Video issues

[jimnyc]

Installed a new card the other day, the Nvidia GeForce 4 MX440 AGP.

I had previous issues with installation until I changed "PNP OS" to NO in the bios.

I was still getting the occassional screen freeze and it just got worse after I downloaded a graphics intensive demo game. The colors came up a little wacky sometimes and other times not. Then it started to freeze my system at random times playing it. Then I noticed my system was also freezing when playing certain shockwave games.

I'm confident it's the video card as none of the problems occurred before installing the new card. I've updated to the latest Nvidia drivers and just now installed the latest AGP port for the chipset on my motherboard. I'll monitor and see if that helps. Anyone have any other ideas?

 

[eric]

Jim is the motherboard bios the latest ?

 

[eric]

Jim check in the motherboard's BIOS for the option "Assign IRQ to VGA" and make sure it is enabled. Also try playing with the monitor refresh rates (Hz), also is windows detecting the proper monitor if it is plug and play compatible ?

 

[eric]

Jim a couple of more ideas:

1. Check the AGP speed in the bios, and in the advanced section of the display settings.

2. Update DirectX

3. Try setting the hardware acceleration down in the display properties.

 

[jimnyc]

The bios is the latest. IRQ to VGA is set correctly. Tried various refresh rates.

I believe it's my own stupidity here causing this problem. This is an 8x AGP card and my board only supports up to 4x!

I have the 810LR made by PC Chips. I guess it pays to know exactly what you have before buying new hardware! LOL

I'll have to either save up for a new MB or get a new card - PCI this time.

What problems can you have from using an 8x card in a 4x slot? It works fine for most things.

 

[eric]

No hardware problems, just unpredictability under a heavy graphics load !

 

[jimnyc]

This is a 64Mb AGP card. How well would I do with it's PCI counterpart? I'm thinking about a 64Mb ATI card. Let me look for a few links.

 

[jimnyc]

This is the one I'm thinking about:

ATI All in wonder VE64

 

[DKSuddeth]

Jim, check the card for a jumper switch. If theres one that lets you control the agp speed from the card. If the agp speed is the issue then lowering the hardware acceleration should fix the issue until you can get a new mobo.

 

[jimnyc]

Originally posted by DKSuddeth
Jim, check the card for a jumper switch. If theres one that lets you control the agp speed from the card. If the agp speed is the issue then lowering the hardware acceleration should fix the issue until you can get a new mobo.

Well, I won't be able to afford a new system for awhile, so I popped in another video card for the time being.

I put in the Invisiontek (Ati) Radeon 9200SE 64Mb PCI.

Here's the strange part:

I only have 2 PCI slots. I removed every software reference of my AGP card. Powered down and threw the new card into my available PCI slot. Powered on and got no video. Tried everything imaginable and still no video. I yanked out my sound card which was in the other PCI slot and put the new video card in it's place. Voila! Booted up and installed drivers and all appears ok. Shut down and put the sound card in the slot where the video wouldn't work and booted back up. System detected new hardware and installed sound drivers just fine. I guess this card is dependent on a particular slot. Would be nice if the bastards told you that in the instructions! What instructions? All they gave me in the box was a CD and a pamphlet with instructions (pretty pictures for those not computer friendly).

So all looks cool. I run the demo game that I had downloaded a couple of days ago and it freezes about halfway through!! I meet all the system specs, so I have no clue. No game is worth this much trouble!

Hopefully this will last me until I can afford a newer system. The best I can do with this mobo is 1.5Ghz. I'd like to get a 2.4Ghz down the road, but that'll take a new mobo, processor & memory. Might as well just buy a bare bones kit. Either way I can't afford it right now.

Anyone interested in an Nvidia GeForce 4 MX 440 AGP 8x???

 

[eric]

It was a problem with the bios assigned interrupts, not windows IRQ steering.

 

[jimnyc]

Originally posted by eric
It was a problem with the bios assigned interrupts, not windows IRQ steering.

And what does changing slots do? I'm happy I got it working, but wouldn't mind understanding better what was originally wrong.

I also found out I more than likely need a sound card, if that wasn't my problem all along. I said it always locked up when playing the game, but that game had nonstop music too. The old video card had just a small fan over the processor for cooling, and it appears to have 'burnt' my sound card. I'm wondering if all the heat generated from the video card could cause the sound card to lock up. There's like a 2 inch x 2 inch 'burn' on the face of my sound card. At least the new video card has a heatsink.

Damn machine is just falling apart piece by piece! LOL

 

[jimnyc]

Almost forgot, I did a format today also. What a frickin nightmare that turned out to be. Spent the first hour getting it installed and all hardware working properly. Then SP1 and all the updates. Had about 25 programs I needed to re-install (and about 10 of them were outdated and I didn't have original install files, had to do lots of searching on the net). Also had to backup all my 'music', all 8gigs worth! Lost all my email address's and bookmarks (my own fault). I had to visit every site I could while it was still fresh in my mind so that I could bookmark them.

And I'm still not done!