Graphics Card can't go AGP 4x ; DVDs won't play properly.

Make dure you have the latest drivers from www.nvidia.com, and install them this way (instructions for Win98 - the names of the tabs/screens may be a little different in 95 or ME).  Before you start, make sure you have your Windows CD and the drivers for your video card handy (you can download the drivers off the net and put them in a directory on the HDD - just remember where you put them!).

1) Go Control Panel > Display > Settings > Advanced > Adapter > Change > Next  > Select "Display List" > Next

2) Select "Show All Hardware" > Select Manufacturer - (Standard Display Types) > Select Model - Standard Display Adapter (VGA) > Next.  The computer will probably ask for your Windows disk, and then reset.

3) During the reboot, hit F5 to boot into Safe Mode.  Go to the Device Manager, and delete all the Display Adapter entries relating to the old video card.  There may well be multiple entries -  be sure to delete them all.  If you find any other redundant entries (even older cards, for example) delete these too.

4) After the reset, repeat (1), then go Have Disk and browse either to your drivers disk/CD, or the directory where you put the downloaded drivers.  A bit more disk swapping, some Nexts and OKs, and another reset.

5) After the second reset, go Control Panel > Display > Settings and set the resolution and colour depth you want (hi-colour and 800x600 are pretty standard, but it depends on your monitor and video card).


You could also try going to the BIOS and changing the "Assign IRQ to VGA" to yes/no, whichever it isnt on now.  If this doesn't help, just change it back.

Ok, but I think it has something to do with my bios settings.

AGP tranfer rates (2x, 4x) can only be changed in the bios settings.

But it is good to have the latest nvidia drivers as it might solve problems that occur only in 4x mode..

Also, be sure to have the latest bios version for your mother-board. Head to the website of the manufacturer of your mother-board and see if there's a new version of the bios as it might fix AGP problems. WARNING! never, never! close your computer while upgrading bios.

Then, you will have to seek in the settings and find the option about the AGP rate.
Since every bios is different, it is hard to tell you where it is.. You should try to contact the manufacturer of the board.. (I dont know if it's what you meant by "technical support people here in Australia"..)

"Since every bios is different, it is hard to tell you where it is.. You should try to contact the manufacturer
of the board.. (I dont know if it's what you meant by "technical support people here in Australia"..)"

I meant that I called up Gateway Technical Support, but they do not seem to know a thing about this.  They said there was no way that I could do anything about it.

I would try your suggestion soon, but not now as I need my computer very badly and I cannot afford a spoilt computer at the moment.  

I bought a new PC, with riva card ... and it ran very slowly ... graphicaly .... until I discovered I was in the 32 bit colormode, then, I changed the display setting to 16 bit colormode and things speeded up dramaticaly ...  just a thought ....

I've tried changing that, but there was no difference.  In fact, 32 bit should run fine, shouldn't it?  

yep, 32bit should be fine (sometimes faster, since the new 3D cards are optimized for 32bit like the Geforce3)

3D hardware acceleration can only be done in 16bit and 32bit.

I have heard that for playing DVDs, ATI requires the least amount of processor usage.  The ATI DVD player has special hardware on the video card.  Data is sent to the video card and the video card works on it before displaying it.
Even in 8bit colour modes you get 32 bit colour for the DVD movie.

I suspect that InterVideo's WinDVD is a software solution.  What you need is a DVD player which uses the hardware on you video card.

For your card you would have to add the High-Definition Video Processor...

Turns your PC into a fully functional DVD player, and an HDTV player with the purchase of an additional third-party decoder.


The nvidia card which has the hardware built in is the GeForce II gts, pro or ultra

regards last sentence above...

High Definition Video Processing (HDVP)
 NVIDIA's high-definition video processor covers the most expensive part of HDTV by transforming your computer into the optimal home entertainment system.
 
...taken from main page for gts, pro and ultra.
this paragraph is not displayed for your card.

On the index of cards, your's is not listed with the section for DVD.

You can remove some of the jerks by making sure that the DVD is master on the secondary IDE.

If virtual memory, garbage collection, etc decide to access the hdd it can pause the dvd if they both share the same ide cable

Thanks kneea for your comments.  I do not intend to spend any more money on any extra hardware.  I used playing DVDs as an example only.  I'm also worried about my low frames per second, i.e. a test done using MadOnion's 3dMark2001 gave me a rating of 500+ instead of over 2000.  

I don't play Quake 3, Unreal, etc., so I can't give any benchmarks, but I think it would have helped.  

I should have said this earlier : My DVD Rom drive is an NEC DV 5800A.

My Primary Master consists only of my 20GB Quantum Fireball UDMA 100 (Connected to a PCI HDD Controller),  Secondary Master is the DVD Rom, and Secondary Slave is an LG CDRW CED 8120B.

With regards to DVD playing, I downloaded and installed DVD Genie, which tweaks WinDVD 2000 and it seems better now.  However, I think it could be much better.  I can't test and see the difference as I don't know of anyone else with another DVD Player here.

Did refreshing the drivers have any effect?  Were there any multiple entries in the Safe Mode Device Manager?

You mentioned that you have SDRAM.  WIth the type of system you have, DDR is normally used - for benchmarks it can make quite a difference.

I wouldn't expect you to spend any money on extra hardware, but not having the special DVD bits can make a big difference.

The other thing worth bearing in mind is that most udma boards only have udma 100 on one of the ide ports.  udma 100 connectors are blue.   Are they both blue on your motherboard?   You should also check that all blue sockets have blue plugs in them.  On UDMA, black is for the master, grey is for the secondary.

To gain maximum performance of your computer you also need to check what software is running on the pc.  By pressing crtl-alt-del you can see what hidden programs are running.  For maximum performance you can often remove many of them.

If your benchmarks are from a manufacturer or a pc magazine, don't expect to meet them.  PCs are often specially configured to create the best numbers possible.  Unless you were to spend days fiddling with your pc - and make it useless for everyday use, you will be luck to get within 10%.  20% is more likely.  NB win2k is usually used for benchmarks.

Hope this helps,

Anthony

There are no multiple entries in my Device Manager for graphics.  There is only one error but that's with my printer.  

My HDD is definitely connected to the blue plug of my UDMA100 Controller.  I don't have many hidden programs running in my background as I am aware of that and I do not like such things too.  

Those benchmarks came from my other friends, which have almost the same system as me.  (Not totally the same, though).  

I'm extremely busy these days and wouldn't be able to test anything as of now.  I will reinstall my drivers, update my bios, etc. soon when I have more time.  I was thinking that it was some hidden settings that I didn't find somewhere in Windows or my bios.  Looks like it isn't.  Thanks a lot for helping, I will post a comment here as soon as I manage to re-install my drivers, or etc... However, other suggestions are welcomed.

Who makes your mobo????



Doug

I think it's MicroStar MS-6330 (according to WCPUID)

MSI MAinboards have had a known issue with enabling 4X AGP in the bios, here is a direct link to the bios driver download page. I recommend the v1.5 which has been the best so far.

http://www.msi.com.tw/support/bios/mainboard/6xxx/6330/6330.htm

After you flash the bios you must reset your configurations and enable 4X AGP


Best of luck

Doug

Thanks.  I'll try it and will post the result.

Just make absolutely sure you know you have a MSI 6330 mainboard



Doug

That's according to WCPUID. I'll double check with Gateway Technical Support but I don't think they'll know or let me know.  

You should be able to tell by opening your case, the model number will be listed between one of the PCI slots on the board.


Doug

The newest version does not work.  It gives an error while patching.  However, checking the wordings between my PCI slots, it is a MSI 6330 mobo.  I'll give version 1.5 a try.

Cool. That is the one that has worked best.


Doug

Well, I tried flashing my bios with version 1.5 and guess what?  The computer won't boot now.  I'll have to send it back to my manufacturer.  I don't see any reason why it didn't work, as my mobo is definitely a 6330.  I tried resetting my bios by changing the jumpers but that, too didn't work.  

I would have chucked the dubious hardware back at them and demanded a refund long ago ... Nothing worse than paying for something that doesn't work to spec.  I reckon, its not the clients responsibility to sort out bios hassles. Kind of like buying a mercedes benz and getting a packet of bolts in the post with a note saying use special tool, part number MB 47321532 to attatch to intake manifold. ... I hope you come right soon. ;-)

armand,

Very sorry to hear this. I it is still under warranty, I would suggest tht they simply send you an up to date bios chip and then all you have to do is replace it. Hve you tried flashing again? And on another note, if you have a win98 boot disk lying round just delete everything off of it but command.com and copy the flash on to it and then run the flash again. again, I am very sorry I feel somewhat responsible for your problem now but I think it can be corrected.


Doug

I have a friend who ordered a brand new gateway - and it didn't work.  Gateway asked some questions over the phone and realised that the ide and floppy cables had not been connected.

....so imagine someone who has never even looked inside a computer being asked to do that over the phone!  Gateway managed to help him out but it should have never happened in the first place.  His Gateway had on site maintenance - I guess it didn't say in the small print who would supply the labour - which just so happened to be my friend.

I would really reccomend that you look at your support contract with Gateway.  Get someone out if necessary and be prepared to make a fuss.  Gateway are withdrawing from the UK market and it might be the same in Australia - so I would get it sorted as soon as possible.  Otherwise, you'll be dealing with a third part support outfit which has to order spares from the states - it could take weeks to get stuff fixed.

Buying a branded PC doesn't always help...

Once, when Dell had a bad batch of PCs, there was a support engineer on one of our customers sites for 10 hours a day for a month! It was a local hospital which had read the rave reviews and decided to switch to Dell.  About 50 to 80% of the new computers would go wrong in the first week.  To cope with demand, Dell had upped the production without checking the quality.  There were motherboards which had missing tracks, the wrong bios and it was the time of the troublesome seagate drives!  Come to think of it there were two or three engineers on site at one point.

...so we've been building our own pcs from branded parts ever since then and never looked back.  We currently use Gigabyte boards: AMD reccomend them, they're easy to setup, and the return rate is very low (less than 1 in 500)

Hope you get your PC fixed!

Anthony

Well, more bad news here.  I've contacted Gateway technical support and they asked me to flash my bios again, which didn't work.  I was supposed to receive an error beep (2 beeps) but it didn't signal anything wrong.  However, it stalls right after detecting my HDD & CD Rom.  

I understand that I should have immediately contacted Gateway regarding my Graphics Card not running at AGP 4x, but I only found out recently.  I use the computer mainly for work, and I am currently too busy to mess around with DVDs and games.  I didn't know that my AGP was running at 1x too, until recently.  

I talked to the technical support, and they asked me to bring my computer back to the service center and pay for a new motherboard!! I will NEVER do that.  Even bringing it to a service center is bad enough, as it's not near where I live.  

Even if I have to change my mobo, I will go for another branded motherbaord (ASUS or Gigabyte?) from another shop as it would not make any difference anymore.  Moreover, Gateway says that it will probably take a week or so!  This is really long.  I only have one computer and can't live without it.

I should have gone for a clone with branded parts, but Gateway was offering a better deal then..:(

Well, I will contact the manager tomorrow morning and see how it goes.  

Im my experience, branded PCs are never as good as branded parts.  Thi big motherboard manufacturers make millions of boards.  Each board is thouroughly tested and the support for them is excellent.  The motherboards are also used in thousands of different configurations with every video card and hardware combination imaginable.

The big pc makers on the other hand rarely make 100 000 boards of one type, never mind a million.  The boards are tested with just a few cards and extras so problems of compatibility are never really raised, never mind dealt with.

It is the motherboard which defines the pc and is the most important part so that is why I stick to the best brands.

If you really push gateway, they should cough up.  If the PC is less than 1 year old they have no excuse.  Just ask them where it mentions x4 AGP in the manual.  And why was it configured wrong in the first place.

It is a hardware fault and gateway didn't do their job properly.  I would suggest that you forget technical and talk to customer relations.  Tell them that you've had a bad deal.

I know people have complained before now and were able to post the pc back to where it came for repair.  Along with a bill for the postage!

At the moment, the pc has not been repaired because nothing physical has been put into the computer.  You could stand on your consumer rights - demanding a refund is a possibility.

Be noisy, tell Gateway that you don't like them, etc, etc.  Tell them it's their fault. Tell them to sort it out.  Being a little angry might help.

It helps if you are the one who bought the PC.  If it is a work PC then get the person at work who bought it to sort things out.  A bit of corporate management talking to customer services is a really good way to get things sorted out quicker.

Be brave, be insistant and unrelenting.

If the person at customer services won't listen to you and has said 'I can't do that' a couple of times you say...

'I know YOU can't do that' because you keep telling me.  I've been listening to you - have you been listening to me?
Who has the authority sort this out?  Can I talk to your supervisor?'

...you don't have a supervisor, come on!
...so when CAN I talk to him!
...is (s)he ever available.

Don't let them answer even the first question.  Each time they start answering with an excuse, start the next question while they are in mid sentence.

Ask for more than you want so that you can later back down.  In this case, complete refund, new pc, return of p&p, processor upgrade etc. Remember that you have had hassle and deserve some sort of reimbursement because of it.

In most companies, they send people on courses to learn this stuff with role play.  People who work in customer services know this stuff and deal with it regularly - supervisors don't and are easily flustered and have the powers to compromise.

There should be plenty there to help get you out of trouble.  It is rare that I have had to resort to such measures when dealing with problems, but I find that they do work 100% of the time that I have had to use them.

If you don't ask, you don't get.
It pays to ask the right person.

Hope this helps,

Anthony

Thank you so much Anthony.  I will do exactly what you say.  With regards to your comment on branded motherboards/parts, my mobo is made by MSI, one of the top brands of boards here.  It is in fact rated quite highly.  

I'll contact them tomorrow and we'll see how it goes.  

I've talked to them again, but they won't let me speak to their manager, of which I requested since Saturday.  The manager should call me back (although I have my doubts).  

I can opt to pay AUD$44 for another shop nearby to do it for me, but there are no guarentees that it will work, and whether it works or not, I will have to pay.  It's just another option.  

Well, Gateway has just lost another customer - my friend wanted to buy a Gateway PC because the price was good.

If they said that the manager was going to call you back then he must or he could loose his job!  Get a date from them so that when the manager doesn't call back you can then ring up and ask why he has not rung as promised.  If you reach a dead end....

I forgot one important thing.  Ask everyone you talk to what their name is and write down the time of the call.  If the phone operator gives you a false name or info they will know from the call logs.  Most calls are recorded nowadays - the details and conversation are all logged and recorded on a hard drive somewhere.

....so write a letter to gateway head office, customer services, public relations.  Tell them in detail how badly you were treated, etc, etc.  Don't vent your anger with your friends - put it in the wordprocessor!

Tell them that if they don't get back to you within seven days that you will be sending a copy of this letter to ....... (fill with the most popular computer magazines you can think of)

Remind them about your waste of time and how bad their company has treated you.

It works,

Nearly there!

Anthony

You could use registered post, and with the letter include a bill for the repair to be done elsewhere and a reimbursement for your waste of time (half the price of the motherboard?).  Tell them that failure to respond in 14 days will be considered acceptance of this offer.

To be on the safe side though you really do need to contact some sort of consumer association/advisory.  In the UK we have citizen's advice bureaus which are good at checking things out.  They deal with the worst problems every day.  You really ought to check out where you stand legally.  Most of the time, companies know that they can do whatever they want because the consumer doesn't know what their rights are.

....You might be amazed at what you can claim from Gateway and what you can ask them to do.

In the UK you can take the item back to the shop and get a full refund - PROVIDED it is done within a certain amount of time and that you have not already agreed to a repair.  Reprogramming a bios is not a repair!

Anthony

Take this page and email it to their head office ;-)

Im sure that globaly quite a few people have read this page and are recieveing an ever diminishing opinion of gateway / microstar ... at least I know which motherboards to steer clear of when buying hardware for my clients.

The manager did in fact call me, that was after I had a 30-minute talk venting my frustration with one of the Technical officers.  However, I was not at home, and he will call me back tomorrow morning.  At least I have his direct phone number and his name now.  

I do record all the names of people I've spoken too.

Stay away from Gateway Australia.  I have nothing against MSI because it is not their fault at all.  

I tried bringing my computer to a local repair shop and they couldn't fix it at all (even for a fee) as my bios chip is embedded into the mobo.  

MSI should know better than that - they are asking for trouble!  It sounds like their boards are not as good as people make them out to be.

I forgot to mention that most of the Gigabyte boards have a dual bios system.  If one is messed up by a customer or a virus, you can ALWAYS reboot because one is in ROM and cannot be changed.

Very clever! Very useful.  Saves me a lot of time when something goes wrong.  I've only had to use it once though because most of the people and companies I deal with have a good security policy.

I've also had to do a 'hot swap' bios reprogramming just the once where you swap the bios while the pc is on.  It's a bit tricky and you have to be real careful you don't break anything.  So dual bios is really neat!

Anthony

Hot swapping won't work since my chip is embedded into the mobo.  Well, I take back my word -- NEVER buy MSI & Gateway again... unless a miracle happens when the manager calls me back tomorrow morning (Or the other way around).

I had a gigabyte BX board before, but the reviews just are not too good.  People and reviewers seem to prefer ASUS, Abit and MSI.

I couldn't believe that the bios was soldered in!  That's why I mentioned hot swap - it is what you normally have to do when the bios is bust.  Some motherboards to have the really small chips now but even they are often sat in a socket.  Soldering saves no more than pennies and when used means that it is cheaper for a motherboard to be replaced than repaired.

(...
Unless you're a electronics nutter with the special kit - and I don't mean a soldering iron! Special tools are needed to desolder chips - too much heat and the motherboard will be ruined, never mind the chip.  You would then have to either do the same to another board or do a stackload of research...  Find the pin configurations, find the programming info, and then finally you might be able to program it!   Oh and then you'd have to solder it back into place.  
...)

People like what the reviewers tell them to like.  The reviewers like what their benchmarks tell them.  People who do the reviews are not usually the ones who answer the question and answers page of the mags.  Most reviewers have built a few machines.  The don't build or service hundreds.

...think of the critics and the movies.  They often get it wrong because they all like black and white movies in a foreign language with arty scenes and little or no plot.  When reviewers don't understand the plot they give a movie high marks to hide that fact. (It's the Emperor's new clothes scenario) Anyone with half a brain knew that Tomb Raider would be more popular than Pearl Harbour!

I prefer reliable and easy to repair computers instead of the formula 1 variety which overheat on the first lap or loose suspension control a few laps from the end of the race.

You don't need to read a review to get a faster computer.  Just add more ram, faster drive or faster processor.  It's simple really!  At the moment I use the GA-7DX for fast PCs, fit a 1.33 athlon and 256mb of DDR.  All in bar monitor and software they cost less than 550 uk pounds to build.

When people want to play games I tell them to go buy a playstation.  It's cheaper and easier! A playstation costs less than most video cards, doesn't go out of date so quick.  Doesn't require new versions of activex, video drivers, etc every few weeks!

Anthony

I was just checking out AMD's benchmarks....

http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/athlon/benchmarks/benchmarks.html

Looks to me like AMD agree with my choice of motherboard!

I haven't checked out all of them, but on the ones I looked at it is the Gigabyte GA7DC with a 1.4MHz processor which outperforms the pentium 4 1.7Mhz by about 20% to 30%.  I guess that that would mean that a 1.33 would be about the same - even with the cheaper 2.5 cas 2100 DDR instead of the more expensive 2.0 cas.

Anthony

Ok, I rang up the Gateway manager and they wouldn't do it, full stop.  Even if he would do it, it will probably take 2 weeks or so.  He wouldn't move from his stance of me spoiling my bios.  I've tried arguing with him for more than 30 minutes.  

I bought myself a new mobo -- a tried and tested one -- an ASUS A7V133.  Had a few problems, but should be fine after a clean format.  

Gigabyte isn't popular here and is hard to get here in Australia.

 thank you all for the help.  I can't award points since my problem wasn't fixed! My spoilt mobo is still with me here.

corrections...

....never seen an asus board, seen plenty of good comments though. Gigabyte are also listed and recommended by amd.

Yeah, I agree with u Anthony, on most of the facts you stated.  I told the manager that I should have told him that my computer was spoilt, and fix it.  He said that they will check it, and if they find out that I have re-programmed my bios, they will charge me no matter what.  I should have put the mobo into the freezer and damage the whole board, then the computer won't boot, then they will never know that I flashed my bios.  

I agree that I got cheap rubbish.  I have regretted buying a Gateway.  I have friends who had Acer computers and they gave a whole lot of problems.  I've learnt from their mistakes -- NEVER buy an Acer.  Looks like I would never buy a branded computer, unless it's a notebook.

EE is a good place to share knowledge, and to share bad deals we've had (like mine).  

I don't want to get into any trouble, so I don't want to publish my findings with Gateway.  Who knows what they might do.  I'm an international student here, and I've been here in Australia for just over 5 months.  They may have some laws here which I don't know.  I'd rather spread the information by word of mouth.  

I have commented most of the things you stated to the manager, of course he didn't bother.  I'm just one customer out of x number (hopefully a small number).  

Also consider contacting the ACCC, the Consumer Association, and similar trade/consumer bodies.  Most of them have websites, and you can register a complaint online.  If Gateway advertised the PC as using AGP 4x then they are screwed regardless of what else you have done, and the ACCC will chase them up and possibly prosecute or file suit on your behalf.

The PC magazines idea is a good one too - vent some frustration, and you might win something for the "letter of the week" too!  Write one letter, and send it to a dozen different magazines (you should be able to find that many in five mins on the web).

Maybe you should start a website in Oz like we have here in South Africa ... The URL .. www.helopeter.com or maybe there is allready a site like that down under. Embarass them into taking back their dud mobo and giving you a refund.

sorry  www.hellopeter.com

This question will be deleted soon because there is no solution to this problem, unless someone posts otherwise.

armand1 - There is a lot of good information here that could help someone in the future.

If you feel that your problem has not been solved, post a Q in the CS section asking them to refund your points but add the Q to the database, rather than deleting it.

nah it's ok, I will award the points to someone probably kneea.  I don't mind the points.  I agree that there is a lot of info here which may otherwise go down the drain.

No comment has been added to this question in more than 21 days, so it is now classified as abandoned.

I will leave the following recommendation for this question in the Cleanup topic area:
Accept: Kneea (see: M_441183.html)

Any objections should be posted here in the next 4 days. After that time, the question will be closed.

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