XP Boot problems.

Hi.
Can anyone help me with this:
Ive got myself 2x nVidia video cards for my workstation here.
The other day, windows (XP) kept crashing on the splash screen at boot.
After removing the video drivers, it'd boot fine.

Now, initially, i thought that the problem was that i did have an ATI card in there, and that DriverCleaner didnt get rid of everything.

So i nuked my workstation, used nLite to make a XP CD with all my needed drivers on, and away i went, an hour later, all my hardware had drivers and it picked up all my programs through GP. Nice and easy.
It booted the first 2-3 boots fine.

Then the same problem started happening again. Ive tryed the latest 170something drivers off the nVidia website, and the gigabyte ones off the CD (v163 iirc), and the drivers off the HP CD.
All still have this problem.

Video cards are:
Gigabyte PCI-E x16 8500GT 256Mb
HP PCI-E x1 8400GT 265Mb
Mobo is Intel DG965WH

Anyone got any ideas?

Any messages in the Event Log?

Nope. :(

One of or both the Graphics cards is Kaput by the sounds of it try just one card at a time to eliminate which one it could be.

What version of XP are you using and which service pack level? I would recommend you try each card in turn, as I agree it sounds like a hardware problem.

You may also want to try re-seating both cards in turn. Physically remove them and re-insert them in the PCI-E slots.

I was thinking it could be a hardware issue. But was unsure as to why it would cause that sort of error.
Hmm.

Could it be because one of the cards is PCI-E x1 and its confusing the mobo (with onboard VGA)?

I thought all PCI-E graphics cards were x16? I've never seen a PCI-E x1 card. x1 slots are very small and x16 are fairly long.

It depends on the motherboard. Some motherboards disable onboard VGA once a card has been installed. Alternatively, some motherboards allow you to run dual screens in this configuration.

Have you turned off the onboard graphics card in the bios.

Have read somewhere xp likes to default to that and can conflict with other graphics cards in some machines.

Just an idea

Richard

or tried flashing the cards? maybe they're screwed up

Forgot to post, i removed every cable from my workstation on friday afternoon, reseated the two cards, and put every cable back, tidyed with cable ties, booted up fine!?

How very odd...?