New Nvidia drivers

NVIDIA has the official release of new version 23.11 Detonator XP drivers for Windows 95-98-Me, Windows XP-2000, and Windows NT, offering "Highly optimized DirectX and OpenGL® pipelines, and a "New OpenGL 1.3 ICD with NVIDIA extensions," as well as more vitamins, more iron, and no more waxy buildup. As always: "The drivers available here are NVIDIA reference drivers and are provided "as is" with NO TECHNICAL SUPPORT. They do not contain OEM/manufacturer specific customizations that shipped with your NVIDIA video card. Please consult your board manufacturer or OEM for supported drivers."

Pick 'em up here: http://www.guru3d.com/files/

BTW, I upgraded my WinXP Pro system with these latest drivers and have thus far experienced no problems in T2 or DAoC. I think I squeezed a few extra FPS out of the deal as well.

So far so good.

22.50 gave me an additional 1000 3dmarks over 21.83 - and the performance stuck with this latest set in 23.11.

I'm pumping out 6154 3dmarks in 3dmark 2001 with my Athlon 1000 and a GeForce3 - now if I can just solve these hard crashes. :-)


[AK]Abaddon

Ab,

Are you crashing in-game? Do you run the VIA chipset on your motherboard?

Bribo,

Yes to both counts. I crash in game and out of game - hard crashes that lock the system and leave the last sound cycling (if one is playing). The crashes are not repeatable ... and can happen seconds after bootup or after hours of intensive gaming.

I have an Asus A7M266 motherboard - which apparently has the VIA chipset and the AMD Northbridge 761 chipset.

My system:

Athlon 1000
Asus A7M266 motherboard
256mb PC2100 RAM
IBM 15.7 gig ATA-33 drive (system, and master)
Quantum Fireball 27.5 gig ATA-66 drive (primary slave)
Sony CR140 CDRW (secondary master)
Soundblaster Live (not 5.1)
Visiontek GeForce3

In my quest to work this out, I have read a dizzying array of messages on Internet newsgroups, and have found my problem with this motherboard to be a common one, particularly with Nvidia cards and Soundblaster Live. Apparently SB Live and Nvidia do not play well together across an AMD 761.

My solution will probably be to buy a new soundcard. I have been eyeing the Hercules Game Theater anyway. Tonight I plan to remove my SB Live and run intensive benchmarks on the computer to see if it will still crash.


What do you guys think?

[AK]Abaddon

Sounds like a good plan. If you run without crashing you'll know what your problem is anyway. Sound cards are pretty cheap. You may want to grab the latest VIA drivers and install them if you haven't done that recently. Also, check the Windows Update site. I seem to recall some patches from M$ pertaining to SB Live cards. What operating system you running?

Ab, your crashes sound exactly like mine. The entire system freezes, usually with a repeating sound and sometimes with a high pitched whine. It only occurs when I'm playing a game that is giving the computer a workout - never when I'm just web surfing, word processing, or playing an old DOS game. There doesn't seem to be any way to predict when the freeze will hit. Sometimes it hits right after I've started the the computer, but it usually hits after about an hour of gaming. Once it hit three times in half an hour, but usually it's more like every 60-90 minutes.

I can't remember all my hardware right now - I'll try to remember to post it when I get home. But be sure to let me know what you figure out, Ab.

Leo - Ab found his problem. I think he just switched his Sound Card and Ethernet card slots and everything was all better.

Ab - can you comment on what you did specifically?

Thanks,

Guys ... My computer continued to crash. I fixed it later, and it has been stable for three days without a single crash. I am not sure what I did to fix it. Here are possible fixes - Some are specific to my motherboard, an ASUS A7M266 with an AMD 761 AGP controller and a VIA Southbridge IDE controller.

A) Disable BIOS Update in BIOS.
B) Disable Video ROM shadowing in BIOS
C) Download and install the latest AMD AGP driver, even if Windows XP says it is already installed.
D) Download the latest VIA IDE miniport driver and install it.
E) Sacrifice two chickens and a goat by the light of a full moon.
F) Do not install PCI cards in the first or last slots. Use PCI slot 3 fo resource hogs like a Soundblaster Live.
All but (E) are optional. A lamb may be substituted for the goat, but please check with tech support first.


[AK]Abaddon

Well, this gives me some new ideas to try. I had already fiddled with my BIOS pretty hard, but I don't think I've tried those settings. I did know that AMD has its own AGP drivers. Are those preferable to the drivers put out by the motherboard manufacturer? My mobo is a Soyo K7ADA.

But it sounds like this is another case of all PCI slots not being equal. Sounds like I've got a fun evening ahead of shuffling cards. Would PCI slot 3 be the third PCI slot from the AGP slot, or counting from the other side?

Hey Leo,

I count the PCI slots down from AGP ... so the third one would be three down from the AGP slot.

Oddly enough, I think it is the video ROM shadowing setting (off) that fixed my computer. I knew it had to be either XP or my GeForce 3 causing the probelm, because my friend had this system rock solid with a GF 2 and Win 2000.

Do some searches on your motherboard on dejanews.com to see what other folks are experiencing. In my case, I found that since my MB is a hybrid with AMD and VIA chipsets, the manufacturer (ASUS) did not seem to be supporting it well. So I hunted up the latest drivers from the individual manufacturers. Be warned that you should not install all of the VIA 4-in-one drivers, unless your entire motherboard is VIA. I had to just use the VIA IDE miniport, and the AMD 761 AGP driver.

And here's a new problem for me ... any ideas?

This morning, I noticed that in 3D games, my screen has become darker than it was before. I did not have this problem before, and do not know why it has started now. I'm worried ... my GF3 is running at 235/512 - would overclocking damage the chip so that the screen darkens? In Windows XP, the screen is as bright as ever. It just gets dark in games and in 3DMark 2001.

Any ideas?

[AK]Abaddon

Okay ... I'm going senile. For some reason, my monitor's settings reset ... and I had to adjust the brightness in games again. Yes, that's right - I had to adjust the brightness on the front of the monitor. I don't want to talk about it, or about how much time I wasted with gamma/brightness/contrast in the Nvidia control panel.


And I'm not even 31 yet! Arrrrrrgh!

[AK]Abaddon

I had the strangest thing happen last night while in the tourney server with NR.....
My whole computer just reset, just like that, anybody ever have that happen??? :(

After two freezes during tonight's match, I'm definitely going to figure this thing out. It's infuriating!