Windows XP screen flashing, nVidia and DirectX 9

[Juha Salmi]

My brother-in-law is at it again... got a new game (Call of Duty)...
and you can easily guess the rest.

Troublemakers:
- Windows XP (SP1a)
- GeForceMX-200 (WHQL nVidia drivers v56.64)
- DirectX 9.0 (updated by Call of Duty)

No problem with games, but in Windows XP screen is flashing. Mouse and
everything hangs for a few seconds (1 to 5 secs) and then sreen
flashes once. Flashing frequency is irregular. Windows is also having
some troubles with drawing desktop icons and other elements.

If nVidia drivers are uninstalled everything but games work fine. I've
tried installing different versions (dating back to 2002) with no
luck.

I'm suspecting that it may be DirectX 9 and nVidia combination that
causes problems.

I do know that there is no real point in having DX9 with
GeForceMX-200.


Is there a way to make DX9 work with this combination? Or am I totally
off-track here?

Has anyone had similar symptoms?

 

[Guest]

I don't have any problems with the new 56.64 drivers on my OS. Using GeForce2 MX\MX400. If you go into the properties you will see a profile setting that is specifically setup for Call of Duty. Right click your desktop then click properties\Setings tab-advanced button\GeForce tab\ then with the configuration panel open on the left (click the little green button about half way down on the left if you don't see it) Click performance and settings and start configuring away. For Call of duty click the drop down list arrow under the "application profiles" line and select call of duty and then put check marks in the appropriate boxs. I rather suspect this is a lack of knowledge about configuration rather than a driver problem. Good luck.

 

[Bruce Tyler]

My brother-in-law is at it again... got a new game (Call of Duty)...
and you can easily guess the rest.

Troublemakers:
- Windows XP (SP1a)
- GeForceMX-200 (WHQL nVidia drivers v56.64)
- DirectX 9.0 (updated by Call of Duty)

No problem with games, but in Windows XP screen is flashing. Mouse and
everything hangs for a few seconds (1 to 5 secs) and then sreen
flashes once. Flashing frequency is irregular. Windows is also having
some troubles with drawing desktop icons and other elements.

If nVidia drivers are uninstalled everything but games work fine. I've
tried installing different versions (dating back to 2002) with no
luck.

I'm suspecting that it may be DirectX 9 and nVidia combination that
causes problems.

I do know that there is no real point in having DX9 with
GeForceMX-200.


Is there a way to make DX9 work with this combination? Or am I totally
off-track here?

Has anyone had similar symptoms?

For a kick-off, tell him to go back to a more appropriate driver.
v56.64 may not be at all suitable to his GF2. I would suggest that
doing this alone may stop the problem...

Go to stable drivers like 41.09 (very stable) or 30.82 (also well
known as stable) or 45.23/45.33 which are all good stable drivers and
WELL suited to his card...

50 series drivers can and do work with older GeForce cards but are
more likely to develop faults in doing so as they are really more
aimed at the new FX lineup of cards. Once a fault surfaces it
generally wont go away under that particular application so that
indicates that it's time to move to the more appropriate driver...

As for DX9,, it should only make things better for ALL cards... Keep
it and don't worry about it. Your brother-in-law has other problems...

 

[DaveW]

That card is NOT DX9 capable, and you should be using no driver more recent
than the 45.23, if that. Time for an upgrade I think.

 

[Bruce Tyler]

That card is NOT DX9 capable, and you should be using no driver more recent
than the 45.23, if that. Time for an upgrade I think.

I think that statement should be clarified a little...

"Any" GeForce card can be used with DX9,, be it an original GeForce or
a GF4 Ti4600... So it "IS" DX9 capable...

What you and others who keep echoing these words, should be saying is,
that all GeForce cards, right up to the Ti4600 or whatever the last
one was,, can NOT take advantage of all of the latest developments
built into DX9,, but they CAN run in a DX9 environment because all
versions of DX like many other drivers, is backwards compatible (well
at least to a certain extent anyway)...

I can assure you that a GeForce 2 card is DX9 capable. I just built a
system a month ago and it had a GeForce 2 MX card in it and I had
installed DX9.0b on it and I was playing "Call of Duty" on it just to
show that all was working well.. I was quite pleasantly surprised to
see just how well it ran too, for an older card..

What you really mean is that a GF card is NOT fully DX9 compatible. In
this case, compatible and capable have a subtle but distinctive
difference and those who are quite happy with their existing graphics
cards should not have to feel the "need" to buy a new one just because
DX9 has burst onto the scene... Don't worry, I'm not attacking you
personally for what you said, it's just that my experience tells me
different than what a lot of guys have said on this matter...

I don't believe that DX9 is at the heart of this guys problem. It's
more likely to be the graphics drivers.. Again, we have the exact same
scenario where this guy is using a graphics driver 56.64 which is not
fully compatible with his card. It "is" though capable of running with
it,, only,, it may be the case that the compatiblilty issue has caught
up with him this time around..

I could be totally wrong about this but I have had these same symptoms
with these same drivers and an older graphics card...