UPDATE - 8/4/2004: THIS VERSION OF THE FAQ IS NO LONGER UPDATED. I am no longer responsible for updating the GeForce FAQ. I have handed over maintenance of the FAQ to another website. To see the latest version, go to the following URL:
http://go.to/geforcefaq
The copy on this server is maintained for historical purposes and to redirect people to the new site.
This FAQ contains information pertaining to all NVIDIA GeForce, GeForce2 and GeForce3 based cards, and especially Creative cards.
If you find this FAQ useful, please consider using your spare processor cycles to help the Intel-United Devices Cancer Research Project.
LEGAL BIT: This article is provided as is without any express or implied warranties. While every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this article, the author assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.
Renamed and added lots of information to 'Where can I download drivers that support 3D glasses and how can I fix problems with them?' question.
Updated and removed dead link from 'How can I make the TV-OUT display stretch to the full size of my TV, and generally tweak TV-OUT?' question.
Renamed and updated link in 'What is and where can I get AGP Wizard?' question.
Updated download link and general information in 'Is there an update available for the WinDVD software supplied with the Annihilator?' question.
Updated download link in 'Are there any newer Video BIOS upgrades for the Annihilator?' question.
Removed dead link from 'Does the Annihilator or the Annihilator Pro have extra outputs like TV-OUT or DVI?' question.
Changed link display in 'Why have I only got one overclocking slider with the Creative drivers?' question.
Changed link display in 'Where can I get and how do I use NVFlash?' question.
Removed dead GeForce3 Video BIOS link in 'Where can I get the latest NVIDIA Flash BIOS and which should I use?' question.
Simplified links in 'What is a good replacement fan for a GeForce?' question.
Updated link in 'Games stutter with my GeForce. How can I fix it?' question.
Removed dead link in 'My 2D image quality is poor (fuzzy, ghosting, smeared bold text). How can I fix it?' question.
Removed dead link in 'I get rolling lines with my GeForce2 Ultra. How can I fix it?' question.
Fixed dead link in 'How can I get my Abit LX6, ASUS P2L97 or Gigabyte 6BXC, 6BXE or BX2000 working with the GeForce?' question.
Fixed dead link in 'How can I get my ASUS P5A working with my GeForce?' question.
Removed dead link from 'Why can't I overclock higher than (insert speed here) when others are clocking much higher?' question.
Fixed links in 'Where can I download demos to show off my GeForce?' question.
Changed link display in 'How can I manually set refresh rates and force the refresh rate above 60hz?' question.
Removed dead link from 'When I resume from monitor power saving modes in Windows 9x/ME, I get display corruption and / or instability problems, or my card seems slower than usual. How can I fix it?' question.
Changed link in 'I installed DirectX 8 and it caused more problems than it fixed. How can I uninstall it?' question.
Changed link display in 'Microsoft Baseball 2000 quits or crashes when I run it. How can I fix it?' question.
Removed dead link from 'What Glide wrapper works best with UltraHLE and the GeForce?' question.
Updated links and removed dead links from 'I get horizontal lines in Final Fantasy 8. How can I fix them?' question.
Fixed link in 'I get problems with Star Trek: Armada. How can I fix them?' question.
Removed dead link from 'How can I get SMP working with Quake 3 Arena under Windows 2000?' question.
Updated link in 'How can I speed up Unreal Tournament on my GeForce?' question.
Updated link in 'DVD playback seems slow with my ALI chipset based motherboard. How can I fix it?' question.
Changed link display in 'When I start Microsoft Expedia Streets and Trips 2000 or Microsoft Autoroute Express 2000 (Europe and Great Britain), my computer hangs. How can I fix it?' question.
Changed link display in 'Where can I get the latest NVIDIA Flash BIOS and which should I use?' question.
No, despite what you may have read in reviews. There is only the standard monitor output.
However, Gateway do have an OEM version that does have TV-OUT and DVI.
If you have a standard 26 pin VMI connector on the DVD decoder you can plug the cable into the left half (near the bracket) of the VIP connector on the Annihilator. However, pins 14/27 will be in the way - you will have to bend them out of the way. Note that doing this isn't officially supported!
If you don't want to bend the pins, instead use an internal SCSI connector. The connector is the correct width - connect only the correct half of the SCSI connector to the MPEG card.
There is one upgrade that has been produced by Creative for the Annihilator Pro. It is available on their website:
http://www.americas.creative.com/support/files/download.asp?Centric=56&descID=1079
However, there is a password on the zip file. You can contact Creative support if you have the problem that the BIOS fixes. I won't tell you the password - Creative deliberately put a password on the file to reduce support costs for those who might make a mistake in flashing their video BIOS where there is no need.
This BIOS version is supposed to fix problems with the Annihilator Pro only displaying 16MB of RAM detected on bootup.
You can also use an NVIDIA reference BIOS: see the 'Where can I get the latest NVIDIA Flash BIOS and which should I use?' question.
Be warned that using the NVIDIA BIOS will void your warranty. Also, check your card's current BIOS version as some cards already have a more up to date BIOS than the NVIDIA BIOS that is available. Check this by rebooting and looking at the screen that comes up before the POST screen - the NVIDIA control panel applet does not give a reliable reading of the CL BIOS version (read the 'How do Creative's BIOS versions differ from NVIDIA's BIOS versions?' question for the reason why).
This response was given by William Ball of Creative:
We have a different versioning convention from NVIDIA. Basically ours is CC.cc.oo.mm.ee and NVIDIA's is CC.cc.mm.ee.oo, where .oo is the OEM revision. So on NVIDIA's control panel or NVFLASH program, the .oo part is displayed last whilst our bootup signon message and the later BlasterControl application would display our convention. So, for our SDR BIOS, the version is displayed as 2.10.1.01.04 (our convention) instead of 2.10.01.04.1 (NVIDIA's convention). This might have led people to believe that we are using a 2.10.01.01 BIOS.
This is a known limitation of the current Creative drivers. Creative may release a driver set in the future that fixes this problem.
Unscrew the fan from the card, and lift it away. Blow away any dust that is around the fan. Then peel back the sticker from the back of the fan (the side you don't usually see) and put a drop of oil in the small metal area that you should be able to see. Replace the fan and put the screws back in (not too tightly). This should stop the grinding and will not invalidate your warranty so long as you don't damage the card.
People often ask what kind of oil to use. While I've heard of people using cooking / vegetable / olive oil, and this doesn't mess up the card, I'd recommend some more 'conventional' oil. Liquid silicon is ideal, and you can not only buy it as oil for RC cars, but also in the form of shoe water proofer! You can also use sewing machine oil from any craft shop. Personally I used 3 in 1 when I got this problem.
This is a known limitation of the current Creative drivers - the core clock speed can not be adjusted. You can download a utility that will allow you to set both core and memory clock at the following page:
http://www.geocities.com/johnkok/Johnnie.html.
The Annihilator board has SDR memory: the Pro board has DDR memory. DDR is twice as fast as SDR, and so at high resolutions (1024x768x32 and above) the DDR board is a lot faster than the SDR board.
Note that some DDR cards will have memory listed as running at twice the speed mentioned in the 'What different types of GeForce card are available and what are the differences between them?' question - this is because DDR memory is able to transfer data twice in each clock signal.
The memory on SDR cards will probably have pins on only two sides, as most SDR cards use SDRAM memory. On DDR cards the memory will probably have pins on all four sides, as most DDR cards use SGRAM memory (although ASUS in particular have made cards that do not comply with this rule of thumb!).
The following list is with the cheapest and slowest cards first, and the most expensive and fastest cards last.
See the 'What is the difference between an SDR and a DDR board?' question for information on SDR and DDR.
The GeForce2 series uses a 0.18 micron manufacturing process instead of the 0.22 micron used in the previous process, meaning less power consumption and heat production. All cards in the series have a second generation T&L engine, can render two textures per pixel instead of just one, have the NSR (NVIDIA Shading Rasterizer) and an HDVP (High Definition Video Processor) for better DVD and HDTV support.
The GeForce2 MX supports 2 monitor outputs for TwinView (two video outputs to two monitors, or one monitor and a flat screen display or TV) on the same card) and Digital Vibrance Control. It has only 2 texture pipelines instead of 4 on the GeForce or GeForce2 GTS, is restricted to a 64 bit memory bus for DDR, and has a less advanced HDVP without support for some high-end modes. In general it does not require a fan on the heatsink.
The GeForce3 uses 0.15 micron manufacturing process. It is a new generation of chip, much faster than the GeForce2, fully DirectX 8 compliant, has the nfiniteFX Engine engine, providing support for vertex and pixel shaders, Lightspeed Memory Architecture for improved memory bandwidth, and High-Resolution Antialiasing (HRAA) support for faster antialiasing support in the form of Quincunx antialiasing. It also supports Digital Vibrance Control.
The GeForce2 Go chips are for integration in laptops - once again, the cheapest and slowest chips first, and the most expensive and fastest cards last.
The GeForce2 Go is based around the same architecture as the standard GeForce2, with less power consumption produced by a lower core voltage and speed.
If you have a Creative card, there is a utility called AGP Wizard that will allow you to enable sidebanding as well as Fast Writes and switch between AGP1X/2X/4X. It will not work on any other card because it checks the Video BIOS to see if you have a Creative card. You do not have to have Creative drivers installed. It is available here:
http://www.americas.creative.com/support/files/download.asp?Centric=61&descID=706
In addition, the Creative official drivers and FastTrax drivers have the functionality of AGP Wizard built in.
Unified is a Glide wrapper created by Creative, so that you can run 3dfx only games on your non-3dfx card. Unfortunately all currently known download links appear to be dead, so it is currently unavailable.
http://order.soundblaster.com/escripts/download-unified.asp
However, it may not accept your serial number (you should try using the one on the actual card that begins with T). If you still can't get it to work, email William Ball (bball@creativelabs.com) with your serial number and he will email the files to you.
At least 250 watts is recommended and 300 watts is ideal: however, you may still be able to run it on 230W or lower (I once had a machine that ran on 200W, and I've had a report of someone running on 150W).
You need a more powerful power supply if you have a more power hungry processor like the Athlon or more peripherals than usual in your system.
If you have a GeForce2 series card you may not need such a powerful power supply as they consume less power.
Elsa provides the following power supply recommendations when using a GeForce card and Athlon processor:
If you think that your power supply may be causing problems, try temporarily unplugging any extra cards, drives, fans and memory sticks that you have and see if that helps with the problem. If it does, you will need to get a more powerful power supply.
There are some instructions for fan removal in English on the following website:
http://home.earthlink.net/~chinmonster/
There is a link to the instructions on the first page you read.
There are some instructions for fan removal in German at the following page:
http://www.3dcenter.de/news/geforce-luefter.php3
There are really two choices for a replacement fan. Firstly, I recommend the TennMax Lasagna BGA cooler. It doesn't obstruct your first PCI slot, and cools very well, although it is a bit pricey. If the TennMax cooler is too expensive, try the ThermalTake Blue Orb cooler. It is cheaper than the TennMax cooler, and also cools very well, but it will obstruct your first PCI slot. I have personally used both coolers and they are both great quality.
In most situations, yes. GeForce chips are very complex, some more complex than the main processor inside your computer, and run very fast, and as such they give off a lot of heat. If the fan on your GeForce is turning at a good speed, not making much of a noise, and 3D games don't crash, the temperature is probably normal.
The Intel i845 and i850 specifications contain the following statement:
AGP 1.5 V Connector support only. No support for 3.3 V or Universal AGP connectors.
However, this should not be an issue for GeForce cards, as apparently they are AGP 1.5V devices.
This information was sent to me by NVIDIA's manager of developer 3D tools and technology:
S3's texture compression scheme (S3TC) was licensed to Microsoft who incorporated it into DirectX. It is referred to as DXTC compression in Direct3D. The GeForce supports all five texture compression formats in Direct3D. With the 5.xx (Detonator 2) drivers the GeForce also supports S3TC texture compression in OpenGL.
You can use the compressed textures in Unreal Tournament if you download the latest OpenGL renderer. See the 'How can I speed up Unreal Tournament on my GeForce?' question for more information.
It should be set to half your system RAM if possible, and if not it should be set at some point below or equal to the amount of RAM that you have. However, it is possible to experience speed advantages of 2-3 fps from setting the AGP Aperture size to 256 regardless of the amount of RAM that you have, and there are some games that may have visual problems fixed by setting the AGP Aperture size to 256.
Beware that setting the AGP Aperture size too low (below 32) will actually disable AGP which will cause a speed decrease, although stability problems may be solved - see the 'My GeForce keeps on locking up or drops me back to the desktop during 3D applications. How can I fix it?' question for more information.
There are also some programs that have problems (stuttering, flashing or corrupted textures, blank screens) when the aperture size is set too high. Experiment and see which setting is best for your system and programs.
It's possible that if you set your AGP Aperture size to 256 you will be able to load the 64MB texture test in 3DMark2000 even if you haven't got enough video memory. In addition, if you set the aperture too large you may get 'Out of Memory' errors - see the 'I get 'Out Of Memory' errors although I have plenty of RAM installed. How can I fix it?' question for more information.
You can only change this in your BIOS setup - it may be called something slightly different, so look for a setting that is measured in MB and can be set to values such as 16, 32, 64, 128 and 256. Different motherboards allow different settings - for example, i815 motherboards will not allow you to set the aperture size above 64MB.
Note that the settings in italics may have to be changed in order to maintain stability on some systems. The changes that may have to be made to them are detailed in the instability section, and in particular the 'My GeForce keeps on locking up or drops me back to the desktop during 3D applications. How can I fix it?' question.
The settings described here should provide maximum performance and stability:
You can also try these settings if you are having problems:
For other BIOS settings, see the excellent BIOS Optimization Guide at Adrian's Rojak Pot here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20011018120214/http://www.rojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/BIOS_Guide/BIOS_Guide_Index.htm
Setting this to USWC should increase performance in most cases, but only by a very small amount.
If this is set to USWC it may cause problems after POST.
If this is set to UC it may cause lockups after recovering from Standby.
Creative Labs recommend setting this to UC.
Overall, it's probably best to try setting it to USWC and then set it to UC if you have problems.
WARNING: This section is really only for people who understand how DOS works. Don't email me asking what conventional memory or TSRs are, how to use EMM386 or LOADHIGH, or for instructions as to how to edit your autoexec.bat file - if you don't know, then this section is too advanced for you.
There is a program called VGABIOS that was written by NVIDIA. It is a TSR program that will load a Video BIOS after you have booted your machine, and use that BIOS instead of the BIOS on your card.
This means that if something goes wrong, all you have to do is remove VGABIOS from your startup files and your old BIOS will be used instead (it is unaffected by the process.
The disadvantage of this is firstly that the program takes up 64KB of memory (oh no!) and secondly that I imagine it is very, very slightly slower.
The program cannot be run under Windows - you must run it either before Windows starts or in MS-DOS mode.
You can download the latest version of this program from the following website:
http://www.x-bios.3dgames.ru/
or here:
http://www.gforcex.com/bios_johan/index.htm
The syntax for the program is 'vgabios -fFILENAMEFILENAME is the name of your video BIOS file. You can put this in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and load it at bootup.
If you want to save on 64KB of conventional, you can use LOADHIGH (after loading EMM386) to load VGABIOS into the HMA.
See the 'Where can I get the latest NVIDIA Flash BIOS and which should I use?' question for information on NVIDIA reference Flash BIOS files.
You can download the latest (leaked) NVIDIA GeForce flash BIOS files from the following site:
http://www.x-bios.3dgames.ru/
or here:
http://www.gforcex.com/bios_johan/index.htm
Once you get to the site, you will have a number of options as to which Flash BIOS you should download. Here is a short guide (thanks RobRich):
| If you have a: | Use |
|---|---|
| SDR card with no TV-OUT (Creative Labs Annihilator) | SM |
| SDR card with a Brooktree TV-OUT | BT |
| SDR card with a Chrontel TV-OUT | CH |
| DDR card with no TV-OUT (Creative Labs Annihilator Pro) | DDRSM |
| DDR card with a Brooktree TV-OUT | DDRBT |
| DDR card with a Chrontel TV-OUT | DDRCH (not available) |
If you don't know what TV-OUT chip you have, go into the NVIDIA Control Panel and take a look at the main 'GeForce' tab. There should be a line that says 'TV Encoder Type' - thanks Matthew Manor!
WARNING: Before you flash your card with the standard NVIDIA BIOS, please note that once you have done so you will NOT be able to:
You may find that when you use NVFlash, it complains that the ROMFile PCI Subsystem Vendor ID does not match the Chip PCI Subsystem Vendor ID. This is because you are flashing a non-reference card with an NVIDIA reference BIOS, and can be safewly ignored.
In addition you will void your warranty. Please do NOT email your manufacturer if this goes wrong!
For that reason, I would advise everyone to make a backup of their original BIOS file before they flash their BIOS. You can use a DOS program called SaveBIOS to do this - just run the program and it will create a VIDBIOS.BIN file. Put this file somewhere safe, and if you ever need to revert back to the old version just use NVFlash with your backup file.
You can download SaveBIOS here:
http://www.geforcefaq.com/files/savebios.zip
If you were silly and didn't take a backup, try the following page:
http://www.x-bios.3dgames.ru/
See the 'Where can I get and how do I use NVFlash?' question for information on using the NVFlash program that actually flashes the Video BIOS.
You might also want to read the 'How can I use the latest Video BIOS without flashing my Video BIOS?' question.
NVFlash does not work under Windows 2000. If you want to flash your Video BIOS under Windows 2000, you will need to make a bootdisc on a computer running Windows 9x and boot from that disc to run NVFlash. If you are using NTFS you will have to put all the relevant files that you need to access onto the boot disc before you start as you will be unable to access your hard drive while you are using the boot disc.
If you want to use NVFlash under Windows ME, make sure you install the Real DOS-Mode Patch for Windows Millennium first - available here:
http://www.geocities.com/mfd4life_2000/
You might want to read the 'How can I use the latest Video BIOS without flashing my Video BIOS?' question. Be warned that flashing your Video BIOS could quite possibly permanently damage your card, and it is unlikely that any company would be willing to replace the card for free. Having said that, so long as you follow these instructions you should not have any problems. This is NOT for beginners.
You can download the NVIDIA Flash program at the following website:
http://www.x-bios.3dgames.ru/
or here:
http://www.gforcex.com/bios_johan/index.htm
You will also need a copy of DOS4GW - download it here:
http://www.geforcefaq.com/files/dos4gw.zip
Extract both files to an empty directory, along with the Flash BIOS file that you are going to use (see 'Where can I get the latest NVIDIA Flash BIOS and which should I use?' question).
Reboot your PC and when it says 'Starting Windows 9x/ME...' press F8. Select 'Safe Mode Command Prompt'.
Switch to the directory where you extracted the files and type: NVFLASH -fFILENAME where FILENAME is the name of the Flash BIOS file you downloaded.
Now wait. The screen may go black, but watch the keyboard lights - they will make a pretty pattern to assure you that the system is still working ;)
When the process is finished, reboot.
Currently the following EEPROMs are not supported by any publicly available copy of NVFlash:
If you cannot get any display, get a PCI graphics card, put it in your system along with the GeForce, and plug your monitor into it. You should now be able to use NVFlash to reflash your GeForce's Video BIOS.
If you do not have a PCI graphics card spare, create a boot floppy disc on another system (select 'Copy system files' when you format it). Create a file called 'autoexec.bat' in the main directory of the floppy disc, and put the following line only inside:
nvflash -p -h -ffilename.ext
where filename.ext is the name of the BIOS flash file that you are going to use. Also copy nvflash.exe and dos4gw.exe into the main directory of the floppy disc.
Then put the disc in the drive and start the computer. The floppy disc should be read within 30 seconds or so. You should soon notice the keyboard lights going mad - this means that your video BIOS is being flashed. Your computer should reboot when finished, and hopefully your video card will then work.
If you want to get your original manufacturer's video BIOS back, try using WinAce to open your manufacturer's flash program file and see if you can extract the raw BIOS file from it. You can use NVFlash with this raw BIOS file. This has been tested with ASUS BIOS files.
You can download WinAce at the following website:
http://www.winace.com
Otherwise, you will have to find someone else with the same card and ask them to save their Video BIOS using NVFlash and then send you the file.
You can find out more about NVFlash in the 'Where can I get and how do I use NVFlash?' question.
The GeForce does not support DVI inside the chip itself - it was added with another external chip. This should not cause problems.
The GeForce2 supports DVI in the chip itself - however there appears to be a problem as the chip can and does generate out of band signals. This means that with some displays there is no problem but with others there is.
If the manufacturer uses an external chip for DVI output on a GeForce2 this is not a problem, but be wary of using a GeForce2 card without an external chip with your flat panel display as it may not work.
There is more information on this problem at the following website:
http://www.riva3d.com/dvi.html
The GeForce3 on-chip DVI support appears to be flawless.
Of course, not every GeForce card actually has a DVI connector, even if the chip supports it onboard (because it adds slightly to the cost of the card). You should check with the card manufacturer's website to see if they put a connector on or not.
The Quadro is a high end version of the GeForce for 3D graphic designers. It costs a lot more and generally comes with more Video RAM. There are some extra features that it supports as well:
Note that you can gain the first extra feature (Anti-aliased lines) using a registry file - see the 'How can I enable OpenGL hardware accelerated anti-aliased lines on a non-Quadro card?' question.
In addition, having the extra features has little to no effect on 3D games - if you only play games, don't bother with this stuff :)
The only physical difference between the GeForce and the Quadro (apart from the extra RAM and a chip that may be of slightly better quality) is that a few resistors are in a different location. It is possible to resolder these resistors to make your GeForce think it is a Quadro.
WARNING: If you resolder your resistors then you will void your warranty. In addition you could permenantly mess up your card if you get it wrong. For gamers there is very little advantage in performing this conversion.
To read more about this operation, see benchmarks before and after, and find out where the all important resistors are and where you should move them to, read the pages on the following website:
http://www.geocities.com/tnaw_xtennis/
In addition, recently a software patch has been released that can fool drivers into thinking that you have a Quadro without any soldering. You can download the patch here:
http://www.nvworld.ru/downloads/SoftQuadro.ZIP
and read more about the patch in English here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20010713160030/http://www.guru3d.com/rivatuner/softquadro/
and in German here:
http://www.3dcenter.de/artikel/2001/06-27a.php3
There is a list being compiled here:
http://www.g256.com/guides/geforcecomp.shtml
If you have a GeForce2 you might want to also read this page:
http://www.insanehardware.com/articles.php?i=00003
Make sure that you have 'Assign IRQ to VGA' set in your BIOS setup.
Make sure that you have uninstalled all old video drivers using the uninstallation programs provided, and also try uninstalling old NVIDIA drivers as described in the 'How can I completely uninstall old NVIDIA GeForce or Creative Labs Annihilator drivers?' question.
Make sure that you have installed the latest AGP drivers for your motherboard's chipset.
Make sure that you have the correct monitor drivers installed. If you are using the standard Windows monitor drivers and your monitor does not have specific drivers available, try a different Windows monitor driver.
Make sure you have the latest drivers installed.
Make sure that you have closed all programs before you start the game - press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and select all the programs one by one except 'Explorer' and 'Systray' and click 'End Task'. Even if a program says that it is 'Not Responding' after 20 seconds, you should still be able to close it. If the problem persists, switch off your screensaver and desktop background before starting the game.
Make sure that you have enough RAM free to run the game - try running a RAM recovery program before starting the game or putting some more RAM into your system.
If you are experiencing stuttering with Unreal Tournament or any games that use the Unreal Tournament engine, read the 'How can I speed up Unreal Tournament on my GeForce?' question first.
The following solution was originally from the following website:
http://www.daytonsmisc.com/
Go into the System Control Panel, click on Device Manager, and find your CD/DVD-ROM drive(s) and hard drive(s). Go into each one, click on Settings and tick DMA. This enables UltraDMA.
Make a permenant swap file of 150MB. In the System Control Panel, click on Performance and select Virtual Memory. Select 'Let me select my own virtual memory settings', select the hard drive that you want the swapfile on (the fastest drive) and type 150 in both boxes. Click OK, ignore the warning and restart.
Make sure that Video BIOS shadowing is disabled in your BIOS.
If you have a network card installed, try setting the connection type in the Network Control Panel from the automatic sensing option to the type of network that you use (10BaseT / 100BaseT, full / half duplex).
Make sure that your GeForce card is not sharing any IRQs with another card (with the exception of the 'IRQ Holder for PCI Steering' device which will always use the same IRQ as the GeForce). If you find that the GeForce is sharing an IRQ with a PCI or ISA card, in the case of a PCI card try moving the PCI card to another slot (avoid the slot directly next to the AGP slot as this usually shares an IRQ with the AGP slot) or, in the case of an ISA card, reconfigure the card to use another IRQ. You may need to read the 'I have Windows 2000 and all of my devices share the same IRQ, causing problems with my GeForce. How can I fix it?' question.
If your AGP Aperture is set to 256MB, try changing your AGP Aperture to another value (keep it above 16 as setting it at or below 16 will disable AGP) - see the 'How can I change my AGP Aperture size?' question.
If you have a TwinView supposting card but are only using one monitor, try disabling TwinView as mentioned in the 'I get two monitors detected when I only use one. How can I disable TwinView?' question.
Try ticking the 'Disable support for enhanced CPU instruction sets' box in the OpenGL tab of the NVIDIA Control Panel applet.
You may find that switching your desktop colour depth to 256 colours helps with stuttering problems.
You can try disabling auto-mipmapping in the NVIDIA control panel. This has helped some people with stuttering problems: however, it may result in reduced image quality and overall speed.
If you are using a non-Intel chipset based motherboard, make sure you download and install the very latest AGP and other drivers from your chipset manufacturer's or motherboard manufacturer's website.
If you have a low end CPU, then you may have to upgrade your CPU to make the most out of the GeForce. Only higher end CPUs can take full advantage of the power of the GeForce, despite the T&L engine. In particular, any AMD Super Socket 7 chips in general give poor performance, due to the poor AGP implementations on most Super Socket 7 motherboards.
Try going into Safe Mode and go to Control Panel / System. Remove all monitor devices listed and let Windows redetect the monitor when it restarts.
Try changing your refresh rate. See the 'How can I manually set refresh rates and force the refresh rate above 60hz?' question for more details.
If you have no monitor drivers for your monitor, select 'Plug and Play Monitor' from the (Standard monitor types) section of the monitor drivers list.
Make sure that you are using a powerful enough power supply. See the 'How powerful should my power supply be in order to use the GeForce? question for more information.
Your motherboard may not be supplying enough power to the GeForce - see the 'What's all this with the original GeForce and motherboards not supplying enough power?' question.
Try forcing AGP1X. Read the 'How can I force AGP1X to be used instead of AGP2X or AGP4X?' question for more information.
If you have flickering or tearing problems with Quake 3 Arena, make sure you read the 'I get flickering textures in Quake 3 Arena and Windows 9x/ME. How can I fix it?' and 'I get tearing on Quake 3 Arena, whether I set VSYNC on or off. How can I fix this?' questions first.
If you have any of these problems with Half-Life, make sure you read the 'I get problems with Half-Life. How can I fix them?' question first.
If you have flickering problems with Rogue Spear, make sure you read the 'I get flickering in Rogue Spear. How can I fix it?' question first.
If you have tearing problems, try turning up your refresh rate. See the 'How can I manually set refresh rates and force the refresh rate above 60hz?' question for more details.
If you have tearing problems, try forcing VSYNC off in the NVIDIA control panel.
Try changing your AGP Aperture to another value (keep it above 16 as setting it at or below 16 will disable AGP) - see the 'How can I change my AGP Aperture size?' question.
The following tips were provided by Rich Carless:
If you have tearing problems with any OpenGL programs, go to the OpenGL tab of the NVIDIA control panel and change the 'Buffer flipping mode' option from 'Auto-select' to 'Use block transfer'.
If you have polygons in the wrong place in Direct3D programs, go to the Direct3D tab of the NVIDIA control panel and tick 'Enable alternate depth buffering technique'.
Try upgrading your Video BIOS to the latest version. You might want to read the 'Where can I get the latest NVIDIA Flash BIOS and which should I use?' question.
Try changing your AGP Aperture to another value (keep it above 16 as setting it at or below 16 will disable AGP) - see the 'How can I change my AGP Aperture size?' question.
If you have an option called 'PCI Delay Transaction' in your BIOS, try disabling it.
Try installing the latest BIOS update for your motherboard. You can get help with finding out what BIOS you need and instructions as to how to flash it at Wim's BIOS page.
Try reducing the 'PCI Texture Memory Size' setting in the NVIDIA control panel to a lower level.
If you have a VIA chipset, try disabling AGP4X in your BIOS or using registry files (see the 'How can I enable AGP4X in the Detonator 5.16+ driver sets on my VIA 133mhz chipset motherboard?' question). If disabling it helps, then try reading the 'I have a VIA chipset based motherboard and I can't get AGP4X to work without causing instability. How can I fix it?' question.
Try connecting your CPU fan to another socket on the motherboard.
Try reseating all of the components on your motherboard (including power leads and the GeForce).
Try turning up the I/O voltage of the motherboard in the BIOS by a small amount.
Make sure that you are using a powerful enough power supply. See the 'How powerful should my power supply be in order to use the GeForce? question for more information.
If you are using more than one stick of memory, try taking out all but one of the memory sticks and see if that helps. If it does, you need a more powerful power supply: see the 'How powerful should my power supply be in order to use the GeForce?' question for more information.
Try using the Detonator 2 (5.xx) series of drivers.
Try switching on AGP Turbo, turning up the bus speed, or setting your AGP ratio to 1:1, (in that order) - this will put extra strain on the card, but it seems to fix the problem for some people.
After trying the above, try turning up the bus speed above 100 and setting the AGP ratio to 1:1.
Try forcing AGP1X. Read the 'How can I force AGP1X to be used instead of AGP2X or AGP4X?' question for more information.
Try turning down the AGP Aperture to 16 or below, if your motherboard supports it - see the 'How can I change my AGP Aperture size?' question. This will disable AGP, but may fix your problem. You can also use DXDiag to disable AGP.
Note that this problem is closely related to the locking up problem - you may also want to try reading the 'My GeForce keeps on locking up or drops me back to the desktop during 3D applications. How can I fix it?' question for more hints. Let me know if any of the hints in the lockup question help with flashing textures and are not already mentioned here, so that I can copy them over.
Try changing your AGP Aperture to another value (keep it above 16 as setting it at or below 16 will disable AGP) - see the 'How can I change my AGP Aperture size?' question.
If you are getting texture psoblems in Quake 3 Arena, try reading the 'The sky looks blocky and textures have strange colours in Quake 3 Arena with the latest drivers installed. How can I fix this?' question.' question.
If you have a RealMagic Hollywood Plus or another DVD decoder card, try taking it out and seeing if that helps. An motherboard that supports ATA66 may also cause these problems in some cases. If this does seem to be the problem, take the DVD card out immediately because some people appear to have actually had their GeForce damaged somehow.
Try reflashing the video card's BIOS with the BIOS supplied from the CD by copying the BIOS files to your hard drive, rebooting, pressing F8 on the Starting Windows 9x/ME screen and selecting 'Safe Mode Command Prompt' and then running the utility. The version is the same as the version currently on your card but it may fix the problem.
In 2D programs, this may be caused by the Detonator 3 (6.xx) driver sets. Try reverting to the Detonator 2 (5.xx) driver sets.
In 3D games, these are polygon junctions. You should only be worried if these occur without overclocking.
If you have an option in your BIOS called 'Fast CPU Command Decode', try setting it to Normal instead of Fast.
If you are playing with a Quake engine based game, try the console command:
Reset all of the options in the NVIDIA control panel to default.
Try underclocking your card.
Try going into 32 bit colour mode instead of 16 bit.
Replace your card if you can. It is most likely that it is defective.
Make sure you have muted all unused sound inputs in the Windows Volume Control application, to make sure that you are not just picking up noise from inside your system.
Try installing the latest drivers for your sound card.
Try installing the latest drivers for your motherboard.
Try installing the latest BIOS update for your motherboard. You can get help with finding out what BIOS you need and instructions as to how to flash it at Wim's BIOS page.
Make sure that your sound card is not sharing an IRQ with another card. If it is, try moving your sound card to another PCI slot. You may also have to read the 'I have Windows 2000 and all of my devices share the same IRQ, causing problems with my GeForce. How can I fix it?' question.
If you are using a SoundBlaster Live! soundcard, make sure that you have reserved IRQ 5 for the SoundBlaster 16 emulation in your system's BIOS - set IRQ 5 to 'Reserved for Legacy (or ISA) Device' in the 'PCI/PNP IRQ Resource Exclusion' section - your BIOS may use different wosding.
If you have a Super Socket 7 motherboard, the registry fix in the 'I have problems with my Super Socket 7 motherboard. How can I fix them?' question may help.
Try disabling the 'Delayed Transaction' option in your BIOS.
Try enabling the 1MB memory hole between 15-16MB option in your BIOS.
If you have a 'PCI Latency Timing', 'CPU-to-PCI Bridge latency' or similar setting in your BIOS, try setting it to 0, or raising it to 64 (the usual setting is 32). This may help in particular on VIA KX133 based motherboards.
If you do not have this option in your BIOS, and you have a VIA MVP3 chipset based motherboard, try putting the following program in your startup folder. It sets the CPU-to-PCI Bridge latency timer to 0. You can download the Windows 9x/ME version of this program here:
http://koti.mbnet.fi/parru/CPU-to-PCIBridgeLatencyTimerTo0clks.zip
and the Windows 2000 English version here:
http://www.deinmeister.de/mvp3_zlt_e.htm
and the Windows 2000 German version here:
http://www.deinmeister.de/mvp3_zlt.htm
If you have another chipset on your motherboard, you may be able to use the shareware program TweakBIOS to change the PCI Latency on your soundcard. You can find out more information about this and download it at the following website:
http://www.miro.pair.com/tweakbios/
Try setting the DirectSound Debug Output Level in the DirectX control panel higher - you can get a copy of the DirectX control panel here:
http://www.geforcefaq.com/files/dxcpl.zip
Under Windows 2000 try altering the hardware acceleration level of your soundcard - you can find the slider in the Sounds and Multimedia control panel under the Audio tab / Advanced for Sound Playback and Sound Recording.
Try disabling DMA transfers on all of your drives. You can do this under the System control panel by opening each drive in turn and disabling DMA under the 'Settings' tab. This will reduce your drive's performance but may fix the problem.
Try installing the latest reference drivers. The 5.22+ drivers fix many problems with TV cards and may make the steps below unnecessary.
The following instructions were provided by Bill Ball from Creative Labs, who got them from NVIDIA:
Open the Display properties.
Go to Settings, Advanced, GeForce/TNT/TNT2/TNT2Ultra, Additional Properties, Overlay Color Control.
You can make adjustments or just hit the Default button and hit OK.
Close the Display properties.
The point of this seemingly useless maneuver is that it creates a registry key that you will need IF you have not opened the Overlay Color Control sheet before. If you have, then just skip the above step.
Run Regedit and locate this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Display\000#\NVIDIA\DirectDraw
Note: You may have several display entries numbered successively. Usually the last one is the active one, but if you have several that refer to other graphics cards no longer installed, you may want to delete them or run any uninstall for those cards. If you have several referring to your current card and can't figure out which is active, you may want to reboot into Safe Mode, go into Device Manager and remove ALL display driver entries and reboot to reinstall the drivers once.
In the active DirectDraw key create a new DWORD entry called 'VideoBusMasterMode' and give it a value of 1.
Close regedit and reboot
Try the TV card application. NVIDIA says this fixes the ATI TV Wonder and they believe it will fix the Hauppauge and other cards.
If not, run regedit again and look for this entry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Display\000#\NVIDIA\DirectDraw\OverlayMode
If this does not help, and you have a card based on the Brooktree BT848 chipset, you can disable Overlay mode until a fix is found by going into the following registry key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\bt848\Force Primary
and changing the default value from 0 to 1.
Finally, if all else fails, try loading two copies of your TV card application. The second instance of the application may not show the problem. This may be the only way to fix the problem in Windows 2000.
Try forcing AGP1X - see the 'How can I force AGP1X to be used instead of AGP2X or AGP4X?' question for more information.
Have you got Windows 95? You must have OSR2 and the USB supplement installed.
Upgrade to Windows 98.
If you have Windows 2000 installed and you use NetMeeting, this may be because you have Remote Desktop Sharing enabled or NetMeeting is started or is improperly shut down. If you close NetMeeting, this should fix the problem. You can read more about this in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q260/5/65.ASP
You might like to try running and then quitting NetMeeting even if you don't usually use it - it may fix the problem.
Note that this problem still appears sometimes when you are just running NetMeeting without Remote Desktop Sharing enabled. This appears to be an NVIDIA driver issue - you will have to close NetMeeting.
If you are using Windows XP, make sure you read the 'Hardware accelerated OpenGL doesn't seem to be working at all in Windows XP. How can I fix it?' question.
If you previously had another graphics card installed before the GeForce, go to the following registry key using regedit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OpenGLdrivers
and remove any keys except the RIVATNT key.
Try the following instructions:
Click Start / Run.
Type "win.ini" (without quotes) and press OK.
Search for a line that says "DVA=0" (without quotes).
Add a semicolon (;) before the DVA (The line should now look like this: ";DVA=0" (without quotes))
Save and close the file
If you find this causes more problems, just take out the semicolon. The setting refers to Direct Video Access - apart from that very little is known about it, but it should not cause any problems when enabled.
Note that not everyone has this line, and if there is none you'll have to try another solution.
If you get a 'GLimp_EndFrame()-SwapBuffers() failed!' error message when starting OpenGL applications, you can either try using the latest reference drivers or use the fixglimperror.reg registry file under Windows 9x/ME - available here:
http://www.geforcefaq.com/files/fixglimperror.reg
If you get the same error under Windows 2000, use the fixglimperror2k.reg registry file - available here:
http://www.geforcefaq.com/files/fixglimperror2k.reg
Try changing your AGP Aperture in your BIOS to another value (keep it above 16 as setting it at or below 16 will disable AGP) - see the 'How can I change my AGP Aperture size?' question.
Try completely uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers according to the 'How can I completely uninstall old NVIDIA GeForce or Creative Labs Annihilator drivers?' question.
If you have a Tyan Trinity 400 motherboard, try reverting to the BIOS version 1.0.
Try underclocking your card.
Try forcing AGP1X. Read the 'How can I force AGP1X to be used instead of AGP2X or AGP4X?' question for more information.
Try downloading and installing the iopagelock.reg registry file - available here:
http://www.geforcefaq.com/files/iopagelock.reg
This is a 'feature' of Windows 2000 - it uses ACPI in such a way that all devices share the same IRQ, usually 9 or 11.If you don't have problems, then leave it alone, but if you do get problems, use one of the procedures below (note that for Windows 2000 Microsoft recommends that you disable the PNP OS option in your BIOS before installation):
Note that Windows XP does not force all devices to share the same IRQ.
Note that some people find that disabling ACPI means they lose all power management functions.
Disable PNP OS and ACPI in your BIOS, if you can (you may not be able to, and it is not always necessary) - if the option is not available try installing the latest BIOS update for your motherboard. You can get help with finding out what BIOS you need and instructions as to how to flash it at Wim's BIOS page.
Reboot. Go to Control Panel - Hardware and double click on My Computer in the hardware manager.
You'll see ACPI - get into its properties and click to install another driver. When prompted, look under the Microsoft section and install the "Standard PC" driver.
Reboot. At this point Win2k will try and reinstall all devices on your system so install any drivers you are prompted for (have them all handy) and reboot. Finalise any drivers you may be prompted for on the 2nd boot and reboot again.
With all your drivers re-installed, take a look in hardware manager - and every device should have its own IRQ.
Be warned that this method is discouraged by Microsoft - see the note at the bottom of this Knowledge Base article.
You can select not to enable ACPI when you first install Windows 2000 - During the first phase of Setup, at the Setup is inspecting your computer's hardware configuration screen, press the F5 key. You can select 'Standard PC' instead of an ACPI option.
You can also press F7 during the portion of setup that displays the message to press F6 for adding SCSI drivers. This configures Setup to not try ACPI machine types.
If for some reason the above procedures doesn't work, follow the following procedure, provided by Aaron Dierking, to disable ACPI from the outset.
Copy the i386 directory off the Windows 2000 CD onto your hard drive.
Go into the i386 directory on your HDD and find the txtsetup.sif. Open it with notepad.
Find the [ACPIOptions] section in the file. Below will be a setting for ACPIEnable - set it to 0.
Install Windows 2000 using your hard drive copy.
This is because older ASUS AGP-V6800 Deluxe cards use 8 Infineon RAM chips, and newer cards of the same model only use 4 Samsung RAM chips, with a different BIOS to go with them (version 2.10.02.10.04). ASUS offer a 'newer' BIOS on their website that enables sidebanding (version 2.10.02.10.02 sba), but this BIOS only works with the 8 chip cards, not the newer 4 chip cards. If you use the sba BIOS on a newer card, you will get display corruption and instability problems.
Jurgen Ludolph has provided me with a copy of the 2.10.02.10.04 BIOS that you can download if you have this problem. It is available here:
http://www.geforcefaq.com/files/v6800d-2.10.02.10.04.zip
You will need to use NVFlash to use this BIOS - you can read more about NVFlash in the 'Where can I get and how do I use NVFlash?' question.
Make sure that your card is firmly seated in the AGP slot, and clean away any dust in the slot or on the card.
Make sure that your processor and RAM are firmly seated - you may have dislodged them when you installed the GeForce.
Try a different monitor. In some rare cases the GeForce simply won't work with a certain monitor. If this is the case, try replacing the GeForce and seeing if that helps.
Try increasing the I/O voltage of your motherboard to 3.4V in your BIOS setup if your BIOS supports it.
Try setting the AGP Driving Value setting in your BIOS setup to EA or FF.
Try installing the latest BIOS update for your motherboard. You can get help with finding out what BIOS you need and instructions as to how to flash it at Wim's BIOS page.
Try delaying your drives from spinning up for a few seconds if your BIOS supports it.
If you are using a KVM (Keyboard / Video / Mouse) switch between your GeForce and your monitor, try first connecting the GeForce directly to the monitor. If this helps, try booting the PC when the KVM is pointing at a different monitor.
If the above solutions don't help, you may find that on motherboards that are only AGP 1.0 compliant you may be able to fix this problem by putting insulating tape over the last pair of contacts on the AGP connector on the GeForce card (the contact furthest from the monitor port, on both sides). This has been tested on the Chaintech 6BTM motherboard. You may find that once you have done this once you will be able to take the tape back off (even if the tape didn't seem to have any effect).
If your motherboard has two power supply connectors (AT and ATX), then try connecting the ATX connector instead of the AT. ATX supplies the 3.3V required by AGP cards to run.
If you are using PC100 RAM, try switching to PC133 RAM.
Your Video BIOS may be corrupt (this can occasionally occur even on brand new cards). See the 'My card's Video BIOS is corrupted and I can't use my manufacturer's flash program to restore it. How can I restore it?' question for more information on how to reflash it.
If you have an ABIT K7V motherboard and an ASUS V7700 card, and none of the above tips help, then unfortunately there seems to be a compatibility issue with the two. You'll have to change the card or the motherboard. Contact Kagemusha if want more information.
If none of this helps, you may have a dodgy card. Try to get it replaced under warranty.
If you have a Abit KA7, you will have to return your motherboard to Abit for modification. There is a compatibility problem between this motherboard and certain manufacturer's GeForce2 cards. It will not cost you anything in labour and component charges but you will have to pay for P&P to and from Abit. Contact Abit for more information.
If you have a ASUS P3V4X, follow the instructions in the 'I have an ASUS P3V4X motherboard and I have instability problems with the GeForce. How can I fix it?' question.
Switching your monitor on before you switch on your PC may also help with this problem.
Try slightly changing your FSB speed.
Make sure that you are using a powerful enough power supply. See the 'How powerful should my power supply be in order to use the GeForce? question for more information.
You can find a link for a BIOS that may fix this problem for the Creative Annihilator Pro in the 'Are there any newer Video BIOS upgrades for the Annihilator?' question.
You may want to replace the card even if this does help: this problem may also be a bad solder joint on one of the memory chips that causes problems occasionally or all the time.
Try disabling the SCSI BIOS on your card if you don't need it. You only need it enabled if you actually boot off the SCSI device.
You may need an updated SCSI BIOS for your AHA-39160 card. The version you need is 2.57.2 or later. You can download the BIOS from Adaptec's site.
This may be caused by the Backup utility supplied with Windows 9x/ME attempting to detect new tape devices on boot. You can fix it by deleting the files drvwppqt.vxd and drvwq117.vxd in the Windows\System\Iosubsys directory. If this helps, then search for the string 'TAPEDETECT' in your registry and delete any entries that exist. If you find this causes your tape drive to stop working, you'll have to reinstall Microsoft Backup. You can also simply uninstall Microsoft Backup if you don't use it.
Try updating the motherboard's BIOS. In particular on some Gigabyte boards based on the VIA KT133 chipset this may fix the problem. See the following page for more information:
http://www.giga-byte.com/faq/question/question_kt133.htm
This may also fix the problem on ASUS A7V motherboards - upgrade the BIOS to version 1004C or later.
You may find that on motherboards that are only AGP 1.0 compliant you may be able to fix this problem by putting insulating tape over the last pair of contacts on the AGP connector on the GeForce card (the contact furthest from the monitor port, on both sides). This has been tested on the Chaintech 6BTM motherboard. You may find that once you have done this once you will be able to take the tape back off (even if the tape didn't seem to have any effect).
Try disabling the Windows startup sound.
Make sure that VSYNC is enabled in the NVIDIA control panel.
If you have IomegaWare installed, try uninstalling it. If this fixes the problem, just use Iomega Guest.
Also try reading the 'My GeForce keeps on locking up or drops me back to the desktop during 3D applications. How can I fix it? question.
Both of these problems may be caused by your monitor. Try another monitor and see if it fixes the problem.
The first problem in particular seems to be caused by non-DDC compliancy. You may also experience a pause when you enter the Output Devices tab in the NVIDIA Control Panel.
Check in your C:\CONFIG.SYS file to see if you are loading EMM386.EXE. If you are, remove the line.
The problem might be fixed by the fix mentioned in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q184/4/47.ASP.
You can also try the tips in the 'I get 'Out Of Memory' errors although I have plenty of RAM installed. How can I fix it?' question.
This is a known issue with Windows 9x/ME, due to the way in which it accesses memory. Because Windows 2000 uses the NT style of accessing memory, the problem does not occur. The problem only turns up with the GeForce because it is one of the first cards to to be 100% true AGP (most other cards still address memory via the PCI bus because developers can design the cards to be cheaper that way). Thanks to Anthony McDowell for explaining this problem to me!
You can disable certain features that cause problems with Super Socket 7 motherboards using the ss7compat1.reg registry file - available here:
http://www.geforcefaq.com/files/ss7compat1.reg
If you still get problems, you can disable even more features using the ss7compat2.reg registry file - available here:
http://www.geforcefaq.com/files/ss7compat2.reg
You can reenable all features again using the ss7compatoff.reg registry file - available here:
http://www.geforcefaq.com/files/ss7compatoff.reg
If these files don't seem to have any effect, you may have to edit them in Notepad and change the 0000 to 0001, or another value. Take a look at the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Display
registry key using regedit and find out which number your graphics card is using.
This registry tweak does not work in the latest (5.xx+) drivers.
Try setting the following settings in your computer's BIOS:
If you find that the 6.31+ drivers cause massive slowdowns with your VIA MVP3 based motherboard, try using the 7.56+ drivers, which should fix the problem.
It appears that this configuration is just incompatible because the 440LX chipset was never designed to support Celeron II CPUs. You could try enabling the 'Disable support for enhanced CPU instruction sets' option in the NVIDIA OpenGL control panel, but other than that there is no known solution.
You can read more about this problem at the bottom of the following page:
http://home.earthlink.net/billselk/al440lx/slockets2.html
Try installing the Intel chipset drivers from:
http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/driver.htm.
There is a problem with this chipset and the AGP Fast Writes function of the GeForce which means that 3D applications are actually slower. You can find out more about disabling AGP Fast Writes in the 'How can I enable or disable AGP Fast Writes?' question.
You may not have to switch off Fast Writes in the 5.08+ drivers, especially 5.14+ - the problem seems to be fixed.
If you are having problems with the i820, and you are using SDRAM memory, you will probably need to get your motherboard and memory replaced, for free, by Intel. See this page for more details:
http://www.intel.com/support/mth/
Contact your manufacturer for an updated Video BIOS. Creative will certainly be able to supply you with a Video BIOS to fix this problem.
There is a new viaagp.sys driver from Microsoft that may fix lockups in Windows 2000. You can get more information and download the driver at the following website:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q261/6/06.asp
Be warned, however, that installing the AGP component of any VIA 4in1 driver on top of this update will stop it working, as the 4in1 drivers use a file called viaagp1.sys instead. You can tell which driver you are using because the Microsoft driver will be called 'Via Tech CPU to AGP Controller' and the VIA driver will be called 'Via CPU to AGP Controller'.
There is a solution for the AGP disabled problem for the VIA KX133 chipset available at the following website:
http://www.tomshardware.com/mainboard/00q2/000417/kx133-04.html
Make sure that you installed the VIA AGP driver in 'Turbo' mode - otherwise you will be restricted to AGP1X only.
Make sure that you have AGP2X or AGP4X enabled in the BIOS of your motherboard.
If you have an ASUS A7V motherboard, the 1004 series of BIOS updates seem to disable AGP4X. Try 1003a or the 1005+ series to enable AGP4X.
Make sure that you have the latest (leaked) reference drivers installed.
In addition, make sure you read the 'How can I enable AGP4X in the Detonator 5.16+ driver sets on my VIA 133mhz chipset motherboard?' question.
To enable AGP4X on VIA chipset based motherboards, see the 'How can I enable AGP4X in the Detonator 5.16+ driver sets on my VIA 133mhz chipset motherboard?' question. However, note that AGP4X is disabled on these motherboards because of issues with AGP4X, VIA chipsets and the GeForce2, so these steps may not work for everyone.
The following instructions were provided by Gary Shapiro:
Check your BIOS setup, usually in the Chipset Features Setup, for something called the AGP Driving Value. This value controls the timing of the AGP driver in Windows. The value you place here can make AGP4X stable. This value is a hex value from 00-FF.
In order to place a value here you might need to change another BIOS setup feature called the AGP Driving Control. This should appear with the AGP Driving Value. Set this to MANUAL if not already. The other option is AUTO.
Try setting this value to DA or EA. Try DA for a VIA Apollo Pro 133A motherboard. On a KT133 motherboard you might want to try E7.
Save your options and reboot your machine. Make sure you are running AGP4X and try some 3D games. Where they might have hung or crashed before they should now be running fine. If not, then go back into the BIOS Setup and try another value. I've found that values that end in an 'A' seem to work the best.
If your BIOS Setup does not have the AGP Driving Value option, there are two programs on the Web that let you modify your BIOS and change this value manually to any value. These programs are called WPCREDIT and WPCRSET. You can find them at the following website:
http://www.h-oda.com/
WPCREDIT is used to modify the BIOS on the fly. Any value changed will disappear after you do a cold reboot of your machine. WPCRSET is designed to make the change each time Windows starts up.
I recommend that you use WPCREDIT to try different values and when you get one working use WPCRSET to make in 'permanent'. Keep in mind that a 'wrong' value might cause you to hang or have a corrupted display. You might have to reboot. You might want to use WPCREDIT even though your BIOS Setup has the AGP Driving Value. This might be easier as far as testing goes. Once you get a 'good' value then you can change it in your BIOS Setup without even using WPCRSET.
Go to the following website for detailed instructions on how to use these programs:
http://viahardware.com/memtweakguide1.shtm
Once you read the article and are familiar with modifying your BIOS then changing the AGP Driving Value is simple. The Driving Value is located at x'B1'. That's offset Hex, Baker One. Place a DA or EA or any other value that you might want to try here. Once you save the change it takes effect immediately. If it does work for you then you can change your BIOS Setup or use WPCRSET.
If you have an ASUS P3V4X motherboard, there is a special utility that you can use to alter the AGP Driving Value. It is available here:
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/slop/beta4w.com
If you add the line 'beta4w x' to your autoexec.bat, it will set the AGP Driving Value to FF automatically.
Try setting your memory to run at CAS4 if you have the option, and if not use WPCREDIT to change the two bits associated with CAS latency to 11. This will lead to a drop in memory bandwidth but may allow you to enable the other AGP features.
If you are running your memory at 100mhz and you have the option to set it to 133mhz, try doing so.
You can also try setting the PCI texture memory size settings for Direct3D and OpenGL to their maximum settings. Although this setting only appears to be useful for PCI cards, it still may help. However, this fix only works for some people.
Try changing the 'Video Cacheing Mode' setting in your BIOS to UC (Uncacheable) as opposed to UCWC (Uncacheable, Write Combining).
Try installing the latest BIOS update for your motherboard. You can get help with finding out what BIOS you need and instructions as to how to flash it at Wim's BIOS page.
Try installing the latest NVIDIA reference drivers. Drivers 5.16+ may fix this problem.
Try installing the latest VIA AGP drivers.
Try changing the AGP Aperture size in your BIOS to another value - see the 'How can I change my AGP Aperture size?' question.
Try using the registry key mentioned in the 'How can I enable AGP4X in the Detonator 5.16+ driver sets on my VIA 133mhz chipset motherboard?' question with the 5.16+ drivers.
Try disabling the Windows startup logo by either using TweakUI (in the Boot tab, uncheck 'Display splash screen while booting') or editing the c:\msdos.sys file (don't forget to turn off the read only attribute first) and putting 'Logo=0' in the '[Options]' section.
Boot to Windows as normal, and once Windows is fully loaded, hold the left SHIFT key and click start, shutdown, then restart. Once you see the message 'Windows is restarting...' you can let go of the SHIFT key. You will now have the correct amount of video and texture memory and will be able to run the 64MB texture text in 3DMark2000 and you will be able to set the AGP aperture size to 256 without crashing.
Unfortunately you will need to perform this step each time you boot up your PC. There is no other known fix.
Make sure that your internal and external power cables are not too close to your GeForce and your monitor signal cable.
It is possible that this problem only turns up after recovering from your monitor's power saving mode. Try rebooting.
Try changing the 'Monitor timing' under 'Device Selection' / 'Device Adjustments' / 'Display Timing' in the NVIDIA control panel to first GTF and then DMT.
Try changing the refresh rate - you may want to try just altering it by 1hz or so by setting up a custom refresh rate to see if the problem goes away. See the 'How can I manually set refresh rates and force the refresh rate above 60hz?' question for more details
Make sure that there are no electrical devices near your PC and monitor that may be causing interference.
Try manually adding the following switch to your pstrip.ini in PowerStrip 2.62+:
[Options]
ClkDeviation=n
where n is an integer between 5 and 1000. If set, the PowerStrip will post-process all mode changes in search of a close, but hopefully more stable refresh rate. A lower n is more likely to reduce jitter but also likely to vary more from the desired refresh rate. Try a value of 250 and work downwards until you arrive at something suitable.
You can download a demo of PowerStrip at the following website:
http://www.entechtaiwan.com/
Try reversing the polarity of the monitor using PowerStrip. You can download a demo of PowerStrip at the following website:
http://www.entechtaiwan.com/
You may also be able to reverse the polarity of the monitor with hztool under Windows 9x/ME.
It may be that your monitor does not have 75 ohm terminators on all unused D-subs and BNC inputs. Some monitors may have a (very small) switch on the back which will allow you to switch this on (one example is the Eizo Flexscan T562). It may have an infinity sign at one end and 75 ohm at the other end. Switch this to 75 ohm.
If you have BNC inputs to your monitor try buying a lead that will allow you to use them. They must be 75 ohm BNC cables.
Try using RF chokes on the monitor cable.
Try using an external VGA signal amplifier between your GeForce and your monitor. Be warned, however, that these amplifiers are expensive!
You might want to read the information on the following website - it details how your card may be poorly designed and give a bad signal:
http://www.geocities.com/porotuner/
It could be a dodgy card. Try replacing it if it's still under warranty.
Try another monitor and cable. This issue seems to turn up especially with Trinitron and DiamondTron monitors, and unfortunately there is no current fix.
You may also want to read the 'When I resume from monitor power saving modes in Windows 9x/ME, I get display corruption and / or instability problems, or my card seems slower than usual. How can I fix it?' question.
If you are overclocking, try setting the card back to the default settings and then underclocking. If this helps, you might want to try cooling your card with a more efficient cooler. See the 'What is a good replacement fan for a GeForce?' question for some tips.
If you are using ASUS drivers and in particular the SmartDoctor's 'Dynamic Chip Cooling' feature, try using the NVIDIA reference drivers.
If the corruption is on your Start button and toolbar buttons in particular, try disabling your soundcard / sound chipset. If this fixes the problem, then if you have a Yamaha chipset based soundcard try using the Yamaha drivers included with Windows ME or Windows 2000 instead of those available on the website. Unfortunately there is no similar fix for the problem for Yamaha soundcards under Windows 9x/ME. If you are using another soundcard, try downloading the latest official drivers from the sound card chipset manufacturer's homepage - in particular, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card owners should download the latest official drivers from the Turtle Beach website instead of anywhere else.
If you have a Yamaha DX-XG soundcard, you may be able to just disable the game port and legacy sound system in the Windows System control panel.
You can also try using the 5.xx series of drivers.
This may also be caused by a dodgy card - see if you can get it replaced under warranty.
Your refresh rate may be too low. Try reading the 'How can I manually set refresh rates and force the refresh rate above 60hz?' question.
Try going into the troubleshooting tab of the advanced settings of your video card (Windows 2000) or System Control Panel / Performance / Graphics (Windows NT 4) and setting the Hardware Acceleration slider one notch down. This may also make your system faster and more stable, but it is possible that you will not be able to overclock so far.
This may occur in Windows 2000 when the mouse pointer shadow is enabled. Disable it by going into Control Panel / Mouse / Pointer and deactivating the mouse shadow.
You may also need to reset your mouse pointer scheme to 'None' in Control Panel / Mouse / Pointer.
If you have a USB mouse that can be moved to PS/2, try using the PS/2 port instead. It may fix the problem without having to perform any of the above solutions.
This problem appears only in GeForce2 Ultra cards, and looks like electromagnetic interferences with the VGA-output signal. Depending on the resolution and refresh rate, the lines will have different size and look, and may not appear in all resolutions and refresh rates.
Unfortunately there is currently no solid fix, although NVIDIA and several card manufacturers have reproduced the problem and are looking for a solution.
Above all, if you have this problem, please report it to your card manufacturer, so that they know this is a real problem that is affecting a lot of people.
In the meantime, you can try the following workarounds:
Try plugging your monitor power cable into a grounding plug (part # 61-2720 at RadioShack). This puts the monitor on an isolated ground.
Try changing the refresh rate that your card is using. You might want to try just changing it by 1hz or so by setting up a custom refresh rate. See the 'How can I manually set refresh rates and force the refresh rate above 60hz?' question for more details.
You can also try altering the horizontal refresh rate of your card by a few hertz using PowerStrip. You can download a demo of PowerStrip at the following website:
http://www.entechtaiwan.com/
Try changing the resolution that your card is displaying at.
Try moving the monitor signal cable.
Make sure that there are no electrical devices near your PC and monitor that may be causing interference.
If the fan leads on your GeForce are twisted together, try untwisting them.
Try unplugging the fan on your GeForce card's heatsink. You will need to put in extra cooling measures if you intend to keep your card in this state, such as putting thermal compound between the heatsink and card and using a Card Cooler or similar.
Note that the GeForce2 MX does not support hardware overlay on the secondary display.
Try following the tips in the 'I can't run any Direct3D programs, but OpenGL programs run fine. How can I fix it?' question.
Read the following article on eVGA.com:
http://web.archive.org/web/20010611030508/http://www.evga.com/support/support.ihtml?page=tvfix1.htm
This is a known problem and currently there is no known solution. It appears that this only occurs with the latest updates for Half-Life.
Under Windows 9x/ME, this is a known issue with the Microsoft OpenGL driver and systems with more than one monitor, whether TwinView or separate cards. The only way to get round it currently is to disable one of the monitors.
Under Windows 2000 on TwinView cards, full screen OpenGL will only work on the primary monitor and then only if the secondary monitor is disabled.
Under Windows 2000 on TwinView cards, windowed OpenGL will work on both monitors.
Under Windows 2000 on separate cards, full screen OpenGL only works on the primary card and then only if the secondary card is disabled. However, if the two graphics cards are both based on NVIDIA chipsets that use the Detonator drivers, full screen OpenGL will work on both cards.
Under Windows 2000 on separate cards, windowed OpenGL usually only works on the primary card. However, if the two graphics cards have the same NVIDIA chipset (e.g. they are both TNT2 cards), the 'Enable advanced multiple monitors' option is available which will allow windowed OpenGL to work on both cards.
In all situations, if a 3D application is designed to work on the primary monitor only then