Magic.X

16th January 2006 10:06 UTC

Graphic Card Trouble
Hi to all who remeber me, been a while.

I got a Problem that nearly made me freak out.

I've a Galaxy Geforce 6600 and whenever i start AVS, after some minutes the complete Windows Desktop freezes.

Even more Confussing: I can still move the mouse, and Overlay Drawing is also not effected (so AVS is internally still working!)

After a some Seconds or if i change the active window, no more Freeze but i got to move Stuf around to be redrawn by Windows.

Neither does this occur with other Craphic Cards in my System nor with my Craphic Card in Other Systems.

So here's the rest of my Hardware:

Mainboard: MSI K8T Neo-FIS2R
CPU: AMD Athlon 3200+ (754 Pins, 1 MB Cache)
TV-Card: Hauppage WinTV PVR 350
Additional Soundcard: Soundblaster PCI 128

Anyone else got the same Problem?

Tuggummi

16th January 2006 10:29 UTC

I had the same kind of problem with my old Geforce 4 MX when using fullscreen overlay, but i bought a radeon card and it hasn't done it anymore (yet?).

No idea what's causing it, only know that it occurs only when using fullscreen overlay mode, normal fullscreen worked perfectly (with the Geforce).

Magic.X

16th January 2006 14:48 UTC

Ended up with everytime fuckups for me, even in windowed mode with overlay off.

I'm guessing ist some kind of hardware combination thats causing the problem.

Exchanged my graphic card meanwhile with an old 4200 but this can not be a permanent solution.

hornet777

18th January 2006 04:04 UTC

Have you tried other driver(s) that may be available at the card Mfgr's website? I realise that does not t'shoot the problem that only seems to occur with AVS, but there may be no alternative, other than messing with some of the advanced settings.

Magic.X

18th January 2006 10:36 UTC

Heck yeah.
Tried the shipped ones, some outdated and also the newest drivers available on the nvidia site.

Hav'nt tried the Omega drivers yet but, guess this wont help much as those are only tweaked for 3D perfomance.

Definately no Driver related Problem, and if it is, it hasnt been fixed yet.


If there's no solution, i'll have to sell the fucking thing, and get a new one. :mad:

hornet777

21st January 2006 17:02 UTC

So you've tried playing with the Advanced settings in your Display Properties as well? Generally some combination will work, but you have to do it methodically. Also try decreasing Hardware Acceleration for your graphics card in Windows.

Magic.X

23rd January 2006 14:37 UTC

I did methodically check anything that 'might' actually have some relation to the overlay functionality. Also checked for overheating or other crap.

You say decreasing Hardware Acceleration might help tho its a pretty specific problem? But reducing overall performance (if already nominal and not overclocked) cannot be the answer, is it?

hornet777

24th January 2006 00:26 UTC

I meant it as a t'shooting technique primarily, but if it works, and that's the only way you can get it to work, then it becomes a workaround. In this case you'd have to decrease acceleration to do AVS stuff, and reset it back for other stuff. Other than trying other (say PCI) graphics cards, and your t'shooting efforts yield nothing, then you are pretty much stuck with what is. You didn't mention it (or I didn't catch it) but are you running 2k or XP? What results did yuo have with your methodical tweaking? Any marginal improvement, or even a change that made it worse?

One trick that sometimes helped in DOS-based Windows was to delete the registry entries having to do with the display after uninstalling all the mfgr's software, reboot, and have the install CD ready when the HAL detects "new" hardware. This provides a new baseline and eliminates both potential software as well as registry conflicts over different versions of drivers. Some are just amazingly finicky this way.

One last thing: dbl-check AVS display settings; you might have overlooked something.

jheriko

24th January 2006 03:06 UTC

Prolly nvidia drivers, they have been particularly crappy recently... all sorts of things breaking and un breaking...

Or... it might be the tv card interfering somehow... i really dunno.

StevenRoy

24th January 2006 05:30 UTC

What's the wattage rating of your computer's power supply? I had a computer with a really wimpy one; it would work most of the time, but after a while (usually after an error occurs when reading a CD) the video card would behave strangely in all sorts of ways. The CD drive would be locked up, too, and I'd usually have to reboot (hard) to get the computer usable again.

And don't get me started on my IBM Aptiva downstairs. It came with onboard 3d acceleration that would completely lock up the computer after a few seconds of use. The power supply, being only a 75 watt one (yeah, yikes), is obviously to blame there, too, but it can't be replaced because the case is too tiny for a standard-sized one!

(Incidentally, neither of these were NVidia.)

I have other video cards with documentation that clearly state that 3d video cards "have an appetite for power" and the recommend power supply is a 400W one or larger.

This might be worth checking.

jheriko

24th January 2006 08:08 UTC

400W is excessive unless you have an absolutely top of the line card. 250-300W is enough for anything without an extra power cable attachment.

Although my experience is only with everything in the range between GeForce 3/Radeon 7500 and the GeForce FX5950 and Radeon 9800 cards. Some newer cards may be different, but I doubt that, since some of the need for the extra cable is because you can't force enough power into the AGP/PCI-E slot.

It also matters if you have a Pentium 4 which is a Prescott or newer iirc, in that 250W will fail on all but the lightest CPUs and 300W will be needed for the rest.

Magic.X

24th January 2006 11:46 UTC

Running XP SP1 - tweaking stuff resulted in nothing.

My power supply is about 500W and not one of the worst.
extra power atachment is available and plugged.

Thought this might not be the failure, but regarding there's still 3 harddrives and a dvd-rw drive left makes me wonder again.

jheriko

25th January 2006 00:02 UTC

Nah you are cool... hdds and dvds dont suck up that much power. That 500W is enough for another 3 HDDs and more...


Drop the hardware angle, this sort of instability rarely arises from hardware issues. If hardware fails, windows either tells you or things go horribly wrong, and you wouldnt be left wondering what caused it... you would know. :)

Its far more likely to be a software (driver/windows) issue if its AVS specific and if its related to something which you are doing and if other things seem to work (you mentioned overlay specifically still works, and also that it only happens when AVS is started).

One thing to try, is running it in a seperate memory space, it seems to be defaulted on later versions of windows (prolly becase it offers 'extra stability' to so many older flakier programs) so that may not help... but its worth a try.

Good luck working it out tho...

hornet777

25th January 2006 05:11 UTC

yep, its prolly a software/driver thing, though the power supply angle evaded me (even tho I'm a p/s designer); you have plenty of reserve on that... One last thing that occurred to me is to see of the mfgr has a forum on their site, or even contact info to submit a t'shooting ticket. If its under warranty, they seem to be obliged to help.

hornet777

30th March 2006 03:43 UTC

How has this turned out, Magic? Hope well.