Trouble with video card??

[bossmitch]

I just started up a computer I put together, which includes an ASUS
P4S800 motherboard with a Sis 648FX chipset, using an Intel 2.8 Gig
processor and PC3200 DDR memory. I installed an ATI Radeon 9600SE
128MB video card. I have updated audio and video drivers, and have
directx9.0b. A couple of games I tried have crashed, Star Wars Knights
of the Old Republic and Star Wars Galaxies. KOTOR freezes up at
exactly the same place, right at the beginning of the character
selection, and Galaxies runs a while (2-5 minutes) before freezing up.
They freeze and lock up everything so that Alt-Ctr-Del doesn't even
work, I have to reset. I thought it was related to the sound card but
I completely removed it and got the same problem at the same place in
KOTOR.

What is strange and I can't figure out is that my video card is an AGP
card, but on the device manager (properties), it is listed as twice,
both times as being PCI port 7 (or something similar). The second
listing has secondary listed beside it in paranthesis. Shouldn't it be
listed as AGP. I adjusted motherboard setting to make AGP the primary
video device. I am not positive it is related to the game lock-ups,
but this is the only thing so far that I can't explain.

If anyone has any ideas, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[Jimmy S.]

Hi Bossmitch,

Disable all other video other than the AGP one. I was going to
simply say to disable the onboard video, however I looked up
your motherboard and it doesn't appear to have one that I can see:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/print/asus-p4p800s.html

Most likely your resolution will come from updating your SiS chipset
drivers, in order to have the correct AGP support for your motherboard.

More about that chipset and video drivers to follow. Good luck!

Updating video card drivers can solve most gaming issues. Here's some
rules of thumb though to always keep in mind. Shut DL accelerators, fire-
walls and antivirus programs off while downloading or installing drivers and
updates. Also check the game's website (or Fileplanet.com) for patches.

Test your drivers using DXDiag: Click Start / Run / type: DXDIAG
Click the "Test" buttons in the Display, Sound, Music & Network Tabs;
If any of the Display options are Disabled and you cannot Enable them,
your most likely solution would be to update your Chipset Drivers as per
my website: http://www3.sympatico.ca/nibblesnbits/Video.html#v11

Before you update your drivers, I recommend that you install DirectX 9.0b*:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/c/9/c/c9c8a1d4-7690-4c98-baf3-0c67e7f3751f/dx90b_redist.exe

I recommend you also look over the ATI article about their latest driver:
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/catalyst_39_release_notes.html#165629
and fixes: http://www2.ati.com/drivers/catalyst_39_release_notes.html#165432

2. Download the Catalyst 3.9 driver for ATI Radeon or All in Wonder Card:
XP/2000: http://www2.ati.com/drivers/wxp-w2k-7-95-031028m-011774c.exe

Win 98/Me: http://www2.ati.com/drivers/wme-7-95-031028m-011774c.exe

3. Save the .exe driver in My Documents\My Drivers\ATI39

4. Restart the computer in Safe Mode by pressing the F8 key
about once every second as it's rebooting to pick Safe Mode.

5. Click Start / (settings) Control Panel / System / Hardware
Device Manager / expand +Display Adapters / right click on
the adapter, pick "Uninstall", and click No if asked to reboot.

6. Use Control Panel / Add-Remove programs to uninstall the
previous driver (exe)software which may have been installed.

7. Restart the computer in Safe Mode by pressing the F8 key
about once every second as it's rebooting to pick Safe Mode.

8. If Windows prompts you to install the adapter, click "Cancel".

9. Double click the ATI driver we saved to My Documents\
Drivers\Geforce folder in step 3 to install.it. If it complains about
Windows Logo Certification just click "Continue". This is normal.

10. After you reboot, go to Control Panel / Display / Settings and
choose 32 bit Color Quality, and 1024x768 Screen Resolution.

TROUBLESHOOTING:

Along with your Video card, Sound Cards, Motherboard Chipsets,
and Video Monitors may also require updated drivers. Even your
motherboard's BIOS may need to be updated for compatibility with
your Video card. These steps are listed at: http://NibblesNbitsVideo.tk

The latest video drivers sometime don't work with a particular game.
(Check the Video suggestions in the readme.txt file in your game folder/CD)
If there's no suggestions, try an older (WHQL) driver, and/or if you still
experience problems try a Beta driver, or even an Omega driver instead:

BETA Drivers: http://download.guru3d.com/
OMEGA Drivers: http://www.omegacorner.com/

There you have it, if you have any questions feel free to post them!

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

(e-mail address removed)> wrote in message | I just started up a computer I put together, which includes an ASUS
| P4S800 motherboard with a Sis 648FX chipset, using an Intel 2.8 Gig
| processor and PC3200 DDR memory. I installed an ATI Radeon 9600SE
| 128MB video card. I have updated audio and video drivers, and have
| directx9.0b. A couple of games I tried have crashed, Star Wars Knights
| of the Old Republic and Star Wars Galaxies. KOTOR freezes up at
| exactly the same place, right at the beginning of the character
| selection, and Galaxies runs a while (2-5 minutes) before freezing up.
| They freeze and lock up everything so that Alt-Ctr-Del doesn't even
| work, I have to reset. I thought it was related to the sound card but
| I completely removed it and got the same problem at the same place in
| KOTOR.
|
| What is strange and I can't figure out is that my video card is an AGP
| card, but on the device manager (properties), it is listed as twice,
| both times as being PCI port 7 (or something similar). The second
| listing has secondary listed beside it in paranthesis. Shouldn't it be
| listed as AGP. I adjusted motherboard setting to make AGP the primary
| video device. I am not positive it is related to the game lock-ups,
| but this is the only thing so far that I can't explain.
|
| If anyone has any ideas, I would greatly appreciate it.
|
|

 

[Eddy]

Dont know if youve done this or not, check your BIOS at
startup (normally DEL key will activate) and check your
primary graphics settings are set to AGP not PCI if so and
there is a sppeed setting ie 2x, 4x 6x etc set to lowest
your board or card may not support the highest setting.

Unfortunately none of this may help as I suspect its the
fact you updated to directX9.0b (b = beta)and beta=problems
just like the ones i have been having since installing 9b
with one of my older games.

 

[Jimmy S.]

Hi Eddy,

DirectX 8.1 was the beta for DirectX 9 so to speak, however
DirectX 9.0b is not b for beta, it's b because they improved it
after they released 9.0a. Honest. This isn't some type of hype.

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

| Dont know if youve done this or not, check your BIOS at
| startup (normally DEL key will activate) and check your
| primary graphics settings are set to AGP not PCI if so and
| there is a sppeed setting ie 2x, 4x 6x etc set to lowest
| your board or card may not support the highest setting.
|
| Unfortunately none of this may help as I suspect its the
| fact you updated to directX9.0b (b = beta)and beta=problems
| just like the ones i have been having since installing 9b
| with one of my older games.
| >-----Original Message-----
| >I just started up a computer I put together, which
| includes an ASUS
| >P4S800 motherboard with a Sis 648FX chipset, using an
| Intel 2.8 Gig
| >processor and PC3200 DDR memory. I installed an ATI
| Radeon 9600SE
| >128MB video card. I have updated audio and video drivers,
| and have
| >directx9.0b. A couple of games I tried have crashed, Star
| Wars Knights
| >of the Old Republic and Star Wars Galaxies. KOTOR freezes
| up at
| >exactly the same place, right at the beginning of the
| character
| >selection, and Galaxies runs a while (2-5 minutes) before
| freezing up.
| >They freeze and lock up everything so that Alt-Ctr-Del
| doesn't even
| >work, I have to reset. I thought it was related to the
| sound card but
| >I completely removed it and got the same problem at the
| same place in
| >KOTOR.
| >
| >What is strange and I can't figure out is that my video
| card is an AGP
| >card, but on the device manager (properties), it is
| listed as twice,
| >both times as being PCI port 7 (or something similar).
| The second
| >listing has secondary listed beside it in paranthesis.
| Shouldn't it be
| >listed as AGP. I adjusted motherboard setting to make AGP
| the primary
| >video device. I am not positive it is related to the game
| lock-ups,
| >but this is the only thing so far that I can't explain.
| >
| >If anyone has any ideas, I would greatly appreciate it.
| >
| >
| >.
| >

 

[bossmitch]

Thanks for responding so quickly. I tried most of the things you
suggested again. I am not able to flash my bios because I can't get my
floppy drive to work. And you are right, there is no onboard video.

Do you know why I am getting two display adapters listed, when I have
only one video card? When I try to uninstall either of them, even in
safe mode, when I reboot in safe or normal mode, Windows detects the
adapter twice, and installs SOMETHING twice for "both" adapters. Even
though I clearly have one card installed in the AGP slot. In the
device manager, when I right click on each listing, and click
properties, I get the following:

Radeon 9600 Series
Location: PCI Slot 7 (PCI bus 1, device 0, function 0)

Then when I right click on the second adapter listed as "Radeon 9600
Series - Secondary" in device manager, I get the following under
properties:

Radeon 9600 Series
Location: PCI Slot 7 (PCI bus 1, device 0, function 1)

For some reason, as I said above, my Windows doesn't give me a choice
when it determines there is one video card, then a second video card.
It installs something without giving me a window with any options. No
"Add new harware widow or anything. I have installed several versions
of Windows over the years and never seen this. I get a popup message
from my bottom "task" bar with a little symbol showing up on the bar.
Then after detecting the first adapter and automatically installing,
it finds another one and installs something, without giving me a
choice. When I tried your instructions and went into safe mode, I was
surprised that it did the same thing.

I do have the SiS AGP driver installed.

Any ideas you may have are greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[chris.catt]

Hi, you will always see two adapters with radeon cards and XP will always
show a AGP card in PCI slot as it's still on the PCI bus. Nothing to worry
about at all....
Chris C

 

[bossmitch]

Thanks for responding. That makes me feel better about the adapter
problem. I was focusing on that because I can't figure out what else
is wrong, and that seemed out of place to me. But now I don't know
what to try next except to get my floppy working and get my Bios
updated. I still crash almost immediatley when starting Knights of the
Old Republic, and after a few minutes of gameplay on Star Wars
Galaxies. I was able to play Morrowind without incident, although only
tried for about 15 minutes. I will try some of my many other games to
see which ones this happens on.

Any other suggestions are welcome.