George Baker wrote: >>>George Baker wrote: >>> >>> >>> >>>>Hi - I've just upgraded from a 486 to a P166 with a S3 Virge DX/GX PCI >>>>graphics card with 2MB memory. Installed MDK 7.0 today but can't get X >>>>desktop to display properly. There is a jagged box under the curser and >>>>lines running through the display. If I move a window it leaves shadows >>>>behind. >>>>I was running Win95 on the 486 with built in graphics and in 800X600 >>>>res it >>>>would fill up my whole screen. Now on my P166 with WIN98 there are >>>>gaps on >>>>either side of the display (also in 800X600 ) - same monitor. >>>>Do I need an updated driver for the S3 Virge? or how can I fix both >>>>the MDK >>>>and WIN problems. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>That card is an absolute bugger (if you restart X, you'll see amongst >>>the messages flashing down the screen something like "Found an S3 card >>>-ugh"). I installed 7.0 on a similar system and got it working >>>eventually - you just need to play around with the X settings at >>>random until something works - I'm sorry, I can't remember the >>>configuration I found. My advice is to upgrade to at least 7.2, which >>>should handle this well (I found 7.2 to be good at handling old >>>hardware). 8.0 should also work OK, 8.1 is problematic in general >>>(though can be made to work if you don't mind some hacking if you want >>>supermount). I haven't tried 8.2 with that card, and 9.0 - let's see. >>> >>>For Windows, I'd say yes, download the latest driver. 486s and >>>Pentiums work pretty differently AFAIK. >>> >>>Sir Robin >>> >>> >>> >I only have a modem connection so downloading MDK 7.2 or any other is out of >the question. I know of someone here in South Africa that will snail mail >them to me but our mail service is really "SNAIL MAIL" so this would take >time. >Does anyone know of a way to get this card to work with MDK7.0 just for the >time being?? >I managed to get my 800X600 res in WIN98 to fill up the whole screen by >using a 56Mhz refresh rate. >Any suggestions for a cheapish mainstream card that would work in MDK 7.0 >(remembering that the Rand/Dollar exchange rate in South Africa makes most >computer equipment hellishly expensive). > Try manually changing the monitor settings in your XF86Config file - make sure you have the vertical and horizontal rates the same as those specified in your monitor's manual.
As for cheap cards, GeForce 2s have dropped in price considerably. If you can afford one with 64MB onboard memory, it's almost as good as a GeForce 4, but even if you only get 32MB, it should still give you a massive performance boost over the S3. If you can't afford even that, I have an old Trident 3Dimage card I can post you. It's problematic, in that in earlier versions of Mandrake (or rather XFree86) you have to hack the XF86Config file to disable acceleration, but it works OK so long as you don't want to play resource-heavy 3D games. Would you believe our school is still trying to foist S3 cards on us. After a visit from one of our techies, I actually found a new one in a box on my desk. I'll use it as a paperweight. Sir Robin > > -- "Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It's lovely to be silly at the right moment" - Horace Robin Turner IDMYO Bilkent �niversitesi Ankara 06533 http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~robin
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