temperatures (and if you are keen, remove the CPU, check the pins are all perfectly straight and add a new coating of thermal compound when you reseat it...see the tutorials at www.arcticsilver.com).

I don't want to have you waste your time if the problem turns out to be a hardware fault in the motherboard (which it very much looks like). You seem keen to try and trace the cause and if nothing else, it looks like you are getting some valuable experience and (apart from what seems like banging your head on a brick wall) having some fun .

Thanks for the info on active@killdisk, I only read about it a long time ago, I should not have glossed over it.

You may have to consider your next step if the motherboard is faulty.
If the others cannot add a lot, you may want to ask the "motherboard guys "
http://www.motherboards.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=3
Of course, list out all the things you have tried, although I think this would be a tough one for them also .

Luck
Matt
Edits: If the drive is still in the other computer, run full and thorough diagnostics (chkdisk) on it.
and PLEASE, if you happen to solve it, let us know (we will make a date for a tickatape parade )

 

Mattman, When I tried another video card I left it in the machine while I was trying everything else,so it was in the machine when I was trying to install Windows. It has felt like I've been banging my head against a wall.So I just (very gleefully)pulled that mobo from the case and installed another into it just so my friend can take it home. I do want to find an answer to this very perplexing problem. Although I think this one for the "X" files, I followed your advice and took it to the guys at http://www.motherboards.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=3

Thanks for all the help from everybody! I will post back if I do find something.

Mark