one for the computer gurus

A mate's computer, four days old (the computer, not the mate) is acting up. The symptoms are that games, any game, appear on the monitor a lot off-centre, despite being manually centred by the controls on the monitor. However, the main problem is that when exiting from a race, say, in N3, the screen goes completely black. The game's still running, you just can't see it. In Toca 2, for example, this occurs when exiting to Windows. Black screen, but you can press the windows key, use the up arrow, etc, and restart...(in N3, you exit the race, and you _should_ go to the replay screen, which it does, but it's black). P3 450, V3 3000 AGP, 128Mb Ram, 17" Smile monitor (nho, btw)... Any ideas? Thanks in anticipation.... -- Colin Harris ColinHarris in N3/NL Proud co-owner - CLONE N.Legends league http://members.chello.se/clone/index.htm ICQ 25485061

Colin Harris wrote:

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> > A mate's computer, four days old (the computer, not the mate) is acting up. > The symptoms are that games, any game, appear on the monitor a lot > off-centre, despite being manually centred by the controls on the monitor. > However, the main problem is that when exiting from a race, say, in N3, the > screen goes completely black. The game's still running, you just can't see > it. In Toca 2, for example, this occurs when exiting to Windows. Black > screen, but you can press the windows key, use the up arrow, etc, and > restart...(in N3, you exit the race, and you _should_ go to the replay > screen, which it does, but it's black). > P3 450, V3 3000 AGP, 128Mb Ram, 17" Smile monitor (nho, btw)... > > Any ideas?

The off-centred problem will be due to various timing settings on the graphics card - try altering the V3's refresh rates (for Glide) by +/- 1 or 2 Hz to see if that moves the picture where you want it (works for me). That is, assuming your monitor doesn't have User-Defined modes where you can set and save the screen geometry... The other problem I have no idea about :) Cheers, Phil

What's the cooling on the V3 like? Wouldn't be anything to do with the 3d action overcooking the card when it returns to 2d, would it? Which windows version? I'd suggest the usual, latest drivers, DX, etc. Was windows installed with a clean install? If an old install is used with new hardware, any kind of crazy things are bound to go wrong. HTH Rafe Mc On Mon, 10 Apr 2000 12:52:37 +0000, Phil Flack <[email hidden]> wrote:

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> > >Colin Harris wrote: >> >> A mate's computer, four days old (the computer, not the mate) is acting up. >> The symptoms are that games, any game, appear on the monitor a lot >> off-centre, despite being manually centred by the controls on the monitor. >> However, the main problem is that when exiting from a race, say, in N3, the >> screen goes completely black. The game's still running, you just can't see >> it. In Toca 2, for example, this occurs when exiting to Windows. Black >> screen, but you can press the windows key, use the up arrow, etc, and >> restart...(in N3, you exit the race, and you _should_ go to the replay >> screen, which it does, but it's black). >> P3 450, V3 3000 AGP, 128Mb Ram, 17" Smile monitor (nho, btw)... >> >> Any ideas? > >The off-centred problem will be due to various timing settings on the >graphics card - try altering the V3's refresh rates (for Glide) by +/- 1 >or 2 Hz to see if that moves the picture where you want it (works for >me). That is, assuming your monitor doesn't have User-Defined modes >where you can set and save the screen geometry... > >The other problem I have no idea about :) > >Cheers, >Phil

First just because it's "new" don't assume that _all_ drivers are up to date. You wouldn't think there should be a problem there but there may well very be. For all you know it may be on the default MS drivers that comes with win98. On the black screen thing does the monitor status LED stay lit green (or whatever color it is when operating normally). If not something may be causing it to go to sleep mode. Just a totally wild guess there but I have seen it happen before. Colin Harris <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:dkpI4.17713$[email hidden]... > Appreciate the replies, guys...he's got W98 SE, and everything was > pre-installed, so I can only assume the drivers are the latest. > Cooling-wise, it only has the normal fan inside, not one specificallyaimed > at the V3 card. One suggestion was that the V3 AGPcard wasn't correctly(or > fully) pushed in, but it seems like it to me. Mercifully, it's under > warranty, so they can sort it out, but I felt such a fool sitting therenot

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> knowing what I was doing - I was supposed to be showing it all to him.... > Any other suggestions, please keep 'em coming... > -- > > Colin Harris > ColinHarris in N3/NL > Proud co-owner - CLONE N.Legends league > http://members.chello.se/clone/index.htm > ICQ 25485061 > > Rafe McAuliffe <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:[email hidden]... > > What's the cooling on the V3 like? Wouldn't be anything to do with the > > 3d action overcooking the card when it returns to 2d, would it? Which > > windows version? > > > > I'd suggest the usual, latest drivers, DX, etc. Was windows installed > > with a clean install? If an old install is used with new hardware, any > > kind of crazy things are bound to go wrong. > > > > HTH > > > > Rafe Mc > > > >

Appreciate the replies, guys...he's got W98 SE, and everything was pre-installed, so I can only assume the drivers are the latest. Cooling-wise, it only has the normal fan inside, not one specifically aimed at the V3 card. One suggestion was that the V3 AGPcard wasn't correctly (or fully) pushed in, but it seems like it to me. Mercifully, it's under warranty, so they can sort it out, but I felt such a fool sitting there not knowing what I was doing - I was supposed to be showing it all to him.... Any other suggestions, please keep 'em coming... -- Colin Harris ColinHarris in N3/NL Proud co-owner - CLONE N.Legends league http://members.chello.se/clone/index.htm ICQ 25485061 Rafe McAuliffe <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > What's the cooling on the V3 like? Wouldn't be anything to do with the > 3d action overcooking the card when it returns to 2d, would it? Which > windows version? > > I'd suggest the usual, latest drivers, DX, etc. Was windows installed > with a clean install? If an old install is used with new hardware, any > kind of crazy things are bound to go wrong. > > HTH > > Rafe Mc

I take yr point, and it's a good one. I'll check on the drivers. No on the monitor - it's on and working perfectly well when black. (I can tell because I could still do the manual screen adjustments, for example turning the brightness up) -- Colin Harris ColinHarris in N3/NL Proud co-owner - CLONE N.Legends league http://members.chello.se/clone/index.htm ICQ 25485061 Racer88 <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:MbqI4.104995$[email hidden]... > First just because it's "new" don't assume that _all_ drivers are up to > date. You wouldn't think there should be a problem there but there may well > very be. For all you know it may be on the default MS drivers that comes > with win98. > On the black screen thing does the monitor status LED stay lit green (or > whatever color it is when operating normally). If not something may be > causing it to go to sleep mode. Just a totally wild guess there but I have > seen it happen before. >

What are the settings that you have in Refresh rates? (Control Panel, Display, Display Properties, Adapter, Advanced) Some monitors are finicky, you can run Optimal with most but others require you to put a refresh rate in manually. Monitors sometimes also require you to put an INF file into your INF directory in order for them to refresh properly ie. Hansol. I haven't used a Voodoo card in awhile but you may also have to go to the video cards settings and specify a refresh for each setting. Pete "Colin Harris" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:w3hI4.17095$[email hidden]... > A mate's computer, four days old (the computer, not the mate) is actingup. > The symptoms are that games, any game, appear on the monitor a lot > off-centre, despite being manually centred by the controls on the monitor. > However, the main problem is that when exiting from a race, say, in N3,the

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> screen goes completely black. The game's still running, you just can't see > it. In Toca 2, for example, this occurs when exiting to Windows. Black > screen, but you can press the windows key, use the up arrow, etc, and > restart...(in N3, you exit the race, and you _should_ go to the replay > screen, which it does, but it's black). > P3 450, V3 3000 AGP, 128Mb Ram, 17" Smile monitor (nho, btw)... > > Any ideas? > > Thanks in anticipation.... > > -- > > Colin Harris > ColinHarris in N3/NL > Proud co-owner - CLONE N.Legends league > http://members.chello.se/clone/index.htm > ICQ 25485061 > > >