nVidia Display Problems. HELP!

Geesh, just when I thought things were going good.

As some of you know about a week ago I installed a new AGP nVidia GForce4 MX440SE 64MB DDR video card.

Today my colors are messing up. What's supposed to be white is real light blue, and on this BBS what is supposed to be gray is greenish, and it flashes darker & lighter.

What's going on? Can anyone tell me, please?

 

OK. I'm back with more info.

Here's something that may help. I checked my two other OS's, & the specifics on the card says they are both running the card as AGP in PCI Mode, and the default color management is my DC770 Monitor. Those two don't seem to have the color problem. The one that is having the problem says the card is running in AGP2X mode, and does not show anything as the default color management.

I have not set up any particular settings for the card. I left it on defaults when I installed it on each OS. Can't figure out why it is showing different settings in those areas. Why the color is messing up on one & not the other two.

Which way should it be running? AGP in PCI Mode, or AGP2X Mode, or should it be AGP in 4X mode. My board supports both 2X & 4X AGP. And why does the AGP2X mode not name my Monitor as the default color manager?

I am really confused here. I read the book, but it was of no help.

Don't know how, or why this happened. Could someone please help me on this?

 

If I am reading ( or remember ) correctly you are running a Multi OS system. That may or may not be the problem. But I did have some video ( and other ) problems when I also had a Multi OS system.

Which OS is messing up ?

I found the fix to be rather tough. As each OS MAY use a completely different set ( version ) of drivers. The ones used in one may not work in the other.

There are so many areas for problems here that it is very tough to know just which area is to blame.

#1 Did you install any Motherboard drivers ( if required ) for EACH OS ?

#2 Set the machine to boot DIRECTLY into the OS involved from a cold ( power off ) state and boots DIRECTLY back into the same OS on a restart. In other words set the offending OS as default.

#3 completely remove the offending item and start over and setup the video as standard VGA setup first. I had to do that about 4 times in 98SE before I got the version that would work properly with ALL programs.

#4 And maybe more important. I always seemed to have problems with a Mulit OS system UNLESS I COLD booted when switiching between them. And I only had DOS/Win3.1, 95 and 98. The new pain in the butt ME or XP were not involved. With todays faster machines they may reboot to quickly and do not allow RAM to clear properly. ( my thinking anyway )

#5 It could also be that the BIOS settings are not suitable for all three OS.

#6 And MOST important ( to me anyway ) is if XP is the offending OS count me out.

BillyBob

 

Thank you so much BillyBob,

Yes I have 3 OS's on this drive. The one that is messing up is the first one at the beginning of the drive. I use it for the Internet. It is 98SE. The other two are 98FE. The FE ones seems to be fine. It's the SE that is giving me fits sometimes.

#1. No I didn't install any Motherboard Drivers. It didn't seem to need it done. All I've done is add this main 30GB hard drive, & set it up with 3 OS's. Should I have installed the MoBo drivers?

#2. The offending OS was already set as the default boot drive, but I have Boot Magic set to wait indefinitely, so that I have plenty of time to tell it which one I want to boot to.

#3. I made sure I followed the directions explicitly when I installed the VCard on the offending OS. It may be the only OS I actually did it the way it said to do it. By version, are you refering to the AGP running in PCI mode, & AGP running in 2X mode?

#4. 600MHz is not very fast, but not turning loose of RAM may be causing a problem. Hadn't thought of that.

#5. All three OS's worked just fine before this nVidia was installed. And everything else still works fine. Just the color messes up sometimes on the first Primary. That seems to be the only one it happens on. The BIOS would seem to be fine, but I will check it on all of them to see if I can find any differences.

#6. I won't touch XP with a 10' pole until I have to.

Thanks for giving me some suggestions. I appreciate it a lot. I will check all of it out. I probably will wind up having to remove the nVidia from Add\Remove, & re-install the drivers.

 

You are welcome.

#1 MoBo Drivers. YES, If reguired they do need to be installed to make AGP work properly. And also they need to be re-install every time you install Windows. As even though it says MB drivers they are not on the MB. They go into Windows files.

#2 just fine.

#3 By version I mean the version of Video Drivers. FE driver may not work in SE And the other way around. But your card should have a CD which drivers for each version of Windows. And if there is a folder for SE they should be installed from it.

#4 RAM not clearing is possible.

#5 I doubt BIOS being a problem. But could be

#6 Me neither just yet.

Before trying to re -install the drivers go to Display and change it to a standard VGA setup first. And restart Windows to make sure it stays VGA and does not try to reinstall Nvida drivers. Just say no it it asks about finding drivers for the Nvidia.

Next got to C:\Windows\inf and C:\Windows\inf\other and remove any references to Nvidia. If this is not done the possibley bad drivers may get put right back in again.

I wish you good luck because I know where you are at.

BillyBob

PS
Speaking of SE. I hope you used the SE UPGRADE and not the SE UPDATE.

 

Well, it would seem that I have my work cut out for me. I did not know that you had to install the MoBo drivers everytime you install Windows. See, I am still a big dummy about quite a few things.

Well, I guess I will remove nVidia first on all of them. Install the MoBo drivers for each OS, then re-install nVidia. Geesh, I wish I'd known some of this stuff earlier. Maybe I need to remove "Somewhat Intermediate" from my BBS experience thingy, and replace it with "Dummy."

Neither one. I have a full 98SE disk. I got the 98FE some years ago, then the 98SE a few months ago.

I've never used an upgrade or update.

Thank you once again, BillyBob. I really appreciate the help. I told bubba169 he was an angel on another post. You're an angel too.

 

Neither one. I have a full 98SE disk.

That is good news to read before the first cup of coffee in the AM.

Do not feel bad about the MoBo drivers. I do know they are needed and still forget them.

BTW. the MoBo drivers effect other things also. Which I believe you will see when you intall them.

The only difference between the full and upgrade is that the full does not need a prievious version for proof of ownership. But the actuall Windows part is the same. Plus the upgrade is $100 cheaper.

The UPDATE requires 98 to be actually installed first.

 

Thanks again BillyBob,

I appreciate all the help you've given me. You've been a real lifesaver.

 

Thank you. And you are welcome.

I have been wondering how you were doing.

Is everything working properly. ?

If the answer is yes then I am happy. As I know full well that was a big job.

BillyBob

 

No, I'm afraid not.

I did exactly as you said on removing it from the computer. There was only one thing that I could find in the Windows\Inf & inf\other that pertained to nVidia. Then I installed the MoBo drivers. Then the nVidia card again.

I did it exactly as the nVidia book said, and it's still doing it. I left all of the settings in the nVidia on the default ones. The book says to let Windows install the Standard PCI Graphics Adapter Driver first. I wonder about that?

This is about to drive me freaking nuts. This color flashing from normal to greenish, & back again, is hard on the eyes.

I am about ready to take this card back to the store, and put my old one back in.

I am too darn tired to mess with it anymore tonight. I'm going to bed.

 

That is not good news.

Is the problem only happening in SE ?

If in all OSs then I would think Monitor. I just had to get a new one a while back for the same reason.

If only in SE then I would think wrong drivers.

Hey folks we need a little help here.

Could this be a possible Directx problem ?

Or possible refresh rate ?

BB

 

BB - I think you are 100% on the mark - sure sounds like drivers to me too and I don't think (watch me be wrong) she needs to go any further than this to find the culprit.

As another step Deloris, repeat BB's instruction set again but also run RegCleaner (if you don't have it installed, get it) and remove all Nvidia references. Then try rebooting and reinstalling your NVidia drivers.

 

The other two OS's seem to be doing just fine, but the curious thing there is that the nVidia card says it is running the AGP in PCI mode on those two. Why did it do that? On the naughty one it is running the AGP in 2X mode. Can't figure that out at all.

I discovered something else last night after I'd posted the above. I was looking so hard for a reason for all of this, and I may have found it. I sure hope so!

On the other two, not only did nVidia recognize my Monitor Drivers, it automatically set up my DC770 monitor as the default color Manager. But it "was not" the default color manager on the OS that is giving me a headache. It did, however recognize the DC770 monitor as a DC770.

So I went & looked in the C:windows\system\color folders on each one, & the only one that "did not" have my monitor's color profile installed was the one that is being a beast. So I went & told it to set up the monitor color profile, then went into nVidia, & told it to use it as the color manager, like the other two were.

The profile having not been in there, it naturally couldn't auto set it up as the color manager like it did on the other two.

I am not sure this will fix it, but I am sure hoping it will. Wish me luck. I need it. I will post back once I know for sure if what I did fixed it or not.

Thanks for hanging in there with me BillyBob, and thanks Rockster2U for your thoughts too.

 

Some things to try.

Get the monitor to set up as a Plug-N-Play.

Set the Hardware acceleration back a notch.

Try changing the resolution settings.

Try setting the adapter refresh rate at a fixed 85.

This may be a dumb thought and may not even apply ( I doubt if it does ). Is the Monitor capable of handling the full output of the card ? I ask this because if it is not it can damage the monitor. I think that is what happened to my old Monitor. I tried to over drive it.

I can not get away from trying to help. Cause as I mentioned in an earlier I had to go through this process 4 times before I it got done right.

I just looked in Device Manager and I am using drivers dated 7-16-2002. They are the only ones that will work properly with ALL programs.

BillyBob

 

Well, I'm back. I have really been through the mill.

Things are looking normal now. I just hope it stays that way.

The green color flickering seems to have been caused by the Monitor hook-up to the computer. Not sure about that, but when hubby reached back there & wiggled it, it stopped & hasn't done it since. Of course that was only about an hour or so ago.

Now as to the other stuff. White was not white anymore. It was either real pale baby blue, or real pale baby pink. Almost white, but not quite. Go figure!

Well, I uninstalled & reinstalled four times. Trying something a bit different each time. The last time I went in, I removed everyting I could possibly find concerning the nVidia. I also removed the DC770.inf monitor drivers & .icm color profile file. Considering the fact that the monitor drivers, & the nVidia drivers may not be compatible. Reset the default to standard VGA, & etc. Made sure it stayed that way upon re-boot.

This consarned Windows 98SE re-installed the DC770 monitor drivers. Yes! It recognizes my monitor without installing the drivers manually. I went in, & confirmed that. So I still had the fade to blue & pink, not quite white problem. Unwilling to un-install everything again & so frustrated, I was about to give up completely, I managed one more thought. Remembering something you said BillyBob, but I didn't do it in the order you said to do it. Did it after, not before.

I disabled the DC770 in Device manager, then I went into Display Properties, Monitor, Change, & forced Windows to convert it to a Plug & Play monitor instead, & install plug & play drivers for the Monitor, then went back into Device Manager, & the Plug & Play was there but in Disabled mode, attesting to the fact that it had actually replaced the DC770, not just added a Plug & Play one too, so I re-enabled it. It seems to have worked so far.

I have done so much to this thing in the last few days trying to get it fixed, that I am not 100% sure that I am detailing the steps correctly on my final try.

I am praying that this is finally fixed. My brain is absolute mush now.

Thanks once again BillyBob for hanging in there with me, and I hope we can both rest now.

 

Well I sure hope it stays fixed too.

Now that you have it fixed ( at least I hope I am reading correctly ) You can sit back and enjoy.

There is nothing that can think of that has given me more problems or just plain aggrevation than Video drivers.

BTW. A personal question. How much hair did you pull out during this agrrevating, foul language making, desk pounding session ?

There is certainly no problem with hanging in with help cause due to my own FRUSTRATION with the same problem I new what you were up against.

As for myself today. I am going to just sit here and write notes. See what trouble I can start. An stay warm. We have about 1 to 1 & 1/2 inchs of ICE and snow. The mail can wait till Monday.

BillyBob

 

BillyBob,

Yes, it would seem to be fixed. I sure hope so.

Nothing, and I mean nothing has ever frustrated me so much on this thing before. Close, but not quite. This has relly been a trip. I don't think I have never had so much trouble fixing anything before.

Not as much as you'd think. I tried to refrain from physical self abuse. I did use a few chosen bad words though. There's too much junk on my desk for me to get a spot to pound on. I need to clean it off. I did threaten to take the Video card out & stomp it a few times though. If it hadn't cost me so much I might have.

I sure did prop my head in my hands a lot though, just trying to get my brain to function. Enough frustration will make jelly out of anyone's brain, even those of us who don't give up that easily.

Thanks again, have a wonderful day, & God bless ya, BillyBob.

 

And again. Thank you, And you are welcome.

BB

 

Hello

Deloris, did you install before GeForce drivers
DirectX 8.0 or upper? Did you also install the
NVidia set of special drivers called 4in1?
You really ought to do it.

regards

Stefan

 

NVidia set of special drivers called 4in1?

best5

I believe you may be referring to VIA 4 in1 drivers. They are so called Motherboard drivers not Nvidia.

And not all Motherboards use ( or even the same ) VIA 4in1 drivers. I have a MSI MB. And when I went looking for 4in1 drivers I had to make darn sure I got the ones for my chipset(s).

BillyBob