GEfrorce4

[Guest]

I got a geforce4 mx420 64mb Agp card and after installation, following all procedures, it freezes as soon as the windows screen starts to load. Has anyone had this problem? It says to make sure the motherboard has the updated drivers. Can someone me which driver I am looking for the motherboard? When looking under device manager I found different devices such as Pentium3XXXX AGP......, motherboard resources...,and so on. Which one are they talking about. My system is:HP 8575CPentium3 550384 RAMSoundblaster Live 5.1Win98Thanks,Jeremy Wright

[Guest SD Sim]

Hi Jeremy,I haven't used Win98 in a very long time, but let me see if I can help (or at least bump you so that someone else can help you better). When you have the device manager open, you should see an icon named "display adapters". This should expand to show you the different video cards on your computer, which in this case should say something like NVIDIA GeForce4... Right click on this item and select properties. From there you will be presented with a tab labeled "driver" which will tell you what driver version you have installed. See if you can find that information and then post the answer.P.S. I'm not sure you have a driver problem, but lets take it one step at a time.

[Guest]

I am using 28.32 drivers. I think there is some kind of conflict between the new and old card. In my HP 8575C the TNT is built into the motherboard. I have a feeling I am not disabling it right. I now loads the icons on windows with the windows symbols, not the progam icons. Then everything locks except for the mouse. The mouse is still active but I cannot open anything.Thanks for helping,Jermey Wright

[Guest]

Hi Jeremy,I had the GeForce 2MX and had freezing problems with it all the time. I tried everything and it just got worse. When I bought the Hercules Prophet 4500 (

[John_Cillis 2,406]

The first thing you need to verify was whether you disabled the onboard video correctly. The best way to handle it on an HP is to select the onboard video driver in safe mode, and choose the "Disable in this Hardware Profile" option.The other issues you may have are more technical ones. Some older MB's can't manage the voltage to the AGP slot well. Since your CPU is a P3/550, there's a chance your MB may fall into that category. The specs for the Nvidia 2x/3x/4x series state an AGP 2.0 spec slot is required. This is somewhat true, and somewhat untrue. Some older MB's only meet the AGP 1.0 spec, but can still manage the voltage to the AGP slot in the manner needed by the GeForce cards. The other requirement on the Nvidia cards is related to the power supply--250W minimum on the 2 (and MX series), and 300W on the 3x and 4x series. Since you say your system is locking as soon as you hit the Windows screen, I believe it more likely that the onboard video driver isn't disabled properly and/or your power supply is insufficient. AGP spec problems usually don't show themselves until you are running intense 3D apps.One last thing to check--make sure the new Video card isn't grabbing the IRQ of the sound card... Hope this helps...John, KPHX

[Guest]

Hi John,Thanks for the help. I think you may be right about the power supply. I not too sure what I am looking for but DC output is 160W. How might I check to see if it is grabbing the IRQ of the sound card. I really don't want to spend very much right now, do other brands like ATI use the same specs? Since you seem very knowledgeble, why might FS2002 freeze when the brake indicator comes on. My old TNT handled FS2002 real well until it started locking up. Sometimes right after it finished loading, sometimes whne brake comes on, sometimes when minimizing. I am lost. Could a joystick cause this problem? FSUIPC?Thanks for your help,Jeremy Wright

[Guest PaulL01]

Hi Jeremy,Also Go in to the BIOS and see if you can disable the onboard Video there first, you may have to dig around for somthing like "Onboard PCI and AGP" or "onboard hardware" to get to the right page of your BIOS to disable it. Then boot into save mode, remove all/any video card drivers, change your diaply to standard VGA, reboot and now re-load your new drivers.Paul

[John_Cillis 2,406]

"....My old TNT handled FS2002 real well until it started locking up. Sometimes right after it finished loading, sometimes whne brake comes on, sometimes when minimizing. I am lost. Could a joystick cause this problem? FSUIPC?...."The answer is yes to both questions.... You mentioned FS2002 started to lock up, so I'm assuming it did run well for a period of time. Several things could come into play. Software additions/changes, a failing RAM chip, even heat (as an example, in AZ, my system generally runs 7-10 degrees warmer in the summer, as we keep our thermostat set at 78-80 in order to keep our A/C bill in line).You really need to backtrack--try to think of all changes and software installations, however trivial, going back to the point FS2002 was stable for you. 160W is very low (and that seems to agree with other specs I've seen on your HP system). Just about all your newer AGP cards require a 250W supply, although some of that is a gray area, since that is divided against the peripherals installed on the system--fewer peripherals, the more power the Power Supply can provide. The problem, is your HP system is still required to send power to the onboard video, even if it is disabled. Paul's suggestion about checking the BIOS is a good one, but I know earlier HP's did not offer any means of disabling onboard video, either via BIOS or a MB jumper. It was the main reason I was motivated to build my own system back in '99--I had grown tired of the proprietary setup of the HP systems (which were still good performers--just a challenge to upgrade).Stick with it, but I do fear your ability to upgrade to a newer AGP card may be limited based on what you mentioned, leaving you with the option of trying to diagnose what change may have hurt FS2002...John

[Guest]

John, Thank you so much. Finally I have some information that I can use, after taking to the retailer where I bought it, talking to PNY, and HP who knew absolutely nothing. Are PCI cards different than AGP as far as maximum watt output? Thanks again,Jeremy WrightKCLT

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Some PCI cards require less power, but there will still be the issue of getting the onboard video disabled. One question--how did you go about disabling the onboard video? If you simply removed the drivers, that may be part of the problem. You want the drivers installed, but disabled. That is normally done by going into Control Panel, then Device Manager. You select your video card, and you'll find the disable option in one of the tabs. You then shut down, install the new card, then restart. With any luck, Windows will "ignore" the old card and detect the new one...John

[Guest]

John,I have tried so many things I can't remember what I did. I think I did that but I can't remember. I think I will try again tomorrow. My wife bought a GF2 for her work but was unable to use it. I might try it just to see does the same thing. I like my TNT is I don't get lockups. To be honest I am beginning to wonder if it some type of software conflict with FS2002 because I was able to load FS2002 without any problem, until I press the brake button on joystick and she locked up. Is there to disable brake warning light? I also run Ghost recon and have not any problems. Once again thank you very much,Jeremy WrightKCLT

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Add this line: "show_brake_message=0" to the section of FS2002.cfg like the example shown below....SYSCLOCK=1show_brake_message=0

[Guest]

Once again John, thank you. You would never know that I am a teacher by the way I type. My last post was awful. Note to self: proof read.Thank,Jeremy WrightKCLT

[Guest SD Sim]

Hi Jeremy,Actually, I would expect a teacher to catch the spelling errors, and as in your case, make a mental note as you did. I'm glad to see you got some good advice. Just my 2 cents worth - I didn't see any recommendation to check your IRQ allocations in the BIOS. Make sure that the video card is not sharing the IRQ with any other component. If the recommendation has already been made, then sorry.

[Guest]

I am not too sure how to check that. In my BIOS I tried to change the default adapter to AGP from PCI. I am clueless when it comes to IRQ settings. I think I am making some progress though. The only time I am getting problems is on add-on a/c when in spot view and the slew indicator is on or the brake indicator is on. I have disabled the brake indicator. So I think there is some software conflict somewhere. Maybe someone can help me solve this and I might be good as gold. Good news is my wife mentioned something about getting a computer built for Flight sims. I am breaking her!!!!!!:)) Probably not.Jeremy WrightKCLT