GTX 460 yellowish tint in DOS/NTVDM

Yeah...so I've got a new GTX 460 and what do you know, DOS graphics (that is, NTVDM) all have this terrible tint to them. There's no white anywhere. But, on the same card, monitor, system, I get the correct colour with emulation. Unfortunately I have no other PCIE cards to test with (this computer is new). Monitor is analog (DVI to dsub), but everything else seems to look right.

I also popped into safe mode, hoping this was some driver fluke, but nay, the colours are wrong, driver or not. I have also tried booting into DOS itself and verified that the graphics are wrong in there too. I asked Gigabyte about this, and they...well...they told me to send the card back to them. I sent the card to Gigabyte, they performed their tests on it, and shipped it back to me with no comment. They don't seem to understand my problem - as far as they are concerned the card works. I also tried posting this problem on Gigabyte's service forum and got no responses!

Just so you can tell what the hell I am going on about, here it is:

This is a correctly coloured bitmap:


One with the new computer:


Please help me.

 

What about your monitor ? Can you check it with some other computer ?

 

Following from RSInfo's advice the make/model of your monitor may also be useful (some monitors keep different hue/colour settings for different resolutions).

We encourage all members to enter their system details, it could help resolving this and any future issues you may have.

 

I can't suggest much. Maybe there is a problem with the basic (base) drivers. Something that might give you a lead is to go to the startup options (F8 at startup) and select VGA mode.

 

rsinfo: The same monitor renders the scene correctly in the same resolution and refresh rate when connected to an Athlon XP laptop (IGP 320M graphics, which ironically lack the correct font for that program).

The monitor is a Sony multiscan E440. It runs at 1024x768, 85Hz.

VGA mode: same result.

Please don't send me back to Engrish land

 

The thing is Hunter, you're not giving us a lot to work with here. We don't know your OS, what software is causing the problem etc...

Once again, We encourage all members to enter their system details, it could help resolving this and any future issues you may have.

Though TBH I'm outta ideas other than what's been mentioned, your system details may help others though.

 

I did enter them in, but I did not know that I had to "enable" their being displayed somewhere else. Well. I've done that. The fact that I completely eliminated any Windows program as being the cause (I said I tried this in DOS and it still happened) means there must be a hardware (or configuration of hardware as the case may be) issue.

I just...I don't know. One more thing to try is to see if a different 320x240 program which doesn't use DOS has this issue. I can only think of one and I'm not sure where that leaves me. I don't know how to get Gigabyte to understand - assuming of course it is the card. I have no idea why my choice of hardware would have this effect besides the graphics card. Frustrating...

 

Hi Hunter, FWIW, are these the specs for your RAM?

• Supports four unbuffered DIMM of 1.5 Volt DDR3 1066/1333/1600*/2000*/2133* (OC) DRAM, 16GB Max
- Supports 1Gb/ 2Gb/ 4Gb DRAM size
- Supports Dual channel mode

Your System Details show DDR2?

One report I read said the guy had changed the RAM to correct an odd problem.
Just my thoughts as RAM can be very critical. Cheers Neil.

 

retiredlearner: It's DDR3, sorry. I don't think the board would boot with DDR2. My last computer had DDR and I don't keep up with the developments.

My latest idea involves switching from PCIE to PCI based graphics in the BIOS, and checking the results. I don't even know what the point of that switch is (probably some efficiency thing).

 

Be very careful of changing graphics settings in the BIOS unless you know the possible outcome. You could start up to a blank screen and need to Clear the CMOS. It might explain the setting in the motherboard manual (although I see Gigabyte still write their manuals with a Chinese accent ) or you could websearch the setting wording, there are a few BIOS explanatory websites around.

Just another maybe, you have dual "heads" on the graphics card? One will be #1, the other #2. See if it is possible to try the other.

Maybe you need a 13" XGA CRT

Matt

 

Well, the PCI/PCIE switch does nothing, as expected.

Matt, I tried the other port and it has the same results.

 

I am running out of suggestions as well. [Which I always hate ]

Keep asking yourself why the emulation works. What is the difference? (Sorry, I've never used it.) Does it run a set of drivers that are no longer around? CRT monitors occasionally needed "drivers ". They were actually colouration files (.ICM files). Check if your monitor manufacturer offers a "driver ". You can change the ICM file for your monitor.

Use different combinations of graphics card and monitor if you can. If you change the graphics card though, you should uninstall the driver/software for the previous graphics card first.

There will be enthusiast websites for emulation, have you tried them?

Matt

 

Emulation:
NTVDM is an emulator itself, but it's only emulating software. There is something about the VGA compatible mode of this graphics card which...if I am to guess, took some shortcut which only causes a problem with...I don't know, CGA mode graphics? (I don't have any 256 color DOS games handy)

The "emulation" I'm referring to is Dosbox, which emulates hardware and not software. I have no idea what it's doing (the configuration file just says VGA or the like) or if there is any possible change to my card. That is, I consider the possibility that this Gigabyte card was designed with this flaw in it (or indeed the GTX 460 chipset itself - I have no idea, most people don't attempt to run 20 year old software on this hardware, I'm guessing). I wouldn't know and couldn't fix that.

I find it funny that this card apparently supports the 8x14 EGA font but can't render the graphics correctly. Funny and kind of enraging in its own special way.

Driver:
There is a Sony E440 driver, which is supposedly only for 98/2000, but it stands to reason the 2000 edition would work with XP. I guess that's something.

Tried it and...well, interesting results. I can now get the monitor to 100Hz (previously was stuck at 85Hz for some weird reason). Thanks for that, lol! New resolutions offered as well. So I'm happy about that - the monitor is doing great, even though it's a poorly focused piece of junk with poor geometry. No change in NTVDM.

I guess I had better look to these enthusiast forums.

 

In VGA emulation mode, the software would use the basic VGA driver. It should work on all the cards but as always, there may be some exception.

When you boot, are the colors ok in BIOS ?

 

Yes, there may be some sort of hardware based cause. Something to do with the palette that only gets used in certain video modes.

I have done some downloading of various old demos, and it looks like this only happens in 4 or 16 color programs (not 256, though I only tested one, which, while I'm not familliar with it, looked fine). So CGA and EGA are not working right. VGA looks fine. The plot thickens.

The BIOS looks good (it appears to be in VGA).

 

Well if the BIOS looks good, then its NOT a card fault. Its most probably something to do with the emulation software.

 

I already tried this in DOS and it's bad there too. sigh...I think we're done here.

 

Sorry, can't offer any more suggestions.

 

If it a modern motherboard that has PCIe, it won't support the old (DOS based) versions of Windows.

If I have older software that won't run on my newer computers, I have one set up to run the software by itself, if it is that important to me. Actually, I have a computer set up running next to this one, running my favourite game (it is not connected to the internet, it doesn't have any programs running in the background). I have my day-to-day system on one and have my game running on the other (and another one running my entertainment system).

Check the emulation forums. As I said, I haven't tried it, but from what I have read, it can be finicky to get it running correctly.

Matt

 

Thanks for the help.