HARDWARE Questions & Answers - Page 9

Lostboy · 03-02-2002, 04:07 PM

Morgan,

I had the problem of my desktop icons going to 256 colours, but when I run your desktop restore file, I get the message:

“Cannot import C:\WINDOWS\DESKTOP\RESTOR~1.REG: The specified file is not a registry script. You can import only registry files.”

Might you know how I could fix this?

Lostboy · 03-02-2002, 04:19 PM

Never mind, I just found the option to turn them to higher colours under “Effects” in “display properties.” Thanks anyway.

feldon34 · 03-02-2002, 05:16 PM

Can anyone else confirm problems with the new registry file?

I've just replaced all of them to be RegEdit 4-compatible. That's Windows 95, 98, ME and 2000.

bliSSter · 03-04-2002, 11:37 PM

weird...

just got the screen saver with my XP plus! pack and looked and ran great with my system (950 duron, 256MB, voodoo 4500 agp)...but when I upgraded to the 1.1 version things got a little - well you get the idea...

the aquarium will run great...as wireframes and even in normal mode - outside of the fact that every object is rendered flat white without any textures....the version that shipped with plus! i have read was the dx8 version and i assume that is the reason i am having issues now....

any thoughts?.....thanks in advance....

bliSS

Jim Sachs · 03-05-2002, 12:00 AM

Press ctrl-T.

Jim Sachs · 03-08-2002, 10:47 AM

One of our customers is getting a BSOD running v1.1 on an IBM Thinkpad A20p with Win2000. He has installed the latest (Jan-2002) video drivers from IBM. Anybody out there have any experience with this setup?

feldon34 · 03-08-2002, 12:50 PM

This customer has installed the wrong driver. There is no January 2002 driver for the A20p. The latest driver for it is from December 3rd, 2001. If you check out the links below, he must have installed the January 2002 A20m driver.

The driver he should be using is here.
He MUST upgrade his BIOS using the instructions near the bottom of that page for the video drivers to work properly!

All the drivers available for his A20p

And he can't simply go with generic ATI Rage Mobility (that's what his laptop uses) drivers because they cannot make a generic driver. Each laptop maker has different hardware, so IBM writes some/most of the driver based on what ATI sends them.

What ATI has to say about Mobility drivers

P.S. I loathe IBM's new Thinkpad website.

SunKing · 03-08-2002, 10:05 PM

Wow - props to Feldon. Great support there..... ain't the internet a cool thing? Amazing actually.

Jim Sachs · 03-08-2002, 10:59 PM

Thanks very much Morgan. The customer responded with the following info:

IBM ThinkPad Model A20p (OK, OK, Model 2629TU)
Win2K SP2
Diskette Version : 1.08
BIOS Version : IVET65WW

VIDEO update:

IBM ThinkPad November 19, 2001
Video Features(Mob-128) for Windows 2000

Version M6.61-011014m-1741C

He also listed many firmware updates, which he is sure he has installed in the proper order. This customer seems very knowlegable, and meticulous in maintaining his system, so we are not dealing with the usual suspects here.

Anyone with personal A20p experience?

CephaloP · 03-28-2002, 02:19 PM

Another framerate question- sorry

I'm averaging about 25 fps at 1024 resolution, and the Aquarium looks pretty good to me (though that might be just 'cuz I havn't seen better). Lot's of people are working for 100 fps or more, and I'm wondering, will I see that much difference if I try to raise it?

I really don't know computers (don't even know what card or driver my system has!), and I want to find out whether it's even worth the trouble to learn and try to raise my fps. I do want the Aquarium to look the best it can, after all the time that's been put into making it, might as well.

So, if you think I WOULD get an appreciable difference with higher framerate, what information about my computer would I need to find out and post so you can help me?

Thanks in advance

Jav400 · 03-28-2002, 02:35 PM

After a certain point a higher framerate doesn't really gain you much except bragging rights. The main thing that you would gain with higher FPS would be the option to raise your resolution to something higher than what you are running now. The higher the resolution that you can run, the less "jaggies" that you will see, and therefore the better the whole scene will look.

CephaloP · 03-28-2002, 04:44 PM

I assume then that raising the resolution higher than the monitor's resolution doesn't do anything?
So if I have my resolution set at "monitor resolution" or whatever that option is, and my fish are swimming smoothly then higher framerate won't make a difference in what I see? Is this right?

Tiny Turtle · 03-28-2002, 06:21 PM

I'll have a go at this:

A higher resolution results in a lower fps – but not slower or smaller fish.

Every monitor has a maximum resolution which cannot be exceded. Also it can show any given resolution at a maximum sweep frequency, i.e. how many times per second the electron beam cannon "draws" a new screen. A normal value for this is 80 Hz which means the screen is updated 80 times every second. Normally a higher resolution requires more drawing and a lower frequency which causes the screen to look a bit less stable.

The option you were thinking of was "Desktop Resolution".
If you want to, you can set the resolution for the aquarium to a higher setting than you use for your desktop and the fish should look better (although it might be a bit fuzzy depending on your monitor).

If you're currently seeing a fps count of 25 at 1024x768 , then there's IMHO still room for improvement. 60 is a good fps and anything above 100 is just pointless. People trying to impress the rest of us with how much they've spent on their video cards rant about several hundred frames per second. I think the worst I've heard so far is ~1200 fps

. Their monitors still don't update the screen more than around 100 times per second so it really don't show up any better...

When it comes to fps raising, there's about three things you can do:

1. Lower the resolution. Not the best choice as while the fish swim smoother, everything becomes "jaggier".

2. Buy a new card. Obviously the expensive choice, but a card using the nVidia GeForce2 MX 200 chip will give you an acceptable fps and doesn't cost too much (I'll leave it to the Americans on the forum to come up with a current price in USD).

3. Update your video card drivers. If "Bad" drivers are installed, an update can result in a nice raise (No miracles though).

If you want to check what card and drivers you are using here's a good way:

1. Click on the Start menu and choose "Run"

2. Type dxdiag in the dialog that pops up and hit "Enter".

3. Click on the "Monitor" tab and you'll find out lots of stuff about your video card.

4. Report back here and we'll decipher what to do with it!

Hope this helps

/Tiny

CephaloP · 03-29-2002, 12:03 PM

Wow, thanks for that helpful post. I'd been wondering how to get that information without cracking open my computer. What I've got is a gateway with:

Windows XP
Intel Celeron, 1001MHz processor
126 MB RAM
Intel[R] 82810 chip
i81xdnt5dll driver
version 6.13.01.2872

I hope you know what this all means, because I surely don't.

feldon34 · 03-29-2002, 12:11 PM

Instead of a video card, Gateway has put the Intel 810 3D video chipset on the motherboard. It's not bad at running the Aquarium, but of course, you can do better with a video card.

If you put in a video card, you can disable/bypass the Intel 810.

CephaloP · 03-29-2002, 02:16 PM

Supposing I were going to get a video card, what would you suggest? I'd been thinking about getting something, not just for this but movies and games (See Dick. See Dick try to rationalize spending money on things he doesn't really need. Rationalize, Dick, Rationalize). What are a couple that would give a nice boost but not set me back too much?

gregzbobo · 03-30-2002, 11:42 PM

any nvidia geforce 2 or better chipset will run this screensaver excellently. A geforce 2 mx (the base geforce 2) will set you back about 40 bucks online, and will net you a good 60-85 fps or more.

feldon34 · 03-31-2002, 12:04 AM

I just got a GeForce 2 MX 200 for $48. Should have sprung the extra $7 for the MX 400.

Jav400 · 03-31-2002, 07:39 AM

CephaloP,

Look here for current prices on hardware. http://www.pricewatch.com

Morgan is right, the extra $7 is worth it. You can look through all the available video cards here and if you have any questions about them post them and we will help you.

CephaloP · 03-31-2002, 12:14 PM

Ok, I'm lookin' at a GeForce2 MX400 32MB for $39 and an MX400 64MB for $44. Worth $5 bucks for double memory? My uneducated guess would be yes.

Also, does "TV OUT" mean that you can hook your system up to a television to display whatever you're running, and "no TV OUT" that you can't?

03-02-2002, 05:16 PM	#163
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,938	Can anyone else confirm problems with the new registry file? I've just replaced all of them to be RegEdit 4-compatible. That's Windows 95, 98, ME and 2000. "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman

03-04-2002, 11:37 PM	#164
bliSSter Registered Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: missouri Posts: 1	3dfx & WinXP Pro weird... just got the screen saver with my XP plus! pack and looked and ran great with my system (950 duron, 256MB, voodoo 4500 agp)...but when I upgraded to the 1.1 version things got a little - well you get the idea... the aquarium will run great...as wireframes and even in normal mode - outside of the fact that every object is rendered flat white without any textures....the version that shipped with plus! i have read was the dx8 version and i assume that is the reason i am having issues now.... any thoughts?.....thanks in advance.... bliSS the only difference between a rut and a grave are the dimensions

03-05-2002, 12:00 AM	#165
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,775	Press ctrl-T. Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

03-08-2002, 10:47 AM	#166
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,775	One of our customers is getting a BSOD running v1.1 on an IBM Thinkpad A20p with Win2000. He has installed the latest (Jan-2002) video drivers from IBM. Anybody out there have any experience with this setup? Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

03-08-2002, 12:50 PM	#167
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,938	This customer has installed the wrong driver. There is no January 2002 driver for the A20p. The latest driver for it is from December 3rd, 2001. If you check out the links below, he must have installed the January 2002 A20m driver. The driver he should be using is here. He MUST upgrade his BIOS using the instructions near the bottom of that page for the video drivers to work properly! All the drivers available for his A20p And he can't simply go with generic ATI Rage Mobility (that's what his laptop uses) drivers because they cannot make a generic driver. Each laptop maker has different hardware, so IBM writes some/most of the driver based on what ATI sends them. What ATI has to say about Mobility drivers P.S. I loathe IBM's new Thinkpad website. "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman Last edited by feldon34; 03-08-2002 at 12:57 PM.

03-02-2002, 04:07 PM	#161
Lostboy SquirrelFish Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 206	Morgan, I had the problem of my desktop icons going to 256 colours, but when I run your desktop restore file, I get the message: “Cannot import C:\WINDOWS\DESKTOP\RESTOR~1.REG: The specified file is not a registry script. You can import only registry files.” Might you know how I could fix this?

03-02-2002, 04:19 PM	#162
Lostboy SquirrelFish Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 206	Never mind, I just found the option to turn them to higher colours under “Effects” in “display properties.” Thanks anyway.

03-08-2002, 10:05 PM	#168
SunKing Registered Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 238	Wow - props to Feldon. Great support there..... ain't the internet a cool thing? Amazing actually. My humble Homepage

03-08-2002, 10:59 PM	#169
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,775	Thanks very much Morgan. The customer responded with the following info: IBM ThinkPad Model A20p (OK, OK, Model 2629TU) Win2K SP2 Diskette Version : 1.08 BIOS Version : IVET65WW VIDEO update: IBM ThinkPad November 19, 2001 Video Features(Mob-128) for Windows 2000 Version M6.61-011014m-1741C He also listed many firmware updates, which he is sure he has installed in the proper order. This customer seems very knowlegable, and meticulous in maintaining his system, so we are not dealing with the usual suspects here. Anyone with personal A20p experience? Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium Last edited by Jim Sachs; 03-09-2002 at 02:37 PM.

03-28-2002, 02:19 PM	#170
CephaloP lurking in the shadows... Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: just a few paces south o' the old willow Posts: 151	Another framerate question- sorry I'm averaging about 25 fps at 1024 resolution, and the Aquarium looks pretty good to me (though that might be just 'cuz I havn't seen better). Lot's of people are working for 100 fps or more, and I'm wondering, will I see that much difference if I try to raise it? I really don't know computers (don't even know what card or driver my system has!), and I want to find out whether it's even worth the trouble to learn and try to raise my fps. I do want the Aquarium to look the best it can, after all the time that's been put into making it, might as well. So, if you think I WOULD get an appreciable difference with higher framerate, what information about my computer would I need to find out and post so you can help me? Thanks in advance

03-28-2002, 02:35 PM	#171
Jav400 Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Tennessee Posts: 9,725	After a certain point a higher framerate doesn't really gain you much except bragging rights. The main thing that you would gain with higher FPS would be the option to raise your resolution to something higher than what you are running now. The higher the resolution that you can run, the less "jaggies" that you will see, and therefore the better the whole scene will look. Michael Administrator of Inside:SereneScreen Aquarium Forum, Chatroom, Fan Site & *Gallery* DVD Collection

03-28-2002, 04:44 PM	#172
CephaloP lurking in the shadows... Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: just a few paces south o' the old willow Posts: 151	I assume then that raising the resolution higher than the monitor's resolution doesn't do anything? So if I have my resolution set at "monitor resolution" or whatever that option is, and my fish are swimming smoothly then higher framerate won't make a difference in what I see? Is this right?

03-28-2002, 06:21 PM	#173
Tiny Turtle is pleased Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 7,365	I'll have a go at this: A higher resolution results in a lower fps – but not slower or smaller fish. Every monitor has a maximum resolution which cannot be exceded. Also it can show any given resolution at a maximum sweep frequency, i.e. how many times per second the electron beam cannon "draws" a new screen. A normal value for this is 80 Hz which means the screen is updated 80 times every second. Normally a higher resolution requires more drawing and a lower frequency which causes the screen to look a bit less stable. The option you were thinking of was "Desktop Resolution". If you want to, you can set the resolution for the aquarium to a higher setting than you use for your desktop and the fish should look better (although it might be a bit fuzzy depending on your monitor). If you're currently seeing a fps count of 25 at 1024x768 , then there's IMHO still room for improvement. 60 is a good fps and anything above 100 is just pointless. People trying to impress the rest of us with how much they've spent on their video cards rant about several hundred frames per second. I think the worst I've heard so far is ~1200 fps . Their monitors still don't update the screen more than around 100 times per second so it really don't show up any better... When it comes to fps raising, there's about three things you can do: 1. Lower the resolution. Not the best choice as while the fish swim smoother, everything becomes "jaggier". 2. Buy a new card. Obviously the expensive choice, but a card using the nVidia GeForce2 MX 200 chip will give you an acceptable fps and doesn't cost too much (I'll leave it to the Americans on the forum to come up with a current price in USD). 3. Update your video card drivers. If "Bad" drivers are installed, an update can result in a nice raise (No miracles though). If you want to check what card and drivers you are using here's a good way: 1. Click on the Start menu and choose "Run" 2. Type dxdiag in the dialog that pops up and hit "Enter". 3. Click on the "Monitor" tab and you'll find out lots of stuff about your video card. 4. Report back here and we'll decipher what to do with it! Hope this helps /Tiny

03-29-2002, 12:03 PM	#174
CephaloP lurking in the shadows... Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: just a few paces south o' the old willow Posts: 151	Wow, thanks for that helpful post. I'd been wondering how to get that information without cracking open my computer. What I've got is a gateway with: Windows XP Intel Celeron, 1001MHz processor 126 MB RAM Intel[R] 82810 chip i81xdnt5dll driver version 6.13.01.2872 I hope you know what this all means, because I surely don't.

03-29-2002, 12:11 PM	#175
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,938	Instead of a video card, Gateway has put the Intel 810 3D video chipset on the motherboard. It's not bad at running the Aquarium, but of course, you can do better with a video card. If you put in a video card, you can disable/bypass the Intel 810. "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman

03-29-2002, 02:16 PM	#176
CephaloP lurking in the shadows... Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: just a few paces south o' the old willow Posts: 151	Supposing I were going to get a video card, what would you suggest? I'd been thinking about getting something, not just for this but movies and games (See Dick. See Dick try to rationalize spending money on things he doesn't really need. Rationalize, Dick, Rationalize). What are a couple that would give a nice boost but not set me back too much?

03-30-2002, 11:42 PM	#177
gregzbobo Registered Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 19	any nvidia geforce 2 or better chipset will run this screensaver excellently. A geforce 2 mx (the base geforce 2) will set you back about 40 bucks online, and will net you a good 60-85 fps or more. Athlon XP 1600+ 512 megs PC2100 DDR RAM Gigabyte GA-7DXR dual 40 gig Maxtor in RAID 0 Windows XP Professional GeForce 4 ti4600 with nvidia 40.41 BETA reference drivers Getting up to 80 fps in the saver at 1152 X 864 @ 75 hertz screen resolution. Last edited by gregzbobo; 03-30-2002 at 11:54 PM.

03-31-2002, 12:04 AM	#178
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,938	I just got a GeForce 2 MX 200 for $48. Should have sprung the extra $7 for the MX 400. "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman

03-31-2002, 07:39 AM	#179
Jav400 Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Tennessee Posts: 9,725	CephaloP, Look here for current prices on hardware. http://www.pricewatch.com Morgan is right, the extra $7 is worth it. You can look through all the available video cards here and if you have any questions about them post them and we will help you. Michael Administrator of Inside:SereneScreen Aquarium Forum, Chatroom, Fan Site & *Gallery* DVD Collection

03-31-2002, 12:14 PM	#180
CephaloP lurking in the shadows... Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: just a few paces south o' the old willow Posts: 151	Ok, I'm lookin' at a GeForce2 MX400 32MB for $39 and an MX400 64MB for $44. Worth $5 bucks for double memory? My uneducated guess would be yes. Also, does "TV OUT" mean that you can hook your system up to a television to display whatever you're running, and "no TV OUT" that you can't? Last edited by CephaloP; 03-31-2002 at 12:25 PM.