Need help. Interesting problem with geforce.

[potato]

A while back I picked up a Creative 3D Blaster Annihilator Pro. Supposedly (according to the box and everywhere I've read about it) the card is 32MB DDR.

When installed in my system, the card only seems to be using 16MB. The driver property page titled "GeForce DDR" reports On-Board Memory: 16MB. I assume this is not normal 🙂

Here is some interesting info:

Inspecting the card itself, reveals this:

Model CT6970

Ram: (there are 4 of these per side)
infineon
SGRAM
HYB39D32322TQ-6
Germany A
9941 U41532

When the system is rebooted the following is displayed:

NVIDIA GeForce DDR VGA BIOS
Version 2.10.3.02.04
...some copyright stuff...
Creative CT6971 (AGP)
16.0 MB RAM


Even the boot up video bios report says 16 MB! Argg! Also notice the different model numbers.


Has anyone heard of this before? Could it be a problem with my motherboard (run-of-the-mill asus with celeron on slocket) or could it be a bios configuration problem? I'm out of ideas.

Thanks!

 

[ET]

Seems more like a problem with the card. Unless it reported the full 32MB on other boards.

 

[NOS440]

Sounds to me like you have a bad board. I'd be contacting the vendor or creative and have them trade ya for a new one. The video screen at boot up doesn't lie and they never made a 16 mg Geforce

 

[HeadKnocker]

If you are using the Creative Blaster Control, go in and uncheck sideband addressing, then reboot twice. I have the same card, and it did the same thing, freaked me out I must say. it then came back reading 32MB both at boot up and in the control program. after that you can recheck the sideband addressing option

 

[potato]

I've submitted a support request to Creative Labs asking what course I should take to get it replaced.

Thanks for your help!

 

[potato]

Headknocker, I started my other post before reading yours...

I do not have the Creative Blaster Control installed, nor has it ever been installed on this system (to my knowledge).

Would you suggest installing it to investigate? Or would that only make things worse? (If I should install it, where would I get it?)

Thanks!

 

[potato]

A little poking around on the creative site reveals a special utility designed specifically for tweaking the side-band addressing setting on a card. I'll try it out and report back.

 

[potato]

No love. The Creative AGP Wizard didn't seem to help in any way.

 

[Laz]

I have the same card and every once in a while (usually when my system crashes and I do a hard boot) the card will be picked up as a 16 meg version, during boot up. I just reboot again and it picks up the full 32 and runs great untill it happens again, it's annoying when it happens, but it is a rare event so I just ignored it. If your card never gets picked up as a 32 meg, I would return it. I also have an Asus MB and it did it with the P3B as well as my CUBX. I also use creative AGP wizard with side banding enabled.