ratfink wrote:

Installed directx8.1 as the ati driver needs dx7 - should be ok presumably.

I'd start there...

I don't see how the ATi driver for a Rage Fury Maxx requires DX7 when it's only a DX6 card.

Here's the legacy Rage drivers all on one page. The Rage Fury Maxx is the second on the list.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/legacy-98me.aspx

Notice how the Maxx requires a different driver version from the rest of the Rage based cards, 4.12.7942. Maybe that's the problem you're having. A driver version before or after that may not support the Maxx.

That's the driver I downloaded. I've also re-extracted the files and reinstalled a couple of times to make sure I hadn't corrupted anything by accident.

I'm wondering now if I've just trashed windows, a banshee installs fine .. well like it wants to be a standard vga card but the latest banshee release can be forced upon it and works, except it's limited to 640 or 800 resolution and insists it needs to reboot if you change a setting.

I think maybe I will reinstall windows...

I used a Rage Fury Maxx with a slot-1 440BX mobo without any issues... It's a decent card, but the 'real world' 3D performance should have been better (that's one of the reasons why i didn't keep it). Image quality is excellent though 😉. I'd double check the AGP/chipset drivers for your mobo too as they used to cause all kinds of hell on non Intel mobos.

sliderider wrote:

I don't see how the ATi driver for a Rage Fury Maxx requires DX7 when it's only a DX6 card.

The latest driver (10-2001) for Rage 128 Pro requires DirectX 8 as well.

It doesn't say anything in the release notes about installing any specific version of DX before installing the driver so I don't know where that comes from. How did they install the drivers for the Rage 128 Pro before DX8 was released?

October 2001 is quite a time after DirectX 8's release.

It'll inform you to update DirectX when you run the driver setup.

I'm sure it was DX8, or DX7, one of the two. I know it's technically a DX6 card, but drivers get updated to support compliance with later APIs. Voodoo2 wasn't a DirectX7 card either, yet it had (beta) support for it in official drivers.

I can check the CD that came with mine and see what version of drivers and DX it installs. But i can only do it on monday.

It would also be a good start for the vogonsdrivers ATI section 😀

leileilol wrote:

It would also be a good start for the vogonsdrivers ATI section 😀

True. I'll make an ISO and upload it.

leileilol wrote:

October 2001 is quite a time after DirectX 8's release.

It'll inform you to update DirectX when you run the driver setup.

I'm sure it was DX8, or DX7, one of the two. I know it's technically a DX6 card, but drivers get updated to support compliance with later APIs. Voodoo2 wasn't a DirectX7 card either, yet it had (beta) support for it in official drivers.

Rage 128 Pro was released in August 1999, and Anandtech has an article

http://www.anandtech.com/show/438

Dated 1/2000 that implies the Rage Fury MAXX was available then.

The MAXX came out in the last 15 days of 1999. My card is marked ATI 1999.

sprcorreia wrote:

The MAXX came out in the last 15 days of 1999. My card is marked ATI 1999.

OK, I wasn't sure because Anand had another article dated a few weeks earlier but it was a preview so I wasn't sure if ATi had released the card at that time or just sent out cards to reviewers.

I have uploaded the MAXX ISO to VogonsDrivers.

So, I'm using the ISO from sprcorreia on vogonsdrivers, Rage Fury Maxx in an Intel 845 board, 98SE. The best I can get is a freeze on the Windows loading screen, though I have also managed to get it to simply black screen on boot.

Today I did a completely fresh install of 98SE on a different machine - this time a socket 370 VIA board [Chaintech 6VIA5T] with a P3 1.4S.

All runs fine until I install the ATI drivers, after which I get a black screen with an egg timer on loading Windows, and it never gets past that. Same as I get on my Slot A board. Tried disabling AGp 4x in the bios, but that had no effect and nor did removing memory [I had 512mb installed but with just 256mb it's the same] or changing the AGP aperure, video ram/bios shadowing or the AGP settings in the bios.

Pretty much leaves me the possibility of trying to run the Rage Fury Maxx on either a 775 or a socket 7 board, neither of which there is any point doing whatsoever. I see elsewhere that it may have issues with P4 boards, so I guess it may be I just happen to be unlucky. For me it won't work with a VIA socket 370, an 845 P4 or an AMD-chipset Slot A, and I really cba to source any more so-called retro gear.

edit: now tried a gigabyte ga5ax, and get identical behaviour.

Time to chuck it maybe. 😠

I wonder if it might have a corrupted bios or some component malfunction.

Isn't it the power supply?
I was having black screens and many freezes with my settings, but for some reason at safe mode it worked...
Test another psu on it...
Now I changed my at 300w power supply for an atx 250w power supply (and the atx is 3 times heavier than the at 😳), but then I loose the at switch and the 8digit display power =/...

EDIT: directx shouldn't make any difference, just like my radeon 7200 uses directx 7 settings, but the older drivers require directx 8 and the newer 8.1
directx know if you're using a directx 7 card, and it'll only use specific settings that your gpu support

Haha! On further research I put the via board back in with a voodoo card and downloaded the via 4 in1 drivers (the hyperioin version messed it up, the older 4 in 1 was what did it as far as I can see) - put the rage fury maxx back in and now it's working fine (at least, I can have the screen at 1600x1200 and 32 bit colours).

So it was a chipset issue, fixed for this board with the 4 in 1 drivers.