Win2k and a new monitor = disaster

[bobo]

Tale number two of my dad's screwed up computers - his desktop this time. He got a used IBM monitor, really nice display - once we got the Nvidia update installed, which was problematic. Anyway, I then tried to upgrade to Win2K to have the same system on both computers. Wish I'd waited a few days because, though I got it installed, now the display is scrambling into static lines - the computer is "dead" when this happens, ie., the processor indicator light stops and you can't hear any disc access. I've tried to get SP4 installed, but the display won't last all the way through the download/installation. I tried reinstalling Win2k but same problem - anywhere from just after logging into windows to 15 minutes after going online and well into the installation, the display goes. Four or five devices including the dial-up modem were not working after I looked at Device Manager after the first upgrade. I started installing the dsl modem software and had a heck of a time getting it on, too, without the display problems. My question is: is this a bad win2k installation problem, a display adapter incompatibility problem or an faulty monitor problem? Since it looks great before it goes and always restarts correctly, I doubt it's the latter, but what do I know? Suggestions? I'll go back over and get more info if people have suggestions and requests for more data to help me solve this problem. Sorry I can't be more specific in this first post.

It's a celeron 667 and the monitor is a 19'' IMB from 1999.

Thanks!

[Murf]

Get into BIOS (SETUP) - usually Delete key at the 1st post screen.

Set to SYSTEM DEFAULTS

Save and exit. This should set the video to a Standard VGA driver. Once booted up, reload the video drivers.

[bobo]

Wish it was that easy - I was trying to reinstall win2k since I figured it was either an os problem or a video driver problem and have since reattached the old monitor and got the same result - in the middle of the install process - usually in the "final tasks" section when it is registering or (the last 4 times) when it is in "save settings" the whole thing crashes to a a screen of shades of blue vertical lines and the computer freezes. I can't get it to start up in any other mode - I've tried safe, vga, last good configuration but it just keeps going back to setup and crashing at the same point. HELP!!

Note: it was crashing the same way at random times before I tried to reinstall, too, but it WAS fine before I put win2k on (running win 98 se then).

Ideas on how to get out of setup and back to the previous system configuration or fresh reinstallation?