Graphics still not right-help please

You are right, there is an overclocking utility with my graphics card (!never used!), but it has always run perfectly with it installed before, so I can't see it being that. But, all the same, I am downloading the current nVidia drivers from nVidia themselves right now, I'll try anything to solve this.

As for the sound card, ditto the above, they used to work, no reason why they shouldn't now. I will try out the newest drivers, but I have come up against a small problem there;

The website where I have found the drivers ( C-Media ) lists 2 sets of drivers:

Win 98se WDM
Win 98se VxD

Which do I need? how do I tell?

 

These are just two different types of driver for the same card. The FAQ about the CMI 8738 in technical support has a question comparing the two drivers. So its your choice.

WDM = Windows Driver Model
VxD = Virtudal Device Driver

http://www.cmedia.com.tw/e_tech_01.htm

 

Hey Dig, could you find out which Bios Version you have on the board at this time, and the date it was produced? You should see it briefly upon boot, very early in the process.
It should be something like F9, Fa, Fb,........ect.
I also think taking out the generic RAM stick you have in there for the next little while is a good idea leaving the Crucial one installed until we figure this out.
Also, in Device Manager ( Start, Settings, Control Panel, System ) are there any yellow exclamation marks that you can see??

Dale

 

**** - I'm at a loss if pulling that generic memory didn't do anything to help. Next suggestion, boot into safe mode and see if you have any AC97 devices - if so, remove them. Also check to see if you have multiple devices that shouldn't be there - again, remove them and then reboot.

I'm ready to send you five bucks to get the fund started for a new MB if this doesn't work. If you do decide to put that generic memory back in, set Cas timing back to 3.

Good luck Dad .......

 

Ok :

Dale here is the boot code :

62-0502-001199-00101111-071595-KT133-GA7ZM001-F

There are no exclamation marks in device manager.

Rock :

I did have an AC audio controller in device manager, it only appeared in safe mode though, I removed it, and for some reason after that CMR2 wouldn't run at all, kept crashing my pc, eventually, it came up with a "Insert win 98 CD, and click OK" dialog. it installed something from there, don't know what though-but I do remember seeing the word "streaming" in there somewhere-, it is working now. I haven't been back into safe mode to see if it has reinstalled that AC controller yet, but will do later.

As for multiple devices, the only one I can find is under the "Universal Serial Bus controllers ", in there I have :

USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller

But, again, I think they've always been there.

One thing though, I am sure I posted about this before, but can't remember under what title;

In explorer, and my "My Computer ", upon boot, along side the "E:\" drive (CD writer sony 140E-this is the only cdrom drive I have installed at the moment.) the icon is as it should be, and if I put a CD in, of any sort, the icon changes once windows has recognised it, also the drive volume label changes accordingly.
However. If I take the cd out, the icon & the drive volume label stays as it was. Even if I put in another CD, it stays the same, I can run the cd, then go back to explorer, and again, it is the same as the first CD I put in during that "session ". Pressing F5 makes no difference.
Could this be something to do with my problem?
By the way, perhaps we should wait for $dollar-->£sterling exchange rate to favour starting a fund.

 

The only problem I've had of the sort you described happened with Adaptec and Roxio DirectCD programs. They sometimes trapped my discs so I couldnt even remove them without restarting.

 

Before buying a new mobo, I have one last thing to ask, and one last thing to try:

ask:
when my pc is off, and there is still power goin to my speakers, a humming sound comes from the speakers, if I disconnect the speakers from the sound card, cut the power or knock my computer on, it goes.

Mean anything?

Try:
Lately, I have noticed a beep coming from the internal speaker on power down, not always, but often. It's the same noise as when the keyboard buffer is full. So I think I'll try another keyboard in there, just incase mine is faulty.
I realise this could be clutching at straws, but if this is all that is causing it, and I spend money on a new mobo, well, I think you get the jist........

 

Different keyboard did nothing.

 

Hey Dig, it looks to me like you have the original BIOS still in your motherboard. To double check, well, I'll try to show you mine.

American Megatrends Released10/16/2001
7ZXR F9
( "Motherboard model ") ( "this date is important ")


Note the "F9" part. This is the bios version that is installed on my MB. My motherboard model number is the "7ZXR ". Also please note the release date.......And forward these two things to our attention. There have been quite a few bios updates since the original one of your board.
Hit the pause button on your keyboard to get this info. Just to show you how many updated BIOS there are ......here you go.

http://www.giga-byte.com/products/7zm.htm

Now click on the BIOS button(link).
You can follow and see the rest, including the "Other old version BIOS for this model ".
Just to give you an idea of the changes.
You can download and instal the latest BIOS for the board. Just follow the instructions VERY carefully before trying this.
Let us know......which you have at this point.

Dale

 

I was running the latest one, I flashed it about 2-3 months ago, in an attempt to solve this problem. That string I gave you doesn't update when I flash the BIOS, the date for it is up on the top of the screen.

But I went to that site, and tried a few of the older ones, still the same.

I am back on the latest one now.

 

Geez - here we go again. First, I think Dale442 makes another good point re: your bios, however, at this juncture, I still think you have a couple of other things that need attention.

WDM, contrary to another post refers to Windows Device Manager. Further to the referenced C Media driver files (WDM and VXD), you need them both. VXD extensions are virtual device drivers. create a folder and download them. Then search for that folder when you update drivers. There is also a documented problem with these drivers - check the site FAQ and disable MPU 401 WDM before installing the new WDM driver.

As to the CD Rom still showing a specific title after you remove a disk. Close explorer and all other windows, refresh and reopen - voila - its gone.

Sound card hum when machine is off indicates bad ground, bad connection wire (internal or external), bad seating, bad speakers or bad card.

Have you put that generic memory back in or no? Now, for my last (hopefully) post to this thread. If you are not running or planning to run a Seagate tape backup on this machine, I want you to rename the following files by appending them with .old

you can always go back and undo this.

[C:\windows\inf ]
pnpwfdc.inf
pnpwide.inf
pnpwtape.inf
pnpwppt.inf

[C:\windows\system\iosubsys ]
drvwq117.vxd
drvwppqt.vxd
drvwcdb.vxd

This should help your system considerably and may resolve your graphic lockup problem.

 

Hello Rock.
I downloaded the WDM drivers, disabled MPU 401, installed the new drivers as suggested. I found that everything that produced sound ran a little "edgy "(sound breaking up etc), even the windows start up wav file, it made no difference to the graphics, or the game controller problem, so I've gone back to the original drivers off the disc.

I have put my TEAC CDROM back in now, so I have a reader & writer, this one has always run better than the writer, and the icon problem has gone-as I expected it would, however, the writer (F:\) always shows the default icon now, doesn't change when I put in a cd, oh well, it's not that important anyway.

I haven't put the generic memory back in yet, no. But after flashing the BIOS yesterday, I did reload the optimised settings, and set the CAS# latency etc. to your suggested spec.

I also renamed those *.inf & *.vxd files you listed, but unfortunatley, it made no difference to my graphics, sorry.

I can see people here are getting as frustrated with me, as I am with my pc, I am sorry guys, but this machine of mine just ain't playing ball. I am carrying out your suggestions to the letter, but none of them are making the difference we are looking for.

Rock, you said something in your last post about Dale442 making a good point about my BIOS, what exactly?

Cheers.
Dig.

 

I can't recommend just setting your bios at optimim and and hitting F10. Link is below for reading and fine tuning - don't make wholesale changes. Go slow, be patient and record what you are doing and its effect on your system.

Not trying to jump all over the place here, but when you were locking up playing games, I'm assuming you were playing something with dos sound drivers or dos emulation drivers. You also said that you found AC97 when you booted too safe mode and removed it, only to have Windows do something ?%#&! at start up again. Check this again by booting into safe mode and find out whether this stuff is Baaaaack again. Are there any MB jumper settings that have to be made to disable onboard sound and have you checked in your bios to ensure that onboard sound is disabled? A lot of your symptoms are starting to sound similar to Sound card IRQ conflicts, but I'll admit ....... I'm searching for an answer too. Yes, its frustrating not to be able to get inside your case and lick this thing. Excuse me for letting that frustration reflect in my posting. I'll try to keep a more positive tone going.

As to my earlier comments re: renaming those files. Keep them appended with .old - this will eliminate a known Windows problem with those particular drivers and will have no negative influence unless you run out and buy a seagate tape backup. And, keep that generic memory out of the picture until we get this thing licked.

Keep us informed re: the good, the bad and the ugly - lets get this puppy running right.

http://www.3dspotlight.com/tweaks/bios/print.shtml

 

I think we're on to something..................

I went to the Codemasters website, as I am using one their products (CMR2) to test my machine after altering settings.

The have a FAQ there which relates to my problem ( Have a look at FAQ 3 ), as instructed by Codemasters, I altered the priority setting in "Control Panel > Multimedia > Devices > Audio Compression Codecs > Microsoft ADPCM CODEC, and I played the game for ½ hour, then upped the quality, then played it again, the "Frame skip" I have been experiencing would by now make the game unplayable, but it happened just a handful of times. As this setting is a windows feature, I assume it will improve all games.

If anyone out there has knowledge on this feature of windows, please post a link to a site that would help. Or, post what your settings are, for me to try.

Rock, I went to that BIOS site, printed it off, and I am studying it now.

The problem with my controller is still there, but I think that may be for another post, although it could be linked to this too, as in the "Devices" Tab in Multimedia, under Joystick Devices, I am showing 2 Gameport joystick icons, and a HID-Compliant game controller too,...?

There are 2 gameports on my pc (Physically) one on my sound card, the other on the motherboard, although this one is supposed to be disabled, there is only one gameport joystick appearing in Device manager, the HID compliant game controller is there too ( I think this is the USB Saitek P750 gamepad I am using )

Does this help you to help me?

 

Ever the optimist. problem came back, under the same circumstances as when it was fine. Ahh well, wasn't that then, BUT............

I helped out a mate to fit a new cpu fan to his pc. his pc is largely the same spec as mine, but his fan was keeping his Duron 850 at about 51°C (which SpeedFan said was too hot), so we got hold of a Thermaltake Volcane 7 , this has kept his temp down to 41-43°C, all this for £13 (about $9.50) and it looks good too.

He too has Codemasters Colin Mcrae Rally 2, and he was experiencing some "jerkiness" but nothing like the problem I have been experiencing, after fitting the fan, it ran smooth as a smooth thing, and I figure it can't harm to have a nice fan in there, can it?

The fan runs straight from the power supply, so I suppose there's less strain on the mobo, so perhaps it'll work, I have ordered myself one already, I'll let you know the results as soon as I have run it.

Keep the suggestions coming if you have them, I am learning quite a bit from this.

Cheers.
Dig.

 

This is strange.

After putting the fan in, CMR2 runs really bad, then really good, then really bad, changing all the time, in one minute or so intervals.

It has had quite an effect on my computer as far as the performance of this game goes.

It's running off the same power lead as the hard drive, but there is a (single) lead going to the CPUfan connector on the mobo, this is the speed monitor cable.

It runs at about 38°C solid at the mo, not higher than 39°C yet.

Has this fan's effect sparked any ideas?

Dig.

 

My system is DEFINITLY worse since fitting this fan, I have been the manu'f website to check the faqs, just incase there could be a problem, but nothing. So I guess that it could be leading us in the direction of the fault, does anyone have any ideas as to where it may be going?