OK, I know this card is a bit of a dinosaur. but I don@t have a great deal of money to splash around on new PC stuff at the moment. I managed to find one (practically unused) cheap and installed it, replacing an ancient GeForce 2MX.

With the original 44.XX drivers the display was fine in 2D but when I entered anything using 3D (ie LFS driving screen) it crashed and I had to restart the PC. I then installed the most up-to-date drivers I had on my HDD (77.72) and tried again. This time, a few seconds after I start LFS, the screen goes red and psychodelic. It doesn't crash though.

I've attached a screenshot of the problem in LFS, though it applies to any game which uses 3D graphics. The card isn't overheating...the temperature when this shot was taken was about 65 degrees.

I've tried to search through some newsgroups looking for answers but I get a bit lost when people talk about IRQs and mainboard voltages There seemed to be a consensus that low PSU power might be a problem but before I buy a new PSU I thought I'd check here. The current PSU is only 250W so I can accept that it's a bit weak.

System Spec:

AMD Athlon 1GHz
416MB SDRAM (256 + 128 + 32)
GeForceFX5600 Ultra (128MB)
Audigy 4 sound card
Windows XP SP2

psychodelic man YAA!

hm.. it may be something wrong with the card.. ask wherever you got it from that theres .. obviously something wrong with it, and if you get another one, if it does the same then we can say that its definetly not the card, but rather something else

That is what LFS on LSD must look like :drugs:

I dunno, have you tried any other drivers? The newest aren't always the best for older cards, just try a few different drivers before you go out and buy a new PSU. I've had such artifacts with my older cards too, and IIRC these were always driver related.

i have fx5600 ultra too. i use drivers 81.87 but it worked well with any previous driver too. try to open the driver settings (desktop -> right-click -> settings -> advanced ->gforce 5600 ultra -> performance and quality ) and disable anti aniasing ans anisotropic filters. then turn off all optimizations and set the image settings to "performance". see if it helps.

generally speaking it's a very good card for lfs imho. i get 40-70 fps in 1600x1200. enough for good experience.

good luck.

Consider downloading another copy of LFS, if you can, just to test. It looks almost as if all the textures have some how become screwed - as unlikely as that is.

It is possible that there not enough current getting to the gfx card causing its memory to blip causing random-ness, which is possible as the audigy can suck up a lot of power...

See if you can pop it into a mates machine for a little bit, see if it does it in anything else funky.

Quote from XCNuse :

hm.. it may be something wrong with the card.. ask wherever you got it from that theres .. obviously something wrong with it, and if you get another one, if it does the same then we can say that its definetly not the card, but rather something else

I might ask him about it but the fact that I've seen other people with similar problems (with brand new cards) makes me think that it's a non-gfx card related problem.

Quote from AndroidXP :

I dunno, have you tried any other drivers? The newest aren't always the best for older cards, just try a few different drivers before you go out and buy a new PSU. I've had such artifacts with my older cards too, and IIRC these were always driver related.

I've just downloaded the latest drivers from work (slow connection at home!)...I'll try those as soon as I can. I've had similar problems which I've cured with drivers so we'll see what happens.

Quote from avih :

i have fx5600 ultra too. i use drivers 81.87 but it worked well with any previous driver too. try to open the driver settings (desktop -> right-click -> settings -> advanced ->gforce 5600 ultra -> performance and quality ) and disable anti aniasing ans anisotropic filters. then turn off all optimizations and set the image settings to "performance". see if it helps.

I've tried all that, it makes no difference Could you give me some information about your hardware, since you've got the card working?

Quote from the_angry_angel :

Consider downloading another copy of LFS, if you can, just to test. It looks almost as if all the textures have some how become screwed - as unlikely as that is.

The problem is quite intermittent though...the screen flickers between that shot I attached and a normal view. Sometimes only the trees go funny, sometimes the whole screen, sometimes just the fonts, occasionally it all looks normal, then it will all go weird again, etc... In any case, it happens in any game with 3D graphics.

Quote :

It is possible that there not enough current getting to the gfx card causing its memory to blip causing random-ness, which is possible as the audigy can suck up a lot of power...

I tried unplugging everything I could from inside the case but it didn't seem to make a difference.

Quote :

See if you can pop it into a mates machine for a little bit, see if it does it in anything else funky.

Yeah, I tried to get hold of a friend last night to see if I could try it but he wasn't around...will have to try again!

Thanks to all for the replies, I'll keep digging around

Perhaps your version of directx is corrupt?
try downloading the latest version from M$ here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downl ... EAC197&displaylang=en

hope it helps out

Thats what I was going to suggest, if it just happends in DX games and not OpenGL ones then a reinstall of DirectX might help

I could try that, yeah. I am using DirectX 9.0c already but reinstalling might help, thanks.

Your PSU's not good enough. I installed a regular 5600 in my old 250W Advent and it killed the PC eventually.

I think the GFX box recommends about 320W...

Quote from TiJay :

Your PSU's not good enough. I installed a regular 5600 in my old 250W Advent and it killed the PC eventually.

I think the GFX box recommends about 320W...

I think you're probably right...I've arranged with a friend to test the card in his PC on Friday but I'm fairly convinced I'm going to have to shell out for a new PSU. Trouble is, I think my PSU is riveted, rather than bolted, into the case...looks like my 'cheap' graphics update is going to turn out to be rather more expensive!
I did look on the box to see if there was a recommended power output but didn't find one.

Is the card (or system) overclocked at all? texture problems and a other graphical glitches can occur on systems/cards that are overclocked too much.

and you mentioned that it was only 65 degrees. i'm assuming this is in reference to the video card. even though i can't find the operating temperature range for the 5600u, this temperature is most likely in the safe range, but it is higher than most of the reviews i found. those were in the low 50s.

What about your case temperature? even if 65 degrees is safe for the video card, it could be over heating the system.

and i definately have to agree that 250w is not adequate for systems these days. and while it may not be causing this issue, a underpowered psu will fail quicker, and it can also cause system components to fail prematurely.

could be faulty ram or not enough current for the board or overheating in general. also, in my 5600u there's a direct cable from the psu to the card itself. did u plug it in?

Quote from glyphon :

Is the card (or system) overclocked at all? texture problems and a other graphical glitches can occur on systems/cards that are overclocked too much.

No, not at all, all the speeds are set to the defaults...I'm going to try underclocking it tonight though, to see if it makes a difference.

Quote :

and you mentioned that it was only 65 degrees. i'm assuming this is in reference to the video card. even though i can't find the operating temperature range for the 5600u, this temperature is most likely in the safe range, but it is higher than most of the reviews i found. those were in the low 50s.

Yeah, the GPU temp was 65 deg, still in the green range. The yellow range starts about 70 deg and the critical slowdown is set to 120. I've put so much extra stuff into the old Compaq case I have that it runs quite hot...about 40 degrees generally.

Quote from avih :

could be faulty ram or not enough current for the board or overheating in general. also, in my 5600u there's a direct cable from the psu to the card itself. did u plug it in?

Yeah, and I had to sacrifice my DVD-ROM to do it! The cables on my PSU aren't long enough to reach the GFX card unless I unplug one of my optical drives.

Quote from StewartFisher :

Yeah, the GPU temp was 65 deg, still in the green range. The yellow range starts about 70 deg and the critical slowdown is set to 120. I've put so much extra stuff into the old Compaq case I have that it runs quite hot...about 40 degrees generally.

Forget about the critical slowdown. You will never reach that value - your card will be roasted far before it can even become nearly as hot as that. Personally I have no idea why they set the "critical slowdown" threshold so ridiculously high, it makes no sense at all.

From my experience, a card will still run when it's in the 90° range, but it won't do that for very long. Anything below 70° is fine.

Btw, how did you measure the GPU temp? NvTempLogger?

Quote from AndroidXP :

Forget about the critical slowdown. You will never reach that value - your card will be roasted far before it can even become nearly as hot as that. Personally I have no idea why they set the "critical slowdown" threshold so ridiculously high, it makes no sense at all.

I was wondering about that...it seemed very high to me but I assumed they knew what they were doing...when I installed the original 44.XX drivers it was set to 134!

Quote :

From my experience, a card will still run when it's in the 90° range, but it won't do that for very long. Anything below 70° is fine.

The 65 degree temp was measured with the side of the case off, but since it looks like I'm going to have to get a new case/PSU anyway I won't sorry about trying to cool the current one.

Quote :

Btw, how did you measure the GPU temp? NvTempLogger?

I assume so...there's a screen in the Nvidia display properties section which gives GPU core temp and ambient air temp.

Hmm, thats not good. You should try the app "NvTempLogger" to really log your temperatures.

My 6600GT for example ran at 92° (before I replaced the crappy cooler), but in the time it took me to switch out of the application and look at the nVidia temp bar, the temperature already dropped back to about 70°C !

When I started using the templogger I finally saw what was going on and the temp graph nicely showed how fast the card cooled back down to values that seemed quite normal. Don't let yourself be fooled by the standard temp gauge, while it displays the temperaute correctly it cannot possibly show the temp while you're actually running the appilcation.

Quote from AndroidXP :

Hmm, thats not good. You should try the app "NvTempLogger" to really log your temperatures.

My 6600GT for example ran at 92° (before I replaced the crappy cooler), but in the time it took me to switch out of the application and look at the nVidia temp bar, the temperature already dropped back to about 70°C !

When I started using the templogger I finally saw what was going on and the temp graph nicely showed how fast the card cooled back down to values that seemed quite normal. Don't let yourself be fooled by the standard temp gauge, while it displays the temperaute correctly it cannot possibly show the temp while you're actually running the appilcation.

Yeah, I noticed that the card cools down very quickly after I stop running LFS but I left the temp display open and switched between full-screen and windowed mode to see the temperature while LFS was running.

I'd really try the temp logger though, I mean, there's no harm in trying, isn't it? I left the nVidia window open just as you did, and in the time it took windows to render the desktop again the card was already cooled down quite a bit.

Quote from AndroidXP :

I'd really try the temp logger though, I mean, there's no harm in trying, isn't it? I left the nVidia window open just as you did, and in the time it took windows to render the desktop again the card was already cooled down quite a bit.

Oh yes, I will try it when I get in tonight, I was just saying that I was measuring the temps when LFS was still running. Thanks for the suggestion

Right, I'm about to tear my hair out...
I tried my GFX card in a friend's PC (replacing his 256MB FX5500) and it worked fine on both the games he tried. He has a 400W PSU in his PC so I reckoned on getting the same for my PC. As it turned out when I got to Maplin, they had a special offer on a 500W PSU in the same range as the 400W I was going to get, so I got the 500W. Also got a new case to improve cooling (was thinking about replacing the old case anyway).

Swapped all the components into the new case/PSU and tried my old GF2MX card...everything worked fine.
I then swapped in the FX5600U and...got the same weird colours and artifacts as before. If anything, the problem is worse. I have checked the temps using NVTempLogger and the core hit a maximum of 61 degrees (the new case runs 10 degrees cooler than the last one), so I doubt it's a temperature issue.
I've tried the latest 81.98 drivers and some older 77.72 drivers I had, both with the same problems. I've tried a fresh install of LFS and that didn't help. I've tried ToCA RaceDriver and that gives the same problems.
I ran DXDiag to see if there were any issues reported there, but it found nothing. The DirectX 7, 8 and 9 tests worked fine except that the textures on the spinning cubes were slightly distorted. It wouldn't let me reinstall DirectX because I already had the latest one installed.

So, any suggestions? My friend reckons that it might be a motherboard problem, the AGP port not providing enough juice to power the card. He has a point...the mobo must be at least 6 years old, but it supports AGPx4. I think the mobo is the same as the FIC AZ31 but since it was originally from a Compaq PC I can't find any information on it.
I've tried looking for new SocketA motherboards but can't find any which take SDRAM and I don't want to have to replace my RAM just at the moment.