graphic accelerator/motherboard compatibility

[norman conquest]

Am I wasting my time trying to get a Super Geforce 2 200 MX 64mb graphics card to work properly with an Asus P5A motherboard and AMD K6-2/500 cpu?
The problems begin at the boot-up screen, with the "starting Windows 98" message followed by a screen of garbled text. Once Windows has loaded, all appears to be OK, except that small specks of black or colour appear at random on the screen. If acceleration has been set to basic, everything keeps on working after a fashion. Scrolling on web pages makes me feel seasick and Flightsim 2000 performance(the reason for buying the card)is laughable. My old SiS 4mb PCI card never gave any trouble. Increasing acceleration to the higher levels causes the screen to freeze after a short, taunting view of how good it could be. The mouse remains moveable. All old drivers have been removed and I believe I've downloaded the latest drivers for the card and the AGP slot and m/b BIOS. I've tried fitting a fan to the card, as it does seem to get very hot. Power supply is 250 watts, and I've been led to believe that the Asus board and AGP should be capable of coping with the extra load on the 3v. supply. I would be most grateful for any advice before I have the lot rendered down for soap!

[ranchdog]

welcome norman....

I get the strange feeling the monitor isn't able to handle what's being sent it's way. As the resolution problems, etc, are showing themselves early. A short version of joy and then the monitor realizes it can't handle things.

Luck.

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......Indecision may or may not be my problem......
...... Kickin' A Rock....

[norman conquest]

Many thanks for your comment. I must admit I hadn't thought of the monitor.
It's a Gateway Vivitron 1572 which has always worked faultlessly at all sensible refresh rates (but usually 72Hz) and screen resolutions (usually 800x600). But there's always a first time... Perhaps this is why Windows keeps insisting on installing two imaginary default monitors. If this is the case, what should I be looking for in a replacement monitor? However, with the problems starting very early, I wonder if a basic, irreconcilable clash of BIOS's is occurring? Current motherboard BIOS is Beta 1011.04 dating from Dec. 2000. The last "final" BIOS was 1007a from Aug. 99 and there is unlikely to be any further support. The packaging of the graphics card claims the BIOS is flashable but I can find no further details on this.

[This message has been edited by norman conquest (edited 11-11-2001).]

[ranchdog]

Regards your last:


IMHO I don't believe in/or use the BETA version of much of anything. As they are only testing versions for someone. Consumer use to help someone find the bugs.

The video card BIOS is flashable but lets not go there yet.

Probably what I would do is go back to the last final Mboard BIOS and work from there.

Also, there are later update drivers for the GF2 that just cause problems for the earlier systems. Sometimes older is better with this card.

Does that P5A Mboard use the VIA chipset? What do you have for RAM?

What do you have for AGP settings in CMOS(BIOS)?

Hang in there.

------------------
......Indecision may or may not be my problem......
...... Kickin' A Rock....

[norman conquest]

Thank you for you advice. I have reloaded the old m/b BIOS and the graphics drivers that came with the card. I also discovered, by using SANDRA, that the old SiS vesa was still loading (perhaps something to do with the SiS claim that their board is an AGP facility on a PCI board (?).
After removing the old card, clearing and reloading drivers, things are going well. Flightsim 2000 now runs as well as cn be expected at full acceleration. There is still some instability but nothing unreasonable.
I really am most grateful to you people for your help and encouragement in resolving what at first seemed like a lost cause. Thank you. I really need to upgrade to a Socket A and would like to be sure of compatibility with this graphics card. Does anybody know about the Elite K7VZA in this context?

[This message has been edited by norman conquest (edited 11-11-2001).]