Odd graphical problems after driver reinstall

[Six Of One]

Hi folks,

quick, before the machine walks out on me again.

The problem
I reinstalled (Removed with tool, installed drivers) the drivers for my G400 after the computer crashed every few minutes in Tribes 1. Since then i have graphical glitches in 2D and 3D environments, regardless wether these are D3D or OpenGL.
In 2D i have flashing horizontal white lines and damaged icons after moved the mouse focus over them. This occurs for ex. in Starcraft and the menues of Serious Sam or Mechwarrior 4. In 3D i have flashing textures and and extensions of horizontal surfaces/textures. E.g. a crate's top surface extends to the left and right over the the whole screen width. And as a sidenote, 2D quality is a mess and overall stability is terrible.

What i have done so far
I forced AGP 1x, set AGP Aperture Size to 256Mb, disabled 32 bit Z-Buffer, set everything to quality/accuracy. Underclocked the card to 90% (back to 100% now, because it didn't change a thing). Opened the case for more airflow. Rotated the other cards over all available PCI slots to determine IRQ problems. Everything with no result.

What i am going to do
Download the most recent drivers and BIOS' for all devices (again) and update. Throw this Contraption out of the window... i mean throw Windows out of the contraption. Ah, don't know, i don't want to reinstall Windows again, that's why i am writing

System

• * Epox 7KXA (Slot A, KX chipset, 4in1 4.29)
  * Athlon Classic 600
  * Hyundai 128 MB PC 100 RAM
  * Matrox G400 16MB SH (6.50 drivers)
  * Soundblaster 128 PCI (2.0 drivers)
  * Realtek RL8029(AS) NIC (5.0 drivers)
  * LG DVD and Maxtor HD on onboard IDE
  * Windows 98SE lite (no IE, all necessary patches and security fixes installed, or so i hope )

Any ideas?

[Six Of One]

Hi C.K.,

thanks for your quick answer. Here is the IRQ list as determined by the Windows systemtools. I hope you can work with it, since it's the german version. It's pretty standard, i guess.

---
0 Systemzeitgeber
1 Standard (101/102 Tasten) oder Microsoft Natural Keyboard
2 Programmierbarer Interrupt-Controller
3 Creative Sound Blaster AudioPCI 128
3 IRQ-Holder für PCI-Steuerung
4 (frei)
5 (frei)
6 Standard-Diskettenlaufwerk-Controller
7 ECP-Druckeranschluss (LPT1)
8 CMOS-/Echtzeitsystemuhr
9 (frei)
10 Matrox Millennium G400 - English
10 IRQ-Holder für PCI-Steuerung
11 Realtek RTL8029(AS) PCI Ethernet NIC
11 IRQ-Holder für PCI-Steuerung
12 PS/2-kompatibler Mausanschluss
13 Numerischer Coprozessor
14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
14 VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller
15 Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
15 VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller
---

About your suggestions: I only used to shadow the Video BIOS, but i disabled it also. Sadly no change. And the driver 6.50 was running flawlessly since it came out, it simply stopped to cooperate after the installation of Tribes. I find this highly irritating and i am even considering that something else might cause the conflict. Argh...

[Six Of One]

HI C.K.,

thank you for your hints. I think you were right with the SB on IRQ3. I purged the system of the SB128 and its drivers and everything went fine from there on. I re-inserted the card, in the same slot BTW, and it configured itself to IRQ5. No problems now.

What i don't understand is, why the card is using IRQ5 now. The BIOS is set to manage the IRQs and not Windows and following the shematics of the mainboard the slot i am using can use IRQs 3, 5, 7, 10, 14 on INT#A, #B and #C. So both IRQ3 and 5 are possible. But why the change? I didn't change anything else which could lead to the change of the INT handler. Confused. But happy

[Six Of One]

Hi C.K.,

please excuse the long delay. I have had a powerout (pulled the wrong plug, so blame me...) on my DSL Modem and the telcom port collapsed. Took the provider 2 days to reset it. So much to competence.

Anyway, like you said i have BIOS control over my IRQs out of the same reasons you mention. I don't trust Windows and i am simply not sure about the ACPI implementation of my board. I tried it once and it was a mess. But since then i learned that Windows needs to be installed with the /p j option for ACPI from the beginning. Maybe i try it someday in the future. And on a sidenote:
After the 3rd or 4th reboot the BIOS assigned the IRQ3 to the SB128... hmh. Everything is still runnning smoothly but i am getting seriously concerned about my mainboard. I checked if i turned off all onboard devices and they still are, so what the heck...?

I wrote a mail to EPOX support, answer is pending. A call at the support line resulted in "Your board is broken, please send it in. It will be replaced. Thank you." I will wait for the support mail though, don't want to be without a PC right now, have to do some work for the university.

Ah well, everything is running fine right now and so i will not touch anything... for now. But i think i will sacrifice a chicken or two to the great gods of PCiria to appease them. After all, computers are more religion than science

Thanks again

[Six Of One]

And one more thing about the VCache. Do i set them to zero or do i delete them alltogether?

I just wonder, because i am considering changing the settings. You see, stability is more important than performace, at least in my eyes, and if this can help, i would like to try it.

Best regards

[Jorden]

One way to ensure your soundcard stays at IRQ 5 is to set the PCI slot it is in, in the BIOS, to use IRQ5. Get it off of Auto to IRQ5. Then do a reboot.

Jord.

[Six Of One]

Ok, i think the issue is solved. My system is behaving odd but running stable. If something new occurs i will be back [maniacal laughter] HAHAHAHAHAHA [/maniacal laughter]

Thread Closed!

[Six Of One]

Hi all,

i have assigned the IRQ5 to the SB and it is running so far. Somehow this reminds me of PC times long gone

I have also received an answer from EPOX. They are unsure what is happening. They recommended to load the BIOS Defaults for stability and check if it happens again. I have done so (but left the onboard devices disabled) and so far nothing has changed. OTOH, the system was running OK before.

And one more detail. I currently have to do a lot of work in a DOS application and i have made a MSDOS 6.22 boot disk for this purpose and the computer actually locks more often in DOS than in Windows. I would say after about 2 hours the system freezes in DOS (btw, it's Eagle 2.0 i use in DOS). I am getting more and more convinced that i am facing some hardware level problem. I now have asked a friend of mine if he borrows me his Motherboard (an ASUS A7V), but this would be a LOT of work.

Anyway, thanks for all the hints.

[Jorden]

SoO, for the work in DOS, did you disable the power-saving abilities of your mobo in the BIOS? If they are still on, and on default, they might just halt your system after those 2 hours. Causing you to crash.

The PCs of hayday worked great with DOS, the PCs of now are below par with it.

Jord.

[az]

To me it seems that either your RAM is making trouble (borrow some RAM or underclock it and see if the problem persists) or your CPU (insufficient cooling - underclock or borrow onw from a friend).

But I'm no expert, I just like to talk

AZ

[Ali]

Strange that you are crashing under DOS. WE have machines here that have been up since the 2nd Jan 2000, when we did an upgrade for the new millenium, and they have never given any trouble.

I would also look at your power supply. If you are crashing under DOS, and the computer is set up properly, it almost has to be hardware related. Power, RAM, CPU and MObo are the main ones to look at.

Ali

[Six Of One]

I figured that too. And probably this thread will be moved to General Hardware soon

The power saving features are all disabled. The system isn't overclocked (anymore). The power supply is a new (2 month or so) Enermax, a reliable brand modell. I will borrow some RAM and hopefully a Mobo too at the weekend and i will start switching parts then. I'll keep you posted.

regards

[Six Of One]

AHHHH, it's completely crazy. What started out as gfx card driver problem turned into a general system malfunctioning marathon. But there is light at the end of the tunnel...

1st, i think i finally have isolated the source of the DOS crashes. Apparently my Logitech Cordless Desktop mouse is not on good terms with the MS DOS default mouse driver. But i don't have the Logitech DOS drivers, and so seems Logitech... Anyway, a no-name serial mouse is running fine for hours in DOS. Interesting sidenote: a MS optical mouse by the name Intellimouse (what's intelligent about this mouse is beyond me) on the PS/2 port isn't running also. Maybe it is my mouse port that is damaged, which, BTW, would fit nicely in the "your board is broken" theory

Why a broken PS/2 port would bother DOS more than Windows is also beyond me and i can only revert to my spiritual rambling about chicken and computers. Utterly confused but yours sincerly

6 of 1

[Jorden]

Six, as far as I know, to work with a PS/2 mouse under DOS, you also need the right DOS drivers for the mouse, to be loaded either through the config.sys or autoexec.bat or both.

I would take CK's offer

Be glad you don't use a USB mouse, as you would've been in more trouble then. Although, isn't the IntelliXplorer a USB mouse by origin?

Look if you can find a normal serial mouse (COM port mouse), and check if that one works without a problem. If that one also gives you trouble, it might be an interrupt problem (even under DOS you have them), or your mobo might be broken.

I haven't got a clue anymore. Just trying

Jord.

[Six Of One]

Hi again,

thank you for your offer CK but i have found a set of DOS drivers on the italian Logitech site. Doesn't solve the problem though. The serial mouse is still running fine, even with the Logi drivers. I am getting to the point where i am really fed up and so i have decided to dismantle the system and send the motherboard to EPOX and wait for the replacement. Good thing that they offer a 5 year garantuee If the problem persists after that... i don't know.

Wait and see. Thank you all for your help and i will keep you posted.

Best regards