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Intel740 AGP video cards

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by lizzy 2 views

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I have several PC's w\ this video card--Pentium II's 333-450MHz. All started w\ Windows 95, but have been reinstalling them w\ Windows 98SE. The problem is the screen waving, wavering, or clicking to smaller or larger sizes on monitor. I have the latest drivers from Intel (they are no longer supporting this AGP card) and the video card BIOS update will not work--it says it's not the right one. Motherboard chipset is Intel440BX AGP set. I have tried all different graphic accelerations settings. I have tried all different refresh rates. I have checked the system BIOS and the video is set at 64MB (AGP Aperture size), EGA/VGA. Reseated the cards on a few machines, but I have several. Should I try updating the Motherboard BIOS? What else can I do without having to purchase all new video cards? Thanks in advance!!!

15 replies

by thechas

Flashing the motherboard BIOS could help. Read the list of updates before you flash it to see if AGP problems are corrected.

Did Intel make the card? They used to have a list of third party card manufactures posted. If you can find the card manufacture, you might get support from them. I have a copy of the file if you want it.

I suspect that you are having a GART version conflict.

Uninstall the drivers, and clean all remnants out of the Windows folders and the Registry.

Make sure that the BIOS is set so that it does NOT assign an IRQ for VGA.

Install the latest AGP miniport driver for your chipset.

Install the version of choice of DirectX. I think the Intel driver for the 740 was written for DX 7.

Now install the updated driver.

I had the advantage of a clean install of Windows 98 when I had to work with one of these cards.

by thechas

Hi Lizzy,
The GART is one of the main components of the driver package.
As I understand it, the GART is the primary communications interface between the graphics card, and the AGP port.
TheChas

by thechas

Hi Lizzy,

From the looks of things, this is still a major project for you.

To rule out monitor problems, you could swap monitors with a machine that does not have any problems.

At some point, it just might be easier and cheaper to replace the cards. The Computer Geeks www.compgeeks.com have a Savage 4 32MB video card for $24.99 each. They also have a volume discount plan. There are current drivers for 9X, Me, 2000 on the s3graphics site. Windows XP has native drivers for the card.

The card is not a fast "gamers" card, but is more than adequate for buisness use.

by lizzy

Thank you for your help. I was unable to find anything about the GART, but I will continue looking for that as well.

by lizzy

Hello Chas. The 740 manuals say that it is made for DirectX6, but I have 8 installed. What, exactly is a GART version conflict? I will check the AGP mini port drivers and your other suggestions at work tomorrow. Thanks for your answer.

by estebandelatorre

The waving or flickering may not be assigned to the drivers only.
a.- Monitors: A monitor exposed (near) another magnetic field (like a transformer)will flicker.(up to down)
b.- A bad monitor power supply (power supply capacitors out of values) may cause waving from right to left. Try with a good quality monitor first.
c.- Refresh rates VS Resolution VS Monitor Quality. Any frecuency higher than 90hz (vertical) will reduce significant flicker, however some VGA boards & monitors won?t work better, you should lower resolution in order to change the refresh rate. Try some combinations in order to see what is the best for your combination of card + monitor.

Hope it helps!!

by lizzy

I am not sure if it was a magnetic field, but swapping out the monitors, even those that were having problems are no longer having the problems on the PC's that they were switched to! I will keep an eye on all of these PC's as I have swapped out themonitors months ago and the problems only came back. At least I can still use the monitors that were flickering and wavy somewhere else.

by lizzy

Hi EDT. Thank you for the input. I will leave your question open as well until I can spend more time working on this problem. Quality of the monitor is probably not it as I have this problem on several PC's, monitors tried are AcerViews and Dells, all 17" (we buy on contract). I think the problem focuses more on the video cards since it is the same on so many of the machines that are developing these problems. Feel free to post more ideas. I will be on vacation for two weeks soon and may not get back to this until after New Years due to last minute requests from my clients. Happy Holidays, everyone!

by yasirs

The waving or flickering may not be assigned to the drivers only.
a.- Monitors: A monitor exposed (near) another magnetic field (like a transformer)will flicker.(up to down)
b.- A bad monitor power supply (power supply capacitors out of values) may cause waving from right to left. Try with a good quality monitor first.
c.- Refresh rates VS Resolution VS Monitor Quality. Any frecuency higher than 90hz (vertical) will reduce significant flicker, however some VGA boards & monitors won?t workbetter, you should lower resolution in order to change the refresh rate. Try some combinations in order to see what is the best for your combination of card + monitor.

It could be on of the following and u can't do anything about the drivers since they aren't supported by Intel Any longer.

1) Magnetic fields , from the supporting off your office , or where the monitor cable passes , or even the close proximity of the cards in the Motherboards slots.

2) Faulty power either form with in the monitor or from the actual power supply from the electricity company. Use a power stabilizer if your power seems to fluctuate.

3) Do try the other solutions via configuration the dispaly adapter properties with in windows but I have found itdoes not help all that much.

4) And if not the above its about time u might have to replace either the VGA cards or the monitor.

by lizzy

To Yasirs, answer # 3, Why is your answer any different from edt's, #2? Post a comment with something original, please. I am not sure what you're getting at. Thanks any way...

by lizzy

The spacewalker site did not lead me to any updated video drivers, but I was able to find a motherboard BIOS update, although the BIOS update did not seem to do anything for the flickering. I also found an IDE bus master update that I may try, but have not yet because the video cards are AGP and I don't know if that will help this particular problem. Swapping the monitors helped, but I have done it before months ago and the problems came back. If it happens again, I will try the IDE update thenor find a PC that isn't being used all of the time to experiment on.

by lizzy

Thank you to all of you for your input. Based on my comments when closing this thread, if you have any other ideas of what may have been the cause of these problems, feel free to e-mail me through TR. Happy Holidays!!

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