Buffalo wrote:
Since installing this card, many times, shortly after Windows finishes
booting, the screen will freeze and then go blank for a sec or two. After
that, mpgs, etc will only show a blank green screen. Also, if I go into Q3
Arena, the screen will turn bright yellow and blurry while in its menu and I
have to really remember where exit is to get out. Other games are even
worse.
However, if I start the MS Halo Combat Evolved game, the screen will blink
and then after the menu shows up, the bottom three choices are readable, but
somewhat perforated.
When I exit out, all is back to normal: on my other games and on mpgs.
I used the info selection on my LCD monitor and all reads the same as before
I ran the Halo game. (when back in the desktop view).
I have uninstalled the Nvidea Drivers and rebooted and installed (can barely
read the screen while trying to install the drivers, artifacts, etc) the
latest Omega Drivers for that card and have the same results.
H Frequency 70.9KHz
V Frequency 75.3Hz
Resolution 1440 x 900
Pixel Clock137.2MHz
Model Number PX2710MW

Why would running the Halo game put things back right?
Thanks for any ideas or questions for more info.

Buffalo



Have you tested with any other software ? Try a Linux LiveCD,
as it's relatively easy to try out. The idea here, is to see if
basic frame buffer operation is OK, and there isn't a problem
with color palette or I/O signals coming from the video card.

What happens if you use the video card, with a fresh install of WinXP ?
Does adding a standard Nvidia driver at that point, lead to correct operation ?

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

You might need a spare hard drive, unplug the original WinXP drive,
install fresh WinXP, then play around and see if the setup works better.
If it does work better, then you know some software added to the original
configuration, is responsible.

The Halo code, might be doing something which causes the driver to
error out, and after the driver recovers, things look normal. In
other words, it might not be a command that Halo code is issuing,
but rather a response to an error happening while DirectX is
doing stuff, that fixes things up. Take a look in Event Viewer,
and see if there are any interesting entries (Event Viewer
doesn't help very often, but you should still have a look.
It's like gold mining - you might get lucky and find a nugget.)

Paul