Video Card Quandary

[FZWG]

Appreciate some assistance.

PC had an S3 Vision 864 video card (lets call it video card #1)with the following chips on it:
S3 Vision 864
GACD2
86C864-P
9425 F40396

and,

S3 SDAC
GACD2
86C716-MG
9430 F60877

After the boot process, when the PC started to display the W98SE Desktop, everything went garbled in triplicate. Do not know if video card #1 can be fixed, so installed a different video card (lets call it video card #2).

Video card #2 is an Orchid Technology Fahrenheit 64 - PCI, which also has an S3 SDAC chip:
HACJ2
86C716-MG
9442 B25667.1

The problem is that that Device Manager keeps displaying Video Card #1. Tried removing it in Safe Mode, in regular mode, etc., but the S3 Vision 864 PCI keeps showing up. The Orchid Technology: Fahrenheit 64-PCI does not show up. Physically removed the Orchid card, and it is still not recognized.

Any ideas on this one?

[WJWheels]

to change video drivers. you have to go to display (either in control panel or rtclick the desktop), click the settings tab, hit the advanced button, the Adapter tab, then Change...

I always change it to standard pci (vga).. reboot and then repeat the process to "change" to the drivers I want.

hth

[glc]

Guess what? The Fahrenheit 64 also uses the Vision 864 chipset!

The reason you got a garbled desktop is because you tried to use a video resolution and/or refresh rate that is not supported by the monitor. Lots of old monitors do not support 800x600. You need to use an exact monitor .inf file, not the standard Windows "Default Monitor". You can recover from this by booting into safe mode and resetting the display properties to 640x480 16 bit color, which will boot up in normal mode at 60 Hz refresh just fine no matter what monitor you have selected.

I'm an old fart - I remember these cards - I had a Diamond Stealth 64 DRAM VL bus card in my 486 - which used the - you guessed it - the 864 chipset. My 14" CTX did the same thing at 800x600 but ran fine at 1024x768 - but thats way too small on a 14" monitor.

[FZWG]

WJWheels, glc,
Thank you for your help.

It seems that video card #1 (S3 Vision 864) is alive, after all.

As suggested, booted in safe mode, went to Control Panel>Display>Settings>Advanced, and set refresh rate to Adapter Default. Rebooted, and got the desktop screen without any garbled info.

Might also look for some updated drivers, if they are anywhere to be found.

Have a good week, folks.

[glc]

The latest drivers at the S3Graphics site are:

w950109b.zip
124k
1996*Feb*9
Windows 95 Driver for 868 968 964 864 801 805 928 v. 2.01.09b Production

If you have Windows 95B or newer, the drivers that come with the OS are newer than that, stick with them.

[FZWG]

glc,

Thank you for your reply.

Have W98SE, so guess the drivers at the S3 site are not needed.

Display settings are set for 16 bit color, 640x480. However, if something like the Underwater screen saver of W98SE is used, the colors are just not right. Is there any way this card (S3 Vision 864) will allow for any other setting besides the above (16 bit color/ 640x480)?

[glc]

Sure, but it depends on your monitor. You should be able to get 24 or 32 bit color at 640x480, but 800x600 will be limited to 16 bit unless the card has 2 megs ram - then it will go true color 800x600 and 16 bit 1024x768 - your monitor permitting, of course.