Geforce4 problems! Games wont work, and DirectX isn't being detected!

[OmnipotentSpleen]

.18 Classic Athlon 650@825 (removed heatplate), 3.1ns L2 Cache @ 1/2 (412mhz), 1.95vcore
Modified VOS32 with 120mm Delta
Asus K7M @103 FSB with Super Bypass
Gainward Geforce4 Ti4200 64mb(3.5ns)
512MB PC-100 SDRAM CAS2
Aureal Vortex2 with custom heatink
475GB 7200 & 5400 RPM
Antec 250watt PowerSupply
Windows 2000 Pro

I am using the nvidia 29.80 drivers. this happend with the drivers that came on the gainward cd as well.

Ok, here's the main problems:

1. Gand Theft Auto 3 won't evne start up. i click the shortcut, and the hourglass is displayed for maybe a second, and nothing. i check task manager to see if the process is running, and it isn't.

2. Warcraft3 won't load. It says that I don't have DX8 installed corectly or something. I have reinstalled it 3 times already.

3. 3dmark 2001 se doesn't work. It basically give me the same error that WC3 does. "I dont' have hardware that is supported". It worked fine w/ my GTS!

4. Gainward Expertool shows that i have Direct X 0 installed. WTF?

5. 2x AGP wont work! I have to run it in 1x AGP I know that it's a probelm with my AMD-751 northbridge, but is there any way around it?

6. Performance seems a lot slower than it should be. I get almost 70fps in Quake3 1280x1024x32 w/ Quincunx and full anistropy, but that's the only game that seems to go fast. changing the settings doenst help. Even in 800x600x16 jedi knight 2 is still choppy as heck. MOH:AA d-day gets abotu 10-15 fps no matter what setting. It seemed almost faster with my GTS. What's the deal?


Is the problem my motherboard? slow cpu? os? drivers? I installed the latest 4in1 (minus the agp vxd driver) and installed the latest AMD AGP driver off amd's site - 5.33 i believe). I have the most recent BIOS as well. everything worked fine w/ my Geforce2 GTS.

To make matter worse, my friend who got a Gainward Ti4400 has almost the exact same problem as I do!


You can check out these threads for furhter insight:

http://www.hardware-pacers.com/cgi/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=007188&p=
http://www.hardware-pacers.com/cgi/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=007141&p=

i'd REALLY appricate some help here! I'd like to get all my games running in 60fps+ in 1024x768x32. GTA3 being the main one that i've been playing. The second island just killed my FPS with my GF2 GTS, so i was hoping this GF4 Ti would do the trick. Please help!

 

[MCS]

Describe the steps you took when you upgraded the GF2 to the GF4?

 

[SunnyD]

#1 - DO NOT USE GAINWARD EXPERTOOL!!! Many users have reported that that tool causes various problems, including compatibility problems.

#2 - Remove ALL overclocking from your machine, and see if that helps things out.

#3 - You should really have a 350+ watt PSU if you're running ANY Athlon, let alone a GeForce 4.

#4 - Use the NVIDIA reference drivers that are currently available from the NVIDIA website - 29.42 - these are WHQL certified, and garaunteed compatible, and DX8.1 compliant. 29.80 are beta drivers, use at your own risk.

First - I suggest uninstalling the drivers and EXPERTool completely from your machine, and then installing the reference drivers from NVIDIA. If that doesn't help, UN-Overclock your machine. Your overclocking may also be an issue as to why you can get AGP2x to work - you're overclocking the AGP bus as well, and the Gainward card may be a bit more pickey about it. And finally, GET A BIGGER PSU!!! My Athlin 1.4ghz and Gainward GF4Ti4200 show OBVIOUS problems with respect to power consumption on this Enlight 300watt PSU. It's for the most part completely stable, but when I stress the machine, the color drive voltages obviously go down, as the screen dims for a moment until the PSU fills the drive demand again.

Hope some of this helps.

SunnyD

 

[OmnipotentSpleen]

Originally posted by: MCS
Describe the steps you took when you upgraded the GF2 to the GF4?

i didn't uninstall the old ddrivers like i should have they wre like the 27.xx somethings.

i just took the card out, replaced it, put the gf4 in and ler her rip. the card wasnt' detected right away, and in installed the reference drivers off the CD.

i already uninstalled expertool, but that idnd't help. i'm going to uninstall the dets and reinstall the offical nvidia ones.

when i run my geforce4 in a game, my +12 line drops a lot more than it did with my GTS. it stays within 10% though. i'll try another PS and see if that helps.

 

[Mem]

I agree with SunnyD trying a better good quality 300w PSU might help,IMHO it can only really be 3 things,PSU or software driver problem in which case reformat clean install should fix that or less likely a faulty GF4 (which you could test in another PC).

 

[SunnyD]

Oh - if you don't want to go so far as to wiping your entire system and reinstalling it, I do know a way to basically "reset" Windows to 1st install status with regards to the video card and chipset. I had installed RivaTuner last week and it totally screwed up the visuals on my card, and I ended up not only having to uninstall RivaTuner, the NVIDIA drivers, I also had to wipe the system registry clean of all pertanant references that RivaTuner screwed up too.

If you want some help as to what to look for and remove - PM me and I'll be happy to help you out. It only takes about 5 minutes to do.

Since you haven't uninstalled old drivers, this may help you by wiping old settings that might slow down the newer drivers.

Also - one last thing you may want to try - install the NVIDIA reference drivers over top of your existing drivers (without uninstalling first), then uninstall the reference drivers, and reinstall them again. It usually will clean out old files that are no longer in use when you do this, and you get a clean install of the reference drivers the second time around.

SunnyD

 

[OmnipotentSpleen]

*bump*

still no worky

 

[lRageATMl]

i had issues with my gainward geforce3 ti200. although i'm running windows XP, you shoudl be able to take similar steps that I took. I was using ACPI, so I switched over to Standard PC. The reasoning behind this was because my agp slot was sharing the IRQ of many other devices and my card didn't like it. searcj anandtech, he has an article on how to swtich for ACPI (if your in it) to Standard PC. Check to see if your agp card is sharing the same IRQ as any other device (start->run then type in msinfo), and like everyone else said, get a bigger p/s...250 watts...i'm suprised your computer isn't struggling a little more.

 

[DarkFudge2000]

Omni...dont listen to anymore suggestions except for mine. While they were all in good intent, they will not solve your problem and possibly aid to further screw up your setup if you make a mistake somewhere!

Here's what you do...and listen carefully and do exactly as I say step for step....you can thank me afterwards.


1. Go into your run command and type DXDIAG, this will start the Direct X tool
2. goto the tab that says DISPLAY
3. hit the DISABLE for Direct3D Acceleration only and then CLOSE the application. Dont run any tests or make any other changes.
4. After the application is closed, RERUN DXDIAG and goto the display setting again and now ENABLE the Direct3D Acceleration button. You can now safely run the TEST DIRECT 3D button and it should successfully run the Direct X 7 test then it 'should' successfuly run the Direct X 8 test as well. If it does NOT complete the Direct X 8 part and gives you some sort of error message, REPEAT the steps above, you may not have correctly did them in order the first time

Once both Direct x 7 & 8 tests run the spinning textured cube successfuly, go launch your games and enjoy

 

[OmnipotentSpleen]

w00t!!! DarkFudge, i lurve you!!!!

it worked!

when i clicked "disable" the first time, it said "this will ENABLE Direct X acceleration" i'm like...wtf? So i went back in and the tab was still disable, only this time, when i clicked it...it disabled it. went back in and i enabled it, andnow it works! woohoot!

thanks dude!

 

[AnAndAustin]

Just a quick note now you're up and running, upgrade your CPU ASAP. That 4200 absolutely flies on the faster CPUs. Even a Duron950mhz (old core & 200FSB) will boost you loads, and is the most compatible CPU with older mobos. Or are you SlotA? If so then you can get a KT266 for $25 (not the fastest, but fast AND compatible) and stick an AthlonXP1800+ in there for under $100! www.pricewatch.com or www.newegg.com are good sources.

In the meantime (I know what it's like not having the cash) enabling AA & Aniso (rec QxAA or 2xAA & lowest Aniso) will help to use up the spare GPU power your CPU can't tap.

 

[OmnipotentSpleen]

thanks for the advice

i just upgraded to a duron 700 and kt133 w/ 256mb of ram, and Quake3 does 100fps exactly at 1280x1024x32 max detail on Demo_four. That's 25fps faster than with my SlotA Athlon 825mhz. I can't believe it's so much faster. (the 4x AGP doesn't hurt i'm sure, i was running in 1x before the upgrade).

I'm gonna try and overclock this duron to at least 900