[PeRsIaN_PiMp]

I have an ATI Radeon 9600 Pro... a monitor is connected via the standard 15-pin RGB port and I have a Panasonic PT-L300U connected through the DVI-D port.


I had no problems when I was running Win 2k Pro. All the drivers worked without a flaw and I was dual-monitoring it up.


However, when I did a clean install of Win XP Pro... and tried to install the drivers for the video card, I ran into some problems. So I ran the installation again and everything went fine. I rebooted the machine, as instructed. I got the Win XP Professional splash screen and then the screen goes black and the monitor turned off (kind of like stand by mode). No matter what I do, move the mouse, hit the keys or kick the damn thing.. it doesn't do any good. I rebooted several other times but to no avail.


Finally I got back into windows through safe mode. I uninstalled the drivers and rebooted. Windows came back fine.. except with that crappy resolution due to the default drivers. I tried installing the drivers again and the same thing happened. I reboot, the splash screen comes up, and where windows is supposed to 'show up' the monitor goes turns off.


I sucked it up and after much distaste, re-installed Win 2k Pro (clean installation). I get back to Windows and I come to install the ATI Radeon drivers... I then reboot but guess what? EXACT SAME THING HAPPENS. I'm baffled. I did a clean installation of Win2k and used the same drivers as I did, say 4 days ago.. which worked flawlessly.. now I get the same problem.


I did some research on the internet and found very little help. I did notice someone else also posting the exact same problem as me.. unfortunately, the thread was a year old and no one had any useful answers.


Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? I mean, format and clean install is the holy grail of tech support ... if you do that and you still are experiencing issues.. then, well, you're SOL ----- AM I?


I guess maybe the card went bad and I've had it for less than 30 days (I already asked for an RMA to be issued) but I have a sneaking suspicion (especially since someone else posted a similar situation) that maybe, just maybe the card isn't bad and it's directly related to the drivers.


An interesting thing to note, if I install the drivers, skip the reboot and disable the device drivers... windows loads without any problems (Expected Behavior!). If I enable the drivers again (and skip the reboot) the drivers do "load" properly.. however when I go to display settings... and make ANY change to the resolution... my monitor shuts off almost instantly after I click 'apply' or 'ok'.


Any thoughts, comments or suggestions?


Many thanks in advance,

-- Navid

 

[PeRsIaN_PiMp]

I should also mention that even if I install the drivers and then DON'T change the resolution, upon rebooting I still get the monitor shutting off effect...

 

[PeRsIaN_PiMp]

You know, that's a really good point that I completely overlooked. I'll go ahead and test it out when I get home later today.


I came to work extra early (left @ 5:40am to go to work) just so I could get home earlier and fiddle with it!


Thanks a lot Axel... that gives me some hope.


-- Navid

 

[PeRsIaN_PiMp]

Hey Axel,


I finally fixed the problem. You definitely put me on the right track.


Basically, the ATI drivers totally got screwed up when there are BOTH input devices plugged in. I unplugged my DVI, installed the drivers, rebooted and then plugged in my DVI and all worked well.


Thanks a lot for your help, you have no idea how much I appreciate it.


(By the way, I came back to finally complete my XP conversion)


Thanks!

-- Navid