Problem with Widescreen Monitors on Geforce 2 MX440

Torqay

When I'm using widescreen monitors on a computer with a Geforce 2 MX440 (AGP) 64 MB RAM. I'm getting what looks like horizontal lines lines of dead pixels. Of course, there are no dead pixels as the 3 monitors I have tried (all Dell, a 17" 1440x900, a 19" 1440x900 and a 19" 1366x768) work just fine elsewhere. I'm only experience this with darker content, anything bright is fine.

Also, this does not happen with "letterbox" monitors, I have tried a 19" 1280x1024 and a 15" 1024x768. No issues there.

OS is XP with the "latest" Nvidia legacy driver installed, I have tried a little overclocking with RivaTuner, no change.

Any ideas?

Overheal

Well, you are talking about a GPU that has got to be at least ten years old. If not older. Its very possible the card is giving out. Presumably as well you're using VGA output and horizontal "flickering" is actually kinda normal for VGA attached to an LCD monitor. especially on older cards. That flickering should be faint/barely noticeable though.

Torqay

Overheal wrote: »

Well, you are talking about a GPU that has got to be at least ten years old. If not older.

And so is the machine, Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo P, P4 1.7 GHz (yep, Willamette), 512 MB 133 MHz SDRAM, It's from 2000 or 2001 I believe, the Gefrorce 2 is a later addition and replaced a Riva TNT2 w 32 MB RAM (which I may have kept somewhere so I may try this one). Plenty "bottlenecks" piled up in this case.

But hey, it still does what I want it to do, which is mostly reading ebooks, playing music/audio books and watching the odd movie (720p works just fine with VLC). The reason why I still keep it: no CPU or GPU fan, which makes it remarkably quiet computer (it's in the bedroom, so noise is a no-no).

Overheal wrote: »

Its very possible the card is giving out. Presumably as well you're using VGA output and horizontal "flickering" is actually kinda normal for VGA attached to an LCD monitor. especially on older cards. That flickering should be faint/barely noticeable though.

VGA indeed. I don't think the card is dying as it works perfectly well on 4:3 LCD monitors with various resolutions, the problem only occurs on 16:10 and 16:9 widescreens (the card is capable of anything up to 2048 x 1536). And there is no flickering, it really looks as if the display is riddled with dead pixels, but only on dark background, the darker the more "dead pixels". It's really weird. I might actually take a photo and post it.

Overheal

You can always create a low powered, passively cooled system. Truthfully though my PC runs at a whisper in spite of a huge 200mm fan on top, 2 dual-slot GPUs (big fans on those), a rear 120mm case fan 2 front 120mm case fans and a 120mm PSU fan. And a CPU fan. The **** is whisper quiet because of good airflow design - and having that many fans means they can work together at much lower RPMs than a machine with fewer fans. If theres a cricket out in the pond in my backyard, a good 200ft away behind double glazed glass, it makes more noise than my PC does (actually mistook it for fan bearing noise a second ago..).

At this point, your usage described could be handled by a tablet with an HDMI output. iPad has such an adapter and many android devices sport a micro or mini HDMI output; and read books; etc. and without fans meet the dead silent criteria. Hell theres a fan in my Windows 7/8 tablet (yet, theres also an i5 in that too, so that makes a lot of sense) and that does make a decent little whine.

Torqay

Overheal wrote: »

You can always create a low powered, passively cooled system.

At this point, your usage described could be handled by a tablet with an HDMI output. iPad has such an adapter

Since it does everything I need it for, why should I buy/build a "low powered, passively cooled system" or, God forbid, an iPad? A glitch or minor annoyance doesn't really justify the costs for a new computer or tablet for me, as long as something can be put to good use, why dump it?

There isn't much on that computer, Chromium, VLC, Foobar 2000, Sumatra PDF and CoolReader 3, certainly nothing that goes beyond the system specification. Pretty fast and snappy too, as it sports a "DIY" SSD (an 8 GB CF card is plenty space for nLited XP and a bit of software). Even today, not everything requires multiple cores and gigabytes of memory, ask the Raspberry PI crowd here at BIE.

If the graphics card is toast (which I doubt) I might find another AGP card somewhere, it's just they are somewhat scarce these days.

HDMI isn't really required at this point, the Dell pivot monitor I'm using only has a VGA and a DV-I ports (the old 5200FX AGP cards have DV-I out and IIRC they are fanless) and Video playback isn't really the top priority.

And it's not that I'm lacking choices, I have about a dozen PCs, laptops and netbooks here, spares more or less and of much better specs than this box, but none of these is nearly as quiet, especially the netbook fans tend to go into a frenzy when it comes to HD video.

P.S.: Speaking of old stuff, someone dropped in a Dell Inspiron 4000 today. A 2001 Laptop with a PIII, 256 MB RAM, 10 GB HDD and Windows 2000 Professional... in mint condition! He wants me to clear it out and set it up for granny so she can play Solitaire because he has "seized" her brand new laptop while he is town. Sweet Jesus, what am I? Flypaper for fr3@ks?

Overheal

I'd go ahead and test another AGP card just to be on the safe side. You've ruled the monitors out. These pixels are they any particular color or are they just kind of a whiteout? The only other thing I could suggest is try a different VGA cable, possibly something of higher quality, or, of shorter length.

the_syco

Torqay wrote: »

If the graphics card is toast (which I doubt) I might find another AGP card somewhere, it's just they are somewhat scarce these days.

You live anywhere near Dublin? Should have one or two in the cupboard/shed; no other use for them.

Torqay

Fraid not, Syco, but thanks for the offer.

Colour is mostly green and some red, here's two photos I have taken (not the best but it's clearly visible)





As I said before, these lines are rather random, depending on the background colour and they only appear on widescreen displays.

Torqay

OK, just booted a DreamLinux 3.5 Live CD and no issues. So there has to be problem with the windows drivers.

Overheal

Good find. Roll back to an earlier legacy driver, in fact there should be no reason to perform updates on such an old card anyway. believe me nobody over at nvidia is remotely worried about breaking compatibility with a geforce 2 on a driver update anymore.

Torqay

Overheal wrote: »

Good find. Roll back to an earlier legacy driver, in fact there should be no reason to perform updates on such an old card anyway. believe me nobody over at nvidia is remotely worried about breaking compatibility with a geforce 2 on a driver update anymore.

Now finding older Forceware which supports widescreen resolutions is going to be fun. 45.23 fail...

the_syco

Torqay wrote: »

Now finding older Forceware which supports widescreen resolutions is going to be fun. 45.23 fail...

[html]ftp://download.nvidia.com/Windows/[/html]
Drivers go back to 12.41 - with an NT4 driver in the folder

=-=

Info on the ag240d, 215r3bja33, QCE2HC, CT7260 in the PM.

Torqay

Yea, I have tried a few already, v77.72 doesn't support WS, 84.12 does, but the problem persists... latest Forceware supporting the card is v93.71

TerrorFirmer

Hi Torquay,

I've a few older AGP cards around, think Fx5200's and possibly either a Geforce3Ti or Geforce4Ti, if you're stuck can send one to you, as they get no use here anymore! One has dual DVI and the other has VGA/DVI, both passive (so I'm guessing they are definitely both Fx5200, will have to have a look for the the Ti cards).

Torqay

Thanks, TF.

That fanless ATI Radeon 7000 did the job. All is well now.