guthrie
asked on
Fading fonts; display problem
Help! I have a really weird problem on Win-95; after running for awhile, my fonts start fo disappear, partially, as if about 70% of the dots in each character were gone. The effect is a lot like a screen-saver! A really interesting effect; If I select soem text, the reverse video version may well be OK!
It only affects fonts when they are refreshed. but quickly spreads to the entire screen. Note, not other graphics, no icons, no lines or backgrounds are affected.
A restart fixes it. Sometimes it will run for a week or more with no failures, then fail 1-2 times. This first showed up after I first upgraded to Access-97; may or not be related, could well be sunspots! I suspect a .DLL conflict of some sort.
Hard to suspect hardware, since a software restart fixes everything. I have a brand-X video card, with latest drivers (came with it(!)), but these problems did not start till one year after getting that card.
I have scanned for viruses (many times), reloaded Win-95 fromthe cdrom, reloaded Office, etc.. This problem has been around now for a long time; but is really a bother!
To erase my disk and start over would take about a week; please don't advise this!
(argh, Win-95 poor design).
Thanks;
Please email any ideas!
It only affects fonts when they are refreshed. but quickly spreads to the entire screen. Note, not other graphics, no icons, no lines or backgrounds are affected.
A restart fixes it. Sometimes it will run for a week or more with no failures, then fail 1-2 times. This first showed up after I first upgraded to Access-97; may or not be related, could well be sunspots! I suspect a .DLL conflict of some sort.
Hard to suspect hardware, since a software restart fixes everything. I have a brand-X video card, with latest drivers (came with it(!)), but these problems did not start till one year after getting that card.
I have scanned for viruses (many times), reloaded Win-95 fromthe cdrom, reloaded Office, etc.. This problem has been around now for a long time; but is really a bother!
To erase my disk and start over would take about a week; please don't advise this!
(argh, Win-95 poor design).
Thanks;
Please email any ideas!
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Okay Greg, but let's get it working before you leave the site, let me know where this issue stands. If you need help locating drivers, give me as much detail as possible about the card as you are able. I have about 750,000 pages of driver locations.
Dennis
Dennis
ASKER
Thanks; I appreciate the kindness and support.
I did get the appropriate current 9/97) drivers for the S3 chipset on my board; but it made it worse. I take this as a good sign, as it does show postive correllation between the video drivers and the problem.
This worsening is not a big surprise, and the S3 drivers are generic, and don't konw anything about speicfic graphics boards on which the cippset is used. The card is a "Venus Virge PCI VGA Card; with S3 Virge 64 bit chipset, GD54M40 video card (made in China!).
In parallel, I am ordering a new graphics card!
Greg
I did get the appropriate current 9/97) drivers for the S3 chipset on my board; but it made it worse. I take this as a good sign, as it does show postive correllation between the video drivers and the problem.
This worsening is not a big surprise, and the S3 drivers are generic, and don't konw anything about speicfic graphics boards on which the cippset is used. The card is a "Venus Virge PCI VGA Card; with S3 Virge 64 bit chipset, GD54M40 video card (made in China!).
In parallel, I am ordering a new graphics card!
Greg
ASKER
Thanks,
nothing relevant.
I'm surprised that the Venus Virge S3 card isn't listed anywhere, it is sold by a number of places.
nothing relevant.
I'm surprised that the Venus Virge S3 card isn't listed anywhere, it is sold by a number of places.
I've got a web crawler search for it for you. What type of card are you purchasing?
ASKER
Well, I got a good price on a Matrox Mystique 4M for $80,
seem reasonable?
[my only concern is that it is not on the Linux XFree-86 supported list]
Greg
seem reasonable?
[my only concern is that it is not on the Linux XFree-86 supported list]
Greg
It's a good price on the card, they are a bit touchy on drivers, just use the windows 95 approved drivers for windows.
On the other card, check it and give me the FCC number printed on the card. I'll have to trace it through it's registry.
On the other card, check it and give me the FCC number printed on the card. I'll have to trace it through it's registry.
ASKER
will do;
I'll have to do tonight.
I think I will (instead of Matrox) get a Diamond 3d Pro 2000 4/M, $80.
it is Linux compatible, and also looks OK for general W95 usage; yes?
Greg
I'll have to do tonight.
I think I will (instead of Matrox) get a Diamond 3d Pro 2000 4/M, $80.
it is Linux compatible, and also looks OK for general W95 usage; yes?
Greg
If you have checked the Diamond with both Linux as well as Win95, you should be okay. I don't have that much experience with Diamond. Most of the time we stick with Permedia, Leadtec, ATI, Matrox, some STB etc.
ASKER
I have already re-loaded the drivers; I can try to get updated drivers from S3; but it is a Brand-x video card, and chipset drivers aren't always compatible.
Anyway, it is a good recommendation, I will try it. Else, probably just replace the card!
Thanks, Greg