We re-formatted the hard drive and re-installed Windows. Now graphics/video performance has slowed way down.

The System:
Dell Dim.4300 / P4 1.6 GHz /100MHz fsb / 512MB PC133 SDRAM / WindowsME / Gainward GF4 Ti4200 128MB (Golden Sample)
Some test results: 3D Mark 2001SE - before format/re-inst. : 6620. After: 4250. A serious drop in performance !
Other result: PCPitstop.com - Before: Video test-172mb/sec. After: Video test-120mb/sec. Again a big drop.

Side issue: after format/re-inst. PCPitstop.com showed slow hard drive performance in Uncached Test. On their advice, looked up hard drive/controller DMA setting and found it was disabled. Placed check mark in DMA box, re-booted and re-tested. Hard drive then tested very good, no problems.

Question: What should we do ? Is there a check-box for DMA specially for the graphics card ? What about "side-band addressing" ? Someone said that should be OFF with a good graphics card, but I don't know how or where to look, etc.

Regards

I believe that you will need to install either some intel patch or intel driver for AGP, DMA and so on. As AMD system, the 4in1 need to be installed in order to make the AGP, PCI bus and UltrDMA work properly. Check your matherbord menalfature or call Dell support to get the drivers.

When I first built 1.4Thunderbird, I didn’t install 4in1 driver service for VIA chip that comes with the CD of My soyo dragon. And I was surprise when I checked the display property and my quadro 2 pro was use PCI mod under Bus type instead of AGP. Also the score on SpecfView was only 40 on Award04. I could not figure it out first until a couple moths later, somehow finally I install 4in1 service driver after kept formatting my hard drive over and over.
Then magic happened, under the display property, Bust type was AGP instead of PCI mode. Now the score on Specfview is 79 for Award 04.

Also check under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers / Primary and Secondary IDEs / Advanced setting / transfer mod / all devices are using ultra DMA transfer mod if available. If your hard drive is using PIO, the access time will be very very slow.

I am a big fan of AMD, because it cheaper than Intel.
Now I am using XP1800+ with Soyo dragon plus (install 4in1) and Dual MP1800+ with Tyan Tiger MPX ( for Tiger MPX, I need to install “ AMD-768 PCI Bus Master IDE Controller and AMP AGP Driver and Patch after install OS system in order to work properly.

Hope this is help.

"when I checked the display property and my quadro 2 pro was use PCI mod under Bus type instead of AGP."

In my Display Properties (in WindowsME)there is no mention anywhere that I can see of BUS type - no mention of PCI or AGP. Where exactly should I be looking for this ?

"Also check under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers / Primary and Secondary IDEs / Advanced setting / transfer mod / all devices are using ultra DMA transfer mod if available."

Where exactly do I check for this ? I tried looking under System Properties/Device Manager tab/Hard Disk Controllers...but I can not see the info you refer to.

Regards

<A HREF="http://www.intel.com/design/software/drivers/platform/inf.htm" target="_new">Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility</A>. You need this to get AGP working properly.

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

WOW ! It worked ! Downloaded the Intel Chipset Software Do-Dah Thingy. Before running/installing it, I uninstalled GF4 Ti4200, as per Intel's suggestion (to install their utility before other drivers). Think I was mumbling to myself "this'll never work...can't correct a huge performance deficit with some little software utility...ok, that's done...now install 29.42 drivers...ok...run 3D Mark again...AARGH ! Shiver me timbers ! Best score ever !

Thanks v. much for the tip ! How did you know that ? What exactly does this Intel utility DO ? How come the Dell tech support guy didn't mention it ?

You are the best PHSSTPOK, thanks again.

All modern motherboards need chipset drivers to make many onboard functions work properly. Intel just made it easy with a universal utility, one that will load the proper drivers for many Intel chipsets. You have a Dell P4 system, all of which use Intel motherboards exclusively. If you had something other than a motherboard with an Intel chipset then you would need different drivers.

That's sad. When 3D performance is 25%-50% low the first thing I suspect is that AGP is not working properly. Your own diagnostic confirmed this. This means reload chipset drivers. The "technician" was probably just working from a scripted response.

What are you getting for 3DMark scores now?

Glad I could be of help.

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

3D Mark scores have never been much good because of bottlenecks in my system, namely a 100MHz front-side-bus, PC133 SDRAM, and a 1.6GHz cpu...and no overclocking of any of those is possible on the Dell/Intel motherboard. Previous best score on 3D Mark was 6530...now (without any fine-tuning as yet) I'm getting 6815. That's using the same 29.42 nVidia drivers as before. Increase of about 300 points is encouraging considering limitations of the system and using same driver set........

Well, that's a whole lot better than the 4420, or whatever it was, that you were getting.

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

3D Mark, Quake3 demo, and Comanche4 demo are all showing around 5% to 8% improvements above their previous best. Acid test is actually in the gameplay where I can now either run 4x and 4xs AA or simply run at 1600x1200....think I prefer 10x7 with AA. Anyhow, extra horsepower seems to be in evidence, especially in RallyMasters where I used to get slowdowns after playing a little while. Now I'm running 6 or 7 races with AA on and no slowdowns ! Haven't tried any overclocking at all in the games - no need !

I still wonder about those slowdowns after long periods of play. I just attributed it to Windows' memory leaks. From what you are saying it must be more complicated than that.

Glad I could be of help.

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

Mmm, had the same slowdowns after playing a little while on our previous computer which was, of course, way slower to begin with (500MHz AMD plus 4 GB hard drive). Anyhow, I can't fathom the cause. Other 3d games always ran smoothly. These rally-racing games twist & turn a lot and the scenery is ever-changing with lots of detail plus the complicated physics modelling for the car's handling, not simple repetitive stuff like you see in oval-track NASCAR-type racing games. My favorite is Colin McRae Rally 2. Out-standing ! But again, it's graphically intense so you have to make sure you've turned off all other progs, etc. before you start the game or it just won't run smoothly, even with my Geforce4 Ti4200.

By the way, I never asked you WHY it is that I needed that little utility from Intel. I mean, the motherboard is officially a Dell Dimension 4300 board, but it's a good bet that it's really an Intel board. So how come when I "flashed" the BIOS with the latest A05 revision, it didn't take care of all this ? It's a bit like the garage changed your oil but didn't include a new oil filter....an incomplete job ! So, can you explain all this ?

Regards

Hmmm, Colin McRae Rally 2, I'll have to download the demo and see if I like it. I usually don't like racing games. They are either too much an arcade game or too much a simulation (and not very playable). The only exceptions being, and these are old games, I liked Swedish Touring Car Championships 2, nice car physics and pedal response could be made just right. I also liked the Canadian game Warm!up (don't remember why). Unfortunately, neither of the games are available in the USA (or at least I haven't found them) That limits me to the demos. Also the graphics are primitive by today's standards. I want something that would look good AND play well on my Radeon 8500 so I will check out CMR2.

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

I can't give you a definite answer but I will take a guess. When you update the BIOS, Windows identifies this change as new hardware. Windows then loads the drivers which it thinks are appropriate. Windows doesn't always get it right. So you took things into your own hands and loaded the drivers that a specific to your hardware.

This happens all the time with my Via chipset (KT133A). I've learned that rather than fussing around trying to troubleshoot a weird problem similar to yours I just do the following. Whenever I change the BIOS, a video driver, a chipset driver, or DirectX I always do a clean install of the latter three drivers (I only do the BIOS when I need a new BIOS, I've learned my lesson but that's a different story). I do a clean install of the above drivers. That is, I uninstall them then I reinstall them. When I had a geforce card the order was Via, video, directx. Now that I have a Radeon 8500 I do Via, DirectX, then video. Makes things go a lot smoother and I don't have to worry that I messed something up by crossing old versions with new versions and vice versa.

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

Thanks for explaining. As for Colin McRae Rally 2.....the reason I didn't buy a Radeon 8500 is because it's incompatible with that game. Both ATI and the U.S game distributor (Codemasters ?) confirmed this. There IS a workaround......apparently if you enable dual-monitor support on the Radeon and have both monitors on and running then the game runs OK. Now that's totally weird, but true. So good luck with the demo. I'm really curious to know if it runs OK for you. Anyway, I got a Ti4200 and it's bright RED...and so is the fan !! VROOM-VROOM !