No go. I guess I need to get another 9800GT and swap out until I see which one is bad.

Why not use the ones you have now and run the system with just one 9800 and see which one causes the BSOD.

HunterICX

I can run with just one card? Ok.

HB, you were going to suggest a replacement card? Will this work?

Got a new internal HD, will begin the resurrection this morning.....

Yes your system will work fine with just one card, just because the cards supports SLI doesn't mean you have to run 2 cards at the same time.

Actually it's better to run just one card, the trouble and the performance which it may, may not or is very little isn't worth it. (unless you know a great deal about how to set it up, know and play the games that take benefit from it)
Read : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalabl...erface#Caveats

So I would suggest to hold of on that replacement card and see how your system runs running just one 9800GT.

HunterICX

I love you, man!:Kaleun_Thumbs_Up:

I pulled the card that had the video plug, moved the other down to that slot, and turned it on. PC booted up, no crazy distortion (that horizontal line is still there.... cable or monitor?). Driver seems to be recent, 3/14/13. 6.14.13.1422 (why can't they name these things sanely?

I am going to see how this works for a while, and may get a new SSD HD
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Exclus.../dp/B00B2X312S

then add it as the primary and move the old one to slave.

Horizontal line?
You could try hooking up that monitor to something else (iirc you have a LCD monitor right?) to check if it's a flaw in the monitor or try different cables (VGA, DVI or HDMI if you have the output and input for it on Graphics card and Monitor)

Analog cable:
VGA
http://www.bafo.com/products/200x200/VGA_1_m.gif

Digital Cable:
DVI:
http://pc-level.com/wp-content/uploa.../dvi-cable.jpg
HDMI:
http://www.electronica-basica.com/images/hdmi.jpg

When I got thise new system I noticed faint horizontal lines whenever I played a game this was because my PSU on the bottom of the case close to my Graphic card's output and when the PSU was working at higher capacity it caused to screw around with my analog signal causing black faint lines across the screen. I solved it from going from Analog (VGA cable) to Digital (HDMI).

So if you have DVI or HDMI cables lying around and you have the output for it on the graphics card and the input on the monitor give it a go.

HunterICX

Well, I have VGA cables, and a vga-dvi adapter on the g-card. .

I switched to my old monitor--no line.

Well that answers the question then :)
The line was a flaw in the monitor itself.

So how is the PC running?

HunterICX

Seems to be working fine, no NV4_displ infinite loops or BSD so far. :woot:

I'm going to switch monitor cables and see if that changes anything. If not, then you are right, the 22 WS monitor has a glitch.

Switched cables, same line, so its the monitor.

Tonight: unplugged the hard drive, plugged in a new Corsair Force 3 GS 240 GB SSD, installing XP now.

If all goes well, I'll update the drivers for the printer, scanner, and remaining graphics card.

Then I'll see about plugging in the original HD and see if I can access it. Last time I did this, I had to set the old HD to slave.

When I get it going, I'll add a 3rd HD, a new WD Black 1 TB and copy the files from the original.

Setup is proudly telling me that "Windows XP is the easiest Windows yet". :rock:

Oh BAM! This thing is fast. Installed XP, loaded chipset driver, connected to the Internet, downloaded latest video driver (thanks Herr-Berbunch), restarting each time. All together, took about 20 minutes :D

...and 122 Windows XP security upgrades :O:

Welcome to the world of SSD drives Using the SSD drive as the C: drive only and saving all other file to a slave drive saves filling up the SSD.
although saying that if you also install SH3 or 4,5 to it well stand back :up:

The slave drive is a name only no need to set the Sata drive to slave jump settings,

Ok, cool. yeah, I discovered that I could simply mount the original HD and it showed up. Added the new 1TB and formatted it, and it showed up. :up: