Something weird going on with graphics

[John]

Never had a problem before as I posted before

Nvidia 400mx rock solid with pre-WINXP service pack 2 versions and
older Nvidia drivers - by older I mean up until a few months .


Now the Nvidia 6800 as I said which I recently got works OK with
HalfLife2 as far as I know (only at the beginning) and screensavers
are normal - the WIN XP builtin ones. But the new Spongebob
Squarepants the Movie Game is totally erratic. Sometimes it craps out
totally kicking out of the exe file leaving garbage all over the
screen. Other times it runs but craps out during the cutscenes. Also
has blinking black rectanges sometimes on the screen.However the
captions in the game are OK when it works. Other times it can get
through the game but has those blinking bars and weirdness.

The Nvidia 420mx actually - which worked fine before on an older VIA
K7X333R board with the WINXP service pack2 and other updates now has
different weirdness too. It has the caption problem which I thought I
got rid of in Sponge BOb - 80% of long captions are gone. Only the end
of the sentences are visible. Additionally - I noticed the first two
screen savers are weird.
The 3d Flower Box - totally blank, just a black screen
The 3D flying objects shows a floating logo but its all white
No details or colors.

The strange thing is the other screen savers work. The other strange
thing is they work with the 6800 and Asus nforce2 board.


Just overall little weird things in both.
I first suspected my 420mx - maybe it was crapping out. I reintalled
another copy of WINXP with service pack 2. Same problems. So then I
hooked up an old HD I had laying around with an old WIN XP - pre
service pack 1 and I have no screen saver problems. Havent retested
Sponge bob yet but since I had two fresh new WIN XP service pack2
installs on this machine with the same problem that didnt exist with
the old WIN XP - I strongly suspect that the new Direct X , or Nvidia
drivers or something in service pack 2 is screwing up the old 420mx
graphics. Not sure if I can generalize to ALL 400mx and other cards
though.

However I am having problems ALSO with the 6800 so if thats caused by
the service Pack 2/Direct X 9c/newest nvidia drivers then theres a
much bigger problem. Though with the 6800 the screensaver works , its
mainly a Spongebob only (so far ) problem. So maybe the new stuff
works with most stuff and youll just have to write off some kids games
with the 6800 who knows. Or maybe its a much bigger problem that needs
a fix.

 

[John]

On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 09:45:03 GMT, "(e-mail address removed)"


Did another test.

To recap -

My formerly rock stable 420mx nvidia card on an old VIA 333 system
turned really flakey with a new install of WIN XP PRO SP2 + new NVIDIA
drivers. My 6800 is also a bit flakey but in different ways.

Went back to the old WIN XP PRO installation on an ancient HD i had
laying around and all was well with the 420mx .

Tested Sponge Bob the movie and the screensaver - everything worked
perfectly. Even Polar Express - the game was having weird problems
with the post WINXP SP2 + nvidia drivers new setup.

So I decided to add one new thing at a time. The first thing I added
to the old WIN XP PRO setup was the new NVIDIA Drivers and that did
it. It messed up Sponge Bob and the built in WIN XP PRO screen saver -
the first two choices only.

Now I have to determine how far back I have to go with the drivers.
The funny thing is I tried doing that uninstalling and then installing
some older NVIDIA drivers that came with the 6800 card last night but
it was still screwed up. Not sure if it didnt clean everything out or
if I didnt go back far enough with driver versions.

As far as my 420 mx card - its defintely the Nvidia drivers.
Not sure if my 6800 though can use really old Nvidia drivers. Might
have to wait for newer drivers for that card.

 

[John]

On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 09:45:03 GMT, "(e-mail address removed)"


Another update.

The 420mx works fine now with driver 61.xxx.

My 6800 however has problems. Maybe its geared towards current games
since HalfLife 2 seems OK and DOOM. But SpongeBOB is a mess . Crashes
all over the place. Ive tried 61.xxxx. ,66.93, 67.22

May try 70.xxx beta.

Seems like theres still a lot of bugs with the 6800 and drivers.
The maddening thing is thats a NEW game. Its not like Jimmy Neutron &
ATIs where older games couldnt play.

I hope its not a case where you cant play a wide segment of games like
childrens games on your PC if you have a 6800. Tried doing a search
but I dont think a lot of 6800 owners play kids games. Ive got a
nephew who is Sponge Bob crazy and Jimmy Neutron crazy. Sure I can use
my other PC but Id like to have the option of using this one too.

Im going to test Polar Express and other games on this .

If anyone has any info on the 6800 and incompatible games - Id like to
hear it. They do list various problems with the new beta drivers and
aspects of various games but they are working on those problems. Im
mainly talking about total crashes and just not being able to run
period.

 

[kony]

On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 09:45:03 GMT, "(e-mail address removed)"


Did another test.

To recap -

My formerly rock stable 420mx nvidia card on an old VIA 333 system
turned really flakey with a new install of WIN XP PRO SP2 + new NVIDIA
drivers. My 6800 is also a bit flakey but in different ways.

Went back to the old WIN XP PRO installation on an ancient HD i had
laying around and all was well with the 420mx .

Tested Sponge Bob the movie and the screensaver - everything worked
perfectly. Even Polar Express - the game was having weird problems
with the post WINXP SP2 + nvidia drivers new setup.

So I decided to add one new thing at a time. The first thing I added
to the old WIN XP PRO setup was the new NVIDIA Drivers and that did
it. It messed up Sponge Bob and the built in WIN XP PRO screen saver -
the first two choices only.

Now I have to determine how far back I have to go with the drivers.
The funny thing is I tried doing that uninstalling and then installing
some older NVIDIA drivers that came with the 6800 card last night but
it was still screwed up. Not sure if it didnt clean everything out or
if I didnt go back far enough with driver versions.

As far as my 420 mx card - its defintely the Nvidia drivers.
Not sure if my 6800 though can use really old Nvidia drivers. Might
have to wait for newer drivers for that card.

I would've also suspected drivers or the games themselves,
though now it seems to be drivers. Which drivers are
working vs. failed so far?

 

[John]

I would've also suspected drivers or the games themselves,
though now it seems to be drivers. Which drivers are
working vs. failed so far?

Well I covered it in the next post but I was really going nuts last
night cause I had several other unrelated problems so I started
getting paranoid that maybe ALL my systems were getting corrupted by
something bizarre. I actually ran memtest for several hours on both
and rechecked all the cables etc. A real hassle.

61.xxxxx defintely works with the 420mx now so Im relieved.
Possibly anything before 67.xxxx but I cant be sure since I dont have
all those drivers.

However as I mentioned in the other post Ive got a whole other set of
problems with the 6800. I think it might just be too new a card though
its been out for a while now. Im going to test a bunch of kids games
since thats where it seems to be having the big problems and the
current top games. I just want to be sure its not a PNY issue (my
card) vs a 6800 driver in general issue. Cause then I can send it back
or take it back to Compusa.