nVidia and XP - I give up!

[chuckerants]

Ok, I upgraded from a generic 8MB AGP to a Chaintech GForce 2 MX 400 on my XP Pro.

As soon as XP recognized the nVidia, I've had problems. In the week that I've installed this card, I've had my system rebbot overnight to just plain freez on me.

I've tried the 23.11 and 23.12 MS drivers and the nVidia 27.20 -> 28.32 Beta drivers. I STILL have problems.

WTF?!? FU MSXP, and FU nVidia.

For now, I'm putting the 8MB AGP back in until I have time to go back to Win 200 Pro.

I've had it.

Chuck

 

[Sonny]

The older MX cards really shouldnt use anything higher than the 12.41s. Give them a try.

 

[chuckerants]

Thanks Sonny.

I'm gonna calm down for a day and decide.

 

[chuckerants]

12.41

Ok, I just installed 12.41.

Let's see how it runs for a day.

Chuck

 

[Sonny]

How is it going?

 

[cw823]

What release of XP Pro are you running?

 

[chuckerants]

I'll have to check when I get home to check the XP Pro version.

Also, the driver version 12.41 was still causing problems. It was making the computer"freeze" or the mouse would stick for a second.

I was really ready to swap the the Gforce for the 8MB AGP. BUT, I read on the Video Board about the AGP portal(?) or frame or something like that in the BIOS. Mine was set at 64mb so I changed it to 32 MB yesterday and this is the first time that the PC hasn't rebooted overnight since I got the GForce2.

Maybe I finally fixed it.

Chuck

 

[Sonny]

You need to set the AGP aperture size properly before you start playing around with drivers. No need to set it higher than 32Mb if you have a VCard with or more than 32Mb.

 

[cw823]

I'll have to check when I get home to check the XP Pro version.

Also, the driver version 12.41 was still causing problems. It was making the computer"freeze" or the mouse would stick for a second.

I was really ready to swap the the Gforce for the 8MB AGP. BUT, I read on the Video Board about the AGP portal(?) or frame or something like that in the BIOS. Mine was set at 64mb so I changed it to 32 MB yesterday and this is the first time that the PC hasn't rebooted overnight since I got the GForce2.

Maybe I finally fixed it.

Chuck

YGPM

 

[chuckerants]

No need to set it higher than 32Mb if you have a VCard with or more than 32Mb.

This would make sense except that I have a GForce 2 MX400 64 MB. I'm guessing that perhaps my BP-6 MoBo does not support 64mb ? But then why would it be listed in the BIOS then?

Also, "what" is AGP aperature?

BTW, I have XP Pro version 5.01.2600

 

[Sonny]

This would make sense except that I have a GForce 2 MX400 64 MB. I'm guessing that perhaps my BP-6 MoBo does not support 64mb ? But then why would it be listed in the BIOS then?

Like I said "VCards with or more than 32Mb" Well if it's listed in the BIOS then it probably supports it. What does your screen show during POST? Is your card recognized as 64Mb? Are you starting to have problems again?

Also, "what" is AGP aperature?

The amount of main memory that is allocated for direct memory access (DMA) of the advanced graphics port or DiME (direct memory execution). The hypothetical advantage of the AGP design is that the graphics engine can use the main memory as part of a unified memory architecture (UMA). In this case, the graphics adapter can access textures directly from the main memory (DMA) and, more importantly, process the data directly from and to the main memory, bypassing the on-board graphics memory. This feature requires a certain amount of system memory to be allocated for graphics operations. Too little will result in poor graphics performance, too much will fill up the system memory and take up space required for other operations.

With the increase of on-board graphics memory (currently up to 128 MB on the video card itself) this option has lost its relevance. Were the original recommendations to set the AGP aperture to about ½ of the total system memory, a good approximation now would be:

Total system memory / (video memory [MB] /2)

In other words, if you are running 128 MB system memory and have a 4 MB video card, the optimal AGP aperture would be:
128 MB / (4/2) = 64 MB

For a 8 MB video card, the equation would be:
128 MB / (8/2) = 32 MB

For a 64 MB video card:
128 MB (64/2) = 4 MB

Please note that this is only an approximation to explain the principle. In real life situation, the AGP aperture should be kept at a minimum of 16 MB for most applications, a few others, particularly benchmarks like 3DMark2K/2K1/SE require at least 32 MB AGP aperture.