Issues with GEFORCE2-MX400 and BIOS...... 1

[Saucy]

Hi All,
Have a guestion for you. Just purchased a Geforce2-mx400 (64 meg). Everything seemed to run fine untill i tried to load up a few games. System either crashes or kicks me back to the desktop when attempting to load anything D3D or OPENGL. Will also crash if i try to re-set the resolution (in game -when it loads) to anything other than my desktop res! Have installed the latest drivers to no avail. The only thing that seems to work (and it's a minimum) is turning the AGP APETURE SIZE to 64meg and AGP FAST WRITE OFF. The card is supposed to work at 4X. Any suggestions as to what the problem might be? Running DIRECTX8 and previously had a BANSHEE in the machine and all was fine.
Thanks!

 

[xscape]

The good old Banshee. Well I had a similar problem when going from a Banshee to a Geforce 2MX (32Mb). It was a dumb thing - my MoBo didn't support above 1x AGP. It was a real suprise it didn't support it cos it wasn't that old. Just handy to check anyway.

Another thing, it's handy to uninstall games then reinstall them after you've put the new card in. I had the same problem with one of my games so did this and it's cured it. Very strange but also worth a go.

Lastly, go to Start > Run and type msconfig, hit OK, then in the new window click the Start Up tab. Run down the list and there's probably an entry called "VoodooBanshee" with something like "rundll32.exe 3dfxVBps.dll BansheeLoadSettings" next to it. Uncheck the box next to it and that'll prevent it loading any Banshee settings when you start up. It shouldn't, but if anything does goes pair-shaped then you can always start up in Safe Mode then do the same thing only check the box instead.

Other than that it's just the latest drivers for the card (and the Motherboard too if applicable) that I can think of.

Hope some of that might be useful!

 

[Guest_imported]

oh hey i was just curious...can anyone tell me the difference between the GeForce MX 32 meg and the GeForce MX400 64 meg? does the 400 have a fan on it?

 

[xscape]

Apart from the memory size difference, I think the MX/32 meg has standard DDR RAM set at 286Mhz that you'll easily get to 314Mhz (using the Blaster Control tweak Center if yours is a Creative card). The MX400 has 5ns DDR SDRAM, that is set at 400Mhz (I think!) but you'll eaaily get 472Mhz out of it. (again with the Tweak Center). The MX 32Meg may have a fan or may not, depending on the model. The situation is the same for the 400 as well. Well I thnk that's right anyway. But I welcome any corrections to the above!

 

[Guest_imported]

well...my geforce mx doesnt have a fan on it....and it gettings REALLY HOT! i have to release my finger off the heatsink after half a second! why would they sell this without a fan? is my geforce mx gonna burn up any time soon?

 

[xscape]

It seems they don't think a fan is necessary, although I know, it does get pretty hot. I bought a Blue Orb chipset cooler which is brilliant. I run it at 314Mhz DDR all the time with absolutly no problems with the display. It depends on the make of your GeForce. Mines the Creative Blaster GeForce 2 MX 32meg DDR RAM. My mates got pretty much the same but made by Inno3D which has got a heatsink and fan on it at standard. It depends on the manufacturer. There's loads of tweak things out there for them so you could oveclock it, espacially if you get some cooling.
So go to

http://www.blorb.co.uk

to find out if your make of card is listed. Then if it says that it will fit then definitly get one. I live in the UK, so they're about 8 quid. If your a Brit too then you can get one from

http://www.theoverclockingstore.co.uk

who are a good lot (free postage too). I got mine from there, and (providing it's compatible with your card) fitted really easily. If the holes in the card aren't in the right place the thermal adhesive is good enough, but you have to make sure it clears all capacitors etc. For more info on the Blue Orb you can look here:

http://www.theoverclockingstore.co.uk/browseproducts.php?categoryid=24

. If you live elswhere then you may be able to get one, but I'm not sure.

If you need anymore help then give me a shout.

Hope that clears a few things up!

 

[Guest_imported]

hmmh it seems like my card is manufactured by eVGA? is that a manufacturing company? cause thats all it says ont the box. also, if i never get a blue orb or any other fan....how long will my card last? or will it burn up my gpu?

 

[xscape]

Well that's an intersting one. Yes eVGA is a make, and it seems that the GeForce 2 MX does ship with a passive heatsink. There appears to be a heat issue with these cards though. There's a lot about it on their website:

http://www.evga.com/articles/1.asp

The max temp for it the GeForce chip is said to be 125C (257F). The interesting bit is, "It should also be noted that the average operating temperature for the GeForce2 MX is between 50° C and 60° C - close to twice human body temperature and hot enough to burn you - but, its a far cry from its highest possible operating temperature of 125° C - which is hot enough to boil water!".

So have a read, and see what you think. Personally I reckon it's not enough to worry to much about. Your card isn't listed in the blorb.co.uk database so I don't know if one will fit.

hope that's helpful!

 

[Guest_imported]

thanks for the link. Dang so that is bad that the blue orb doesnt fit on mine...but i'm sure other fan/heatsink can?

 

[xscape]

You could try other chipset coolers. The Blu Orb may fit, using thermal adhesive if the holes aren't in the right place. As you've already got a heatsink on there then there is a good chance that a Blue Orb or other chipset cooler will fit. You may even be ably to fit it through any holes that are on the card holding the existing heatsink on there. You could also try mounting a 50mm fan on the h/s if you want. I think the heatsink on it's own is probably enough anyway. Creative's GeForce 2MX that I'm running doesn't come with even a heatsink as standard. I didn't heave any problems with it that way anyway.

You could get a chipset cooler if you look around that will do the job of the Orb (but won't look quite so funky!).

 

[LeoP]

hey saucy,
the mx400 is faster than the standard MX and most mx400 i think include a fan. the standard MX and the MX/200 doesn't require a fan except of course u want to overclock it. I think Inno3D right with attaching a fan for stability purposes.

with regards to cooling, u could add a second fan to your comp case and though it may not be attached to your video card it may help cool things a bit inside ur computer. =). I had an old case and ripped out the fan from the power supply (blood mess, hehe). just make sure u know the + and - when u install it.

hey xscape,
I had made that "dumb thing" too.. I thought my ABIT VL6 would have at least 2X AGP. it originally have a TNT2 M64 on it and i thought installing a GeForceMX would speed up a lot. i used pwerstrip and it said it no AGP2X,4X.

Oh well.

 

[Guest_imported]

hey does the Blue orb take up a PCI slot?

 

[Ma3x323]

Nope. Blue Orb does not take up a PCI slot because it is thin enough to be placed on the card without taking up much room. But of course, if you have a heatsink on the card which is thick enough to fill the spot when adding the fan, then you will need to have an open PCI slot. -Feryl
--> Just a silly software engineer wannabee.
If you feel a post has been helpful to you, click on the link at the bottom of their post to cast a vote for "TipMaster Of The Week". You don't need to be the one who asked the question to vote.

 

[Guest_imported]

yay! now i'm gonna buy the blueorb anyway even tho it may not fit my eVGA geForce 2 mx! lol (actually i'm planning to buy another ge-force...if i can sell my MX)

alright thanks for your help.

 

[Ma3x323]

Hey markson,
I have the geforce2MX too and it is from EVGA too. I go the twinview one and have a blue orb on me. Overclocked it and the graphics still look good to me. Not planning to change it until I get enough money to buy a REEEAAAALLLY good one. Geforce3 or the Quadro DCC. -Feryl
--> Just a silly software engineer wannabee.
If you feel a post has been helpful to you, click on the link at the bottom of their post to cast a vote for "TipMaster Of The Week". You don't need to be the one who asked the question to vote.

 

[cdogg]

Now correct me if I'm mistaken here, but isn't the Geforce MX video card running on regular SDRAM, not DDR RAM? Xscape mentioned that it had DDR RAM, but I believe that's the GeForce2 cards that he's referring to. The MX is the cheap SDRAM version.

 

[xscape]

Yep cdogg, you're right.

Mine's a GeForce 2 MX by Creative. So it's the "slimmed down" (read as: "Cheapest&quot GeForce 2 chip. None of your GTS stuff here. With the GeForce 2 there is the option of DDR or normal SD RAM for about the same price. So I went for DDR. They also sell the GeForce 2 DDR. ????????????. I don't get it either.

But anyways the GeForce MX is just SDRAM. I think that's right anyway! But correct me if I'm wrong. I'll stop there before I confuse everyone.

Thanks for pointing this out. Appologies if I did confuse anyone X-)!

Cheers

 

[Guest_imported]

Hey Feryl,
You said earlier that the blue orb wouldnt take up a pci slot. But after reading many reviews, it turns out that they say it does take up one pci slot right under the agp slot. Now where you talking about the Thermeltake blue orb? or a different brand?

 

[Ma3x323]

I was talking about the thermal take blue orb. The thing that is about quarter to maybe less than half an inch thick. I have my network card right underneath it occupying the first PCI slot. It fits on mine. Maybe you can post the links up and let me check it. I actually want to read why it wouldn't fit. -Feryl
--> Just a silly software engineer wannabee.
If you feel a post has been helpful to you, click on the link at the bottom of their post to cast a vote for "TipMaster Of The Week". You don't need to be the one who asked the question to vote.

 

[xscape]

I just had a look at mine and it doesn't look like I'd be able to fit something in the PCI slot directly beneath the AGP. The top of the Orb just covers the PCI slot. It can vary with Motherbards though, because some have their AGP slots set slightly higher above the PCI slot so you could squeeze something in there. Although my orb's is nearer an inch thick. Maybe they changed the design and we've got two slighlty different ones? I got mine about May time. Maybe there's a newer one or an older one.