HARDWARE Questions & Answers

[feldon34]

i have a diamond viper v770 32meg video card. there are no drivers for windows 2000 so i am using the compatible nVidia riva TNT 2 drivers instead.

Yes, that's a TnT RiVa 2. I have a Diamond 550 and it runs great on Windows 2000.

The exact drivers you need are:

https://www.feldoncentral.com/Sachs/W2K-647.exe


1. Download that file and run it. Extract it to a <i>convenient</i> place on your hard drive.

2. Now go to <b>Start menu</b> -> <b>Settings</b> -> <b>Control Panel</b>.

3. Double click on <b>System</b>.

4. Click on the <b>Hardware</b> tab at the top.

5. Click on <b>Device Manager</b> in the center.

6. Click the [+] sign next to <b>Display adapters</b>.

7. Double-click on TnT Riva 2 (or Diamond VIPER 770).

8. Click the <b>Driver</b> tab at the top.

9. Click the <b>Update Driver</b> button at the bottom.

10. The <b>Upgrade Driver Wizard</b> comes up. Click Next.

11. Click <b>Display a list of known drivers...</b>. This takes a while.

12. Click the <b>Have Disk...</b> button in the lower right corner.

13. Pick <b>NVIDIA RIVA TNT2/TNT2 Pro</b> (don't pick any of the other ones).

14. Hopefully Windows will cooperate and say "The wizard is now ready to install the driver for the following device: <b>NVIDIA RIVA TNT2/TNT2 Pro</b>". If so, click Next twice.

If it puts up a Certificate Warning, tell it to go ahead anyway.

15. If Windows says "There is already a newer driver installed for this card." you need to force Windows to accept the driver you are installing.

If it asks you "The file you are copying is OLDER than the currently installed file. Keep the newer file?" you must answer NO each time.

If you have any more questions, please post them here.

[josho]

yep - it totally worked.

thanks so much. i REALLY appreciate the time you took to help me.

[gregzbobo]

Latest version of the unified nvidia chipset graphics card is at the following website:

For Win9X and ME users:
http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=windows9x

(ps: you only need download the Detonator drivers, the wdm driver is not required to make the card work.)

For Win 2000/XP users:
http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=windows2000

(ps: you only need download the Detonator drivers, the wdm driver is not required to make the card work.)


This is the nVidia ver. 23.11 unified chipset driver. These drivers should work with any nvidia chipset from TNT on up to GeForce 3 Ti 500.
These are REFERENCE drivers, which means they have no fancy bells and whistles in them from manufactureres like Creative or Hercules. These drivers WILL work just fine with most any nVidia chipset graphics card. I use them, I love them. They also work with the graphics chipset imbedded in the nVidia nForce motherboard, for any of you who may have one.

[feldon34]

gregzbobo,

Those drivers, like all nVidia reference drivers over the past year and a half, are Godawful and cause serious probems on TnT Riva and GeForce (except GeForce 2 and GeForce 3) on Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000n apd XP.

I only recommend those drivers for GeForce 2, GeForce 2 GTS, and GeForce 3, even then, I do so with reservations.


Please see my website for the drivers I recommend. SereneScreen.com tech support and I have had the best results with the drivers listed at my website.

[gregzbobo]

I tried the drivers you recommend, and I am sorry to say that I lost almost 20 fps in the aquarium screensaver. I would personally recommend to anyone to try both versions of the drivers, and stick with the one you like more. I'll stick with the newest reference drivers.

[Ralph]

All this talk about display drivers is really confusing me. I have a 16mb nVidia Riva TNT AGP in a Gateway PIII-500. Currently I have the drivers from the set W9x-650.zip. I get 72 ish frames/sec when in 800 x 600 (high color) and am pleased with the results. But, I suspect that my display drivers may be responsible for some troubles running some other applications.
So am interested in upgrading..... But to what, there is reference in this thread to Win9x-Me_23.11.exe from https://www.feldoncentral.com/Sachs/help.html there is the sugestion of https://www.feldoncentral.com/Sachs/W9X-667.exe or https://www.feldoncentral.com/Sachs/W9X-647.exe but not 23.11.
So, given my sytem would anyone care to recomend what to try. If the numbers are consecutive then my W9x-650 is better than the W9x-647 but not as good as -667. And where does 23.11 fit, or am I wrong in assuming that this set is not even for my system.
Thanks
Ralph

[feldon34]

In my experience, on Windows 2000 with my TnT Riva 16mb Diamond, 6.47 is better than 6.50. I had serious problems with 6.50. And 6.50 was the official driver for some months; 6.47 was an unreleased beta.

In my experience, 6.67 is 25% faster than 6.47, but I was getting a blue screen every 2-3 days. If it weren't for that, I'd be running 6.67 absolutely! I'd love 50fps at 1024x768 instead of the 38fps I get now.

I'd suggest trying 6.67 or something newer.

[Jav400]

Ralph,

I understand your confusion. What we have to do here is try and recommend the drivers that we have seen the most success with in the most machines. We get people in the chatroom who have problems of one kind or another, and it usually relates to the drivers that are installed. What we have seen work on the most machines are the ones that Morgan recommends. But like the saying goes, "your mileage may vary".

I also have a Gateway, it started out as a P3 600, with a TNT2 Ultra. I have since upgraded the cpu to P3 1 Ghz. and an Elsa GF2 Ultra. I run Win98 SE and used the 6.50 drivers for some time. For me, on 98SE they worked, for Morgan on 2K they were pitiful. As of now, I am using the 12.90 series of drivers. They have worked for me for quite sometime, but once again, for some others they have caused problems.

Since I have changed my video card to more recent hardware, that also MIGHT have some bearing on the subject. If you would like some specific help, or need some questions answered about what we have seen the most, you are more than welcome to come into the chatroom and we will try to address your specific questions and concerns directly.

[kjason]

I am looking for some suggestions on how to get the screensaver to work on my Dell Inspiron 7000 laptop running Windows XP. It has the ATI Rage LT Pro AGP 2X video card with 4MB. The problem I am having is when I try to run the screensaver the screen keeps flashing back and forth between the screensaver and the desktop. It goes to black and then back to the desktop and I have no way to stop it once this happens except to power down the machine manually.

I have tried changing the resolution to all different types and I have put it at high color 16-bit. I have disabled the antivirus program also but still with no luck.

The other strange thing is that the demo version that comes with Plus! for XP works fine, but the full version will not. Does anyone have any suggestions? I love the demo version and I really want to get the full version to work.

Thanks,
Jason

[kralicek007]

I had alot of problems with this SS when I first downloaded it to.

What I had to do is the 16 bit resaolution and the only other way I could get it to work is to set my screen display at 800x600.

I myself run a 900MHZ with 548Megs ram and the old 12 meg voodoo2 card. To me it sounds like you need a better graphics card cause 2megs of memory is pretty bad for todays required applications.

However there is a program you can try called "End It All!" what this will do is shutdown everything that runs in your computers background even if you don't see it running. I think you can get it at www.download.com or just do a search for it on yahoo. But I really think you just need a better vidieo card asuming I read your post right

[kralicek007]

Here's the address you can get the end it all program at and it is free
http://www.pcmedixwebs.com/enditall.htm

[kimber]

Originally posted by nicksteel
My previous post:

I'm running a PIII 750 with 128 MB and Radeon 32 MB DDR video card with a SUN 21" flatscreen set to 75 MHZ, 1600x1200. My frame rate is 39 after dxdiag reset to 75. Is this the max I should expect or am I doing something wrong?

I am having other graphic difficulties and am considering purchase of another video card. I notice that GeForce cards are popular on the forum and need advice concerning best choice. I see a lot on Ebay and want most stable one with tv video out. My monitor has maximum of 75FPS at 1600x200.

nicksteel
whats your graphics problems.your radeon is a solid card.in order for you to see a noticeable gain i would say you would need to jump up into a geforce3 class card or atleast a geforce2 ultra.at that point your going to start being processor limited instead of vid card.

i curently have 3 systems
xp1600@xp2000(150 buss),radeon 8500,512mb pc2700,direct 8.1
i get around 80 fps at 1024x768. ?????
athlon1000@1150,geforce2 pro,256mb pc133.directx 8.oa
i get around 115fps at 1024
p3700@933, radeon 32ddr,256 pc133,directx 8.0a
i get about 100 fps on this

as you can see my frame rate doesn't really make sense.dont know why and dont really care as long as it runs good.its not my system neither.i run 9400+ on 3dmark2k1 and 200+ fps on qauke3.but still only 80 fps on the aqaurium.it sorta makes me laugh.
have you tried running your refresh on optimal?also go into your display driver properties and make sure wait for vertical sync is turned off under both the direct3d and opengl tab.i believe this may be your culprit.also while your there make sure your smoothvision isn't "always on".and as always make sure you have the latest and greatest drivers installed.

[Shinsa]

Kimber,

Check your V-Sync. If I remember right, there were others having problems with V-sync coming on only with the Aquarium.

Unlike a FPS game, you will not see a difference with a frame rate higher than the refresh rate of the monitor. So for other than just knowing how fast, it really doesn't matter.

[kimber]

after posting earlier i messed around alittle and noticed when my smoothvision was set to "application preference" was when i lost all my frame rate (were i have always left it). as soon as i put it on "disabled" my frames jumped to around 300 fps. so it must of been automaticly switching smoothvision on when it was set to app pref. and i also run it on 6x oversampling so that explains the large lose. but as you said i see no difference.so does it really matter... not

[nicksteel]

Any recommendations for a graphics card with TV out. In addition to the Aquarium (of course), I have DIVX files I would like to watch on TV.

[Jim Sachs]

My G-Force 2 with video out puts out a pretty good TV signal (s-video) .

[kimber]

when it comes to multimedia output its hard to buy a better card than the ati's.as to which one i would suggest spending as much as you can.if gameing isn't top on your list than you could get something like the radeon 32ddr. but at 180.00 the new 8500le is hard to beat.
as far as places to buy i would suggest newegg.com.they have very competitive prices and excellent service.i,ve built a few systems with hardware mainly from their site and never had a problem and shipping has been great.
for more indepth info ck out sites like tomshardware.com or anandtech.com. both great sites.
good luck shopping and let use know how it goes.

[kimber]

oops,just noticed you already have the 32ddr.unless you want a faster 3d card that card should work great.unless its one of the models that doesnt come with tv out .in that case its time for either a new vid card or a seperate tv card

[Louis]

My system:

Windows ME,

TNT2 M64 w/ 32mb
Driver : Detonator 27.42, Detonator 23.11, Window ME Built-in M64 Driver.

When I set the desktop resolution to 1024x768x32 bit, the machine get
hang while EXIT the aquarium. It won't happen in the 16bit mode of
desktop resolution.

It only happens in 27.42 and 23.11 but not in Built-in M64 drivers.

Thanks in any advances.
Please, do not tell me to switch to another/legacy drivers because
the old dirvers would cause more other defects in games or playing
DVD.

[feldon34]

The Aquarium can't use 32 bit.

Set the Aquarium to 1024x768 instead of "desktop resolution" and see if that fixes it.