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How?

  1. System Configuration.
  2. Research, Research and More Research.
  3. Analysis.
  4. To Turbo Or Not To Turbo.
  5. New System Configuration.
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1. System Configuration

This was my system's configuration :-

  1. Q3Test Win32 v1.08
  2. GLSetup v1.0.0.1063
  3. Windows 98
  4. AMD K6-III 400Mhz CPU
  5. FIC VA-503+ Revision 1.1A Motherboard
  6. 64MB PC-100 SDRAM
  7. Diamond Viper V770 32MB AGP Graphics Card
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2. Research, Research and More Research

I did a lot of searching and reading in newsgroups like alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia and alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.fic thru www.deja.com, and the websites of Diamond Multimedia, nVidia, VIA, and FIC.

The first thing that struck me is that a lot of people are having the same or a similar problem. Some of these people had a number of ideas, explanations and suggestions :-

  1. The TNT2 cards draw a lot of electrical current, and the mobos cannot supply it.
  2. The VIA MVP3 drivers installed are not up-to-date
  3. Only FIC specified versions of the VIA drivers should be used.
  4. The TNT2 card drivers installed are not up-to-date.
  5. DirectX is not up-to-date.
  6. Some BIOS settings are wrong.
  7. GLSetup is not installed or not up-to-date.
  8. It is a TNT2-specific problem.
  9. It is a non-Intel chipset (VIA and ALi) problem.
  10. etc.
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3. Analysis

I waded through this unholy mess and tried to extract some useful info and determine a common denominator.

First off, I determined some common characteristics of the problems other people were having :-

  1. OpenGL and DirectX games like Quake2, Half-Life and Q3Test are affected.
  2. Various brands (Diamond, Creative) and models (Ultra, non-Ultra) of TNT2 cards have the same problem.
  3. Voodoo3 cards also have a similar problem.
  4. The problem is not CPU, motherboard and chipset specific. People with P-IIs + Gigabyte BX boards and K6-IIIs + FIC MVP3 boards have the same complaints.

Then, I added the info I had collected from the various hardware and software manufacturers. After studying this for a few hours, I devised a plan of attack :-

1. Ensure all drivers/software are up-to-date I already had this covered except for the VIA IDE drivers, which I didn't think would have any impact.
2. Check the BIOS This is from the Diamond Viper V770 FAQ page :-
The Viper V770 requires an IRQ to function correctly. If it does not receive an IRQ, the above symptoms may occur. To assign the V770 an IRQ, look for an option called "Assign IRQ for VGA" in your system bios setup. This should be set to 'enabled' or 'auto'.
3. Downgrade the VIA AGP drivers to v2.9 One suggestion from the newsgroups was to only use the VIA drivers from FIC's website, because these had been verified by FIC. In other words, the latest is not necessarily the greatest. Specifically, the writer mentioned the VIA AGP drivers. He said he only had problems after upgrading to v3.52, and the problem went away after he reverted to v2.9.
4. Un-install GLSetup This is from ID Software's automated email support for Q3Test & GLSetup :-
We are aware of some cards not being correctly identified (when installing over ASUS TNT boards/drivers, some Matrox, Savage3, and a few others) and one card slipped through altogether (one rev of the ATI Rage Pro).
5. Use the Diamond Viper V770 drivers This idea borrows from Step 3; that the drivers verified by the hardware manufacturer should be used instead of the reference drivers.
6. Change the AGP driver settings. This is from the VIA AGP FAQ page :-
Q: When installing the AGP driver, what is the difference between "normal' mode and "turbo" mode?
A: Installing in "turbo" mode will give your graphics card enhanced speed and performance while "normal" mode offers increased system stability.
7. Re-install all drivers and software I put this last because it is a pain to do and I doubted it would solve anything.

I implemented each step, one at a time, and then tried to play Q3Test. This way, I would be able to determine which step (if any) solved the problem.

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4. To Turbo Or Not To Turbo

3 long hours and uncountable hangs, hard resets and Scandisks later, I had completed up to Step 5 without success. So, it was without much confidence I tried Step 6. It worked!! :^)

At that time I had version 2.9 of the VIA AGP drivers already installed. This is from the downgrade in Step 3. So all I did was run the SETUP.EXE program again and choose the Install VIA AGP VxD in normal mode option, and rebooted. After that, Q3Test played without any problems.

After that, I re-installed v3.52 of the AGP drivers and tried it again in turbo mode ... it failed. I then re-installed it in normal mode. It worked again!! :^)

What is normal mode? I don't know for sure, but I think it could be AGP 1x while turbo mode is AGP 2x. This means that something in the multiple layers of hardware, software and drivers doesn't work when the system is configured for maximum performance. This could be bad news because the TNT2 is supposed to support AGP 4x. That is why I call it a work-around and not a solution. Or it could just be an issue with VIA's AGP drivers. Either way, nVidia, VIA and ID have a lot of work to do before everything in this unholy mess (this is the 2nd time I've used that term ... Quake must be having an effect on me) works correctly.

I still have a few questions that you may be able to answer by trying it out. If you can, please email me at hackedmobo@yahoo.com :-

  1. Is this an isolated event or will the work-around succeed on other VIA-based mobos?
  2. Can it work on non-VIA-based mobos like Intel and ALi-based ones? (I think this will depend on whether the AGP settings for those chipsets can be changed.)
  3. Does this work-around help with the Voodoo3 problems too?
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5. New System Configuration

This is my current and working system configuration :-

  1. Q3Test Win32 v1.08
  2. Windows 98
  3. AMD K6-III 400Mhz CPU
  4. FIC VA-503+ Revision 1.1A Motherboard
  5. 64MB PC-100 SDRAM
  6. Diamond Viper V770 32MB AGP graphics card

This are some of the Q3Test settings I'm using :-


The version given in Q3Test's Driver Info screen above was the same for both the nVidia Detonator v2.08 and the Diamond Viper V770 v4.02 drivers.

With these settings and in AGP normal mode, performance was smooth, the scenes were breath-taking (when I had a chance to look without getting fragged) and game-play was fast.

Okay, enough trouble-shooting for now ... back to Quake 3! See you at the business end of my Rocket Launcher! ;^)

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Disclaimer

Adrian
Last revised: April 19, 2000.
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