GeForce4 4200 and Abit KT7A issues...

I recently purchased a Gainward GeForce4 4200 (Golden, VIVO) video card and went to install it in my machine and have had nothing but trouble. First the specs on my machine:

Abit KT7A-RAID w/ Athlon 1.4Ghz (optimized BIOS settings; BIOS 7N)
Enermax 430W Power Supply
1.5Gb Corsair PC-133 Cas 2 Quality RAM (CM654S512LP-133CX2)
120Gb Western Digital Special Edition Harddrive
Pioneer DVD, Liteon CDRW, Iomega 250 Zip
GeForce2 GTS (original video card)
Soundblaster Live! Platinum 5.1 PCI card
Adaptec DuoConnect PCI card
Intel PRO\S 100 Network PCI card
Windows 2000 SP2

Prior to the installation of the GeForce4 card, my GeForce2 worked flawlessly, but was obviously starting to run the newer games slower. I know I am getting close to being CPU bound with the 1.4Ghz along with the new GeForce4, but this machine is going to become my second machine when I start building a new one in approx. 3-6 months.

The main issue I believe is a software issue. With the new GeForce4 card installed, I cannot run any Direct3D apps without locking up the computer. I don't even get a splash screen or the start of a game. Start it up and it immediately locks up. I have read a couple of posts about using DXDIAG and have tried using (in various combos) DirectX 8.0a, 8.1, and 8.1b along with NVIDIA drivers 28.32 and 29.42. Nothing... I Ghosted my base Windows 2000 SP2 install and have used that as my basis for the installation of DirectX. After installing Win2K, I install the VIA 4in1 drivers (4.37), restart, DirectX (whatever version), restart, and then the NVIDIA drivers. At that point, I run DXDIAG and try the "Test Direct3D" and boy does it lock hard. I have tried turning Direct3D on and off with no luck. Also, on a side note, when I installed Win2K, it wouldn't boot the video card during the install process in DOS. It would be at the blue screen looking at all the peripherals and flicker the monitor off and it wouldn't come back on (unlike my GeForce2 during the same install process). So, after all these software issues, I have sorta come up with a couple of basic things it CAN'T be...

1. Power supply. The power supply is brand new and awesome. No problems with it whatsoever.
2. The card itself. I took it over to a friend's house who has the EXACT same card and my card works perfectly with Neverwinter Nights and Unreal Tournament.

One thing I am not sure of is the motherboard. It is obviously outdated but it had no problems running the GeForce2. Also, the GeForce4 works fine in 2D and am able work in Win2K with no problems. So I don't think it is a motherboard issue, but if anyone has any input on this, I can try some things here. I haven't fiddled with the AGP voltage or anything like that, so...

All I can say is that I am at a loss here. If it is a motherboard issue, I have a friend who is ready to grab up the GeForce4 from me if I can't get it to work. I will stay with the GeForce2 since it works great. But obviously, I think it is a software issue and I think somebody may know how to deal with it. I am also thinking about going back down to just the base Win2K install and getting away from SP2 for now. I am going to run that test tonight. Also for you information, during all my software testing, none of the other hardware was installed (except the Liteon for install). If anyone could give any assistance and/or suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading this long post.

Just installed an MSI G4ti4200 64mb in my KT7A-Raid with 1.33 Tbird and no problems whatsoever. Runs faster than my G2 GTS 32mb did and just as stable.

-- Ah sh*t! sys64738 --