Problems with Graphics Card on Epox EP-8KTA3

[computermad]

Hi
I have the following system specs

AMD Duron 800Mhz Processor
256MB PC133 SDRAM
Epox EP-8KTA3 Motherboard
Soundblaster 128
20.4GB Fujitsu Hard Drive
32x CDROM

Anyway my problem is my graphics card I think, until a week ago I had a 4MB S3 Trio. That worked fine with everything. Then I bought a 32MB Nvidia Geforce MX card, unknown manufacturer. I thought a wise investment for my mean machine.
I cannot get some games to work with the new card. Games such as Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 and Search and Rescue 2. They always load up then crash instantly. I did install the via apollo 4 in 1 by the way before installing the graphics card drivers.

I have tried different graphics drivers that made no difference. I also installed direct X 8 that also made no difference. Microsoft Combat Simulator works fine no problems, so did the alice demo I tried.

Does anyone have any ideas why it doesn't work right?
Is it maybe the motherboard doesn't like my graphics card?
What bios Settings should I be using, do they make a difference?

I thought it would be simple but I cannot see the problem

any help would be much appreciated thanks

from a well annoyed Mr P. Major

 

[Les]

Couple of ideas: I don't know which Nvidia driver for the Mx you installed, but I've found that the most stable drivers are the reference drivers available directly from the Nvidia site (I think version .650 is the most current. ALso, when you installed the card did you first COMPLETELY uninstall every vestige of your old card's drivers- including registry entries? Very important. When you install an Nvidia-based card you need to first switch your display adapter to "standard PCI vga" then reboot and then install the new card.

 

[computermad]

Hi
Les I installed the graphics card on a freshly formatted and installed windows. I tried the 6.50 detonator drivers, they made no difference.

Still Puzzled as to what the problem is

 

[Les]

Well, I don't have any other quick fixes to suggest. however, since you said the system crashes only wtih certain games, you might try to find out what operating characteristics these games have in common (DIrectX API drivers only, etc) . Also bear in mind that screen lockups and crashes during games are not always caused by the video card. SOund cards play a huge role here and if you have a driver or software conflict with your audio card it can cause big problems. You didn't say which version of WIndows you're running, so you might want to check to make sure your sound card drivers are up to date and correct for the O.S.

 

[computermad]

I am running windows 98 SE and I have the latest sound drivers from the epox web site.

 

[Les]

I think you may have just isolated the problem. Your HW list at the begining showed a Soundblaster 128 PCI audio card. However, your last message said you just installed the latest audio drivers for the Epox board, which has an on-board audio chip. Bottomline is, you can't use the Epox board-level drivers to run the SB128 card- they're incompatible. If you want to use the SB 128, you MUST disable the Epox audio in the BIOS setup. This could be why you're getting game crashes. You must choose only ONE audio interface to use in Windows.

 

[computermad]

thank Les I will give it a go