Geforce4 Mx440-se Help

[Lamsey]

I have been building a computer recently in school and I have a problem with the nVidia GeForce4 MX440-SE (64MB, AGP 4x).

In Windows, I constantly get screen artifacts/corruption. When using DirectX applications, the computer hangs.


I know that the computer itself isn't the problem because it works fine with an old ATi Rage LT Pro (8MB, AGP 2x).


System specs:
AMD Duron 1.1GHz
ECS K7S5A motherboard with SiS 735 chipset
128MB DDR266 RAM
Creative SB 128PCI
Windows XP Professional sp1
DirectX 8.1 / 9.0
Latest nVidia detonator driver
Latest MBoard drivers


When Googling I have noticed that some people think it's a problem with icompatibilities between that card, AMD CPUs and DX8.1+... can anyone shed some light on this?

[balamm]

Duties are not performed for duty's sake, but because their neglect would make the man uncomfortable. A man performs but one duty - the duty of contenting his spirit, the duty of making himself agreeable to himself.
Mark Twain

[Lamsey]

I gave the reciept to my teacher (it was bought with school money), whereupon he promptly lost it.

Can I return it straight to nVidia? I'm in the UK.

[Schmiggy_JK23]

cant but try. contact them via their website, on warranty issues. Maybe there is a serial number marking on it, and u can still get service, doesnt hurt to try.

[Somebody1234]

Have you checked if there is an option in the BIOS for AGP driving force?

Who is the maker (brand) of that Geforce card?

I have seen this before (I think it was an Abit board and an Asus Geforce card). I needed to adjust it. In my case I had read the info on a chipset support web site. (don't remember where?)

I don't know if this will help you. Hope so. Good luck.

p.s. That system would work better with more RAM with XP.

[Lamsey]

Have you checked if there is an option in the BIOS for AGP driving force?
Yes I have checked, no there isn't :(
The BIOS on the K7S5A is pretty duff.


Who is the maker (brand) of that Geforce card?
Mentor


p.s. That system would work better with more RAM with XP.
I know... but there wasn't room in the budget :(

[Schmiggy_JK23]

definately agreed on that ram...you should have at least 256ddr, or at least 512 no ddr ram for a xp machine... at a minumum...

buy urself a 512ddr stick, its pretty cheap as of late...

[Lamsey]

It's not my machine - it's a school machine.

I'd better explain:
My head of year thought it would be a neat idea if I ran a PC-building tutorial for some fellow pupils. He allocated me a small budget for buying componenets and I bought the bits for a demo computer. I got an old crap video card so I could show poor gaming performance with that, then show the difference made by a better video card. The only problem is that the :swear: GeForce4 MX440 doesn't work right!

so that's why I'm not buying more RAM - I can't get any more school cash and I'm definitely not buying it myself.

[Lamsey]

hmm... looks like nVidia won't be any help - they don't support the products since they don't make them as such.

I'll have to get onto Mentor, the manufacturer. Only problem is I can't find their website!? Anyone have any ideas?

[Spindulik]

Just to make sure that your GeForce4 MX440-SE is working, or not, try installing it on another computer, one that is faster and better. That way, you can narrow the problem down to the card being good or bad.

Try it on Win98 and XP too. See if there is a difference. Also, I'm sure that you got the latest drivers and DirectX. I have the same GeForce4 MX440-SE card and found out that the newest driver for it (all-in-one driver) was just released a few weeks ago. It works GREAT!!!!!!!!!!! I use XP.

[Lamsey]

I know that the problem isn't the computer, because it works fine with the ATi 3d Rage Pro 8MB that I got along with the GeForce...

[Spindulik]

Originally posted by Lamsey@13 May 2003 - 14:40
I know that the problem isn't the computer, because it works fine with the ATi 3d Rage Pro 8MB that I got along with the GeForce...
No, you don't know that. You assume that!
Until you try different motherboards, you'll never really know. If you are using an older motherboard, you may find that the motherboard is not 100% compatible with the GeFORCE cards.

----------------------------------------------
A lot of people in this forum say that the GeForce MMX 440 card is "OKAY", but not for serious gamimg. But I have to say, I disagree. I can't afford (I have better ways to waste money) a high tech video card. So I got my VHSC camcorder and video taped actual video game playing on my 17" monitor. The clip is Unreal Tournament set at 16bit high resolution, High texture, 28 frames per second, decals on, with high stereo sound etc.. I nearly put the entire game to the best maximum settings to prove a point. Oh, and I was playing online with several real players (DSL).

I apologize for the amatuer video setup, but I didn't know any other way to capture real video gaming, other than a VHS tape of it. But you can clearly see that the game play is smooth and fun.

Must have XVID codec installed to view!
Download Video CLIP (http://mysite.verizon.net/vze3nvj6/ut.avi) 1.4mb
Must have XVID codec installed to view!

[Lamsey]

hmm.. looks like I jumped the gun...

will try this.

Cheers :)

[fallenknight308]

I have a G-force verto mx420 64meg sdram made by PNY
Is this card any good? I picked it up for $100 last year, and was unable to use it because my crappy
intel 810 chipset mobo is intergrated graphix, and cannot be changed in bios :angry: (Board has no option to disable intergrated graphix)
Anyway, I'm going to build up a pc, and wanted to know if this card is still an "OK" card? (Never got to use it, would hate to just toss it)
(Its worth about $25 now :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: )

[deathman102]

i have a geforece 4 mx440 with 64mb ram and i have put all of the options in ALL of my games to the max and guess what flicker and jerk free. the card only cost 45 quid. i think all this hype of new cards is overated myself as i DONT have 160 odd quid for a new card.

[Mobas]

I've heard of people having driver conflicts when switching between ATi and GeForce graphics cards. Use Nasty File Remover to remove any ATi drivers, then re-install the Nvidia drivers for the GeForce 4 MX440. That Might work. I can't remember where I got the "Nasty File Remover" program, but a simple search with Google and you should find it.

[balamm]

Duties are not performed for duty's sake, but because their neglect would make the man uncomfortable. A man performs but one duty - the duty of contenting his spirit, the duty of making himself agreeable to himself.
Mark Twain

[sred2003]

geforce mx420 and 440 cards are just fine. they will work very well with
games for the price. of course a 300 card will be better but those geforce are
good bang for the buck. did anyone ask this kid if he installed the drivers
correctly for his geforce. i hope you didnt just unplug your ATI and then plug in
the geforce. and NEVER just install video drivers over the old ones.
remove the old drivers, reboot then install hte new drivers. then install direct x.

[phalkon30]

The symptoms you're having sound like an overclocked victom, but I don't think thats the case here

First off, I have a similar computer to my friends, he's got a geforce4mx440, I've got a geforce 2 Pro, mine blows his out of the water in UT2K3 (in full 32 bit color, even my tnt2 could do 16bit....thats nothing)

To do screen captures and movies, try fraps ( http://www.fraps.com )

Now, as others have said, go into safe mode, and remove all drivers, then reboot, and install the latest WHQL Nvidia drivers, don't do an unofficial, they work most of the time, but can sometimes cause errors

After the latest drivers are installed from www.nvidia.com , install directx again, for some reason this has fixed some of my problems in the past

Now, if its still not working good, you should look into the BIOS, set your AGP apperature at 32meg (because of RAM restraints). Make sure you are running at 4x AGP, and also there should be an option for USWC, or UC (I could have the UC thing wrong, but there are two options, one is USWC), try switching those around

I've got some more ideas if that doesn't work

How much did you have to work with, and what game are you testing? we need to limit some potential variables here

[fallenknight308]

Originally posted by balamm@15 May 2003 - 09:47



Intel® 810 Chipset Family
Can The Intel® 810/810E Chipset Graphics Be Disabled?



Some Intel® 810 chipset-based motherboards have a way to disable the onboard graphics in the system BIOS, however many do not. Most motherboards do have a BIOS setting to change the primary graphics adapter to the PCI video card, which should allow PCI video cards to work properly. This will not disable the integrated graphics adapter, instead, it will set it to work as the secondary adapter for multi-monitor support. If you do not wish to use multi monitor, the Intel 810 chipset graphics driver can be disabled (in software) in Device Manager. You should be able to disable the integrated graphics in Device Manager by doing the following:

Right-click on the icon for the Intel® 810 chipset graphics adapter, then click properties.
Uncheck the item that says "Exists in all hardware profiles"
Reboot.
Go back into Device Manager, then back into the properties for the Intel 810 chipset display adapter.
Click the checkbox for the item that says "Disabled in this hardware profile."
If that doesn't work, try changing the Intel® 810 chipset graphics driver to the Standard VGA driver. If the primary display adapter is set to PCI in the system BIOS, the integrated graphics should automatically show up as disabled in Device Manager after rebooting.




Try this...

Bye,



I did not clarify enough, here is an answer I got about my particular board on a tech site:
______________________________________________________________________________________
ME:
I want to disable my onboard video so I can install a pci video card, but there's no option
for this in my bios settings, in the "peripheral config"
screen I only have two options:
onboard audio
onboard modem
Now I've read you can disable directly on the MB using a
"jumper"? But I don't know were mine is or how to do this!
(If in fact I can do this%#$@*&*)
OK, here goes:
MOTHERBOARD: brookings
BIOS VERSION: american megatrends oaavipo1
INTERGRATED VIDEO: intel-82810e
NUMBER OF PCI SLOTS: only 2 (no agp either)
COMPUTER BRAND: gateway essential 633 (piece of garbage)
CPU: 633 celeron
RAM: 128
WINDOWS: millenium edition
VIDEO CARD I WANT TO USE: Pny verto. NvidiaGeforce4, mx420, 64mg sdram. (yes its pci)



11:34 pm pacific time:
Ok, still no results. I tried deleting the device driver,
but it wants to re-install it when I re-boot. To make matters worse, when I try to install the Nvidia drivers
It says something like: could not find pci chipset (I assume it means it could not find its hardware) But I have
it plugged into the pci at this point. And it needs the drivers to function, right? Windows can't find it either. In other words I've been all over the place (add hardware ect....) I know I'm missing something but
thats why I'm here. And if in fact I need to disable the onboard vid directly on the MB, I don't know where this is done. (And I'm trying to refrain from calling the gateway tech line as they have been poor help in the past)
______________________________________________________________________________________
ANSWER:
Knight, the Gateway Essential 633 is really a piece of garbage in terms of installing a video card.

Your computer's onboard graphics controller, which is the Intel 82810E, is an AGP Version 2.0 (4X) compliant integrated graphics controller using an AGP interface on the motherboard. Since it is already an AGP-performing graphics controller, MSI probably deemed that the motherboard no longer need an option for a PCI graphics card, not to mention the only 2 PCI slots. In light of that, your MS-6312 Flex ATX WH11 motherboard, otherwise known as the MSI(Brookings), DOES NOT have a jumper block or BIOS option to disable the integrated 82810E graphics controller. The only jumper block on that motherboard is for the BIOS(CMOS).

So sorry to inform you about this, friend.

If you want to use that PNY Verto card, replace that Gateway motherboard with a Flex ATX-compliant motherboard that will accommodate your Celeron amd memory modules.

[phalkon30]

I stumbled upon something in tweakxp.com, check out http://tweakxp.com/tweakxp/display.asp?id=822 and http://tweakxp.com/tweakxp/display.asp?id=1137

[Lamsey]

Intel® 810 Chipset Family
No use - if you read my original post you'll see I have an ECS K7S5A with an SiS735 chipset. Thanks anyway.


did anyone ask this kid if he installed the drivers
correctly for his geforce. i hope you didnt just unplug your ATI and then plug in
the geforce. and NEVER just install video drivers over the old ones.
remove the old drivers, reboot then install hte new drivers. then install direct x.
Yep - I did all that. I ain't daft :P

I won't be able to get to the computer for a while seeing as I'm not in school just now, but I'll try putting it into a few other computers to see if it works... I've done everything else suggested here... :(

[Xx FlipSkillz xX]

hello, maybe you did not fully uninstall the radeon card you used before on the comp? that cuases some problems and may make artifacts....... :huh:

[Xanex]

I also have a MX440-SE but it has 128DDR.

I found no problems with my card it been quite flexible with anything ive done.

If u want better performance, nvidia have just relased the Detonator FX drivers 44.03 io think.

Try it with these , it made my games run a bit better than the last set 43.35 i think

[DivX]

Okay, folks. I've done extensive testing, and I think I've nailed this thing.

Root Cause: Load at 3.3V versus how many amps your PSU provides at 3.3V.

Detail:
Basically, there is a threshold for stability of your motherboard. If you have too much current drain at 3.3V, your system becomes unstable, and crashes with either a lockup or BSOD.

Fix:
1. Increase the amount of current delivered at 3.3V by increasing the size of your PSU.
2. Decrease the amount of load consumed at 3.3V.

How did I determine this?
1. I increased my PSU to 431W. That at least allowed me to run in 4XAGP, but not without looping.
2. Removed one 256MB Memory Module, which reduced my load at 3.3V. Everything worked!

At 512MB, I can run 3Dmark2001 successfully in BOTH Windows 2000 and XP without a lockup or crash.

What this means:
How power is apportioned to the individual components is an electronics engineering issue, and motherboard manufacturers should take heed to this. This is a motherboard manufacturer's issue. What needs to happen is a better apportionment of current, splitting between the AGP bus, memory modules, and all components that use the 3.3V supply.


What this is not:
1. This is not a Microsoft Windows issue.
2. This is not an nVidia or ATI driver issue.
3. This is not a chipset manufacturer issue (VIA, Intel, ALi, SiS), unless of course they manufacturer motherboards.

I hope that helps!