Problems Installing Drivers in W2K

[Rick6612]

Hi,

I recently installed Windows 2000 on my PC. I have a dual boot setup with Partition Magic/Boot Magic so I can boot either 98 or 2000.

I downloaded the Matrox Windows 2000 beta drivers for my G-200 Marvel yesterday and tried to install. I went through the install process for the display drivers first. Everything seemed to go fine. Then it told me to reboot. After W2K came back up, it was back to the original, Microsoft supplied drivers for the Marvel. It was as if the new drivers I installed had no effect.

I searched around, and I could find the files that were installed by the Matrox setup program. So, I tried to manually change the drivers for my display adapter.

It told me "a suitable driver is already installed," but it let me try to select a different driver. I pointed it to the mgafold directory, where the new Marvel drivers had been unzipped. It took it, and once again acted as if it was installing the new drivers. However, after rebooting, I was once again back to the bogus Microsoft supplied drivers.

WTF am I doing wrong? Why won't the new drivers install? Or why won't it use the new drivers after they are installed? I guess there must be some secret to doing this in W2K that I am just not aware of.

Any help would be appreciated!

Rick

------------------
http://www.Hogans-Systems.com

[Technoid]

Try forcing it to use vga drivers first!

------------------
INTEL PIII550 MSI 6163
G400Mill 32MB SGRAM + RRG
SBlive
256 MB RAM CAS2
43GB HDD Space!(Actual 40GB) (13+30 Quantum drives)
Pioneer 104S DVD 10x CD 40x SLOT IN
SONY CRX100E 4/2/24 CDRW

[Rick6612]

Hi Technoid,

I tried that. I tried installing from Safe Mode. I tried going through and deleting all the Microsoft supplied driver files (but the magically re-appear when I reboot!). I tried deleting everything out of the Registry that seemed to have to do with the Marvel.

I really tried lots and lots of things, but nothing seems to make a difference!

Rick

------------------
http://www.Hogans-Systems.com

[wkulecz]

Have you tried deleting the matrox.inf file from your windows system directory? I've run into this problem quite a lot in win9x where the copy in the windows directory somehow takes precedence over the new one you are trying to install.

I can't give you detailed instructions as I've not had to mess with w2k at this level yet (this is real progress!). I'm not even sure they are called *.inf files anymore or where w2k keeps them. Perhaps someone else knows the exact setup file name and its location.

You should also report this problem to the Matrox tech support bug report forum.

One long shot, make sure you are really shutting down and not "suspending" or "hibernating". I think I did this once by mistake and as I recall, it looked like a driver hadn't installed after I "rebooted".

--wally.

[Michel Carleer]

Don't remember the filename but they are still named *.inf and are to be found in winnt\inf\
Michka

[Rick6612]

Hi Guys,

I haven't tried that. I know I am using the .inf file that comes with the new Matrox drivers to install the drivers, but I suppose it could be possible that it is somehow picking up the old one after a reboot.

And, I am fairly certain I am actually rebooting: I click Shutdown, I see the dialog box where I select Restart the computer, etc. Then, I see the BIOS initialization messages, etc., and I get the Boot Magic start up screen that lets me select which OS I want to boot, and so on. Everything looks normal as far as that goes.

Rick

[jpb]

first make sure you completely uninstall the old drivers (this if from memory - I don't have a w2k system in front of me):

1. Look in Control Panel-add/remove software to make sure there is no matrox software.

2. open the display driver, adapter, driver property sheet, and select Uninstall.
This will then prompt you to restart.

3. Upon restart, it will automatically try to search for a new driver. CANCEL the installation.

4. Search through the \winnt\... directories for all files starting with mga* and g200*. Delete them.

5. Open regedit, and search for all instances of mga. Delete EVERY key that includes it (including the ones under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT). DON'T delete the ImgAdmin keys. CAUTION- if you aren't really experienced with this and/or willing to reinstall, don't do this.

6. Still in regedit, do the same for the strings "G200" and "Matrox".

7. Finally, run the 5.06 driver setup.exe.
This will prompt you to reboot.

8. On reboot, run the vtw2k beta setup.exe.

It should work at that point.

[Rick6612]

Hi jpb,

Thanks for the suggestions. I will give it a try. I did previously try manually deleting the old driver files from the WINNT directory, but after I rebooted they magically re-appeared!

Rick

[Rick6612]

Hi jpb,

I tried following your instructions. I thought I was on to something good, because after I rebooted the first time, the system came up in a 16 color Standard VGA mode! This was the first time it ever changed from using the Microsoft supplied Marvel G200 drivers!

So then I went ahead and installed the new Matrox supplied drivers for W2K, rebooted, and ... it still came up with the 16 color VGA mode driver! And, even worse, when I went to the Display properties to try to change the driver, it told me my Registry was corrupted and basically would not let me change anything for the Display adapter.

So I finally said "screw it!" I went ahead and booted off a DOS diskette, and reformatted my hard drive. Then I went ahead and reinstalled Windows 2000 Professional from scratch.

As before, W2K initially came up with the Microsoft supplied Marvel drivers. I tried installing the new Matrox supplied drivers, following the directions... and still, no matter what I do, all I can get is the stinkin' Microsoft supplied drivers!

It's almost as if there was a setting somewhere in W2K that says "don't let anyone change drivers on this system no matter what!" I just can't figure out what I am doing wrong or why this is not working. The procedure for changing drivers doesn't seem terribly different from W98 or NT... and it's not like I'm a complete idiot when it comes to working with computers... I've done this kind of stuff many times under 9x and NT 4.0.

What am I missing?

Rick

------------------
http://www.Hogans-Systems.com

[wkulecz]

Another long shot, your problem is really weird!

Are you logged in as Administrator? Under NT you could give yourself Admin privledge and basically forget about it. I've heard under 2000 this is not sufficient and many system update things simply must be done when logged in as administrator.

Other than this, I'm stumped!

--wally.

[Rick6612]

Hi Wally,

Yes, I am logged in as Administrator. I have not even tried to create any additional users under 2000, so that is my only choice.

Rick

------------------
http://www.Hogans-Systems.com

[Technoid]

About deleting system files in w2k:
Most files are duplicated in a folder called "dllcache" in system32.
And if you are realy stuborn and delete the specific file from all locations again and again w2k will actualy ask you if you realy want to delete those files!
______

Sometimes Formating A hdd doesent realy "take"!

Win 9x and NTX has a realy bad habit of finding files on formated HDD's

[Rick6612]

Hi Technoid,

That explains why the files keep coming back even after I delete them.

I haven't played with W2K in a week or so... been busy with other stuff... but I am still interested in trying to find a solution if anyone has any other suggestions.

Rick

------------------
http://www.Hogans-Systems.com

[Walrus]

Rick6612:
The dll problems are even worse than that. Unless you're in safe mode, even when cleaning the dllcache, deleting the gxx driver files will NOT clear them. (I think it has to do with MGABG.exe) Oh well, I'm just glad to have the beta Video Tools finaly working under W2K. Just as a note: In my case I had a problem where even on a clean install of W2K the Video Tools would not install properly under W2K. As it turns out the beta PowerDesk drivers were not overwriting the built in W2K drivers. Only after nuking the dllcache dir, uninstalling the built-in drivers, then rebooting into safe mode, installing the new beta G200 pd drivers, then rebooting to safe mode AGAIN to MANUALLY copy all of the PD files over the existing ones, could I get Video Tools to load properly. (It would install otherwise, but would cause an instant lock-up when I tried to use anything relating to the Marvel)
And no, the Marvel G200-TV is not sharing an IRQ. Hopefully Matrox will fix the bugs in the PD installer (I do not have faith in Microsoft to fix them)

[Rick6612]

Hi Walrus,

Thanks for the suggestions. So, you had to clear out the dllcache directory AND manually copy all the Powerdesk related files into place, in order to get it to work? What a pain. I guess I'll have to give that a try myself and see where it gets me.

Rick

------------------
http://www.Hogans-Systems.com