Used eBay BFG Geforce4 Ti 4200... how to determine if defective?
 

I just bought a used Geforce4 Ti 4200 on eBay, and since I installed it
yesterday I've experienced a number of problems. I'm not sure if the card or
if my PC is at fault. Here's what I've done so far:

- Removed all old video drivers (previous card was a Radeon 8500)
- Upgraded to DirectX 9.0b and ran the tests. During the first DirectDraw
test with the small white box inside a small black box, there was a pause
for about 30 seconds before it finished the test.... which it passed,
although not as quick as I think it should.
- Downloaded and installed latest geforce drivers from nvidia.com
- Ran 3DMark 2001, which crashed before it could finish. What I could see,
however, were some serious problems during the tests. In the "Lobby" test,
the guy had fingers that were stretched out like icicles... as well as other
objects in the scene. NOT GOOD. Around the tenth test or so (just after the
"alien") I got a "Device Failure" error and had to reboot.

During the boot sequence, the PC logo that appears in DOS has some black
spots that appear as garbled columns. I've also noticed that there are some
artifacts in the dos text seen during startup. When the Windows XP startup
image appears and the little progress animation starts, the 3 green icons
degrade in quality as they move from left to right.

I tried a few games (Unreal Tournament, Call of Duty demo), and there were
long loading delays, freeze/crashes, and jumpy gameplay if I managed to
start the game.

So.... should I get a refund? I don't know how to tell if there is an
incompatibilty with my system, BIOS, software, or if this card is defective.
Any ideas?

My system:
Pentium 3 900mhz "Blaster PC"
512 MB RAM
BFG Technologies Geforce4 Ti 4200 with 128MB, fan cooled and 8X agp
Windows XP Home
DirectX 9b

I started to type that your drivers are screwed up but then I saw where you
said even the bios screen is hosed. That can only mean the new card is bad.
You might want to make sure it is locked into the AGP slot properly. One
other thought is that your motherboard is not suppling enough power to the
AGP slot. Can you try the card in another system?

BTW, you did not need to install DX9b unless a game your are trying to play
requires it. If you do get this card running, the best drivers for it are
of the 4x.xx group. I'm using version 44.03 on my ti4200 128mb 8X with
flawless results.

Dave


"Harold Corbin" wrote in message
news:7ntzb.413113$Fm2.419485@attbi_s04...
I just bought a used Geforce4 Ti 4200 on eBay, and since I installed it
yesterday I've experienced a number of problems. I'm not sure if the card
or
if my PC is at fault. Here's what I've done so far:

- Removed all old video drivers (previous card was a Radeon 8500)
- Upgraded to DirectX 9.0b and ran the tests. During the first DirectDraw
test with the small white box inside a small black box, there was a pause
for about 30 seconds before it finished the test.... which it passed,
although not as quick as I think it should.
- Downloaded and installed latest geforce drivers from nvidia.com
- Ran 3DMark 2001, which crashed before it could finish. What I could see,
however, were some serious problems during the tests. In the "Lobby" test,
the guy had fingers that were stretched out like icicles... as well as
other
objects in the scene. NOT GOOD. Around the tenth test or so (just after
the
"alien") I got a "Device Failure" error and had to reboot.

During the boot sequence, the PC logo that appears in DOS has some black
spots that appear as garbled columns. I've also noticed that there are
some
artifacts in the dos text seen during startup. When the Windows XP startup
image appears and the little progress animation starts, the 3 green icons
degrade in quality as they move from left to right.

I tried a few games (Unreal Tournament, Call of Duty demo), and there were
long loading delays, freeze/crashes, and jumpy gameplay if I managed to
start the game.

So.... should I get a refund? I don't know how to tell if there is an
incompatibilty with my system, BIOS, software, or if this card is
defective.
Any ideas?

My system:
Pentium 3 900mhz "Blaster PC"
512 MB RAM
BFG Technologies Geforce4 Ti 4200 with 128MB, fan cooled and 8X agp
Windows XP Home
DirectX 9b

A while ago, when I got my Ti4200, I first tried it with a 250 watt "Deer"
power supply, and was getting a lot of wierd stuff during post. I upgraded
to a 400 watt power supply and it fixed everything. If you've got a 250 watt
or cheap 300 watt power supply, I'd suggest upgraded that first.


"Harold Corbin" wrote in message
news:7ntzb.413113$Fm2.419485@attbi_s04...
I just bought a used Geforce4 Ti 4200 on eBay, and since I installed it
yesterday I've experienced a number of problems. I'm not sure if the card
or
if my PC is at fault. Here's what I've done so far:

- Removed all old video drivers (previous card was a Radeon 8500)
- Upgraded to DirectX 9.0b and ran the tests. During the first DirectDraw
test with the small white box inside a small black box, there was a pause
for about 30 seconds before it finished the test.... which it passed,
although not as quick as I think it should.
- Downloaded and installed latest geforce drivers from nvidia.com
- Ran 3DMark 2001, which crashed before it could finish. What I could see,
however, were some serious problems during the tests. In the "Lobby" test,
the guy had fingers that were stretched out like icicles... as well as
other
objects in the scene. NOT GOOD. Around the tenth test or so (just after
the
"alien") I got a "Device Failure" error and had to reboot.

During the boot sequence, the PC logo that appears in DOS has some black
spots that appear as garbled columns. I've also noticed that there are
some
artifacts in the dos text seen during startup. When the Windows XP startup
image appears and the little progress animation starts, the 3 green icons
degrade in quality as they move from left to right.

I tried a few games (Unreal Tournament, Call of Duty demo), and there were
long loading delays, freeze/crashes, and jumpy gameplay if I managed to
start the game.

So.... should I get a refund? I don't know how to tell if there is an
incompatibilty with my system, BIOS, software, or if this card is
defective.
Any ideas?

My system:
Pentium 3 900mhz "Blaster PC"
512 MB RAM
BFG Technologies Geforce4 Ti 4200 with 128MB, fan cooled and 8X agp
Windows XP Home
DirectX 9b




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