Problem With New Video Card

[Tricky]

I have a problem with a recently installed Nvidia TNT2 M64 PCI 32mb video Card that I have tried to resolve but without success.

Prior to installation of the Nvidia card, my computer was using the inbuilt SiS6326 AGP 8mb display adapter on the motherboard.

The problem is that with the new card certain games that previously worked (in particular Rogue Squadron) no longer work.

The steps I have taken so far to try and resolve the problem are as follows:

1. Changed the primary display adapter to PCI in BIOS
2. Allocated an IRQ to the PCI card in BIOS
3. Disabled Advanced Power Management in BIOS
4. Contacted technical support at Lucasarts.com and been advised to download latest video card drivers (done as noted below) and remove certain inactive entries in the registry which are related to the old SiS6326 and the modem (I think) – I have not done this as I don’t know how to go about editing the Registry
5. Downloaded and installed the latest drivers from both the card manufacturers site and Nvidia and tried both (separately after removing existing drivers).

The card seems to work fine in general use and with other games (eg Pod Racer), though there is a problem with Battlezone II in that the games runs OK but screen resolution does not return to 800x600 on quitting – instead it returns to the desktop at 640x480 and I can’t change screen resolution without rebooting.

The Device Manager in Control Panel lists 2 display adapters, one being the Nvidia TNT2 M64 and the other being a Standard PCI VGA Adapter. The device manager reports that there is a problem with the second Standard PCI VGA Adapter, however, when I try update the driver for this device it says it can’t find one better than the one it is currently using. I can’t seem to get rid of the second display adapter as every time I reboot Windows detects new hardware and reloads it.

I am running Windows 98 on a Pentium II 350 mhz IBM clone computer with 128mb RAM. I have plenty of hard disk space.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[mjc]

Did you actually disable the SiS onbaord video?

The standard VGA is possibly referring to the SiS video...try disabling it (use the "Disable in this profile" checkbox).

Also boot into Safe Mode and see what shows up under display adapters...any other than the current card can safely be deleted (also added benefit...will remove some of those entries from the registry).

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[Tricky]

Yes, I have disabled the Standard VGA Driver in Device Manager. It does not refer to it as SiS - I have deleted the drivers etc for the SiS Adpater via Add/Remove software in control panel.

I have also tried restarting in safe mode and deleting the second VGA device, however, when I restart in normal mode it detects new hardware again even though the NVidia card is already installed. The new hardware is identified by Windows as a Standard VGA PCI Display Adapter. I have disabled this in Device Manager, but the problem remains.

[mjc]

Is there an option to actually disable the onboard video in the BIOS?

IF so, use that to totally disable it...

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[Tricky]

I can't locate any option in BIOS to disbale the onboard video. The only options are per steps 1 and 2 in my original post.

No matter what I try in terms of removing/disbaling hardware with the objective of reinstalling the TNT PCI video card only, Windows always detects two display adapters.

[mjc]

There may be a jumper on the motherboard...do you have the manual? model/maufacturer of the motherboard?

If you don't have the manual try a Google search with the manufacturer and model number, I found it to be pretty good for finding manuals.......

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[Tricky]

I can't see any reference in the manual to a jumper on the motherboard relating to the on board video, though I haven't physically inspected the motherboard in detail.

I have done a search on Google and found a few references to people who have also asked questions about disabling the onboard video on this motherboard, however, they do not come up with anything that I haven't already tried.

I appreciate your efforts in trying to find a solution, but I fear we're running out of options. Am I right?

[iisbob]

Sometimes on system boards with integrated vid/sound you have to totally clear the NVRAM { CMOS/BIOS } before the BIOS will correctly build it's resource table.

So either pull the CMOS batt ( coin sized batt inside ) or use a jumper to clear the NVRAM, for about 30 minutes.

Then replace the batt ( or jumper ) and reboot, letting the BIOS rebuild it's IRQ/Resource table.





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iisbob

Hike naked!-it gives color to your cheeks!!

[sea69]

yes- what iisbob said- reminds me of the "updating DMI pool..........." problem I was having last week.



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sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage

[Tricky]

Are there any issues I need to be aware of here in restarting the computer after replacing the CMOS Battery? ie Are the likely to be any problems restarting and if so how do I resolve them?

[iisbob]

You may have to reenter and make sure UDMA is enabled if your drive supports it ( it should unless it's over 5 years old ) and set some tweaks back that you may have had.

But no, you shouldn't have a problem with it running as you'll be back to regular system defaults.



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iisbob

Hike naked!-it gives color to your cheeks!!