serious video card problems

[InnerEpoch]

I recently installed new graphic cards (NVIDIA GeForce MX 4000 PCI) into two pc's in order to enhance gameplay (for The Sims 2, in particular), both are running Windows XP, Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 768MB RAM, and were about as good as can be expected when running Windows. After the installation, one of the pc's is fine, but the other now constantly resets either the game running or the pc itself (it only seems to happed on games that utilize the cards).
I have tried a RAM upgrade, power supply replacement, driver re-installation (different versions, along with a driver cleaning program), and moving the card into different PCI slots... does anyone have any help for me here?

 

[ski]

Make sure the video card is fully seated, its fan is running, and its heatsink is securely and properly attached with no gaps underneath it.

If those are ok, then remove the computer's cover, and run an external fan.
If that works, then you may have to install additional cooling fans.

If the external fan does not help, then swap the video cards between the computers.
If the problem follows the subject card, then it may be defective.

 

[InnerEpoch]

There does not seem to be a problem with heat, and both video cards have the same problems. Recently, Windows wasrendered unusable by the issue, and required a complete re-install...?

 

[ski]

both video cards have the same problems."

Please explain exactly what you mean.

 

[micker377]

After the installation, one of the pc's is fine, but the other now constantly resets "

"both video cards have the same problems"

Confusing....

 

[InnerEpoch]

The problematic pc resets whenever either of the video cards is inside, it doesn't matter which card. The other pc appears to function well with either card inserted, so it probably isn't the video card...

 

[ski]

Did you reformat the HD and do a clean Windows reinstall, or did you just reinstall Windows over itself?

If you reinstalled Windows over itself, then did you go into Safe mode, uninstall the old video card's software, remove all video cards from Device Manager, restart, and let Windows recognize the new card and reload its drivers?

Did you try inserting the video card in a different PCI slot?

Is the card fully seated(Sometimes it needs a healthy push to fully seat).

Are the original power supplies on both systems identical?
If not, then what is the watt capacity of the replacement power supply on the problem system, and what brand is the PS?

 

[InnerEpoch]

Well, I didn't manually re-install Windows; the pc came with it pre-installed, and with a backup of the original installation (on the D: drive I think), so the HDD was formatted and the backup was copied fresh to the C: drive. The driver shouldn't be the problem, I have tried a few different versions, and also used a specific driver cleaning program (Driver Cleaner?) in safe mode to be sure that old drivers were not causing a problem.
I have tried moving the card to different PCI slots, and this either made the problem worse (unlikely), or had no effect; assuming that things got worse automatically.
The original power supplies were identical 300W, but I replaced the problematic one with a new 400W model (lack of power was an early guess). If the power supply is the problem, then both units were faulty, so I doubt it.
The pc did come with some extras installed (by staff I assume) but when I rolled back the HDD this would have been cleared.
Some other ideas have crossed my mind: the motherboard has a faulty PCI system (I have not tested the PCI modem much); the moniter connects to both the video card and the sound card, which is strange (but seems unlikely to cause a problem); the driver that comes with the card could be seriously faulty and effect Windows files; and so on...
The original problems seem to come from the video card, and to begin with the problem only occured on more 3D intense games (Shogun: Total War and The Sims 2), but eventually the pc would only stay stable for a few minutes before Windows would crash and present a blue screen which informed me that there was either a serious driver error of a peice of hardware incorrectly installed... the original crashes did seem similar to driver issues (according to the help files included with the games), so the drivers are my primary concern (to no avail, unfortunately...).

 

[ski]

<<the motherboard has a faulty PCI system>>
Please elaborate. Thanks.

<<the moniter connects to both the video card and the sound card>>
Is this the same configuration on the other system?
If not, then disconnect the monitor from the sound card.

 

[InnerEpoch]

<<the motherboard has a faulty PCI system>>
Just a theory, it is a bit silly actually, but I am paranoid about this by now...
This moniter in question a built in microphone, the working pc has a regular one... I'll give that a try, thanks.

 

[ski]

If other PCI cards are installed that work ok(sound, modem, network, etc.), then the PCI bus should be ok.

If the 2 PC's use different MB's, then it's possible that the video card is incompatible with the problem PC's MB.
It happens.
Do you have another video card that you can try?

 

[micker377]

Have you tried switching the memory from the "good" computer to the "bad" computer?