I think you are right that the tech is on to something. I hadn't twigged
that there are two video adapters installed in the machine (although you did
mention switching back to a different card).

If you have an on-board AGP card and a plug-in PCI card you have to
configure things a little carefully. If you were running two monitors then
you would need to check for compatibility with the cards, and you would need
to check which one was primary. But since you are running with a single
monitor you only need to check that the system sees only the card that you
want to use. This will be done in BIOS setup. It's accessed using a
special key such as DEL or ESC or F1 (it's different for each type of BIOS)
while the memory count ticks over at power-on. The key to use should be
displayed on-screen at startup. If you are using the plug-in PCI card you
must disable the on-board AGP card using the BIOS option. Hunt for the
option under a heading of Devices or Device Options.

If you are using a plug-in AGP card and a plug-in PCI card then the simplest
option is to physically remove the card you aren't using. AFAIK this
doesn't involve any BIOS setting, but you could check.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (DTS)
"Pam" wrote in message
...
Jeff,

I posted this reply back to your message - I thought you
might not have seen it because I replied to myself -
since I'm replying you and Brian A. - and not directly to
you:

.Jeff and Brian - I will go through my procedure again
after work tonight to see it I can spot any other bits of
information. I did several scenarios, one of which is the
one that Brian suggested.

ie,

- begin by reinstalling the old driver. Everything works
fine - just can't make good use of my 21" monitor.

- in safe mode, remove all display adapter and check the
monitor (only one, Nokia 445pro - reinstalled it in one
of the past scenarios - same result)

- shut down.

- start up - I see all the normal dos commands that load
the cd rom and the disk controller and the hard
drives...I see the windows logo. The screen goes blank
and the monitor reports "Entering power save mode" (this
is immediate, there is not a period of blank time) - when
I press the monitor menu an error message tells me the
the connection is ok but there is no input to the monitor.

I hear the system grinding away doing something but I
can't see it, of course.

I tried to do the install from safe mode - didn't work
from the cd because the cdrom is not available in safe
mode. So I copied the contents of the cd to the hard
drive (D) and tried the install in safe mode from the D
drive. At first it looked like it would work - but I got
an ATI error message that said 'severe error - try
installing the standard vga driver first'.

I'm also in contact with ATI tech support - so far no
useful information from them.'

Also, I since got more info from ATI - he may be on to
something. He said:

'Is the PC booting from the correct in the PC? Make sure
that the PC is either booting from teh AGP slot if the
card is AGP or PCI for a PCI based card.'

One the two cards that I am switching between is AGP and
the other is PCI. But how do I tell, and change, which
the PC is booting from? - I also asked him this question
but I wouldn't expect to see a response before Monday
evening.