[RESOLVED] S3 video card

[bchat]

I have in an S3 Trio64V2/DX (VC963C) video card in my home PC. I’m running Windows 98 with 32MB RAM.

When I startup my PC, after being idle for approximately an hour or more, I get a very distorted display (snow and streaks over the entire screen). If I reboot, the problem goes away and does not reoccur unless my PC is again idle for approximately an hour or more. I’ve connected the PC to other monitors and even purchased a new monitor. The results were the same. I had my PC checked out by a qualified technician and there was no problem with the PC even though the technician suspected the video card.

I’ve also reinstall the original drivers that came with the card, downloaded and installed new drivers from S3 web site and also installed drivers from the Windows 98 CD. The results were always the same.

Based on the information listed in various locations on the Internet the S3 card sometimes has a problem with higher resolutions (when I’m at 640 x 480 the problem does not exist, 800 x 600 the problem is intermittent and 1024 x 768 the problem is constant). Of course I would like to run at the higher resolution. Card has 1 MB memory.

I believe the problem is the video card. Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

Reply to: [email protected] (remove nospam to reply).

[Jman]

Yes it's definity the video card. This is a cheap card so why don't you go out and get a voodoo 3 or something similar. These are very good card that have the high res. that you want.

[lysergic]

Sounds like video ram. Replace the card. If you are a die hard S3 Virge fan you can get a 4 meg for like $25. Atlthough I agree with Jman, go and get something like a Voodoo3 2000 for around $99 and should notice a bit of a performance boost.

[stevet]

Is your PC going into some sort of a power-saving mode after about an hour? Some video cards have a hard time coming back from a suspended mode, especially at higher resolutions. Try disabling any power-saving settings both in Windows and in your BIOS. If power-saving is important to you, try a different card.

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