ATI 128 driver bug

[bloom25]

As I reported in the ATI Rage 128 thread about my problems, here is the screenshot:

(Is it an advantage or a bug, you decide.   )

 

Air Conditioning maybe?  

bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS

[bloom25]

I've got a better one now.  This time all I could see was the gunsight and guages, the WHOLE rest of the plane was gone.  

 

[K-KEN]

I know your Pain!  I have a Rage Pro, and recently replaced my Monitor, because the Green gun was inop-accordingto the Display Properties on my Compaq.  This new monitor played the same game on me Friday...just after leaving AH.  I thought I fried another monitor.  I can't afford several hundred dollars in.... 32 days to play AH!
   When I started the monitor Saturday, all was well.  Go Figure.  I was curious, and decided to try a vehicle off-line.  I tried the vehicles, and the art was trashed-as usual.   I get no gages, and I have no web site to post screenshots from. (I'd mailed some to Pyro) The tank was "striped" with vertical bands of black lines.  So is the interior of the plane or vehicle.  Sometimes my wings are red, or plaid...and usually all or most of the gages are blank.  I posted a message in our News Group showing a gage with a figure like a Flag Pole in Golf in the center of a gage. It was surrounded by other flag-like things.
Well, a few minutes later, my Map cleared up, my art was 75%, and it was cool.  When I quit the off-line experience, I was back into the purple mode.  (the green color gun was off again)  (for lack of a better description)  In Display Properties, there is a "color" adjustment-using the red, blue, and green colors.  It seems, something about AH or AirWarrior or both, is affecting my system.  I have formatted the HD, New Monitor, redone the drivers and upgrades, and no joy.  
  I guess I have to ask myself, can I afford to upgrade "something" ....which I don't have a clue what.....to do!
Is it an AGP problem?  An ATI Rage Pro thing?  A Diamond Monster 3D II voodo 2 Problem?  Or possibly, a Processor?  I see several hundreds of dollars in that list...and no Idea where to begin!  $29.00 a month is now becoming an issue...at least for me.
COMPAQ Model 4840
266 Mhz  
PII MMX
64Megs SDRAM
ATI Rage Pro 4 Megs Video Ram
Monster 3D II  Voodo2 8 Megs Ram
DVD
AGP Graphics

K-KEN

 http://www.cutthroats.com/


 

[bloom25]

It's the ATI card's driver.  Try searching for a better one at support.ati.com, but good luck to you, almost all of them have problem lists 5 pages long.  (My old card was an xpert@work, which uses the Rage Pro chipset.  Do NOT use the newest .2550 driver, it's terrible.  Try the newest driver that was for DX 6.

Good Luck

bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS

[K-KEN]

 

Originally posted by bloom25:
It's the ATI card's driver.  Try searching for a better one at support.ati.com, but good luck to you, almost all of them have problem lists 5 pages long.  (My old card was an xpert@work, which uses the Rage Pro chipset.  Do NOT use the newest .2550 driver, it's terrible.  Try the newest driver that was for DX 6.
Good Luck

bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS

Thanks Bloom..been there done that!  But now I have a new twist.  Since I Formatted just a few weeks ago, I just ran AH Off-Line again in a P-38, which seems to be "hungry" for processor time or something.  I took off twice, fired rockets, dropped bombs and landed both trips.
  THEN I did something unusual. I restarted the computer, to clear the memory and get resources clear again.  THEN- I ran a Scandisk, and then a Defrag.  About 90% into the Defrag, my monitor started flashing[/i] towards the purple color again!  I shut down, removed the side panel, and restarted....and here I am in full color again.  
  Logically, AH and AW3 use huge resources.  So does a Defrag (it seems).....but where is the connection?  
I don't think the video is stressed in a Defrag.....is it?
I am really lost out in deep ..... left field!
 

K-KEN

 http://www.cutthroats.com/


   




[This message has been edited by K-KEN (edited 04-10-2000).]

[Sparks]

I have a Rage128 Xpert card and had big problems until I installed the latest drivers from the beta page (mine are version 6.31cdh40A) - you get to them by clicking on the tiny "Special Purpose Drivers" text - they are supposedly not supported by ATI but mine work OK - give them a try. Oh - 6.31 is an upgrade not a clean set so don't delete first and if it asks you to replace a Gart.. file with an older version say YES.
Good luck

[Skuzzy]

I have done an exhastive amount of work with the ATI Rage 128 drivers.  The following works well with AH.

Driver Version: 4.11.6263
DX version 7.0a
Vid mem: 8MB

If you have more than 8MB of video ram, you can use 32 bit mode without any adverse effects.
If you have an 8MB video card, you MUST use 16 bit mode or you will have problems, especially if you have installed the HIRES patch.
You also MUST set the Video aperature to 64MB for the AGP bus in the system BIOS rom settings.

Later drivers have problems, and earlier drivers seem okay, but have some other odd anomalies (i.e. the prop drops frame rates to an unberable level).

Also, do not attempt to go beyond 1024x768 resolution with the 8MB ram cards.  There is simply not enough video ram to hold the textures and causes some serious problems.

If you are using the HIRES patch and have 8MB of ram, you will experience some video pauses if you use 1024x768.  Switching to 800x600 fixes this.

Bottomline, the best combination for the 8MB video ram card is as follows:

Driver version: 4.11.6263
DX version: 7.0a
With AH HIRES patch:
  800x600x16bit video display
Without AH HIRES patch:
  1024x768x16bit video display

If you choose 32 bit mode, you will see missing textures in your display.  There is simply not enough video ram to hold all the textures.
This problem will be exaggerated if you are also using the HIRES patch for AH.

Mind you, I am not saying the card is a great card, nor am I endorsing it.  With only 8MB of video ram, there are physical limitations that cannot be worked around.



------------------
Roy "Skuzzy" Neese
President, AppLink Corp.
http://www.applink.net
skuzzy@applink.net

[bloom25]

*punt*

Others should see this thread.  It has some good information for ATI card users.



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bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS