|
Diamond Monster 3dII SLI I have a problem that is irritating the crap out of me, and I have seen a few V2 threads around here, so here goes... About 1 out of every 10 times loading a game that uses the V2, the screen goes all one color, and does nothing else (still seeing the primary adapter). If I ctrl-alt-delt once, and close the game out, I can usually reload it and it works the next time. This problem is VERY intermittant. Also, (this problem is not related). I can't remember when, but sometimes my clock slide in display properties goes to max all by itself (when this happens, the V2's don't work at ALL)... What is going on with this....Anyone else experience this? By the way, I do have a new Primary Display adapter, so PLEASE don't tell me to upgrade. I just keep the V2's for older glide games which I still play. Here is the basics... Intel PIII 700e Abit Bx6 rv 2.0 (440BX chipset) Fresh Install of Win98SE (the problem was there before the fresh install as well) Diamnods final driver release of these cards (DX6)...yes, I know, but 3dfx's DX7 drivers cause bugs for me in the games I play, so I don't use them. 256 megs ram Thanks for any feedback, as these cards work, but when they DO mess up it drives me NUTS. |
Some more info I forgot... Once I successfully get into a game, there are no problems. No lockups, freezes, or anything like that. It works great. Many moons ago I had problems with lockups in UT, but a pair of stealth coolers took care of that. Anyway, my current problem is only once in a while, and its only upon INITIALLY starting the game... Thanks in advance... |
More info... Dug in deeper. Found out that when I start Q1 or Q2, and then alt-escape back to windows WHILE the game is running, then go into the registry, either the games, or the quake engine ITSELF is upping my v2 clock from 92 to 97!!! After shutting down the game, I check regedit again, and my clock mysteriously goes back to 92!!!! WFT over? Someone please help me with this... I tried UT, and ut doesn't mess with the clock settings. I tried Q3, but couldn't get back into windows (alt-tab or alt-esc) to check it while it was running... HELP! |
Run MSCONFIG, click on the Startup tab and see if there's a 3Dfx or Diamond related background app being loaded. If so, disable it. I don't like Diamond's drivers. I would recommend either the latest 3Dfx reference driver or, my personal recommendation, the 2/1/99 reference driver which was the best driver ever written for the V2 in my opinion. Keep in mind that driver does not support OpenGL so you'd have to install the WickedGL miniport to play Q3 and SoF. You can get the latest 3Dfx reference driver here: http://voodoofiles.com The 2/1/99 reference driver is here: http://soldcentralfl.com/quakecoop/files/v2ref0299.zip Make sure both cards are FULLY seated into their slot connectors (common problem with the V2). You usually have to press against the back of the motherboard with one hand (watch out for sharp things!) while pushing the card into it's slot. It MUST seat fully and sit level. Often the back end won't sit as deep as the front and will barely make contact. Sometimes you have to bend the aluminum bracket up on the card a bit with pliers to allow it to fully seat in the slot. When it's properly seated, it should NOT come out with a gentle two finger tug. Hope this helps... ------------------ The Flying Penguin :) http://TheFlyingPenguin.com |
Thank you SO MUCH for your reply...seeing a couple threads of yours, it looks like you really know your stuff... Some questions... The drivers that you recommended, are they DX6 or DX7 drivers? The reason I ask it, cause at one point a long time ago I tried the DX7 reference drivers, but when I did, lost the ability to use the brightness slider in Quake2, so that is why I use the DX6 Diamond ones... Also, I am not familiar with the miniGL that you mentioned...is that the same thing that I did...I took the file "3dfxogl.dll" from the DX7 reference drivers (since that file was NOT included with the diamond DX6 ones) and dropped it in my windows\system folder in order to play OpenGL games... Note: My cards are FULLY seated. I checked UT, and UT NEVER messes up (and it doesn't mess with the graphics clock, either)... Have you heard of this before? I truly belive the root of my problem is the fact that quake1 and quake2 are upping my clock to 97 Mhz, and I have NOT been able to find a way to stop it from doing that... One time, I read of another guy having his "clock slider" in control panel going up by itself, but he didn't know why, and now I can't find anyone with that problem (but then again, who besides me still plays quake2 with SLI'd V2s)? I *think* it might be an issue with the coppermine processor... Oh, well, sorry this is so long.....any more info would be appreciated.. Again, thank you very much for your reply. |
Sorry for so many replies...but more useful info... Quake 1 and 2 are NOT setting a value to my V2 clock, they are adding 5Mhz to whatever value is in my registry... For example, I turn on my pc, go into regedit, and set my clock at 88Mhz, I then load up quake (or quake2) and alt-tab back into windows, and recheck the registry, and the new value (caused by the game) is 93Mhz. For a workaround, I guess I could downclock my v2, so that when quake loaded it upclocked it to the default settings, but then there are other games that don't exhibit this behavior... Weird, huh? And by the way, Flying Penguin..I am not quite qualified to be a member of the old geezers club, but getting there. I am 30 years old...Nice to meet a gamer that is around my age... Thanks again |
Well, I finally got it... I reluctantly upgraded my driver from the final Diamond DX6 one to the 3dfx latest referance, and that did the trick... Only thing is now when I make a brightness change in Quake2 I have to exit and restart the game for it to take effect. No biggie there, but more importantly, I can't disable V-sync...Oh, well, take the good with the bad I guess... |
The overclocking problem is a known bug in the Diamond drivers - doesn't happen to everyone. You can still try the drivers I recommended - and yes they are Dx6 compliant drivers. You can always use a 3rd party app for disabling VSync. Try the V2 Overclocker - it adds a tab to the Display Properties that gives you a clock slider and VSync control: http://voodooextreme.com/flypenguin/files/v2oc1400.zip The WickedGL miniport is like the 3Dfx Miniport for Quake engines, but unlike the 3Dfx miniport the WickedGL works with Quake3. If you use the older 2/1/99 drivers you must use the WickedGL miniport to play Q3 as the old drivers don't support OpenGL. You can get it at Wicked3d.com ------------------ The Flying Penguin :) http://TheFlyingPenguin.com |
Thanks FP... I did some testing, and all is well. Funny thing, I posted messages all over the place, called tech support, emai, etc...I NEVER knew about the overclocking problem with the diamond drivers...First time I had heard of it... A friend of mine usually follows my footsteps with his drivers and such (he has a Diamnod Monster 3dII as well), but I got him to do the exact same thing I did, and his did not do it, but he doesn't have a pair in SLI for one, and he is still using a Katmai processor secondly... Oh, well...thanks for all the help... Alan |
| All times are GMT -7. |
Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2016, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
SEO by vBSEO 3.6.0 ©2011, Crawlability, Inc.