KT133+GF2MX=Distorted games?

[KaOTiK]

Hello everyone. I need some help for a friend of mine. We just build his new computer today and tried to play UT as well as SimCity 3k and both screens were really really screwy. Like the screen starts flashing textures and transparnet colors in blocks. The text on the the menus is all wacked out you cant read what it says its flashing so quickly all distorted with UT. We did the lastest patch and all that for games. Im not to sure what it is. His specs are:

Win 98se
MSI K7T Pro2-A (MS-6330)
Asus 7100 (GF2 MX 16mb)
IBM HD
Duron 800
SbLive! Vaule

We DLed the newest VIA drivers and tried a few different sets of drivers for the video card (refernce and manufactor) and still no luck.

Can someone please help us? I have no clue what to do.....ill see if he can get a pic of the UT screen to show you what i mean. Any help is appreicated. Thank you

Kao

 

[BadThad]

What version of nvidia detonator drivers are you using? Did you run the dxsetup.exe diag program? What version of DX? Make sure your passing all the tests.

 

[KaOTiK]

Dont remember which version of the drivers they were......they were the latest offical drivers from both Asus' website as well as nvidias, tried both and no go on either. Using DX8, ill check and make sure hes passin all test now. He is using the latest officals at the moment from nvidias site, i thionk the 6.50s?


EDIT:

Had him run the test with the dxdiag

He passed everything but the Software rendering test he gave him this message he told me "Direct3D test results: Failure at step 5 (User verification of software rendering): HRESULT = 0x00000000 (unknown error)
"

Kao

 

[KaOTiK]

bump

 

[BadThad]

Not sure why it fails software rendering, you may need to research that on MS's website. However, a game like UT should only be using hardware rendering. He's not launching the game in "safe mode" is he? ...and I mean UT safe mode, NOT windows safe mode. What settings is he using for UT as far as graphics resolution, color depth, etc?

Is the CPU or GPU overclocked at all?

 

[KaOTiK]

Yes, the game is setup to run in D3D Hardware mode. We did try using software to see what would happen and he told me it was totally screwed up. So we went back to D3D and same prob....he doesnt run it in software mode. As for as options, we havent been able to change them at all cause of the distoration and not being able to select anything. Its still set to the default of what UT recommends (i beleive, it was high lvl everything with standard vid res).

We dont have anything OC at all, everything is factory. Never OC anything either.

Kao

 

[bunghole2]

I had problems with this config:

win98se
asus a7v
t-bird 900
soundblaster live xgamer 5.1

UT ran fine, quake 3 locked up, diable 3 only worked in 2d mode.

I solved the problem by updating the Via 4 in 1 drivers.

 

[BadThad]

Ahhhh...I have an idea. You're saying you can read the settings due to "distortion"? That REEKS of adapter refresh rate! Read this: Monitor Refresh Rates. I sounds like your refresh rates are out of sync with D3D. We're getting close, try following my advice at the link then check back.

 

[KaOTiK]

badthad, we will try it out when we get home from work tonight (headin out the door now just about). So ill post after we tried out the info at that link. Thank you very much so far for all your help.

Kao

 

[KaOTiK]

Well he set the refresh to highest it would go with his mointor (85hz), it was set to optimal before. He told me that the Menu's in the game were still the same but he told me when he watched an mpg/avi/etc video he improved alot (i didnt know there was a problem with this until now). He said the videos arent great still and the menu's still the same in game. Any more ideas? Btw he says thank you alot for your help thus far as well.

Kao

 

[Smoke2jj]

Well lets see here. You have the lates 4 in 1 from via, latest video adapter drivers, monitor with refresh rate set ok, and lates version of dirext X. Well I would reccomend trying at the very least adifferent video card in that you try an different brand or model all together just to see what happens or if possible try a new card of the same type. What I am getting at is that it can be a compabilty issue in that maybe that card will not work at all(correctly)(unlikely) or maybe it is defective. Also something else to look into would be a BIOS update for the card and maybe for the mother board. My 2 cents..

 

[BadThad]

Smoke might be on to something, bad card?