Member Avatar for Boldgamer

Hello. I am having a problem with a PC I am working on for a friend of my sisters. It is an old

Gateway E-1400
PIII processor
16MB TNT2 PCI Graphics card
256MB RAM
15GB HDD

I know this is an old PC but it was given to him for use in his non-profit organization. Most of the expenses for the children he works with come out of his pocket so buying a new pc right now is out of the question.

When I received it I installed Windows 2000. The problem I am having is that when I try to start Windows 2000 up I get to the Windows 2000 Professional splash screen and when the loading bar reaches the end the monitor goes to sleep. The screen stays black. I am able to boot in safe mode and VGA mode and have no problems. I disabled the integrated Intel graphics in safe mode and still no luck. I uninstall the nVidia drivers in safe mode and have install multiple nVidia drivers from to the last supported drivers for this card () and still no success. When I do uninstall the drivers and restart and boot normally everything works. Then the OS automatically installs the drivers it has and when I restart I am back where I started. Also, something that seemed strange to me is that when I start the computer up the first screen I see says:

nVidia TNT2 Pro BIOS 16.0MB

I have never seen a graphics board shown on the boot screen…

I don’t know what else to do. I have been searching for a solution for the past week. I have found that others have had this same problem but wherever they discuss this happening there is never a solution given. If anyone knows what I should do I would appreciate any help. Thanks.

Also, I have checked the resolution and refresh rate and those are not the problem either. (kept resolution at 640x480 and refresh rate at 60Hz). The monitor is a FPD 1500.

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Good clues here, : the fact that Safe Mode and VGA Mode work but normal boot goes black almost always points at the display driver initializing into a mode your panel will not sync to. To pin it down, boot with F8 > Enable VGA Mode, then install a known‑good TNT2 driver by hand so 2000 does not auto‑pick its own INF: Device Manager > Display adapter > Update Driver > Display a list… > Have Disk, and point it at a stable package. Two that have historically been solid on TNT‑era cards are NVIDIA’s WHQL 45.23 and the later 71.89 (which still lists TNT2/TNT2 Pro as supported). After install, keep 640x480 @ 60 Hz until you confirm a clean reboot. NVIDIA 45.23 and NVIDIA 71.89 (supports TNT2/TNT2 Pro). Also try F8 > Enable Boot Logging; if the reboot still occurs, check %SystemRoot%\ntbtlog.txt for the last loaded video component. See the Windows 2000 Advanced Options descriptions for VGA Mode and Boot Logging. Reference.

Because this box has integrated Intel graphics, set the BIOS to initialize PCI first so the TNT2 becomes primary. On many boards this is the setting named Init Display First = PCI (or Primary VGA = PCI). Seeing a video‑card banner like “NVIDIA TNT2 … BIOS 16 MB” during POST is normal; it is the card’s option ROM announcing itself. BIOS Init Display First and what an option ROM is.

About the random reboots you hit after the .inf: uncheck Automatically restart under System > Advanced > Startup and Recovery so you can capture the STOP code, and keep Boot Logging on. If you see THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER (0xEA) referencing an NVIDIA module, that is a classic display‑driver hang; stick with the stable driver and base timings while you test. Microsoft bugcheck 0xEA.

Finally, the “PCI Simple Communications Controller” entry is just Windows telling you a driver is missing. It is often a modem or a chipset‑related device on hardware from this era. Install the board’s chipset INF first (Intel’s utility supports Windows 2000 and has Have Disk steps), then add the actual device’s driver. Intel Chipset INF have‑disk steps (includes Windows 2000).

Extra note for /’s DVI comments: if your monitor input is DVI‑D (digital‑only), a passive VGA adapter from the integrated port will not work; you would need an active converter. DVI‑I accepts analog and can use a passive VGA adapter. DVI‑D vs DVI‑I and adapter behavior.

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Member Avatar for raybay

That is an excellent computer. We have one and use it daily.... a real work horse.
Why do you not want to use the integrated graphics. It works great.
Appears to me your problem has to do with disabling the drivers and uninstalling stuff.
I would go back to fundamentals, downloading or reinstalling all the drives from the Gateway site.
The screen that your getting nVidia TNT2 PRO BIOS 16.0 MB is what you should be getting.
Have you upgraded the BIOS from the Gateway site?
What shows up in your Device Manager in System in the Control Panel for video? Do you have red or yellow alert markings? Did you disable the video graphics in the Device Manager.
You are missing something very basic... but we will have to get my machine out in the morning to help.
Re-Think this, after a rest. This is NOT a troubled computer and it works well with W2K... Do you have Service Packs 1,2,3, and 4 installed? It works differently for SP 1 than it does for 3 or 4.

Member Avatar for jbennet

dont use the newest nvidia drivers for a TNT, im 99% sure you need an older version of them for it

Member Avatar for Boldgamer

I have just downloaded SP4 and will install it to see what happens. And, as far as drivers are concerned, I don't think that is my problem. I have used older drivers and still achieved the same results. I wish I knew what drivers the system came with because when I looked in the case to see if it was (pci or agp) someone wrote in permanent marker "Do not update tnt2 drivers". The system originally had Win 98se on it. When I recieved it someone had installed a copy of Win XP. I'm not sure what driver version was used with win 98se. But I guess it doesn't matter since I don't have Win 98 anyway...

Member Avatar for Boldgamer

I've installed SP4 and still no change. I don't know what else to do. I can't use the integrated graphics because the monitor has a DVI connector and the integrated graphics use the standard VGA.

Member Avatar for jbennet

dvi to vga connector?

andin reply to your earlier comment, its not unusual to see the video crad listed on the statrup screen. My dads says "GeForce MX 2" and stays there for a bit before clicking a few times and showing the usual BIOS bootup screen.

Member Avatar for Boldgamer

Thank you guys for all of your help. I continued googling and ran across an old post from another forum. I found the .inf files on driverguide and so far everything seems to be working fine. Now if I could only find the drivers for the "pci simple communications controller". No one seems to have them.

Member Avatar for Boldgamer

Okay. Now there is another problem with this pc. Since I installed the .inf I have been getting random reboots. I don't do anything in particular to make it happen. It just randomly reboots. There is a quick pop up of a blue screen and then it reboots before I can get the error message.

edit: I've found out how to disable automatic reboot on system failure. I'll try and look for a solution when I get the message again.

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