ID:11002
 
Ack! Will it never work?

My computer is lamed, crippled! It is a no-legged wo/man in the race of life...

As you may have heard if you looked at my last post, I have graphics card problems currently. So I went out and got a new card, on the basis that it was probably a hardware issue - reinstalling windows hadn't helped, so I assumed nothing would.

I am now the (relatively) proud owner of a Gefore 6200. It's at least four times better then my old card, and there's the possibility that it might work!

Except that it doesn't. Under windows, DxDiag still reports that the card has '2080.5MB' (Which makes no sense to me - it isn't even a magic number) rather then 256MB, trying to run anything that uses the card's 3D capabilities gives me access violation errors - likely because it's trying to access this phantom 2080.5 MB of space - and using the 'Test Direct 3D' button provides me with the following errors:

"Direct3D 7 test results: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device): HRESULT = 0x887602eb (error code)
Direct3D 8 test results: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device): HRESULT = 0x8876086a (3D not available)
Direct3D 9 test results: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device): HRESULT = 0x8876086a (3D not available)"

I've searched over and over, I've asked technologically-minded friends, I have NO IDEA how to fix this damned thing! It's even more maddening that it works perfectly under Fedora!

Does anybody have ANY ideas on how to fix this? Keep in mind that I've tried reinstalling several different versions of the graphics drivers - indeed, I've reinstalled windows - and that I now have a new graphics card. About the only thing I can think of that might cause it is a problem with the motherboard, but I'm hoping that isn't the case...
If you have completely reinstalled Windows, reinstalled the proper video drivers, and are still having problems with the secondary card, then I suspect the problem is somewhere else. I haven't actually ran into a graphical problem like this yet, so I'm not going to be able to nail down the answer easily.

Things I would try:
1. Go to your video card manufacturer's website and see if a newer driver for your graphics card is available. If so, download, install, and try your tests again.

2. Check RAM to make sure nothing flaky is going on there. I use Memtest86+ for this purpose.

3. First of all, a bit of a warning... Improperly doing this can render your entire computer useless! Look up your motherboard manufacturer's website and see if there is a BIOS update for your exact model of motherboard. Sometimes weird unexplainable hardware stuff can be fixed via an update. Make extra care that you following the instructions carefully.

I've got the newest driver - made sure of that a while ago. I've also run memtest86 before, and haven't run into any problems, but I'll try this memtest86+ thingo.

Motherboard stuff may be difficult - I'm not exactly sure who made it. The box has 'Jetway' written on it a few times, and a website is on the back - I'll have a look at that. I'm also not sure what the model of the board is, but I bet that's checkable.

Thanks for your suggestions.
Perhaps the video card isn't compatible with the expansion slot?

I assume the contact strips and the slots are different lengths for different types of cards, but I remember there being a sticker over mine that said "AGP cards only" or something of that nature (implying that it was possible to stick something else in there)...

I guess the only other type would be PCI, and I know those are much shorter than the AGP slots, so getting them mixed up shouldn't be possible, but I figure it's worth mentioning anyways...

I just found a site, though, that might have something to add:

http://www.playtool.com/pages/agpcompat/agp.html

First paragraph reads:

"If an AGP card fits in an AGP expansion slot then they are compatible. But read the rest of this anyway. There are some rare exceptions where motherboard and video card manufacturers don't obey the rules."

Perhaps you've hit the jackpot?
Oh wait, you mention that it works under Linux but not Windows?

That seems to point away from it being a hardware problem (doesn't necessarily rule it out, I suppose, but in a case where something works under one condition, but not another, you need to look at whatever changed)...
It's definitely an AGP card in an AGP slot. My previous card had worked fine for a while, then it mysteriously stopped working. I don't think it's something to do with the connection - I thought it might have something to do with bad video memory in the card, and Linux handling that better then windows, but that doesn't seem to be the case...
There are different types of video cards for PCs. They can fit ISA, VESA, PCI, AGP, or PCI-Express (among a few lesser-common ones). In short, if it fits, it should work. The only exception would be the VESA localbus version because its a standard ISA with an additional port beside it, but this type of setup is only seen in 386 and 486 computers...nothing modern.

Edit: I should have added to my previous comment below that if you do the BIOS update, make sure you use a good diskette if its required. All it takes is a bad sector on that disk and your computer could be toast.