NVidia drivers cause system instability

Question

Hello,
I recently purchased an MSI 865 Neo2 FIS2R mother board.  Here is how
I have it configured:
o Power Supply - FSP400-60PFN 400W (3.3V/28A, 5V/40A, 12V/15A, 5VSB/2A,
-5V/0.3A, -12V, 0.8A)
o Processor - 2.8GHz P4
o RAM - 2 512MB PC3200 Kingston HyperX CL2
o RAID 0 - 2 Maxtor DiamondMax 9 Plus SATA drives.
o Video - Aopen GF3Ti500
o Primary IDE Master - TDK Indi DVD 440N
o Secondary IDE Slave - 56X CDROM Drive
o Floppy Drive
I installed Windows XP on the RAID without incident.  When I tried to
install the NVidia display drivers (45.23), the system became
unstable.  Specifically here is what I noticed:
o The black Windows start-up screen with the blue progress bar would
flicker between black & blue around the same spot each time.
o From the login screen, when I chose my account, it would
briefly show my desktop and then I would hear the relays in my monitor
click, the screen go black, a second click and my screen would be fine
again.
o If I used the display properties control panel and chose the
advanced option, again, click, blackness, click, everything's OK.
o I noticed that when I tried to use Window's Media player to play a
CD, it would crash during the 2nd song.  It would crash sooner and
sooner each time I restarted it until it was crashing as soon as I
started it (assuming I didn't reboot).  After than IE would crash,
Windows Explorer might crash or the system might spontaneously reboot.
o After rebooting, the system would be less stable, with IE or Windows
explorer crashing sooner than before (without even using Media Player).
 This would continue to get worse (across re-boots) until it would
start crashing while loading Windows XP.
MAT and DOT are in the default setting and I have not tried adjusting
any voltages, etc.
If I booted in safe mode and uninstalled the display driver, everything
would return to normal and the system would run fine.  I checked the
IRQs to make sure that wasn't a problem.  I noticed a device from the
Intel Chipset and the VGA card were both sharing IRQ 16.  I don't know
much about this (including how to change an IRQ) so I tried disabling
the Intel device (it dealt with the USB and I have no USB devices
currently attached).  The system didn't seem to mind having that device
disabled.  I reinstalled the display drivers, but the system behaved
exactly the same.
I also tried stepping down to the 44.03 version of the drivers but
they actually made the system worse (my screen split in half and
things turned purple!).
I also tried swapping between the GF3Ti500 and a GeForce4 MMX 440 The
only difference is that while starting windows, the monitor would
briefly go black instead of flickering between black and blue.  Both
cards run fine in my old machine, an MSI NForce mobo, using the
45.23 drivers.
Since the problems usually started when I was using Media Player, I
tried disabling the sound device.  The system seemed to run fine (with
the exception of the monitor clicking).  I could play movies with the
media player, browse with IE, etc. with no crashes.  I couldn't find
any resources conflicts between the sound and the vga card.
Windows trouble shooter suggested updating the mobo BIOS.  I was
previously running 1.3. I tried updating to 1.7.  The reflash seemed
to go fine.  But when I rebooted, all I got was a black screen (no
beep).  I looked at the D-Bracket and noticed that it was stuck on the
RTC test.  I don't think that's the problem.  The next step is
initialization of the video system.  I tried the emergency recovery
procedure (with the 1.7 BIOS).  It worked, but still the screen
remained black, stuck on the same test.
How do I get (either) video card to work?  And should I just leave the
system flashed to 1.7, or try to use the emergency recovery program to
get back to 1.3?
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Hey Guys.  Thanks for the help.  I don't doubt that the NVidia drivers are fine, they're just part of the puzzle.  Just to be sure, I got a new PSU.  Here are it's specs:
+5V/40A, +12V/24A, +3.3V/32A, -5V/-0.5A, -12V/1.0A, +5V SB/2A, max load 530W.
As I mentioned earlier, I had tried updating the BIOS to 1.7, after which it sticks on the RTC test (see my original post for details).  After installing the new PSU, it still stuck on the RTC test.  I tried reflashing to 1.3, but now the memory test is failing.  Does that seem right?  The RTC test is after the memory test, so why should reflashing to 1.3 cause a memory failure?  I'm assuming the reflash didn't work correctly.  If I can get it to work (fingers crossed) I'll let you know what happens.