MSI G4mx420 help required

onism · Aug 6, 2002, 11:09 AM

Ok so I went and finally upgraded to a 64mb video card (I had an 8mb). I didnt need the top of the line one so I got this card pretty cheap. Anyhow - heres the problem (and I dont know if it can be fixed...) :

Its an AGP 4X card - my motherboard only supports 2X.
I can only get the card to run at basic acceleration - and it wont work with any games etc.

Any help would be appreciated cos I really dont know what I'm doin. (no, really hehe).
Is there any way I can make this card run at 2X or whatever or have I just flushed that cash down the drain?

Mark_Fox · Aug 6, 2002, 11:15 AM

what's your motherboard and what drivers for it are you using? I also assume you're running windows 9x - right?

onism · Aug 6, 2002, 11:25 AM

Yeah sorry about not posting that info.

I'm using win98se , on a pentium III 450 with mmx, 256mb ram. The chipset is Intel 440BX/ZX rev 3, bios is phoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0.8. I have Directx8.1 installed.

The driver I'm using is an nvidia driver dated 9 July 2002 (this is the latest MSI driver from their website). I had the same problem using the driver which was from april 2002 which came with the card, and have also tried the latest detonator driver from the nvidia site.

here is a link to the base specs for my machine:

http://www.hp.com/cposupport/persona.../bph05022.html

At the moment I can use my pc only by having the Hardware acceleration set to Basic, if I set it to full the pc locks up every time right after windows loads and the icons appear on the desktop.

If this card wont work with my motherboard - what 2X video card would be recommended?

Chaos · Aug 6, 2002, 12:36 PM

Have you gone through your bios setting and made sure it is setup correctly

A couple things that come to mind is to make sure :

1 Primary Display Adapter / AGP
2 Assign IRQ to VGA / Yes
3 AGP Rate check to see if you can set it to 2X

onism · Aug 6, 2002, 07:57 PM

There arent any options in the bios, other than to set it up so that the pc boots from the agp card, not the pci.

I'm going to try moving the card in the pci slot next to the agp slot as Ive been advised that it may be sharing the same irq and this may be causing problems, but other than that, if I have the card on full acceleration it just locks when the desktop comes up after booting.

I spoke to a guy in a pc store near here who said it should work at 2X, but no luck so far.

Any other suggestions people?

Thanks for the replies so far.

~~Sourcer_2002~~ · Aug 6, 2002, 08:04 PM

Quote:

I'm going to try moving the card in the pci slot next to the agp slot as Ive been advised that it may be sharing the same irq and this may be causing problems, but other than that, if I have the card on full acceleration it just locks when the desktop comes up after booting.

May i ask how exctally you plan to "mvoe" it? you said its agp right? you cant put an agp card in a PCI slot! And as far as i know theres no mobos that have dual agp. To check irg just go into device mangar and look for an irg conflict.

onism · Aug 6, 2002, 09:37 PM

Umm yeah I think you misunderstood - I was saying that I was going to move the card next to the video card, as the pci slot next to the agp slot can sometimes share the same IRQ.
I wasnt going to move the new video card that I have in the AGP slot because, as you quite rightly pointed out, there is only one AGP slot. Well, thats what I meant anyway, I can see how it reads the other way too.

Anyway I did it and the same prob comes up - cant run the card at anything other than basic acceleration. Bios is fine, its installed correctly and has the latest driver installed.

Mark_Fox · Aug 7, 2002, 12:29 AM

grab AGP info 1.0.1 from Reactor Critical and see if you can use that to change the agp setting to 2x then let me know if it worked

- http://www.reactorcritical.com/download.shtml

onism · Aug 8, 2002, 04:01 AM

I tried that program and set the card 2X, and tried setting it to 1X as well with no luck - it still freezes at full acceleration.

Then I found another prog called Powerstrip and set the AGP to 1X, and put it to full acceleration - rebooted and it worked (woohoo!), but froze during the intro to GTAIII.
Rebooted again and had the original problem all over.

Now its running at 1X which is good - but there is an IRQ conflict (the network card is sharing the same IRQ now for some reason).

Is there any way that anyone knows of that I can set it so that the video card is on an IRQ all by itself and make it stay that way??

Chaos · Aug 8, 2002, 11:18 AM

If you are running Win98SE you should be able to change the IRQ's in question through Device Manager>>nic>>properties>>resources>> i believe

onism · Aug 8, 2002, 12:03 PM

Yeah I can see the irq settings on the resources tabs, and I uncheck the 'auto' box and go to change the irq and get a message saying that this setting cannot be changed.

The gods are plotting against me!

Aug 6, 2002, 11:09 AM	#1
onism DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	MSI G4mx420 help required Ok so I went and finally upgraded to a 64mb video card (I had an 8mb). I didnt need the top of the line one so I got this card pretty cheap. Anyhow - heres the problem (and I dont know if it can be fixed...) : Its an AGP 4X card - my motherboard only supports 2X. I can only get the card to run at basic acceleration - and it wont work with any games etc. Any help would be appreciated cos I really dont know what I'm doin. (no, really hehe). Is there any way I can make this card run at 2X or whatever or have I just flushed that cash down the drain?

Aug 6, 2002, 12:36 PM	#4
Chaos Number Nine Join Date: May 2002 Location: Nova Scotia Posts: 5,268 Rep Power: 167 System Specs	Have you gone through your bios setting and made sure it is setup correctly A couple things that come to mind is to make sure : 1 Primary Display Adapter / AGP 2 Assign IRQ to VGA / Yes 3 AGP Rate check to see if you can set it to 2X __________________

Aug 8, 2002, 11:18 AM	#10
Chaos Number Nine Join Date: May 2002 Location: Nova Scotia Posts: 5,268 Rep Power: 167 System Specs	If you are running Win98SE you should be able to change the IRQ's in question through Device Manager>>nic>>properties>>resources>> i believe __________________

Aug 6, 2002, 11:15 AM	#2
Mark_Fox RIP Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 308 Rep Power: 0	what's your motherboard and what drivers for it are you using? I also assume you're running windows 9x - right?

Aug 6, 2002, 11:25 AM	Thread Starter #3
onism DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	Yeah sorry about not posting that info. I'm using win98se , on a pentium III 450 with mmx, 256mb ram. The chipset is Intel 440BX/ZX rev 3, bios is phoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0.8. I have Directx8.1 installed. The driver I'm using is an nvidia driver dated 9 July 2002 (this is the latest MSI driver from their website). I had the same problem using the driver which was from april 2002 which came with the card, and have also tried the latest detonator driver from the nvidia site. here is a link to the base specs for my machine: http://www.hp.com/cposupport/persona.../bph05022.html At the moment I can use my pc only by having the Hardware acceleration set to Basic, if I set it to full the pc locks up every time right after windows loads and the icons appear on the desktop. If this card wont work with my motherboard - what 2X video card would be recommended?

Aug 6, 2002, 07:57 PM	Thread Starter #5
onism DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	There arent any options in the bios, other than to set it up so that the pc boots from the agp card, not the pci. I'm going to try moving the card in the pci slot next to the agp slot as Ive been advised that it may be sharing the same irq and this may be causing problems, but other than that, if I have the card on full acceleration it just locks when the desktop comes up after booting. I spoke to a guy in a pc store near here who said it should work at 2X, but no luck so far. Any other suggestions people? Thanks for the replies so far.

Aug 6, 2002, 09:37 PM	Thread Starter #7
onism DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	Umm yeah I think you misunderstood - I was saying that I was going to move the card next to the video card, as the pci slot next to the agp slot can sometimes share the same IRQ. I wasnt going to move the new video card that I have in the AGP slot because, as you quite rightly pointed out, there is only one AGP slot. Well, thats what I meant anyway, I can see how it reads the other way too. Anyway I did it and the same prob comes up - cant run the card at anything other than basic acceleration. Bios is fine, its installed correctly and has the latest driver installed.

Aug 7, 2002, 12:29 AM	#8
Mark_Fox RIP Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 308 Rep Power: 0	grab AGP info 1.0.1 from Reactor Critical and see if you can use that to change the agp setting to 2x then let me know if it worked - http://www.reactorcritical.com/download.shtml

Aug 8, 2002, 04:01 AM	Thread Starter #9
onism DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	I tried that program and set the card 2X, and tried setting it to 1X as well with no luck - it still freezes at full acceleration. Then I found another prog called Powerstrip and set the AGP to 1X, and put it to full acceleration - rebooted and it worked (woohoo!), but froze during the intro to GTAIII. Rebooted again and had the original problem all over. Now its running at 1X which is good - but there is an IRQ conflict (the network card is sharing the same IRQ now for some reason). Is there any way that anyone knows of that I can set it so that the video card is on an IRQ all by itself and make it stay that way??

Aug 8, 2002, 12:03 PM	Thread Starter #11
onism DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	Yeah I can see the irq settings on the resources tabs, and I uncheck the 'auto' box and go to change the irq and get a message saying that this setting cannot be changed. The gods are plotting against me!