Second thoughts on my V5 purchase.

[Grminalac]

Like many others, right after I saw the deal on buy.com for a V5 shipped for 152 I jumped right on the offer; previously I was running a voodoo3 with little to no problem. (under win2k pro) The voodoo 5 is a decent card I just wish it had the same stability as my V3. Most of my games run well, but I'm having annoying glitches that shouldn't be there: Wierd problems sometimes occuring after I quit quake 3. Diablo II does not want to run at all except for 2D direct draw mode. Of course I cannot forget the fact that now instead of just shutting down when I select shut down, I get a screen telling me its ok to shut the computer off. This is all with the new drivers i tried a few other versions as well. On the plus side I admit playing Ultima IX smoothly was nice (that game should be the true benchmark its brutal) as well as seeing older games like x-wing alliance in 4x aa. i was also thinking about reinstalling that N64 emulator and seeing how it runs with 4x aa. I bet zelda would look amazing. I am just not so sure these new problems are worth putting up with what I see as a marginal increase in speed and utility.
I had previously tried a geforce2, I admit it had just been released and its drivers still needed tweaked, but damn it was terrible. (it caused me 2 reformats)
I suppose my current problems could be due to the fact I am using a VIA chipset (apollo pro 133A) My advice to 3dfx is before adding new abilities to the drivers (HSR) you should FIX the problems they currentlly have.

 

[ElFenix]

ummm... that power shutdown thing has nothing to do with your video drivers and everything to do with the power settings. somehow it sounds like your acpi has gotten screwy. try disabling that by switching the computer driver in the device manager to standard PC.

 

[Grminalac]

well you see i had previously done all that i switched from acpi to standard pc amonth ago hoping to get rid of some pops and cracks my SB live kept giving me. (it didn't help) My system ran just peachy until I changed video cards, every reboot after that whammo, i get the shutdown screen.

 

[Grminalac]

Or did you mean by switching to standard again and going thru that whole "find the drivers again" deal I would alleviate my problem?

 

[RoboTECH]

what version of the drivers/DX are you running?

 

[Grminalac]

Actually I am running DirectX 8 drivers. I thought to myself they might be responsible for some of my troubles, they didn't seem to affect my V3 though, I installed them after their release. I suppose the only way to find out would be reformat, or is their a way to revert back to directX 7?

 

[MrGrim]

DirectX 8 Unistaller

Don't forget to install DX 7a afterwards.

 

[DaveB3D]

There is no reason the V5 should be causing the problems you are having. Definately related to something else.

 

[ElFenix]

i think that switch causes some problems. last time i installed win2k i looked for the option to go to standard pc to begin with but couldn't find it. i left it on acpi. i did note that when i switched from acpi the computer stopped shutting off automagically. you didn't happen to not format between the geforce and the voodoo? geforce drivers are real pieces of crap when it comes to getting rid of them.

 

[RoboTECH]

EEEP!!!!

did you have a GeForce in prior to having the 5500?

that would DEFINITELY do it

gotta totally wipe the system clean of nviida drivers

same if you go from 3dfx to nvidia

not good.

 

[Looney]

Like many have said, i dont' think the problem is with the card... and infact this is the first time i ever heard of any problems like what you mentioned. Stability wise, it's the most stable card of this current generation, much more stable and compatible than the GF2 or Radeon.

As for your advise to 3dfx, well, that's assuming your problems are due to the card and not your inability to troubleshoot (think about it... you're blaming a shutdown problem on the videocard?!). It's probably the later.

 

[Grminalac]

I never said the card caused the problems with the shutdown, I merely stated that before: the computer shut down automatically and Now: I have to hit the power button. I believe you are the one jumping to conclusions, especially since you have no idea what my ability to troubleshoot is. The real deciding factor will be when i switch back to the voodoo 3 card and see exactly what happens. If in fact the computer decides it will shut down, then its safe to assume that the new card, be it the drivers, or with some sort of incompatibility with the motherboard or other peripheral caused the problem. This may sound odd but i believe switching to standard pc did not fully take effect until I manually removed the video card by hand and also by removing it from the add remove hardware button in the control panel, at this point acpi was totally removed and the computer needed to be shut down manually. (which it should with standard pc) this is what i did before installing the V5.
As for 3dfx fixing its drivers i was referring to the problem with diablo II. I emailed blizzard tech support and they told me they have been recieving problem reports from some 5500 users with directx 8. This seemed a little odd to me that a game featured on 3dfxgamers.com would not work correctly with the newest drivers and dx8.

 

[Grminalac]

mrgrim, will that uninstaller work with win2k?

 

[Mule]

I'm sure it's just for win 98/95, maybe ME

 

[Grminalac]

I'm sure these problems are due to directx 8, I suppose I have to wait until they either make a new version, or reinstall windows. I had a bad feeling I shouldn't have installed it in the first place but frigging 3dfx and their little animation with the big x crashing thru the screen saying "revolutionary breakthrough" talked me into it.