RADEON 8500 conflict graphical anomalies and other questions!

[Satch]

Issue n.1:
My sound and graphic card are sharing resources.
Both are using the same IRQ. No conflicts yet.
Should I worry? What you suggest?

Issue .2:
Depending to the distance I stand from objects or backgrounds while I am moving
toward to them, it seems like a filter -more like a "dark vail", pass or leave over them.
This is very weird and it's annoying. It interferes with the quality or/ the lighting of the textures.

***more details***
The 3D games I've installed right now on my PC and I noticed that thing are Giants CK (what a funny game), AvP II and UT.
I am aware of the AvP II graphical glitch with RADEON 8500 but this is not the problem.
The "dark veil" appearance I don't think that has anything to do with driver versions (3276 or 3286) or with display settings.

In the beginning everything was okay.
But I decide to uninstall the drivers both from my sound and graphic card,
and forced to remove the GPU from the AGP slot temporary so I can be able to pull out a second backup HDD I own
(Relative to Issue n.1. I thought by removing the second disk that an IRQ will set free).
After that I first see that "dark veil".

Something like that was happened with RADEON 64 DDR, but I think then it was a cause from a graphics tweak program.


Ps. Do you know if after uninstall graphic drivers how can I roll back my adapter to a standard VGA in WinXP?

Ps2. It's normal that I get multiple display adapters in applications?
I.e. In Giants I get 4:
1. RADEON 8500 3D HAL T&L
2. RADEON 8500 3D HAL
3. RADEON 8500 RADEON 8500
4. RADEON 8500 RADEON 8500
It's a symptom of the dual monitor display support?

[Maximus Nickus]

Download the new drivers that enable smoothvision this will fix it all. And move you sound card to pci slot 4 that should speed things up!

[Satch]

Hey Nick!

Thank you for your reply!

I already download the new drivers (besides I don't use smoothvision antialliasing) and now they have started the crashes and reboots! I don't know if it is related with the new drivers or it's caused by the sharing resources...
Unfortunatelly I can't change IRQ from Device Manager and it seems that I don't have any IRQ available.

About PCI slot 4, this is confirmed?
And when you mean 4 how do you count them?
From the first to last (up to down) ?

[Ritteri&Bubbles]

Sounds like you have your BIOS settings all screwed up to me, why dont you get specific about ALL your bios settings.

[Satch]

Please tell me if you want me to post specific BIOS settings commands and I do it right away.

[Ritteri&Bubbles]

yeah, post em

[Satch]

Ok, since you asked for, here I post the most serious BIOS settings in my opinion.
If you want to know for another specific command please tell me.

ADVANCED MENU

CPU LEVEL 1,2 and ECC CHECK CACHE = ENABLED
PS/2 MOUSE FUNCTION CONTROL = ENABLED
USB LEGACY SUPPORT = AUTO

CHIP CONFIGURATION

SDRAM CONFIGURATION = By SPD
(all other RAM options - AUTO)
READ AROUND WRITE = ENABLED
DELAYED TRANSACTION = ENABLED
PCI TO DRAM PREFETCH = ALWAYS PREFETCH

AGP x 4
AGP FAST WRITE = ENABLED
AGP DRIVE STRENGTH = AUTO
GRAPHICS APERTURE SIZE = 64 MB
VIDEO MEMORY CACHE MODE = USWC
ONBOARD PCI IDE ENABLE = BOTH
MEMORY HOLE = DISABLE

PCI CONFIGURATION

PCI /VGA PALETTE SNOOP = DISABLED
SYMBIOS SCSI BIOS = AUTO

Most of the settings are in their default position or in auto.
*note, that I don't have or I don't use any SCSI or USB devices.
Well the only USB device I have is my Intellimouse Explorer.
What do you propose for the mouse? It's better to use it in PS/2 or USB? The behavior, smoothing, precision changes?

[Satch]

posted by Ritteri&Bubbles in his sig
Radeon 8500(Permanent? We shall see!)

Why, what's wrong with YOUR Radeon?

[funnyperson1]

try disabling AGP fastwrites and make cache UC

[Satch]

I had try but those won't solve the problem with the games.

I dont know about the IRQ and the reboots but I just discovered in that review:
http://www.digit-life.com/articles/pmradeon2/index.html

that this "dark veil" I speak of is it called "artifacts" (look to the bottom the screens from the game Giants) So I guess it's driver related.

Issue N.2 closes. Back to Issue N.1.

[zangler]

my friend is having similar problems with the new drivers under winxp. why? does anyone know how to fix the lock ups and stuff. he asked me to check for him. it is really ****ing him off. he is about to sell the card. any suggestions?

[Satch]

Well that we have assume in the forums of rage3d.com is that most of the RADEON problems are software /drivers related.

[Ritteri&Bubbles]

Thats all for BIOS??? Time to get an ABIT mobo my friend, yeah start by disabling fastwrites, and increase AGP size to 256 if you have alot of RAM, make sure video shadowing is disabled, bios and video cacheing is disabled too.

[Satch]

Originally posted by Ritteri&Bubbles
Thats all for BIOS??? Time to get an ABIT mobo my friend, yeah start by disabling fastwrites, and increase AGP size to 256 if you have alot of RAM, make sure video shadowing is disabled, bios and video cacheing is disabled too.

No of course those are not the only BIOS commands, I told you I have post those I think are the more serious. As I said if you wanted for a specific command you should ask. I can't post the WHOLE BIOS HERE!

I have tried disablind the fast writes but they are not solving anything. The recommended AGP aperture size is 64 or at least 128Mb and I have tried those combinations also.
256Mb AGP AS aren't supported by my motherboard since they only cause perfomance or instability problems.

Also about video shadows, caching etc those features aren't exist anymore in new motherboards.
Those commands are outdated and problematic to the present hardware.

Thanks anyway

[Maximus Nickus]

Sorry I haven't got back to you but my machine went down!
Anyway pci slot 4 is from bottom up! So bottom one is PCI1 etc, the reason why I mentioned this is bacuse normally most of the time PCI Slot 4 doesn't share problematic Irq's, I had terrible lockups with my SB Live! until I did this, try disabling fast writes (make sure the driver is for XP!!!! lol) also try some different games and see if you have problem with them. I am soon to be recieving my 8500 so if you have any problems with any games I have (Max Payne etc) then I could see if I have the same and if not play about with the settings to try to find the cause!

So Good Luck and Let us know how you get on!

P.S. Try a bios upgrade (be careful, follow the instructions perfectly check bios update size to see if it is correctly downloaded).:cool:

[Satch]

Hello Nick and thank you again for your reply.
There is no need to apologize make sure first that your machine is keeping healthy and then we can see with mine.

About the problems I have realized that every lock up or low perfomance in games are caused by the Radeon drivers (no matter the version) and the Windows XP compatibility.

I have learn that by visiting the Rage3d.com Radeon support forums.
There are many other Radeon owners who have problems like my mine. I suggest to check them out since you want to buy a Radeon.

The only problem now is the sharing resources issue.
Other people they have told me that it's not neccessary because the devices sharing the same IRQ that a conflict could occur between them.

As for the PCI slot I always leave a space of 1 slot between my graphic and sound card for cooling.

But in some days or weeks I will remove the sound card, I will format the system again, install the OS and after I finishing installing the drivers for my devices I will then place the sound card in a different slot and install the drivers.

Ps. Everything in my computer is updated recently

[zangler]

Originally posted by Satch


Also about video shadows, caching etc those features aren't exist anymore in new motherboards.
Those commands are outdated and problematic to the present hardware.

Thanks anyway

quick point of order....they do still exist on new motherboards. i have it on my 8kha+ which is quite new.

[Maximus Nickus]

Um... I can't order the 8500 anyway as the link on the website to add it to order is missing!!!
Oh well, strange thing is, is that there are people on the forums who have XP and have no problems... I would try the clean install and then see what happens! I find that every install of windows is different!!!

Good Luck

[Satch]

Good luck to you also.
Consult gamespot.co.uk for a list of online resellers if you want to order it via net.

[Maximus Nickus]

Thanx i'll have a look!
My system should be up and running if that website gets its act together!
Hopefully the clean install should help!!