Question for Paul Vebber...

ddoutel · Post by **ddoutel** » Sat Aug 11, 2001 7:50 am

Anybody else noticing that the screen goes blank sometimes? It's random, no real pattern to it. I find that it will come back when something gets written to the screen, like an opfire confirm, to which you have to respond. Once I make the response, the screen repaints. I can also coerce it to come back by Alt-tabbing out and then in again. So it looks like any action which forces a full or partial screen repaint brings it back. I've seen this in every version of SPWAW since 5.01, the first I had. It's really just a minor annoyance, not a major issue, since it doesn't crash out or force you to kill the program; the game keeps playing. I'm running Win2K Pro, SP3 with a Voodoo 3000 PCI card.

Any ideas?
Thanks,
HerrBaron

john g · Post by **john g** » Sat Aug 11, 2001 8:12 am

Originally posted by HerrBaron:
Anybody else noticing that the screen goes blank sometimes? It's random, no real pattern to it. I find that it will come back when something gets written to the screen, like an opfire confirm, to which you have to respond. Once I make the response, the screen repaints. I can also coerce it to come back by Alt-tabbing out and then in again. So it looks like any action which forces a full or partial screen repaint brings it back. I've seen this in every version of SPWAW since 5.01, the first I had. It's really just a minor annoyance, not a major issue, since it doesn't crash out or force you to kill the program; the game keeps playing. I'm running Win2K Pro, SP3 with a Voodoo 3000 PCI card.

Any ideas?
Thanks,
HerrBaron

I have a voodoo 3 3000 agp with win98se, so my experiance may be somewhat close.

I play a lot of halflife ctf, and was about to give up the card for all the problems that showed up after I bought the voodoo.

I had all sorts of lockups and screen crashes using the drivers that came with the card on the install cd. After I went to 3dfx's website and got newer drivers all my video problems went away.

The video has been stable since then, though I have a pause while booting and screen resizing is accompanied with a sizzling sound like an electrical zap.

With the demise of 3dfx, you might find new stable drivers harder to find, but give that a shot first.
thanks, John.

Huffy · Post by **Huffy** » Sat Aug 11, 2001 8:22 am

Hey guys....now you got me worried...I invested in the Voodoo5 5500...and I've been having problems with my mega camp cd..hmmm....maybe I'll put a post on the forum.
thanks guys..
Huffy

ddoutel · Post by **ddoutel** » Sat Aug 11, 2001 8:27 am

Originally posted by john g:

I have a voodoo 3 3000 agp with win98se, so my experiance may be somewhat close.

I play a lot of halflife ctf, and was about to give up the card for all the problems that showed up after I bought the voodoo.

I had all sorts of lockups and screen crashes using the drivers that came with the card on the install cd. After I went to 3dfx's website and got newer drivers all my video problems went away.

The video has been stable since then, though I have a pause while booting and screen resizing is accompanied with a sizzling sound like an electrical zap.

With the demise of 3dfx, you might find new stable drivers harder to find, but give that a shot first.
thanks, John.

The Voodoo drivers I've used under Win98 were indeed problematic, but I have the latest for Win2K, also play halflife etc, and have had no problems with it. I'm not really sure what to make of it. What's that about the demise of 3dfx? Something I've missed in the trade rags?

Regards,
HerrBaron

ddoutel · Post by **ddoutel** » Sat Aug 11, 2001 8:33 am

Originally posted by john g:

I have a voodoo 3 3000 agp with win98se, so my experiance may be somewhat close.

I play a lot of halflife ctf, and was about to give up the card for all the problems that showed up after I bought the voodoo.

I had all sorts of lockups and screen crashes using the drivers that came with the card on the install cd. After I went to 3dfx's website and got newer drivers all my video problems went away.

The video has been stable since then, though I have a pause while booting and screen resizing is accompanied with a sizzling sound like an electrical zap.

With the demise of 3dfx, you might find new stable drivers harder to find, but give that a shot first.
thanks, John.

BTW, if the sizzling and resizing are happening during or immediately after the machine POST's, it's most likely the power supply in the monitor getting ready to quit on you; I've had this happen to me with a (I forget the brand, but it had a sticker on the front with penguins on it). I ended up having to ship it back to the manufacturer for a replacement.

Good luck with it yourself, John...!
Duane

ddoutel · Post by **ddoutel** » Sat Aug 11, 2001 8:36 am

Originally posted by Huffy:
Hey guys....now you got me worried...I invested in the Voodoo5 5500...and I've been having problems with my mega camp cd..hmmm....maybe I'll put a post on the forum.
thanks guys..
Huffy

Huffy,

I'd only worry if John G. responds to my last post with some really alarming news about 3dfx, i.e. it doesn't exist anymore (I haven't heard this.) As already stated, I've had no probs with mine under Win2K Pro...

HerrBaron

john g · Post by **john g** » Sat Aug 11, 2001 4:07 pm

Originally posted by HerrBaron:

Huffy,

I'd only worry if John G. responds to my last post with some really alarming news about 3dfx, i.e. it doesn't exist anymore (I haven't heard this.) As already stated, I've had no probs with mine under Win2K Pro...

HerrBaron

If you check the 3dfx web page, at http://www.3dfx.com

there is a message that 3dfx is calling it quits and selling their assets to nVidia. I'm sad to see them go, their products were always more stable than nVidia's, even if they were less cutting edge.
thanks, John.

Charles2222 · Post by **Charles2222** » Sat Aug 11, 2001 4:34 pm

This problem has existed for quite a while, and it's really not too much of a bother. I'm not sure, as I can't say it worked all the time, but when I know I'm fixing to switch from another window to SPWAW (assuming SPWAW is up), I will on occassion get my mouse running in circles and have it continue to do that until I get the SPWAW window, which seems to give me a lower incidence of the blackout occurring. I can't remember my videocard's name, but it's a popular one which I haven't seen mentioned here.

Paul Vebber · Post by **Paul Vebber** » Sat Aug 11, 2001 8:48 pm

As far as we know its just a weird thing about certain video cards and background apps. IT happens to me on my GeForce ocasionally, but moving the mouse, clicking a button to refresh the screen or alt-tabbing in and out always fixes it.

KG Erwin · Post by **KG Erwin** » Sat Aug 11, 2001 9:29 pm

All these sound/video card problems with SPWaW are starting to make me leery about uprading either. My system (bought in Feb 99) came with the now unsupported Mpact 2 Media Processor and a Creative Ensoniq Audio PCI sound card. Hell, even the company I bought the PC from (Quantex) has since folded. I had a difficult time finding updated drivers for either product, but I did, and SPWaW and all my other games work fine. However, I do want to upgrade sooner or later. We need a central location/forum thread for all the sound/video problems that new cards may have with the games.

ddoutel · Post by **ddoutel** » Sat Aug 11, 2001 10:01 pm

Ah, so I'm not alone! That's all I wanted to know. As noted my me and others, it's not a serious problem; forcing a screen repaint returns the screen to normal. I just wanted to make sure others had seen it, that it wasn't must me.

John G., I'll check out that article you posted the link to; I also will miss 3dfx; hate to see any competition go away, and you're right, nVidia isn't my idea of great hardware/drivers.

Thanks Guys!
HerrBaron

Mumdaan · Post by **Mumdaan** » Sat Aug 11, 2001 10:06 pm

The 3dfx buyout by Nvidia happened months ago.. before the GF3 launch even.

I still run a voodoo5 5500 in one pc (Win98se) and there is a good DX8 compliant driver (1.04 - i get all my vid drivers from gamers-ammo.com) It has no problems at all with SPWAW

The only reservation i have with the V5 is something i just read..

"The Voodoo5 AGP will not work in a Pentium 4 system. The Voodoo5 lacks the "universal" or 1.5 volt AGP key so that it does not phyiscally fit into a Pentium 4 AGP slot. All Voodoo5 cards require a 3.3 voltage key and Pentium 4 only supports 1.5 volts in it's core logic.
All Voodoo4 cards will work just fine in Pentium 4 systems. There was a miscommunication between 3dfx and Intel regarding i850 requirements and voltage issues that never got addressed before Voodoo5 launched."

-Mum

ddoutel · Post by **ddoutel** » Sun Aug 12, 2001 6:11 am

Originally posted by Paul Vebber:
As far as we know its just a weird thing about certain video cards and background apps. IT happens to me on my GeForce ocasionally, but moving the mouse, clicking a button to refresh the screen or alt-tabbing in and out always fixes it.

Thanks Paul!

I just noticed that you were here; I must have missed your post during the quick scan I made this morning!

Regards,
Duane