problem with g-400 and older games (kruzin, maggi ....)

[cptpuget]

when matrox updates drivers and adds support for newer games, do the retain support for games they supported one or two years ago?

two games i played in mid '99 with my g-200 and i think later with my g-400, now run with visual irregularities. in powerslide, the dirt track now has a red/white checkerboard effect in places, blockiness in the sky and much darker throughout. in star wars rogue squadron firing into the sand produces black blocks instead of fiery explosions.

the g200 might have been running on the old d3d wrapper, i can't remember for sure. it might have been before open gl support, can't remember that either. could the new open gl be messing up these games if they were originally made to support d3d? if so, can the open gl be disabled and enabled? if not, are there drivers old enough for the g400 that they will run these games right?

been awhile since i was here, many new names and a new look.

[ayoub_ibrahim]

have you tried using the tweaks in the MTSTU utility?

[Maggi]

Howdy Cpt. !

It's really been a while ... where did you hide out ?



Anyways, about your prob, you should provide us with the usual blurb of system specs and setup details, as well as the exact procedure when you updated your latest gfx drivers.

Welcome back

[cptpuget]

hey maggi ........

hiding out in seattle as usual. i actually got powerslide to run properly by uninstalling 6.10 and installing 5.52 with the turbo icd. quake 2 demo also wouldn't even initialize with 6.10 but fine with 5.52. will these games run properly with drivers newer than 6.10? i havent tried the latest g400 drivers. are they likely to run all these games? is getting dx8 a good thing? i'm still running dx7a. i've read some horror stories about dx8.

as far as my last driver install i use the uninstaller then reinstall. i've done this many times and NEVER had a problem due to mis-installation. many other games run fine, i don't think this is the problem.

with rogue squadron (won't run properly with either driver) i think i read somewhere on the matrox site that some earlier lucas arts titles (shadows of the empire. i believe rogue squadron is based on one level of SOTE) will only run properly with 4.33 or earlier. is this true? maybe there is a fix for the newer drivers that will allow me to run some of these older titles? thanks much for any help.

also, any compelling reason to update my g400 bios, it's dated 11/20/00

MSI 6163 BX V 2.5 (11/19/99)
celery 600 @ 900 100mhz bus (overclocking doesn't matter, i checked)
256 mb sdram pc100
sb live value (sb emulation disabled)
g400 32 mb DH vanilla .. bios 2.1-35 ( no OC) (irq 11 with holder / pci steering)
w98 (totally updated at windows update) vesion 4.10.1998
HP 8100 burner
supraexpress 56k ISA


one more question also ...... do they have a fix where you can install logitech wingman software and MS sidewinder software on the same machine? i tried it about a year ago and there was a conflict and no fix at that time IIRC. again, thanks

[Beezer]

I still have Rogue Squadron installed on my system so I checked it out breifly. It seems to run fine (blaster marks in the sand look good too).
I'm using one of the original oem 32MB DH G400's and currently have the 6.10.013 driver package (6.20.028 power desk) and 1.6-25 bios.
I have been using DirectX 8.0a for many months now and have so far had no problems running any games (new or old) except Sammy Sosa High Heat Baseball (and that ran OK until I re-installed it after the 8.0a upgrade -- game now crashes at start-up).
I'm pretty sure the Rogue Squadron game is running the most recent patch (from the Lucas Arts site) and I'm running at the 1280x1024 resolution. My desktop setting is 32bit color 1024x768.

As far as Wingman software and MS Sidewinder software, I have them both installed -- but almost never use the MS software. The only conflict I typically have with the two devices (Logitech joystick & steering wheel and Sidewinder gamepad) is the gamepad always has highest priority if they are both connected. As long as I unplug the gamepad, the joystick, steering wheel and Logitech game launcher work fine.
I'm using the latest Logitech patch and have no idea what version of the MS software I have (can't remember the last time I used it).

By the way, I running under Windows 98se.

[cptpuget]

beezer, i'm running the rogue squadron demo which probably cannot be patched so that might be the problem. thanks

[Maggi]

Sorry for the delay,

[edit]
sorry, I incidently scrolled to Beezer's reply and thougth you were running an old G400 BIOS ...

Beezer:
update your BIOS

[/edit]

Anyways, try DX8a and maybe you could also see if Intel released more recent BX chipset drivers than the ones you are running.

http://developer.intel.com/design/software/drivers/platform/inf.htm

[cptpuget]

sounds like a great idea maggi .....

first, how do i determine which chipset drivers i presently have?

then which would be the latest drivers for the 440BX chipset?

i've upgraded mobo and graphic card bios before, but never this ... is it difficult?


thanks much

[Maggi]

It's fairly easy, just download this file, extract it and run setup.exe

After rebooting it will detect all parts of the chipset and will find their according drivers. I think there's another reboot in between and after Windows is fully back up, make sure you re-enable all tweaks like DMA for your IDE channels, HDs & CD-ROMs.

[Maggi]

I just checked MSI and there'sMainboard BIOS V2.7 available ...

here's a link how-to flash

Could help too.

[Jorden]

Sorry Maggi, but I have to point you to the actual list for the link you said somewhere upstairs.
It's for 430TX, 440DX, 440EX, 440GX, 440LX, 440MX, 440ZX, 810, 810E, 810E2, 815, 815E, 815P, 815EP, 815EM, 815G, 815EG, 820, 820E, 830MP, 840, 845, 850, 860 boards only.

I made this mistake once with my 440BX board, and all it did was tell me everything was either okay or not for my board. After clicking 20 times OK I quit and rebooted

[omegaRED]

Yep, you cant apply INF update to a BX based board. It`s not needed.

BTW check the 6.71 ICD (dont have to install the whole drivers). Although its slower in some cases, it did fix some problems i had with OpenGL (primarily 3DSMAX4, but it doesnt hurt to try). AFA Rogue Squadron, get that old ICD (4.33?) and try it ... its an OpenGL game, no?

[Maggi]

Originally posted by Jorden
Sorry Maggi, but I have to point you to the actual list for the link you said somewhere upstairs.
It's for 430TX, 440DX, 440EX, 440GX, 440LX, 440MX, 440ZX, 810, 810E, 810E2, 815, 815E, 815P, 815EP, 815EM, 815G, 815EG, 820, 820E, 830MP, 840, 845, 850, 860 boards only.

I made this mistake once with my 440BX board, and all it did was tell me everything was either okay or not for my board. After clicking 20 times OK I quit and rebooted

I've seen that too, Jord, but if you follow the download links, all of a sudden the 440 BX is supported by the latest release ...

after that disclaimer, you'll be send to

http://developer.intel.com/design/software/drivers/platform/4301/inf_utility/infinst_enu.htm

The Intel(R) Chipset Software Installation Utility supports the Intel(R) 810 Chipset family, Intel(R) 810E Chipset family, Intel(R) 815 Chipset family, Intel(R) 815E Chipset family, Intel(R) 815EM Chipset family, Intel(R) 815p Chipset family, Intel(R) 815G Chipset family, Intel(R) 815EG Chipset family, Intel(R) 820 Chipset family, Intel(R) 820E Chipset family, Intel(R) 840 Chipset family, Intel(R) 845 Chipset family, Intel(R) 850 Chipset family, Intel(R) 860 Chipset family, Intel(R) 440BX AGPset family, Intel(R) 440DX AGPset family, Intel(R) 440EX AGPset family, Intel(R) 440GX AGPset family, Intel(R) 440LX AGPset family, Intel(R) 440ZX AGPset family, Intel(R) 440MX Chipset family, Intel(R) 430TX PCIset family, Intel(R) 815EP Chipset family, and the Intel(R) 810E2 Chipset family.

I guess it was just a typo on their first page ...