[Robor]

System: BE6-2/P3-700/256MB/Radeon 64MB/SBLive Platinum.

Fresh install of Win2000Pro Retail, Windows Update to install Critical Updates patch, install SP1. Installed Win2K Radeon drivers from CDROM, installed SBLive! Platinum drivers and latest Liveware for Win2K. All okay so far.

Problem is when I run Unreal in D3D mode it crashes or I get a BSOD that hangs the system. Tried using OpenGL and I get shimmering textures all over the place in the flyby. Any ideas?

Rob

[euankirkhope]

Its a combination of things. First of all is the ropey coding for the non 3dfx api's in unreal. Then there is the SBlive, notorious for BSODs. Try the game with out the other cards installled, network, sound. I bet it will work. (I'm strictly believing that the radeon is perfect, as I've just ordered one ;)) No really, there may be a small config error thats causing the errors, just change whatever you see fit, like coulour depth, opengl settings, FSAA, etc. Its those little things that make big things later. But I would blame the soundcard, for the BSODs.

Get the new direct3d update for unreal. Try that. Then update the drivers, www.rage3d.com is a good ATI site. There working on comatibility stuff etc.

And remember whatever anyone says, WIN2k is not yet the perfect game platform. Its only nearly there.

[Robor]

I suspect the Live Platinum because there's another Radeon user on another Forum with the same kinda issues. Same BSOD crash and same "ati2dvag.dll" causing it (sad that I know that .dll by name now). That's what leads me to believe it's a driver issue that only comes up with SB Live using D3D under Win2K.

What's really got me puzzled is I can run UT under WinME with D3D and it's blazing fast. If I try Unreal it's slow as a dog. Switch Unreal to OpenGL and it's doing like 73FPS @ 1024x768x32. I know Unreal does better in D3D than OpenGL so that doesn't make sense. I've got the "Final" UT patch. Is there a D3D patch after that?

Rob

[nagual]

then, as always with ati, id suspect the card itself..ati are indeed notorious for writing bad drivers..ever since the infamous atimach64..(which is stuck in my linuxbox now but never gets used since ssh works perfectly well =)

[devils advocate]

i haven't had any problems w/ my ati radeon and sblive plat...I also don't have the liveware installed under win2k...It's probably w/ the liveware...My drivers haven't for the radeon haven't had one problem yet...

[Robor]

Maybe I should blow away that partition and reformat without installing LiveWare for Win2K? I dunno, at this point I'm at a loss. Some Radeon users are reporting problems under Win2K and others aren't.

devils advocate: Did you apply SP1 to Win2K? Are you using the drivers from the CDROM (I'm not aware of any others for Win2K). Have you tried Unreal and/or Unreal Tournament in Win2K using D3D? If so what color depth are you using and what settings under advanced properties? Sorry to ask so many questions but I want to get to the bottom of this.

Thanks!

Rob

[devils advocate]

i do have sp1 applied and i usually in 32 bit color...i'm gonna post the unreal.ini d3d section to see if it helps...[D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice]
Translucency=True
VolumetricLighting=False
ShinySurfaces=True
Coronas=True
HighDetailActors=True
UseMipmapping=True
UseTrilinear=False
UseMultitexture=True
UsePageFlipping=True
UsePalettes=True
UseFullscreen=True
UseGammaCorrection=True
DetailTextures=False
Use3dfx=False
UseTripleBuffering=True
UsePrecache=False
Use32BitTextures=True
DescFlags=1
dwDeviceId=20804
dwVendorId=4098
UseVSync=True
Description=RADEON DDR
UseVideoMemoryVB=True
UseAGPTextures=False
Use32BitZBuffer=False
UseVertexFog=False

[devils advocate]

also...i am using the drivers on the cd...and i usually play 1024x768 or 1280x1024...

[Kyosho46vr]

My Radeon card works great, with SB Live! and Liveware loaded. I have read of a driver incompatibility with the VIA KX-133 chipset and that drivers are to be released soon.

FIC SD11 NC611 Bios
Athlon 750
Kingston 256 Meg Ram
Radeon 32 DDR
SB Live! X-Gamer
Dxr3
NetGear FA310TX

[Robor]

devils advocate: Thanks for the posting. I tried that and a lot of other stuff and still can't get Win2K to play Unreal or UT.

So far I've flashed the MB BIOS, uninstalled Liveware, uninstalled the Radeon & multimedia stuff, reinstalled the Radeon, tried several different patches of Unreal/UT, tried the D3D patch for Unreal, and duplicated the D3D configuration of da's unreal.ini (tried that in both UT & Unreal). Still the same exact problem... BSOD on the opening screen in ati2dvag.dll.

BTW, I can run the DirectX tests and they all complete fine. Also, I was told to try applying DirectX after applying my Radeon drivers again. How? I tried to install DirectX7a and it wouldn't allow it. Is it possible to reapply DirectX in Win2K.

Thanks for any advice!

Rob

[euankirkhope]

re-apply dx7, was said cause the person wasn't listening and assumed you are using win98. It would make little difference anyway.

What you should do however, is re-install the viatech agp driver (if its a viatech chipset on the mobo). The current ATI drivers have a known bug where the AGP driver is over written by an older version. Also the new drivers fixing the incompatibility have been released. See www.rage3d.com for more info.

[devils advocate]

be6II is a bx chipset, so I don't think that would help too much...if it is one o/s and not the other it could also be a resource conflict as well...see if there are too many things sharing an irq...long shot, but be6II's can be picky...my sblive drove me nuts on that board...might be stupid, but try moving the card to another slot...also...I think the shimmering comes from the detail textures option in open gl...set it to false and see if they go away...I have it disabled in d3d for that very reason...I'm meesing around w/ setting between the ini and ati drivers to get the best settings, but it seems to take a little time...

[Robor]

I just finished reinstalling Win2K for the 2nd time this week. Seems after flashing my BE6-2 BIOS to the "SH" revision it keeps putting my Highpoint ATA66 controllers on IRQ11 with my SB Live Platinum (listed as Creative SB Live Basic (WDM). The Highpoint was using 14 or 15 before but really likes 11 now and I can't change it in device manager. I'm beyond frustrated at this point. I'm about to blow this MF'er away and load Win98SE on it...

Oh, I'm using a BX chipset so this problem isn't chipset related.
Rob

[Robor]

devils advocate: I took your advice and swapped the SB Live! and SCSI controller. Here's a printout of my IRQ's from System Information. Does this look okay? I see my USB & Live are sharing 12 but I'm using a USB mouse and the Live seems to be working okay. Haven't installed any games yet so I can't confirm success or failure yet.

Oh, should I install SP1 then my Radeon drivers again or no. I haven't installed SP1 or any updates yet. Also running with Win2000 SB Live drivers (didn't update or install Liveware). Fingers crossed but not holding my breath!

Thanks very much again for the help all!

Rob

System Information report written at: 08/20/2000 06:21:45 AM
[IRQs]

IRQ Number Device
10 RADEON DDR
12 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
12 Creative SB Live! Basic (WDM)
15 Adaptec AHA-2940U/AHA-2940UW PCI SCSI Controller
15 Highpoint Technology Inc. Hpt366 Ultra DMA 66 Controller
15 Highpoint Technology Inc. Hpt366 Ultra DMA 66 Controller
11 SMC EtherPower II 10/100 Ethernet Adapter
1 PC/AT Enhanced PS/2 Keyboard (101/102-Key)
6 Standard floppy disk controller
8 System CMOS/real time clock
13 Numeric data processor

[devils advocate]

actually, another problem you might run into is the ultra 66 controllers and the scsi card...for stability, your best bet would be to choose either the scsi card or the ultra 66 controllers...I couldn't use both on my machinew/o serious headaches...The ultra 66 only gives bursts up to 66 megs, but performance wise isn't that much different that than udma 33...If you don't actually use the controllers, you could disable them in the bios...or remove the scsi card...another opt, might be to disable any ports that you aren't using to free up more resources...what is on the scsi card and what is on the ultra 66 controllers?

[This message has been edited by devils advocate (edited 20 August 2000).]

[Robor]

I've currently got IDE1 & IDE2 disabled in the BIOS. Also have Serial 1 & 2 disabled as well as the Parallel Port. Have the Highpoint controller enabled because I've got an IBM 45GB ATA100 on it for storage. I need the SCSI card because I've got a 9GB IBM UW drive on it (2 partitions - 1 for WinMe the other for Win2K). Also have a Wide SCSI Plextor 40X reader on it.

I've never had any performance issues with the CD or hard drives. In fact, my buddy and I compared install times on a few games and my SCSI parts blew his away (100% to 33%).

I'm at a friends house right now. I will work on my box when I get home.

Thanks!

Rob