4-minute delay on W2K booting up process

[sanramon]

Hi. I have a PC-Chips M817LMR (Ali Chipset). Machine works perfect using Windows ME. I'm trying to move to Windows 2000 and I've had several troubles:
- The only way I can make the machine recognize the video card (GeForce 2 MX) was setting the option "Allocate IRQ for PCI VGA" to true. I didn't need that for WME, but with W2K is necessary. The video board is conneted using the AGP slot. Now, that problem is resolve, but the next one no:

- Machine last more than 4 minutes booting up. No HDD or other apparently activity is shown. Every time I reboot the machine it start good the booting process, but inmediately freeze and takes 4 minutes to continue and finishing the booting. After that, all is working good. The status that I get from "Device manager / Computer properties" are (for WME and for W2K):
Windows ME
PCI BUS Use autom. settings (checked)
Settings Use hardware (checked)
Use Bios (no checked)
Override Bridges (no checked)
IRQ steering Use IRQ steering (chequed)
Get IRQ table using ACPI BIOS (checked)
Get IRQ table using MS Specif. table (checked)
Get IRQ table from Protec. mode PCIBIOS 2.1 call (no checked)
Get IRQ table from Real mode PCIBIOS 2.1 call (checked)

STATUS IRQ steering enable
IRQ table read from MS IRQ Routing Specification
IRQ miniport loaded sucessfully

Windows 2000
PCI BUS Use autom. settings (checked)
IRQ steering Use IRQ steering (chequed)
Get IRQ table using MS Specif. table (checked)
Get IRQ table using MS Specif. table (checked)

STATUS IRQ steering disable
IRQ table read from MS IRQ Routing Specification
IRQ table sucessfully processeced
IRQ miniport found a compatible router
IRQ miniport reject IRQ routing table

What is that IRQ miniport?. What is it used for?. How can I fix this problem. Any advice is welcome. Pls indicate any information you need.
Thank you.

[Talamaine]

As you probably are aware Windows 2000 requires special drivers. The wonderful technicians at Microsoft may have not included them in the original w2k build because it wasn't intended for gaming usage.
This is the webaddress to the NVida Drivers for that OS and card: http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=windows2000

What is w2k detecting the display adapter as before you changed it?

I have found that when I rebuilt my W2k system it not boots faster than it did earlier. From about 2-3 mins to about 1 or maybe less. I reformated and set the volume to be FAT 32 instead of NTFS. Not sure but this may have helped a bit. Of course it could have been the reformating in itself.

[mjc]

If you are trying to install as an upgrade that may be a problem, also if you have a NIC or haven't configured your networking settings you may be having timeouts while it searches for network connections that don't exist.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.