Windows 2000 Installation Problem

[VilaRestal]

I've recently gone from Windows 98SE to Windows 2000 (and nope, I'm not interested in upgrading to Windows XP) I have gone from a working copy of Windows 98SE to a partially working copy of Windows 2000 Professional. The problem is that everything appears to work normally apart from when I start the Sound card works fine, however on installation of the Graphics drivers, the sound card stops dead. Also the graphic card doesn't work at all. All drivers have been installed properly and there does not appear to be any conflicts. However the graphics drivers do not work and the sound card does not work either. However for some strange reason the system does work on occassions, however these are few and far between. Am I not doing something I should be doing and if so what. As stated all system drivers have been installed and all appears normal apart from the fact that I the system does not seem to realise I have a Graphics card or a Sound Card.

System Specs:

Dell Optiplex GX240 with 768Mb, 2Ghz Pentium 4, Radeon 9600 256Mb(self installed. However can't find the graphics driver disc), Sound Blaster Live Value, 40Gb Hard Drive.

 

[chipk]

http://support.dell.com.

Put in your Service Tag and download the necessary drivers for win2k. I would remove the devices completely, reboot and allow the system to come up with the default vga drivers, etc. Then launch the downloaded installation programs.

 

[VilaRestal]

Did all that. Even upgraded the BIOS to A05, deleted the devices several times and it didn't work. All the drivers read as being installed correctly but the sound and graphics card did not work. Anyone with experience of upgrading Dell machines????

 

[wolluf]

Did you actually upgrade 98 to 2k, or backup, wipe the drive and clean install? The second option, though lengthier, is much more likely to result in a stable system. If you did do a clean install, its likely you have hardware issues/incompatibilities with 2k. Was the machine stable under 98 (as far as 98 is stable!)

 

[VilaRestal]

Actually I did both. I tried upgrading first, didn't work, so I did a clean install, which also didn't work. I then installed Windows 98 (which worked fine and was very stable) and tried to upgrade for the second time which again didn't work. Actually I don't think I have any incompatibilities since (and here's the weird bit) it actually works every so often then fails completely when I shut the computer off and turn it back on again. I've got a funny feeling that I probably should have adjusted one setting which I didn't do. (I didn't touch that Setting up a SCSI/RAID driver option which you get when you initially try installing Windows 2000. I'm not sure if that would have made a blind bit of difference???)

 

[wolluf]

Bit of a puzzle then!

What do you mean about SCSI/RAID driver - have you got any devices that need one?

Does the actual install process with 2k have problems?

I'd try a more minimal approach (as I still suspect hardware) - install without sound card (and any other PCI cards you might have). Also with just one stick of RAM (with 768 you must have at least 2). And if you have 2 optical drives, just connect one. If that will run stable, add back missing items one at a time. If it won't (try each stick of RAM on its own) - have you another graphics card you could try?

 

[sm0rk]

I have had a similar problem with a win2k installation I made a few years back. SoundBlaster drivers conflict with win2k constantly. You said it worked fine with 98 but not 2k, honestly no surprise there. Here's how I fixed my issue:

1. Uninstall both the Video card drivers, and the sound card drivers COMPLETELY from your system. I mean everything that has to do with either piece of hardware. Most definately including optional software.

2. If you have the correct driver files on your system already, extract them to a folder so that the proper .ini file can be found easily.

3. Reboot your system and let it find your hardware automatically. Once it prompts you to search for the driver, select the browse option and locate the driver that you would've extracted in step 2, and install ONLY that. Do that for both pieces of hardware.

After that's been done re-boot your system (you have to anyways) and try that. It's been my experience that if you use the executeable that comes with the hardware or the bundle you can download off of the internet, it has other files that cause conflicts with 2k.

Another thing you can do is leave them un-installed and go to windows update, let it check what you "supposedly" need and get it from the hardware tab.

Also if it bluescreens it shows the filename that is causing the problem, and you can take care of it that way.

 

[VilaRestal]

Hmm. Very interesting. I'll have to try that over the weekend. I'm actually back to Windows 98SE which works fine. As to Wolluf's reply - I don't think I have any devices that use a SCSI driver but it automatically gives you the option on starting up the Windows 2000 installer. As you can see I'm grasping at straws here On the point of the installation there were no errors, everything ran smoothly, and I can't remember anything going wrong (then again these days I've got a problem remembering anything ) As to the removal of the hardware I don't think it's the hardware since the reinstalled Windows 98SE (as I said above I've reinstalled it, I actually have done it twice now, both times it works fine)

 

[wolluf]

2k and 98 have a completely different relationship with hardware. And 2k is intrinsically much more stable than 98. Hardware problems are at the root of a large number of issues - almost always when those issues arise immediately after installation of the operating system. You may be better just staying with 98 on that machine - but if you do want 2k (or xp - which would likely react similarly to 2k), then you'll have to identify what's causing the problems - and in my experience, its likely to be an item of hardware.