[RESOLVED] My system specs

[samlynn79]

Compaq 5441 (Approx. 2 years old)
7.8G drive (I know, small - want/need a bigger one)
466Mhz AMD/K6-2
184M ram (one 56M chip, two 64M chips)
Win98se
Envision EN-780E 17" flatscreen monitor

Not sure what motherboard it has...

[dlagace]

It's a compaq 5441 motherboard. What is your Question regarding the Board.

Compaqs have there own MOBO's.

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[samlynn79]

the question is in a previous post (called "Vsync error?? help??"), but essentially i'm looking for information on how to disable Vsync. I'm trying to install an Nvidia GeForce2 3D card, but it keeps giving me a Vsync error.

[dlagace]

You have checked your video Card settings?

Have you updated the drivers for your video Card?

Have you updated the drivers for your Monitor?

When do you get the error?( what exactly Happens?)

What version DirectX do you have? try the latest version.

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[samlynn79]

Ok, here's what happens.

When I install the card in the PCI slot, and turn on the computer, everything is cool. The red Compaq logo comes up, the regular dos booting happens, and the initial Windows 98 booting screen is fine. (You know, the one with the clouds, and the scrolling bar on the bottom.) But, when Windows starts to load up, the monitor shuts off, then comes back on, black, with a purple box in the middle that says, "Vsync Error", and then the monitor shuts off again.
I've got DirectX 8 installed on the system. I need to find out how to disable the on-board video, I think...

[dlagace]

Go into Safe Mode an dDelete all reference to video cards in the device manager. Reboot and install the drivers.

If the problem persists the you may need to drop the resolution in the video card settings due to your monitor not having enough Guts to handle the Card.

What kind of monitor and what year is it?

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[samlynn79]

Ok, I just tried it again, and wrote down the exact error message. it says:

Attention:
Out of Range
H: .1Khz V:141.3hz

Any ideas?

[dlagace]

i just read your other post called vsync error And there you were asking how to get into the Bios.

Hit f10 on boot up and check there for the settings on the Vsync.

Are still using the Flatscreen Monitor?

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[samlynn79]

Yeah, still using the 17" flatscreen. I bought it new from Staples about three weeks ago. I actually got into the BIOS, but I couldn't find any reference to Vsync anywhere...

[GJFowler]

Vsync is the Vertical Synchronisation commonly called refresh rate. It's determined by the video card under control of the video driver, so it's alright until the video driver is loaded & the mode changes. 141 Hz is too high for almost any monitor. Boot into Safe Mode and set the refresh rate for the resolution(s) you are using to something more reasonable, try 75 or 85Hz for example, unless you know the monitor can handle higher rates.

I assume you have installed the correct drivers for the card?
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I used to be Platypus...

The platypus, proof God has a sense of humour.

[This message has been edited by GJFowler (edited October 13, 2001).]

[samlynn79]

Ok, if you've got the patience, I need to know how to set a refresh rate once I boot in safe mode.
As far as getting drivers installed, I've never been able to make it to that particular point without the video blanking and the error coming up. And, I can't install the drivers without the card installed, so I don't know what to do at this point...

[GJFowler]

OK, I found your other post on this subject, & the answer may lie in it, and your memory spec of 184M. You said in the other post you plugged the monitor back into the motherboard? So there is onboard video still enabled & sucking up 8M of ram? Does that mean you haven't been disabling the on-board video first? That will definitely cause problems. It will have to be disabled, either with a jumper setting on the motherboard, or via a CMOS Setup option. If the board was one that automatically detects an external video card, the shared memory should be being released giving you the full 192M of ram. Once the on-board video is disabled, you should then be able to boot up the new card without the video chips fighting, and install the correct drivers.

If this isn't the problem let us know, we've got the patience if you have... http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum1/noncgi/smile.gif
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I used to be Platypus...

The platypus, proof God has a sense of humour.

[This message has been edited by GJFowler (edited October 14, 2001).]

[samlynn79]

Yes, the computer has 8 meg onboard video, but I never figured out how to disable it. Anyone here familiar with disabling onboard video on compaq motherboards? Mine is the 5441 tower system...
And, the 184 megs of ram that I specified is the total amount I've got...so, after deducting 8 for the onboard, I've got 176 megs.

I'm really starting to just hate this computer. It's fine for 'net surfing, emailing, chatting, etc....but, any old computer can do that. I play Diablo II: Lord of Destruction all the time, which runs absolutely fine - albeit *slightly* slow, but bearably. Plus, I've got Freespace 2, which will sometimes run - then the screen will blank out, but the game continues playing, but only when there's lots of fighter ships on the screens at once, and something (like one of the bigger ship's lasers) makes a big noise - then it blanks out...and that really really annoys me. Anyways, the graphics would be TONS better with a 3D card on both of these games.
But, with the onboard video piece of **** I've got, I can't play Quake 3, or any game built on that engine (for which there are MANY that I'd love to play.)

Argh.

[dlagace]

http://web14.compaq.com/falco//detail.asp?FAQnum=FAQ2417


Try here to disable onboard video.
it's for the 4800 but should be the same.

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[samlynn79]

Ok. I tried both methods listed in the FAQ. First, I tried the method for '98, which was changing the onboard video driver from the SiS530 to Standard PCI adaptor (VGA). I shut off the computer, pulled the power cord out, and installed the card. When I turned it on, it started to go through regular bootup, then same thing - video blanked out, and gave the "out of range" error, but with different numbers for the ranges...this one was "H: 15.7Khz V:35.0Hz" It stayed like that for about 15 seconds, blanked again, then came up as "H: .0Khz V:30.1Hz".

So, I shut it off, pulled the cord out, pulled the card out, and replugged the monitor cord into the onboard video. Then I tried the '95 method, which was going into the system properties, into the hardware profiles, and disabling the onboard audio/video in the hardware profile. Did the same routine with shutting it off, installed the card, turned it on....same thing. Different numbers. First, "H: 17.6Khz V:39.4Hz", 15 seconds later, "H: .0Khz V: 60.2Hz".

This is getting really really frustrating.

[GJFowler]

<font face="Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva" size="2">Originally posted by samlynn79:
[BThis is getting really really frustrating.[/B]</font>

You have my sympathy!

Has the card been seen to work correctly in another system? If not, it might just be a faulty card.

On the other hand, being Compaq there might still be some rubbish hanging 'round. You may still need to follow dlagace's earlier suggestion to boot straight into Safe Mode & remove any reference to previous video drivers.

Good luck!

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I used to be Platypus...

The platypus, proof God has a sense of humour.

[samlynn79]

No, i haven't tried installing the card in another system....i suppose it could be the card....i don't know if it's too late to exchange it or not.
But, here's the thing - I'm getting a new system in a few weeks (1.4Gmhz, 512M ram) and I'll see if it works on that one. If not, I'll know it's the card.
Thanks for all your help, guys...and, if you have any more ideas that might work, please lemme know!

[Mustang]

Have you checked in the bios for a setting to disable on board video.

To get into the compac bios i believe you have to hit f10 during boot.
there should be an option for disabling the onboard viddeo in there
then your addin card should work fine.

[samlynn79]

Tried looking through the BIOS, but unless I entirely missed it, I didn't see ANYTHING referring to video, much less disabling onboard video.... http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum1/noncgi/cwmsmilies/cwm10.gif

[This message has been edited by samlynn79 (edited October 15, 2001).]

[Budd]

have you tired going into the bios and disabling the pci pallette snoop. i had that same problem on a machine a few weeks ago and that worked for me. good luck

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[samlynn79]

Unfortunately, it seems PCI snoop was already disabled. So, I enabled it, then went into the hardware profiles, disabled the onboard video driver from the hardware profile, then completely removed it.
When I tried installing the card again....same errors came up.

I don't know if this is important or not, but I found something out. The menu on my monitor (changing screen sizes, etc.) is digitally controlled by four buttons on the front bottom of the monitor. I noticed that when these errors come up, these menu buttons don't work at all...and when the screen blanks before the errors come up, there's a loud *click*, like when you change your windows display resolution.
Don't know if that helps...

Thanks for all the help so far, by the way, to all of you.