Floppy and other Trouble

Don't think about a BIOS upgrade yet, it seems to be only related to drivers.

This should reset the graphics drivers:
Boot into Safe Mode. (See Help and Support, but repeatedly tap the F8 key. Some computers load too fast to catch the exact moment). Go to Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel and uninstall anything related specifically your graphics. Go to Device Manager and uninstall anything listed under Display Adapter. Reboot to normal Windows. When the Hardware wizard runs and asks where to find the drivers, direct it to where you unzipped the VGA files that you downloaded from Abit. If Windows cannot find the correct files, click Cancel (you will then be running standard Display Adapter drivers). Go to the unzipped files and run "Setup" if there is one, otherwise find the file with an .inf extenstion. Right-click on the .inf file and select "Install" (you won't notice anything happen). Reboot and direct the Hardware wizard to the unzipped file folder. It should install from there.

Matt

 

Okay, here we go:

Booted into safe mode, looked for anything graphics related to uninstall. Nothing.

Went into Device Manager, looking for Display Adapter. Not there. I uninstalled some video codecs, and legacy video devices. Rebooted. No hardware wizard came up asking for anything. Went back to Device Manager, no longer shows Legacy Video Devices or Video Codecs (whoops, did I mess up there?).

Went to my desktop, right clicked, went to "Display Properties ", then "Settings ", then "Advanced ", picked the "Adapter" tab. Under "Adapter Information ", for Chip Type, DAC type, Memory Size, Adapter String, Bios Information, it all says <unavailable>. Went into "Properties ", "General" tab shows I have "VgaSave ". Device type is "Non-plug and play drivers ", manufacturer and location are "unknown ".

On the "Driver" tab, it says "Service Name: VgaSave ". For display name it says "VGA Display Controller ". Status is Started, Startup type is System. No option to uninstall, though on the General tab there's an option for Do Not Use this Device (currently set to Use This Device). On the Resources tab, there's info in the Conflicting Device List:

Input/Output Range 03B0 - 03BB used by:
VIA CPU to AGP2.0/AGP3.0 Controller
Input/Output Range 03C0 - 03DF used by:
VIA CPU to AGP2.0/AGP3.0 Controller
Memory Range 000A0000 - 000BFFFF used by:
VIA CPU to AGP2.0/AGP3.0 Controller

Since I couldn't do anything there, I tried going to my downloaded drivers from ABIT. I did a right click on the .inf, and selected "Install ". Nothing happened. I tried again, same result.

That's where we are now. Any other ideas?

 

No Display Adapter in DM? Strange, although I came across a very sick Win 98 system recently and there was virtually nothing listed in Device Manager.

I might think that the chipset drivers were not installed. From that download page there are no chipset drivers listed, so it may be expected that Win XP would install them from the Windows CD. I will see if I can find anything at the VIA website.

Plug and Play may not be detecting your hardware. I suggest going into the BIOS setup (motherboard manual would make it easier to find) and look for "Plug and Play operating system installed ". If it is enabled, set it to disabled (and visa versa). Win 2000 and XP do not need it enabled.

I would ensure that the chipset drivers are installed. Look under System Devices, there should be a "VIA CPU to AGP Bridge ". Without this I doubt you will be able to install the graphics drivers.

If there are no items in Device Manager that are titled "VIA..... ", then Windows will have installed a set of standard chipset drivers (as it would when you run in Safe Mode).

If the chipset drivers do seem to be installed OK, you can take Windows' hand and lead it to the graphics drivers. Go to Control Panel (Classic View) and run Add Hardware. You can let it search for the Display Adapter, but if it is not found, rerun the wizard and select "Install the hardware that I manually select from a list ". Display Adapters should be at the top of the list. After clicking Next, click the Have Disk button and direct it (Browse) to the folder where you unzipped the files. Hopefully Windows should be able to install it from there.

Matt
Chipset drivers for the K8M800 chipset:
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=420&OSID=1&CatID=1070

Information on the Graphics:
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=5&ArticleID=68&P=5

 

Okay, here's where we are now:

Disabled Plug and Play from BIOS. No change apparent on Windows.

Under System devices I found multiple (like 10) instances of "VIA CPU to AGP Bridge "

Went to Add Hardware, let Windows search for Display adapter, it didn't find it, went to "Install the hardware that I manually select from a list ", chose Display Adapters, clicked the Have Disk button and browsed to my files. Windows installed it. No effect on Kyodai Mahjongg.

Went to Device Manager, showed it was there, but said it couldn't start (Code 10). I tried updating the driver, letting it look at my disk that came with my motherboard. It found the driver, but still couldn't start. I went through the Troubleshooter, which told me I had to Enable it. I did. It very kindly said that it was enabled, but still couldn't start.

What's next?

 

That means that the drivers for the CPU to AGP Bridge are constantly being reinstalled because there is a problem.

Download the VIA Hyperion drivers. Go back to Safe Mode and uninstall all those listings for the CPU to AGP Bridge. If there are multiple listings for other VIA devices, uninstall those as well (check under IDE (& SATA) Controllers). As before, reboot and when the hardware wizard runs, try pointing it to the Hyperion download, otherwise click Cancel and run the Hyperion installer when you get to Windows.

Reboot and Windows may find and install everything, otherwise do the same uninstall and reinstall of the graphics drivers again.

I have not seen multiple listings of the CPU to AGP Bridge drivers before so if there is still problems I might wonder if the Windows Installer needs to be upgraded or if it may have been a bad install of Windows and maybe some files are corrupt (are there any marks or scratches on the CD?). We should try running System File Checker and maybe even try a repair of Windows from the CD.
Anyway, lets see if the Hyperion drivers sort things out.

Matt
Edit:

 

SInce XP was installed with bad RAM, there could be problem with some of the files. A fresh reinstall is highly recommended and as a bonus you might also get rid of your mouse scrolling problem.

 

Sorry I'm so late in replying; had to fly to Norht Carolina for a wedding.

I'm inclined to do the reinstall of Windows instead of continuing to troubleshoot, but can I do a reinstall without losing all of my installed programs? Or, should I instead run sfc /scannow? I did that before I changed my memory, and I don't know that it ever did anything. I ran it for about a half hour, went outside to work in the garage, came back and it was gone. So, I don't know if it worked then or not, but if it did, would it help to run it now?

 

Hi Shortimer,

To see if anything was changed by scannow:

Right click My Computer > Manage > expand Event Viewer > System.

If you re install the OS, you will have to re install your programs so make sure you either have the discs or the setup exe's are saved on cd.

If you don't have a OS only partition - the HD should be ideally divided into and OS partition and a data partition, then the data will have to be backed up.

Regards - Charles