Geforce2 Problems ! Please Help !!!

[MartynS]

Hi all, any help that can be offered with this will be greatly appreciated - it's been bugging me for ages ! First of all system info:-

Pentium III 733 Mhz PC133 bus
384 Mbs PC133 Ram
Tyan TI6VG4X M/B
4x4x24 Ricoh CDRW DVD Drive
30 Mbs Fujitsu UDMA EIDE
20 Mbs Maxtor UDMA EIDE
Gainward Cardexpert Geforce2 Ultra/500
AOC Spectrum 7Glr 17" Monitor
Windows 98 OSR 2

Right then - the problems:-

1. When you try and play a DVD using EITHER Win DVD OR Mediamatics DVD Express when the film starts rolling you get strange flecks of white and green flicking about on the screen and it usually freezes and crashes - forcing a re-start.

2. When Playing UT or run Mame32 you get strange flecks of white flickering abut the screen - severity is dependant on the screen mode it's running in. Sometimes Sound Gets really crackly and stops in UT, it never did this before !

3. In UT 800 x 600 32-bit colour with the latest UT patch, running in OpenGL mode I only get an average of 45 - 55 Frames per second - which seems rubbish - Direct 3D is even WORSE !

I've messed about with all manner of BIOS settings - I've tried the Fail-Safe settings and loads of custom settings. I've tried the CD's drivers and the updated 650 Drivers - but the same thing happens. In Windows the screen looks normal. It can't be an overheating problem - I'm using the default Clock Speed settings and have more Cooling equipment in my pc than any other type of hardware !!!

If anyone can solve these problems they deserve a knighthood - I've been buggering about with this for weeks !!! :-(

thanks,

Martyn S

[Lycia]

You say you updated the drivers, have you tried removing the Ultra card and trying another card? Or maybe just try removing the drivers completely then reinstalling the updated drivers adter rebooting when windows detects new hardware?

[CobraTekMax]

First off - www.geforcefaq.com (http://www.geforcefaq.com) - look there. Should be able to explain your poor framerate in UT, maybe even your other problems too.

Second, it seems like either an overheating problem, or a hosed install of Direct X. You never did say what version of DX you're running. If it's 8, I'd strongly suggest dropping back to 7a. Much better release, IMHO, at least until Nvidia gets its act together and releases and OFFICIAL set of drivers for it.

All of these programs you're having problems with are using DirectX to some degree. That's most likely the culprit. Then again, it IS an Ultra card, so despite all of your cooling solutions, I still wouldn't count out the possibility of overheating. The memory clock on those babies is pretty high.

[NakedMessiah]

I have geforce2 but my m/b is an asus a7v. I noticed remarkable better results with the latest invidia drivers that i got off of www.nvmax.com. (http://www.nvmax.com.) this website has other critical drivers that you may want to check out. I would start from scratch and remove evidence of DirectX and your invidia drivers and install as a standard vga card. Then install the latest of both.

But, I agree that you still may have a heat problem. See if a friend will let you install the geforce card on their computer. I am sure they would like to see the speed of the geforce.

[Antimatter]

All your tech are belong to us!

[MartynS]

Thanks, I still having problems - tonight I'm gonna stick DX 7.0a on it see if that effects it - then try another AGP Driving VAlue- I tried DA I wan tot try EA tonight. Then I'll try and get a more updated driver - at the moment it's on 650 with no improvement - failing that I'll try it on my work pc tomorrow. Just out of interest - if you speed up the clock settings it gets worse !!! DVD's are totally unwatchable :-(

I'll keep a post on what solves this - IF I ever solve it :-(

Cheers, !

Martyn S

[CobraTekMax]

Martyn, if you increase the memory clock settings and it gets even worse, then that confirms that the memory isn't sufficiently cooled. The memory on the Ultra cards is clocked much higher than the memory on a regular Geforce.

My advice would be to see if you can exchange the card, and try to find one with a heat sink that sufficently covers both the core AND the memory. Or if you don't mind spending a little bit of cash out of pocket, go to radio shack, and pick up some small heat sinks and thermal adhesive compound, and put a heat sink on both sides of each memory chip.

This, of course would void your warranty most likely, so I would suggest contacting the manufacturer, or the vendor.

[MartynS]

does this mean i should try and get a replacement card ?! Is it faulty or something ? I'm sure it shouldn't do this - it ought to be provided with enough cooling stuff on card to run in at least the default clock settings !

[Silverman]

Have you tried under clocking the memory on the card just for grins using coolbits? As everyone seems to agree on the heat problem, with a momentary 10 or 15 MHZ underclock of the memory and cleaner 3D this could possibly confirm it.

[MartynS]

Right - after having a bit of a mess around last night - I managed to clear up the image quality problem, however, performance was down freakishly! DVD's playing choppily and UT Running REALLY Poorly in OpenGL mode. I managed to get it back running how it was - Ie running not too badly but with an image quality problem. DVD Playback still freezes up sometimes - but not as much. I think this could have been something I did in the BIOS ?! My next plan is to Upgrade the VIA 4in1 Drivers - I think AGP Driving value has alot of influence on how well it works.... Where do you get the underclocking software from ?

[NakedMessiah]

I run UT frequent with my GeForce2. But, I don't use the OpenGL. I use D3D. I get well over 100fps and as high as 450fps on 1024x768! I tried using OpenGl, but got alot of unstability using that with UT. I think the site is messed up, but I got my drivers from nvmax.com. That site also has/had the coolbits software. I have a similiar comp as you, except 1000mhz thunderbird, and asus a7v.

[MartynS]

Hmmm, I'll try that - the only thing is I thing that site - but my M/b is one of the main causes of these problems I think. It's a TMC or Tyan TI6VG4X with the VIA Chipset, I think it's an Apollo Pro by name... It's quite an old board which was brought out just after AGP 4x was available - in fact it's a revised version of the TI6VG4 which was only AGP 2x... Wether this is part of the problem I don't really know or not - If anyone else has had any problems with this board or similar compatability issues then I'd be really interested to hear about thenm, cheers :-)

[Silverman]

You can get a program called Getune I believe from www.tweakfiles.com (http://www.tweakfiles.com) this will enable the coolbits reg automatically as well as a few other options.

[Silverman]

www.tweakfiles.com (http://www.tweakfiles.com) has getune which enables coolbits when the taskbar utility is enabled you can also use it to enable/disable Vsync control as well.

[MartynS]

progress!! Last night I managed to run UT in 1024 resolution with no distortion on the screen !!! Hmmm, looked great ! In D3d Mode.... Framerate is a bit lower than I'd like - average 60 Fps but we're getting somewhere with that now! Big problem at mo is the DVD Player keeps freezing up! And you get the wierd flecks of green and white flicking on and distorting the picture... What is the best free DVD player for reliability ? At the moment I am using Win DVD but I have DVD Express also and I have a trial version of Power DVD... Um, okay :-(

[MartynS]

Anyone had this problem before ??? I am now tinking - try and use Software Decoding for DVD Play - but how can you stop iot defaulting to Hardware ? UT is Running adequately now, although not Brilliantly - I get 1024 res 55 - 85 Fps average 60 fps in 32 Bit color. Is there a way I can make sure my AGP is running 4x ? I don't know forsure if it is.........

[Kymera]

You can check that out with Sisoft Sandra. It'll let you know what speed you AGP is running at. As for your DVD stuttering problem . . . makes sure that DMA is enabled for your drive. It may not even be related to your video card.

[mrdennison]

Your ut frame rate should be higher, my voodoo3 166mhz, duron 700, and a7v run ut at 1024x768 everything max(16bit) at 50-70 fps. Just food for thought! :) Maybe get new mobo?

[MartynS]

I know my UT Frame Rate is too low -the nice-est offset of quality for speed seems to be D3D 1280 Res where it averages 70 Fps most levels. My DMA is DEFINATELY enabled on DVD - ROm - You have given me a thought though - is it likely to be UDMA ? Should I specify this in the BIOS ?? Anyone know where I can get some Software that will let me Clock my Geforce2 Ram to less than the STandard 460 Mhz ?

Cheers Folks !

Martyn S