Abit NF7 nForce2 set up problems... with the video?

[rptut]

If anyone can give advice it would be greatly appreciated.

I'm attempting to assemble a computer for the first time from a barebones kit. I'm using the Abit NF7 nForce2 mobo with an Athlon 2600 XP (this was preassembled in the case with cooling fans and all). I added 512MB DDR PC2700 RAM, a DVD drive, a hard drive, and a 32MB NVIDIA PCI video card.

So I hooked it all up and started the computer up. The normal bios boot information comes up fine, and I can even get into the bios menus to make adjustments. In the menus I see that the DVD and hard drives are found (it displays their full names) so I assume everything is fine.

The problem is that when I try to start the process of installing an OS (Windows 2000 pro) the DVD drive appears to be going through the normal reading process but the screen is blank except for one dash in the top left.

The hard drive was formally a back up drive for another computer running Windows 2000 pro so I don't think formatting is an issue (?) and I tried booting from a floppy as well (I installed it just to try then unistalled it when I got the same results). I even borrowed a Windows XP disk and tried that with no luck.

So... my thoughts are that it has something to do with the video settings. I know that the video works on some level because I can see the bios boot sequence (i.e. processor and memory check) and I can get into the bios menus. My thoughts are that the Windows 2000 setup needs different display settings... it may actually be running in the background and I just can't see it. Does this make any sense? Anyone seen this before?

Thanks for the help,
Ryan

*I've abridged the details somewhate to keep this from becoming a monster post, but I've tried a variety of bios settings and can't seem to figure out what is going on.
** Please forgive any misuse of technical terms.. and please correct me if I have done so

[Atomic Rooster]

The only things that come to mind is to make sure that the DVD is set to boot first if booting/installing from a CD.
Also check in the BIOS under "Integrated Peripherals" to make sure that "Init Display First" is set to "PCI" for your PCI video card. (It should have been automatically detected as such.)

[rptut]

I appreciate the feedback but, I had tried those things as well... but I did eventually find the problem this weekend... it was a conflict between the mobo and the vid card. Once I tried a different vid card it worked fine.

I mentioned the mobo is an Abit NF7, the vid card was a GeForce2 MX 32MB PCI (was working fine in another computer). Now, the board was tested with a GeFroce2 MX 32MB AGP so I know that works. I think it was just one of those randomn conflict issues, although a friend of mine thinks that with some heavy customizing of the bios settings the card may work, but there is no guarantee, and it shouldn't be that hard

I ended up getting a 64MB Radeon 7000 AGP for about $34 after rebate at Comp USA and it seems to work fine.

Thanks,
rptut

[daveleau]

It doesn't sound like a video issue. It sounds like the OS is not loading correctly. If it were video, you would see nothing at all. How are you going about loading Win 2K Pro? Are you using a boot disk? Have you pre-formatted the drives?

[rptut]

Sorry if I am confusing the issue. It has nothing to do with the OS because this happens after post, before you even get to a bootable drive.

The screen where you could normally get a grid of the system stats is the point at which the video cuts out.

[daveleau]

Gotcha.

I'd set the BIOS to default settings and then remove everything but the video, ram and processor and see if it boots to the No Fixed Disk error. If you get that, then you know it is either a conflict with other hardware in the system and/or a BIOS parameter configured incorrectly.

[rptut]

good advice, I never tested it with only the vid card and RAM.
But, I did test it with vid card, RAM, and floppy only... vid card, RAM, and CD only... and vid card, RAM, and DVD only

And these drives (the floppy + DVD) were in the other computer where the vid card was working.

Every time I got the same results, so odds are it's not a conflict between the vid card and another piece of non-mobo hardware.

It seems to be working fine with the new AGP though, so I'm happy.

Know anyone who wants a 32MB GeForce2 MX PCI card for cheap?