Virge 325 locks up Win98 after drivers installed \ VOGONS

Virge 325 locks up Win98 after drivers installed

Topic actions

Post a reply

First post, by clueless1

Posted on 2016-12-15, 18:19

clueless1 Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 4584
Joined: 2015-12-22, 17:43
Location: Midwest US

I've been doing some testing of various cards. One of them, a Fastware S3 Virge 325 PCI, has an issue on two out of three PCs I've tried it on.

Symptom: install card and Win98 driver, reboot Win98 and within a few seconds, the desktop freezes. Only way out is to force a reboot. If I boot into Safe Mode, the issue is not present. If I switch to 256 colors, the problem goes away. Problem happens in high color only.

The machines tested on:
Pentium 4 2.53Ghz with MS-6577 mobo, 512MB, Win98SE-locks up desktop
Pentium 3 933Mhz (Dell Dimension 4100), 512MB, Win98SE-works no problem!
Pentium 2 400Mhz (HP Vectra VL), 128MB, Win98SE-locks up desktop

Things I've tried:
different drivers (S3 official and Microsoft built into Win98)
different PCI slots (no difference)
enabling Bus Master on PCI slot (no difference)
toggling Plug n Play setting in BIOS between Yes and No (no difference)
removing all other PCI cards (no difference)
dropping the Win98 Video Acceleration slider down (no difference)

I'd say my card was bad, but it works just fine on the Dell Dimension. And the fact that it does not happen in 256 colors, but does in high color is interesting.

Any ideas?

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
OPL3 FM vs. Roland MT-32 vs. General MIDI DOS Game Comparison
Let's benchmark our systems with cache disabled
DOS PCI Graphics Card Benchmarks

Reply 1 of 3, by Tetrium

Posted on 2016-12-15, 19:14

Tetrium Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 9607
Joined: 2010-01-27, 18:53
Location: Netherlands

What motherboards do your Dell Dimension 4100 and HP Vectra VL use?
Maybe it's a chipset thing or perhaps or some BIOS setting?

Do you have another Virge to test in the rigs your misbehaving Virge is misbehaving in?

Have you inspected the card for any signs of damage? Does the Virge come with removable memory chips that are installed into sockets?

Do you have a pic of your particular Virge?

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
Report spammers here!

Reply 2 of 3, by clueless1

Posted on 2016-12-15, 20:45

clueless1 Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 4584
Joined: 2015-12-22, 17:43
Location: Midwest US

Tetrium wrote:
What motherboards do your Dell Dimension 4100 and HP Vectra VL use? Maybe it's a chipset thing or perhaps or some BIOS setting? […]
Show full quote
What motherboards do your Dell Dimension 4100 and HP Vectra VL use?
Maybe it's a chipset thing or perhaps or some BIOS setting?

Do you have another Virge to test in the rigs your misbehaving Virge is misbehaving in?

Have you inspected the card for any signs of damage? Does the Virge come with removable memory chips that are installed into sockets?

Do you have a pic of your particular Virge?

The Dell uses an i815 chipset and the HP uses 440BX. I've gone through the BIOS settings, but can't find anything besides what I posted already.

I dont have another Virge, but I have a Trio64V2/DX, and it works fine in all three systems.

The card is in very good condition, except for some light scratches on some of the brass connectors. I will post pics later.

There are four empty memory sockets. The card has 2MB, expandable to 4MB.

Reply 3 of 3, by clueless1

Posted on 2016-12-16, 01:51

clueless1 Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 4584
Joined: 2015-12-22, 17:43
Location: Midwest US

Here's pics of the card.

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to General Old Hardware

Main menu

Common searches