Strange Problem with AM2NF3 and nVidia-Drivers

[ragnargd]

Hi,

i'm Ragnar G.D., i've been lurking on msfn for a year now, and this is my first post - a question, of course...

I both own a AM2NF3 (with a Phenom II X4 910e, TDP 65 W) and a 775Dual-VSTA (with a C2D 8500), and have (besides many other things) an PNY nVidia 6200 with 512 MB (passively cooled), and a Gainward Bliss 7800 GS+ with 512 MB (with acceptable noiselevel - this is a 7800 GT, and not GS, despite the name, as far as i know). I can run with 4GB by Ushers method (could even use more, but that's not making sense, as only W7 could make use of it, and that one is not for gaming, rather for service, to not have the space in my room wasted). Both have a small IDE-SSD for W98SE (16/32 GB), and a medium-sized SATA-I-SSD (60GB) for XP and W7 together, where i set the SATA-controller (which is disguised as an IDE-controller, as we all know) to "No Channel activated" in W98SE in the system-panel to avoid the dreaded compatibility-mode (works like a charm!). Oh yes, both CPUs are passively cooled, all 12"/14"-casing-fans used with 7V only, only the Bliss is barely audible. I'm sensible to noise...

On both mainboards i aim for a triple-boot legacy-gaming machine, to have LAN-gaming via network, with 98SE, XP and W7 64 bit. Almost there...

On the 775VSTA-Dual, both nVidia-cards work, each with 77, and the modded 82.69 Drivers. No shutdown-problem, i use some soudblasters and Intel-Gigabit PCI-LAN, no problems at all on all three OS.

On the AM2NF3, only on W98Se (not on XP or W764bit), with BOTH nVida-cards in ANY combination with the two drivers, the screen shows red dots on a blue background. Quite psychedelic. W98SE irrevocably crashed, of course, only solution is to remove the drivers on Safe Mode. The csreen is a 33" BENQ that can do 1280*1024 at 60Hz via VGA (i have DVI on it as well, but that is used by my big gaming rig as a secondary monitor for watching internet-videas and modern demos from farbrausch and the like).

What i already did:

I exchanged the CPU (i use a single-core 1640LE at the moment).

I exchanged RAM (i only use 512, just to make sure).

Did i mention using both drivers on each card?

I reinstalled with all Motherboard-drivers four times (only other SW installed beyond drivers is IE6SP1 with inoff SP1, and HIMEMX, although the crashes are with himem.sys as well).

I used a GF4200 Ti and a Radeon 9550 (no problem encountered, its just that these cards are not supported on W7, and, well, the GF 4 Ti is only DX 8, and the Radeon 9550 is, plainly speaking, crap).

I played with AGP-settings in BIOS (8X->4X, no fast write, no side-band, Aperture-Size, etc. - that helped in getting the Radeon work, but not for both nVidia-cars).

What is that? Shall i send back my AM2NF3? Don't ask me how many hours in the last nights i spent on this (proverbial) nightmare...

Any advice is welcome. Hugging is ok, too.

Regards,

Ragnar G.D.

[loblo]

It's surprising your Gainward Bliss 7800 GS+ with 512 MB works OK with Win98 on the 775Dual-VSTA as it's generally accepted around here that 512MB graphic cards don't work with unpatched Win98/ME systems. You should probably consider you're exceptionally lucky here.

I use an XFX 7950 GT 512MB on my Asus A8V-Deluxe but it required both the RAM limitation patch from rloew installed with the graphic card switch and a particular AGP aperture setting to get it to work. Without those it's red dots on a black background and failure to boot. I use the 82.69 drivers and suffer from the shutdown issue but that's no big deal.

Edited June 23, 2012 by loblo

[ragnargd]

It's surprising your Gainward Bliss 7800 GS+ with 512 MB works OK with Win98 on the 775Dual-VSTA as it's generally accepted around here that 512MB graphic cards don't work with unpatched Win98/ME systems. You should probably consider you're exceptionally lucky here.

I use an XFX 7950 GT 512MB on my Asus A8V-Deluxe but it required both the RAM limitation patch from rloew installed with the graphic card switch and a particular AGP aperture setting to get it to work. Without those it's red dots on a black background and failure to boot. I use the 82.69 drivers and suffer from the shutdown issue but that's no big deal.

Well, that IS a consistent explanation, at last, as it at least explains all things that work, and all things that don't (except for the Bliss, and here it's perhaps that unlucky luck that made me overlook a possible explanation).

Thank you, loblo!

Ok, now to buy (or better: Borrow)... some < 512 MB nVidia card, and some more detailed experiments with aperture settings...

[ragnargd]

It's surprising your Gainward Bliss 7800 GS+ with 512 MB works OK with Win98 on the 775Dual-VSTA as it's generally accepted around here that 512MB graphic cards don't work with unpatched Win98/ME systems. You should probably consider you're exceptionally lucky here.

I use an XFX 7950 GT 512MB on my Asus A8V-Deluxe but it required both the RAM limitation patch from rloew installed with the graphic card switch and a particular AGP aperture setting to get it to work. Without those it's red dots on a black background and failure to boot. I use the 82.69 drivers and suffer from the shutdown issue but that's no big deal.

Ok, i now have the ASUS N7600GS (passive), with 7600 GS of course, having 256 MB.

Still, display is scrambled --> the "512MB"-explanation can't be applied here. Still, no problem on XP or W7. I use the UnOfficial driver 82.69, as otherwise the 7600 GS is not usable at all.

I tried to use a different model (6600, 6200) from the 77 driver, but no luck until now. Even tried the 7800 GS and 7600 GT from the 82.69. All these attempts did not "recognize" the card at all, everything remaining at 640x480x16colours.

Setting aperture size from 128 to 256 seemed to lessen the effect a bit, but not completely - although this seems contradictory to me, knowing what aperture size is for.

Anyone any idea?

Regards,

Ragnar G.D.

[Rjecina]

I am more interested in your Nvidia 6200 and 6600 problems, but.....

Nvidia 7600 and 7800 are having problems with AM2NF3 MBO with Phenom CPU. They have been solved only with update in 2008.

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